Plot

The accidental breakdown of an irrigation valve launches a hot confrontation between the mainly Latino farmers in a tiny New Mexico town and the real estate developers and politicians determined to acquire their land for a golf resort.

In the tiny town of Milagro, New Mexico, where the local water is a premium resource, shady developer Ladd Devine has conceived a glitzy resort that will ultimately siphon off all the water from the neighboring crop-fields. When handyman and farmer Joe Mondragon accidentally breaks a water valve reserved for major companies, he inadvertently sets off a small-scale water-rights war between the farmers and the developers.—Jwelch5742

Milagro is a poor, drought-stricken New Mexico village populated largely by Mexican-Americans. The only economic activity of any note is the development of the partially state-funded Miracle Valley Recreation Area which will consist of among other items a ski resort and a golf course. It is being developed by rich out-of-town white people, namely the [Ladd] Devine Land Development Company, for rich out-of-town white people. Milagro resident, handyman Joe Mondragon, who just wants to earn money to support his family, can't even get a job with Devine working on this development. In frustration, Joe kicks and breaks a sluice on an irrigation ditch that is diverting all the water of the region to Devine's development, that break which ends up flooding a small field owned by Joe. It is a former beanfield his legacy as passed down to him by his father, and which is located in the middle of the recreation development area, Joe the one resident who did not sell. In this act, Joe comes up with the idea of "stealing" the water to do with the field as it was intended, namely to plant a crop of beans. With that stealing of water caught up in state bureaucracy, Joe's act of public mischief draws the battle lines largely by race and by pro versus anti-Miracle Valley development, with the beanfield itself the physical symbol of the battle. While some necessarily need to straddle the line, such as Chicano Sheriff Bernabe Montoya, others may not be as one-sided in the matter as they appear on the surface.—Huggo

In Milagro, a small town in the American Southwest, Ladd Devine plans to build a major new resort development. While activist Ruby Archuleta and lawyer/newspaper editor Charlie Bloom realize that this will result in the eventual displacement of the local Hispanic farmers, they cannot arouse much opposition because of the short term opportunities offered by construction jobs. But when Joe Mondragon illegally diverts water to irrigate his bean field, the local people support him because of their resentment of water use laws that favor the rich like Devine. When the Governor sends in ruthless troubleshooter Kyril Montana to settle things quickly before the lucrative development is cancelled, a small war threatens to erupt.—Reid Gagle