1. Art and Diseño

News & Views
from the
S u s t ai n ab l e S o u t h w e s t
New Mexico
Acequias:
Global Heritage
A ncient T rade R outes
K eystone G ardens
T he C olumbian E xchange
W ater and C ommunity
C ultural J ournalism
February 2015
Northern New Mexico’s Largest Circulation Newspaper
Vol. 7 No. 2
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Vol. 7, No. 2 •February 2015
Issue No. 70
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News & Views
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Sustainable Southwest
Winner of the Sustainable Santa Fe Award for Outstanding Educational Project
Contents
The Hermanamiento of the Acequias of Valencia and New Mexico . . .. . .. . .. . 6
Valencia and New Mexico’s Hermanamiento Ceremony: A Personal Perspective . . . 7
Heritage Acequias of Spain: The Millenial Huerta of Murcia
and the Río Segura Valley . . ... . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 10
Safeguarding the Global Cultural Heritage of Community Acequias. . .. . .. . .14
New Mexico Acequias and World Heritage: A Proposal . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 15
Valle de Allende and Aldama: Roots of Acequia Culture in Northern México . . 16
Tlaxcala and Aranjuez: Keystone Gardens of the Columbian Exchange . . .. . .. 20
Bounty of the Columbian Exchange . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 21
Water Management and Acequias in Chile. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 24
The Zanjeras of Northern Luzon .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 25
Land and Water in the Middle East: the Yemen Connection. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 27
Juan Estevan Arellano ¡Presente! .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 28
Book Review – Enduring Acequias: Wisdom of the Land, Knowledge of Water . . 29
Op-Ed: The Almunyah – An Integrated Place for Living . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 29
Sustainable Santa Fe Update. . .. . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 32
Newsbites . . .. . .. . .. . .. . ... . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 8, 35
What’s Going On. . .. . .. . .. . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 38
Anna C. Hansen 505.982.0155
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Global Acequia Landscapes: Culturally Green
N
ew Mexico Acequias return to these pages to take their place of honor in a
Global Heritage of traditional communities, which have made the arid zones
of our planet bloom. If you encounter a verdant landscape in New Mexico, chances
are you have entered an Acequia Landscape, which is “culturally green” since water
is so scarce. International activists, scholars and irrigators have joined us again to
celebrate the spirit of Enduring Acequias: Wisdom of the Land, Knowledge of the Water
as the late Juan Estevan Arellano so aptly captured it in the title of his last book. We
dedicate this issue to his legacy of tireless advocacy and creativity, the qualities it takes
to defend the resources of Acequia Culture from the challenges of climate change
and rampant development.
Last September, a sizeable New Mexico contingent traveled to Valencia, Spain to
witness an unprecedented event, the Hermanamiento or Ceremony of Brotherhood,
to symbolically reunite us with the taproot of acequia traditions. For resounding
successes over 25 years in grassroots organizing, state legislation and favorable judicial
rulings, the New Mexico Acequia Association was awarded the Medal of Honor of the
Tribunal de las Aguas de Valencia, the oldest water court in the world, in continuous
operation since the 10th century.
© Anna C. Hansen
Robyn Montoya 505.692.4477
[email protected]
Juan Estevan Arellano was a
recipient of 2013 Luminaria
Award from the New Mexico
Community Foundation.
We visited acequia heritage sites across southern Spain before the symposium at the Universitat Politécnica de
València (papers at http://tglick-irrigation-2014.org/en/publication/papers/). We add our own road stories to the
observations of colleagues on New Mexico Acequias as Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
– Armando Lamadrid and Enrique Lamadrid, Guest Editors
COVER: D
on Bustos, representing the New Mexico Acequia Association, holding the
Water Tribunal of Valencia’s Medal of Honor at the Ceremony of Hermanamiento
(Brotherhood), Spain, Sept. 2014 Photo by ©Armando Lamadrid
Green Fire Times • February 2015
5
Noticias Internacionales / Notable Acequia News
The Hermanamiento of the Acequias
of Valencia and New Mexico
Armando Lamadrid
A
An official encounter of acequia irrigators from
Spain and New Mexico, after four centuries apart
At first glance, an acequia might actually look like a small stream blending into
the culturally green landscape. But, in fact, acequias are the lifelines of agriculture,
food security and community that have flourished for centuries in both places.
This common feature of New Mexico and Spain, inherited even further back from
Arabs—the word acequia comes from the classical Arabic, al-sāqiya, meaning
© Armando Lamadrid (2)
n unprecedented event in the annals of global acequia culture was celebrated
in the ancient botanical gardens of Valencia, Spain, and on the steps of its
great cathedral last September—an official encounter of acequia irrigators from
Spain and New Mexico, after four centuries apart. New Mexican culture is deeply
influenced by Spain, despite having been separated politically for centuries and
divided by half the globe. Yet, the richly hybrid Iberian legacy is still expressed
under New Mexican skies through language, blood and water. Yes, water. And not
for the sake of pointing out universal truths—yes, we all need water, just as we all
need air!—but to highlight something more subtle and unsuspecting. Something
you may not even notice while crossing the stunning semiarid New Mexican or
Iberian countrysides, even though you’re staring right at it.
Following the resolution of the two disputes, a table was set in the middle of the ring
of judges, and the tribunal proceeded to call forth NMAA’s Don Bustos to present
him and the NMAA the tribunal’s Medal of Honor. Then, Bustos was invited to sign
the tribunal’s own book of honored guests, and he read the elegant message aloud to
the crowd, conveying respect and gratitude for the medal and the hermanamiento.
“the water carrier” or “the one who gives water”—gives a sense of brotherhood,
or hermandad, to these disparate places. But, like estranged family members, the
irrigation institutions of Spain and New Mexico were alienated over the course
of history—until Sept. 24, 2014.
© Tribunal de las Aguas de la vega de Valencia
On this date in the warm Spanish autumn, in an auditorium of the tree-canopied
Jardí Botànic (Botanical Gardens) of the University of Valencia, representatives
from Valencia and New Mexico gathered before a diverse crowd of spectators
for a Ceremony of Hermanamiento, or Brotherhood, of their respective acequia
institutions. From the Valencian side were
officials f rom the three major irrigation
institutions of the huerta (cultivated land) of
Valencia—the Tribunal de las Aguas de la Vega
de Valencia (the famous medieval water court
of Valencia’s main irrigation corporation); the
Real Acequia de Moncada (Royal Moncada
Acequia); and the Real Acequia del Júcar
(Royal Júcar Acequia)—plus colleagues from
as far away as Murcia. For New Mexico, Dr.
José Rivera, renowned UNM acequia scholar,
and Don Bustos, New Mexico Acequia
The Water Tribunal’s
Association (NMAA) secretary and board
Medal of Honor
member, participated.
The ceremony conveyed the seriousness with
which water is treated in Spain.
In 2010, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization) recognized the Tribunal de las Aguas de Valencia and the Consejo
de Hombres Buenos de la Huerta de Murcia for enduring contributions to the
Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. They have exercised their leadership
for more than a millennium, surviving empires, kingdoms, wars and dictatorships,
through to the current democratic era. And Spain is fully cognizant of the
achievements of the NMAA over the past quarter-century: the new legislation,
Los Hombres Buenos, seated in a circle outside the great Cathedral of Valencia, Spain
6
Green Fire Times • February 2015
continued on page 8
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Valencia and NM’s Hermanamiento Ceremony
A Personal Perspective
Don Bustos
The NMAA has been working with
professors from several universities
and community-based organizations to
document and articulate the importance
of traditional ways of governance and
water distribution for the continuance
of using water in a manner that gives
voice to the people who use it to benefit
their communities.
and Cultural Organization) Intangible
Cultural Heritage List and that there
are acequias in Valencia, Spain that
have ties to northern New Mexico’s.
For many years, Dr. Rivera and others
have been working to strengthen ties
between the two countries and the
acequia communities.
El Tribunal de las Aguas de la Vega de
Valencia and the Consejo de Hombres
Buenos de la Vega de Murcia were added
to the UNESCO list in 2009. With the
knowledge and connections of various
community members and professional
people, the idea of giving New Mexico
acequias the same designation is moving
forward. As secretary of the NMAA,
along with Martha Trujillo f rom
Pojoaque, Santiago Maestas from the
South Valley of Albuquerque, as well as
other parciantes (landholder-irrigators)
from New Mexico, we were invited to the
Recognizing the cultural and environmental
significance of acequias and the links that unite
people who live on arid and semiarid lands.
signing of the Hermanmiento between
the two entities from across the Atlantic
Ocean. This document represents the
communities of irrigators of the Júcar
and Moncada Royal Acequias, the Water
Tribunal of Valencia and the New Mexico
Acequia Association. It recognizes the
cultural and environmental significance of
the acequias and the links that unite the
L-R: Juan Tovar (Junta de Hacendados de la Huerta de Murcia), Martha Trujillo, James
Maestas and Don Bustos (NMAA), acequia authors José Rivera and Thomas Glick, and
Enric Aguilar (president of the Tribunal de las Aguas de la Vega de Valencia)
people who live on arid and semiarid lands.
It illuminates the common challenges
we confront in the current context of
globalization of economy and agriculture.
The document ends by declaring the
alliance and commitment to strengthen
our ties and to promote the exchange of
experiences and solutions for irrigators
who share the ancient acequia culture.
elected judges, who are not lawyers
but hombres buenos, or well-respected
farmers. The court then makes a
decision, unless there is a need for
further investigation, in which case the
decision is made the following week.
All of their decisions regarding uses for
water along the river are honored and
enforced by all Spanish courts.
The second major event which, for me,
was a once-in-a lifetime, life-changing
experience, was when I was presented
with the Medalla de Honor of the
Tribunal on the steps of the Pórtico of
the Apostles of the ancient Cathedral
of Valencia, where the tribunal has
convened every Thursday morning
since Medieval times and earlier. There,
irrigators from seven acequias present
any issues to be resolved before the
The tribunal has four guiding principles:
those elected to the tribunal must
be in good standing in their acequia
community; decisions must be made
in a timely manner; the process must
be made affordable; and, to ensure that
all decisions are fair and just, issues
are resolved by acequia representatives
from the opposite side of the Turia
river.
continued on page 22
© Seth Roffman
I first met Dr. José Rivera at a NMAA
conference. His book, Acequia Culture:
Water, Land, and Community in the
Southwest, mentions the farm I own,
Santa Cruz Farm, as an example
of small, sustainable agriculture in
northern New Mexico. That was the
first time I had heard of the UNESCO
(United Nations Educational, Scientific
© Armando Lamadrid
I
n September 2014, along with
other members of the New Mexico
Acequia Association (NMAA), I was
invited to Valencia, Spain, to attend a
symposium entitled “Irrigation, Society,
and Landscape: Tribute to Thomas H.
Glick,” the pioneer acequia scholar.
Three other major events occurred
during the trip that will impact the
future of sustainable agriculture, the
preservation of traditional people, and
water and land for future generations
in New Mexico.
Don Bustos delivered the Water Tribunal of Valencia’s Medal of Honor to the New Mexico Acequia Association’s concilio (board of directors) and members in November 2014
at the annual Congreso. L-R: Paula García, Don Bustos, Enrique Lamadrid, José A. Rivera, Harold Trujillo, Stephen Trujillo, Martha Trujillo, Jackie Powell, Gilbert Sandoval,
James Maestas, Medardo Sánchez, Yolanda Jaramillo, Sylvia Rodríquez and Antonio Medina
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Green Fire Times • February 2015
7
Hernanamiento
continued from page 6
NEWSBITEs
the favorable New Mexico
Supreme Court decisions, and
the groundswell of acequia
activism in defense of traditional
water and land management
Enric Aguilar, the head of
the Tribunal de las Aguas,
gave the first introduction
to the Hermanamiento,
and then words were
spoken by each of the
Top: Hombres Buenos – elected farmer
representatives present. Following,
judges of the Water Tribunal of Valencia;
the main declaration of brotherhood
Alguacil making his announcements
was read aloud, filling the auditorium
with emotion, which culminated in the signing of the main document. Although
brotherhood was declared and the spirits of both Valencia’s and New Mexico’s
acequia water struggles were joined, the main symbolic exchange was yet to come.
The New Mexico Acequia Commission (NMAC) serves acequia communities
throughout the state. The 11-member commission, created in 1987, is currently
seeking to make itself better known to those communities.
Pursuant to Executive Order 88-06, the commission advises the governor, the
New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) and the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers on what criteria should be used to determine priorities for rehabilitating
acequias under federal funding programs. The NMAC is also charged with
facilitating communication between local acequia organizations and the state and
federal governments and with reviewing plans or legislation that affect acequias.
The commission presents its findings to the governor and the ISC.
The NMAC will be active during the 2015 legislative session. Legislation the
commission is working on includes a joint memorial to create an Acequia Interim
Committee to present acequia issues to legislators and plan legislation. The NMAC
is also seeking a budget increase to support full-time staff and office space.
© Armando Lamadrid (2)
The ceremony was conducted
with the fullest officialdom of the
Valencian acequia authorities,
conveying the seriousness with
which water is treated in Spain.
And the tone struck a palpable
chord with the rest of
the crowd, including the
24 delegates f rom New
Mexico who know well the
vital importance of water to
cultural survival.
New Mexico Acequia Commission
Meeting February 27 in Santa Fe
The Hermanamiento ceremony and presentation of the tribunal’s Medal of Honor
was a truly momentous occasion of unique significance for New Mexico’s acequias
and regantes, reforging the links between New Mexico’s
and Spain’s sister traditions of water management and their
communal and democratic customs. i
Armando Lamadrid is an independent researcher and editor from New
Mexico, based in Oslo, Norway. He has conducted research on acequia and
climate change issues from Nepal and India to Spain and Perú. armando.
[email protected]
8
Green Fire Times • February 2015
Agri-lands Tax Reassessment in Taos
Agricultural status has become a hot topic in Taos County after many residents
received huge property tax increases in 2014. After county staff visited more than
1,000 properties to determine if agriculture was still active, 630 parcels had their
ag status revoked. Once ag status is lost, the taxable value of a property increases
to match the value of nonresidential land in that area. The tax on a parcel in Des
Montes, where some upscale homes are located, went from about $10 a year to
just over $3,000.
Many property owners said the reassessment came amid a record-setting
drought that made agriculture—especially small-scale ranching—impossible or
prohibitively expensive. The increases raised concerns that many old Taos families,
who are land rich but cash poor, would be forced to sell their property and that
changing ag status could affect water rights tied to land. The tax reassessment added
to mounting pressures against open space and traditional agrarian communities
with proud, centuries-old acequia culture.
© Seth Roffman
On the following day, a crowd of a few hundred spectators gathered outside the Door
of the Apostles at the Cathedral of Valencia as the clock approached noon, as is usual
every Thursday. The spectacle was the weekly meeting of the Tribunal de las Aguas,
the customary water court of the huerta of Valencia. But quite unusually, right beside
the gated circle of nine stately leather chairs emblazoned with titles like “Çequia
de Tormos” and “Çequia de Mestalla” (çequia is acequia in Valencian Catalan), the
New Mexico delegation of scholars and acequieros were in the front row.
Then, through the crowd, the alguacil, or bailiff, of the court, carrying a hooked
bronze halberd, parted the crowd for a line of judges clad in black robes to enter
the enclosure. They sat in the leather seats, right below the 12 stone apostles
peering down from the massive cathedral. At the stroke of noon, the bells of
the octagonal Miguelete Tower sounded, and the alguacil began calling, in the
Valencian language, to plaintiffs and defendants from each acequia who might
be in the crowd: “Denunciats de la sèquia de Tormos!” and so on. Because the
irrigation system in the huerta is so well structured and efficient from a thousand
years of fine-tuning, disputes are rare. But, today, the crowd was lucky enough
to witness two separate trials, which were resolved on the spot, just as has been
practiced since Moorish times, when the great Mosque of Valencia stood on the
same spot. In fact, the tribunal is held outside, rather than inside, the cathedral in
respect for Jewish and Muslim irrigators and occurs on Thursday in deference to the
respective Sabbaths: Muslims (Friday), Jews (Saturday) and Christians (Sunday).
