An Unexplored Realm in the Heartland of the Southern Gulf ... - Famsi

Since at least the late 1800s, the ancestors of El Marquesillo’s ejido families had
also farmed the low alluvial levees and plains that lay on the opposite bank of the San
Juan River, an area that became known as El Remolino. The lands of El Marquesillo
were elevated meters above the river, and even at flood stage they were available for
dependable rainfed agriculture. Alluvial farming on the low levees and plains on the
opposite side of the river were attractive for convenient and substantial agricultural
production, but they were susceptible to destruction by the unpredictability of the severity
and timing of the inundations. Nevertheless, even with the threat of damage, the
exceptional productivity of these low-lying lands induced some families to construct
permanent residences there.
El Remolino was an ill-fated rancheria on the San Juan’s eastern floodplain,
immediately downstream from El Marquesillo. Located on a river levee, the residents
consistently and successfully cultivated the rich, sediment enhanced soils on the river’s
floodplains for decades prior to the 1940s. In 1944, the Papaloapan River Basin and its
tributary systems were severely impacted by an historically unprecedented inundation.
This monumental deluge caused the residents of El Remolino to flee their
settlement. Their homes, fields, and livestock were destroyed. Most sought refuge on the
elevated lands of El Marquesillo. Above average annual floods had forced Remolino’s
residents to leave their homes on prior occasions, but they had always been able to return
once the water receded; this time was different. For the most part, the survivors of the
great flood settled permanently at El Marquesillo, and they and their families remain
there today.
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