Dr. Sylvia Rodriguez will present the Fourth Annual Madrid Collection Lecture

Dr. Sylvia Rodriguez will present the Fourth Annual Madrid Collection Lecture at the Ben Lujan Library at Northern New Mexico College.  An abstract of her talk Acequias Matter and Acequia Matters, Una Plática Acequiera below:

The saying “cada cabeza es un mundo” also applies to acequias. Each acequia is a world unto itself, and every parciante or irrigator comes to know it intimately through practical hands-on engagement and interaction with neighboring parciantes. Yet all acequias share features in common, and further resemble other autonomous or farmer-organized gravity-fed irrigation communities around the world. This plática or talk considers acequias in the Taos Valley in terms of their history, ecology, political economy, sociocultural character, modern challenges, global context, and prospects in light of social and climate change. Threatened with extinction and regarded as obsolete by those who covet their water rights, acequias operate according principles that have proven sustainable through time and which offer important lessons about adaptation and resilience under conditions of scarcity.

You can also access the talk via Zoom: https://nnmc.zoom.us/j/95698316780