Acequia communities are encouraged to contact the commission by visiting
www.nmacequiacommission.state.nm.us or by contacting Chair Ralph A. Vigil
at 505.603.2879 or [email protected]. Agendas are available for the
NMAC’s next meeting on Feb. 27, 10 a.m., in room 238 of the Bataan Memorial
Building in Santa Fe.
Farmers and traditional ag advocates met with State Sen. Carlos Cisneros and Rep.
Bobby Gonzales in Taos in December to discuss legislation that would expand
the property tax definition of “agricultural use.”
The Assessor’s Office maintains that its reviews of ag land are fair and mandated
by state law. The state considers legitimate ag-land use as land producing a crop
for personal consumption or sale, although some nontraditional ag uses have been
successfully protested. Three bills are pending in the state Legislature, SB112,
SB330 and HB112, sponsored by Senator Cisneros and Representatives Gonzales
and O’Neill, that would protect and preserve agricultural properties in Taos County
and throughout the state of New Mexico. The bills would allow property owners to
“rest” agricultural land during long periods of drought without risking a tax hike.
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Green Fire Times • February 2015
9
Heritage Acequias of Spain
The Millennial Huerta of Murcia and the Río Segura Valley
Article and photos by Armando Lamadrid
T
he morning is still fresh, and
the cloudless sky swallows the
brightly gleaming sun into its deep
blue expanse. My eye follows the
arching heavens earthwards, meeting
the edge of Murcia’s monolithic,
ancient cathedral, which etches elegant,
fluid lines against the brilliant blue
background. A song by Paul Simon is
triggered by the image as I see “angels
in the architecture… and he says,
Amen! Hallelujah!”
this semiarid clime. “Her santuario,”
he continues, “is in the mountains
that encircle the city, at the site of a
miraculous manantial—a wellspring—
which had been venerated since ancient
times, before Christianity, when it was a
shrine of Demeter, the Roman goddess
of agriculture. And why would a spring
be holy here in Murcia? Well, because
it is dry as a bone most of the year,
and water is the most vital element for
the survival of the huerta and soul of
Murcia!” Satisfied with having driven
home his point about the significance
of water here on the Mediterranean
coast, he glances at his watch and
says, “All right, let’s go! La huerta nos
espera—the huerta awaits us.”
It’s no mistake that huerta doesn’t
The Virgin of Fuensanta, Murcia Cathedral
Pedro Jesús Fernández, our local
guide, calls us into the cathedral,
pulling my attention away from the
captivating medieval exterior, into
the dark, cavernous nave inside. The
intersecting, pointed Gothic arches
look skeletal, like ribs of a giant whale,
supporting vast domes that lift the
spirit to a more heavenly plane—the
original psychological effect still at
work. We pass marble and gold-clad
nichos and side-altars with saints and
old oil paintings as we circle around
the centrally located altar, until we
come to the patrona of Murcia, la
Virgen de Fuensanta. Pedro explains
that the Virgen, as her name suggests,
is at the center of the cult of la Fuente
Santa—the Holy Spring. Fitting in
10
translate easily to English, which
diminishes it to an overly quaint
“garden” or “orchard.” But, in fact,
a huerta is much more than these
nuclear notions. In Spain, the huerta
is a network of gardens, fields and
fruit orchards on a par with a bread
basket, and a cultural heartland that
is more than just a place where food is
grown. Huertas are vast, fertile flood
plains steeped in history, crisscrossed
with acequias channeling water from a
mother stream to thirsty crops. Murcia
(fed by the Río Segura) and Valencia
(by the Río Turia) are the largest and
most well-known of these cultural
landscapes in the Iberian Peninsula and
two examples out of only six systems
of such scale and importance in all
Green Fire Times • February 2015
of Europe. Moreover, the landscapes
are ancient. One canal in Murcia was
found to date from the Romans (3rd
century B.C.E. to 5th century A.D.),
and the acequia system in Valencia
is thought to have originated during
the Moorish occupation of Spain (8th
to 15th centuries A.D.). Despite their
productive, cultural and historical
renown, the huertas today are under
threat from pressures of speculative
urbanization, improper resource
management, modernization and,
increasingly, climate change as well.
Pedro is not a commercial tourist guide.
His light eyes, beneath mid-length wavy
brown hair, are serious with a touch of
humor, and his articulate language and
sharp intellect are all part of the package
of a young academic-advocate-activist.
He is fighting for the preservation
of the Huerta de la Vega del Segura
(of the Segura Valley) from anyone
who would further degrade it, from
myopic politicians to shortsighted urban
developers. As his colleagues, thus allies,
he eagerly ushers us onwards to see the
heritage he is fighting to protect.
From the cathedral, our group of acequia
academics, activists and enthusiasts
from New Mexico, Valencia, Argentina
and México piles into a caravan of cars
and starts winding through the streets
of the medieval city, following the
meanders of the Río Segura upstream
toward the huerta’s main azud, a word
of Arabic origin meaning diversion
dam. Today, the river is a creamy yellow,
swift and thick with silt washed in from
the cloudburst the night before, which
caused flooding in some places.
Huertas are vast,
fertile flood plains
steeped in history,
crisscrossed with
acequias.
Pedro leads the pack into a less-dense
urban belt of the city. He insists that
we are following the old city walls,
which doubled as a malecón, or flood
barrier, even though they have been
redesigned as a recreational corridor
with benches and paths for walking
and bikes. Eventually, we drive up
beside a construction site in the middle
of a suburban area with roads lined
with date palms and oleander bushes
with marzipan-scented flowers. To
my surprise, we’re led right over the
construction site, where a backhoe
has recently wreaked havoc on a patch
of land. In the background stands a
decrepit adobe building with flaking
plaster and crumbling walls. I sense
that it is the backhoe’s next victim.
Pedro stops right in the middle of
razed earth, and, as we approach, to our
surprise, a partially entombed acequia
comes into view! What’s more, it runs
right underneath the old crumbling
building.
Pedro explains that this old structure
was previously a mill run by the flow
Old mill on one of Murcia’s acequias
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of acequia water—a fantastic example
of local water resources used to the
fullest for a water-powered, sustainable
agricultural-industrial system, which is
what the huertas signified to Murcia
and Valencia, historically. But, as the
heavy machinery suggested, the old
mill was slated for demolition and
thus destined for oblivion. Another
limb of Murcia’s rich huerta heritage
sacrificed on the altar of modernity.
But why worry about such an old,
crumbling mill, which has long been
outpaced by the muscle of carbonbased industrialism and outsourced
to cheaper developing countries a
world away? For the answer, you need
not look further than the fire in the
eyes of Pedro and countless other
Murcianos and Valencianos; eyes that
have witnessed the importance of the
huerta through their lives in the way
it has sustained individual livelihoods,
families and an entire culture—a way
of living, tasting, thinking, being.
Huertas are
under threat from
urbanization,
improper resource
management and
climate change.
“The municipality has no interest
in preserving such structures, which
inform us of our past and express the
value of the huerta and the acequias,
which are so important for Murcia.
The politicians are blind to what they’re
destroying for the sake of the shortterm gain of urbanization. Without
acequias, without water, there is no
huerta. And, with no huerta, where
does that leave us? Faced with future
economic crises, how will we access the
earth and the water to sustain us if it
is paved over?”
W ith these words, we continue
upstream along the Segura toward the
main azud, and our understanding of
the sense of place of the huerta—or,
to put it in Nuevomexicano terms,
its querencia—deepens. It is strange
to hear of Murcia’s threats as a New
Mexican, where the onslaught of
development and commodification
of the land and water is imposed by
American capitalist culture whose
invasion continues even 160 years
after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
www.GreenFireTimes.com
Compared to New Mexico, Spain
seems to be a bastion of cultural
preservation and tradition. But things
are not always as they appear. The
political and capitalist forces driving
urbanization across Spain are also
fragmenting the cultural landscapes
that have sustained the economy and
culture since time immemorial. Not
surprisingly, they are also responsible
for the construction bubble that caused
Spain’s recent financial collapse.
For the next stop on what we now
understand is a tour of the invisible
power structures in the huerta of
Murcia, we pull off onto a dirt road that
veers toward a thick stand of carrizo
reeds—similar to those lining New
Mexico’s own rivers and acequias—also
called phragmites. Large hydraulic
compuertas, or ditch gates on the
acequia mayor (main lateral ditch)
come into view as we park on the edge
of an appealing natural park with a
grove of giant eucalyptus trees. As
we step out into the midday heat of
the late-September day, cicadas buzz
f rom within the jungle of carrizo
stretching down to what we know is
the Río Segura by the muffled roar of
the swollen river.
invested in it. This type
of development is totally
inconsistent with people’s
behavior and needs. The
money could have instead
been used to restore and
protect the most important
huerta heritage in the
area, but there is so much
resistance to this idea today
in Murcia.”
At this, the azud mayor
of the Segura, also called
the contraparada, came
into view. Built in the
Muslim period between
800 and 900 A.D., the
dam is actually a large
weir stretching across the
Segura’s channel with a
v-notched crest, giving it a
tooth-like appearance. The
broad, dentured structure
smiled, reflecting the “Rueda de la Ñora” water wheel lifts water to a lateral
intense sun as the rain- acequia in the huerta of Murcia
swollen Segura cascaded
of life are where we are made and
over it, fanning out in a single, rapidly
renewed. The romantic history-book
flowing sheet over the drop structure.
notion of the cradles of civilization,
There is nothing like surging water
from Mesopotamia to México, are
to pause the human mind because
suddenly fleshed out in living color as
so few things in nature move with
I sit beside the roaring waters of the
Segura.
Pedro Jesús Fernández (in blue) and the Azud Mayor on the Río Segura
We walk along a dusty path toward
the grumbling stream like pilgrims in
the desert drawn to an oasis. While
my eyes remain fixed on the carrizo
stands, waiting for the azud and
spectacle of water in tumult to come
into view, Pedro’s interpretation of
the place shakes my attention to his
words. “This natural park is nice. It’s
pretty. There’s even a large restaurant
located over there [gesturing behind
us]. But try to locate the local people
who it was designed for! There’s nobody
here despite the fact that millions of
euros from the European Union were
such constant, focused unity. Staring
at the river at the center of it, I tried
to understand the contradictions of
this profound landscape. First, the
wild river was harnessed to give rise
to a rich culture whose roots stretch
beyond a millennium. Then, the living
substrate, the huerta, is consumed by
urbanization, which spreads like a
lava flow, cutting the community of
people from its vital link to the earth.
Links exiled to the vast, unpopulated,
mechanized industrial agricultural
lands. It at once becomes clear that the
huerta and all of humanity’s sources
As we head back to the city, we stop one
last time at a large water wheel located
right in the middle of an acequia. The
large noria, called “Rueda de la Ñora,”
is designed to lift tons of water to
another canal that starts at its apex in
a masonry Roman-style aqueduct. This
noria is still functional, evidence of the
millennial ingenuity and engineering
savvy visible in the huerta. This is more
than a rural hinterland, antithetical to
modern, urban capitalist “progress,”
but the historic economic backbone
of the region. Although it does not
give spectacular short-term returns,
as does development, it provides a
long-term, stable basis for agricultural
production, which, in turn, is important
for food security and the maintenance
of culture and tradition through the
continuation of agriculture. Through
Pedro’s guidance, we learned the
invaluable and transferable lesson
that the huertas, from Murcia to the
Río Grande, are important socioenvironmental canvases of cultural
renewal, identity and economy through
deep time; their preservation is thus
essential. i
Green Fire Times • February 2015
11
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Green Fire Times • February 2015
13
Safeguarding the Global Cultural Heritage
of Community Acequias
Luís Pablo Martínez
knowledge integrated by the best
practices of the Greco-Roman, Berber,
Egyptian, Syrian, Mesopotamian,
Arab and Persian water cultures made
possible the extension of agriculture
throughout the otherwise arid and
semiarid landscape that characterizes
Mediterranean Spain.
The subtle design of the irrigation
systems of Al-Andalus allowed a
in the truest sense of the
word.
The Andalusi design has
left its imprint as much
in the physical irrigation
networks—the tangible
side of acequia cultural
landscapes—as in the
institutional arrangements
devised for guaranteeing
the proper conservation
and operation of the
whole hydraulic system—
the intangible side of
acequia landscapes. Far
f rom relying on statecontrolled, despotic
institutional frameworks,
Andalusi acequia systems
Irrigation in Elche (Spain)
© Tribunal de las Aguas de la vega de Valencia; Amado Bimbo
A
cequia cultural landscapes provide
impressive testimony on the
interdependence of cultural and
natural heritage, as well as on how
heritage can effectively contribute to
the promotion of intercultural dialogue
and sustainability. The word acequia
itself embodies a long and fascinating
history of cultural transfer from Arab
to Iberian and, later, to American
contexts.
Al Ain Oasis (UAE) is inscribed on the World Hertiage List
single canal to serve a wide range
of uses, f rom providing drinking
water for human consumption and
livestock to supplying water for local
traditional crops—wheat, vineyards
and olive trees, to name a few—and
new crops imported from as far as lndia
and China—rice, sugar cane, orange
trees and more. Besides agriculture,
acequias drove water wheels and
mills, fed tanneries and dye works,
supplied public baths and permitted
waste disposal for village and urban
communities. Water was used and
reused to the fullest in Andalusi
acequias, representing sustainability
© Luís Pablo Martíne (3)
When the Iberian Peninsula was
incorporated into the Muslim World
with the name of Al-Andalus (711
A.D.), the Arab and Berber newcomers
found a land that was in deep decline
since the times of the late Roman
Empire, centuries earlier. The situation
was brilliantly reversed in a few
centuries, as the breathtaking sites
of the Mosque of Córdoba and the
Alhambra of Granada demonstrate.
The splendor of Al-Andalus was
indeed an effect of the agrarian
revolution promoted by Muslim rulers
and farmers. A wise and innovative
synthesis of local and foreign irrigation
Palmeral of Elche (Spain) is inscribed on the World Hertiage List
14
Green Fire Times • February 2015
Irrigation in the Huerta of Valencia (Spain)
were governed in an autonomous,
democratic and bottom-up process by
its users, organized in communities of
irrigators. Acequia water was viewed
as common property, and the users’
annual cooperative work required for
keeping the system operational was
essential for cohesion and identity in
local communities.
The value of acequia systems is not only
cultural but also environmental. The
ditches—often simple trenches dug
in the earth—promoted the extension
of riparian habitats far beyond natural
streams to which acequia waters, driven
by gravity, returned after having met
the needs of irrigation. Acequia systems
replicated the natural cycle of water.
Between the 13th and 15th centuries, the
superb acequia landscapes of Valencia,
Murcia and Granada in Spain fell into
the hands of the Christian kings of
Aragón and Castile. Far from rejecting
them for cultural or religious reasons,
the Christian newcomers committed
themselves to their preservation and
even enlargement. And between the
16th and 18th centuries, the Spanish
colonists made use of acequias to
consolidate new settlements throughout
arid and semiarid parts of the Americas
and even to the northern Philippines.
Despite its great historic, cultural
and environmental significance,
acequia heritage has received little
continued on page 32
www.GreenFireTimes.com
NM Acequias and World Heritage: A Proposal
T
he nomination of Acequias of
New Mexico to the UNESCO
( U n i t e d Na t i on s E d u c a t i on a l ,
Scientific and Cultural Organization)
list of Intangible Cultural Heritage
of Humanity has been proposed by
various groups worldwide, with the goal
of promoting validation, conservation
and transmission of traditional
knowledge and practice. Acequias have
always enabled the sustainable and
productive use of community lands.
