Mexico, Tenancingo Degollado, : Xochimilco

I went to Xochimilco in Mexico City,, a place they call the "Venice of Mexico". It's not Venecia at least ipresently. That would be unfair to both places. What the two places have in common is canals. However, at one time what is now Mexico City may have been a lot like Venezia but that time has all but been erased. Xochimilco is a place where the "Indigenous Old World meets the "New World" in a watery estuary in the southern part of bustling burgeoning Mexico City. This web of canals are the remnants of the waterways that once served as the streets of the magnificent Aztec City Tenochitlan. It's a colorful "mexican place", uniquely mexican,,, unpolished, portrayed in bold strokes of color, and historically important.
The valley that is now covered by sprawling Mexico City is a giant bowl whose rim is a cordillera. The bowl was once covered by expansive shallow lakes whose shorelines were inhabited by at least 40 different city states.The Mexicas ( me shee kas ) or as we now call them, the Aztecs, were a primitive bellicose semi nomadic tribe that wandered into this inhabited valley around 1248 from somewhere up north. Since they were "late comers" to the region they were the lowest on the totem pole socially, acting as mercenaries and laborers of the more powerful tribes in the region. They first settled into what is now Chapultepec a place with ample spring water. Everything was hunky-dory for a while until they screwed up big time.They sacrificed a king's daughter, flaying her skin. For this they were banished from Chapultepec and rambled once again until they came to a muddy island infested with mosquitoes, rats, and feral dogs in Lake Texcoco. That godforsaken place however fulfilled their tribal prophesy. They knew it was the "the place" to settle the moment they saw an eagle perched on a nopal with a snake in its mouth. So sometime in the early 1300's the Mexicas moved to this safe haven,,, safe because no one else coveted it. By the way the image of the eagle, nopal, and snake is on the Mexican Flag.

Resultado de imagen para image on the mexican flag

The Mexica settled down to work and found their new homebegan to embellish their new home, which eventually became known asTenochtitlán, which means Place of the Cactus Fruit. The Mexica, virtual slaves, who had been handed this opportunity to control their own destiny, became highly efficient in their ability to develop a system of dikes and canals called Chinampas, that controlled the water levels and salinity of the surrounding lakes. These chinampas, small islands of land built with clay and mud, fixed among the roots of the ahuejote trees, a species native to the area, were extremely productive, as the people could obtain up to 5 harvests a year, thanks to the high mineral content of the land, the abundance of water and the favorable climate. The Mexicas increased the size of their unwanted island by this method of channeling and using the muck as fill and compost. Employing canoes and boats, they were able to carry on commerce with other cities along the valley lakes.Instead of fighting the water they turned it into a vast area of cultivation and transportation. Today, Xochimilco is not just a tourist area but still an agricultural sector and the raised beds still give great yields.

Resultado de imagen para steam boats on lake texcoco

Resultado de imagen para steam boats on lake texcoco

The former lake and present locations in Mexico City

     They were industrious and kings of their turbid realm, all the while growing economically, and making important alliances with the other city states about them. It seems they were a nervous superstitious lot too who elevated human scarifice to levels never before seen in this valley. I picture them as having been close knit group who won a vacation to an insufferable place.They decided to stay and make it their own, yet they were a plagued people, always looking over their shoulder,, hounded by their beggered past and their insatiable gods.
     By the beginning of the Sixteenth Century, the Mexica Empire had inflated, its southern boundries extending into the present-day Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, and to a large stretch of the Gulf Coast on the eastern side of the continent.
     The Spaniards arrived with their steel and germs, conquered the Mexicas, and tried for the next 400 years to drain the pesty lake, at first with slave labor, then finally with machines. This may have been the greatest ecological disaster of all time. By the early 1900's, the Spaniards were finally successful but the draining irrevocably changed the environs. The effort has left much of the surrounding area semi arid, and reduced the water table drastically. The soft subsoil is prone to liquefcation which increased the damage after the devastating 1985 earthquake. Ironically Mexico City suffers from water shortages and like Los Angeles has turned to the aquifers of surrounding areas to slake its enormous thirst. Where the Mexicas in city of Tenochitlan partnered with the lakes, using them to their advantage, the Spanish implemented another conquest.
   Over the years, as a result of cruel and gragantuan efforts, the lakes have disappeared as well as Mexica culture and their method of commerce. It seems like a myth now. In the late 19th century some of the canals outside of Xochimilco still existed and were used by punts and even small steamboats.

This lithograph was made by G. Rodríguez, of San Matías Iztacalco, as it was in the middle of the 19th century. It shows a small steamboat chugging through the canal and passing the church called San Matías, that exists at present, without major changes.

In Xochimilco, which in Nahuatll means "place of the flowery orchard", one may rent long flat bottomed punts (called trajineras) that are propelled by a type of gondolier who does not use a paddle but pushes the trajinera with a long pole that he pegs to the bottom of the canal. There are 175 kilometers of canals populated by floating bands, floating sellers of trinkets, and floating food boats, all amidst the phenomenal cultivation miracle of the "chinampas".
Of interest to one with a biological background. Xochimilco is the home of endemic near extinct species of amphibian called the axolotl. It was used by the natives as medicine, food, and for ceremonial reasons being thought to be the incarnation of Quetzalcoatl. Of particular interest is its ability to regenerate limbs and capacity to reach sexual maturity in the larval stage.Very Mexican. It can breathe air but spends most of its time in the water. It is highly endangered,, maybe only 500 survive in the wild. Habitat and pollution the nemisis of all on the planet have taken their toll.