Water Crisis in Peru :: essays research papers

In December of 1915 a huge step for the rights of Peasants in Peru was taken. Juan Pevez was born in Ica, Peru and in 1915 he lead an uprising against the Picasso family who ran the that Pevez worked on. In Water, an excerpt from Pevezs autobiography, a dispute over rights to piss is described and how the peasants overcame . Southern Peru does not see much rain during the year, so when it does come it is an extremely valued commodity. In December 1915 a re all in ally unusual thing happened. The pissing came much earlier that year and to the peasants winder it went unnoticed by the soil owners. In that time the estate owners unlawfully kept the pissing from the peasants until their own fields were irrigated. The water came that year in the middle of the night so the estate owners were clueless. Unaware that they had the same rights to the water as the estate owners, the farmers were reluctant to open up the Sluice furnish that allowed the water to enter their own small canal s to irrigate their land. Juan Pevez, who was enrolled in the instill of Agronomy informed the farmers that legally they had a right to the water. Trusting Pevez, they all opened their gates to irrigate their fields unbek immediatelynst to the landowners. Soon, morning came and the stolen water was noticed and a brawl broke out between the serfs and the estate owners. After being broken up the peasants formed a delegation to make a plea to the Technical Commission to state their fretting about the unfair distribution of water. The director of the commission, Ezequiel Gago, heard both sides argument. In December 1915 history was made when Gago ruled in favor of the Peasants. That was the commencement time in the history of the valley that a group of peasants won a case against a powerful landowner like Picasso. The news report of this event is very important for many reasons. First, as I express before, this was an historical event for the peasant community in Peru as thorough ly as the rest of South America. The event that Juan Pevez lead was a margin event in the history of not only peasants but everyone in South America. It was the beginning of a movement of sorts toward a freer nation. That event had a lasting effect. The delegation that was formed to protest the Water withholding grew and grew and now is still in effect today under the name of the Peruvian Peasant Federation.