Romance, roots, and reality: Acequias sin parciantes?

At an interesting set of mini-lectures last night, in Taos, UNM's Sylvia Rodriguez and Enrique Lamadrid were joined by journalist and agriculture-enthusiast Estevan Arellano, at the UNM-Taos campus just south of town, to discuss acequias in a new series on Agua y Cultura. If there was something of note, it's that the two academics seemed more hopeful, more in optimistic key, than the veteran parciante from Embudo (Arellano). Lamadrid discussed some of the recent summer trips to Mexico, where they went to rural Chihuahua, places like Aldama in the Allende Valley, to find the roots of New Mexican agricultural and irrigation practices. Sylvia, of course, emphasized the local dimension in Taos but did connect them to the autonomous irrigation communities that can be found in hundreds of places around the globe. Cue Arellano, who simply started reciting a few grim statistics from both acequia areas and the Pueblos themselves nearby, that few are planting anymore. Few parciantes are actually paying dues. There were some good questions from the crowd of about 70+ people in the room, and I had a chance to corral all three people either prior to, or after, the session itself. In the end, it makes you wonder what the future is for an institution (acequia) that manages a ditch (acequia), that may in the future lack participants in the system. Will they be turned into long-term leasing water banks? Will a few commissioners 'sell' the water rights, in the form of a lease, and kick back with the profits? If the economics of farming preclude living from farming, then what comes next?
Stay tuned....

Overgrown acequia near El Rito, NM. 9.10.09