Bringing life to a community: NHCC unveils mosaic highlighting the heritage and history of NM's acequias

Acequias are community irrigation systems in the villages and pueblos of New Mexico.

They have deep roots in two ancient traditions — Pueblo Indian and Spanish.

The pueblos collected and shared water for centuries before the arrival of Spanish colonists in 1598.

The Spanish settlers brought technical knowledge and institutional frameworks for governing irrigation systems, which originated in the Moors’ seven-century occupation of Spain.

Bringing life to a community: NHCC unveils mosaic highlighting the heritage and history of NM's acequias

Both traditions remain important to an understanding of New Mexico’s acequia heritage and the continuing relevance of these “water democracies.”

A call for artists went out in July 2021 for the Acequia Revitalization Project at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

According to the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, it was looking for an artist or team to create an exterior, site-specific commission project to be situated at the Paseo Acequia on the east side of the NHCC campus — which is located south of the New Mexico Mutual Welcome Center and the Torreón.

The NHCC looked for a project which would engage visitors all while exploring the following ideas: acequias, water, movement, journeys, voyages, passageways, connections, the river, the history of acequias, water as life, and respond to the movement and shape of the acequia itself.

Enter Reyes Padilla.

The Albuquerque-based artist was awarded the project, which was a collaboration with Apprenticeships for Leaders in Mosaic Arts (ALMA).

“It’s been a long journey and it’s really rewarding,” Padilla said. “It was a two-year process since we got the project and about four months of installation.”

On Dec. 13, the NHCC held a dedication for the project as it opened to the public officially.

Growing up in northern New Mexico, Padilla would see the acequia snake through his grandfather’s property in Nambé.

He didn’t know it then but the trail of water that would fill and recede throughout his grandfather’s land would be the point of inspiration for the project decades later.

Padilla created colorful artwork showcasing the multicultural history of acequia use in New Mexico through mosaic and concrete stain.

Inside, solar lights symbolize the ever-changing flow of acequias.

“It’s a big honor to tell the story of acequias through this project at the NHCC,” he said. “Working with an organization like ALMA has brought the community together to build something.”

The artists and volunteers had a lot of work to do. The above-ground acequia was previously used as a planter on the east side of NHCC’s campus.

There were weeks of clean up before the process started.

ALMA also hosted tile making and cutting events so that the community would get involved.

ALMA had talked about wanting to work with other artists previous to Padilla reaching out, said Margarita Paz-Pedro, operations director/ALMA lead artist.

“When he did, it was good timing and something we were open to,” Paz-Pedro said. “We are pretty comfortable with collaboration, and working with an individual artist was a new way to collaborate for us. It’s about relationship building and the shared vision for the final product. It has been fun getting to know each other and creating alongside each other.”

ALMA often works on projects where water is a theme.

The ALMA Summer Institute project at Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge has to do with the surrounding communities’ relationship to the river, water and the land where VDO is, and it has heard many community members’ experiences, Paz-Pedro said.

“We have incorporated acequias in many of our past mosaics and they are a part of many of our (lead artists and apprentices) culture,” Paz-Pedro said. “We have grown up around acequias and appreciate its importance in the desert, where water is sacred. Which is what we hope people will get from looking at it. They are the veins that run through this land, the lifeways of New Mexican culture.”

Since the beginning of July, Padilla and the team worked on the project from sunrise until around noon, when it got too hot.

Each day, around 10 people would construct tents over the space to be worked on.

The 260-foot-long concrete piece has two sides, Padilla said.

“Because it wraps, we’re having to cover 520 feet of mural surface,” he said with a laugh. “There are around 30 points of imagery in the piece. You’ll see wildlife, chile and corn. All the things that make New Mexico special.”

There were seven regular apprentices and three lead apprentices — Jack De La Cruz, Jacquelyn Yepa and Shundiin Nakai — on the project, Paz-Pedro said.

“We pushed our lead apprentices to take a leadership role in this project,” Paz-Pedro said. “They were the ones running the day-to-day parts of the project, with oversight from lead artists. They were the bosses, which is important to us in the mentor/apprentice relationship and creating new leaders.”

After years of work, Padilla is humbled to be part of the project because it tells the story of life in New Mexico.

“The community had to come together to create this,” he said. “We had to bring new life to the area. My hope is that the project will educate and inspire others to love and respect the acequias because they are magic. They bring life to a community.”