The landscape created by traditional
agricultural systems over time has
become part of a regional identity.
The acequias of New Mexico are an
immense cultural heritage, sustained
over many generations. Today, they
are subdivisions of the state. A great
body of research and practice already
exists that documents the social and
institutional functions of acequias.
The proposed nomination is so fully
substantiated that the next strategic
steps will involve coordination and
reflection rather than more research.
The character of each tradition on
the World Heritage List, and the
authenticity of each, is based on its
Universal Exceptional Value. The
process of identifying these aspects
is described in the Operational
Guidelines of UNESCO, with 10
Criteria of Recognized Value (http://
whc.unesco.org/en/criteria/). For a
heritage tradition to be listed requires
that it meet at least one of these. The
acequias of the Americas, of which
those of New Mexico are notable
examples, represent the Western
dissemination of these techniques,
perfected in the Arab world during
the Middle Ages. The tradition took
root in the Iberian Peninsula and
was transmitted to the Americas by
Spain. The creation of these communal
systems in a new setting is the final
stage in their transmission. A system
already recognized by UNESCO that
shares many traits with the Acequias
of New Mexico is the Palmeral de
Elche, a millennial oasis community
in southern Spain, crisscrossed by
acequias and groves of date palms,
citrus and gardens. The UNESCO
criteria applied there would be the
same ones deployed for New Mexico.
Acequia heritage offers
a wealth of knowledge.
But which specific acequias would be
nominated? Several years ago, the New
Mexico Acequia Association voted for
recognition of the tradition itself, rather
than a particular place or example. But
the selection of such a place might be
necessary for the nomination process.
Inclusion on the list is not easy. In
recent years, UNESCO has considered
countries with less influence and little
representation. It would be advisable to
build upon a place already recognized,
such as Taos Pueblo, which has been a
World Heritage site since 1992.
Since 1992, the multidimensionality of
the values that constitute Heritage has
evolved a lot. The architectural character
of Taos Pueblo and its continuity were
What Are Acequias?
An acequia in Embudo, New Mexico
www.GreenFireTimes.com
Acequias are the age-old, hand-dug,
gravity-fed irrigation ditches in northern
New Mexico that make possible the
cultivation of locally grown food. But they
represent much more than that. As a social
system implanted into the hydrological
cycle for community subsistence, acequias
constitute a place-based knowledge
of watershed, intertwined with food
traditions, community and culture. They
are an instructive example of democratic
self-governance, stewardship and sharing
of resources. They are also the defining
structure of their ecosystem. The unlined
ditches allow water to seep into and
recharge local aquifers, providing a rich
riparian zone for wildlife, shade trees and
native plants.
emphasized, according
to
UNESCO
c r i t e r i o n i v, “ t o
be an outstanding
example of a type of
building, architectural
or technological
ensemble or landscape
which illustrates
significant stages in
human history.” But
the documentation
of pueblo culture,
which emphasized the
buildings and their
protection, was not
profound. Today, the
pueblo community
would perhaps be
interested in revising
and broadening the
scope to include
criterion ii, “to
exhibit an important
interchange of human
values, over a span A canoa, hollowed-out logs over an intermittent stream; a
of time or within a once common structure that is still part of the Las Trampas
acequia system in northern New Mexico
cultural area of the
align with criterion vi. It is one of the
world, on developments in architecture
most important Catholic pilgrimage
or technology, monumental arts,
destinations in the United States, the
town planning or landscape design.”
center of social, cultural and spiritual
Addressing criterion vi, “to be directly
life and a depository of a valuable
or tangibly associated with events or
Intangible Heritage.
living traditions, with ideas, or with
beliefs, with artistic and literary works
An ideal collaboration between the
of outstanding universal significance”
Acequias and the Pueblo of Taos
would recognize the sacred character
could meet the UNESCO criteria and
of Blue Lake and the buffalo pasture
expand the geographical definition of
near the pueblo.
the “Pueblo of Taos” so that:
An example of the difficult but positive
• It be included with the TVAA with
relationship between the pueblo and
the name “Pueblo and Acequias of
the Acequias of Taos valley can be
Taos Valley”
found in the Abeyta Accords of 2012,
• The criteria of inscription for the
in which the pueblo and the Taos
“Pueblo and Acequias of Taos Valley”
Valley Acequia Association (TVAA)
be related to the recognition of the
participated. This accord establishes
Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
the basis for a lasting collaboration
(south of the U.S. border and on
between the groups. Abeyta defines
through New Mexico), listed by
a clear territorial base that could
UNESCO in 2010, given its historic
tighten the geographic area for the
linkage with Taos.
UNESCO proposal—the Acequias
• T h e h i s t o r i c c o l l a b o r a t i o n
of Taos, not in and of themselves, but
between TVAA and Taos Pueblo
representing, as well, all those acequias
be recognized for the creation
in the hemisphere constructed in
of a territorially defined cultural
collaboration with native groups.
landscape in contiguous spaces that
share the same natural resources.
Because of its spiritual significance
•
The values inherent in the Acequias
and link with the acequia world, the
be recognized for their importance
Santuario de Chimayó could also
continued on page 30
Green Fire Times • February 2015
15
© Seth Roffman (2)
Carlos Ortiz Mayordomo and Lina Gracia
Valle de Allende and Aldama
Roots of Acequia Culture in Northern México
Article and photos by Enrique Lamadrid
T
he roots of New Mexico’s acequias
may still be traced along the
perennial desert streams that feed the
great Conchos River in Chihuahua,
the largest tributary of the Río Grande/
Bravo, named after the shell-trading
natives who lived on its banks. Two
communities that still practice the old
ways of community-managed water
are Valle de Allende and Aldama. Both
are far removed from the big dams
and conservancy districts that erased
traditional acequia culture the same
way that Elephant Butte Dam did in
the north.
New Mexico. To slake their thirst, they
followed the Río Conchos north, even
though it added many weeks to the
journey. Coronado came up the coastal
route in 1540, and Oñate, in 1598, went
straight north across the deserts to beat
the winter snows of New Mexico. As
early as 1563, Franciscan friars started
a mission in San Bartolomé to serve
the pecan-gathering Indians who lived
there. The colonists of 1598, who settled
the upper Río Grande, spent many
months in the area, waiting for their
permits to head north.
Well into the 19th
century, Valle de
Allende was the
aduana, or entry
point, into New
Mexico because
it is located on the
Camino Real de
Tierra Adentro.
E v e r yo n e
traveling north or
south checked in
here for approval
and inspection.
Animals had to be
healthy, and only
soldiers, officials
or families
with papers
were permitted
to travel. For
Valle de San Bartolomé and San Jerónimo, Nueva Vizcaya, became many decades,
Valle de Allende and Aldama, Chihuahua, in the 19th Century
no single men
except soldiers
In the upper reaches of the feeder
were allowed into New Mexico, so as
streams of the Conchos flows the Río
not to upset the social equilibrium.
Florido and the Río del Valle de Allende,
Wisely, the government preferred
the oldest Euro-American agricultural
married soldiers. Spanish names of the
complex in northern México. Founded
old rosters read like the phone books of
in 1569 and originally named San
modern Albuquerque, Santa Fe or Taos.
Bartolomé, this beautiful spring-fed
In 1825, San Bartolomé was changed
valley fed the miners of the Santa
to honor one of the four martyred
Bárbara mining district, discovered
insurgents of the wars of independence—
two years earlier. An 80-mile riparian
Allende, Jiménez, Aldama and Hidalgo.
forest of native pecans is the lush
Valle de Allende was the cradle of
ecological setting. Some are truly
the new agriculture of New Mexico
giants, have names and are more than
and is still home to an astounding
three centuries old. My favorite, with
variety of heritage crops. Four kinds of
an 18-foot diameter and 350 rings, was
pears, quinces, two kinds of apricots,
named Sixto and was finally blasted by
several types of apples and plums,
lightning a couple of years ago.
peaches, persimmons, multicolored
This valley was the point of departure
pomegranates, figs, grapes, and all of
for most of the expeditions that explored
the Spanish grains, greens, onions,
16
Green Fire Times • February 2015
garlic, beans and melons still
thrive there. They were adapted to
Mesoamerican and northern desert
soils and climates by Tlaxcalan
Indian horticulturalists, who also
brought varieties of corn, chile,
beans and squash that had not yet
come north. Desert-adapted breeds
of sturdy horses, cattle, sheep,
goats and pigs also came up the
Camino Real, spreading behind
them the seeds of the navajita, or
little razor grass, which grew faster
than native grasses to feed them.
As teachers at the new missions,
the Tlaxcalans shared this bounty
with the Pueblo Indians. Side
by side with other settlers, their An ancestral pecan tree, Valle de Allende
strategic alliance with the Spanish
crown for the conquest of México, in
1521, earned them the same rights
to own land and become hidalgos
as other settlers. They helped found
new settlements with Spanish and
Basque settlers with names like
Oñate, Archuleta, Mondragón
and Ulibarrí, whose specialty was
mining. Twin communities were
the norm, with allied Indians on one
side of the river and the Spanish on
the other. Like all the cities of the
Camino Real, Santa Fe followed
with the same design and layout.
Valle de Allende’s acequia system
also dates to the 16th century and is
remarkable for its smooth transition
from rural to urban zones. On
the outskirts, several stretches of
the acequia madre flow through
elegant tunnels chiseled through
rock outcrops, the handiwork of
the miners. As it enters town, the
water goes underground, flowing
through beautiful, arched masonry
and Roman-style galleries. Then, it
channels alongside streets, under
sidewalks, through and even under
houses, where precious water is
captured in patio fountains and
aljibes, or stone water cisterns,
before reaching walled gardens
and orchards. Acequias need to
be constantly attended to avoid
flooding, and footpaths on their
banks became streets as the town
grew. The acequia official, who
literally does the watching, is the
Acequias of Valle de Allende
www.GreenFireTimes.com
veedor, or seer, and walks the streets
and has the keys to all the hobbit-sized
doors on all the properties, which open
to allow his vigilance.
New Mexico has many
lessons to learn about
itself from its historic
sister communities
to the south.
Water is apportioned according to
the kind of crops being grown. Pecan
orchards are generously watered by
un buey de agua, the measure of water
that reaches the belly of an ox standing
in the ditch. Other measures are based
on the diameter of fruits, progressing
in size from limón (lime) to naranja
(orange) or toronja (grapefruit) up to
melón (melon), depending on the size
of the garden plot. Square stones are
perforated to size, set and changed when
necessary, at the spot where the water
enters. Measuring stones like these were
found at Rancho de las Golondrinas,
south of Santa Fe, and were only
recently identified. Careful management
of water has sustained a lush paradise
in the desert, which the town of 5,000
shares on weekends with the people of
the nearby bustling city of Parral, whose
people flock to the parks and swimming
holes of Valle de Allende.
L ocated on the Río Chuvíscar,
downstream and east of Chihuahua
City, Aldama is a much newer 18thcentury settlement artfully built around
water. Early in the century, in 1707,
the Jesuits encroached on Franciscan
territory to minister to the Chinarras
Indians and built the spectacular Santa
Ana de Chinarras church in the same
massive but ethereal, whitewashed style
as the San Xavier del Bac church in
Tucson. Only a few people survived a
massive Apache attack in 1769, and the
area was abandoned.
Years later, in 1781, the Franciscans
took over and built a church nearby in
A field of corn in Valle de Allende
www.GreenFireTimes.com
their favorite neoclassical style with the
name of San Jerónimo. Acequias were
routed down from the Río Chuvíscar,
and each was planted with an alameda,
or bower of álamos (cottonwoods), the
shade of which slowed evaporation
under a scorching desert sun. The three
acequias meet not far from the plaza
in a repartidero, a series of masonry
canals and gates for measuring out the
water. Ancient trees still preside over
the spot, which has become a municipal
park, always fresh with flowing water.
Typically, the lower trunk of each giant
cottonwood is painted white, like a
petticoat for a much-loved grandmother.
The old maps in San Jerónimo’s archive
read like a page torn straight out of the
Nuevas Leyes de Indias, which prescribed
the way towns should ideally be laid
out to maximize resources, to create
inviting public spaces, to facilitate civic
defense and to celebrate the social
order. To one side of the plaza is the
church, to the other the Casas Reales,
the residence and office that received
visits of royal administrators. After
independence, the name was changed
to honor the secular hero Aldama, and
the same government buildings became
municipal headquarters. Prominent
Spanish families lived near the plaza.
Indian families had their own barrios,
or neighborhoods. Agricultural plots,
or suertes, were so named because
they were literally chosen by luck in
a drawing. In the original plan drawn
by civil engineer Manuel Marcazo,
one hundred families each got a suerte
measuring 200 by 400 varas, a measure
roughly equivalent to a yard. Water
rights were measured in time, and each
suerte was given a data, which was 12
hours of use every 14 days. Today, the
official who watches the water and
mediates disputes in Aldama is called
the aguador, the waterer.
Aldama survived the precipitous growth
of Chihuahua City because its access to
water was preserved by law. Because the
river only flows during the rainy season,
farmers still have
access to a generous
water table, and the
old acequias are
recharged by pumps.
Aldama also has
survived successive
social upheavals—
the Reforma, or
modernization
period of the 1860s,
a major revolution in
Details from San Jerónimo de Aldama Church
The Partidor that divides the three acequias
of Aldama, all under the watchful eye of
the Aguador
the early 20th century and the narco wars
at its close.The datas, or water rights, have
been inherited, sold and consolidated into
fewer and fewer hands. The main cash
crop is now pecans because cornfields
and gardens have diminished. But people
still harvest their beloved fruit trees, and
the quince preserves and wine of Aldama
are famous. Today, new business owners
in the city of 15,000—three times the
size of Valle de Allende—have to be
reminded not to block the acequias that
still flow along sidewalks. The town is
now frequented by city-weary residents of
Chihuahua, who escape to enjoy Aldama’s
parks, swimming pools and greenery.This
enlightened vision of a desert paradise,
built around flowing waters, is still intact
and much appreciated, even as it survives
into the 21st century. New Mexico has
many lessons to learn about itself from
its historic sister communities to the
south. i
Enrique Lamadrid is a cultural historian,
literary folklorist, and acequia activist who
edits the Querencias Series at UNM Press,
after his retirement as a long-time Spanish
professor at UNM. He and Estevan Arellano
wrote John
the Bear and
t h e Wa t e r
of Life /
La Acequia
de Juan del
Oso, a story
of the Bear’s
Son and the history of the Mora Acequias.
[email protected]
Green Fire Times • February 2015
17
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19
Tlaxcala and Aranjuez
Keystone Gardens of the Columbian Exchange
Enrique Lamadrid and Armando Lamadrid
T
he agricultural bounty of the
Columbian Exchange was such a
bonanza to people on both sides of the
Atlantic that new plants and animals
immediately began spreading from
hand to hand to mouth along ancient
and modern trade routes. Realizing the
strategic importance of the exchange,
the Spanish Empire did its best to
understand and control the transmission.
From the 16th to the 18th centuries, more
than 50 expeditions were commissioned
to collect plants and animals from an
increasingly far-flung empire. A network
of jardines de aclimatización, or gardens
of acclimatization, were run by state and
church to determine which new species
might benefit agriculture and medicine.
Because most of the Iberian Peninsula
is semiarid, acequia technology played a
key role in this epic story.
Many, many plants came through
this system to the rest of Europe and,
eventually, to Asia and Africa. For
example, life-saving crops like the
vitamin-rich tomato went to places
like Italy, not directly from Mexico,
its place of origin, but through Spain
after acclimatization. Other historychanging crops like potatoes followed
more informal lines of distribution.
Ordinary Spanish sailors, who had
been to the Andes and fallen in love
with potatoes, took them to places with
similar climates, the mountainous and
moist valleys of Galicia, where they
thrived. Ireland got them not from Perú
but from Spain.
