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SENATE MEMORIAL 35

TH LEGISLATURE

- STATE OF NEW MEXICO -

FIRST SESSION

, 2007

INTRODUCED BY

Phil A. Griego

A MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING THE ACEQUIAS AS CULTURAL PATRIMONY OF THE STATE OF

NEW MEXICO AND DECLARING FEBRUARY 15, 2007 AS "ACEQUIA DAY" AT

THE NEW MEXICO LEGISLATURE.

WHEREAS, the cultural landscape of New Mexico has been

shaped by over one thousand acequias that have sustained

families and communities for centuries by serving as the basis

for local food production and water governance; and

WHEREAS, New Mexico's acequias are a synthesis of

cultural, agricultural and legal traditions inherited from

arid-land civilizations of Asia, Africa and the Iberian

peninsula and the indigenous civilizations of the Americas; and

WHEREAS, acequias are rooted in ancient water and

agricultural traditions with origins over ten thousand years

old in present-day India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and crop

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types such as maize with roots thousands of years old from

Oaxaca, Mexico; and

WHEREAS, acequias took root in the Iberian peninsula

through Moorish influence and were part of the institutional

knowledge brought by Spanish settlers to present-day Mexico and

New Mexico, where they incorporated agricultural knowledge and

technologies in use by indigenous communities; and

WHEREAS, community land grants, or mercedes, and acequias

came into existence through the collective effort of their

respective communities between two and four hundred years ago

and were established according to a legal and cultural

tradition of communal property that pre-dates the United

States; and

WHEREAS, acequias embody the fundamental principle that

water is life and continue to operate under basic principles

that have guided them for millennia, including the concepts of

local self-governance, attachment of water to place and

community, and sharing scarce water through local customs known

as the repartimiento; and

WHEREAS, acequias intertwine with the social fabric of

their respective villages and neighborhoods by fostering

community cohesion through communal water management,

democratic participation and traditions of cooperative labor;

and

WHEREAS, acequias sustain a rich heritage and land-based

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culture that is intertwined with unique native food traditions,

regional dialects and language customs, and an expression of

querencia, or love of place, through art and spiritual

traditions; and

WHEREAS, thousands of families in New Mexico generate all

or part of their livelihood from farms and ranches that are fed

by acequia waters and sustained by the community-based system

of water distribution; and

WHEREAS, acequias have imprinted a cultural landscape that

is one of the most culturally and ecologically diverse in the

present-day southwest with a plethora of foods such as multiple

varieties of maize, grains, squash, legumes and other

vegetables and heritage fruits; and

WHEREAS, acequias enhance the natural process of aquifer

recharge by slowing and spreading mountain runoff through an

intricate network of waterways that support river flows and

riparian habitats; and

WHEREAS, acequias are steeped in a legal and cultural

tradition that views water as a community resource in which its

use is intertwined with certain rights and responsibilities

that are oriented toward the common good; and

WHEREAS, acequias in New Mexico have endured tremendous

social and political changes, particularly after the signing of

the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and the Territorial

Water Code of 1907; and

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WHEREAS, although the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

guaranteed property rights, most of the historic common lands

of New Mexico's mercedes were expropriated within fifty years

of the United States conquest of the area; and

WHEREAS, the legal framework adopted by the Territorial

Water Code of 1907 profoundly changed the nature of water

rights in New Mexico by making individual water rights

transferable, thereby allowing water to be viewed as a

commodity that is in contrast to the traditional view of water

as a community resource; and

WHEREAS, New Mexico is a place of chronic water scarcity

and is facing unprecedented demands for water to support

continued growth and development; and

WHEREAS, a prevalent assumption is that water rights to

support growth will come as a result of water transfers out of

agriculture to urban and commercial development; and

WHEREAS, acequias and agricultural communities are

economically disadvantaged and are likely to experience a net

loss of water rights from their communities as wealthier

individuals, entities and regions acquire water rights from a

position of greater economic power; and

WHEREAS, as a result of regional water planning efforts,

projections based on current trends include estimates of a net

loss of agriculture of between thirty percent and sixty percent

in certain regions in the next forty years; and

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WHEREAS, acequias and agricultural communities will need

their water rights base for the future needs of their

respective communities, including agricultural revitalization,

residential development and sustainable rural economic

development; and

WHEREAS, acequia communities are increasingly faced with

water quality problems resulting from various types of

contamination, thereby impairing local capacity for local food

production; and

WHEREAS, in response to these challenges, acequias have

organized at the local, regional and state levels to address

the threats to the viability of acequias and small-scale

agriculture to ensure that the cultural heritage, generational

memory and indigenous knowledge embodied in the acequias be

passed on to future generations of New Mexicans; and

WHEREAS, many acequia leaders in New Mexico came together

to form regional associations of acequias and to form the

statewide congreso de las acequias, which is the governing body

of the New Mexico acequia association and is comprised of

regional delegations from over twenty different regions in the

state; and

WHEREAS, the New Mexico acequia association has

established programs to protect acequia water rights,

strengthen acequia governance, educate youth about acequia

agriculture and support acequia farmers and ranchers; and

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WHEREAS, in recent years, the legislature has expressed

support for acequias by enacting various laws that strengthen

acequia governance, including recognition of regulatory

authority over water transfers, establishment of acequia water

banking and strengthening of acequia enforcement powers

regarding easements;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE

OF NEW MEXICO that February 15, 2007 be declared "Acequia Day"

at the legislature, and that acequias be recognized as the

cultural patrimony of the state of New Mexico because of their

historic, social, economic, ecological and cultural

significance; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all relevant state agencies,

educational institutions and commissions collaborate with the

New Mexico acequia association in seeking a designation at the

national and international levels for designation as cultural

patrimony and cultural heritage areas; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the office of the state

engineer work with the New Mexico acequia association to

provide greater support to acequias in the area of

infrastructure development, water rights record-keeping,

acequia inventory development, adjudication reform and

regulation of water transfers; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the interstate stream

commission collaborate with the New Mexico acequia association

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to give greater consideration to acequias in upcoming revisions

to the state water plan; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the department of environment

collaborate with the New Mexico acequia association to protect

the water quality of rivers and streams that feed acequia

watercourses and to enforce water quality regulations as

appropriate; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the energy, minerals and

natural resources department include acequia representation in

policy development with regard to watershed management and

restoration; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the public education

department support efforts of the New Mexico acequia

association to develop curricula that recognize the historical,

ecological and cultural significance of acequias; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the cultural affairs

department collaborate with the New Mexico acequia association

to create educational exhibits for the general public; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be

transmitted to the governor, the office of the state engineer,

the interstate stream commission, the department of

environment, the energy, minerals and natural resources

department, the public education department and the cultural

affairs department.

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