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We passed over acequias — a system of communal irrigation ditches originating with the Moors that New Mexico’s farmers have used for centuries.

Growing up in New Mexico, Hayes-Rich played and swam in centuries-old irrigation systems known as acequias, built by Indigenous Pueblo people and Spanish settlers, that flow beneath the U.S.

There are about dozen more acequias on the list.

Garcia, the executive director of the New Mexico Acequia Association, a nonprofit that works to protect the state’s 700 or so acequias, or irrigation ditches, said she attributed her community’s persistence to “pure grit.”

Ranchers say they are feeling the pinch, and farmers who rely on traditional irrigation systems called acequias say they’re worried about having water for crops next spring.