In Mexico City, the Coronavirus Is Bringing Back Thousand-Year-Old Indigenous ‘Floating Gardens’

Atlas Obscura, June 25, 2020 | By Amanda Gokee*

Business is booming for farmers who plant on man-made islands

A man uses a "trajinera" — a traditional flat-bottomed river boat — as transport in the Xochimilco natural reserve in Mexico City. Credit: Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP via Getty Images

In the south of Mexico City, about 100 miles of murky canals wind their way through the Xochimilco alcaldía (borough).

Here, the urban sprawl of one of the world’s densest cities yields to a lake region where indigenous farmers have been cultivating a unique system of floating gardens for over one thousand years. Called chinampas, these floating gardens were built by the Xochimilcas to feed a growing population. 

MCA Note: Around 900 CE, the Xochimilca people, considered one of earliest of the seven Nahuatl-speaking tribes to migrate into the Valley of Mexico, settled on the south shore of the lake that would come to bear their name. It was the southernmost lake, along with Lake Chalco, of the five lakes nearly filling the valley. Their first chief was Acatonallo, who is credited with inventing the chinampa system, which greatly increased crop productivity. These chinampas eventually became the main producer of crops of corn, beans, tomatoes, chili peppers and squash in the Valley of Anáhuac.

The altepetl, city state, of Xochimilco was founded in 919 CE. Over time, the city came to dominate other areas on the south side of the lake and across the mountains to the south, in what is now the State of Morelos. In 1352, the tlatoani, "speaker", Caxtoltzin moved the city from the mainland to the island of Tlilan.

In 1376, the Mexica (aka "Aztecs") who had established their city of Tenochtitlán in 1325 on a group of islands in Lake Texcoco, attacked Xochimilco, forcing the city to appeal for help from Azcapotzalco, the Tepaneca power on the west side of Lake Texcoco. The attack was unsuccessful, but Xochimilco then became a tributary of Azcapotzalco.

The Mexica finally conquered Azcapotzalco in 1428 and conquered Xochimilco in 1430. Shortly thereafter, the Mexica huey tlatoani, "chief speaker", Itzcoatl built a causeway south across the lake to Coyoacán on the southwest bank and Culhuacán on the Iztapalapa Peninsula which separated Lake Texcoco from Lake Xochimilco. This also create a land route from the island of Tenochtitlán to Xochimilco via Coyoacán. At that time, Xochimilco became a major supplier of produce to Tenochtitlán. 

When Hernán Cortés led his Spanish soldiers and indigenous allies into the Valley in 1521, after being driven out in June 1520, the Mexica rulers of Xochimilco resisted. So, Cortés decided to attack the city before his final assault on Tenochtitlan. Using indigenous allies, he attacked on April 16, 1521. Although Cuautémoc, the last Mexica tlatoani, sent ten thousand warriors by land and two thousand by canoe to defend the city, the Mexicas and Xochimilcoans were defeated.

Subsequently, Mexico City was built on top of the ruins of Tenochtitlán. The Spanish then undertook a massive project of draining Lake Texcoco to prevent flooding of their island city, but to keep a route for continued water transport of produce from Xochimilco to Mexico City, they created a canal, called the Royal Canal. After Mexican independence in 1521, it became the National Canal. It remained in use until trucks replaced canoes in the 1920s. Wikipedia

Xochimilco became one of the city’s main sources of food, but rapid urbanization in the 1900s meant less land available for farming.

In 1985, when an earthquake struck Mexico City, many chinampas were abandoned as people who had lost their homes built shanty towns on them. Today, only an estimated 20 percent of the approximately 5,000 acres of chinampas are in use, and only 3 percent are used for farming.

But since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Mexico, interrupting the industrial food supply in important ways, small farmers have increased production and rehabilitated abandoned chinampas to fill the demand for fresh, local food.

Raúl Mondragón (left) and Pedro Capultitla (right) covering a chinampa in dried grass for mulch. Courtesy of Colectivo Ahuejote (Ahuejote is the tree Salix bonplandiana (Bonpland willow) native to southern and southwest Mexico and planted around the edge of chinampas to hold their soil in place.)