In New Spain, the alliance between
the Spanish Crown and the city state
of Tlaxcala was the key, not only to
the defeat of the despotic
Aztecs, in 1521, but to the
care and husbandry of the
Eurasian agricultural legacy.
On their way to Tenochtitlán,
the conquistadors of Hernán
Cortés left their stores of seeds
and cuttings in the hands
Topografía del Real Sitio de Aranjuez (Domingo de Aguirre,175
of expert Tlaxcalan Indian
horticulturalists. Beginning in
north, and the Caminos Reales, or royal
the jollas, or fertile hollows, just west of
roads. In New Mexico, the Tlaxcalans
the grand plaza of the city, crops were
became the teachers and what we would
carefully tended and acclimatized to a
today call the “extension agents” for the
variety of soils and moisture levels. Dry
missions to the Pueblo Indians. They
farming and irrigated farming were not
told them, “We are also people of the
the only methods. The chinampas, or
corn, but you are going to love the grains
raised-bed farms in wetland areas, also
and fruits that we bring.”
played a role. The new grains, vegetables,
On the other side of the Atlantic,
and fruits were successfully adapted to
Spanish ships dutifully unloaded stores
cultivation in Mesoamerica, not only to
of new seeds, cuttings and potted
the fertile valleys of the south but for the
plants at the port cities of Cádiz and
vast arid lands of the north.
Sevilla, both of which maintained
nearby acclimatization gardens. From
there, they were sent out to a network
of gardens in different Iberian climates
for propagation and experimentation.
Plant samples and seeds were often
ruined by seawater on storm-tossed
voyages, but horticulturalists developed
expertise at reviving them. The most
In 1591, with a list of generous
famous plant doctors were monks from
guarantees, or Capitulaciones, which
the monasteries of Cataluña, who could
included the right to use horses and
work wonders. With experience, better
arms, the right to found autonomous
watertight containers were designed,
communities, and exemption from
and potted plants survived in protective
taxes and personal service, the Crown
crates with slings, springs and adjustable
invited the Tlaxcalans to participate
ventilation. The Royal Navy maintained
in the settlement of the north. In a
a more specialized garden near the
kind of Tlaxcalan Diaspora, 400 young
smaller port of Málaga, where medicinal
native families headed north from
plants were tested. Sailors on long
their homeland to co-found new, twin
voyages were vulnerable to diseases and
settlements all the way to Texas and
bad nutrition, and naval doctors were
New Mexico. The hybrid agriculture
always searching out better strategies
they took north supplied the Camino
to maintain shipboard health.
de la Plata, the militarized road that
The most spectacular and best-preserved
connected the great silver mines of the
New plants and
animals began
spreading along
ancient and modern
trade routes.
Plaza of Tlaxcala, 1530s
1591 Capitulaciones de Tlaxcala
The Columbian Exchange
As soon as Christopher Columbus started picking up seeds, plants and animals
to take back to Spain, and doing the same thing in the other direction, he started
what historians call the “Columbian Exchange.” Since he was interested in spices,
he immediately noticed small, round, wild chile berries and took them home,
thinking they were a kind of peppercorn, which is why people still call them “chile
peppers.” Some scholars who would rather not mention Columbus call the process
the “Grand Exchange.” Either way, this widespread relocation of plants, animals,
diseases, humans and ideas between the Eurasian and American hemispheres from
1492 forward changed the world forever.
Departure for the Northlands, 1591 (mural in Tlaxcala)
20
Green Fire Times • February 2015
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© Armando Lamadrid (2)
of paths and avenues are still
lined with trees f rom the
global Spanish Empire like the
Lebanese cedar, the Chinese
tree of life, the Virginia tulip,
the Louisiana dry ash, the
Nive laurel, the Carolina
poplar, the New England pine,
the Jerusalem and Arcadia
pine, the American acacia,
the maple and plane tree from
Canada.
55), left, and Satellite image of Aranjuez (Google Earth, 2011), right
jardín de aclimatización was developed at
the Real Sitio, or royal site, of Aranjuez,
a former royal hunting preserve not far
south of Madrid in a wooded valley
surrounded on all sides by semiarid
mesas. The 5,000-acre area around
the confluence of the Jarama and Tajo
rivers features a variety of well-drained
soils, supplied by an intricate network
of acequias and artificial wetlands.
The visionary Hapsburg king, Felipe
II, built a summer residence there in
the latter half of the 16th century, as
well as the austere Escorial monastery
north of Madrid, f rom which he
administered the expanding empire.
But Aranjuez was much more than
a royal retreat. Felipe II had a keen
interest in botany and deployed the best
landscape architects, hydraulic engineers
and horticulturalists in Europe. Their
plans were systematically built over the
subsequent four centuries.
At first, the baroque notion of the
earthly paradise was the inspiration, but
along the guidelines of ideal geometry
and proportion. Reticular, radial and
orthogonal layouts for fields, orchards
and gardens blended harmoniously
into newer populated areas. Aranjuez
grew from retreat to pleasure palace
and showcase of cultural achievement.
The improvements of Bourbon monarch
Fernando VII in the early 19th century
reflected the esthetics and scientific
developments of the Enlightenment,
plus a continuous calendar of cultural
activities. A navigable channel was cut
between the two rivers where luxurious
golden barges floated with receptions,
concerts and plays. The beautifully
planned towns supplied a larger labor
force to operate the complex.
In the environs of the palace, every kind
of formal garden was laid out to recall
the four corners of the Holy Roman
Empire, the Flemish, French, English,
Italian and Arabic styles. Many miles
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Castañuelas Waterfall along the Ría (grand
canal) of the Tajo River next to the Royal
Palace
The Ría, or grand acequia diverted from the Río Tajo, flowing over the man-made
Castañuelas Waterfall next to the Royal Palace
But the experimental farms and gardens
remained a part of the foundational
vision and purpose. First, a complete
inventory and study of native Iberian
plants were commissioned to set
a baseline f rom which to better
understand all the exotic plants
continuously coming in thereafter.
The groves of native elms and poplars
of Aranjuez were supplemented in the
latter 16th century with trees from all
over Spain, such as blackberry, ash,
continued on page 22
Bounty of the Columbian Exchange
Enrique Lamadrid and Armando Lamadrid
M
ost schoolchildren know that
corn comes from México and
potatoes are from Perú. In history class
they learn about the potato famine in
Ireland and may have heard about the
perils of monocropping, that is, the
planting of only one kind of plant.
Fewer realize that tomatoes are not
from Italy but, rather, from México.
And very few have heard that chile did
not originate in México but, instead,
from Bolivia, as recent DNA studies
have shown. However, México was the
jumping-off place from which chile
traveled west on the Manila galleons
and took Asia and India by storm.
The so-called Columbian Exchange
of flora and fauna between Europe
and America after 1492 is more than
dinner-table trivia. As it spread to Asia
and Africa, it changed the history of
the world.
The potato story is epic. It is such
a complete food that populations
exploded wherever it went. It became
the culinary infrastructure of empires,
but it also allowed peasants to survive
the destruction of marauding armies.
Soldiers could easily steal away with
entire stores of grain from a barn. But
they never had time to dig up potatoes,
which stayed safe in the ground for
people to use as they needed them.
Serafina Lombardi digs potatoes with
Don Bustos in Santa Cruz, New Mexico
The corn story is epic. Three times
more productive than wheat, it became
the staple of the poorest parts of
Europe. Since milling technology
there was excellent, the key step of lime
processing used in México was skipped.
Corn was ground directly into meal
and consumed as porridge and polenta.
Millions of people ate little else.
First came persistent diarrhea, then
extreme dermatitis. Sun-exposed areas
of skin simply peeled off. The sourskin disease—pellagra in Italian—
in end stages resulted in dementia.
Pellagra killed hundreds of thousands.
Eighteenth-century scientists in Spain
and Italy ruled out fungus and spoiling
as causes, then discovered that the
nutrition of corn goes unreleased with
milling alone. It is the chemical action
of lime that makes the niacin in corn
digestible to the body.
The tomato story is epic. It is a
brilliant member of Solanacea, the
same generous nightshade family that
includes potatoes, chile and eggplants,
which were India’s gift to the world.
Europe regained its health because
continued on page 22
Green Fire Times • February 2015
21
© Armando Lamadrid (2)
Tlaxcala continued from page 21
Lateral canal irrigating groves of native and exotic trees in the illustrious Jardín de la
Reina
walnut, willows and almonds. The
inventory of Eurasian fruit orchards
still found there is encyclopedic, with
more than 60 types of pear, 30 of
apple, 11 plums, eight cherries, six
apricots, two hawthorns, two loquats,
54 apricots and peaches, two figs, two
pomegranates and only one type of
blackberry tree.
A harmonious blend
of nature and culture
in rational
enlightened balance
Because vegetable gardens come
and go, varying from year to year,
it is the trees of Aranjuez that bear
witness to the centuries of agricultural
experimentation. There are thriving
cinnamon trees from the Philippines as
tall as anywhere in their native islands.
There are groves of pecan trees from the
upper Mississippi Valley. One specimen
nicknamed “El Macho” towers almost
200 feet tall and is more than 350 years
old. Scientists eventually noticed that
American tree species that most loved
the acequias and hot summer climate of
Aranjuez were from humid regions of
Florida, Louisiana and the Mississippi
Valley.
The landscapes of Aranjuez are a
harmonious blend of the cultivated
and the built, of nature and culture in
rational enlightened balance. Today,
they form the only UNESCO (United
Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization) Cultural
Landscape in central Spain, a world
heritage site that reminds us of the
antiquity and hybridity of our acequia
culture.
In the late summer of 2014, we drove
south from Madrid across the arid
mesas, and the highway dropped
abruptly into the verdant valleys of the
Jarama and Tajo. To our delight, the
entire complex of groves, orchards and
palaces was completely surrounded by
cornfields! i
Bounty continued from page 21
of the vitamin-laden tomato, and it
became a life-saving staple in many
countries. What it lacked in calories
it made up for in flavor and nutrients.
Beans and other legumes traveled both
ways across the Atlantic, increasing
the ranges in which they could grow
and bringing more flavors to the table.
Rarely included in the legume list
because people don’t eat it directly is
alfalfa, with its Arabic name and its
nitrogen-fixing talent of improving
soils wherever it goes. The great
Cucurbitaceae family of squashes also
traveled both ways, and America fell
in love instantly with sweet melons,
Persia’s gift to the world.
The great Exchange began the moment
Christopher Columbus landed on
Guanahani island in the Bahaman
archipelago on Oct. 12, 1492, and was
framed for centuries by Eurocentric
scholars as the “discovery” and conquest
of the Americas. Now, postcolonial
scholars more objectively call it the
Euro-American Encounter. Imperial
politics aside, the flora and fauna of
the so-called Columbian Exchange
were globalized. Every voyage to and
from the Americas took plants and
animals—as well as diseases—back and
forth across the Atlantic, eliminating
the watery barrier that had separated
the continents. In the Caribbean, introduced plants
like sugarcane, bananas, coconut palms
and rice changed economy and society
forever. After Old World plagues like
smallpox and malaria decimated the
indigenous population, a new labor
force with enhanced immunity to these
diseases was introduced from Africa,
and slavery was institutionalized.
When the Spanish conquest extended
through Mesoamerica and the Andes,
the Exchange intensified.
With the new diversity of domestic
flora and fauna, in the next five centuries
people were able to adapt the bounty
to the different climates they inhabited,
from the tropics to the temperate
zones, from rainforests to deserts.
Since the Iberian Peninsula was largely
arid, the Spanish also brought their
expertise in the ancient art of irrigation
and added it to the knowledge of the
people they encountered. For the one
vital source for all life is water.
The impact of American agriculture
was huge in Europe. In the Americas,
European cereals, fruits and legumes
thrived in temperate climates, but the
biggest impact was from domestic
animals, of which there were few in
the Americas. The horse changed
the political balance, and the other
grazing animals changed the face of
the landscape forever, especially when
overgrazing began degrading the
land. Politics and empires aside, the
bounty of the Columbian Exchange
set the stage for the huge increases in
population that threaten our generous
but finite planet in the 21st century. i
Don Bustos continued from page 7
The third and most historic event for me was the signing of the Libro de Oro del
Tribunal. I was given the responsibility and honor of writing on one page of the
tribunal’s book of history, a book that records over 800 years. New Mexico and its
acequia association now have a page in the history of Spanish water law. As I write
this, my heart races as I think of the importance of using our water responsibly
for growing food and to ensure the healthy system that the acequias protect.
I appreciated learning more about the history of farming in this region of Spain,
from the conquest by the Romans, when grains
were the main crops to feed the troops, to now,
where Valencia is the winter garden of Spain,
with four harvests to satisfy the tastes of the
people. They maintain a strong sense of pride
because of their independence and a feeling of
being secure in knowing that decisions made
are based on a thousand year history. i
Don Bustos is secretary and board member of the
New Mexico Acequia Association and runs his family’s
Santa Cruz Farm as an example of small, sustainable
Don Bustos and Enric Aguilar hold agriculture in northern New Mexico. [email protected]
El Tribunal de las Aguas
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23
Water Management and Acequias in Chile
Ovidio Melo, Rafaela Retamal and José Luís Arumí
I
f you have enjoyed the excellent
wines of Chile or the delicious fruit
and grapes that brighten the North
American winter, you have had direct,
personal contact with the acequias of
Chile.
While Chile is almost as long as the
United States is wide, the distance from
in the mountain snowpack and
groundwater systems that feed
the rivers. The Andes are so
high in Chile that glaciers also
contribute to the watersheds.
Streamflow is diverted from
rivers and delivered to the
croplands through complex
networks of irrigation canals.
An irrigated valley of central Chile
© Alejandro López
user in central Chile, farmers have been
responsible for water administration,
organized in what we call
“Organizaciones de Usuarios de Agua”
or Water Users Organizations (WUOs).
WUOs bring together the tasks of
extraction, conveyance, distribution
and storage in order to allocate water
for its best use. In addition, they act as
who distributed the resource in areas
of scarcity. During the first century
of independence, water management
went through no significant changes.
The president of the Republic had the
authority to make water grants and
delegated this power to intendants and
governors, who appointed the water
judges.
A fruit market in Santiago de Chile
In central Chile, irrigation is needed
during summer months because rain is
concentrated during Chile’s winter—
May to August. As in New Mexico,
agriculture depends on water stored
Through the 1990s, most of the
irrigation in Chile was done by
acequias. A traditional person we
used to see at the fields was El Palero,
the counterpart of New Mexico’s
mayordomo. The introduction of new
irrigation technology and the opening
of new markets for Chilean fruit have
changed agriculture. Today, El Palero is
being replaced by technicians operating
pressurized irrigation systems.
© José Luís Arumí (3)
the country’s Pacific coast to the eastern
Andean border averages only 110 miles.
The irrigated central valley is 620 miles
long, with Santiago in the center. To the
north is the Atacama, the driest desert
on Earth. The Chilean Patagonia to the
south is as rainy as coastal Alaska.
Because irrigation is the main water
“El Palero”: Traditional Chilean irrigator in a vineyard
the initial forum for conflict resolution,
maintain updated member registries
and oversee and monitor extractions,
among other things. In that sense, the
Chilean WUOs have many similarities
to New Mexico’s acequias, which is not
a surprise because we share a similar
history.
Diversion on the Río Cachapoal
24
Green Fire Times • February 2015
Before independence, all areas of
Spanish America were characterized by
the same social and political structures.
In Chile, water grants were made by the
governor, who represented the viceroy
of Perú and the president of the Royal
Court. For their part, the governor and
the council designated water judges,
The first written Chilean water
regulations date to 1819, during the
administration of President Bernardo
O’Higgins, who issued a Supreme
Decree that defined the volume of the
regador as a unit of flow approximately
half a cubic foot per second, forms of sale,
and responsibility for intake structures.
