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New Mexico Acequia Association

Image of an acequia, a traditional irrigating system of New Mexico.
Courtesy of New Mexico Acequia Association
Courtesy of New Mexico Acequia Association

The New Mexico Acequia Association (NMAA) offers intergenerational mentoring, farmer training, advocacy, and community organizing to grow healthy food for families and communities, honor cultural heritage, and protect the ancient waterways—acequias—of New Mexico.

NMAA projects, events, and programs connect youth and participants of all ages not only to farming and acequia knowledge and skills but also to the canciones (songs), bendiciones (prayers), cuentos (stories), and community historias (histories) that have always guided and provided strength to communities.

“In our vision, acequias flow with clean water, people work together to grow food, and communities celebrate cultural and spiritual traditions.”

— New Mexico Acequia Association

Featured Media

Donne Gonzales examines lambsquarter seeds on her family’s land.
Rio Grande Sun

Returning to the North: The Limits of the Northern New Mexican Dream

Young people in New Mexico are returning to family lands and re-learning land-based traditions with the help of organizations like New Mexico Acequia Association.
A girl works the acequia with a tool.
Acequia flowing with water.
Working the acequia. Courtesy of New Mexico Acequia Association
Acequia flowing with water. Courtesy of New Mexico Acequia Association
The American Prospect

Water Democracies

Four-hundred-year-old acequia systems of the Southwest are changing how communities cope with water scarcity.