Frederick Hammersley Foundation... Urban Enhancement Trust Fund of the City of Albuquerque... New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund at the Albuquerque Community Foundation New Mexico Arts, division of the Department of Cultural Affairs with supplemental funding by the New Mexico CARES Act and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

...and Viewers Like You.

IN ONE OF THE MOST AGRICULTURALLY RICH LANDSCAPES IN NEW MEXICO, ALBUQUERQUE HAS THRIVED ALONG THE RIO GRANDE FOR CENTURIES.

ALBUQUERQUE'S ROOTS CELEBRATES OUR LOCAL FOOD SHED AND LOOKS BACK AT HOW WE SUSTAIN A RICH AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE TO THIS DAY.

IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES!

Moisés Gonzales: If agua is la vida... Querencia is our corozon.

Querencia is the love of place, the love of being... (RUNNING WATER) It defines where you're from.

So, we all share the querencia of the river.

We share the querencia of the acequia.

(RUNNING WATER) And, that's what binds us together.

Narrator: The Middle Rio Grande valley has been a place where over the centuries different communities put down roots, it has sustained our past and holds our future.

Brett Bakker: The feeling I get when seeing a farm is, first of all, it's a green space, it's not only producing food for humans, it's habitat for birds and insects and mammals, there's the fresh air, there's open space.

Reyna Banteah: Whether we know it or not agriculture is a big part of who we all are.

(CHATTER FROM CROWD) Most of the produce I grow, I usually take to the Grower's Market.

So that's one of my main outlets.

Seth Matlick: I'm still very much amazed by the power of the seed and the power of growing food.

It's magical to pull something out of the ground and have it be, not only delicious and beautiful but nutritious, something that sustains you, gives you power, gives you life...

I mean, food is pretty awesome.

Ana Baca: My Dad always used to say that he was bred on red and weaned on green, and of course he was referring to chile.

As a little boy, he grew up on a small family farm in the South Valley of ABQ and they grew chile, they sold it.

He remembers walking up and down 4th street and selling their chile out of a wagon.

Narrator: Archaeological sites indicate that the population grew as people fleeing a drought arrived in the Albuquerque area by the 1300's.

They settled along the river for the constant water source and fertile land.

Moisés Gonzales: Beginning with the Tiguex Pueblos, I would say that agriculture has always been a center of our culture in Albuquerque, it centers us.

The same three sisters, the corn, beans and squash are still planted.

You'll still see the plantings of the Rio Grande Blue Corn which is a staple and has been a staple of the Rio Grande.

Moisés Gonzales: The ancestors have given us this connection to place and that's what we pass the next generation.

(HISS OF CICADAS) Brett Bakker: Having a relationship with the land is important in many ways.

There was one elder farmer who I respected very highly and learned a lot from.

It was watching him work and a few little clues here and there.

One of the things he taught me is it's a farmer's job to be on the farm.

You don't check out at 5 o'clock when you're done hoeing.

You have to be present, you have to watch your crops.

Watch the weather, watch the animals, watch the insects and learn when they come.

What it means when they come, when the rains are coming, when they're not coming.

You actually become part of the landscape with your crops.

Seeds have been passed down for many generations, through many different hands, through many different families.

And the seeds are also part of the community.

Just as the weeds and wild plants and animals are part of the community.

Narrator: Encompassing generations, each seed is a small history of its own.

Reyna Banteah: The seeds that I do grow are particularly draught tolerant.

They have more resistance to certain diseases and pests because they have been growing here for so long and they're more used to high heat and less water.

Brett Bakker: They are reliable producers.

They may not always produce as much as a new super hybrid would when it's fertilized very heavily with petro chemicals but there will always be a crop.

So that becomes part of sustaining the community through food and nutrition.

Reyna Banteah: With climate kind of changing through the whole country and around the world it's important for these crops to still be growing so that in case climate continues to change that we have those seeds that are more persistent.

Moisés Gonzales: Before the Spanish come the Tiguex Pueblo people of this valley had a very sophisticated agricultural system in a dry, arid environment.

Utilizing terraced gardens from the mesas, along the arroyos, along cultivated farm plots in the flood plain.

When the Spanish come the acequia system, which is an adapted from the Moor s that's brought from North Africa, to the Iberian Peninsula and expanded through Northern Spain.

And within a dry arid environment it allows for the shift of the flood plain into an irrigated agricultural valley.

The transformation of the acequia allows for the irrigated bosque landscape of Albuquerque.

Moisés Gonzales: The River.

The Rio Bravo, The Rio Grande as it's called today is everything about Albuquerque.

It defines our natural features.

Without the river, we don't have a core.

The river serves the core of our being.

That centers us from the Sandia Mountains and the West Mesa.

And it is this very green and lush landscape that really provides us with the sense of shelter.

That provides us some relief from this very harsh desert And we think about how it might have existed before the acequia system, the farm plots went in.

The Rio Grande River had a wide flood plain.

From basically the sand banks of the West Mesa, up to the lomas which are around present day University of New Mexico.