Later, in 1855, the first Civil Code
was adopted. It included regulations
not substantially different from those
previously described. Then, various
municipal ordinances were adopted to
solve water-grant distribution conflicts
in the northern and central zones and
continued on page 26
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The Zanjeras of Northern Luzon
M
ost of us associate the Philippine Islands as a wet tropical zone and do not
expect to find acequia-irrigated landscapes. However, unlike the verdant
rice terraces of the Mountain Province in north-central Luzon that are humid
year-round, agriculture in the Ilocos Norte Province to the northwest requires
irrigation during a prolonged dry season that extends from late October to May.
Much of this region is located between the highlands of the Cordillera Central on
the east and a coastal area north and west toward the South China Sea. The rice
fields in the coastal lowlands in particular require flood irrigation six months of the
year to supplement the wet season when torrential rains are common. Most of the
agricultural lands of Ilocos Norte are community-based, similar to the acequias of
the upper Río Grande of New Mexico and southern Colorado. And, like the Río
Grande acequias, they too operate outside of government as commons property
held by the irrigators themselves, the zanjeros.
Zanjero Ilocano adjusting headgate
How and when did zanjeras originate? The topography of Ilocos Norte contains
limited land along the narrow coastal plains flanked by interspersed mountain
spurs that extend inland to the higher slopes of the Cordillera Central to the
east. Most of these foothill sections and the valley lowlands are drained by the
Laoag, Vintar and Abra rivers. To develop a viable farm economy based principally
on rice production, diversions, canals and other infrastructure would have to be
built as the coastal population increased, especially during the Spanish regime
that introduced new forms of human settlement and cropping patterns. In order
to build projects at this scale, including dams that would contend with typhoon
storms and flooding during the wet season, farmers had to work cooperatively
during the initial period of construction and continuously for the operations and
maintenance of the canals to ensure water delivery across the contiguous parcels of
rice fields. During the monsoon seasons, the traditional dams made from bamboo
stakes, brush, sandbags and rocks were often washed out and had to be rebuilt
and sometimes relocated as the river channels moved. Unlike concrete structures
that are permanent but capital-intensive, in the early days the zanjeros preferred
to build collapsible dams they could rebuild or relocate with their own labor and
local construction materials.
Landholdings were small or none at all, as in the case of peasant and tenant farmers.
From this core evolved two types of irrigation societies. Those who owned and
worked their farmlands provided labor and materials for the construction of their
zanjera systems, much like was done in colonial New Mexico, and they also devised
plans for water distribution. These owner-operated systems likely came first, since
the landowners could control both land and water resources to suit their needs.
Other Ilocanos were not as fortunate, especially those without landholdings. True
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to the ingenuity characteristic of
the people from Ilocos Norte,
these peasants fashioned a bold
experiment that would exchange
water for land. Specifically, groups
of aspiring farmers offered to
build diversions on the major
rivers, dig out zanjas extending
into the properties held by
landowners, and distribute water
from the head to the tail-end
sections of land, all in exchange
for land membership shares, or
atars, allocated to them by the
original landowners. In exchange,
each willing landowner would
benefit from the water in the
system to irrigate larger blocks of
farmland he would retain for his
own production. To structure this
Bamboo brush and rock dam
unique arrangement, the zanjeros
and each landowner formalized a written agreement, or convenio, along with a
land-division map indicating more or less equal shares of land to each farmer, often
in three or four different sections of the irrigation system to ensure equity of land
distribution and access to water from the head to the tail, and larger blocks of land
to be retained by the landowner. These land and water arrangements were always
local as to proportionality but, in a typical model, un tercio (one-third) would
remain with the landowner and dos tercios (two-thirds) with the zanjeros. Once
set into place, the atar lands were controlled corporately by the zanjera association.
Like the Río Grande acequias, they operate
outside of government as commons property held
by the irrigators themselves.
Literature about the origins of the zanjeras is sparse, but most historians date
them to around 1740, with additional ones developed by the late 1890s and into
the turn of the century. Once the zanjera model was established, more systems
would evolve in response to population growth, surplus labor, reduction in farm
sizes and the limitations of the topography. Eventually, the headcount reached
about 680 in the Ilocos Norte Province, as recorded by the National Irrigation
Administration, by 1979. Another quandary is whether the zanjeras were of
Spanish origin to any significant degree. The dates of construction and when they
flourished coincide with the Spanish regime that began in the middle 16th century
and ended in 1898. The first ethnographic report on the zanjera societies did not
emerge until 1914, but, based on letters and other reports from the Augustinian
missions along the Ilocos coast, the friars assigned to Ilocos Norte promoted the
expansion of irrigated agriculture, including the construction of dikes and canals,
as new settlements arose in the lands surrounding the missions. To date, much of
the lexicon of zanjeras persists in Castilian Spanish well past the colonial regime
that ended in 1898. Many of the irrigation terms and names for water officials
were derived from Spanish and incorporated into the native Ilocano. Ethnographic
studies as late as the 1960s report that some zanjera documents continued to be
found in the possession of the members, still written in Spanish, even though
by then this language was no longer familiar to the zanjeros. Interestingly, the
members nonetheless could recite the contents of these documents since the rules
and regulations along with other agreements were handed down orally.
Water management practices appear to be modeled from Iberian traditions.
Along the Ilocos coastal plains, the early churches were built between 1650 and
continued on page 30
Green Fire Times • February 2015
25
©José Rivera (2)
José A. Rivera
continued from page 24
organize the use of water grants through
the creation of vigilance committees.
Consequently, the water judges had
to resolve conflicts, and members of
the vigilance committees adjudicated
water distribution according to grants
given by the state. Those vigilance
committees were the first attempts to
organize management around water
demand, a model that has endured to
the present day. a result, over the years they have brought
lawsuits against the state. The rights of
these communities are now included in
discussions about possible modifications
to the current water law.
Globalization pressures, international
markets and demands from social
sectors seeking a better quality of
life, environmental protection and
respect for indigenous communities
© José Luís Arumí
Acequias in Chile
Chilean students on the acequia
The Chilean water management system
is similar to the acequia systems of
New Mexico in that both stem from
Spanish tradition at the northern and
southern extremes of the American
colonies. Until the early 20th century in
New Mexico and the late 20th century
in Chile, these systems relied on water
management governed by the people
that use the water.
In New Mexico, the 1907 water code
put the Office of the State Engineer
in charge of all waters, separated
water rights from agricultural lands
and gave priority rights to Indian
tribes. In Chile in the 1970s, when the
Agrarian Reform broke up large estates,
centralized management disappeared,
and acequias started declining. In the
1980s, Neoliberal programs separated
land from water rights, which were
privatized with the emergence of
agribusiness. But politics aside, across
history, the management of water
remains with WUOs, with the state still
in a regulatory role.
One major difference is that, in Chile, the
water rights of indigenous communities
have not yet been taken into account. As
26
Green Fire Times • February 2015
are changing agriculture and irrigation
in Chile. The system is evolving to
respond to new social demands and
expanding uses for water for human
consumption, agriculture and the
environment.
The authors wish to express our thanks
for the support given by the Chilean
Scientific Council (Conicyt )
through the project Conicyt/
Fondap/15130015. i
José Luís Arumí is a civil engineer, research
professor and dean of the School of Agricultural
Engineering at the University of Concepción,
Chile, where Ovidio Melo and Rafaela
Retamal (unpictured) are his colleagues.
[email protected]
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Land and Water in the Middle East
The Yemen Connection
Juan Estevan Arellano
T
of the land. Only people with such
knowledge and wisdom can survive in
this harsh environment. They not only
survived but thrived and, as a result,
found the knowledge and wisdom
embedded in the landscape, which
became their greatest teacher.
© Grete Howard
he word acequia seems to have its
roots in Yemen. Sabaean was the
language spoken by the Yemenis, and
it seems most of the words related to
hydrology came from Sabaean, an old
South Arabian language. Here then
is where our global acequia sojourn
Harraz Mountains, Yemen
begins. The scenery in the Harraz
Mountains as seen in the photos is
breathtaking: cultivated terraces rolling
down the fertile slopes, with a backdrop
of jagged mountains common to all
desert environments. On the ridges,
villages cling to the peaks.
Our journey to
understand water and
community begins here.
On the carefully constructed terraces,coffee
plantations flourish. Here, agriculture
is practiced more intensively than in
other parts of North Yemen. The area is
known as the Fertile Mountains because
it benefits from bountiful monsoon rains.
The terracing, carried out in such a fine and
impressive manner, has been so carefully
maintained by farmers that it has survived
for thousands of years. In addition to
coffee, millet, rye, wheat, barley, lentils and
beans have been grown on these multiterraced fields for centuries.
Since the word acequia seems to have
been born from this type of environment,
our journey to understand water and
community begins here, for here we see
where people definitely understood the
knowledge of water and the wisdom
www.GreenFireTimes.com
Sabaean was spoken in Yemen before
Islam arrived, and it named places and
other things in the peninsula. Many
of the words with Arabic roots come,
in reality, from the language of the
descendants of the Queen of Saba.
Sabaean words related to water are
alberca (al-birka), cistern for irrigation;
acequia (assaqiya), irrigation canal; zanja
(az-zanija), channel that is sculpted in
rock; noria (an-naura), water wheel, well.
Other Sabean words that relate to water
are As-sirr (as-sarr in Sabeo-Arabic),
watercourse in the mountains. The word
sierra may actually be derived from this
word. Al-jahl, a rapid watercourse with
waterfalls. As-sirb, this concept relates
to acequias, the user’s turn to use the
water for irrigation. Al-jisr, a diversion
dam with steps to slow down the water.
Al-aqm and Al-maqam, partial diversion
dams that direct the flow or establish the
volume amount. An-nahr, channelized
the torrents of water. Wad is a permanent
watercourse such as a river, for example,
the Guadalquivir river in Andalucía.
Guadalquivir means the Big River such
as the Río Grande. The word Guadalupe
also has its roots in Wad, the river of wolves.
This article was taken from Estevan Arellano’s book
“Enduring Acequias: Wisdom of the Land,
Knowledge of the Water.”
Much of the vocabulary used today for
irrigation, agriculture and construction—
the central elements of the civilization in
southern Arabia—are encountered in
the Sabaean language. The Yemenis also
made great contributions to the Spanish
language as shown above in storage,
Juan Estevan Arellano
(1947-2014) was an
esteemed acequia activist,
journalist and novelist
f rom Embudo, NM.
He received hundreds of
students and researchers
at his almunyah or experimental farm there.
management and distribution of water.
Contrary to the Romans, famous for
their big hydraulic projects, the Yemenis
had specialized in micro-engineering of
water for community projects.
Accustomed to having to reclaim land
from the desert in order to cultivate,
they brought to Spain their advanced
hydraulic knowledge and, from here, it
spread around the globe. From there,
the names that came to signify canal,
torrent, river channel and waterwheel,
whose origins in many cases are from
Sabaean and Yemeni roots. i
The majority of the Yemenis were
campesinos from the mountains of
eastern Yemen. Even though Arabic
was becoming more common, Sabaean
continued to be used to name the flora,
fauna and all the vocabulary used for
irrigation and agriculture. That still
continues today. Sabaean is a Semitic
language that flourished about 3,000
years ago, close to the civilization of
Southern Arabia, the center of which
was in Mareb and predominated in
what today is Yemen. In the year 628,
they became part of Islam, and they
adopted more modern Arabic from the
Quran. This Arabic, laced with Sabaean,
or vice versa, was what was spoken by the
Yemenis who arrived in Iberia. And with
this language, they named towns, rivers
and mountains.
Green Fire Times • February 2015
27
Juan Estevan Arellano ¡Presente!
September 17, 1947 – October 29, 2014
Enrique Lamadrid
La noche está llegando,
Night is falling,
yo sigo trabajando
I keep on working
para mantenerto maintain
lo que yo quiero tanto.
what I love so much.
—García, Montoya, Vigil
Although the wind has taken his voice, Arellano will continue to speak to us in
years to come through his writing and his example. Activist, farmer, builder, poet,
journalist, sculptor, historian, father, husband, leader, teacher, he was true to his
name, Estevan (Stephanos, in Greek), the crown of leaves and flowers given to poets
and champions, for he was both. As one of the preeminent cultural journalists of
his time, his chronicle and critique of the last half century in New Mexico is spread
across more than half a dozen newspapers, at least six of which he founded. In the
Taos News alone, more than 500 weekly columns spoke to the issues of the day,
both in English and in El Crepúsculo, the Spanish section, originally founded in
the 1830s by Padre Antonio José Martínez. His last few articles, already written,
will continue the conversation in Green Fire Times even after his passing. True
to his other name, Juan (Yohannes, in Greek), there is sometimes a strident tone
of prophecy in his voice as he tirelessly defended culture, land and water. Yet the
name Juan also means full of grace and recalls the blessing of the waters.
Arellano will continue to speak to us in years to
come through his writing and his example.
One of his most memorable newspapers was Are Llano, the “arid plain” of his
surname, recalling the forebears, the people of the deserts of the Middle East
and Iberia, of Mesoamerica and New Spain, who sought refuge and the precious,
life-giving waters of the mountains, valleys, and canyons of New Mexico. Its
pages overflowed with analysis, dialogue, research and art. Another was called
Caminante and chronicled his interest in the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, our
historic corridor and link to México
and beyond. Caminante also means
pilgrim, and Estevan led neighbors,
students, f riends and colleagues
to Spain and México on cultural
pilgrimages to explore their roots.
Arellano served a number of years
as the most dynamic director of the
Oñate Center in Alcalde, which
he transformed into a venue for
Resolana, the critical community
dialogue that emerged from the
sun-drenched corners of the town
plaza. His cultural agenda included
lectures, theater, art exhibits, regional
food and music. Among the many
events to honor New Mexico’s
Cuartocentenario celebration in
1998 was a call for commemorative
Juan the Bear and the Water of Life by
corrido ballads, which was answered
Enrique Lamadrid and Estevan Arellano
28
Green Fire Times • February 2015
by the region’s most important
composers and musicians.
The center hosted community
meetings and symposia,
including historic gatherings of
land-grant and acequia activists,
who joined together to revitalize
their movements.
Arellano’s home and ranchito in
Embudo, over the years, hosted
hundreds of students interested
in sustainability and acequia
culture. He liked to call his
gardens his almunyah, an Arabic
term for the experimental
gardens where plants were
adapted for desert agriculture.
Many lively seminars were
held in the shade of the ancient
apricot tree behind his house.
He served the Acequia Junta
y Ciénega his whole life—
as parciante, comisionado
and mayordomo—and was
justifiably proud of it. Its banks and easements were always clear of undergrowth.
Where it ran across an unstable, sandy hillside, he identified and helped install a
kind of interlocking brick designed in Afghanistan to stabilize the watercourse.
He defended it at every turn.
A tireless scholar and spokesman, Arellano was recognized as the conscience of the
acequia movement in New Mexico. He approached problems and threats directly,
criticizing insiders as readily as outsiders for neglect and mismanagement. Acequia
culture is in danger, and Arellano was quick to sound the alarm and educate his
community by example. Acequia landscapes are culturally green, and part of
cultural literacy is learning how to read the land, its wisdom and its memory. Since
periodicals are ephemeral, he wisely chose to inscribe his knowledge in a book,
published in the UNM Press Querencias Series only weeks before his passing,
Enduring Acequias: Wisdom of the Land, Knowledge of the Water. His most lasting
contribution is in its pages: “The elders, the viejitos, talk about la sabiduría del agua,
and the juicio de la tierra, but that wisdom is rapidly disappearing as the Spanish
language, which is the keeper of our environmental ethics and philosophy...” In his
last paper, delivered to the fall 2014 Acequia Symposium in Valencia via Internet, he
theorized the observation, confirming that there is a “linguistic infrastructure” for
the acequias in language itself that must be decoded by much more than translation.