Raúl Mondragón says on a Zoom call from his home in Mexico City:

“We’re talking about something that’s 1,000 years old. We have to preserve this.” 

Mondragón has been recuperating chinampas since 2016, when he founded Colectivo Ahuejote. Now the virus is revealing the strength of this model in the midst of a crisis.

The revival of chinampa farming is due, in part, to pandemic-related problems at Mexico City’s main market, La Central de Abastos, the largest of its kind in Latin America.

Some warehouses have closed, truck traffic has been limited, and people have been getting sick with the virus. The supply chain of producers from around the country has also had to contend with road closures that limited deliveries to the capital and raised prices.

Mondragón and Capultitla taking in a harvest of kale (left) and a chinampero farmer holding a colorful array of carrots (right).. Courtesy of Colectivo Ahuejote

While the market is an enclosed and often crowded environment, small farmers can deliver their crops to the consumer directly, using a model similar to Community Supported Agriculture [CSA].

At a time when people are worried about the risk of shopping at a crowded market or grocery store, buying directly from a chinampero, parked with his truck at an outdoor pickup point in their neighborhood, is one way of limiting exposure.

Quarantine has also given many Mexicans more time to cook, Mondragón points out, and they are taking a greater interest in where their food comes from.

He cites a friend who now not only knows what a leek is but also how to cook it. His “very capitalistic” sister has started compulsively composting.

At a Colectivo Ahuejote workshop, farmers use a kassine tool to till the soil. Courtesy of Colectivo Ahuejoten

Mondragón grew up in Xochimilco, eating produce from the chinampas that his family bought at a local market.

Now he works on the 16,000-square-foot chinampa that Colectivo Ahuejote uses for growing crops, teaching, and experimenting with new techniques. 

The collective operates as an NGO to develop cooperation among farmers, and they’ve also started a for-profit business to sell produce. 

Their goal is to rehabilitate abandoned chinampas to promote sustainable agriculture and the country’s agricultural heritage.

The pandemic halted the collective’s workshops and training activities, but the commercial side of the business has been flourishing.

Between February and May, small farmers who are part of the collective have increased sales by 100 to 120 percent, according to Mondragón. Networks that have been years in the making are now becoming a bigger part of the city’s food supply.

Fennel, broccoli, and quelites (native greens to Mexico that often grow wild) growing in a chinampa

. Courtesy of Colectivo Ahuejote

This is a welcome change for farmers who have other jobs to support themselves.

Chinampero Pedro Capultitla used to have two or three extra jobs, but he was able to quit one recently to spend more time farming.

The word chinampa comes from the Nahuatl chinámitl, meaning a hedge or fence made out of reeds.

Mud from the bottom of the canal as well as lake vegetation are piled into this fencing until they reach the surface, creating a fertile and well-irrigated place for crops to grow. These favorable conditions make the chinampas one of the most productive types of agriculture in the world, enabling as many as seven harvests per year.  

A variety of produce flourishes here:

greens, herbs, flowers, fruits, and milpa — a combination of corn, beans, and squash also grown by Native American farmers in the United States, who call this collection the three sisters.

Chinampero Pedro Méndez Rosas has been farming his whole life, and in that time, he’s seen generations of farmers leave to find work in the city.

“They go in search of more money, or a more elegant life,” he says on a phone call after a day spent mostly harvesting squash. 

“But I’ve always preferred to be in the field.”

Pedro Capultitla’s son, Axel, navigates a trajinera on a canal in Xochimilco. Axel is a 6th-generation chinampero

. Courtesy of Colectivo Ahuejote

Méndez Rosas farms the same chinampas as his father and grandfather, and he eats the food he grows there, only buying products like grains and meat.

He started helping out when he was 5 or 6, and “really working” when he was 13. This October, he’ll turn 50.

Since COVID-19, Méndez Rosas has seen the demand for leafy greens go up.

As the orders he normally fills from restaurants and chefs have been put on hold, he is now primarily selling products to individuals and families. The quick changes to business can be challenging, but Méndez Rosas has never been in it for the money.

