Agua Escondido: Sense of Space, Climate Change, and Migration in Costa Chica, Mexico (2025)

The prefix of this article’s title is “Agua Escondida” meaning “Hidden Waters”.  The title is demonstrative in its meaning as it relates to water as the all-encompassing resource of life including the surrounding southwestern coastal region of Mexico.  However, the “hidden” effect or condition of the coastal waters is a revelation on the community’s inconspicuousness on the possible climate change effect. The “hidden” effect is the enigmatic energy of the hurricanes or tropical storms that confronts the region seasonally and intrusively. Or, it’s the looming waters along the frontera (frontier) border that migrants approach regularly in search of work and material sustenance to remit to their families in their home of origin in Costa Chica, Mexico and beyond.  It’s a revelation on water as the “hidden” resource essential for the cultivation of agricultural foods which requires “about 70 percent of all water used for human production and consumption” (Kehl 2013).  The “hidden” reference also muses on the tense waters at the beaches in the city of Puerto Escondido in Costa Chica, Mexico.