Most people know Arellano as an activist, as a vecino, as a friend. But his legacy is
also that of a filólogo, a logófilo, a lover of words. As poet, storyteller and novelist,
he loved and defended the ancestral language of this land as fiercely as he defended
his cultura. His literary work exemplifies the combative, old 19th-century verse:
Nuevo México insolente,
entre cíbolos criado,
¿quién te hizo letrado para cantar entre la gente?
Insolent New Mexico
raised among the buffaloes,
who taught you to write,
to sing among the people?
Arellano loved folklore, which he considered “el oro del barrio,” full of creative
expression, dialogue, and sharp cultural critique. He was a founding member
continued on page 30
www.GreenFireTimes.com
© Alejandro López
A
t the edge of the Río Grande’s bosque, still resplendent with the golden
bower of the cottonwoods, hundreds of people joined together in Española
to commemorate the life and celebrate the legacy of Juan Estevan Arellano. We
began by acknowledging the antepasados, realizing he is now one of them. He took
his last breath not long after midnight on Oct. 29, 2014. Once again in northern
Nuevo México, the “Canción de las acequias” became a hymn:
Op-Ed: The Almunyah
Enduring Acequias
Wisdom of the Land, Knowledge of the Water
By Estevan Arellano
University of New Mexico Press, 220 pages
For several reasons, Estevan Arellano’s
recent book, Enduring Acequias: Wisdom of
the Land, Knowledge of the Water, can only
be described as a tour de force. Foremost
is the author’s depth of knowledge of
his native watershed. This knowledge
is centered on the many streams born
of springs and snowmelt, which flow
together to comprise the upper Río
Embudo watershed and its nearly 40
major acequias. Through the acequias’
diversion and channeling of the río’s
waters to fertile bottomlands, they
successfully irrigate the traditional
agricultural holdings of Arellano’s
ancestors in La Junta, near Embudo.
Secondly, Arellano manages to integrate into an already complex tapestry a
wealth of knowledge regarding every other aspect of regional northern New
Mexican life that has had a bearing on the acequias and local agriculture.
As a result, he brings into sharp focus land-settlement patterns, family
histories, legal documents governing the use of the land and water, as well
as the relentless tides of history that shape and reshape the landscape and
its hydrology.
One of the preeminent
cultural journalists of his time
One learns about the Laws of the Indies that prescribed the layout of
“New World” Spanish settlements that, in northern New Mexico, were
a reflection of peninsular Spanish, Criollo (“New World Spanish”) and
Mexican Tlaxcalan Indian components. One also learns about Pueblo
Indian resistance to the “Spanish” settlement of the Embudo watershed, of
the two varieties of corn most commonly grown here before the American
period, together with innumerable other pertinent facts that increase our
understanding and appreciation for this historic place from the point of
view of a critical native thinker.
Thirdly, the book takes on the world and many other outstanding examples
of waterworks akin to acequias, all the way from the Indus Valley of
India, Jericho and Yemen, where it is thought the agricultural revolution
took place nearly 9,000 years ago and where acequias may have had their
beginnings, all the way to southern Spain, the highlands of Perú and central
México. What is more remarkable is that in the midst of conducting this
captivating grand tour of the world’s most impressive, ancient irrigation
systems, Arellano, like a good New Mexican, invites you into his home, his
family and his heart and shares with you not only his most intimate insights
regarding the wisdom of the land and his knowledge of the water but also
his own sense of cultural identity as a Chicano. It is clear from all that he
writes, the late Estevan Arellano was in love not only with the acequias of
northern New Mexico and the water-transmission technologies of other
parts of the world but also with the continuously adapting mestizo culture
and people of his país, or homeland, upon which the acequias and their
greening of the world depend if they are to endure.
www.GreenFireTimes.com
– Alejandro López
An Integrated Place for Living
Alejandro López
T
he late New Mexican writer
and community leader, Estevan
Arellano, left this world while still
in the process of enhancing his 2.5acre, garden-like plot of land in La
Junta, the place in Embudo where the
Río Embudo joins the Río Grande.
He described this special place as
an “almunyah,” a word derived from
classical Arabic, meaning “desire.” In
healthy, cultural engagement with one
another and with nature that landbased activities foster. In the IndoHispano community, people used to
meet in their plazas and homes, where
news was shared and ties renewed.
They also met in their lush fields and
gardens, where they might take a break,
eat and tell stories beneath a large
cottonwood tree.
the Iberian Peninsula, where Arab
and Moorish peoples occupied Spain
for nearly 800 years, almunyahs
were designed as experimental and
recreational gardens where imported
tre e s a n d ve ge ta b l es c o u l d b e
acclimatized. The almunyah concept
that Arellano envisioned transplanting
to New Mexican soil included a
protected, garden-like place dedicated
to learning, relaxation and living fully.
The concept of the almunyah builds
upon this sort of experience, always
in communion with the fullness of
hearth, land and cosmos. The need for
such places emerges from the collective
human need to affirm our humanity
amid the plentitude of nature. As
a kind of cultural and agricultural
sanctuary with a profusion of plants
and animals, an almunyah could be
a place where one goes to immerse
oneself in life and into the work—
solitary or communal—that makes us
whole. Ideally, it could be located at
an old family farm, perhaps one that
has been reclaimed to serve a purpose
that goes beyond raising food. In an
almunyah, there could be opportunities
for an examination of the forces at work
in nature, in society, as well as within
our own spirit and psyche, all of which
are undergoing tremendous revolutions
at this time. Whether as a nonprofit or
as a for-profit entity, each almunyah
could serve as a repository for all that
is beautiful and valuable in our cultures
and which, in the future, might serve
as seeds for the regeneration of our
communities. i
© Alejandro López
BOOK REVIEW
Aside from some homes, few such
places exist in our society today. Most
spaces within our communities have
been denatured, commercialized or
relegated to serve but a single function;
i.e., kindergarten, park or church.
There are few fully integrated spaces
remaining where food is grown, meals
prepared and hospitality shown. It is
even harder to find places where, in
community with others, individuals
can pursue creative activities and
exchanges, ranging from conversation
to collective physical work.
For a people who, until recently,
were land-based and had practiced
farming for hundreds of years, modern
commercial spaces such as fast-food
outlets, movie theaters and bars do
not invite substantive exchanges like
dialogue, storytelling or the kinds of
Alejandro López is
a writer, photographer
and educator.
Green Fire Times • February 2015
29
Estevan Arellano continued from page 28
of La Academia de la Nueva Raza, with other
Nuevomexicano cultural activists Tomás Atencio,
Facundo Valdez, E.A. Mares, Antonio Medina,
Alejandro López and many others. In collaboration
with them, he published Entre Verde y Seco, a collection
of traditional narrative and poetry compiled from
the landmark oral-history project that the Academia
conducted in the early 1970s. He also edited El
Cuaderno, the journal of the Academia, in whose pages
could be found their philosophy and manifestos.
Arellano’s internationally celebrated literary writing is
his novel Inocencio: ni pica ni escardia, pero siempre se come el mejor elote, one of the
only books written in Nuevomexicano Spanish, which won him the prestigious
José Fuentes Márez prize in México. In it, he places his homeland within the
millennial Ibero-American Picaresque tradition, which links ancient Eurasian
animal fables to Roman satires, to Lazarillo de Tormes in Golden Age Spain, to
El Periquillo Sarniento of Colonial New Spain, to Pito Pérez of post-revolutionary
México. In these writings the pícaro, or trickster hero, lives by his wits, avoiding
work, surviving on the edges. Since he has nothing to lose, his gift to society is
sharp and relentless criticism, delivered through satire. Inocencio is a composite of
characters drawn directly from the plazas of northern New Mexico.
Estevan Arellano’s most enduring lesson to us can be summed up in the way he
cultivated and wrote about his Querencia, the folk term for love of place, land,
culture, and people: if we don’t learn to love them, we will never defend them. i
The Zanjeras continued from page 25
1700, with Spanish officials in charge of laying out the town plans. Reportedly,
the Spanish friars closely supervised these newly created mission settlements
and taught the natives how to parcel and clear the lands, plow and sow the fields
with newly introduced plants, flowers and garden crop varieties from México and
Spain, thresh grain, and store the harvest in order to supply food to a growing
population. To boost the production of rice within old cultivated and new lands,
parish priests directed the opening of channels starting around the last quarter
of the 18th century with enlargements and expansions into dozens of towns by
subsequent Augustinians throughout the 19th century. Guided by the friars, the
newly constructed dikes and irrigation systems made for good rice yields, even
in times of sparse rainfall. Other crops included wheat, cotton, sugar cane, cocoa
and lucrative indigo for export in both Ilocos Norte and neighboring Ilocos Sur.
Most historians date the zanjeras to around 1740.
Operating procedures and water distribution rules in the zanjeras closely resemble
the Iberian tradition as transplanted to the New World and perhaps from México
to the Philippines by way of the friars. As with land shares, water shares are
proportionately distributed and, in times of scarcity, a system of rotating turns per
day can be implemented, called barsak in Ilocano, or a share of time allocated for
the use of canal water, a concept dating back to the Ilocano ancestors. The rules
for allocating water in times of scarcity can vary depending on which schedule is
determined at a zanjera meeting that covers duration and the location of water
distribution activities with much flexibility for these arrangements per canal or
laterals. When rainfall becomes abundant again, the rotation schedule is undone.
To ensure equity of water distribution, irrigated land parcels within each zanjera
are recorded and accounted for in relationship to the names listed in a journal
for each zanjero. Of special interest is the fact that the length and width of each
parcel is measured in metros, palmas and puntos. To divide the canal water evenly,
the larger zanjeras employ a physical divisor called the padila tablon, a traditional
proportional weir that takes water into laterals in proportion to the sum of water
shares owned by gunglos, or section group members, within the zanjera system.
Like the Valencian and New Mexican partidores, these divisors express how water
30
Green Fire Times • February 2015
NM Acequias continued from page 15
in an economy of common good,
for nurturing an important agrobiodiversity, the use of multiple
languages and more.
From the perspective of the Acequias,
the case to be made to UNESCO would
address, as a minimum, criteria ii, iv
and vi. A possible motto for the project
would be the popular saying used during
planting and harvest time: “Una para nos,
otra para vos, y otra para los animalitos de
Dios (One for us, one for you, and another
for God’s little animals).”
Towards this goal, I would propose
these ideas to construct an ambitious
proposal with profound meaning.
The incorporation of the Acequias of
New Mexico in the UNESCO List
would give universal recognition to
their resilience, principles and values
demonstrated during their lengthy
history. The memory of Estevan
Arellano and other respected leaders
calls for the participation of all those
who can offer their efforts to guarantee
the future of this extraordinary cultural
landscape. i
Carlos Ortiz Mayordomo of Elche, Spain,
has a PhD in physical chemistry and a
graduate degree in environmental sciences.
He has conducted
research on landscape
evaluation, heritage
and chemistry.
Now retired, he
keeps active in the
study of traditional
f ood production.
carlormay@gmail.
com
Lina Gracia of Spain has a PhD in biology.
She has specialized
in environmental
management and
natural resources
and has conducted
research on Elche’s
palm grove,
landscape evaluation
and heritage.
shares are measured to ensure equity in flow distribution. As physical structures,
they can be monitored by guards, other water officials and the sectional irrigators
themselves for their own particular lateral.
Did the zanjeras derive from the Iberian model of irrigation? Likely, the friars
built from existing traditions diffused into the Manila region by Chinese and other
Asian traders, before the Spanish regime, as was done for wet rice cultivation.
Sources for the organization of zanjera societies along the Ilocano coast to the
north, however, are not known but, upon close examination, zanjera operations
reflect a Spanish influence in locations where the Augustinians created new
settlements for Ilocano converts that they organized and resettled. Some of the
names given to the zanjeras are derived from Catholic saints, a few of which are
the Zanjeras San Juan, San Marcelino, San Antonio, San José, San Blas, Santa
Rosa, Santa Ana, and Santo Rosario. The strongest resemblance to the Iberian
model centers on governance and institutional arrangements where the community
of irrigators, in Spain, New Mexico, and Ilocos Norte determine their own rules,
establish days for canal cleaning and any repairs, elect a Junta Directiva of officers
who conduct administrative functions, guard and monitor their systems, impose
fines (multas), for infractions or when irrigators do not contribute their share of
obra (labor), and convene a Junta General (General Assembly).
As a whole, the zanjeras fulfill the criteria as corporate bodies that control and
allocate resources to its members based on common ownership of the diversion
structure, the main canal and, in the case of zanjeras, a kamarine (meetinghouse)
as well. This factor alone makes a case for continued investigation of zanjeras and
acequias as comparative irrigation societies. We hope this
brief essay will stimulate additional work by all of us who
are students of acequia culture. i
José Rivera is a research scholar at UNM’s Center for Regional
Studies and professor of planning at the School of Architecture and
Planning, UNM. He is author of Acequia Culture: Land, Water,
and Community and has done field research on acequias all over the
world. [email protected]
www.GreenFireTimes.com
Eco-Delivery Services • 505.920.6370
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Green Fire Times • February 2015
31
Sustainable Santa Fe Monthly Update
2015 Sustainable Santa Fe Award Nominations Sought
Awards Celebrate Community Sustainability Leaders
Katherine Mortimer, SSF Programs Manager, City of Santa Fe
T
he city of Santa Fe is seeking nominations for the 2015 Sustainable Santa
Fe Awards to recognize model projects that are helping Santa Fe reduce its
ecological footprint, mitigate carbon emissions and build resilience in the face
of climate change. These annual awards are limited to projects or programs with
significant events that occurred during the 2014 calendar year or ongoing programs
that haven’t yet been recognized. Award recipients will be recognized at a gala on April
8. Nominations will be accepted until March 15 and can be made online. A link can
be found at www.santafenm.gov or at the websites of co-sponsors: Earth Care (www.
earthcarenm.org), Santa Fe Green Chamber (nmgreenchamber.com/santa-fe) and
Green Fire Times (www.greenfiretimes.com). Separate nominations must be made
for each project, but you may nominate as many as you wish.
2015 Award Categories: Community Outreach or Education, Environmental
Advocacy, Environmental Justice, Food System Adaptation, Water Adaptation,
Ecosystem Adaptation, Renewable Energy or Energy Efficiency, Affordable Green
Building or Building System, Green Economic Development, Triple Bottom Line,
Low Carbon Transportation, Waste Reduction, Youth Led, Other
• Waste Reduction: SF Public Schools and EcoVim for a pilot project, which
helped reduce waste by 28 percent and saved $60,000. EcoVim takes food waste and
dehydrates it, reducing the weight by a factor of 10 and recovering water. They also
recycled electronic waste and required school contractors to recycle.
•C
limate A dap tation – E cosystem : Surroundings Studio for design and
construction of El Parque del Río, which follows the SF River through downtown.
The park was beset with long-term problems. Incising the river channel has helped
the health and viability of many old trees.
•R
enewable Energy: Consolidated Solar Technologies for their 62.64kW solar
installation at Amy Beihl Community School, offsetting 125 tons of CO2. They
also started constructing a 192.6kW solar installation at Capital High. School
installations serve as living laboratories for sustainability education.
•Y
outh-Led: Global Warming Express, a group of 9- and 10-year-olds working to
raise awareness about climate change and to get kids involved in climate activism.
•G
reen Building System: Aerolenz, which manufactured the most energy-efficient
daylighting products on the market,including skylights and translucent curtain-wall systems.
Last year there were winners in 13 categories:
•C
ommunity Outreach: Desert Academy Outdoor/Sustainability Club for a series
of events focused on climate issues. They brought in local experts to speak to youth,
had community groups share information and demonstrate their work, and raised
funds for local climate-related causes.
•T
riple-Bottom-Line: Mark Choyt and his company, Reflective Images, which is
working to reform the mining sector through responsible jewelry materials sourcing
and use of recycled metals.