“Being a chinampero is a vocation,” Méndez Rosas says. 

“For me, it’s a way of life. It’s a way of hanging onto our traditions and our culture.”

These floating gardens have been feeding the city for a millennium, in times of sickness and in times of health, and this pandemic has made it clear that they are poised to keep sustaining the city in the future.

Traditions continue quietly; a seed buried in fertile ground, small certainties against the future. For his part, Pedro Méndez Rosas prepares, again, to plant.

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*Amanda Gokee is a Jewish/Ojibwe writer interested in food systems, food sovereignty, and the connection between plants, people, and places.

Mexico City's "Walking Fish", Axolotls

BBC: Megan Frye

Photo: BBC

Axolotls (ah-show-LOW-tls) are curious amphibians that offer hope for healing the human body, but face near extinction in the wild. They have remarkable regeneration abilities, being able to regrow lost body parts, including even eyes. Though gaining traction as a symbol of Mexico City, and specifically of the southern borough of Xochimilco, a Unesco World Heritage site, they are nearly extinct in the wild due to increases in invasive fish species and water pollution in the city’s troubled canals.  

MCA Note: We don't usually publish links to otherwised published articles about Mexico City, but this one is both delightful and of serious interest beyond the intriguing nature of the animal. 

There are seventeen species of axolotls, found primarily in the states of Mexico, Puebla and Michoacán, many critically endangered. Some species transform themselves into earth-walking salamanders by losing their tadpole-like tails and gills from their heads. However, this too depends on the environment. Where their waters are devoid of predators, they remain eternal teenagers. Never transforming into salamanders, such axolotls will keep the external gills they developed as a larva and live their entire life underwater. Read full article

Dolores Olmedo Museum: 16th Century Hacienda Hosts Art of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo

Every once in awhile, a visit to a new museum just plain knocks our socks off! It happened to us recently. Similar to our experience at the Frida Kahlo Museum in Coyoacán, stepping through the gate took us into another world.

Beautifully Restored 16th Century Hacienda 

Driveway crosses the gardens to the house

In 1962 the Mexican philanthropist, art collector and businesswoman, Dolores Olmedo, bought the rundown, sixteenth century, 8-acre property in Xochimilco known as Hacienda La Noria. She immediately set out to restore its buildings and gardens—an undertaking uniquely suited to Dolores' capabilities as businesswoman, art connoiseur and collector.

House from across the gardens

Upon her death in 2002, the estate of Dolores Olmedo was dedicated to making her collections available to the public:

• Precolumbian art (600 pieces certified by the National Institute of Anthropology and History), 
• Frida Kahlo paintings (25), 
• Diego Rivera works (45), 
• Popular art and 
• Library (4,000 volumes). 

Approaching Chapel and Museum

Plants, Peacocks and Puppies

The gardens feature more than twenty-five varieties of Mexican plants and trees. Ducks and geese roam large, attractive pens landscaped with plants and ponds.

Blue agave
Agave tequilana
from whose juice tequila is made

A flock of splendid peacocks parade through the gardens. When a male displays, onlookers gasp with excitement and delight.

In a large, comfortable pen, about a dozen of the once nearly extinct breed of dogs, xoloitzuintles (sho-loy-tzu-EEN-tles),  Mexican hairless hunting dogs, make their home. They move across well-worn paths. When they catch sight of something, they stand stock still...at attention.

Xoloitzuintles
Mexican Hairless Dog

A bronze statue of one proud male adorns their pen. Until one of the actual dogs moved, I thought they were all statues. I doubt I'm the only one who has made this mistake! Their color is similar to the bronze statue, and when they stand still...not a magnificent muscle moves. Remarkable!

More Xoloitzuintles

Sunday Folk Music Concerts

The Museum also sponsors cultural events, including Sunday afternoon concerts held outside. We heard an excellent band of young people playing Mexican music. In addition to marimba and mandolin, the band also had four psalteries—a stringed instrument held on the lap. The psalteries gave the music a sound that we in the U.S. might describe as 'mountain' music. The result was absolutely delightful! The audience sang along with many songs.

