Tohono O'odham Ophelia Rivas: Honoring the Ha'shan in Spain: International Peace Building

 

Ha'shan Homeland
Women Civil Rights Center, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, province of Barcelona, Spain
Ophelia and Carmen Uros, Director of Civics, Volunteering and International Cooperation of Santa Coloma de Gramenet City Council. Photo courtesy Ophelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham.

The Honorable Ha'shan International Peace Building

Courtesy Ophelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, and Women's Civil Right Center, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain, Censored News, Dec. 16, 2025

The humble Ha'shan was honored as a part of a photograph exhibition by Ophelia Rivas, at the 2025 Build Peace Conference at the La CIBA, Women Civil Rights Center in Santa Coloma de Gramenet in the province of Barcelona, Spain.

Ophelia is from Ali Je'gk (Little Clearing) village on the Tohono O'odham reservation located in the state of Arizona, on the United States and Mexico border.

To honor the Peace building conference venue and the Build Peace young women organizers, participants, and all the sponsors, the Ha'shan photograph was gifted to the La CIBA center, accepted by Carmen Uros, Director of Civics, Volunteering and International Cooperation of Santa Coloma de Gramenet City Council, and Victor Matamoros, Spokesperson of the STAND Project, Building Narratives for Coexistence and Diversity, hosted by La CIBA.

Photo copyright Ophelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham

The Ha'shan - as known in the language of the Tohono O'odham, the Desert People of the greater Tohono O'odham homelands, the Sonoran Desert Region. Ha’shan, the saguaro cactus, (Carnegiea gigantea) which live up to two hundred (200) years old and grow to more than fifty (50) feet tall (15.24 meters).

The Tohono O'odham (Desert People) way of life is integral with the Ha'shan as told in oral history and creation stories. The annual harvest of wild foods is a part of the O'odham way of life.

The harvest of the Ha'shan fruit includes O'odham appreciation songs as the Ha'shan blooms white flowers at the top of the columnar plant, and bears a crimson red fruit which ripens at the hottest time of the latter part of June and July. The O'odham harvest the fruit to make a sweet drink as well as syrups and jams.

The original homeland of the O'odham (people) is presently segregated by the United States of America and the Republic of Mexico International Border. The Tohono O'odham now live on a federal reservation established in the United States, comprising only a tenth of original O'odham homelands.

In Mexico, the O'odham communities - although federally recognized as original O'odham communities - no protection is provided from encroachment. Encroachment from extractive industries, ranchers and commercial agricultural development, and violence from human and drug trafficking have devastated communities.

A majority of the O'odham communities and O’odham (people) in Mexico are disenfranchised except for a couple of small ranches. The uprooted people are integrated into the surrounding cities.

Women Civil Rights Center, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, province of Barcelona, Spain. Photo copyright Ophelia Rivas Tohono O'odham


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