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Full-Text Articles in Architecture
The Water Mills Of The Historic Río Arriba In Northcentral New Mexico, 1598-1975, José A. Rivera Ph.D, Thomas F. Glick Ph.D
The Water Mills Of The Historic Río Arriba In Northcentral New Mexico, 1598-1975, José A. Rivera Ph.D, Thomas F. Glick Ph.D
Faculty Publications
The water mills of New Mexico played a major role in the agricultural economy of the Río Arriba for centuries following the introduction of wheat from the Old World to the Americas. Wheat, in its ground form as flour, was a staple during the Spanish colonial period. To process raw wheat, local grist mills (molinos) were essential infrastructure as were the aceq uias (ditches) that powered them. Situated near the banks of rivers, the internal components of each mill were driven by the gravity force of water from an acequia, itself diverted from the river. Researchers have documented …
La Acequia De La Cuchilla: The Ditch That Runs Uphill, José A. Rivera Ph.D, Thomas F. Glick Ph.D
La Acequia De La Cuchilla: The Ditch That Runs Uphill, José A. Rivera Ph.D, Thomas F. Glick Ph.D
Faculty Publications
The Río Hondo Valley in Taos County of New Mexico is known for its picturesque setting and the stunning valley floor stretching from Valdez on the eastern edge downstream to Arroyo Hondo just before the Río Grande gorge on its western boundary. Above the valley is a plain known as Des Montes. Each of these communities was settled in the nineteenth century coincident with the building of acequias to sustain village agriculture, the only economy of the time. One of the irrigation systems, La Acequia de la Cuchilla, often is said to be “the ditch that runs uphill.” From …
Travels In El Levante Spain: Field Notes And Reflections Summer Of 1999, José A. Rivera Ph.D
Travels In El Levante Spain: Field Notes And Reflections Summer Of 1999, José A. Rivera Ph.D
Faculty Publications
In the summer of 1999, I traveled to eastern Spain to observe the irrigated landscapes of the region known as huertas. I had recently completed a book about the community acequias of the upper Río Grande and set out to compare them with counterpart systems of Valencia, Murcia, and Lorca. In Valencia the highlights included a session of the fabled Water Court, the Tribunal de las Aguas de Valencia, and a tour of huertas within the urbanized portion of city. In Murcia I visited the office of the Junta de Hacendados and from there made it a point to …
The Zanjeras Of Ilocos In The Northern Philippines: A Legacy Of Sustainable Resource Management, José A. Rivera Ph.D
The Zanjeras Of Ilocos In The Northern Philippines: A Legacy Of Sustainable Resource Management, José A. Rivera Ph.D
Faculty Publications
Zanjeras are farmer-managed irrigation systems that have endured for centuries in the Ilocos region of northern Luzon in the Philippines. These cooperative irrigation societies emerged during the Spanish regime when Augustinians were deployed to congregate indigenous populations into pueblos, convert them to Christianity, and raise tributes for the Crown. Zanjeras evolved from a blending of two traditions: the Iberian model of irrigation and indigenized practices of water-for-land exchanges with landowners and atar-holdings to distribute shares among the members. Like other community-based irrigation systems in Southeast Asia and globally, zanjeras are self-governed, long-enduring, and serve as exemplary models of …
Land Rich, Cash Poor: Hispanic Subsistence Agri-Culture On Acequia Farms Of Northern New Mexico, 1880-1950s, José A. Rivera Ph.D.
Land Rich, Cash Poor: Hispanic Subsistence Agri-Culture On Acequia Farms Of Northern New Mexico, 1880-1950s, José A. Rivera Ph.D.
Faculty Publications
Acequia-based agriculture in Hispanic northern New Mexico originated with the arrival of settlers from the central valley of Mexico in the late sixteenth century and later following the Camino Real into the upper Río Grande and its tributaries. The high desert environment required irrigation for food production and survival. Land parcels in the rural villages of northern New Mexico were small, and crop yields were limited to home consumption on a subsistence basis, an economy that lasted well into the territorial period and statehood of New Mexico. Despite a wage economy introduced with the arrival of the railroad around 1880 …