Psaltery

Dolores Olmedo (1908-2002): A Woman Ahead of Her Times

Born two years before the onset of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917), Dolores Olmedo was a real personaje (character)—businesswoman, philanthropist, art collector. Her mother, widowed by the untimely death of Dolores' father, supported her family as an elementary school teacher. Like many others, the family suffered through food shortages as the Revolution ground on and on—an experience that undoubtedly marked Dolores for life.

After the Revolution, the arts in Mexico enjoyed a renaissance with a distinctly foreign flavor  reflective of new ideas arriving from the United States and the capitals of Europe. These foreign influences also had a profound effect on Mexico's cultural and scientific mentality, giving rise to a new generation espousing new values focused on social injustice, strategies for building a society based on a nascent nationalism, and conceptualized in terms of progress and development.

Dolores studied art at the Academy of San Carlos—the same school that had been attended by the 'Big Three' of Mexican Muralists: Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. She also studied music at the National Conservatory.

Joining Mexico's Artistic Elite

About 1924, sixteen-year-old Dolores met Diego Rivera while he was working on his murals at the Secretariat of Public Education. It was primarily a friendship based on their shared artistic interests, but Rivera also asked Dolores' mother for permission to have Dolores pose for him. Permission granted, she posed more than a hundred times for the artist, whom she held in the highest esteem.

Portrait of Dolores Olmedo 
(Oil on canvas)
Diego Rivera (1955)
Collection, Museo Dolores Olmedo

Source:  http://www.diegorivera.com/gallery/dolores.html

As with most of Rivera's friendships, theirs was to have its highs and lows. At one point, Dolores distanced herself from Rivera for several years, but in 1955 she and Rivera renewed their ties and were practically inseparable until his death two years later. Aware that he would soon die, during this time the great muralist named Dolores trustee of his estate. 

During this time, Rivera, himself a renowned collector of precolombian art, guided Dolores through several important acquisitions. Her collection of 600 objects is on exhibition at the Dolores Olmedo Museum in Xochimilco. Rivera also guided Dolores in the purchase of several paintings both by Frida Kahlo and by himself. These paintings are important exhibits at her museum.

Meanwhile, in 1930 Dolores had met the Englishman Howard S. Phillips, founder and editor of Mexican Life, a magazine focused on the arts and  tourism. They were married in 1935. Although they eventually divorced amicably, during their marriage Howard and Dolores moved in Mexico's elite circles of the arts and culture.

Business Woman

In order to support her family, Dolores turned her talents to the business world. Her business instincts were superb. She identified and turned to her advantage the construction boom that accompanied the country's post-Revolution development agenda.

With great difficulty, she borrowed money to purchase a brick factory. In a canny move, she formed a partnership with the owner of the brick factory next-door to hers, the German Heriberto Pagelson. Together they purchased additional brick factories, which became enormously profitable.

Similarly, Dolores allied with an adobe maker, again capitalizing on the country's construction boom. Needless to say, her success was extraordinary at a time when few Mexican women participated in entrepreneurial activity, let alone achieve such success in the male-dominated construction industry!

Still Curious?

The Museum's web site is excellent, including a description in English.  For the best photos, go to the Spanish site where, below the GoogleMap, is a series of photos. Click to access, then Scroll Down one row—voilá!—superb photos of the Museum grounds. Here's the link:  Dolores Olmedo Museum.

Excellent description in English with link to Spanish: http://www.myhero.com/go/hero.asp?hero=Dolores_Olmedo_Patino

Link to Wikipedia entry (Spanish):  http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_Olmedo

Originally published in Jenny'a Journal of Mexican Culture.

The Dolores Olmedo Museum
(green/yellow star)
is located in Colonia Huichapan, Delegación Xochimilco
in southeastern Mexico City.
It is near the La Noria light rail station.

