Architecture Commons^™

The Juan De La Cruz Molino: Folk Architecture At El Güique-Estaca New Mexico, José A. Rivera Ph.D

Faculty Publications

El Güique and Estaca are twin communities just north of the confluence of the Río Grande and the Río Chama. Like other Spanish colonial settlements in the historic Río Arriba, acequia-based agriculture was essential for food production in this high desert region of the northern Río Grande. Along with the construction of acequias, molinos (grist mills) were built to grind wheat into flour as part of the subsistence farming economy of the times. While acequias were communal, molinos most often were constructed and operated as private enterprises by local millers like the case of Juan de la Cruz Borrego and …

El Pequeño Riego De México: Puebla, Morelos, Y Baja California Sur, José A. Rivera Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Small to medium-sized irrigation systems in México are characterized in the literature as El Pequeño Riego. Some systems can be compared to those in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, while others are significantly larger and more complex. Regardless of irrigated acres or hectáreas, however, there are many elements that are commonly shared across these regions. Firstly, the irrigation works are based on the use of acequias dug from the earth that need to be maintained and cleaned season to season. The terms canals and acequias are interchangeable. Secondly, the irrigators themselves, whether called parciantes or regantes, take …

The Town That Built Its Own River: La Plaza Del Cerro At Taos County New Mexico, José A. Rivera Ph.D

Faculty Publications

Cerro is an unincorporated community in Taos County, New Mexico, and is situated near New Mexico State Highway 522 heading north to the Colorado border. Nearby is Cerro de Guadalupe, a peak that has an elevation of 8,796 feet and Cerro at 7,490 feet. The connection to Guadalupe Mountain gave the town its original name as “La Plaza del Cerro de Guadalupe.” Cerro was established in the early 1850s by settlers who arrived from nearby Questa and Taos. By itself, Guadalupe Mountain did not provide sufficient water to sustain an agrarian economy based on farming and livestock ranching as was …

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 …

The Municipal Acequias Of San Fernando De Béxar: A Working Paper, José A. Rivera Ph.D

Faculty Publications

Of the seven acequia irrigation systems constructed during the height of San Antonio’s Spanish colonial period, five were built for the benefit of the Franciscan missions and their indigenous residents: San Antonio de Valero, Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña, San José y San Miguel de Aguayo, San Juan Capistrano, and San Francisco de la Espada. In addition to the five mission acequias, other diversions from the Río de San Antonio and San Pedro Creek were constructed for civilian use within the municipality of San Fernando de Béxar, founded in 1731, now San Antonio: the San Pedro Acequia …

Water-Based Settlements At The Confluence: San Gabriel & El Guique New Mexico, José A. Rivera Ph.D

Faculty Publications

After more than four centuries, the acequias of New Mexico continue to serve agricultural purposes in spite of economic, demographic, political, technological, and environmental changes. Their origins can be traced to early settlements at the confluence of the Río Grande and the Río Chama, the birthplace of Iberian acequia irrigation in New Mexico. This article demonstrates the value of water in high desert environments where mountain snowpacks feed rivers and streams that are diverted to irrigate fields in places such as San Gabriel (now Chamita) and El Guique. These and other acequia communities in the region should be protected for …

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 …

Transmountain Diversion In The Forest Wilderness: Natural History Is Human History, José A. Rivera Ph.D

Faculty Publications

The case study details how an adjudication involving the water rights of Indigenous pueblos downstream of rights held by Hispano irrigators led to a prolonged conflict not with the pueblos but between Cuba valley farmers and the United States Forest Service. It happened that an adjudication decree in federal court mandated the Nacimiento Community Ditch Association to replace its diversion located in a wilderness forest with a modern structure to partition water equitably among all users on the Jémez River. The transmountain diversion, as it was called, took water out of the Jémez basin and dropped it to a canyon …

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

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.

