(gentle instrumental music)
- [Narrator] Mexico City is built on top of
a series of lakes.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in Xochimilco.
It's here that manmade islands have existed
for over 700 years.
Although it's seen now more as tourist destination
to rent party boats,
its original purpose was much more important.
In a region that is home to
6,000 acres of protected wetlands,
Xochimilco's floating gardens, called chinampas,
represent history, agricultural engineering,
but above all, sustenance for the city.
Over the last 30 years,
25% of the land has been lost to housing encroachment,
which additionally results in polluted waters
that affect the species that live in this habitat.
Local government policy has not done much to resolve issues,
but some local citizens have made strides to change things.
Ricardo Rodriguez is an activist who owns a non-profit
that connects the farmers, or chinamperos,
with chefs, tourists, and home cooks.
Every week, he gathers produce grown on these islands
and delivers them throughout the city
to a varying list of clientele.
(uplifting instrumental music)
- [Narrator] The chinampas are abundant
with an array of flowers that are sold in markets,
but there is one in particular that stands out,
the squash blossom, or flor de calabaza.
Known as one of the more authentic ingredients
in Mexican cuisine,
you can find the bright, trumpet-shaped flower
in tacos and quesadillas.
Famous throughout the world,
Mexican corn was prized, especially in the pre-Hispanic era.
Maize, as it's known, started out as a wild grass
with a hard outer shell known as teosinte.
- It's delicious.
- [Narrator] And was selectively bred
for its desirable traits.
It would eventually lead to two of the most
traditional items in Mexico's culinary history,
the tamale and tortilla.
(uplifting instrumental music)
Seeing an opportunity for feeding a growing empire,
the Aztecs would conquer the city
and produce even more chinampas.
A lot of this changed in 1519,
when Hernan Cortes and his legion of Spanish conquistadors
conquered the city.
(yelling)
(swords clashing)
The Spanish partially drained the lake
and also enforced monoculture crop production
which led to further complications for yields.
- [Narrator] Alejandro is a chinampero
who has lived and worked in the fields all of his life.
- [Narrator] Invented by the Toltecs,
these Mesoamericans used sophisticated aqua terra techniques
to build plots of land from the silty bottom
of Lake Xochimilco.
By driving stakes into the ground,
the Toltecs would isolate the proposed plot
and then start dredging and filtering soil
to lay on top of it.
The soil itself was nutrient dense
and would be replenished and fertilized
by a complex waste system
starting in the center of the city.
- [Narrator] A wide variety of crops
were grown interconnected through different techniques
in what could be called polyculture,
but Mesoamericans would refer to these as milpas.
To them, it represented the purest form of farming
in which each crop would produce a vital nutrient
another might need and also deployed a natural protection
to insects and wildlife.
The cuisine that has survived through the ages
represents a collection of different influences
from the Aztecs and the Mayans.
Many of the recipes are only still around
thanks to oral history and the generations of people
who still live on and maintain the chinampas.
Beatriz, who has always resided on the chinampas,
still cooks some of these traditional dishes.
(gentle instrumental music)
- [Narrator] Modern times have had a
strong negative impact on the chinampas.
As Mexico became more developed,
children born into the chinampero lifestyle
sought different means of work.
- [Narrator] If the chinampas were to be abandoned,
the canals that exist now would dry up
and most of the surrounding
fauna and botanical life in Mexico City would die off.
This would represent a complete ecological disaster.
On the bright side, laboratory studies have shown
that harmful pesticides can be removed from damaged plots
and the chinampas themselves are fairly resilient
once in rehabilitation.