Mujeres del Agua - un Manifiesto Colectivo

In 2023 I led a participatory workshop and exhibit titled Mujeres del Agua - un Manifiesto Colectivo in Monterrey Mexico that explored the effects of the repeated local water crisis, and the inherent links to a non-polluting transportation system and mobility at large.

Centering female identified participants as decision makers and authors, we began with listening sessions to provide space for participants to share personal stories. We then moved into visual and performative expressions of the shared stories which culminating in a written manifesto and public exhibit that was collaboratively created by the artist and participants.

Set in the most public of public spaces at LAB NL, the series is not confined to night meetings, chat rooms, or designated to a one day a year female centered protest. The series brings female identified and trans participants into a post-apocalyptic future during broad daylight, flipping the normative patriarchal role by situating the participants as agents of change.

Together with the artist, the participant collaborators are asked to name needs, desires, and definitions regarding clean air and water as a living transnational manifesto for the 21st century.

In 2024 Mujeres del Agua - un Manifiesto Colectivo was published in Spanish, English and French, and disseminated to citizens in three countries through personal and group readings, social media, and events in Monterrey Mexico, Portland Oregon, and Montreal Canada.

This manifesto was born from a quest to articulate the issues experienced by women during the recent water crisis in the state of Nuevo León. The result is a manifesto composed by perspectives of women citizens whose objective is to make visible the female experience, increasing their incidence within the socio-political decision making, promoting tangible changes regarding water and the environment. The manifesto is intended to be replicable in different socioeconomic, geographic and cultural contexts in order to increase the number of voices and knowledge. We recognize that we are located in ancestral lands marked to this day by colonialism, racism, capitalism and patriarchy, among other systems of oppression.

We consider essential the presence of women and people identified as women in the decisions of sustainability, conservation and health of water, air and the environment. We demand that the physical and mental health of women and menstruating women be considered in socio-political and environmental decision-making, taking into account menstruation, breastfeeding, abortion and pregnancy. Housework is part of the workforce and should be legitimized as such. We demand that water be distributed in an equitable and sustainable manner. We seek to generate alternatives and changes with respect to the system of water polluting waste from domestic to industrial. We demand that the necessary education on water care be provided at all stages, beginning with infancy.

We believe that we must rethink our relationship with water, starting with the utilitarian vocabulary we assign to it, to the use we make of it in our lives.

We demand that water be treated not as a resource, but as a living entity that inhabits our environment, thus assigning it the following rights:

1) Right to life and respect for its existence.

2) Respect for the maintenance and regeneration of its vital cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes.

3) Right to restoration.

WE DEMAND AN ECOCENTRIC FUTURE!

This is a living and constantly evolving document.

Este manifiesto nace de una búsqueda por articular las problemáticas experimentadas por mujeres durante la reciente crisis del agua en el Estado de Nuevo León. El resultado es un manifiesto compuesto por perspectivas de ciudadanas cuyo objetivo es visibilizar la experiencia femenina, aumentando su incidencia dentro de la toma de decisiones socio-políticas, promoviendo cambios tangibles respecto al agua y el medioambiente. Se busca que el manifiesto sea replicable en distintos contextos socioeconómicos, geográficos y culturales con el fin de aumentar la cantidad de voces y saberes. Reconocemos estar situadas en tierras ancestrales marcadas hasta nuestros días por el colonialismo, el racismo, el capitalismo y el patriarcado, entre otros sistemas de opresión.

Consideramos imprescindible la presencia de mujeres y personas identificadas como mujeres dentro de las decisiones de sustentabilidad, conservación y salud del agua, el aire y el medioambiente.

Exigimos que en la toma de decisiones sociopolíticas y ambientales se considere la salud física y mental de las mujeres y personas menstruantes, tomando en cuenta la menstruación, la lactancia, el aborto y el embarazo.

Las labores domésticas forman parte de la fuerza de trabajo y deben ser legitimadas como tal.

Exigimos que el agua se distribuya de manera equitativa y sustentable.

Buscamos generar alternativas y cambios respecto al sistema de desechos contaminantes del agua desde lo doméstico hasta lo industrial.

Demandamos que se proporcione la educación necesaria sobre el cuidado del agua en todas sus etapas, empezando por la infantil.

Creemos que se debe replantear nuestra relación con el agua, empezando por el vocabulario utilitario que le asignamos, hasta el uso que le damos en nuestra vida.

Exigimos que el trato del agua sea no como recurso, sino como entidad viva que habita nuestro entorno, así asignándole los siguientes derechos:

1) Derecho a la vida y respeto a su existencia.

2) Respeto por el mantenimiento y regeneración de sus ciclos vitales, estructura, funciones y procesos evolutivos.

3) Derecho a la restauración.

¡EXIGIMOS UN FUTURO ECOCENTRISTA!

Este es un documento vivo y en constante evolución.