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 …

Presas Efímeras Of New Mexico, José A. Rivera Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

The main title of this paper mimics a groundbreaking investigation by anthropologist Teresa Rojas Rabiela and ethnohistorian Ignacio Gutiérrez Ruvalcaba titled: Las presas efímeras mexicanas, del pasado y del presente (Ephemeral diversion dams of Mexico, past and present). Their study inspired the addition of counterpart cases from Nuevo México, a former Mexican province directly north of the Juarez-El Paso border. The work here describes the traditional dams of the northern Río Grande region and also serves as a guide to future research and the development of historic preservation projects. After introducing readers to Las presas efímeras mexicanas, …

Towards Creating Smart Cities In Nepal, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Many urban centers in the world are seeking to become smart cities. Nepali city leaders are also aspiring to make their cities smart. A smart city basically has clever improvements made in three sectors of its operations: technological, human, and institutional. Globally, many cities have recently made impressive enhancements in at least one or more of these areas. Nepal’s National Planning Commission (NPC) in 2016 had released a concept paper on smart cities for Nepal, defining smart cities as sustainable, information and technology-based, with high quality services and replicable (NPC 2016). As most Nepali cities still operate with limited infrastructure, …

The Zimmerman Library Mural In The National Register Of Historic Places: A Working Paper And Timeline, Samuel E. Sisneros

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Working paper and timeline about the nomination and listing process of the UNM Zimmerman Library “Three Peoples” paintings to the National Register of Historic Places.

Sustainability, Urban Planning And Development: Sustainable And Self-Reliant Urban Development In Post- Pandemic Nepal, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

COVID-19 pandemic is affecting many aspects of the society, economy and the way people live. The pandemic is also disrupting the process of physical planning and development in the cities. It will perhaps permanently change the way planners and policy makers think about the city and plan for its development. The residents and visitors will also find the city to be different from the pre-COVID-19 era. The emerging situation would likely require new ways of moving, working and living in the city, and building the different physical components of the city.

Cities around the world are experiencing varieties of unexpected …

Urban Development In Nepal And The Impacts Of Covid-19, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

The Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has created a public health crisis worldwide and is impacting the way we plan and design cities. While much is still being learned about Covid-19, we have seen that the virus spreads quickly and its fatality rate is also significant. The virus has already seriously impacted the global economies and most urban activities.

During pandemics, regular public interactions in the city can be the cause for spread of communicable diseases. In this context, urban planning should include approached to help mitigate the spread of virus. Designs of facilities should help the residents to physically distance themselves …

Getting Past Possession: Subsurface Property Disputes As Nuisances, Joseph A. Schremmer

Faculty Scholarship

Property rights in the subsurface of land are adapting to accommodate modern activities like massive hydraulic fracturing (fracing). Property rights will need to continue adapting if they are to accommodate other developing activities like large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS). Courts and commentators rarely approach the nature of subsurface property directly. They tend instead to discuss appropriate standards for tort liability when disputes arise—for example when artificial fissures from a frac treatment extend into and drain oil or gas from a neighbor’s land. The case law and literature generally approach unauthorized subterranean invasions as trespasses. Because the tort of trespass …

Paper Presented At The National Council Of Preservation Education Conference, Samuel E. Sisneros

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Historic preservation’s principles and practices directly correlate and support the charge of librarians and archivists to provide resources for the public and contribute to scholarship and community building. This paper, presented at the National Council of Preservation Education conference in Denver, Colorado (Oct. 10-12, 2019), will discuss the research methodologies, historical context and preservation issues of a recovery project of an historic site in New Mexico.

Belén Plaza Vieja And Colonial Church Preservation And Interpretive Plan, Samuel Sisneros

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

The vision and mission of the Belén Plaza Vieja Preservation Committee is to recover the buried and forgotten history of the town of Belén’s first church and plaza and recreate to some extent the “Plaza Vieja” site to be a vibrant social and educational destination so that local community members and visitors can discover and reclaim this important historical treasure as a vibrant social and spiritual space. It is hoped that this preservation and interpretive plan serves to inform the Belén Plaza Vieja Colonial Church site property owners and stakeholders of possible options and strategies towards a coordinated effort to …

