What was the community like?

There was a lot of water, There were trees, everything was green.

It was beautiful.

People who weren’t from the community arrived.

They started threatening us.

And then, they burned the houses where we used to live.

So we had to leave the community.

[Rocío] During the time I was living in the community, I was devoted to my children.

I embroidered and sewed.

We left the community seven years ago.

Some colleagues started visiting us here in Chihuahua City, they went to the shelter where we were staying and we started talking.

We decided to make the maps, so that our memories would not be left behind.

And when we used to make the drawings on poster boards, we had to be constantly re-drawing them And sometimes when we moved them around, they would rip, they would tear.

So we thought, so as not to have to do this all the time, let’s embroider them.

If you take care of them, they’ll remain safe.

We didn’t know how to store all of this.

And that’s why we thought about embroidering everything on the maps.

[Patricia] I met the Coloradas community some years ago, In 2017, there were a series of homicides against land defenders in that community and others, and I was getting involved.

I had already been covering indigenous people’s issues.

In the Sierra Tarahumara or Chihuahua’s Sierra, there are four indigenous groups: the Rarámuri, the Ódami, Pimas, and the Guarijó.

They cannot perceive themselves without their land, which is a crucial part of them.

It's like it's another hand, another foot of theirs.

They speak to the rivers, they pray to them, they feed them, and to the mountains too.

They have legends related to nature.

And that’s their strength.

Coloradas de la Virgen is a community from the Rarámuri People that is located in the municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo.

In this community, mestizos arrived during the 60s, and approximately in the mid 70s, they began to violently take over more territory.

They appointed themselves as chiefs who focus on controlling territories, imposing power, imposing money, separating and disintegrating communities.

[Rocío] In map number one, you can see first how the community was before.

There were many trees, the church was there, there were cows, and there was a lot of water.

In the second map, there are already many tree trunks that were cut down, and there is also a lot less water.

People started leaving, and the community started emptying, the small ranches and even the animals that people have left, were all stolen.

We thought about making these maps because many memories were left in the community.

And so that they wouldn't be forgotten, and also for the children.

At least, we can tell them: Here we fight for these lands.

This is where we come from, this is where we grew up.

Everything we put on the map, is like a story because there you can see our entire fight because we have been fighting for many years.

A lot of fellow defenders have died who have protected the land, the water, and the forest.

[Ramiro] We can see that here is the church where the festivities, and traditions are held, and all these police stations that are around and in the middle, they all come together in the center which ends up being Coloradas de la Virgen.

[Rocío] People lived in all these houses.

There were no problems and there were no displacements, everyone lived at peace.

People weren’t displaced yet.

Now, these houses are gone.

It’s been a bit hard adapting to the city.

We struggled with everything, we did not know how to take a bus.

Everything was so different from what we used in the Sierra.

Since we were little, we started embroidering.

We started making napkins, dresses, even our own sandals.

[Ramiro] We have to go back again.

What we want is not to be forgotten.

[Rocío] We tell this story as we lived it in the community.

[Ramiro] We have the hope that through these maps, perhaps we can be heard.

Because we have been around for quite a bit here and everything is on those maps.

[Rocío] I would like for these maps to be shown in other places, so other people can see how the community has been fighting to defend the trees, the water.

And if other people have a problem similar to our community, the maps we have.

can be an example.

That if our grandchildren and great-grandchildren one day want to go back there, they can see what it was like before and how it is now.

To see if it’s the same as in the maps or if it's worse.