Here There Was a Lake
Here There Was A Lake is a transmedia and collaborative interpretation of Xochimilco — a borough of Mexico City and a drying wetland in resistance, known for its ancient canals and chinampas, floating gardens still cultivated by local farmers. Living there for the past four years, Luis Antonio works collectively with farmers and artists, bringing together archives, poetry, music, imagery, organic materials, and rituals into a shared dialogue. Caught between pre-Hispanic roots and capitalist urbanization, the project reflects the complex tensions of this territory.
A traditional boat used in Xochimilco is burned during a protest in the historical center of Mexico City, Mexico, on 28 February 2021. Traditional farming and this unique ecosystem started to change as Mexico City’s lakes began to dry, and sewage and chemicals filled the Xochimilco canals.
Javier del Valle, a fourth-generation chinampero and documentarist, rows to his family’s chinampa at dawn in Xochimilco, Mexico City, Mexico on 30 October 2023. Proud of his heritage, he embraces the significance of local festivities tied to the pre-Hispanic agricultural calendar and is a collaborator on the project.
A farmer waters his crops during the drought season on a chinampa in Xochimilco, Mexico City, Mexico, on 14 December 2019. The natural springs have dried up due to historic overextraction, and now the canals are filled with treated — yet polluted — water, contaminated by the surrounding urban sprawl.
An abandoned cornfield is contaminated by jimsonweed at a chinampa in Xochimilco, Mexico City, Mexico, on 4 December 2020. Due to lack of support and globalization, traditional cultivation in chinampas has slowly disappeared over generations.
People from Xochimilco lift a cross at the top of the Xochitepec hill during the traditional yearly Día de la Santa Cruz celebration, which is associated to the arrival of the first rains and the beginning of the planting of corn, further highlighting the festival’s agricultural character, fertility and the good achievement of the harvests. Mexico City, Mexico, 11 March 2022.
