Abstract
The Mexico-US border region is home to a particular hydraulic tradition with important social, cultural and environmental dimensions. This article discusses the ways that European, indigenous and mestizo colonists from central Mexico reshaped the borderlands as they molded Mesoamerican irrigation systems to the arid landscapes of the region. Small-scale irrigation systems conserve humidity and protect against heat and cold, and allow the reproduction of plants that constitute an important source of biodiversity, as well as a viable economic strategy for small-scale farmers. Religious festivals and rituals, together with social organizations, bring people together in communities around these irrigation systems. The author argues that these traditions are alive and well in many places, and constitute a shared inheritance of sustainable adaptation for people on both sides of the national-state divide.Key words: Mexico-US border, Rio Bravo/Grande, water rituals, acequias
Highlights
In northern Mexico there are agricultural settlements whose origins can be traced to the highlands of central Mexico, a fact unknown to most of the people who live in or study the North
Relatively little is known of the humble soldiers, shepherds and peasants who paved the roads of conquest, produced the food, defended the gains and assured the continuity of the settlements (Mecham 1927; Mendizábal 1943; Morales Rodríguez 1949; Morfi 1980; Moorhead 1975; De la Mota and Escobar 1940; Nostrand 1992)
The small riverbank irrigation systems these settlers created, and the economy supported by these systems, defined the contours of a cultural and environmental region as big as Western Europe, spread throughout the southwest United States and Northern Mexico
Summary
In northern Mexico there are agricultural settlements whose origins can be traced to the highlands of central Mexico, a fact unknown to most of the people who live in or study the North. There are aspects of this history that are increasingly important, in particular the way these small agricultural settlements defend the water that makes the desert bloom and has supported their way of life for centuries This legacy of local knowledge, born of centuries of managing hydraulic resources for farms and livestock, forms a technological fund which, for its versatility, adaptability and profitability, has permitted the survival of a material culture that has overcome the challenges of the desert environment (Doolittle 1990; Donkin 1979). The small riverbank irrigation systems these settlers created, and the economy supported by these systems, defined the contours of a cultural and environmental region as big as Western Europe, spread throughout the southwest United States and Northern Mexico
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