And it would shift from time to time and never had a really set river bed because it was always in motion.

The Spanish called it the Rio Bravo because it was untamed, is a living system.

Narrator: Early Spanish accounts note the Albuquerque area "a goodly place of fields, waters, pasturage, and timber" and settled estancias.

These settlers were later counted as part of the plaza to found the Villa de Alburquerque.

Moisés Gonzales: In 1706 Francisco Cuervo y Valdez was assigned by the governor to establish the Villa de Alburquerque.

And one of the main ideas for it was because the amount of water and the wide flood plain in the middle Rio Grande Valley.

The site of the Villa de Alburquerque was seen as a way to create an agricultural settlement.

The founding of Alburquerque was based on the Laws of the Indies, Las Leyes de las Indias.

The laws in which settlements were established.

A major principle of the Laws of the Indies was based on the size and distance between settlements to develop sustainability within the planning.

The layout of the agricultural systems.

The layout of the suerte's, the farmland.

And that way agriculture was imbedded in the building fabric of a town or city.

You had townlands and a plaza was designated.

Usually about 100 vatas by 100 vatas.

Which is roughly 300 feet by 300 feet.

A dense plaza that was established in a fortified way.

And then farm plots were assigned.

Which were the suerte's.

And a communal acequia had to be built.

From the acequia the farm plots were assigned in order for agriculture to be established and those were the individual lands of each individual that was allotted.

And then going outside of that were the grazing lands which were the ejitos or the lands in which to gather fuelwood or for hunting.

It's main acequia system ran nearby the plaza.

Near what's present day the Sawmill District.

Coming out towards the community of Barelas.

So we can imagine an extended irrigated farmland system outside a very condensed plaza.

It probably looked like a medieval city at the time.

Moisés: The major transformation of Albuquerque's urban landscape shifted at the arrival of the railroad.

By the late 1800's the railroad brought more urban development.

You had the development of New Town which is present day downtown Albuquerque.

You essentially had two centers.

You had the Villa, the plaza and then you had Albuquerque which was pretty much driven by railroad development.

Narrator: Bustling streets grew up between New Town and Old Town connected now by Railroad Avenue, now Central.

Soon neighborhoods grew up along with Albuquerque's first park... Robinson Park, where today's Downtown Growers Market is held.

Reliable refrigeration was not yet available and food was delivered daily through neighborhoods by way of horse drawn wagons and then trucks.

The so called Truck Farms proliferated and soon there were even stores on wheels, like Daily's Gipsy Store.

New Town was booming and agricultural production expanded as the railroad more easily connected faraway markets.

Albuquerque was growing rapidly.

Arriving in Albuquerque by train in 1882 Herman Blueher began working for a market gardener.

A few months later, with John Mann, who had arrived that same year, began a Market Garden.

Soon they each established their own businesses.

Blueher's farm grew to almost 20 acres, just east of Old Town and south of Carñuel, now Mountain Road, where Tiguex Park is, not far from the sawmill.

Just across the road, to the north of Blueher's Gardens.... John Mann's farm boasted 13 acres, had an orchard and vegetables gardens.

Blueher's Pond created a little oasis, it was elevated to create pressure for irrigation purposes and there was a gazebo creating a public space where people would enjoy boating.

With this irrigation he was able to employ innovative hot houses which allowed him to grow in early spring and late fall, increasing his yield greatly.

Building a Queen Anne style home in Old Town Albuquerque, Blueher raised his family.

He had a fenced in garden around the back where he could keep his prized melons under his own watchful eye.

A prolific gardener and enterprising, Blueher made shipments of his and other's produce to neighboring states and territories.

The Middle Rio Grande Valley became a major agricultural Fields stretched along the flood plain, north and south of Albuquerque.

Ana Baca: Every person in New Mexico or every person in Albuquerque, every person in this community, I think, has a chile story... With the recipes we have created, the products that we make at Bueno, for us, it has always been important to go back to our ancestral roots.

Ana Baca: My grandfather Refujio, he had worked for the Santa Fe Railroad his entire life and he really wanted his children to be able to be in charge of their own destiny.

When my dad and his brothers came back from WWII, they got educated on the GI Bill and then they couldn't find jobs in post war Albuquerque.

And so they actually scraped together their money and they started a little grocery store which was on 4th street.

And it was called the Ace Food Store.

And so they started that and it was going well for a little while and then the Safeway's and Piggly Wiggly's started coming in and they just felt they weren't going to be able to compete anymore.

So, little by little they started incorporating their mother's, my grandmother's Filomena's recipes.

They started a little carry-out outside of the ACE Food Store.

The neighborhood loved us, but, my dad and his brothers thought, this isn't gonna carry us for very long, this isn't going to last for very long.

And so, how do we become self-sufficient?

So they formed a partnership basically which was Bueno Foods.

The ordinary person was being able to afford a freezer and they were actually sitting around their parent's Sunday evening super table and they started talking about, why couldn't we take our heritage which is growing green chile, roast it over an open flame as autumn tradition dictated and freeze it so that the harvest would last till the next harvest the following year.