Original Villages | Xochimilco: Santa María Tepepan, Part I - Drama of the Christians vs. the Pagans

The Mother of the Son of God Replaces the Mother Goddess 

More than a year ago, when we began our exploration of Mexico City's original villages—and their churches and related religious fiestas as the remaining visible signs of what has become known as the Spiritual Conquest, i.e., the transformation of indigenous culture into a Spanish Catholic one—we knew that our first visit had to be to Tepeyac, the site of the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Situated a few miles north of Centro Histórico—hence of the former city of Tenochtitlán—the Basilica, with its related churches and chapels, embodies the synthesis of indigenous and European Catholic beliefs and rituals. This synthesis is most vividly expressed in the vision of the indigenous peasant, Juan Diego. The peasant's vision of Our Lady of Guadalupe took place on the hill of Tepeyac, the site of a Mexica temple to the mother goddess, Tonantzin. The morena, brown-skinned lady spoke in Nahuatl, the region's main indigenous tongue, giving Juan Diego—now the beatified San Juan Diego—the task of convincing the Catholic Bishop to have a chapel built for her on the place where the indigenous temple had stood before the Spanish destroyed it. Her appearance and request represented the Virgin's special choice of Mexico as her people and thus, of the bonding of Catholicism and the indigenous peoples of the land.

The association of the Virgin Mary with indigenous sites related to the ancient mother goddess is not restricted to Tepeyac and the Basilica. One of many others is a similar hill in the south of what is now Mexico City, in the Delegación [Borough] Xochimilco, which incorporates the indigenous altepetl, city-state of Xochimilco and its surrounding pueblos on what was the south shore of Lake Xochimilco. There, on a hill called Tepepan, "the place at the top of the hill" in Nahuatl, there once stood another temple to Tonantzin. Shortly after the Spanish Conquest, the Franciscans built a chapel there to the Virgin.

Santa María Tepepan

Santa María de la Visitación, Tepepan, Xochimilco

In 1526, Friar Peter of Ghent, the first Franciscan to come to Nueva España, erected the chapel. Later in that century, Friar Francisco Millán built the church on the same site.  Although the church is dedicated to St. Mary of the Visitation (commemorating Mary's visit to Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist, after the Annunciation of Mary's own pregnancy), its primary commemoration is of Her Assumption into Heaven, which is celebrated on August 15.

Mural of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven,
on the interior of the church dome.
The central triangle contains the all-seeing Eye of God

Welcome to St. Mary of Tepepan

So on the Sunday morning following August 15, we engage Andrés, our favorite taxi driver, to take us to Tepepan. Turning off the main road that leads into the center of Xochimilco, we climb a narrow cobblestone street up to "the place at the top of the hill".

A portada, a decorative arch at the top of a ramp, tells us we have arrived. Bidding Andrés hasta luego, until the next time, we leave the cab and head up the ramp.

    

Portadas 
lead to the church atrio, atrium.

"Love and Faith in You, Mary"
"St. Mary of Tepepan, worthy one of God, pray for your pueblo (people/village)"

The church, truly "at the top of the hill", is
approached by a ramp on the east side
and a stairway on the south side. 

As we enter the atrio,
a banda is about to enter the church

"Mary, you are my light."

The sanctuary reverberates with the sound of the brass banda
honoring a representation of the Virgin.

Back outside, a procession forms
to carry an image of the Virgin through the streets of Tepepan.

Chinelos, "disguised ones" whose dance consists of jumping and spinning,
are ready to accompany the procession.
We have seen them at many fiestas and love their colorful costumes and liveliness. 

The main events of the day of a fiesta usually begins with a procession of the saint being honored. Recently, we participated in a procession that lasted two and a half hours in Colonia Santo Domingo in Coyoacán, so we think twice about joining this one, especially through a pueblo on the side of a hill crisscrossed with cobblestone streets!

At that moment, our eye is caught by a small group of men dressed as Spanish caballeros, knights or gentlemen of the Renaissance period, and another group dressed as Moors—i.e., the North African Muslims who ruled much of the Iberian Peninsula from 711 C.E to 1492. From the beginning, Iberian Christians fought to expel them. This Reconquista, Reconquest, was finally completed under Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, who celebrated by sponsoring Christopher Columbus' voyages west across the Atlantic.

