County Libraries will host a special sneak-peak program Feb. 16. Courtesy/LAC

COUNTY News:

Los Alamos County Libraries will host a special sneak-peak program 7-8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, live on Zoom.

Enrique Lamadrid and Jose Rivera, editors of the soon-to-be-published book, ‘Water for the People: The Acequia Heritage of New Mexico in a Global Context’, discuss this compilation of 25 essays by world-renowned acequia scholars. 

Topics will include acequia culture, use, and history in New Mexico and worldwide, situating the state’s acequia heritage and its inherent sustainable design within a global framework. Acequias dating from as far back as the late 16th century continue to irrigate their communities today despite threats of prolonged drought, urbanization, private water markets, extreme water scarcity, and climate change.

Water for the People celebrates acequia practices and traditions and shows how these ancient irrigation systems continue to provide arid regions with a model for water governance, sustainable food systems, and community traditions that reaffirm a deep cultural and spiritual relationship with the land year after year. 

Lamadrid is a distinguished professor emeritus of Spanish at the University of New Mexico. He is the editor of the Querencias Series at the University of New Mexico Press. José A. Rivera is professor emeritus of community and regional planning at the University of New Mexico. He is the author of Acequia Culture: Water, Land, and Community in the Southwest (UNM Press). 

This program is free to the public and will be livestreamed on Zoom. To register, visit the event calendar at LosAlamosLibrary.org or call 505.662.8257. Made possible by the generous support of Friends of Los Alamos County Libraries.