Tom - This week on Arizona Illustrated water returns to the Santa Cruz in a grand experiment.

Former Mayor Rothschild - Unless you live in the desert you just don't appreciate rain and rivers the way Tucsonans do.

Tom - Exploring the loop in Pima County Roger - Over the years, it has expanded to this extraordinary facility that everybody in this city can avail themselves.

It's a gem Tom - and remembering the migrants who have died in the Sonoran Desert.

Alvaro - It's a tragedy that has a lot of ramifications.

There's a void in that family.

I don't want to be identified as an activist.

I'm an artist.

I'm a human being.

I react to injustice.

Tom - Hello and welcome to Arizona Illustrated I'm Tom McNamara, and we're coming to you this beautiful windy spring day from the banks of the Santa Cruz River.

You'll see it's still flowing with a little bit of water left over from all that wet winter weather.

Now aided in part by good winter rains and snow.

Many of Tucson's dry riverbeds have had steady streams this spring.

But in order for these riparian habitats to thrive, they need water year round.

In 2019, Tucson Water teamed up with the city to provide a constant source for this stretch of the Santa Cruz that runs through downtown.

At the time, it was considered a grand experiment.

(mariachi music) Jesús - So we're standing here at the Mission Garden.

It's a ethnobotanical garden where we're trying to represent very much what Tucson used to be 150 years ago.

People would've been growing wheat, corn, beans, fruit trees.

They would've been growing vegetables and all kinds of plants that would've been sustaining the community.

All of course related to the amount of water that was present in the Santa Cruz River.

Tim - The Santa Cruz River's always been a key part of why Tucson has had civilization here for thousands of years and even though it doesn't look like it today, it used to be a perennially flowing river.

Jesús - This was a thriving, flourishing river with cottonwoods and willows and surface water flowing all year long.

As we move through history, population growth the Spanish, the European influence in the region... - [Tim] People would actually divert water out of the river in order to grow crops or do other things and that really started changing how the river behaved into the early 1900s.

Jesús - And later on, as air-conditioning came into this area the city exploded.

Tim - People discovered how to pump from the groundwater beneath the river in order to keep building the community.

Claire - There's a lot of factors that led to the river drying up, but groundwater pumping is a big one.

That changed what was living along the river.

You know the Gila topminnow disappeared as well as many other native fish.

Tim - Visionaries have often thought about, okay wouldn't it be great if we could have the Santa Cruz River flow again.

But it wasn't until about 2016 that Tucson Water really took a look at, okay is this now the time, is there an opportunity here and do we have the resources in place that it could make sense.

And it really did.

It lined up really nicely as something that would be good for the community but it also fit in with how we approach management of our water supplies for the future.

So it's been about a three year conversation from idea to when we're actually gonna dedicated the flow.

(mariachi music) Tucson Mayor - Well good afternoon everybody.

I want to welcome you all to this dedication ceremony for Santa Cruz River.

This is a project that's been many years in the making and we're finally here today.

Tim - This is a grand experiment.

We actually don't know for sure how far the water will flow.

We have a limited pipe diameter and limited amount of water we can put in.

So, we're gonna use that and it'll flow maybe one mile, maybe two miles.

We'll find out over time.

A lot of people might wonder about, okay how are rate payer dollars being used to do this, and the total cost of this project is well under $1 million.

To be able to recharge this amount of water in a constructive facility would be at least three to six times as expensive as that.

When we deliver water into the river channel most of it actually soaks in to the groundwater beneath and when you do that over time it actually can start to rebuild the groundwater underneath it.

- Adding any kind of water regularly to the river is gonna increase diversity and probably support more plants like willows and other vegetation that need more access to water, aquatic wildlife, insects that a lot of them start life in the river and they're a good food source for fish and birds.

Tim - It's a very high quality of reclaimed water.

It's not drinking water, but incidental contact with that water is perfectly appropriate.

This is the same water that we use on our golf courses, that we use in our parks and school grounds.

And it's actually the same quality of water that already flows in the Santa Cruz River much further North.

Claire - The stretch of the river from Sweetwater Wetlands area, North to Marana, I believe we've been releasing water into the river since the 70s.

