"Jasmín Ordóñez looks out from a wooden boat at the water as she crosses a narrow channel that connects a labyrinth of chinampas, island farms that were built by the Aztecs thousands of years ago. "Let's close our eyes and ask our Mother Water for permission to sail in peace," she said as the boat moves slowly, in contrast to the frenetic traffic of Mexico City just a few miles away."
"Ordóñez owns one of these island farms, first created with mud from the bottom of the lakes that once covered this area. When the boat arrives at her island, she proudly shows the corn and leafy greens she grows. Her ancestors owned chinampas, but she had to buy this one because women traditionally haven't inherited them. "My grandmother didn't get any land. Back then, most was left in the hands of men," she said. At her side, Cassandra Garduño listens attentively. She also didn't inherit the family chinampa."
Chinampas are floating island farms created by the Aztecs using lake mud that now sit amid channels near Mexico City. Women such as Jasmín Ordóñez and Cassandra Garduño have purchased and cultivated chinampas to grow corn and leafy greens and to practice sustainable farming aimed at preserving fragile wetland ecosystems. Historical inheritance practices largely excluded women, forcing many to buy land rather than inherit ancestral plots. Urban development, mass tourism and water pollution increasingly threaten the chinampas. Women face social barriers in a male-dominated field but persist in stewardship and conservation efforts to protect these cultural and ecological landscapes.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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