Acequia Walk & Talk Caminata & Charla
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- 5 min read
Come walk along each of the South Valley's five historic Acequias and learn why these living waterways matter more than ever.
🌿 Ciclos de la Tierra - Verano / Summer Cycle
There is a sound the South Valley makes in summer that you can only hear if you slow down and listen. It is the sound of water moving through a hand-dug channel, shaded by cottonwoods, pushing past roots and stones, feeding fields that have been planted and harvested here for centuries. It is the sound of an Acequia at work.
Beginning Saturday, June 13 - and with summer solstice arriving June 21 - we invite you to come and experience the unique indigenous irrigation system in the South Valley.
CESOSS’ Acequia Walk & Talks are free, community-led walks of approximately one hour along each of the South Valley's five main Acequias, offered as an opportunity to learn, to connect, and to remember what we are all responsible for together.
What Is an Acequia Walk & Talk?
An Acequia Walk & Talk is exactly what it sounds like: a slow, guided walk along an Acequia, led by community members who know this land and this water. You do not need to be a farmer, a water rights lawyer, or a lifelong South Valley resident to participate. You just need to show up with curiosity and collaboration in mind.
Over the course of about an hour, you will move along the channel, stopping to talk about the history of the Acequia, the families and communities that have maintained it, the plants and animals that depend on it, and the present-day work being done to keep it alive. These are not lectures - they are conversations that happen while we are immersed in the experience together.
The walks take place along the five main Acequias of the South Valley:
Atrisco. Arenal. Armijo. Pajarito. Los Padillas.
Each Acequia has its own character, its own history, its own relationship to the land through which it flows. Walking one is not the same as walking another - and that is exactly the point.
A Living Tradition: The History of South Valley Acequias
Acequias are not simply irrigation ditches. They are communal institutions - some of the oldest functioning democratic governance systems in North America. The word itself comes from Arabic (as-sāqiya), carried into the Southwest through centuries of Indo-Hispano settlement alongside existing Pueblo and Indigenous water knowledge already rooted in this landscape.
The South Valley's five Acequias have been moving water from the Rio Grande to surrounding fields since well before New Mexico became a state. They are maintained collectively by parciantes - the water rights holders who are obligated by tradition and by law to contribute their labor to keep the ditches running. Governance is shared: mayordomos and comisionados oversee each Acequia's distribution of water, and decisions are made in community meetings where every irrigator has a voice.
An Acequia is not just infrastructure. It is a relationship - between neighbors, between land and water, between the living and the generations that came before.
This system of communal water stewardship is indigenous to this landscape in the deepest sense of the word. It is a technology shaped by desert conditions, by the scarcity and unpredictability of water in an arid climate, and by the understanding that no one person can manage water alone.
Why Acequias Matter Right Now
We are not walking the Acequias this summer in a time of abundance. We are walking them in a time of genuine urgency.
⚠ The Middle Rio Grande Is in Crisis
According to water expert Brian Richter, who has spent four decades working on water challenges in more than 40 countries, New Mexico's Rio Grande water supply is "among the worst he's seen." New Mexico has lost more than 70% of the water stored in its reservoirs since 2000. Only one-third of what New Mexicans consume is being replenished. Groundwater is being depleted at a rate exceeding half a million acre-feet per year - enough water to supply every household in the state. This is not a future threat. It is happening now. Read more at New Mexico Water Advocates →
In this context, the Acequia is not a relic. It is a model. Flood irrigation along Acequia channels is one of the only practices in the Middle Rio Grande Valley that actively recharges the aquifer - water that seeps into the ground from unlined earthen ditches and irrigated fields returns to the groundwater system rather than being lost to evaporation or downstream flow. Research by scientists including Dr. Alex Fernald has documented this recharge function for years. At a time when groundwater depletion is among the most serious threats facing this region, the Acequia's ancient technology is doing something no pipe or pump can replicate.
And yet Acequia systems face constant pressure: from water transfers that remove rights from agricultural use, from drought that reduces the flow available to share, from development that fragments the land, and from the simple passage of time as knowledge and practice are not passed on. Walking the Acequia is an act of attention - a way of seeing what is here, and what must be protected.
The Summer Cycle: What Is Growing Right Now
In the Ciclos de la Tierra framework - a place-based educational approach rooted in the agricultural and ecological rhythms of the South Valley - summer solstice on June 21 marks the turning of the year toward its fullest expression of growth.
The long days and warm nights of verano are when the fields are most alive.
When you walk the Acequias this summer, you will pass fields in active production.
Depending on the parcel and the farmer, you may see:
Chile, Corn, Squash, Beans, Tomatoes, Melons, Herbs, Alfalfa.
Current Projects: Acequia Madre
The Walk & Talks also offer an opportunity to learn about active projects that are shaping the future of South Valley Acequias. One of the most significant ongoing efforts is the Acequia Madre project - restoration and maintenance work that supports the long-term viability of Acequia infrastructure, connects community members to the governance process, and documents traditional knowledge for future generations.
What to Expect on a Walk
Come dressed for the weather - summer mornings in the South Valley are warm and can be dusty or muddy near the ditch banks. Wear comfortable walking shoes. Bring water (of course). Walks are family-friendly and move at a pace that allows for conversation and stopping.
There is no fee. There is no expertise required. There is only the Acequia, the water when it is running, the cottonwood shade, and the people who know this place and are willing to share what they know with us.
When you walk an Acequia, you are walking in the footsteps of every person who has ever maintained that channel. That is not a metaphor. That is the actual ground beneath your feet.