So we've been doing it for a long time but what's really changed is the quality in the water I don't think there was any seed of vegetation.

It just will come on it's own, so give it water and it will come.

Jesús - A few people have asked, how would the return of the flow effect the Mission Garden or would compliment somehow the Mission Garden?

Wildlife and the biodiversity, whether we're talking bats, insects, and birds, and possibly reptiles will be connected in a bridge between the "A" Mountain, Tumamoc Hill area, The Mission Garden Oasis, and the permanent flow, even if it's small will definitely increase the biodiversity in the entire area.

Tucson Mayor - Unless you live in the dessert you just don't appreciate rain and rivers the way Tucsonan's do.

And releasing the water into the Santa Cruz today on el Dia de San Juan, when Tucsonan's are good and ready for the monsoon to start is especially appropriate.

Only Tucsonan's could understand why, on one of the hottest days of the year, we go outside of our own free will, celebrate our city, and fervently hope for rain.

(clapping) (mariachi music) (singing in foreign language) Jesús - It is a very important symbolic gesture I would say.

Personally, I can compare to what we're doing here at the Mission Garden.

There's no way we can bring everything back the way things used to be, you know when Tucson was a little town.

But yet, it brings us the concept of why we're here, understanding the origins of Tucson makes us understand this region.

It makes us conserve and makes us appreciate what we have.

When you see the water flowing in the Santa Cruz and you can go and touch it and you can go and put your feet in the water you are touching history.

Claire - Really we focus so much on what we've lost along the river and our river is still there.

It's still very much alive.

It's probably really different from what it used to be in the past, but it's still part of our heritage.

It's the reason we can call Tucson home.

Tom - This path that I'm walking along the Santa Cruz River is a part of the loop, and that's a system of over 100 miles of paved pathways that run all through the Tucson metro area.

And right now, before the summer heat hits is a perfect time for pedestrians and bicyclists and equestrians to get out here and enjoy it.

(relaxing rhythmic music) Roger - I reacquainted myself with the bike when I was 35.

I weighed 240 pounds, I smoked four packs of cigarettes a day and I was a large beer drinker.

Come home, first thing I'd do is open a beer.

And at 35 I said enough, so the first thing I did was stop smoking, second thing, I quit drinking, and then the third thing, I got the bicycle, an entry level bike, I think I paid $300 for it.

And I've never stopped riding the bike, I do drink wine now though.

I can do this forever.

(laughing) My name is Roger Kennedy, retired.

I came down here at my wife's suggestion in 2000.

Loved it.

Okay, I'm ready, guys.

I kept doing this and eventually bought this home.

In 2005, I said enough.

Well, good morning everybody, how's everybody?

Hello, Anne, how you doing?

Now I'm a full fledged snowbird.

Okay, let's roll out of here.

(exciting orchestra music) If I had only one place to live, this is where it'd be.

I discovered The Loop many years ago riding my bike and it was just a path near the house.

And over the years, it has expanded to this extraordinary facility that everybody in the city can avail themselves, not only bicyclists but walkers, runners, it's a gem.

This is an extraordinary cycling community, there's cyclists everywhere and I have met many of them and made good friends with them.

I ride never less than 200 miles a week, many weeks over 250, 275.

My annual is usually over 7,000.

It's my meditation, I get out there on a nice, sunny day like today, calm, no winds, and you hear those wheels rolling over the pavement and there's hum to it, and you just kind of in a zone, you're kind of zen.

And my mind just kind of empties and I unload all, whatever worries I might have, and leave them out there on the trail.

And that's why I get up in the morning, really, is to ride the bike.

This is unlike anything in the country.

No other city has this.

- Welcome to the In the Loop Celebrations.

Now complete at 131 miles.

(applauding) Steve - Well, we have some great trails in Iowa, the Rails to Trails is a big thing up there, but I don't think we have anything that can quite compare to The Loop.

It's a little wider, a little nicer, a little more scenic than just the old railroad tracks that are mostly straight and very few curves.

So, we really enjoy this a lot better, I think, even than we do in Iowa.

- Hey, how are you?

(exciting rhythmic music) Liz - I'm a long distance hiker and I've walked 10 long trails in eight different cities.

