{"id":490,"date":"2011-06-05T03:58:19","date_gmt":"2011-06-05T03:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jplarroque.com\/?p=490"},"modified":"2016-12-11T16:40:49","modified_gmt":"2016-12-11T16:40:49","slug":"acequia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/2011\/06\/05\/acequia\/","title":{"rendered":"Acequia"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AAm3Y1J4l80?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h3>Observe:<\/h3>\n<p>San Antonio de Padua\u00a0is one the oldest villages in the Sandia Mountans. Thirty miles east of Albuquerque, New Mexico, it sits at the crossroads of two great passageways of human migration: the Camino Royal, used by Spanish conquistadors to travel from Mexico City to Santa Fe, and Route 66, one of America&#8217;s original highways linking Chicago to Los Angeles. \u00a0San Antonio was founded near a mountain spring called an\u00a0acequia. It has provided drinking water and served as a meeting point for Native Americans, Hispanics, and Gringos for hundreds of years. Archeological evidence suggests\u00a0that nomadic travelers may have been stopping by the acequia since the end of the last ice age.<\/p>\n<p>During San Antonio&#8217;s Catholic feast days\u00a0residents bless\u00a0the acequia. The ceremony is performed by matachines dancers who are rooted in Spanish, Moorish, Aztec, Pueblo Indian, and Hispanic traditions.<\/p>\n<h3>Perceive:<\/h3>\n<p>In the desert\u00a0environment of the American Southwest, water is not a commodity, but a luxury. There are reports that new golf courses and suburban lawns are draining the aquifer. Some speculate\u00a0that the area\u00a0will soon turn into a dustbowl.\u00a0Growing up in the Sandia Mountains, I watched my family and neighbors battle real estate developers. I wondered how they were able to preserve the character of our\u00a0community when everywhere else was turning into sprawl and strip malls.<\/p>\n<h3>Record:<\/h3>\n<p>I\u2019ve been attending the matachines dances since I was a teenager. One year\u00a0the local East Mountain Historical Society asked me to videotape the fiestas. I recorded matachines, abuelos, malinches, and mayordomos participating in vesper masses, processions and dances at San Antonio.<\/p>\n<p>After the fiestas, I kept returning back to the acequia to walk through its surrounding apple orchards and enjoy its natural beauty. Sometimes I would come across Chris Jinzo, the caretaker of the acequia. He told\u00a0me stories about San Antonio as he cleaned and inspected the spring. Once, I met\u00a0a curandiero who showed me the plants that she used in her traditional healing rituals.<\/p>\n<h3>Affect:<\/h3>\n<p>The completed film was screened by the East Mountain Historical Society on the the one hundredth anniversary of New Mexico&#8217;s statehood. It was projected against the back wall of a church down the road from San Antonio in Tijeras.<\/p>\n<p>I want\u00a0the documentary to bring awareness to the\u00a0San Antonio and its cultural heritage. Development is a constant threat to the village. Every year its borders become a little smaller; its traditions practiced a little less. I also hope that the video can\u00a0be an inspiration, first to the residents who must keep fighting, and also\u00a0to other small, rural communities that\u00a0face similar challenges. By understanding\u00a0our challenges\u00a0a little better we can\u00a0take the necessary steps to overcome them.<\/p>\n<h3>Evolve:<\/h3>\n<p>San Antonio de Padua\u00a0is unique because it resisted the urban sprawl that has come to characterize the American Southwest. When Walmart proposed a new super-center a mile down the road from San Antonio, residents rabidly protested. Their critics claimed resistance was futile. No one can stop Walmart. Surprisingly, the East Mountains was able to keep the box store out.<\/p>\n<p>What can we learn about preservation from a place that is constantly being invaded by a new party of settlers? San Antonio de Padua has seen different ethnic groups negotiate its land use for hundreds if not thousands of years.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, for countless generations, San Antonio continues to preserve this tiny spring. The water is so clean that you can drink it straight out of the acequia, something rare in the world we live in today. The high quality of the spring is made possible through the residents&#8217; understanding of the high-desert environment they live in, preservation of past traditions, and the ability to adapt to the present environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;When the developer was unable to access the water it thwarted his plans. The community wanted to see that the cultural and natural resources were protected.&#8221; &#8211; Colleen Langan, Bernalillo County Open Space<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[571,5,9],"tags":[163,579,625,620,630,631,243,632,37,249,250,629,626,636,624,633,623,627,622,97,635,621,618,619,628,634,149],"class_list":["post-490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-mexico","category-portfolio","category-videos","tag-acequia","tag-american-southwest","tag-archeology","tag-camino-royal","tag-catholic","tag-church","tag-culture","tag-curandiero","tag-dance","tag-desert","tag-development","tag-east-mountain-historical-society","tag-fiestas","tag-gentrification","tag-gringos","tag-heritage","tag-hispanics","tag-matachines","tag-native-americans","tag-new-mexico","tag-preservation","tag-route-66","tag-san-antonio-de-padua","tag-sandia-mountains","tag-traditions","tag-walmart","tag-water","post_format-post-format-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1538,"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions\/1538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jplarroque.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}