Enrique Lamadrid and Jose Rivera, editors of Water for the People: The Acequia Heritage of New Mexico in a Global Context, discuss this compilation of 25 essays by world-renowned acequia scholars. Topics will include acequia culture, use, and history in New Mexico and worldwide, situating our own state’s acequia heritage and its inherent sustainable design within a global framework. Acequias dating from as far back as the late 16th century continue to irrigate their communities today despite threats of prolonged drought, urbanization, private water markets, extreme water scarcity, and climate change. Water for the People celebrates acequia practices and traditions and shows how these ancient irrigation systems continue to provide arid regions with a model for water governance, sustainable food systems, and community traditions that reaffirm a deep cultural and spiritual relationship with the land year after year.
Enrique R. Lamadrid is a distinguished professor emeritus of Spanish at the University of New Mexico. He is the editor of the Querencias Series at the University of New Mexico Press.
José A. Rivera is professor emeritus of community and regional planning at the University of New Mexico. He is the author of Acequia Culture: Water, Land, and Community in the Southwest (UNM Press).
This virtual event is free and open to the public. Register here.