Los Zapotes Well Construction Project  --Rev. Steve Klemz

Norma and Steve Klemz are drilling a well on their land in Los Zapotes, Jalisco State, Mexico.  They will share the well water with neighbors.  This source for water will enable the community to develop gardens for subsistence farming.  Depending upon the well’s water flow, at least six households will receive water.  If the drilling reaches water near 80 meters, the anticipated cost for drilling and pipe fittings is $15,000.

We have already drilled one well on the lot.  However, the flow only produces 28 liters per hour.  It is enough for our household, but not enough for us to water trees/garden or to share with our community. The new drill site promises to be better, with the confluence of two sources of underground water.

The town of Los Zapotes is in the Municipality of Cuquío, Jalisco State, Mexico.  It had 211 residents in 2010; 116 in 2020.  Climate change has resulted in water stress.  Overgrown bush and cactus have overtaken what was once abundant farmland, yielding crops of corn, peppers, beans, chilis, and squash.  Almost all the residents have some degree of dependence on money arriving from the States.  Many have departed the area, hoping to find work in the United States.  Desperate conditions produce desperate people. 

Jose Martinez and Socorro Loza raised 11 children in Los Zapotes.  NormaKlemz is the middle child of nine sisters and two brothers.  Her father worked in the Brasero Program, which allowed him to be a migrant farmer in the southwest U.S.  He alternated three-month forays at home and in the States.  By all accounts, he was a hard worker and relentless taskmaster, enlisting his children in dawn to dusk work on the land. 

Norma remembers beginning to work at age 3.  When she was five, Norma was carrying two five-gallon buckets of water in the morning and evening from the river to their home. The morning water was for cleaning, dishes, and drinking, in the evening to water plants and herbs.

I asked Norma what it was like to work so hard for so long.  “You have to do what you have to do,” she said.  “We didn’t know any other way.  You have to make the best of what you have.  But we kept hoping that if we worked hard, someday it would be different.  We kept hoping that someday we would get enough money to buy cement so we could build an outhouse.”

Norma’s mother lived a life of hard labor and then some.  She insisted that “being poor does not mean that we cannot be clean.”  To this day, Socorro’s home is spotless.  I describe her daily sweeping as a dance with brooms, maintaining her outdoor space for cooking and dining.  Three times in her “spare time” Socorro tried to dig a well with her shovel.  In our July visit, Norma showed me the steep hill her mother climbed to bring food and water to her working family.  She was nine months pregnant and gave birth to her eighth child the next day.

Even in their poverty, Jose and Socorro practiced generosity.  They donated the land for the town’s well and its elementary school.  Their legacy of hard work, love for the land, and generosity inspires our dream for digging a community well in Los Zapotes.

The Gift and Legacy of Land

For Jose Martinez, land was more than the place where you grew crops or left cows out to pasture.  He had a strong, intimate relationship with the land, and a deep and abiding call to steward that which was entrusted to his care.

Norma echoes this close connection. She has often said, “I can close my eyes and travel home.  I remember the trails, the place near the ravine where you can harvest tuna.  I can see my favorite trees:  the jacarandas, guayabos, and mezquites. I can smell las maravillas from far away.  I can tell you the stories we shared on the stones where we sat.  I can close my eyes and recall everything, like looking at the palm of my hand.”

It was Jose’s wish to share his love of land with his daughters.  From money earned in the States, he purchased a large tract of land, parceling it out to each of his nine daughters.

In order to honor her father and his legacy, Norma secured title for her lot in 2017.Then, in 2021, she received her green card.  Esun Milagro! (it’s a miracle!)   Norma was able to visit her family for the first time in 32 years.  She came away, seeing the land with new eyes.  It was a gift to steward, and it provided a space to accompany her family.  In the spirit of the Mexican proverb, dondecomen dos, comentres--(Where there is enough food for two, there is enough water for three) -- we decided to share well water. 

Our stewardship of the land is a hedge against irresponsible foreign investment.  In Los Zapotes many people have sold their land to investors who have planted maguey. Maguey requires pesticides and causes irreparable damage to the land. 

 
 
To donate to the Los Zapotes Well Construction Project please scan this QR code:   
 
 
Thanks!