In New Mexico, Ancient Traditions Keep Desert Waters Flowing

New Mexico has a spiritual power emanating from the landscape -- its rios, mesas, llanos, sierras -- that informs our traditional cultures.

Native Americans live each day in a vibrant relationship with everything around them. For them, New Mexico is not just a place to live. It is a way to live.

Similarly, Indo-Hispanos have created an intimate relationship with the landscape over the past three or four centuries. They built acequias -- communal irrigation systems—not only to sustain an agricultural lifestyle, but also to caress and sustain the Earth and its natural creatures.

Acequias evolved over 10,000 years in the deserts of the Middle East and were introduced into southern Spain by the Moors during their nearly 800-year occupation. Spanish colonizers took acequias to the New World. Acequias included specific governance over water distribution, water scarcity plans, and all other matters pertaining to what was viewed as a communal resource. The mayordomo, or watermaster, of the acequia made decisions about water distribution among community members, with the consent and advice of the acequia members.

This communal system of irrigating was a response to the scarcity of water in arid regions and was key to the survival of agricultural communities. In many instances, the acequia governance system was also used to settle other community conflicts, especially in areas like New Mexico, located far from the seat of government in Mexico City. The irrigation system that evolved over centuries and that was implemented in New Mexico was created to ensure a formal civil process to resolve water-rights issues, especially in dry times. Each irrigator had one vote to elect the mayordomo. The mayordomo had ultimate authority over water disputes and his word was final. He derived his authority from the communal power vested in him by all of the irrigators.

In the spring, every able-bodied male was required to show up on the appointed day and time to clean and repair the acequia madre—the mother ditch from which each individual plot received irrigation water. Once the main irrigation canal was repaired and water began flowing, the mayordomo monitored the use of water for irrigation by each acequia member. Each member was assigned a specific time each week to irrigate his personal field. If an irrigator used water without the mayordomo’s permission, he was severely punished by having water withheld from his fields. If the acequia madre was breached during the year, the mayordomo called on every irrigator to help repair it. This was considered a sacred duty.

This commitment to maintaining the village’s primary irrigation supply bonded villagers together over the years. The concept of working communally became an integral part of a village’s world view: the group was valued over the individual.

Community in a Changed World

This model of cooperation and communal ownership can be a guide as we enter a time when climate change, lack of oil, or economic turmoil will require deep change in the way we live.

Author James Howard Kunstler predicts a “long emergency” -- a time when world oil production peaks and the remaining oil to be exploited is geometrically more difficult and expensive to find and extract. What that means is that we will be pushed to plant and grow food closer to home, since transporting food from other parts of the world will become too expensive due to the rising cost of oil. Our energy-intensive water systems, based on moving huge amounts of water long distances or pumping it from deep underground, will become unworkable. Homegrown food will become affordable once again, and acequia systems can step in to provide the water to produce healthy, affordable, locally-grown food for local foodsheds.