Renato in Xochimilco, Mexico, land of my ancestors

Renato moving our boat in Xochimilco, outside of Mexico City. My ancestors, on my mother's side, come from Xochimilco. Their family name was Urrutia. When I was a child, the canals were covered with white lilies, but that's all gone. But it was a relaxing trip, just the family, and Roberto Gonzalez.

"In pre-colonial times in the valley in which Mexico City was subsequently established there existed a river basin where springs and rivers coming from the surrounding mountains deposited their waters into five large lakes. Lake Xochimilco, covering an area of 30 square km, was considered the most beautiful and with the best quality water. "Xochimilco" means "place of flowers" and derives from the large quantities of flowers that were cultivated by the people who settled there around in the middle of the thirteenth century. This xochimilca culture prized beauty and was deeply religious, but was involved in continuous wars with neighbouring cultures in the region. Besides their notable participation during the Spanish conquest, the Mexican revolution, and their complex modern historical trajectory, the xochimilcas were distinguished from other meso-American cultures by their perfection of the agricultural system called 'chinampa'.

The word 'chinampa' derives from Náhuatl word 'chinámitl' meaning "weaving of reed and sticks or fence of reeds”. A rectangle of land was marked out in the shallow lake waters by such a fence and mud was taken from the lake bottom, mixed with available vegetation and piled inside. The enclosure fences were fixed with a line with a species of willow tree, the ahuejotes (Salix bomplandiana), whose main characteristics are its intricate web of roots and narrow, vertical foliage, and water tolerance. The roots served to retain soil and the foliage protects against bad weather conditions without obstructing sunlight. The efficiency of the chinampa system is demonstrated by its high productivity, with three to five crops being possible each year.
The creation of chinampas one next to the other has given rise to the existing Xochimilco wetland system, producing a network of several small lakes and some 189 km of different sized channels. From ancient times to the beginning of the last century Xochimilco was the most important supplier of vegetable products to the region. However with increasing urbanization came the demand for water and by the beginning of the 20th century the springs and rivers feeding the system had been captured in tubes, leaving only inputs of ‘black’ water of insufficient quality for irrigation, a decision that contributed to the collapse in the agricultural production."