Transitions | Maestro Juan Estevan Arellano, 1947-2014
En Memoria
JUAN ESTEVAN ARELLANO, ACEQUIERO, ¡PRESENTE!
Our dear friend and close associate, Juan
Estevan Arellano, passed away on Wednesday, October 29. The New
Mexico Acequia Association has posted a memorial collection of photos and
recollections of his distinguished life as an acequia farmer and tireless
advocate for sustainable agriculture and environmental and food justice in the
land grant communities of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.
I would like to share a few words about the last
time we visited with Don Estevan. In July 2013, we spent a week at the
permaculture almunyah that Estevan and Elena, his lifelong partner and spouse,
nurture and keep by the banks of the Rio Embudo on its way to the Rio Bravo del
Norte. I was there with a class of
students from the University of
Washington to repair damage done to the terrace gardens by a careless and
unskilled neighbor who had lost control of his aceqiuia to damage a landscape
resulting from decades of gentle cumulative work done by the Arellano family.
It takes time to adapt farming landscapes to place and the existing
geomorphology and other physical aspects of the environment.
%2B.jpg) |
Estevan Arellano and his grandchildren with UW agroecology students. Almunyah de la Junta de los Dos Rios. Photo by Thuy Vi Nguyen. |
I have always marveled at how there is more
agro-biodiversity and querencia
dwelling in that 1½-acre edible landscape than farms many times larger. The Arellano Almunyah is an exemplary model
of a landscape mosaic in the tradition of the agroforestry practices that our
acequia forbearers inherited from indigenous and diasporic ancestors and that
acequia farmers continue to practice across an embattled Rio Arriba bioregion.
Estevan and I first met in 1988 during one of
the many Colorado College field trips I organized for public service teaching
in the region but we became very close friends and colleagues in 1995. That is
the year we joined forces to collaborate on a three-year study of acequia farms
in Colorado and New Mexico funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
(NEH). That study led to a three-decade relationship and collaboration on
multiple projects including a forthcoming book on the studies originally
generated by the NEH project on acequia farming families of the Rio Arriba.
This is not the end of Don Estevan’s contributions
to the discourse and advocacy of acequia culture, water democracy, and food
sovereignty. There is still a lot of unpublished work and vast troves of notes,
interview transcripts, videos, audio recordings, and much more scattered among
the archives of the state as well as in college, university, and scholarly
collections in the U.S., Mexico, and Spain.
His work has only begun to be explored and
presented and will continue to be a vital as part of la querencia and sabiduría
that he bestowed on us and that is shared by hundreds, perhaps thousands, of
acolytes and protégés. Our work will forever be guided and inspired by the
agroecological and historical imagination of this gentle and graceful man. I
have been blessed to know Estevan and join with his family, friends, and colleagues
in sharing a sense of immense loss and grief.
NMAA Tribute to el Maestro Estevan Arellano, 1947-2014
Friends, loved ones, and colleagues are mourning
the passing of Estevan Arellano, a widely respected figure in New Mexico and
internationally for his deep knowledge about acequias, food, culture, and
community. Regarded by many as a maestro, or teacher, Estevan was considered
one of the most important acequia scholars of our time. He was well known for
his vibrant storytelling about the dynamics of daily community life in an
acequia community as well as his scholarly lectures about ancient acequia
history and language. He not only professed the profound importance of language
but put language into practice. Many who spent time with him appreciated his
mastery of the northern New Mexico Spanish dialect and the locally familiar
cadence that carried his words of wisdom and unique style of analysis.
As an asociaciado, or associate, of La Academia
de la Nueva Raza, Estevan applied his journalist training, deep sense of
community, and love of culture to collecting stories from the ancianos of
northern New Mexico. His experiences gave him a lifelong appreciation for the
diverse voices that comprise an acequia village and gave him unique insights
into the worldview of the people of the region. He and his loving wife Elena
were aficionados of traditionally prepared foods and he was well known as a
zealous proponent of locally grown heritage foods. He and Elena raised gardens
and livestock, recently completing an NRCS project with irrigation improvements
and a hoophouse. Many of his colleagues and associates were fortunate to have
been guests in the Arellano home and participated in gatherings in the gentle
shade of an ancient and grand apricot tree near their adobe house.
He had several publications including his most
recently published book, “Enduring Acequias,” for which he was currently
engaged in numerous book signings and readings. His novel “Inocencio” helped to
define a genre of literature based in the distinctive style of storytelling of
his contemporaries. His writings also helped to popularize the concept of
querencia, or love of place,
and numerous conferences and publications have built upon his articulation of
querencia. His life and voice served as a bridge to ancianos, or elders who
were his teachers, and his spirited engagement in current political issues.
Estevan was highly sought after as a speaker at numerous conferences on the
topics of water, food, culture, and community and was recently a featured
presenter by video teleconference at the Congreso Internacional de Regadio
recently held in Valencia, Spain.
Estevan served as a member of the Concilio of
the New Mexico Acequia Association for many years and as President of the
Embudo Valley Acequia Association where he served as a devoted servant to local
acequias, advocated for restoration of the watersheds that feed acequia flows,
and secured resources for the improvement and repairs of local acequias. He
hosted numerous workshops including the annual Celebracion de las Acequias in Embudo, which was
one of the most widely attended acequia events in New Mexico.
Those close to him will carry vivid memories of
his wit, intellect, and passionate opinions on a wide variety of issues. His
loyalty, love and devotion to his family, wife Elena, children, and
grandchildren, were evident in his daily life. Estevan’s passing will leave a
great void in his local community and the broader community that he helped to
cultivate with his writings and his work.
ACEQUIA BOOK by JUAN ESTEVAN ARELLANO RELEASED
UNM Press has recently published Juan Estevan
Arellano’s latest book on community irrigation, Enduring
Acequias: Wisdom of the Land, Knowledge of Water.
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