An analysis of the social fabric in the face of migratory trends and the growing community of Ex Pats in the country.
Part 7 of 7
By Carmen Rioja
In an exclusive interview for our media, the expert Legal Services Consultant and founder of INMTEC, a leading company in the country, talks to us about the current challenges for Mexico and the United States.
Carmen Rioja: We would like to know what you think about the issue of water rights, since many people are concerned about concessions and rights of use, especially in communities where there is a shortage, how can communities and ejidatarios be protected, but also the supply for crops? This has to do with the future of agriculture, the economy and practically everything. What can you tell us about what is happening in San Miguel, where do you think we should focus? We already know the problems, but where should we direct our efforts?
Ángel Marín: This is a very broad question and not an acute one, but a chronic issue for San Miguel and Guanajuato. We have worked with the civil organization Caminos de Agua, we continue to work there. The water operator SAPASMA, I think it has been in very good condition, they have many successes. And since everything is moving forward from a city council-government presidency perspective, since Governor Diego Sinuhé has a broad vision for Guanajuato for water issues, as well as Mayor Mauricio Trejo, with a certain interaction with the developer, let’s put it this way, together and hand in hand, taking care of the resource. Communities without water, what are they worth? Well, less per square meter or nothing.
As far as the food chain is concerned, water is primordial, water is life, my mother taught me, as did my grandmother, as did my great-grandmother. Without this resource, we are toast, right? So we have to take care of it. I think they are doing it. Really excellent work in Guanajuato, in instituting study systems in various parts. I was part of a government study in 1992 or 1994 where they studied the whole water system and where it is located. In fact, through this study -and this is my personal opinion and not technical data- San Miguel de Allende should have been established in Atotonilco where all the water resources are located. But go back 500, 400 years ago and they did not know that. They went to the valley and that is excellent, but there are water resources, they do exist. We have to take advantage of them and we have to know how to use them. In the construction of the use of greywater in the recycling and capture of river water. All the houses should already come with this separation- as much as from a perspective of your permit in urban development, it should come already wired in the house as part of a requirement to receive solar panels; another requirement is to separate black water from gray water, because our black water treatment water system is flooded with gray water from the shower, from brushing our teeth, from washing the dishes. This will not have to go there. It can be recycled in the same house with a system of 3 banks that basically look like the famous tinacos, and it is recycling in each house. That if we extend it to this population and to the communities, –remember that in San Miguel we have over 300 communities– if we extend it to the rural communities, imagine the savings.
I had the great opportunity to work with drinking water from birth in Guerrero in the Guerrero highlands, where 120,000 people in x communities did not have access to water, but they had water, so I brought a team of engineers from Mexico City to help us in advising us and we saw that all their crops were being irrigated with gutters and canals in the air. When they did us the favor of letting us know after the measurement, I knew that there was 90 percent evaporation. So, from the water source we put in 12-inch pipelines over 18 km, with a federal, state and municipal project linked. And now all these people have water for cultivation. They know that on Mondays it is A’s turn to irrigate, Tuesdays B’s turn to irrigate, etc. So good resource management is what we lose sight of: this pragmatism. Because it did not cost a lot of money and it costs less today this system, with a little administration, where everyone benefits. As they say in Nayarit: When it rains we all get wet and all keep together.
But as long as we go together and hand in hand, with the government and the community. It is a circle and it should be a beneficial virtuous circle, where we continue to contribute everything that adds up and nothing that subtracts.
C.R: This brings me to the last question, because it is still pending: What was your dream that you embraced since you were young, but you didn’t know it then, but now you think, wow, I did focus on my dream, how would you explain that your dream is coming true?
A.M: I think that maybe I went through my times of evolution and selfishness and «wanting for one». That’s when I realized that the years bring experience, that we are the sum of our experiences, so choose your experiences well. It is a perspective of personal responsibility to say «this way yes and that way no», «what I am willing and what I am not willing». I learned this perspective with the ejidos here in Mexico. I learned to sit and listen to a farmer who no longer brought land: from the empathy, the compassion, the humanism of our companion. The best of Mexico, the best of all populations and certainly the best of INMTEC, is its people. Sharing, sharing is nice.
My dream, I didn’t know it when I was a child, so I wanted to be a tennis player and I wanted to do it not for the car I was going to have, nor for the fame, but for the love of the sport. That is what at 54 years old, which I will be, I have a drop of knowledge I realize, the more I learn the more I realize that I don’t know either.
In gratitude, my dream has been fulfilled, in contributing, in assisting, in helping, sometimes I am the oil for the squealing tire, other times the oil so that the tire does not squeal. This at my home, as well as in our company, as well as in our community. It is a perspective where I am «a part of» and I do not teach the class, I am still a student.
For more specific information on Inmtec Legal Services™, Inmtec Title Services™, Inmtec Insurance™, Estate Planning, Asset Protection, and AfterLife™ Medical Advocacy by Inmtec™, please contact Ángel Marín Díaz, at info@inmtec.net, 415 121 9005
