Today we know that we have a common territory that we have to fight for. --Graciela de la Luz Martínez
The fight for water and the defense of the territory are priorities for the Center for Agricultural Development (CEDESA), located on the road to Llanito, in the municipality of Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato.
The center began when Father Guillermo Dávalos came to the parish of Dolores Hidalgo. He began with a process of raising awareness in the indigenous communities of the area, says Graciela de la Luz Martínez, a member of Cedesa. In the 1970s, the leadership of CEDESA was taken on by Graciela and her sisters-- Lucia and Teresa--who sought to organize communities, beginning with literacy as well as health projects and beekeeping to raise awareness about the defense of the territory and the environment. The main objective was to enable the community to confront one of the most pressing problems at that time--the lack of water in the region.
At the beginning of the new century, they took on the task of developing new projects, such as "sustainable peasant housing," which consisted of building eco-technologies to improve the water issue in the region, "today these communities have grown economically and in their own life processes, " Graciela pointed out. Water is still a very important focus for CEDESA. In 2009 they established a relationship with the Geosciences Center of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Juriquilla campus, Querétaro, to carry out research on water in the region.
For the surrounding communities it was a watershed, said Graciela, because by participating in the first practical course in groundwater, we became aware of the serious problem that exists with the water of the Independencia watershed. The concept of the Independencia watershed was established by the Center for Geosciences. CEDESA reclaimed it and, said Graciela, appropriated it "because it has empowered us, because today we know that all the organizations that are here share a common territory, one that we have to fight for with our lives, " she concluded.