Spring 1999 Bulletin

I remember that they would always tell us to respect the land, the water, and the trees"   This is one in a series of interview summaries from an ongoing Oral History Project Amigos Bravos is conducting in an effort to preserve some of the rich traditional knowledge about rivers throughout the Río Grande watershed. Please contact the Amigos Bravos office if you would like a copy of an interim report on our Oral History Project.   Bernardita Rivera was born and raised along the Río Santa Barbara and the Río Pueblo in the Peñasco Valley in northern New Mexico. Soon after high school she left for California where her husband Porfirio was stationed in the Navy. She returned 26 years ago and lives now in Dixon, just downstream from where she grew up. After the experience of California she has a cheerful appreciation for the simple blessings of life along a river, as well as a genuine concern for the threats to rural life. "I remember going with my uncle up to the Río Santa Barbara and he would catch the trout, they were so pretty with different colors, and then he would cook them for us right there in a black pan. That's all we would eat. We could eat them bone and all. . . . That's how I got to go to the rivers, with my uncles. . . . But the water was so clear and so pretty. Oh yes. You could see every pebble and every fish and now you can't. There is sort of a dull look to it. My son goes fishing up to Tres Ritos and I go with him just to sit by the river and look at the water. . . . I like to walk out there just to hear it. "When I lived with my grandparents they made a great big hole, maybe 10-15 feet wide, and they filled it with water from the ditch. The acequia would bring water into the hole and that was the water we used for bathing, washing dishes, and washing clothes. And they would never let us get in there, we just didn't do it; that water was for a purpose. Sometimes we had to go to the ditch to get water in big buckets. And for drinking we had a little spring down below and across the road. . . . But I remember so well that they would tell us that the water was for a certain purpose and we wouldn't play in it. They really protected their water. . . . I remember that they would always tell us to respect the land, the water, and the trees." Asked if people still respect water like they used to, she said, "Not as much. I don't think so. Look at the Río Grande. It's a mess because they let all the boaters go and do what they want. I don't blame the people of Pilar and Embudo for getting mad. Maybe some companies [are respectful], but not all of them. They come from other places and they don't respect anything here. . . . And now the traffic gets so bad that you have to be so careful. They should limit what can be done. "We used to [go] down by the river, but now you can't hardly find a place to camp or to eat with all the people there. . . . You just can't find those quiet places anymore. "[Water is best used] to irrigate, so that the gardens can grow and people could eat. Now they think it is just for playing but there are other purposes for it too. . . . There is still a lot of farming done here by the natives. . . . It is hard. It is not easy to get water as much and you have to work hard at it. But it is good to know where the food comes from. "Well I remember that when grandma went [to the river], she used to gather herbs. We used to go by horse and wagon and she would gather herbs and put them there and separate them, and then she'd go off again. She would get cota, a kind of tea. It is supposed to be good for your stomach and for your kidneys. Well I don't remember the names of the herbs. They would also cut the plant to make homemade brooms. . . . Every August there was a picnic to go gather them. But I think those days are really gone. "[The perfect river is] one that just goes on forever. . . .You should just see those ripples and enjoy them and just let it be, let it be. No dams. . . . We never had them before and it always worked; I don't know why we need them now. The river is so beautiful everybody should just leave it alone. . . . [Some people] don't realize it helps the earth, it helps people. I've always felt that anything that God gave us has to be respected. . . . I don't want to see the rivers, the mountains, changed. And surely I'll be gone, but the mountains should stay the same for the future. Asked what she thought about the proposed Summo Copper mine just upstream from Dixon, she said, "I don't think I would like it. [She laughs.] Just look at what happened at Questa. It would bring more use of water, more pollution, more traffic. . . . Well it's money and greed. They just don't care what happens to the land. Like I told you before, I go out every morning––old people get up early [She laughs.]––and I look at the sun and the trees and I say. 'God, your world is just so beautiful.' I get such a funny feeling when I go over to Río Lucío, over that hill. Just to see that village. Just to see that pretty valley and the mountains. I don't know how people could think that's not pretty. Maybe I'm just different. "My husband would want to drive up to the mountains just to see them. I would take him out every evening just so that he could see them. He would want to see the rivers too. He would want to go up there all the way to the end. Up to a week before he died, I would drive him out there."

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