These photos come from a project I worked on in 2008 that evaluated a diversity of potential impacts that may result from rehabilitating an acequia in northern New Mexico. From a report I wrote in 2005, “An acequia is a community irrigation ditch and, in New Mexico, an acequia refers to a centuries-old system of communal management of water and to the community of farmers that cooperatively maintain the ditch to distribute irrigation water." Acequias have their origins with the early Spanish settlers during the 1600s. An estimated 1,000 acequias still exist in NM and many of these still provide the basis for the surrounding community's society. A Mayordomo heads each acequia and the 70+ year-old Mayordomo for this acequia accompanied our walk along the ditch, during which he frequently stopped to clean debris from the ditch to keep the water flowing to his irrigators.
© Michael D. Marcus