•E
nvironmental Advocacy: Four Bridges Traveling Permaculture Institute for their
Agri-Kids program, which brings sustainable agriculture into the classroom and
schoolyard, and brings students to their farm for hands-on learning. This teaches
about global warming, climate change, sustainability, organic farming, recycling,
green building, vermiculture/composting and traditional agriculture.
•G
reen Economic Development: SolarLogic, whose mission is to increase
the adoption of residential and commercial solar hydronic heating systems by
developing, manufacturing and selling products that couple plumbing design
standardization with state-of-the-art technology and ease of use. They also conduct
educational programs and work with local contractors.
•F
ood Systems: SF Community College Culinary Arts Garden, a living laboratory that
offers volunteer opportunities for students, faculty and staff. Specialty garden beds make
possible 4-season vegetable production. Environmentally friendly techniques allow
produce to be grown without pesticides, chemicals or genetically modified plants.
• Low-Carbon Transportation: Santa Fe County for a bike lane retrofit. A road
between the Tesuque River and US84/285 can now be integrated into “State Bike
Route 9” to make a wonderful non-motorized alternative for local and long-range
travel.
• Climate Adaptation – Water: The Raincatcher, which creates water-wise, beautiful
landscapes and healthy soil. Storing and using rainwater reduces carbon emissions
associated with utility-provided water processing and transportation and adapts
residences for the new climate.
• Innovative Sustainability Research: The U.S. Geological Survey for their Western
Mountain Initiative to help natural resource managers, planners and policy makers
understand the responses of Western mountain ecosystems to climatic variability
and change, emphasizing sensitivities, thresholds, resistance and resilience.
Safeguarding
continued from page 14
recognition until now. Only a few sites
on the UNESCO (United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization) World Heritage List
have been selected because of the
significance of their traditional acequia
or acequia-related irrigation systems,
like the Palmeral of Elche, Spain,
the Aflaj of Oman, or the cultural
landscape of Bam, Iran. But there is an
increasing interest in the rediscovery
and promotion of acequia values.
Experts in human development have
pointed out the role that existing, selforganized acequia communities play
in the successful introduction of new
development policies and projects.
Likewise, biologists and ecologists cite
the contribution of traditional acequias
to biodiversity and the sustainable use
of water. Geographers, historians and
32
archaeologists are learning how to read
acequia landscapes for their historical
content. And, above all, the irrigators
themselves—such as those in the upper
Río Grande basin—recognize the
importance of their traditional acequias
in shaping and maintaining their way of
life and cultural identity. Small wonder
that acequia landscapes count among
the Globally Important Agricultural
Heritage Systems (GIAHS) initiative
promoted since 2002 by another U.N.
agency, the FAO (Food and Agriculture
Organization).
Consejo de Hombres Buenos (Council
of Good Men) and the Valencian
Tribunal de las Aguas (Tribunal of
Waters) were inscribed jointly on
UNESCO’s Representative List of
the Intangible Cultural Heritage
of Humanity. These two traditional
water courts—custodians of the
Andalusi irrigation wisdom—have,
since medieval times, resolved internal
conflicts in a speedy, fair, inexpensive
and effective manner for acequia
farmers from the Segura and Turia
rivers in Spain.
Nowadays, the effort to preserve and
promote intangible cultural heritage
under UNESCO’s leadership presents
new and promising perspectives for
the preservation and revitalization of
acequia heritage. In 2009, the Murcian
For sure, traditional irrigators from
the Americas to Asia will push for
recognition, either for the tangible
and intangible items of their acequia
culture or for their acequia cultural
landscapes as a whole. In an age of
Green Fire Times • February 2015
uncertainty and conflict—often over
water—acequia heritage offers a wealth
of knowledge on the sustainable use of
water, strengthening local communities
and promoting respect and intercultural
dialogue on both sides of the Atlantic
and, indeed, wherever community canal
irrigation exists. i
Luís Pablo
Martínez is
a historian,
anthr opologist
and inspector
of Cultural
Heritage for
the government
o f t h e R eg i o n
of Valencia. He
has coordinated
numerous UNESCO nominations for the
cultural heritage of Mediterranean Spain.
[email protected]
www.GreenFireTimes.com
Supporting Local Business in Southern New Mexico 221 N. Main Street, Las Cruces. 575-­‐323-­‐1575 giggle. wiggle. groove.
An eclectic mix of informative and entertaining programs await you on KUNM –
your passport to the worlds of news, music, community and culture. Publicly
supported. Publicly responsive. KUNM is an essential part of New Mexico’s day.
KUNM 89.9FM | STREAMING LIVE 24/7 AT KUNM.ORG
www.GreenFireTimes.com
Green Fire Times • February 2015
33
r
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Green Fire Times • February 2015
www.GreenFireTimes.com
NEWSBITEs
New Regulations for Methane Emissions
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), human activities
are responsible for 60 percent of all methane emissions. According to NASA, a
2,500-square-mile area of the Southwest’s Four Corners region is the nation’s largest
emitter of methane, a greenhouse gas 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide over
a 20-year timeframe. Scientists say excess methane is significantly contributing to
global warming and acidifying oceans. Dr. Sandra Steingraber, a biologist, says this
is a concern because we have acidified the oceans to a degree 30 percent higher than
optimal to fully support life. She says that the ocean’s plankton, which produce half
of the oxygen on Earth, are dying.
Methane is known to leak during coal production and at all levels of the oil- and
gas-drilling production process. Increased drilling and production are expected
to increase emissions unless new controls are in place. Last month, the Obama
administration announced that it intends to cut methane emissions by nearly half
by 2025 through new regulations to be administered by the EPA and the Bureau of
Land Management. A spokesman from the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association
has said that such rules are burdensome and unnecessary because the industry is
already working to reduce leakage.
Piñón Pipeline Would Facilitate
San Juan Basin Oil Boom
The San Juan Basin in the Four Corners region may be on the verge of a shale-oil
boom. The proposed, 130-mile Piñón Pipeline, capable of carrying 50,000 barrels
of crude a day, would start out as smaller pipelines that would gather oil at well pads
and other points. A larger pipeline would then move the oil south to a distribution
center near Interstate 40. The pipeline would span Navajo, private, state and federal
land, including an area near Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico,
a World Heritage Site.
Hundreds of people spoke out at public hearings last month, including Navajos who
traveled hundreds of miles to ask the Bureau of Land Management to deny a permit
to Saddle Butte San Juan Midstream LLC, a Denver-based corporation. Navajo
activists and a Chaco Canyon archaeologist said that the permanent infrastructure
the pipeline would fracture cultural and archaeological heritage, threaten endangered
species, flora and fauna, ruin the recreation economy and bring inevitable oil spills.
Fracking, they say, is already degrading air and water and negatively impacting local
communities.
If the pipeline is constructed, oil and gas wells could quadruple in the San Juan Basin.The
industry rationale for the pipeline is that current infrastructure—tanker trucks—can’t
handle the crude being produced and developed and that trucking costs more and is
riskier than a pipeline. At one of the hearings, however, an industry executive admitted
that increasing drilling to such an extent would mitigate any environmental benefits.
The Sierra Club has urged the BLM to conduct a more detailed review, as required
for an environmental impact statement, to consider the cumulative effects of all oil
and gas development in the region and to fund a health assessment, as required by
the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Record Closed in PNM Replacement Power Case
After more than three weeks of testimony in the case before the New Mexico Public
Regulation Commission (PRC) over Public Service Company of New Mexico’s
regional haze plan to retire two of four generating units at the aging coal-fired San
Juan Generating Station (SJGS), the record is now closed. Some highlights:
PNM executives admitted that, due to errors and omissions, original estimates to
replace power at the SJGS need to be increased by $1 billion. The more-than-$7billion energy replacement plan would dictate energy resources (or cause further
“stranded assets”) for ratepayers over 20 years. PNM began the case stating that its
replacement portfolio of coal, nuclear, natural gas and 40 megawatts (MW) of solar
was the “least-cost” and “most cost-effective.” The company’s argument shifted during
the case, as the utility’s computer modeling (Strategist®) analyzed the plans and four
alternatives, including New Energy Economy’s proposed 400 MW of wind and 260
MW of solar, were shown to be less expensive for ratepayers.
Farmington Electric Utility System—a co-owner of the SJGS plant—announced its
intention not to buy additional capacity when the other partners leave in 2017. As a
result, Wall Street analyst Jefferies Equity Research downgraded PNM to a “hold,”
rather than a “buy,” stating, “Our economic analysis of the plant makes it unlikely
that PNMR (PNM Resources, PNM’s parent company) will find a third party to
acquire [Farmington’s] 65 MW interest in the plant.”
www.GreenFireTimes.com
On Jan. 5, more than 300 people protested PNM’s energy plan. Community groups
from the Navajo Nation led the demonstration. Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales,
(above, right), Rep. Brian Egolf and the Latino group Juntos were among the speakers
calling for clean replacement power.
Three parties that were part of a Stipulation Agreement with PNM—Western
Resource Advocates (WRA), Renewable Energy Industry Association (REIA),
and New Mexico Independent Power Producers (NMIPP)—have withdrawn their
support. WRA cited concerns that PNMR might be negotiating to buy 65 MW.
REIA and NMIPP withdrew after citing concerns over misestimated coal costs
and the plant’s economic viability. The groups were also upset by a new “access fee”
PNM wants to charge people who install residential solar panels. On Jan. 27, the
Albuquerque Bernalillo Water Authority filed its opposition to the Stipulation.
After the parties file briefs, the hearing examiner will make his Recommended
Decision to the full PRC.
Santa Fe Higher Education Center Opens
Four New Mexico institutions have joined with Santa Fe Community College to form
the Santa Fe Higher Education Center. The Institute of American Indian Arts, New
Mexico Highlands University, New Mexico State University and University of New
Mexico offer 20 major areas of study. After completing two years at the community
college, students can now
obtain a bachelor’s degree
through one of the center’s
partner institutions.
The new campus at
1950 Siringo Road
features state-of-the-art
classrooms, geothermal
heating and cooling and
a solar photovoltaic array
that generates about 80
percent of the facility’s
energy demand.
Renewable Energy Day at the Roundhouse
February 27, 10 am-3 pm
With 300 days of sunshine per year, New Mexico has the potential to lead the nation
in renewable energy (RE) development, creating jobs, improving the economy and
reducing water use.
On Friday, Feb. 27, the economic, environmental and social benefits of renewable
energy and energy efficiency will be celebrated at the state capitol. A diverse array
of advocates, including public institutions, RE developers and environmental
organizations will have display tables at the event. To encourage a favorable political
climate for expanded clean energy, the Sierra Club will offer citizen lobby training
and information about current legislation. A press conference at noon will feature
legislators, industry specialists, youth and nonprofits who will share their policies
and plans to help grow the RE industry in New Mexico. Free parking is available
in the facility at 420 Galisteo St. For more information, call 505.310.4425 or email
[email protected]
Green Fire Times • February 2015
35
G.L. Runer Electric Inc.
Honest Quality Work at Competitive Prices
505-471-3626
We provide testing, and
troubleshooting for Santa Fe, NM
and the surrounding areas.
www.glrunerelectric.com
910
Thank you Green Fire Times...!
James H. Auerbach, MD
Supporting Independent Media
Green Fire Times is available at
many locations in the metropolitan
Albuquerque / Río Rancho area!
For the location nearest you,
call Nick García at 505.203.4613
36
Green Fire Times • February 2015
www.GreenFireTimes.com
www.GreenFireTimes.com
Green Fire Times • February 2015
37
What's Going On!
Events / Announcements
Feb. 14, 7-10 pm; Feb. 15, 4-6 pm
Arts, Crafts & Global Fusion
Fashion Show
VSA North Fourth Art Center
4904 Fourth St. NW
Presented by NM Women’s Global Pathways
and created by refugee, immigrant and indigenous artisans of NM. $10. 505.345.2872
ALBUQUERQUE
Feb. 4, 5:30-7 pm
Green Drinks
Hotel Andaluz
125 Second St. NW
Network with people interested in doing business locally, clean energy alternatives
and creating sustainable opportunities in our communities. Presenter:
Theresa Cardenas, founder of Nobel Renewables Group, LLC will speak on Innovative
Solutions for a Safe, Sustainable Future.
www.greendrinks.org
Feb. 5-6
Urban Tree Conference
Crowne Plaza Albuquerque
1901 University Blvd. NE
Updating the basics of tree care. Presentations by professionals. $170/$70 students.
www.thinktreesnm.org/conference.html
feb. 7, 8 am-5 pm
Advanced Photovoltaic Design
CNM Workforce Training Center
5600 Eagle Rock Ave. NE
Participants will learn to apply National
Electrical Code standards and industry best
practices to design the best systems for your
company. $169. 505.224.5200, workforce@
cnm.edu, www.cnm.edu
Feb. 7, 9 am-12 pm
Trees & Tree-Pruning Workshop
ABQ Garden Center, 10120 Lomas NE
Presented by Dr. John Ball. Open to master
gardeners, tree stewards, docents and community volunteers. Free. [email protected], Registration: http://rsvp.nmsu.edu/rsvp/pruning
Through Feb. 9
Art in Public Places Submissions
Central NM Community College
Artist or artist team sought to create sitespecific commission project on the CNM
campus, to be completed by January 2016.
$120,000 available for the project. https://
www.callforentry.org/festivals_unique_info.
php?ID=1491&sortby=fair_name&apply=yes
Feb. 12, 7-9:30 am
Education for a Changing
Workforce
Marriott Pyramid
Panel discussion with an array of education leaders. $35. 505.348.8326, tfenster@
bizjournals.com,
www.bizjournals.com/
albuquerque/event/115861#eventDetails
Feb. 13, 12-1 pm
Global Divestment Day
Demonstration
UNM Student Union Building
(outside), Central at Cornell
Sustainable UNM=Fossil Free UNM endowment investments. 350.org NM. Info: www.face
book.com/events/428782533946434/?ref=22 38
Feb. 15, 7:30 pm
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Kimo Theater, 423 Central NW
$15-$45 adv. 505.866.1251, holdmyticket.com
Feb. 18, 5:30 pm
Pueblo Women: Inspiring
Change & Preserving Tradition
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
2401 12th St. NW
Panel discussion of prominent
Pueblo
women artists
Marla Allison,
Deborah A. Jojola and Glendora
Fragua.
They will talk
about the role of
Pueblo women
and provide an
inside look at a
new exhibition.
www.indianpueblo.org
Feb. 19-20
Land & Water Summit
Sheraton ABQ Airport
2910 Yale Blvd. SE
Watershed CPR: Restoring Natural, Built
and Human Environments. Presented by
the Xeriscape Council of NM. Sponsored
by Bernalillo County and many others.
$175/$325. 2/18: Pre-conference workshop
on Flood Control for Watershed Health.
505.843.7000, www.xeriscapenm.com
Feb. 20-21
NM Organic Farming Conference
Marriott ABQ Pyramid North
The SW’s premier conference for organic
agriculture. Producers and researchers will
share their experience and expertise. Mark
Smallwood, executive director of the Rodale Institute, is the keynote speaker. $100
includes Saturday’s luncheon. Organized
by Farm to Table, the NM Dept. of Agriculture’s Organic Program and NMSU Cooperative Extension Service. 505.473.1004,
ext. 10, [email protected], www.farmto
tablenm.org/programs/new-mexico-organicfarming-conference
Feb. 21, 8 am-4 pm
Haute Highlights
Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort,
Bernalillo, NM
A Festival and Celebration of Startups, Small
Business and Nonprofits in New Mexico. Local and national speakers, panel discussions,
exhibitors, gala dinner, live auction. Tickets:
www.hautenightout.eventbrite.com
March 14-18
American Indian Higher Education Consortium Conference
Southwestern faculty, college and university
presidents from AIHEC member colleges and
universities. Student competitions, meetings,
presentations and events. 505.259.8010
Green Fire Times • February 2015
Through May 31, 2015
El Agua es Vida: Acequias in
Northern New Mexico
Maxwell Museum of Anthropology,UNM
Groundbreaking, multidisciplinary exhibit.
