https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n59.07
Manuel Orlando Lozano-Ortiz
Mariana Martínez-Castrejón
Ulises Moreno-Tabarez
Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, México
Abstract:
The passage of hurricane Otis caused a sudden overflow of a creek passing through a peri-urban district built upon a slope (San Isidro Labrador, Guerrero state, Mexico). Drawing on interviews with affected residents, this article shifts the focus from “risk perception” to analyze overflowing as an event bursting into the fabric of daily life. Rather than a natural setting or an anthropomorphic entity, the creek emerges as a hydrometeorological force pushing settling decisions, spatial imaginaries, and forms of inhabiting a territory to shift. Expressions such as “the water gained strength” or “the creek shifted” reveal an intensely situated experience resetting the relationship with the slope and areas viewed as safe. Engaging with the proposal of a more-than-human anthropology, we argue that disasters are not merely an external event but a manifestation of material dynamics that constitute the act of inhabiting.
Keywords: More-than-human anthropology, socioenvironmental disaster, peri-urban dwelling, materiality and strength, relational ontologies, San Isidro Labrador, Guerrero state (Mexico).
