SAN MIGEL TOPILEJO, Mexico, Sep 26 (IPS) – Verónica Molina, an indigenous Comcaac woman, first came into contact with solar energy in 2016, when she travelled to India for training on communal photovoltaic facilities. This later enabled her to take part in the installation of the first solar systems and family vegetable gardens in her community, Desemboque del Seri, in northern Mexico.
Later on, she was invited to the project Energy, Water and Food Security for Indigenous Peoples in Semi-Arid Coastal Regions of Northern Mexico, sponsored by the governmental National Council of Humanities, Science and Technology (Conahcyt), which began in 2022.
“We plant vegetables, because there are no other seeds to use. They are for self-consumption. With the panels, we pay less for energy, and with the gardens we save money on vegetables,” the solar activist told IPS from Desemboque del Seri, some 1,900 kilometres from Mexico City.
In addition to producing their own electricity, the participating families harvest a variety of vegetables in Desemboque and neighbouring Punta Chueca, Comcaac territories inhabited by some 1,200 people on the coast of the state of Sonora, and one of Mexico’s 69 indigenous peoples, who also fish.