We have seen these Spanish caballeros at two other fiestas, where we learned they are called Santiagueros, Warriors or Knights of St. James. At those fiestas, they only enacted a brief dance and "sword fight". Here, with the Moors present, something else appears to be in the offing.

Dance of the Moors and Christians

Islamic "Moor" Caliph

Warrior of St. James

Santiago, St. James, is the patron saint of Spain. One of the twelve disciples of Jesus, he is believed to have come to Spain from Roman Judea to preach the Gospel and found the Christian Church, separate from St. Peter and Rome. He returned to Judea and was subsequently martyred.

Centuries later, when Christians were driving the Islamic Moors from the Iberian Peninsula, St. James showed up riding a white horse and enabled them to win a major battle. He then became Santiago Matamoros, St. James the Moor Slayer. Centuries later, he is believed to have shown up in what is now Mexico to help Cortés defeat one of the indigenous tribes that opposed him.

Squad of Warriors of St. James
(The standard image of Santiago:
a Moor lying trampled
beneath the hooves
of his horse)

The Parra Rodríguez family,
 (from) Santa Cruz Atoyac.
(an original pueblo in Delegación Benito Juárez)

The religous orders that were called to Nueva España by Cortés brought with them the Dance of the Moors and the Christians as a dramatic way to repeat the message that Cortés had first announced to the indigenous tribes he met:

either submit to the Spanish crown, the true King of the World, and accept the true God of the Catholic Church, and His Son, the Savior Jesus Christ, or be slaughtered.

So Cortés presented the original peoples with a stark choice: life or death.

We have read about the Dance of the Moors and Christians, but never seen it performed. When we lived in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, we witnessed the Purépecha Dance of the Moors, but there was no representation of a confrontation with Christians. So our choice of whether or not to follow the procession is clinched. We stay in the atrio, excited that we will now see a version of this old drama.

A simple fife and drum
provide a musical rhythm
throughout the drama.

      

Captain of the Christian forces commissions his "ambassador"
to go to the Moors and negotiate their surrender.                 

The Moors, curiously, are led by a general in 18th or 19th century Spanish Army uniform.

The negotiation alternates between formal declarations of positions
and tests of sword fighting.

Three Moorish warriors prepare to engage in the confrontation.

A second round of negotiation/confrontation.

And yet another.

Finally, the caliph, himself, comes forward.
He declaims all the accomplishments the Moors have made in developing al Andalus,
the Arabic name for the Iberian Peninsula. They will not cede to the Christians.

The Moors hold a council to determine their action. They decide to fight.

The Christians mobilize for battle.

The Moors attack the Christians,
curiously, one at a time.

Even the littlest Moor confronts the enemy.

Finally, the caliph, himself, does battle.

In the end, the Moors submit to the Christians,
accepting the Christian faith.

The message of the drama is clear:

Christianity is the True Faith and the Spanish Crown is its True Protector. To this, all "pagan" faiths and political realms must submit, be they Islamic Moors from North Africa in 1492 or the Aztecs and other peoples of "New Spain" a short thirty years later.

This is the Conquest, both military and spiritual. 

Second Act

The Dance (or Drama) of the Moors and the Christians is immediately followed by the return of the procession from the streets of Tepepan. Mass begins and is celebrated underneath a huge tarp covering much of the atrio. It is the current, living demonstration of the fulfillment of the Spiritual Conquest. 

The banners or standards are from several other pueblos in Xochimilco
and neighboring delegaciones, whose faithful have come to Tepepan's fiesta.

Los feligreses, the faithful

The tranquility of the Mass gives us the opportunity to take retratos, portraits,
of la gente, the people.

Delegación Xochimilco
is large pink area in southeast of the City.

Pueblos and Colonias of Xochimilco

Santa Maria Tepepan (green/yellow star)
is in the northwest corner

Gray-green area to the northeast are the chinampa gardens of Lake Xochmilco.
Gray-green area to the south are the mountains that rise to form the southern boundary of Mexico City.