Desert Water Music & The Art of Listening: "Nobody Can Speak for the Village of Cuba, except the Village of Cuba” by Colleen Daugherty for the 2026 Peace Engineering 1st Annual International Conference

“Germinate Song” written and produced by Telatta Jo

There is a saying… “that is music to my ears.” Desert water music can be imagined as the conversations that balance everyone’s interest in economic growth and resource conservation. The Village of Cuba is preparing for change while prioritizing its cultural identity. Its future is anchored in the hope for water resilience in the form of a state-funded pilot to test a daring new approach.

This abstract presents a theatrical work exploring the impact of peace engineering’s anthropological intent through the story of a rural Southwestern community facing water uncertainty, infrastructure opportunity, and rapid outside interest. Set across town halls, school spaces, research trailers, and the quiet intervals between public meetings, the play examines how communities encounter technical possibilities while carrying histories of scarcity, distrust, cultural memory, and survival. The work is conceived as a trilingual play in English, Spanish, and Diné/Navajo, reflecting the layered communication realities of a community shaped by Hispano, Indigenous, and land-based cultural traditions. Dance functions as a recurring metaphor for peace engineering itself. At first, the dance is uneven: engineers, artists, council members, teachers, elders, youth, consultants, and entrepreneurs move with different speeds, rhythms, vocabularies, assumptions, and levels of hope and power. As respectful communication, education, and shared understanding improve, the choreography changes. The scenes consolidate common efforts as dance moves and interactions mirror each other, become smoother, more energized, and more capable of bouncing along steady in times of both urgency and restraint. The play’s methodology is arts-based and dialogic. Rather than presenting infrastructure as a purely technical solution, it uses music, poetry, silence, movement, and multilingual storytelling to explore how communities process uncertainty before decisions become permanent. The work argues that solutions are not complete until they can be understood, afforded, maintained, and emotionally embraced by the people most affected. It explores the challenges of explaining how infrastructure changes necessary for water security will be tangible in the daily dance of rural neighbors and children far into the future. Its relevance to peace engineering lies in its treatment of infrastructure as a human, cultural, and communicative practice. Engineers may bring models, systems, and innovation, but the play insists that community voice, local education, and intergenerational participation determine whether growth becomes dignified, durable, and just.

“Nobody Can Speak for the Village of Cuba Except the Village of Cuba”

On the high plateau of New Mexico, a small rural town stands at the edge of possibility… a town clinging to existence in what seems like the middle of nowhere. Beneath its ground lies a deep brackish aquifer… and the town has partnered with a new technology company under state-funded pressure to deliver hope… and water stability. What ultimately emerges… is the promise of a better future… to be imagined by the children and families who live a quiet, simple life. Engineers arrive with models, data, grant language, and visions large enough to redraw maps. Artists arrive carrying stories, grief, humor… and the stubborn belief that people must still recognize themselves inside the future being proposed for them. Set in a town hall… a school gymnasium… a research trailer… and the quiet spaces between meetings… this theatrical work explores the emotional and political reality of peace engineering: the attempt to solve human inequality through infrastructure, cooperation, and systems capable of sustaining education, health, and cultural identity. It is a story about people of different skills and backgrounds coming together to share experience and knowledge… with the common goal of growth with dignity.

The play examines the tension between imagination and implementation. Everyone has ideas they prioritize or want to contribute to the dance. Some are brilliant. Some are naïve. Some are dangerous despite good intentions. And in the swirl of Zoom calls with consultants, researchers, council members, teachers, elders, students, and entrepreneurs… the central question emerges: Are the people prepared to solve identifiable problems… while navigating the accumulated community weight of history, distrust, ego, scarcity, and survival? At its heart, the work argues that peace engineering is not merely the construction of systems… but the art of listening deeply… and offering measured, practical advice that can be adapted and customized by new generations. The town is defining its cultural identity… while also uniquely positioned to demonstrate new approaches to growth and twenty-first century community development standards for an underserved, minority-dominated region. The engineers in the story are capable of enormous ideas: desalination… circular recovery… education platforms… community infrastructure… new economies.

Yet the play continually returns to a quieter truth: solutions that cannot be understood… afforeded… maintained… or emotionally embraced by the community… are not solutions yet. As momentum builds around the town of Cuba, opportunities begin arriving faster than clarity. Grants… partnerships… political interests… research agendas… and public hopes begin overlapping in messy and unpredictable ways. The characters wrestle with an uncomfortable reality: some ideas must remain separate from certain decisions. Some conversations cannot happen in public… yet. Some people may speak too loudly. Others may never be invited to speak at all. The play treats innovation and growth as a community learning to dance together… the cultural choreography inspired by the native roots of the region. For peace engineering, the dance is internal: between expertise and humility… urgency and patience… vision and restraint. The work explores how different experience levels collide inside community development… and how communication and respect guide great ideas into reality.

Throughout the story, art becomes a stabilizing force. Music. Poetry. Storytelling. Silence. They create spaces where people can process uncertainty together… without pretending certainty already exists. The art of listening becomes both method and moral center… allowing engineers to ponder perfected solutions… and artists to imagine thoughtful murals that might beautify the city. The people learn they have the power to determine their destiny through education and involvement. And with coordinated effort… they absolutely have a say in what defines the town. The city and businesses give respect in return… honoring local talent and the harvesting of knowledge… unifying rural identity in a way that records stories for history… and grows deep roots. Ultimately… the play rejects the idea of outside salvation. Researchers may help. Engineers may help. Consultants, institutions, the county, and the state may help. But the work insists on one foundational principle: “Nobody can speak for the Village of Cuba except the Village of Cuba.”

And eventually… there comes a moment when the music of possibility fades… the dance slows… the meetings end… the grant decks close… and the real community work begins… in the hands of the local civic heroes, politicians, residents, and teachers who make the commitment to show up.

Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum. Leydens, J.A. and Lucena, J.C. (2014) ‘What is design for social justice?’,

ASEE Annual Conference & Proceedings. Available at: https://peer.asee.org/what-is-design for-social-justice.pdf

Peace Engineering Consortium (n.d.) What is Peace Engineering? University of New Mexico. Available at: https://peaceengineering.unm.edu/about/what-is-peace-engineering.html Peace Engineering Consortium (n.d.) Peace

Engineering Consortium. University of New Mexico. Available at: https://peaceengineering.unm.edu/about/peace-engineering consortium.html