And I just completed walking The Loop.

It's amazing, this is kind of the envy of every city, this trail system, to have something that's completed, non motorized, don't have to fight cars, lots of clean restrooms along the way.

It's really a treat to walk this trail.

(lighthearted fun music) Lydia - Oh, man, I've been skating for a good 18 years, starting off over at River Luck (mumbles).

But I've pretty much gone as far Craycraft from Campbell, here I go all the way to Spectrum, (speaking in foreign language), just enjoy the beautiful sunshine.

And there is so much nature.

I see so many coyotes, hyenas, I've run into snakes across the path.

Horses up and down the river.

It's just a lot of natural desert.

Rosie - We walk everyday at Fort Lowell Park and we've been watching the construction over the past year or so, and wondering how they were going to get it all done.

But in early January, we realized it was open all the way through.

I started more seriously bicycling about six months ago because of my arthritis in my knee, and this is the perfect opportunity to ride away from traffic, because I won't ride in traffic.

(exciting rhythmic music) Roger - I live at Tangerine and First Avenue.

From my house, it takes less than 10 minutes to get to the trail head for the CDO path, which is the Canyada del Oro Wash to Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz straight south to Downtown and Mercado.

(slow peaceful music) Cyclists go there all the time, I mean on a Saturday or Sunday, you can't get food there because there's so many people there.

But it's a great place to go.

24 miles one way, easy spin.

Just all down hill gone, a little bit uphill coming back, you're hoping for a tail wind.

Take care, guys, thank you!

I see guys and gals that are well into their 80's out there, they just don't go as fast as they used to.

They can't climb quite well as they used to, but they still get kitted up, they still get on the bike, they still go out and ride.

How long am I gonna be on it?

Until my wife buries me.

(laughing) (peaceful soft music) Tom - While our weather is nearly perfect right now, although a little windy, hotter and more dangerous, temperatures are on the way.

In 2022, a record number of migrants crossed the US-Mexico border and with more people expected to come and travel farther and farther into remote regions of the desert.

Well, deaths are expected to rise, especially during the hot summer months.

Local artist Alvaro Enciso has made it his goal to honor and remember those migrants.

(chiming) (low pitched whistling) (insects scuttling) Alvaro - A month ago I found a dead person out in the desert.

And it really gave me the jolt that I needed to understand how horrendous is to die from lack of water out in the desert.

You know we could have prevent this, we could have prevented this death.

(somber music) Robin - A vast, painful and violent humanitarian crisis has been unfolding in southern Arizona, that is largely ignored and largely erased in the national discourse about immigration.

Bill Clinton - We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws.

It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.

(applause) (somber music) Robin - Families are searching without answers, calling and calling and calling with the terror in their voice of not knowing.

And then in the meantime, this national narrative vilifying immigrants and their families.

- [Man] President Trump continues to hammer the issue of illegal immigration.

Donald Trump - These aren't people, these are animals.

They bring in crime, they're rapists.

Robin - It leaves those who are mourning feeling like their tragedy is completely ignored.

(somber music) But know that there's someone who acknowledges that this is happening out there.

(somber music) (paintbrush swishing) Alvaro - I'm trying to honor the courage of the people who make the trip.

And give a voice to the suffering, and the dreams and the hopes and the disappointments, and at the same time, point fingers.

Hey, this person died here, this one here, this one here.

But I don't want that to determine who I am.

I don't want to be identified as an activist.

I'm an artist, I'm a human being.

I react to injustice.

(footsteps) Back in the 60's, I was homeless.

(somber music) I came to the U.S. thinking that everything is possible here.

Everything is possible here, but it's not that easy.

I was born in Colombia, South America.

I came from a very poor family, and I knew that my future was limited.

I went to Vietnam as an infantry man because that was my only option.

I didn't wanna go back home defeated.

Being in the army sort of helped me get an education, get a job, and I was hired by the government as an expert in cultural issues.

It wasn't until 1989 that I decided to drop it all and become an artist.

When I moved here, I immediately wanted to connect with the people who were putting the water out in the desert.

And I saw the mass of red dots, almost covering the geographical detail of the map.

