The protest for water on social media: digital ethnographic approach to the mobilization in Querétaro, Mexico

Abstract

Introduction: Residents of the semi-desert of Querétaro, Mexico, walked 140 kilometers over five days, from Maconí, in Cadereyta de Montes, to the state capital to denounce the state government's use and appropriation of the area's water supply to urban areas. Objective: This article shows how social media became spaces for public deliberation for the Water protest, a historic mobilization in the area. Methodology: In this context, digital ethnography was used to identify the call for the March, through social media, the progress and end of the protest in Plaza de Armas. Conclusions: Through observation, actors, discourses, social constructions of water, and repression are identified. It also shows that the March for Water was formed as a collective and community action that arose from the need to defend the state government from exploiting and using what is its own.