The image of the platinum lake captive between immense hills, the boats barely rocking in the same golden wind that stirs the waters, the motionless seagulls admiring themselves on the trembling surface among the lilies, are postcards that have always been present in the memory and heart of the people of Guadalajara.
Chapala is part of the historical and cultural identity of Jalisco. It is not only a tourist reference but also a historical one, the scene of battles of the past, and on its calm shores infinite anthropological records have been found that bear witness to the ancient peoples and their customs in the shade of the guamúchil. To this day it continues to be the scene of resistance, as is the case of Mezcala, an entity that responds to a logic different from that of the official order.
Chapala is also one of the most important sources of water for the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara, and is the largest lake in Mexico. Its importance is vital for the ecological balance of the surrounding area, the regulation of temperature, and it is essential for the future of the city. It has two islands with high historical and cultural value: Mezcala and Los Alacranes. Its shore is home to all kinds of endemic species, from fish to crabs – and many other animals that became extinct due to our carelessness – it is a temporary refuge for migratory birds, and once, in its surroundings – not in the lake itself – axolotls were documented.
What does the word Chapala mean?
According to the Government of Jalisco, Chapala means “place of small pots or jars” (Nahuatl); “very wet or soaked place” (coca), or the “place of grasshoppers on the water” (Nahuatl).
In the placid waters of Chapala a haven of unexpected life congregates. Flocks of ducks, motionless herons and voracious seagulls, tiny snakes that trace their silent path in short waves on the surface of the repeated sky, and year after year unexpected legions of white-bellied pelicans cross the distances of an entire continent to flee the icy seas of Canada and navigate without incident on the platinum surface of Chapala.
Chapala was reached by dirt roads, and was about three hours away from Guadalajara.
As for its size, which includes the territories of Jalisco and Michoacán, Chapala is nothing more than a remnant of what it once was: according to scientific research, centuries ago the lake could have been approximately “thirty times larger than it is today.”
When Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán began his campaign of conquest in the 16th century, the first disoriented Spaniards who ventured into what is now known as the Ciénega region believed that the currents they were sailing on were not those of a lake, but of an ocean: they were amazed by the sight of waters extending far beyond the horizon of their uncertainty. On old maps, Chapala is depicted, as an irrefutable truth, as “Chapalic Sea.”
Chapalicvm Mare: The “Chapala Sea”
According to the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the first person who appealed to the resources of the imagination to believe that what he saw was a sea, and not a lake, was Fray Antonio Tello in his Miscellaneous Chronicle of the Holy Province of Xalisco (1653). In it he praised the water of Chapala, “sweet and tasty and so clean.” This is how he described it:
“Going up to the top of the hill you can see the Chapala lagoon, into which the Lerma or Toluca or Salamanca river flows (…) which among all lagoons is called the Chapálico Sea: so special that its waters are sweet and healthy, its sands are clean and it is free of mud and mudholes; its beaches are in some parts very scattered and in others the waters crash against cliffs and rocks, raising waves and their undertows throw up shells and snails (…) it produces an abundance of delicious catfish, so large that its variety reaches from a quarter to a yard and a half and the white one reaches half a yard; so healthy that no sick person is forbidden to go there and there is no fish like it in the whole kingdom.”
You may be interested in: When Guadalajara was full of water: this is what our rivers and springs were like
For his part, the illustrious sage Don Mariano de la Bárcena y Ramos, anticipating the ravages of gentrification by four centuries, predicted that in Chapala mansions would be built on its edge “like in Switzerland”.
“Chapalicvm mare”, as the lake appeared on old maps. On the map you can also see Guadalajara, and on one side of the Cathedral the San Juan de Dios River, which was born from the Agua Azul springs, and flowed into the Santiago River, at the bottom of the Barranca.
Today Chapala is far from what it was in the past. Its stone alleys and bougainvillea serve as a refuge for retired gringos and Canadians who change their daily logic with the intransigence of the dollar. The lake is gradually shrinking with irregular urban settlements that the government supports and allows even in federal zones. The surroundings of the lake are dried up by the growing berry crops, like endless metallic plains that give the horizon a wire-like appearance.
The excessive use and exploitation of the lake as one of the main sources of water for the metropolitan area of Guadalajara has led to critical periods of drought, such as this year’s hot season, when our lake reached 30% of its total capacity. At the moment, according to the Jalisco State Water Commission, Chapala is at 43.8200% of its level.
Goodbye to the sea
Of the Chapala that inspired so many artists and attracted so many foreigners, nothing remains but memories. Marta Gutiérrez remembers when, in her youth, she spent her honeymoon in Chapala. She was only eighteen years old, and together with her husband, it took them just over three hours, from Guadalajara, to reach their destination through a dirt road and rocks.
When she first saw Chapala coming down the rock-cut curves of the hill, from inside her rickety car, she believed, indeed, that what she saw on the silver horizon was the ocean itself. They stayed in a hotel facing the lake, among arbors and bougainvillea bushes, in the mid-1950s, when Agustín Yáñez governed Jalisco, and Adolfo Ruiz Cortines ruled Mexico.
These were the possibilities that Chapala offered then, with beaches on its cool shores and its clean sand, and there was so much water that waves even formed where people swam. They said it was “a sea for the poor.” Marta didn’t care. She was happy. Many other times throughout her life she returned to the lake, even after her husband died. She remembered the swaying of the trees, the laughter of the children, the seagulls at dusk suspended over the waves of the lake. Chapala was never the same again.
Source: informador