I knew right then and there, I needed to take that red dot to where the tragedy occurred.

Every time they collect a body, they put a GPS marking where the person was found.

So the night before I look at, how am I gonna get there?

How far are we gonna have to walk, and be prepared for it.

The ultimate goal is to get to the location, one way or another.

- [Man] There's no way.

(chuckling) - [Man] You just had a birthday!

- [Man] Huh?

(somber music) - [Man] I know that's not good.

Alvaro - We try to put four crosses every time we go.

So red dot mark a location, and we operate in an area that is 40,000 square miles.

We'll stop by three point, right at the, Man - Yeah, yeah.

Alvaro- left, wait for you.

Man - That's not good.

Alvaro - I got an email from a woman, whose brother died here, and she says, "Could you put a cross for my brother?"

Man - When did he die I wonder?

Alvaro - 2013.

I have a friend who's my GPS person, who's able to guide us to the exact location.

Man - Well it looks like there might be a couple of ways to connect to it, but the one I think is, Alvaro - Sometimes you have to find, Man - three miles, from here.

Alvaro - roads that the map doesn't even show.

Man - Right here.

Alvaro - You see it, okay.

Man - Yeah right here, look.

Alvaro - Okay.

Okay I gotta put this on four-wheel drive.

I think the rain collapsed the road.

I don't wanna get in here, so.

Man - Okay, but you don't wanna get in there either.

Alvaro - No, so I'm gonna have to go this way.

Man - Right.

Alvaro - Most of the migrants who died out in the desert were off the trail, they were left behind, they got lost, disoriented, and they ended up walking in circles, until they ran out of water and died.

It's a tragedy that has a lot of ramifications.

There's a void in that family.

Robin - No matter what else first that person was a human being, which is part of why I think Alvaro's work is so important in the sense of remembering and honoring and caring for those who died and disappeared and recognizing them as individual people.

Man - Somehow we'll have to get over that ledge at some point.

Alvaro - We might be able to do it up here.

Man - That takes us out of our way.

Let's try to cross here and, Alvaro - Okay.

Okay, okay let's try to find a way here.

I'm walking along with them, I'm walking the same ground, I'm feeling the same heat.

(somber music) Three feet is okay with me.

(GPS device beeping) Do we have a name?

Man - Unidentified, undetermined skeletal remains April 13th, 2018.

Alvaro - Half of the time we don't have the names of the person, and those cases affect me the most.

Okay.

Because there's no closure for the family.

That family still hoping that one day this person is gonna make a phone call and say, "Hey, I'm here."

We know that that's not gonna happen.

And that breaks my heart.

This is like a little oasis here so, he probably got here, looking for shade, and a little cool, and just couldn't get up.

(somber music) I knew that these crosses weren't gonna be seen by anybody.

The families of those people never get to see them, but every now and then, something magical happens.

(somber music) The family came all the way from New Jersey, her two daughters and her husband, and we went together, and put a cross for them.

Woman - She was trying to help as much as possible, and she inspired so many people, (sobs) Like family members or anyone that needed help.

(somber music) Robin - We're trying to build community, and circle the person who we lost and the family with care and love, and trying to create mourners where there's silence and there's ghosts and there's desert.

(somber music) Alvaro - I don't have enough life in me to finish it.

So it's gonna be an incomplete project, but I'm okay with that, because little by little, the truth is coming out.

Tom - Before we go.

Let's take a sneak peek at a few stories from Bisbee in Sierra Vista that we're working on.

Mike - Here we are.

You'll see a house sitting on top of a hill, and there's alway an American flag flying.

And you look up, you know, Oh, man, there it is.

And we have steps that you can come up.

It's a track, if you like, to hike and explore.

This is the place to be.

Gary - In 2016, the University of Arizona started a cyber operations program.

And so they created the College of Applied Science and Technology, which took over what used to be known as University Arizona South.

So this college is less than four years old.

Three students in its first cohort once it was built.

Latest student headcount was over 2800 students.

So it grew like crazy.

Tom - Thank you for joining us on Arizona Illustrated from the Santa Cruz River.

I'm Tom McNamara and we'll see you next week.