Latino Youths Take Colorado River Message to Congress

By Doug Ramsey, Public News Service

PHOENIX – Latino students are bringing the plight of the Colorado River to Capitol Hill.

Eighteen Latino high school students from Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico are starting a weeklong rafting trip through the Grand Canyon today, aimed at learning more about the Colorado River and the threats facing it. The students then will brief members of Congress, emphasizing the need to keep the river healthy.

One of the students, Rosalia Salazar, 17, said she’s already seen the impacts of low river levels in her hometown.

“In Las Vegas, Nevada, we have water restrictions,” she said. “We cannot water the grass whenever we want. We can’t even turn on the hose whenever we want. Everything is so limited because we don’t have water, and the water levels of our Colorado River are dropping so low.”

The Colorado-to-Congress trip is sponsored by Nuestro Rio, an organization that promotes the role of the river in Southwestern Latino history and advocates for protecting the river from overuse.

Edmundo Hidalgo, president of Chicanos por la Causa, said the Latino students taking the river trip bear a major responsibility for the future of the Colorado.

“Not just in making sure that they take all that experience and are able to formulate their thoughts and ideas,” he said, “but they have to translate that, and to transfer that knowledge to our elected officials that often take for granted the value of our natural resources.

” On the trip, said state Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Phoenix, the students will receive a deeper sense of the Colorado River’s place in Latino culture and heritage.

“If you think about it, the first Hispanic community that moved here, moved here because of the Colorado River,” he said. “They moved here and they stayed here, and they settled the Southwest because of the Colorado River. And now, we’re trying to bring that bond back together.

” The students departed Tuesday from the Arizona State Capitol for their six-day river trip. They’ll then travel to Washington during Hispanic Heritage Month, which begins Sept. 15. 

This story was first published in Public News Service.