[ambient music] [river flowing] [ambient music] NARRATOR: Where has your water gone?

WOMAN: A dónde se fue tu agua?

[river flowing] NARRATOR: Just as millions of women before you, your grandmother crossed over me carrying your mother on her back.

[steps in the sand] There was a time when I was flowing always.

The trees thrived.

The animals drank from my clean water.

For more than 20,000 years, WOMAN: 20,000 años.

NARRATOR: Your ancestors were free to move with the seasons in search of food, water, and a good life.

The people float back and forth like the currents of nature herself.

[river flowing] I once was named El Río Bravo for my mighty rapids.

Many people crossed my brave waters, long journeys north, south, and back again.

They planted the corn.

WOMAN: Sembraron maiz.

NARRATOR: Becoming a part of my community, a community that thrived.

WOMAN: Nican Tlaca.

NARRATOR: Many generations of children stayed, left, and returned.

Each step they took in harmony with the Earth.

WOMAN: Tonantzin.

[indistinct singing] NARRATOR: Leaving traces in the rocks, in the soil, in their people.

WOMAN: Tonantzin.

NARRATOR: Others arrived and saw me as something to own, to control.

My waters were dammed, no longer a place of life.

The greedy, the power-hungry planted seeds of fear to grow hatred, destruction, division.

They desecrate me, tie me down.

WOMAN: Ayúdame.

NARRATOR: Barbed wire, death traps.

They use me as a weapon.

[radio cahtter] Children die.

They used to play in my waters.

Now, they are torn from the arms of their mothers, locked with and iron curtain.

WOMAN: Ayúdanos, ayúdanos.

NARRATOR: The people do not see themselves in each other anymore.

WOMAN: Yo soy otro tú.

NARRATOR: Those who come from one side are no different than the other.

WOMAN: Tezcatlipoca.

[indistinct singing] NARRATOR: My water is no longer life-giving.

Drought has plagued me.

[drums beating] It is in my nature to sustain life.

I am the veins of the Earth.

WOMAN: Tonantzin.

NARRATOR: I was here long before you.

I will be here long after you.

Your grandmother came here for you.

Nana.

But there's no water.

We can no longer see our reflection.

Tú eres agua.

Somos de la tierra.

Yo soy la vida.

Somos familia.

[percussion] WOMAN: (SINGING) Tezcatlipoca.

Tezcatlipoca.

Tezcatlipoca.

Tezcatlipoca.

NARRATOR: Remember who you are.

WOMAN: (SINGING) Tezcatlipoca.

Tezcatlipoca.

Tezcatlipoca.

[river flowing] [river flowing] [river flowing] - [Announcer] Support for "Reel South" is provided by the ETV Endowment and the National Endowment for the Arts.

And South Arts.