Email this page

Stewards of the earth

Preserving culture-and the environment-in New Mexico

By Sayrah Namaste

Acequia: A community-based system of irrigation and water governance; also refers to the group of farmers that cooperatively maintains an acequia’s canals and shares water through custom and tradition.

An Alburquerque farm

In New Mexico, acequias formed the basis for settlement among the state’s Indo-Hispano communities between 200 and 400 years ago. Today, the increasingly bitter struggle for land and water rights threatens both the economic and cultural survival of those communities.

“As we speak, there is a concerted effort to commodify water and turn it into a resource that could be sold to the highest bidder,” says Don Bustos, interim director of the AFSC-New Mexico program. “If this continues, the marginalized communities we work with would be left without water and not able to grow their food.” 

'In order to revitalize local agriculturewe need to keep our acequias flowing so that local farmers and ranchers can meet the need for locally grown food,” he adds.

Working in collaboration with other groups, AFSC-New Mexico is helping local people and organizations regain control over traditionally utilized water resources and determine their future use. The work has ranged from legislative action at the state capitol to “on the ground” work with local farmers to develop environmentally and economically sustainable practices. Staff also have been instrumental in forming coalitions that have organized a variety of campaigns.

Photo: Lisa Sparer Since 1976, the AFSC-New Mexico Program has helped empower local people, with particular attention to water and land use and the need to support traditional ways of life.
In addition to the water rights struggle, the program helps underserved and marginalized communities build sustainable farms. In the past year, AFSC helped start three farms in Albuquerque’s South Valley. One is Red Wolf, an organization of indigenous people who live in an urban setting.

"It is important for them to connect to the land for their spiritual well-being as well as their need for healthy, affordable food,” explains Don, who has farmed for decades on the land that his family has lived and farmed on for the last 400 years. He was recently named “Farmer of the Year” by the state of New Mexico.
He notes that the Red Wolf community is also creating its own method of food security and alternative markets as members trade food among themselves.

AFSC-New Mexico also addresses environmental issues together with various local NGOs. For example, Amigos Bravos deals with a wide range of water quality issues. Don sits on their board of directors and he has pushed the organization to address the link between healthy food and water quality, and to expand its work to the underserved communities of the South Valley.
Due in part to the work of AFSC, Amigos Bravos and the New Mexico Acequia Association have joined together to file a 60-day notice of intent to sue the Los Alamos National Laboratories. At issue is the contamination of the Rio Grande River stemming from the laboratories’ improper disposal of toxic materials at several dump sites.

" We are not only defending our water but building for the future,” Don says. “To sustain our way of life, we must protect water as a community resource and strengthen the agricultural traditions of our families and communities.”

Sayrah Namaste is a staff member of the AFSC-New Mexico program.

^ Top of page