Free. 505.277.4405, maxwellmuseum.unm.edu
Daily
Our Land, Our Culture, Our Story
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
2401 12th St. NW
Historical overview of the Pueblo world and
contemporary artwork and craftsmanship
of each of the 19 pueblos. Weekend Native
dances. 866.855.7902
SANTA FE
Feb. 4, 11:30 am-1 pm
Green Lunch
SF Area Home Builders Association
1409 Luisa Street
Topic: The New Rules of Social Media. Presented
by Kathy Walsh, Carolyn Parrs and Rubina Cohen. $15 for SFAHB, $20 others. Sponsored by the
SF Green Chamber of Commerce. Reservations:
505.982.1774, [email protected]
Feb. 5
Water Policy Day
NM State Capitol
Join New Mexico First to advocate recommendations from the 2014 Statewide Water
Town Hall. The platform calls for commonsense changes to water funding and planning, watershed restoration including forest
tree thinning, long-range drought planning,
resolution of legal issues, protection of environmental resources and exploration of new
water sources. http://nmfirst.org/_blog/
Legislative_Updates/post/water2015/
Feb. 5, 5:30-7:30 pm
Buckman Recycling Tranfer
Station Community Meeting
Nancy Rodriguez Center
1 Prairie Dog Loop
5:30: Open House; 6:30: Presentation/discussion. Learn about the services BuRRT
provides and offer ideas how BuRRT can
meet community needs. Written comments
may be mailed to Randall Kippenbrock,
SFSWMA, 149 Wildlife Way, SF 87506 or
email [email protected]
Feb. 5-April 16, 1-3 pm
Renesan Institute for Lifelong
Learning Lecture Series
St. John’s United Methodist
Church, 1200 Old Pecos Tr.
Lectures are held Thursdays. $10 per lecture, $66
for all 11. 505.982.9274, [email protected]
Feb. 6
American Indian Day
NM State Capitol
Exhibits, presentations of state departments
and agencies. Organized by the NM Indian
Affairs Department.
Feb. 7, 10 am-12 pm
The Future of Libraries
Great Hall, St. John’s College
Panel Discussion with Michael Delello,
deputy cabinet secretary for Cultural Affairs;
Sarah Heartt, former librarian, SF Public Schools; Patricia Hodapp, director, SF
Public Library, Tomas Jaehn, archivist, NM
History Museum, Jennifer Sprague, library
director, St. John’s College. Free.
Feb. 7, 2 pm
Dyes in Early Navajo Textiles
Wheelwright Library
704 Camino Lejo, Museum Hill
Presented by David Wenger, Ph.D. For
members only (memberships available). Reservation required. 505.982.4636, ext. 110.
www.wheelwright.org
Feb. 7-8
Volunteer Weekend
Ampersand Sustainable Learning
Center, Cerrillos, NM
Help install a retrofit to a greenhouse from
Zomeworks. RSVP. Also internships available from May-July in earthen building, land
restoration, organic gardening and sustainable food systems. Applications due by March
6. Details: www.ampersandproject.org
Feb. 8, 11 am
SAN Augustin Ranch Water
Rights Permit Update
Collected Works Bookstore
202 Galisteo
Former NMELC attorney Bruce Frederick.
Moderator: water rights attorney Peter
White. Journeysantafe.com
Feb. 8, 2 pm
Santa Fe Reads
James A. Little Theater
1060 Cerrillos Rd.
Readings and discussions with 5 nationally acclaimed northern NM authors: Sallie
Bingham, Natalie Goldberg, Anne Hillerman, John Nichols and Valerie Plame. $15.
505.428.1353. Presented by Literacy Volunteers of SF.
Feb. 9-March 16, Mondays, 1-4 pm
Legacy Writing Workshop
SF Community Foundation
501 Halona St.
A 6-week life story class with Hollis Walker. $150.
Registration: 505.988.9715, www.santafecf.org
Feb. 11, 9 am-12 pm
Working Together for a
Thriving Community
SF Community Foundation
501 Halona St.
Dreaming a Better World through Collaboration. A technical assistance workshop for
nonprofits presented by Valeria Alarcón and
Roberto Aponte. Sliding Scale: $15-$45. Registration: 505.988.9715, www.santafecf.org
Feb. 11, 10 am
Building the Business Different
SF Business Incubator
Presentation for startup companies
and entrepreneurs about SFBI grants.
505.424.1140, [email protected]
Feb. 12, 7 pm
Mountainfilm on Tour
The Lensic, 211 W. San Francisco St.
Mix of films, from mountain sports to amazing wild places. $15. Info: 505.988.9126, ext.
0. Presented by WildEarth Guardians.
Feb. 14, 8 am-12 pm
Contemporary Hispanic
Market Jury
SF Convention Center
For prospectus, visit contemporaryhispan
icmarketinc.com. Market dates: July 25-26.
www.GreenFireTimes.com
Feb. 14, 10 am-12 pm
SF River Cleanup
Frenchy’s Field Barn, Osage @ Agua Fria
9 annual Love Your River Day. 505.820.1696.
RSVP: [email protected]
th
Feb. 14, 1-4 pm; 2 pm tour
Kindred Spirits Valentine’s Day Party
3749-A Highway 14
Animal sanctuary offers wellness care and hospice
to senior animals. 505.471.5366, [email protected], www.kindredspiritsnm.org
Feb. 15, 1-4 pm
Wood-Carving Demonstrations
Museum of International Folk Art
706 Camino Lejo
Wooden Menagerie: Made in NM exhibit with
music and refreshments. Free to NM residents
and children under 17. 505.476.1200
Feb. 15, 1:30-4 pm
The Art of David Bradley
Museum of Indian Arts and Culture
32 paintings, bronze sculptures and mixedmedia works by the Chippewa artist. 1 pm
and 2:30 pm: Jemez buffalo dancers; 2-4 pm:
Reception; 505.476.1250, 2:30-3 pm: catalogue signing with David Bradley and Dr.
Suzan Harjo. IndianArtsAndCulture.org
Feb. 16, 3-4:30 pm
Dr. Suzan Shown Harjo
MoCNA 2nd Floor
Reading and book signing of Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the U.S. and American Indian Nations. Feb. 17, 1-2:30 pm: Poetry reading at IAIA campus. Free.
Feb. 17-April 2, 6-8 pm
Landscape for Life
Small Annex, SF County Fairgrounds
Learn how to create a landscape that uses
less water and flourishes as the climate
changes. Six different classes sponsored by
the SF Botanical Garden and the SF Master
Gardener Assn. $125/$150. 505.471.9103,
www.santafebotanicalgarden.org
Feb. 17, 6-9 pm
AgFest
SF Convention Center
Feb. 20-21
ARTfeast Santa Fe
A weekend of fine art, food, fashion & homes
tour. Benefits ARTsmartNM youth programs. Appetizers, silent and live auctions.
Fashion designer Patricia Michaels: 2/20, 6
pm at Peters Projects, 1011 Paseo de Peralta.
Advance tickets: $75. Feb. 21, 6 pm: Gourmet dinner and auction at the SF Convention
Center. Advance tickets: $175. Artfeast.org
Feb. 21-22
Book Launch/Workshop
Railyard Performance Center
Nina Hart’s new book of prose poems
and short fiction is called Somewhere in a
Town You Never Knew Existed Somewhere.
Her book launch party is 2/21 at 7:30 pm
($5-$10.). Her Writing from the Top of
Your Head workshop is 2/21-22. Details:
828.254.3586
Feb. 22-March 1
Santa Fe Restaurant Week
An extravaganza featuring 57 local restaurants; most present a prix-fixe dinner and a
specially priced two-course lunch.
Nmrestaurantweek.com
Feb. 24, 6-7:30 pm
Health Effects of Wireless
Technology
La Montañita Co-op Community
Room, 913 W. Alameda
Free practical solutions and mitigating products to combat electronic pollution will be
discussed. Free.
Feb. 27, 10 am
NM Acequia Commission Meeting
Bataan Memorial Building, Rm. 238,
corner Don Gaspar & South Capitol
Info: 505.603.2879 or molinodelaisla@
gmail.com. Agendas: 505.827.4983 or www.
nmacequiacommission.state.nm.us.
Feb. 27, 10 am-3 pm
Renewable Energy Day
NM State Capitol
A technical assistance workshop for nonprofits
on the 4Cs (Connection, Collaboration, Creativity and Consistency). Presented by Rubina
Cohen. Sliding Scale: $15-$45; Registration:
505.988.9715, www.santafecf.org
Celebrate the economic, environmental and
social benefits of renewable energy and energy
efficiency. Ecological art table, electric cars, solar ovens and hands-on demonstrations. Noon
press conference featuring legislators, nonprofits and industry specialists who will share
policies and plans to grow the RE industry in
NM. 505.310.4425, [email protected]
Feb. 19 Application Deadline
AIA Canstruction Design and
Build Competition
March 2015
DIY Santa Fe:
A Creative Tourism Journey
American Institute of Architects open call for
design teams to create structures made entirely from canned goods for an April 11 exhibit
held at SF Place Mall. Winners in five categories entered in an international competition.
Entry fee: $100. Benefits the Food Depot.
Santafe.canstruction.org/design-teams
Feb. 18 Reservation Deadline
WorldQuest 2015
SF Community College Jemez Room
Feb. 20, 5:45-9:15 pm: College Bowl-style
game of international trivia, played in teams
of eight. Prizes will be awarded. Presented by
the SF Council on International Relations.
General Admission: $40 includes buffet.
Registration: 505.982.4931, www.sfcir.org
www.GreenFireTimes.com
Learn about the planned Greenhouse Grocery Food Cooperative, local businesses and
ecological stewardship. $5-$10 suggested
donation. 505.466.2665, bj@greenhouse
grocery.coop, www.greenhousegrocery.coop
March 22, 10 am-9 pm
World Water Day Celebration
El Museo Cultural
Art exhibition, music, dance, food, information tables, children’s activities. Premiere film
screening of Last Call at the Oasis, about the
global water crisis, and Gasland II. A fundraiser for the Santa Fe Global Water Festival.
By donation. Artists are invited to submit
water-related art. 505.919.8751, www.water
awarenessgroup.wordpress.com/GWF
March 27-28
Municipal Energy Production
SF Community College
Learn from experts about local energy production and how to make a “genius” municipal grid
a reality. 3/27, 7-9 pm: lecture ($10); 3/28, 9
am-5 pm: workshop ($99). Info: 505.819.3828,
Registration: www.carboneconomyseries.com
Española
Feb. 14, 12-4 pm
Española Rising:
A Time to Heal Our Youth
Join communities around the world speaking
out against violence towards women. Help
heal the community from last year’s shooting
death of one of its children. 10 am: March for
Justice for Victor Villalpando begins at Park
& Ride. 11 am: Rally at the Hunter Ford
building. 12 pm: Potluck at the Plaza gazebo;
12-4 pm: Performances, art contest, poetry
slam, Trashyn Show by La Tierra Montessori at La Mission Convento. Sponsored
by FBTPI, NNMC, ENIPC Peacekeepers,
MalinalCo Nursing, Tewa Women United.
Info: 518.332.3156, [email protected],
www.4bridges.org
March 1, 2 pm
Camino de Paz Montessori
Middle School Open House
Santa Cruz, NM (25 min. north of SF)
Legislative event showcasing NM farm- and
ranch-related organizations and agencies.
Feb. 18, 1-5 pm
The 4Cs of Marketing
SF Community Foundation
501 Halona St.
March 1, 5-7 pm
Food, Music and Stories of
Community
Iconic Coffee Roasters, 1600 Lena St.
An immersive cultural arts experience;
month-long celebration of workshops and
events offered through Santa Fe Creative
Tourism, a program of the SF Arts Commission. An opportunity for visitors to learn
from experienced artists and artisans while
enjoying world-class restaurants, sites and accommodations. 505.792.5746, santafecreative
[email protected], www.diysantafe.org
March 1 Application Deadline
Lodgers Tax Event Funds
2015 special event funding for nonprofit organizations. Tourism support and community
involvement are key. Does not include events
June-August. 505.955.6211, www.santafenm.
gov/document_center/document/2739
Presentation of curriculum and Montessori philosophy followed by Q&A with staff and parents. Student-led tours. Come see why Camino
de Paz received Edible Magazine’s “Local Hero
Award.” 505.231.2819, www.caminodepaz.net
TAOS
Feb. 20, 8-10:30 pm
Indigenous
KTAOS Solar Center, 9 State Rd.
150, El Prado, NM
2015 Native American Music Award winners (Artist of the Year, Best Blues Recording) from the Yankton Sioux Reservation in
So. Dakota. $12. http://holdmyticket.com/
event/192561
Through Feb. 28, 2015
Art through the Loom
Weaving Guild Show
Old Martina’s Hall, Ranchos de Taos
www.artthroughtheloom.com
Feb. 17 Application Deadline
Paid Conservation Positions
Looking for young adults 18-25 to join a
nonprofit in Albuquerque and Taos as an
AmeriCorps volunteer. Earn a college scholarship and make a difference conserving natural lands. Application: 575.751-1420, ext.
34, www.youthcorps.org
HERE & THERE
Feb. 5, 7 pm
Bag It Screening
Reel Deal Theater, Los Alamos, NM
A film about plastic bags, their effects and
what we can do about it.
Feb. 8, 2 pm
Living in the Ancient Southwest
Abiquiú Library and Cultural
Center, Abiquiú, NM
David Grant Noble will discuss his latest
book of essays and photography.
Feb. 11, 7 pm
The Chama River: A NM Gem
Pajarito Environmental Ed Center,
Los Alamos, NM
Presentation by Noah Parker of Land of
Enchantment Guides. Free. 505.662.0460,
www.PajaritoEEC.org
Feb. 12, 5:30-7 pm
Green Drinks/NMSEA Meeting
Little Toad Pub
200 N. Bullard St., Silver City
Monthly meeting of the SW Chapter of the
SW NM Green Chamber of Commerce and
the NM Solar Energy Association-Silver
City Chapter. Held every second Thursday.
575.538.1337, [email protected]
Feb. 13 Application Deadline
Northern Río Grande
National Heritage Area Grants
Grant cycle open to nonprofits in Río Arriba,
Santa Fe and Taos counties. 505.753.0937,
riograndenha.org
Feb. 14, 10 am-2:30 pm
La Resolana: Rural Land
& Water Restoration
Edgewood, NM area
Work party focused on forest health hosted by
Permaculture practitioner Christian Mueli
with Back Yard Tree Farmers and rainwater harvesting friends. Ends with a potluck.
505.331.0245, [email protected]
Feb. 19, 7 pm
A Thousand Voices
PBS-TV Network
Documentary film about New Mexico’s Native American women who are grounded in
traditional values. Produced by Silver Bullet
Productions.
Feb. 21-22
Las Cruces Spanish Market
Hotel Encanto, Las Cruces, NM
Presented by the Spanish Colonial Arts Society. 45 artists. Tinwork, colcha embroidery,
retablos, straw appliqué, weaving, jewelry,
filigree, pottery, ironwork, carving. Admission: $5/person;$8/couple
Feb. 26, 7 pm
Solar Power for Los Alamos?
Downtown venue TBA, Los Alamos, NM
What would it take to move off of fossil
fuels entirely? A presentation by Karen
Paramanandam of Positive Energy. Free.
505.662.0460, www.PajaritoEEC.org
april 10 deadline
Earth USA 2015
8th Annual International Conference on Architecture and Construction with Earthen
Materials. Abstract submission form online
closes April 10. Conference will be held at
the NM Museum of Art in Santa Fe, Oct.
2-4. Organized by Adobe in Action.
Earthusa.org
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Green Fire Times • February 2015
www.GreenFireTimes.com