Reyes Etla, Oaxaca.

Transformations in water useand infrastructure

Abstract

The use of water has undergone transformations in parallel to the changes in land ownership within
the territory of Reyes Etla. Requests for land through ejidal endowment or restitution in Mexico
from 1915 to 1992 were made mainly by peasants, sharecroppers, and farmers who did not have
enough land to meet their agricultural production needs. This production occurred through two
modalities, irrigation and temporary. Based on the above, this article aims to give an overview of
the transformations in the use and infrastructure of Reyes Etla’s water prior to its ejidal endowment
until the current period, contextualizing the modifications and historical processes, analyzing the
conflicts, methods of distribution, construction of new infrastructure, the actors involved in these
transformations and their relationship with the Reyes Etla ejido field in the state of Oaxaca.