Memories in the Water: A Testimony from Xochistlahuaca
Editorial note by Ulises Moreno-Tabarez, Editor of City and academic lead of Coastal Commons
Memories in the Water: A Testimony from Xochistlahuaca forms part of Coastal Commons: Afro-Indigenous Urban Solidarities and constitutes public-facing evidence of a broader community archive built through interviews, territorial visits, participant observation, dialogue with local inhabitants, and collaborative audiovisual documentation. The publication is situated within a line of work on the local histories of peoples and communities, the strengthening of Indigenous cultures, oral memory, participatory methodologies, and the situated production of knowledge with, from, and for territories.
This archive should be understood as a corpus distinct from the one developed in Azoyú, both because of its location and because of its own forms of organization, custodianship, and community care. Some materials connected to ritual practices, sensitive memories, and mayordomía responsibilities remain under local care and are not part of public circulation. For this reason, what is shared here follows criteria of consent, cultural contextualization, ethical management of information, and respect for community limits regarding what may be seen, narrated, and disseminated.
written by ulises moreno-tabarez and Dulce María Quintero Romero
Water is more than a resource: it is memory, affection, and belonging. In this video, part of the Coastal Commons seminar blog series, we hear the voices of those who have grown up alongside the rivers and streams of Xochistlahuaca, a municipality in the Costa Chica region of Guerrero, where water shapes daily life, family histories, and community ties.
Through the words of a girl, a young woman, an adult woman, and a trans woman, memories emerge about the freshness of the water, the joy of swimming among fish and shrimp, and the ancestral wisdom surrounding its care. These voices, diverse yet connected by the same current, guide us to a relationship with water that is both material and spiritual—a relationship evoking pleasure, nostalgia, and concern for the future.
This is not a direct denunciation of the water crisis, though the words reveal an underlying reality: water, once abundant, now faces threats that make it more fragile. Instead of a political discourse, this visual testimony is built from the intimacy of experience, allowing the images and voices to echo on their own. It is a sentimental record, which, far from diminishing the issue’s importance, highlights its most human dimension.
May these visual waves reach their audiences with the same delicacy with which water caresses the skin, with the same strength with which a memory endures. To listen to these stories is to recognize that water does not only flow through streams but also through the memories and aspirations of those who live with it.
