By Patty Huston-Holm
The village of Comatitlan, Mexico, is so small it is hard to locate even on Google Earth. The population is roughly 50 mostly elderly people. The only business is a small store with soda, sugar and basic food necessities.
But size doesn’t matter when you are acquainted or related to the occupants, their water is running out, and it was once home.
A group of Ocracoke Island residents -– Mauro Ibarra, Javier Ibarra Rivera, Raul Espinosa, Genaro Perez, Melko Perez -– lived there when water from a nearby river supported flowers and groves of orange trees, mangos, bananas, avocados and lemons.
The river without a name is now dry, crops depleted and even household faucet flow has slowed.
“Some days, water comes out as a trickle,” said Mauro, who left Comatitlan for the United States three decades ago and last visited his home village in 2023. “It’s hard on the residents, the livestock, everything.”
Water is the reason for this Saturday’s fundraiser at the Ocracoke Community Center. The five planners and others are readying for an 11-hour event that begins with a noon lunch and concludes with music from the La Flama Hidalguense band, starting at 8 p.m.
For $15, attendees can get a meal of tacos, empanadas and tamales with a beverage.
Admission to hear the band is free but donations are welcomed as $30,000 is needed for a project that involves pumping water through a pipe from other river sources to Comatitlan.
Other methods of solving the problem – such as bore hole wells – have been ruled out due to expense and government time-consuming approval processes.
According to Raul, some funds for the water project have already been raised through a small, local lunch and from island residents learning of the need by word of mouth with one couple who gave $500. In addition to island residents and tourists, he has extended special April 13 invitations to Mexican-American friends throughout North Carolina.
“People in Comatitlan are very generous,” Mauro said. “They would never hesitate to help you with anything – like people on this island. We were raised to help one another.”
Helping Comatitlan villagers have an improved quality of life is the objective of the water fundraiser. Comatitlan is located 158 miles from Mexico City.
All five main planners of Saturday’s event, a number of other residents, as well as the band, hail from that Mexican village with most planning to return to live there some day.
According to the water.org non-profit, 72 million of Mexico’s 127 million people lack access to safe water. More than half of Mexican households with access to piped water receive services on an intermittent basis, and Mexico currently has the highest per capita consumption of bottled water worldwide.
