Voices from the city

Pedro Méndez, Chinampero

“I have apocalyptic dreams,” Pedro Méndez begins. “One night I dreamt that a flood swept away all of Xochimilco. Everything drowned. Then mighty green pyramids arose from the water. People were reborn and began to revere the pyramids. The next morning I realized that those pyramids are our chinampas, our livelihood and our strength. In a different form, people began to value the power of the tierra.”

Pedro is a chinampero, a Xochimilco farmer practicing the techniques of his ancestors in the southernmost section of Mexico City. He dreams of a Mexico where integrity is returned to the earth and those who work it; where people value the bounty of the land; and where young people don’t have to choose between poverty and leaving the lands of their ancestors. A stalwart guardian of tradition, Pedro feels a communion with his ancestors through the land. Hundreds of years ago his Xochimilca ancestors began building the intricate web of chinampas (man-made islands used for farming) in Lake Xochimilco.

Every morning Pedro canoes the broad Canal de Cuemanco to reach the same garden plots that fed the people of Tenochtitlan at its pinnacle. He grows many kinds of vegetables, flowers, and cacti, but each year the decision of what the primary crop will be “comes from the heart,” Pedro explains, tapping his chest. “This year I felt it would be maize.”

His chinampa is just off what was once the Canal Nacional that long ago stretched all the way to the Zócalo. Across the canal from his gardens, on lands that were expropriated and drained for the 1968 Olympics, Pedro can hear raucous soccer and peewee football games.

Trajineras, flat-bottom tourist boats, fill the canal with sightseers and tequila bottles.

Esteem for the chinampero is slipping in Mexico, and even in Xochimilco. “Farmers struggle to make ends meet and the city lures the youth with its vices. We think our children have succeeded if they leave their family lands to be an accountant in the city.” Young people ask him to teach them the ways of the chinampa, but are quickly disillusioned by the sacrifices involved.

He believes government programs have failed farmers in cycles of paternalistic appeasement. “We don’t want charity. We just need people to buy our goods and value our work with fair prices.”

“What we need is a shift in mentality. People need to realize that the maize we grow isn’t just a piece of maize. It is a living part of the ancient culture of Xochimilco.”

Everyday Pedro works his chinampa from sunup to sundown, but Saturdays he steals away to his Classical Náhuatl class. He’s learning to write the language of his grandfather’s legends that kept him rapt as a little boy. He is as passionate about recording those stories as he is steady on the water, headed for the island farm.

“Working the land is life itself. A chinampero’s way of living is working.”

For more information, visit www.delachinampa.com.

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Author: Maya Harris

Author Bio: Maya Harris climbed too many pyramids to count, and nearly memorized the Guía Roji, during her four years in Mexico. She currently resides in New York City, where Guadalupe keeps close watch over her apartment.

Image Credit: Luz Montero

Photographer Bio: Luz Montero is an independent photographer based in Mexico City. She has an MA in Visual Arts from the National School of Plastic Arts in the San Carlos Academy and has worked with a wide range of specialized publications.

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