‘Acequias: The Legacy Lives On’
FILMMAKER ARACELY “ARCIE” Chapa, in partnership with the Taos Valley Acequia Association, brings her documentary about New Mexico’s enduring acequias to Taos, followed by a panel discussion with the film’s director and local community members.
In partnership with UNM’s Center for Regional Studies and Taos Valley Acequia Association, Taos Center for the Arts presents “Acequias: The Legacy Lives On,” an hour-long visually stunning documentary film about New Mexico’s enduring acequias as seen through the eyes of farmers, advocates, scholars, parciantes, lawmakers, journalists and members of the community.
Aracely “Arcie” Chapa (filmmaker) Vicente FernandezMiguel Santistevan Sylvia Rodriguez
Award-winning filmmaker Aracely “Arcie” Chapa produces and directs an emotional and reverential tribute to acequias’ past, present and future. With funding from UNM’s Center for Regional Studies, the film unfolds through a series of storylines including the acequias’ current challenges, such as climate change and water rights transfers, their important role in the development of local foodsheds and the economic opportunity they provide for members of rural communities.
Judy Torres of the Taos Valley Acequia Association has put together a panel of local activists and knowledgeholders who will discuss the importance of, and history surrounding, Northern New Mexico’s relationship with water and the tradition of acequias.
Arcie Chapa said “I truly believe we all need to reflect a little on how we can all participate in protecting New Mexico’s most precious and unique gift. Some say climate change and development pressures make their extinction inevitable, others believe there’s still time to protect them for future generations,” in an interview with the Albuquerque Journal in January.
About the filmmaker Aracely “Arcie” Chapa is the manager of Multimedia Services at the University of New Mexico Center for Regional Studies and has been working on “Acequias: The Legacy Lives On” for 10 years leading up to its premiere in Albuquerque in January.
About Taos Valley Acequia Association
Founded as a 501(c)(3) non-profit in 1989, TVAA supports 54 acequias used by an estimated 15,000 parciantes, or small-scale farmers and ranchers.
TVAA is a hub for systems change strategies and community education at the grassroots level. They recognize and advocate for the continued use and maintenance of acequias as sustainable, ecologically sound and democratic methods of farming, as well as a part of our living communal heritage that supports traditional methods of food production and preparation, ecosystem sustainability, ancestral learning and oral customs.