April 19, 2010 – In late March of 2010, the Rotary Club of San Jose North teamed up with Comunidad Para Baja California for a service trip that included a dental clinic and infrastructure surveys, including a survey for a proposed medical clinic site in an indigenous community in Baja California. San Jose de la Zorra is a small village about one hour northwest of the port city of Ensenada, Mexico. Located in a valley known as Valle de Guadalupe, about 41 families live in San Jose de la Zorra. The people of San Jose de la Zorra are known as the Kumeyaay (Kumiai in Spanish).

The isolation of the Kumeyaay’s land, combined with many years of social and governmental neglect, has created a unique situation in which the Kumeyaay lack many of the basic necessities such as health care, education and infrastructure. Comunidad Para Baja California, a Los Gatos based non-profit, works with volunteers to provide much needed assistance to these indigenous people.

The tribes of the Kumeyaay in Mexico include: Juntas de Neji, San Jose de la Zorra, San Antonio Necua, La Huerta, and Santa Catarina (Pai-Pai Kumiai).  Comunidad Para Baja California works with all these tribes and helps provide them with basic necessities such as health (Salud), education(BECA) and infrastructure (Infrastructura).

The Rotary Club of San Jose North was so impressed with Comunidad Para Baja California’s projects that they are in the process of supporting the construction of a medical clinic and community center in San Jose de la Zorra. The recent visit was to survey the proposed site for the building, and get to know the Kumeyaay people.

The Kumeyaay arrived in the Baja California region about 2,500 years ago. Their native lands stretched from Escondido, California just north of San Diego, all way south to Santo Tomas-50 kilometers south of Ensenada, Mexico. The Kumeyaay were a nomadic people who moved about in bands or clans in search of resources, typically in time with the seasons.

Spending the summer and fall months in the mountains, the Kumeyaay depended upon wild game and harvesting fruits and nuts.  The winter months were spent in the coastal valleys much like their current home, San Jose de la Zorra.

By the time the Spanish missions began to arrive, the Kumeyaay lands were being taken away and they were being rapidly reduced in population. By the 1900s their numbers had be systematically lowered from over 150,000 in 1845 to about 16,000 (Source: http://www.campo-nsn.gov/).

The persecution faced by these Native Americans during the early part of the century forced the Kumeyaay further back into the valleys and mountains, away from their native lands. When Mexico lost its northern territories in 1848, the border was created and forever split the tribes in half. Eight reservations managed to survive in the San Diego area and four in Baja California.

In the coming months, Rotary and Comunidad Para Baja California will be meeting to discuss how best to work together to meet the needs of not only the people of San Jose de la Zorra but the larger indigenous population of northern Mexico.  To get involved, please visit www.bajacomunidad.org or call Comunidad Para Baja California President, Tom Hogan, at 408-355-0108.