ENDURING ACEQUIA
Funded by the State of New Mexico Economic Development Department, Outdoor Equity Division
The Enduring Acequia program will educate and train a new generation of parciantes, commissioners and Mayordomos on the importance of maintaining, upgrading, efficiently managing and cherishing the Vado de Juan Paiz acequia, thus ensuring the preservation of a large bread basked essential to food security in our region.
Located 30 miles south of Las Vegas, the 12-mile-long and 10-feet-wide Vado de Juan Paiz acequia irrigates some 5,000 acres of pasture along the Pecos River, in the Anton Chico/Dilia valley. It is a remarkable feat of engineering and was dug by hand in the 1820’s by the ancestors of the youth that will be attending the Enduring Acequia program.
The acequia runs through the Anton Chico Land Grant. The heirs of Land Grant residents will inherit fertile land and it is imperative that they learn the ins and outs of the physical and administrative management of the acequia infrastructure, ensuring the continuation of a tradition that will provide social, ecological and economical sustenance for future generations of farmers and ranchers in the area.
Our apprenticeship curriculum will cover the historical and cultural significance of acequias, the ecological interactions that take place around these riparian zones, the tried-and-true technical skills to maintain a crucial acequia infrastructure, and the communication and collaborative skills necessary to collectively and harmoniously manage the fair distribution of precious and increasingly unpredictable irrigation water.
During La Limpia, the annual collective cleaning of the ditch, elders often lament that after them, there will be nobody to clean the ditch. The Enduring Acequia program will aim, through engaging the wisdom of elders, story telling, field trips and the use of technology and visual simulation, to sensitize adolescents to the beauty and vital nature of the acequia in their midst.
The Enduring Acequia program will reenergize and support a tradition, and its complex irrigation infrastructure, that has sustained many generations, and ought to continue being honored and practiced to guarantee fertility and biodiversity in the valley.
As an educational nonprofit, Mil Abrazos seeks to integrate technology, traditional wisdom and hands-on learning, to train a new generation of land stewards and regenerative farmers.
Teachers of the program will include current and previous Mayordomos and Commissioners, local elders and historians, watershed educators, and leaders of other Acequia youth programs in Northern New Mexico.
In collaboration with the Anton Chico Economic Development Center, the Anton Chico Land Grant Commission and the Mission de San Jose Church, we will seek the support of the local community to celebrate the Enduring Acequia participants through what used to be a right of passage into adulthood.
The program will kick off in February with La Limpia, when the parciantes gather to clean the acequia by cutting trees, moving rocks, repairing gates and canoas (flumes), and unplugging culverts.
Participants will be dropped off by parents or guardians at the Mil Abrazos Community Land Trust 32-acre property in Dilia, or will be picked up by program staff if requested.
Participants will be picked up by their parents or guardians at a set time, or driven back home by program staff.
Food will be prepared fresh and from the Mil Abrazos garden, and will feature many traditional regional dishes using locally-grown, raised, harvested, fished or hunted ingredients, as a means to further re-acquaint a generation with the taste of their land, and instill them with the vitality necessary to continue stewarding this magnificent valley.
Field trips will take place along the ditch, using various farms as classrooms, with farmers sharing stories and answering questions, informally and interestingly transferring crucial knowledge and wisdom to the next generation so the web of culture, nature and agriculture begins to be reweaved.
The use of technology, an essential tool to help us navigate the complexity of the times and the effects of climate change, will be maximized, to engage the already technologically-adapted minds of adolescents and present them with opportunities to operate high tech tools that their families’ socio-economic status doesn’t offer.
We will use drones for aerial understanding of the ditch engineering, critical structures and access roads; as well as to thoroughly inspect blockages and needed repairs. The drone data will be uploaded to a Simtable, a digital sand table that will map the optimal distribution of irrigation waters and simulates the topography. A combination of these tools will provide us with the technology necessary to engage and empower the next generation of stewards in the acequia culture.
Because an acequia through a desert is a rich riparian zone, with both river, acequia, irrigated fields and deciduous trees, field trips will also involve animal tracking, bird watching, plant identification, hydrology, engineering, math, physics and weather observations.
Climate change awareness will be present through all aspects of the Enduring Acequia program, as the next generation of acequia stewards will need to be well versed in collaboration and adaptability, in order to weather the expected ups and downs of droughts and floods, and assure that this oasis they call home can continue sustaining many generations, providing a desirable habitat for resident and migratory wildlife, and be an essential pillar of food security in the region.
Enduring Acequia educators
Ralph Vigil, Founding President at Molino de la Isla Farmers Cooperative and member of the New Mexico Water Trust Board, Santa Fe.
James Munos, Commissioner, Vado de Juan Paiz, and District Recreation Program Manager for Forest Service, Santa Fe National Forest, Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District.
Hilario Romero, professor of history, Spanish and education, as well as the former director of the New Mexico Educational Opportunity Center at Northern New Mexico College for three decades, was also the state historian and a former archivist at the New Mexico Archives.
Adolfo Bachicha, Anton Chico Land Grant heir and Board Member, and Vado de Juan Paiz Mayordomo.
Rich Shradder, Executive Director of River Source, which supports people living as good stewards of their watersheds by providing watershed science and policy education, planning, monitoring, ecological restoration and adapting to climate change.
Joseph Zebrowski
Director of Geospatial Technology, New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas, NM.
Geographic Information Specialist, NM Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute. Performs geospatial analysis and creates custom maps to support statewide forest and watershed restoration projects.
Poki Piottin, President of
Mil Abrazos and Commissioner for the Vado de Juan Paiz, will coordinate
the program, bringing additional instructors from various communities
experiencing a renewed interest and involvement of their youth in their
acequia governance.
Contact:
Mil Abrazos Community Land Trust
1194 Dilia Loop
La Loma, NM 87724
505-557-7962
info@milabrazos.org
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