CONTEXT

THE INSULAR WAY OF LIVING IN CEDROS

The things that you leave behind inadvertently,

as you leave, one always returns.

Don’t think that in the  end They´ll end un lost.  

Where your love stopped beating a part of you remains,

you will return.

 -RAFA VALLS “OLVIDOS”

Cedros is not a just another of Mexico´s numerous islands, its geographic location and history make it one of the most significant islands in the Pacific. At Cedros, it is quite evident that environmental resources presented optimal conditions for Baja California´s first people: the surrounding ocean softens the extreme oscillations that occur in the same fatigue towards the west, in the Vizcaino desert, while humidty coming from sea currents allows the formation of fog that, once infiltrated, becomes drinkable water.

There is information from the colonial era that gives account of    Cedro´s prehispanic population and documentation that asserts several occupations.

Francisco de Ulloa´s expedition to the South Sea, mandated by Hernan Cortes in 1540, explored a great part of the Baja California peninsula and eventually came upon an significantly-populated island, which they named Cedros because of the “cedar” trees visible on its not side, though they were actually junipers. In the XVII century, a jesuit named Miguel Venegas ratified that its original name was HUAMALHUA, which means “Fog Island” in Cochimí.

Various accounts and maps registered the island whit other puntual or anecdotic names: Riparo Island, Mountain Cerros Island or Holy Trinity Island (due to its having three capes, three bays, three mountains and three towns), indicating how inhabitans or travelers attempted to name the island considering its natural environment.

As for the current inhabitants when taking ownership of this land, they called it “El Piedron”.

Those who inhabit these island forge their own nationality, a common thing amongst cedreños, who debate in the simplicity of everyday life and the remembrance of old times, due to its gradual and sometimes frenetic changes who shale up the land in a particular way.

There, you can experience a parallel universe whit a wide range of diverse men and women, who whit pride have inhabited this land for several generations, who by random circumstances arrived to this seldom remembered corner of Mexican geography, and others that even though scattered in different spots of Baja California or Mexico, keep close bonds to their islander roots.

Within the island you can experience a sense of community, of circumstantial closeness, from the labor of fishermen and communal diver, to the sense of family given by recognizing faces and origins in each neighbor.

Islanders are very aware of the arrival of foreigners either by wings (through the island´s single airport) or by motor (through sea taxis), always curious as to what led them there and how long they will be staying.

Although the new technologies have attenuated the insularity and personal interaction of islanders, the weather conditions are almost the same as before. A storm front may be announced but is strength does not decrease the danger of sailing, as it happens between Punta Eugenia and Isla de Cedros, whose power has taken lives in historic and recent shipwrecks.

Despite all the circumstances, this community has managed to rise. From the shortage of food (since the island´s soil is not adequate for agriculture), to the acute crisis and bankruptcy of the fish packing plant, which for decades was the main source of livelihood for many families. Adapting to changes has allowed people that continue in this nook of the Pacific Ocean to focus even more on fishing and diving, while on the southern part of the island salt is imported from Guerrero Negro.

Life on Cedros Island has different shades: you can feel a general sense of tranquility, buy the interior of this little word has as many faces as villagers that have left their mark on the territory. There ar islanders that long for the demographic bonanza from the 70´s, when the few thousands of villagers benefited from an economic boom that has not been recovered. Others fight the loneliness of fishing camps during fishing season or anxiously take charge of workspaces between the two locations. The younger ones evade the isolation in which their parents used to live by accessing popular media.  Many of them emigrate looking for study or job opportunities in order not to live again between the sea that cradled their childhood. However, if returning is impossible, memories are evoked from the thoughts that surround all islanders about their roots, who just as the island itself, give shelter and livelihood and a unique visual landscape that is difficult to forget.

Cedros Island as a living entity (since it has been inhabited until the present day) and will continue breathing from that semi-desert condition given by its virtues and limitings, its geography will continue in the memory of those who have visited by air, sea or land.

It will never cease to be a unique site for anthropological, archaeological, historic and geographic studies.

I commend this documentary from Samahil Borbón as an audiovisual record of the land her parents surely instilled to love. There is a need to spread the qualities of unknown and under-valued places in this country, mainly the inhabited islands of Mexico, and this project aims to contribute onwards.

Israel Baxin.

Mexico, July 2015