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A dilapidated shed on a potholed road in the heart of Mexico’s Unesco-protected Calakmul biosphere is an unlikely war room.
But it is from here that the Regional Indigenous and Popular Council of Xpujil (Cripx), a local NGO, has launched a legal battle to stop President López Obrador’s $7.8-billion Maya Train project in its tracks.
Cripx and local farmers are worried about the environmental impact of running diesel engines through the habitat of endangered jaguars in a landscape studded with archaeological treasures. They are facing off against a powerful adversary: the military.
The government has awarded construction contracts for several stretches of the 1,500-kilometer route including the one through the lush Calakmul biosphere, which is home to the majestic ruins of the same name to the defence ministry. This month it announced that once complete, the entire Maya Train would belong to the army.
Film documents indigenous-outsider clash at a Chihuahua ultramarathon The Infinite Race looks at cultural tensions at a 2015 race in Copper Canyon
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In recent years, the world has grown increasingly familiar with the indigenous Mexican community of the Tarahumara, or Rarámuri. A source of that familiarity has been the Tarahumara prowess in ultrarunning, in which athletes regularly log ultramarathon-type mileage in the Copper Canyon of Chihuahua.
Yet, the attention they have received is in some ways a mixed blessing. International runners who flocked to Chihuahua for training or recreational purposes encountered some tensions while competing in ultramarathons against indigenous runners eking out a subsistence living amid conditions of organized crime and narco-violence.
New ESPN 30 for 30 Gives Voice to Raramurí Community
The famous running community finally gets a chance to share its own story. Dec 14, 2020
The infamous Raramurí community, also known as the Tarahumara, have been legendary in the running community for years for their ability to run ultra-long distances and how running plays a major role in their culture. Now, they are getting the chance to tell their story and what life is like in the Copper Canyons of Chihuahua, Mexico, as part of ESPN’s
30 for 30 series in a film called
The Infinite Race.
The film focuses on several members of the community and how their group has faced struggles from challenges centuries ago during the Spanish conquest and more recent exploitations from the likes of cartels and the effects of climate change.