There was no equipment so they had to build it, there was no process... and so the really had to invent that process.

So, people for the first time could enjoy green chile year And it all goes back to those family traditions that we're fortunate to have here in Albuquerque and in the state.

Narrator: The post WWII boom changed our day-to-day lives and people grew away from the land.

Much of Albuquerque's farmland was abandoned or lost to urban development.

Yet farming persisted.

And as our community faces new challenges, it is being revived.

Tiana Baca: I very much feel like a daughter of the desert and this is home and this is where I come from.

And I have this really interesting mixing of stories and people that I come from and they are all land based peoples.

And so for me connecting back to this landscape through agriculture is a way of coming back to that history, those roots and that part of my identity.

There's these small points of jumping in that become these catalysts for deeper connection that a lot of folks are striving for.

Tiana with School Children: I know, doesn't it look beautiful right now?

I really wanted to make marigold crowns...

This is all Rio Grande Blue Corn.

So, it's a type of corn that's from the Middle Rio Grande.

Reyna: Farming for me is about following my ancestor's footsteps.

And making sure that the planting, the farming, the seeds that they have brought here keep continuing to grow.

They type of farming that our people have done with sustainable agriculture is making sure we work with We have an arid environment and so capturing and conserving water was the most important thing.

My community in Zuni is a little bit further away from Albuquerque but I got started here farming so that I can learn as much as I can and then eventually take that knowledge with me back home so I can start farming there as well and teach other people how to farm on a production scale.

Tiana with School Children: So as we come here... Tiana Baca: Thinking about how do we feed this community and Albuquerque...

It's now this urban space.

Tiana with School Children: We're not going to open the pods but I just want to show you what the beans look like.

We have four different varieties of Tepary beans that are growing.

By having a smaller surface area they loose less water.

Student: It definitely makes sense.

Tiana with School Children: So some really cool adaptations that this plant has for existing in the desert.

Tiana Baca: It has such an agricultural root.

And I love that.

I love that you're downtown and you're just a few minutes away from the acequias.

Right?

Like, it is here, it is present.

And yet that urban-ness, there's a disconnect from growing food.

Reyna: By the time we usually get foods that are from the store it's been stored and sitting in a warehouses for who knows how long, so having access to local foods means you are getting the most nutrition.

Seth: Farming is really personal for me when it comes to crop decision and planning.

I want to grow things that I like to eat and I want to grow things that other people like to eat.

You know, being a local farmer and trying to define why local is important...

Ultimately for me it has to do with... get people the freshest food possible which means from the ground to their plates and being in close proximity to the people we feed is just how we do that.

Brett: One of the strengths of agriculture and farming in Albuquerque and the surrounding area, in the Rio Grande Valley is that a city, even as big as Albuquerque is actually many smaller farming villages and ranches and ranchitos that have all grown together into this city.

But the basic structure is still there.

Things like the acequia and that's a strength that can be built upon.

Seth: I love going to the farmers market, I mean it's a chance for us to explain why and how we are growing the food, what to do with it... Market dialogue: These are juicy.

Thanks so much Eric, this looks great!

Alright.

What do you think?

Excellent!

Seth: And to also learn from our community.

Share recipes, get crop inspiration.

Suggestions on things to grow in the future.

That face time with the people that are supporting us and eating the food and enjoying the food.

That connect between the consumer and the farmer is just strengthening the whole community in a good way.

Brett: The landscape here is not only the natural landscape but agriculture has also become part of the landscape.

And there's a lot to read and to learn from that story.

Ana Baca: My grandmother Filomena was just a For her, food was all about joy.

They actually grew cabbage in their family garden and they'd cover it with compost during the wintertime and with bales of hay like 4 feet high and they'd have cabbage throughout the winter.

She was just very ingenious about how she preserved food and having thirteen children, she really created something out of nothing for them and just created this joyful environment surrounding food.

Moisés: The story of the river and acequia is important for us to know.

What I've learned is the importance of learning from the landscape, living with the landscape, not taking too much from the landscape, giving back to the landscape.

Being connected to place.

Narrator: In the last century Albuquerque's identity has been tied to the railroad, Route 66, and Sandia Labs, yet looking back at our history...

It's agriculture that has been at the heart of our communities and sustained us over the centuries.

Moisés: I'd like to think that remembering the Tiguex people, that are the original people of this land, and the anchored landscape that the acequia provides allows us to have a memory... And at the point that we don't remember this cultural landscape, the importance of our river and the importance of our acequia then we are no longer Albuquerque.

The acequias become the cultural landscape that connect communities to communities... and define us as Burqueños.

Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Foundation... Urban Enhancement Trust Fund of the City of Albuquerque New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund at the Albuquerque Community Foundation ...New Mexico Arts, division of the Department of Cultural Affairs with supplemental funding by the New Mexico CARES Act and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

...and Viewers Like You (CLOSED CAPTIONING BY KNME-TV)