Casa San Ysidro This Summer

View of Heritage Field with Casa San Ysidro to the right. Drone imagery: Consuelo Martinez-Moya

ACEQUIAS, THEIR HERITAGE AND HISTORY ARE THE FOCUS OF AN UPCOMING TALK BY ENRIQUE R.

LAMADRID, distinguished professor emeritus of Spanish at the University of New Mexico.

Although the Spanish brought their system of irrigation to the New World, the acequia system came from Muslims who invaded Spain in the 8th century. When Umayyad Caliphate collapsed in 750 CE, the survivors of its dynasty relocated to Córdova, Spain. The word "acequia" is an adaptation of the Arabic assaqiya, meaning water carrier.

For four millennia, what we know as Yemen was the most fertile and well-watered region in the Arabian Peninsula. Before Islam and the Arabic language arrived, Yemen was part of the Kingdom of Sabaa (the Biblical Sheba) and Sabaean lent Arabic its extensive vocabulary on watering the desert. There are hundreds of Arabic words for wells, water containers, water quality, canals, and many more. Based on his new book project, Water for the People: NM Acequia Heritage in Global Context, Lamadrid's talk will highlight how irrigation came to New Mexico and its Arabic roots.

BILINGUAL AND NATIVE AMERICAN DOCENTS

Casa San Ysidro graduated a multi-cultural class of docents at the end of April. Nine docents went through the training and six of them are bilingual. Docents aren’t just guides—they are passionate citizens with strong connections to New Mexico history. One docent who recently participated in the program is author, oral historian, and Corrales native Gloria Zamora. She has been a docent at the National Hispanic Cultural Center among other places, and is passionate about history. “I made my first Holy Communion at the church! I love old houses, and I love history,” Zamora says. Although she already knew about Casa, she says she learned a lot during the training, including the difference between a hacienda and a rancho, plus all about the old tools found at Casa.