Data Center Watch: Lessons from a San Marcos Coalition's Defeat of an AI Data Center

Click to view Todos Agua session two: 'Water, Urbanization, & Environmental Justice,' dedicated to the subject of data centers.

With communities across the state slogging through deep drought and rising heat, both products of our chronic combustion of polluting fossil fuels, Deceleration in honored to parter with Esperanza Peace & Justice Center in San Antonio in this year’s Todos Agua, a week-long reflection dedicated to restoring a right relationship with water. Day Two featured a panel on the subject of data centers, including guests from San Marcos (Saunders Drukker and Kay from the Data Center Action Coalition) who had front-row seats to the recent defeat of an AI data center there. We were joined by DeeDee Belmares, a San Antonio-based climate organizer with Public Citizen and Climate Justice San Antonio, who is helping convene a state-wide convention on the topic this coming weekend.

Here’s the event description from Esperanza:

We continue by confronting how drought, privatization, contamination, and unchecked development reshape access to water across Texas. Working-class communities and communities of color often face the first and deepest impacts. This gathering brings focus to the rapid expansion of large-scale data centers and industrial development, and their strain on regional water systems. We are joined by Kay and Saunders, members of the Data Center Action Coalition, a community-based group in San Marcos organizing to protect water, land, and people. Locally and across the region, DC/AC works to build a broad and diverse movement defending the right of communities to decide their own future. Also: DeeDee Belmares of Public Citizen and Climate Justice San Antonio about local efforts growing. The afternoon unfolds through activist reflection, moderated dialogue, and closes with a canto/poesía offering.

The convening continues online tonight with a guided reflection of the “oceanic mind, intuition, and the world of dreams.”

Coming Todos Agua Events

Day 3 – Imox: Water, Oceanic Mind and Vision Online Dialogue Tuesday, March 24, 7 PM Via Zoom In the Mayan calendar, water is reflected through the energy of Imox, the oceanic mind, intuition, and the world of dreams. Through dialogue, we explore water not merely as a resource but as origin, movement, and living presence, reflecting on what it teaches about memory, adaptation, and clarity in times of collective pressure featuring Tata Kajkan Felipe Mejia Sepet, and Excy Guardado.

Day 4 – Vivir Cantando II Workshop & Plática with Julián Herreros Rivera Thursday, March 26, 7 PM Via Zoom Vivir Cantando returns as an invitation to explore singing not only as art but also as a relationship to territory and community. Through reflective conversation, we consider how song carries memory, builds presence, and strengthens our capacity to listen deeply to ourselves and one another.

Day 5 – Song, Memory & Living Water Online Concert with Julián Herreros Rivera Friday, March 27, 7 PM Via Zoom An evening of traditional and contemporary song rooted in territory, memory, and ancestral lineage. Through music that honors living waters and cultural continuity, we gather across distances to listen, reflect, and reconnect with the currents that sustain collective life.

Day 6 – Returning to the Water Closing Ceremony and Outdoor Gathering Saturday, March 28, 11 AM Brackenridge Park’s Joske Pavilion We gather on the land to close the week in relationship. A guided walk invites us to learn about local plants and Coahuiltecan–Pakahua traditions of this region. Through writing, chant, and embodied reflection, we offer back what we have learned. The gathering concludes in a collective movement by the river with danzantes.

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