Summer Program

ACEQUIA CULTURE & SYSTEMS OF NEW MEXICO & CHIHUAHUA

DOCUMENTARY FIELD SCHOOL 2009 Summer Special Session / June 8 - July 3 / 9-12 MTWRF UNM Main Campus-Week 1,2,4 / Valle de Allende, Chihuahua - Week 3

Chicano Hispano Mexicano Studies CHMS

Water Resources Program

UNM Taos – Water Institute

FIELD SEMINARS: A field based survey of the Acequia Culture and Systems of New Mexico and Chihuahua. Special attention to the folkways associated with traditional management of land, water, and agriculture. This overview of the ecology, history, ethnography, and sustainable systems of the region is accompanied by training in digital documentary technology, interview techniques, field notes, archiving, analysis, and the ethics of cultural representation. Day trip fieldwork will be conducted in Albuquerque & Carnuel, with extended field trip to Valle de Allende in Chihuahua state.

FIELD SITE: Founded in 1569 and originally named San Bartolomé, this beautiful spring-fed valley fed the Santa Bárbara mines. An 80 mile riparian forest of native pecans is the ecological setting. In 1598 the colonists who settled New Mexico spent many months here. Well into the 19th century Valle de Allende was the aduana or entry point into New Mexico. The area was the cradle of the new agriculture of New Mexico and is still home to an astounding variety of heritage crops. The acequia system also dates to the 16th century and is remarkable for its transition from rural to urban zones, where it flows alongside streets, under sidewalks, and through houses, where precious water is captured in patio fountains and aljibes or stone water cisterns.

OBJECTIVES: -Special emphasis on cultural mapping and qualitative research. -Training in contemporary ethnographic techniques and digital documentation. -Observation of the landscape, settlements, village plazas, etc. Analysis of small scale irrigation systems and the “acequia culture”: its ecological landscape, soils, rivers, aquifers, flora and fauna; as well as it material bases such as dams, ditches, canals, and irrigated plots. -Exploration of the acequia systems of Chihuahua and New Mexico with overview of cultural history and the development of agriculture.

TASKS: Students will expand their understanding of Acequia Culture in New Mexico through field work and participant observation. Methods of inquiry include: -Reading / selected bibliography and web sites -Interviews of cultural practitioners -Seminar discussions -Writing for scripts and labels Students will document their field work with: -Field notes and diary -Digital photo, audio, and visual imaging -Transcriptions, indexing, and analysis Students will edit and present their findings in the following formats: -Photo essays, with commentaries illustrating some aspect of the celebrations and traditions that we are documenting -Audio collages. -Video pieces. -Poster presentations. -On line audio visual pieces (digital “slide/tape shows”.

PROFESSORS: From UNM include cultural historian Enrique Lamadrid – CHMS; photographer and documentarian Miguel Gandert – Communications & Journalism, and water systems engineer Bruce Thomson – Water Resources. From UNM Taos acequia historian and activist Estevan Arellano. From Colegio de Postgrados del Instituto Nacional de Agricultura, Tomás Martínez Saldaña, Mexico’s renown scholar of acequia systems. Special guest lectures and field presentations by José Rivera, Sylvia Rodríguez, and Manuel García y Griego.

CREDIT: Students can earn up to 6 credit hours in this project and are encouraged to sign up for all 6. Weekly hours are the same for 3 as for 6. Students can enroll in any of the cross list sections (003 and 004): 17710 CHMS 393 003 Intercultural Legacy: Borderlands - M.Gandert AMST 350 003, ANTH 340 003, ARCH 412/512 003, NATV 450 003 17711 CHMS 393 004 Acequia Culture-Fieldwork - E. Lamadrid ANTH 399 004, C&J 413 004, SPAN 301 004 Graduate credit is available in the above departments on an individual basis. Graduate students from the Water Resources Program will be joining us in Mexico.

SCHEDULE: Morning workshops and classes, afternoon field work and editing sessions. Eleven day field trip to Chihuahua state June 16-26, 2008. In a final seminar on August 29 students present their research in a multi-media forum

EVALUATION: Based on participation in all the events: classes, lectures, fieldwork, field research, laboratory, and final seminar. All participants will choose an area of study and conduct field research which will be processed in multiple digital formats and presented in poster, power point, video and audio formats at the public forum on August 31, 2008.

COSTS: 6 hours of Summer Session tuition - same for in and out of state. $250 field work fee to cover transportation, housing, and some group meals in Mexico.

TEXTS: On electronic reserve: Selected articles, Mexican books, websites - Library of Congress, NMAA, Google Earth, etc.

Crawford, Stanley. Mayordomo: Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexico.

Rivera, José. Acequia Culture.

Rodríguez, Sylvia. Acequia: Water Sharing, Sanctity, and Place.

Please click here for the 2009 Summer Application.