Rivera’s Book Acequia Culture Now Available in Spanish

Jose Rivera published Acequia Culture: Water, Land, and Community in the Southwest, in 1998. The book has now been translated into Spanish, La Cultura de la Acequia: Agua, tierra y comunidad en el Suroeste de les Estados Unidos de América, translated by Luis Pablo Martínez and published by the Universidad de Valencia in Spain. Rivera is a research scholar, UNM Center for Regional Studies and on faculty in the School of Architecture and Planning’s community and regional planning department.

It is completely appropriate, he said, that the book be published in Valencia. “The city is the site of The Water Court, or Tribunal de las Aguas – which is the oldest democratic institution in Europe that has survived to our days, spanning a whole millennium,” Rivera said.

Originally introduced by the Moorish farmers to regulate the irrigation infrastructure in the fields, the Water Court is a group of elected judges from the country who resolve all irrigation disputes once a week, swiftly by employing common sense. All members are equal to each other and sit in a circle. This court handles all issues orally, nothing is written down and no records are kept. It hasn’t changed for more than a thousand years and takes place in full public view.

Rivera said that acequias were used by indigenous people in the Southwest, but their development expanded under the Spanish. “The system in New Mexico had its beginnings with the Pueblo Indians. Up until the late 1600s, the Spanish colonized the region and integrated many of the old Pueblo acequias with new networks, which the Moors had taught them centuries before,” he said. He added that the techniques were similar to those used by the Pueblos.

In New Mexico, each year a mayordomo, or manager, and three commissioners are elected to oversee water rates and insure fair distribution of water to each landowner who farms along the acequia. The mayordomo supervises the annual spring clearing of his association's acequia, determines the amount of water that each user will receive, and is partially responsible for record keeping and payrolls. An individual’s share of water is determined by the nature of his plantings and the weather. Mayordomos also must address family feuds, annual dues or "delincuencias" and users who cheat by diverting water to their lands.

Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu