Protecting and Honoring the Caja Del Rio as Part of Cultural Heritage

By Camilla Bustamante, Santa Fe County Commissioner District 3 and HCLC member from New Mexico.

As a Hispanic with a long line of cultural influences, I was taught the sacred value of land. I understand the importance of protecting and honoring land as part of cultural heritage. I have a deep and ancestral connection to the Caja del Rio plateau, located less than an hour from La Ciénega, near Santa Fe, where I am from.

The Caja del Rio is a symbol of the convergence of cultures and land use that has demonstrated tremendous diversity through millennia, connecting us to our past, present, and each other as people living in and from this land for generations. 

This volcanic plateau is one of the most ecologically rich landscapes in the Southwest, a vital corridor for wildlife between the Upper Rio Grande from New Mexico to Colorado.

Caja del Rio deserves protection because it has invaluable cultural, historical, and ecological significance! We must leave it in its most environmentally preserved way for wildlife and future generations.

It's a place that demonstrates how we, as humans and as part of this ecological structure, can live together on and with the land. It's critically important to the environmental diversity of our waterways that converge here and that support life not just for the food we grow through the acequias but also for all life around us.

Caja del Rio is an example of living with the land, on the land, and having everything in communion for the service of life at all levels.

Despite its immeasurable significance, this precious place -that means so much to so many with roots in this area- is facing many threats, including vandalism, illegal dumping, desecration of cultural sites, and habitat fragmentation, to mention a few.

This is unacceptable. We can live with and enjoy the natural environment. Caja del Rio needs urgent protection.