John Nichols, well-known author and activist, will speak Saturday, March 26, at 2 p.m. as part of the “Open Doors: Regional Scholars and Writers Series” presented by the Center for Southwest Research in University Libraries. The talk, titled "Agua, Nuestra Vida: Water and Life in New Mexico," will be in the Willard Reading Room in the west wing of Zimmerman Library.
Nichols, a long-time resident of northern New Mexico says the lecture will be an overview about the way acequias and water distribution has traditionally worked, especially in the area near Taos.
He says “traditional uses—so important to community and culture in our state—have always been under attack by urban expansion, retirement and resort development, and corporate irrigation and conservancy districts that have caused a realignment of natural resources and human demographics that threaten the well-being of our traditional communities as well as the ecosystem that sustains them.”
Nichols adds, “Unless there is a worldwide serious reappraisal of the economic greed and mindless growth driving humanity toward an Apocalypse, we will see the culture, history, landscape, and cohesion of New Mexico destroyed by a local and national and international economic system that robs water from everybody to fuel the plundering of the earth.”
Nichols’ talk is free and open to the public.
Contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627