MISSION

The Hermanas del Rio/River Sisters Partnership is a goodwill leadership exchange effort and binational collaborative projects that advance the restoration of the Colorado River and celebrates the hydrological, economic, and social interdependencies of urban Colorado River water users from the Colorado River’s source to the sea.

 

GOALS

 

Culture and the Arts

1. AFC+A hosts an annual Americas Ecological Festival | Festival Ecologico de Las Americas in San Luis Rio Colorado (as the Sister Festival to the Americas Latino Eco Festival in Denver, Colorado).

2. Denver Sculptor Rik Sargent gifts the last 2 One World One Water (OWOW) sculptures to be casted to the City and the people of San Luis Rio Colorado.

3. San Luis Rio Colorado, Denver Arts and Venues, AFC+A, and Pronatura Noroeste collaboratively work towards the viability of developing a sister Red Rocks amphitheater modeled after the region aquifers in the Sonoran Desert in San Luis Rio Colorado, to help bring the Colorado River back to the sea with music.

 

Sister Parks and the Environment

1. The City of San Luis Rio Colorado, in collaboration with Pronatura Noroeste, Nancy Saldaña, UABC, Paul Cawood Hellmund, and AFC+A develop a Colorado River Greenway in Mexico that reconnects the people of San Luis Rio Colorado and the Colorado River Delta region to the Colorado River, and helps bring the Colorado River back to San Luisinos.

2. The City of Denver, in collaboration with AFC+A, evaluates the viability of developing a sister park to the Colorado River Greenway that will be developed in Mexico, that recognizes the contribution of Latinos, and Mexicans in particular, to the culture and identity of Denver; and celebrates the hydrological and economic contributions of Colorado as a headwater state to the Colorado River Basin region.

3. In coordination with Pronatura  Noroeste, the Water, Wastewater and Sanitation Utility and the City of San Luis Rio Colorado, the Denver Botanic Gardens’ Center for Global Initiatives and the One World One Water Center (co-directed with Metropolitan State University of Denver) spearhead the creation of a master development plan and a capacity building plan to guide the establishment of a botanic garden on the Cocopah Wetland Park in San Luis Río Colorado, incorporating water from the San Luis Río Colorado municipal wastewater plant.

 

Watershed Reforestation and Freshwater Restoration

1. AFC+A explores with Pronatura Noroeste the viability of developing a voluntary carbon offset pilot project, and freshwater restoration certificates, with the University of Colorado-Boulder. 

 

HERMANAS DEL RIO/RIVER SISTERS PARTNERS

• José Enrique Reina Lizárraga, Mayor, City of San Luis Rio Colorado

• Michael B. Hancock, Mayor, City and County of Denver

• Hon. Alfonso Tambo Cecena, Governor, Cocopah Indian Tribe

• Jim Lochhead, Chief Executive Officer, Denver Water

• Osvel Hinojosa, Director of the Water and Wetlands Program, Pronatura Noroeste

• Irene Vilar, Executive Director, Americas for Conservation + the Arts

• Dr. Jorge Ramirez, Chief of Hydrology, Geophysics and Environmental Impact Department, Autonomous University of Baja, California

• C. Jesus Antonio Navarro Acosta, Director General, the Water, Wastwater and Sanitation Utility of San Luis Rio Colorado

• Paul Cawood Hellmund, Urbanist

• Nancy Saldana, Urbanist

• Rick Sargent, Artist

• Manuel Cuen Gamboa, Artist

• Brian Vogt, Chief Executive Officer, Denver Botanic Gardens

• Beth Hendrix, Executive Director, Denver Sister Cities International

 

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