Mapping The Albuquerque Aquifer’S Potentiometric Surface In 2016, Lucas Curry

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

This professional project will examine and map the water levels in Albuquerque for the year 2016 using ArcGIS. The potentiometric surface of Albuquerque’s aquifer will be estimated using data from the USGS, the City of Albuquerque, Sandia National Labs, and Rio Rancho. Problem Statement:

The aquifer underlying the city of Albuquerque is a complex system that continues to be studied, and its capacity was vastly overestimated until the 1990s when local water levels began to drastically decrease. Following the implementation of water conservation measures in the city, Albuquerque further changed its approach to water management in 2008 by incorporating surface …

Feasibility Of Rainwater Catchment In The Taos Mesa Community In Northern New Mexico, Miranda Rivera

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

INTRODUCTION Lack of water is nothing new for New Mexico’s general population. However, its immediate negative effects are unevenly distributed throughout the state, which is increasingly evident in the context of rising temperatures and decreases in precipitation. Access to clean drinking water is significantly more pressing in rural and off-the-grid communities than in metropolitan areas of New Mexico. On the Taos Mesa in northern New Mexico, these off-the-grid communities continue hauling as the only available method for accessing water today. In these communities, water is not only a vital source of livelihood but also necessary for the continuance of cultural …

Belén’S Plaza Vieja And Colonial Church Site: Memory, Continuity And Recovery, Samuel E. Sisneros

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

This is my capstone project for completion of a Post MA certificate in Historic Preservation and Regionalism. I received the degree in Spring, 2019. The project involves recovering the legacy of a historic colonial church site in Belén, New Mexico. The work involves the descendant community’s sense of place and the continuity of memory and sacredness of Belen’s first church and original plaza.

Measuring The Effect Of Urban Development On Runoff Volumes In Albuquerque, Nm, Rachel Hertzman

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

Stormwater runoff volumes increase with urbanization, at a significant cost to the environment (Walsh, et al., 2005; Dhakal & Chevalier, 2016; Warnemuende, Shuster, Smith, & Bonta, 2003; Dougherty, et al., 2007; Jacobson, 2011; Natural Resources Conservation Service, 1986; Masoud, 2015). Urban development alters soil, pollutant loads in runoff, geomorphology, channelization, and topography—determinative factors in conducting stormwater away from habitable areas and filtering toxins from the domestic water supply (Sutton, Anderson, Elvidge, Tuttle, & Ghosh, 2009; Hale, Turnbull, Earl, Childers, & Grimm, 2015; Goldshleger, Maor, Garzuzi, & Asaf, 2015; Schueler, Fraley-McNeal, & Cappiella, 2009; Gremillion, Gonyeau, & Wanielista, 2000; Furusho, Andrieu, …

Cultures Of Exile: Conversations On Language And The Arts, Eleni Bastéa, Walter Putnam, Mark Forte

Faculty Publications

The conference “Cultures of Exile: Conversations on Language and the Arts,” co-organized by Professors Eleni Bastea and Walter Putnam, was inspired by the music of Georges Moustaki (1934--2013), especially his song “Le Métèque” (1969). In “Le Métèque” Moustaki dealt with outsiders, strangers, and all those who do not share one homogeneous place of origin. What does it mean to be a “métèque,” an exile, an outsider today? Although often associated with loss and victimhood, exile can also foster artistic freedom, creativity, renewal, and empowerment. What is the role of the new place in the development of one’s artistic oeuvre? How …

Unm Area Guide To Sustainable Living, Suom Francis, Bernard Williams, Navida Johnson, Sarah Shaw, Evan Langford

Student Publications

Empowering choices for improving the health of our local environment.

Hotter And Drier: Living The Life Of The 21st Century Southwest, William Debuys

Lectures

No abstract provided.

Poster For Monday Lecture Series, Indigenous Architecture Lecture Series

Lectures

Fall 2010 Monday Night Lecture Series, 5:30-6:45, Pearl Auditorium, SAAP, UNM

Keeping "Big Box" Companies Off The Navajo Reservation: A Reaction To President Shirley's Economic Development Plan, Savannah Gene

Student Publications

English 102 research paper submitted in 4/2004