Ona cold morning in downtown Santa Fe, dozens of residents gathered for the annual limpia, or spring cleaning, of the historic Acequia Madre.
Eric Montoya, the mayordomo of the acequia, started the cleaning with a blessing. "Lord, I want to thank you for such a beautiful day today. Thank you for bringing all these wonderful people out for the 416th annual acequia cleaning. We appreciate you, we hope that we can get everything done safely today and just enjoy each other’s company, enjoy this long tradition. Can’t wait for the water, Lord. We hope you bless us with some wonderful water this year."
Also organizing the cleanup was Miche Bové Garcia. Her official title of the acequia. But she said that for most of her life, she was called a ditch rider.
"I grew up in the house my mother was born in off the Acequia Madre, so all my life I’ve been doing this," she explained. "There’s pictures of me in the [Santa Fe] New Mexican when I was a teenager, coming out of a culvert. So this is all I know.
"My grandfather would say it’s time to clean the ditch, he taught my father that’s what we needed to do, and then we just continued tradition.”
That tradition, however, has changed a lot over the course of four hundred and sixteen years. Bove Garcia’s father, Phil, was commissioner for almost fifty years before passing down the role. According to him, the neighborhood isn’t the same as it once was.
"I think a lot of properties are now being rented for people who come to visit Santa Fe," he said, adding that many of the old-timers he used to know are "thinning out."
"Canyon Road, I only know one person up there now. Lot of my neighbors were old like I am, and they pass on, and the property goes to who knows. So that’s really been different."
Miche noted that the acequia has changed as well. "I remember when this acequia would run most of the time, without having releases. We never had to work with the city to get a release of water. Now we’re just hoping that we get water maybe through June. I mean, we just don’t know. It’s dry. It’s dry and scary."
The Acequia Madre, which flows for seven miles throughout Santa Fe, currently serves forty-seven parciantes, or households. Many of them still use the acequia for irrigation, like thirty-year resident Pitu Martín.
"I have trees and I have some flowers and irises," she said. "It’s a small yard, so it’s not a luscious garden, but it works for me."
This is her eighth year participating in the limpia, she explained as she dug into the debris with a rake. "These leaves just get compressed and wet. It'd be great compost, but for the acequia it’s not that great 'cause it clogs things. The sticks make a nest of their own and that blocks the water. It’s nice to keep it as clean as we can."
As Martín worked, she described how much she loved the sense of community that she felt during the limpia. "You know, children, grown-ups, retired people, all kinds of people are out helping each other. And then we have a dinner and everyone contributes. It’s a very bonding experience. It’s an old tradition that needs to be kept."
Several of the kids helping with the limpia are students at the Acequia Madre Elementary School. Commissioner Bové Garcia credited the school with getting younger generations interested in preserving the acequia. "There was a curriculum recently on acequias, so that really helped," she said, adding that she was always happy to help the students learn about the tradition. "‘What is that hole in the ground that’s going across seven miles of Santa Fe? What is that?’ It’s always good to have the kids learn about it."
Mayordomo Montoya said that he too intends to keep the tradition alive by passing it onto his kids. "I plan on being mayordomo for as long as I can. Took a lot of cues from Phil Bové [Garcia], and he’s somebody to look up to. My grandfather before him did it till he couldn’t, Phil did it till he couldn’t, and that’s my plan. Everything’s getting a little more modernized and stuff, so we’re trying to keep it traditional, but I’d like to pass a lot of this knowledge down to my kids."
The limpia doesn’t look the same as it did four hundred and sixteen years ago, but the community keeps coming together, year after year after year.
