Congreso, day 1

Day 1, Congreso de las Acequias, Santa Fe, NM
Today's activities at the 10th annual Congreso opened with some remarks by Paula Garcia of the NMAA, followed by a musical performance by a Mr. Roybal who led with a song entitled "Mayordomo." After a brief mingling period, what followed were a rotating set of concurrent workshop sessions. I chose to attend the following.

In the first session, on Water Metering and Masters, participants were led by David Benavides of New Mexico Legal Aid, William Gonzales from the Rio Gallinas Acequia Association (see previous post), and Johnny Reed from the Mimbres Valley (located in southwestern New Mexico). Benavides reviewed the statute language, focusing on what was and was not allowed in terms of water master appointments, but noted the great flexbility the OSE has built into the statute for their own management flexibility.

This was followed up by the two acequia reps who detailed how, in two separate cases, the water master(s) have dealt successively with parciantes in two different basins of New Mexico that are under the Active Water Resource Management rules (see the map). Antonio Gramsci, the noted and long-imprisoned Italian political theorist, would be proud of some of the OSE tactics used in both appointing masters and in trying to coax and coerce water metering (especially in the Mimbres). The kind of cultural-hydraulic hegemony that was attempted, and to a partial degree successful, was chilling to hear about from the Mimbres. Bullying, coercion, consent forms for metering - these are the attempts and strategies of more totalitarian states. When the OSE central gurus moved in to try and smooth over the situation last year, they re-titled their water "masters" as water "liaisons," but as soon as the top OSE staff were gone, the local appointees insisted they were still "masters" of the Mimbres. In similar fashion, this new technocratic approach to managing water is fully wedded to neo-liberal economic models, a la Chicago School, as this story from the Chicago (U) magazine illustrates. If you're not offended by the pharaonic language, and the ageist attitude of the expert cited here, you're not alive. On the Gallinas, a different form of manipulation has taken place with the master/metering process - control and access. Gonzales discussed the various masters that have been put in place, two former OSE officials nearing retirement, and the latest water master who was hired from the outside (but referred to himself as the "new sheriff in town"). Apart from flume and meter design, which remains problematic in all of the actively metered basins where acequias are present, what is notable about the Gallinas arrangement is the re-keying and new locks on central head-gates, once controlled by mayordomos and acequia commissioners, and now increasingly locked down by the water master. The control of water infrastructure is power.

The second session attended was about record-keeping, another reminder of how much more formalized and bureaucratic acequias have (had to) become in the last 20-30 years. A few parciantes/commissioners discussed their methods for record-keeping, with hand-written examples from the Rio Jemez, some basic accounting using Quicken, to more advanced Excel and Quicken spreadsheets for tracking expenses on capital improvement fund expenditures. I won't go into gorey details, other than to say the days of keeping papers in shoe-boxes is now a thing of the past. Gael Minton, from the Taos area (Talpa, to be precise), did mention that they want to start historical record-keeping as a way of keeping alive the traditions of the reparto de aguas (allocation of water) and at least a long-list of past mayordomos. While seemingly less important, the more I think about this, the more crucial it seems. What is being lost, or at least fading quickly, in living memory is the past knowledge of the ancianos. Did they manage by tarea (about two meters), or time of digging, for expended labor? When mayordomos served long period, was it because they were effective, or because no one else volunteered? How did they resolve disputes between neighbors on the ditch? With the 20th century Anglo leisure class invasion in New Mexico, this kind of living cultural memory is not typical, and both local acequias and (I would argue and suggest) regional associations have to get on this matter right now if acequias are to survive. An institution is only as successful as its living and active rules - as Elinor and Vincent Ostrom have long argued - and those rules have to be understood and agreed to by everyone on the ditch.

The final workshop attended was on conflict resolution. This was, as hinted at above, a matter of daily life and management by mayordomos and commissioners in the past. But again, because conflicts and misunderstandings are now more common for a variety of reasons, this is increasingly needed on most acequias. And while the session was meagerly attended compared to the other two, this is an area where the NMAA and the New Mexico Acequia Commission could (and probably should?) become more active. The key, as the session leaders Gonzales and Esther Garcia (Questa) discussed, is finding the root cause of conflict on the ditch or in the wider basin. Problems and conflicts may have no easy resolution, but third parties, ombudsman approaches, and an active ditch commission can go a long way towards identifying possible disaccords and then trying to find an acceptable remedy to all parties.

Then we had a nice break, before the banquet. The long meal, segmented and interspersed with acequia awards, videos/movies by the young Sembrando Semillas participants, and some Teatro de las Acequias skits, was great for discussing more localized news from around New Mexico. Although I will admit to having cringed when I saw that skits were in the mix, these were useful: They illustrated "real" or close to real events that had happened recently and dramatized how local decisions had been made. Most, not surprisingly, revolved around the selling, transfer, or use of water rights along acequias. Even if parciantes discuss aspects and challenges that sound similar, the details are always different, so it was worth it. It was disappointing not to see some past faces, who have passed (Priscilla Salazar Martinez, San Luis, CO), and those who were honored but could not make it (Juan Estevan Arellano, un saludo cordial!). Long-time legal counsel for parciantes, David Benavides, was also honored with an acequia advocate award (along with Arellano). Kudos Estevan and David! It was an interesting event, a great set of workshops, that preceded the actual congreso of regional acequia delegates that took place on the second day. More on that soon...but the first day was a great success.