Texcoco Lake Rescue / Elena Poniatowska

Mexico City. “I love where she lives. I spent part of my life here, Elena; my mother still lives here,” says architect Iñaki Echeverría upon entering Chimalistac. We baptized my second son in San Sebastian, but he was already so big that when the priest brought him the candle, he blew on it thinking it was his birthday and the priest got upset..

The current government revolves around the talent of the urban architect Iñaki Echeverría, who comes into my house in Chimalistac, soaked by the rain. As everything in life is water, the urban planner becomes one with the downpour. Since he took responsibility for resurrecting Lake Texcoco, there is no sun capable of drying his soaked effort.

–The first thing I would like to tell you, Elena, is that the Texcoco Lake project is of the utmost importance for the future of the Valley of Mexico. It is not only something that has to do with the past, but, above all, with the future of the citizens of this area.

–Is it a return to Tenochtitlan, architect?

–Yes, but it also has a lot to do with our destiny. The lake is our origin, but it goes far beyond our city, which is only a small part of it, because, in reality, it is made up of many communities, not only human, but also animal and plant. I am talking about the entire ecology of the Valley of Mexico, the hydrological basin of Mexico.

The first thing is to understand the context of climate change, in which temperature and water will be two of the greatest challenges facing the basin. It is urgent to rescue its ecology. I think that the most important thing about the decision taken by the President is to keep alive the opportunity to make the Valley of Mexico viable for the next 100 years. One of the challenges, without a doubt, is that of habitable space.

–Is the huge number of people settling in Mexico City leading us to a disaster?

–Yes, the one in the state of Mexico and now the phenomenon of overpopulation in Hidalgo is going to occur, that is why I speak of the basin and not of the city as a political demarcation.

–Are we doomed, architect Echeverría?

–The main challenges are going to be such in almost the entire planet because we are reaching limits that we must begin to understand and resolve in a different way.

–Is our planet going to hell?

–No, not at all, although there may be suffering that we should know how to avoid. The works of art, philosophy and science have to oppose suffering, death. I insist that humanity is not going to end, but there may be great suffering that we are trying to avoid…

–But, architect, many Mexicans are suffering right now because of their own insistence on seeking paradise in the capital… It seems that in every Mexican there is a migrant.

–Issues such as the heat island that is generated in the capital, the dust storms that you must remember very well, need to be resolved.

–Cross, cross, cross, let the devil go away and let Jesus come!said the children in the midst of the dust storm at the Benito Juárez landing field and the parents brought their children to see how planes took off that they would never board…

–Look, that is the other aspect of our project, that of environmental justice, but also social justice in an area that has been ignored and abandoned for at least 300 years. Throughout the era of modern Mexico, this area grew in demographic terms due to migration until it had almost 12 and a half million inhabitants; around 4 and a half million immediately. There was not a single hospital there. The first one is being built by López Obrador in Atenco. It is a health project that is not linked to the park or the natural area, but it is part of a broader process led by teacher María Luisa Albores at the request of the President. There are 14,030 hectares that were protected by a presidential decree on March 22, 2022, and they became a natural park. protected natural areaIf someone were to think of damaging that area, it would set a dangerous precedent, because any excuse would be good enough to leave it unprotected. In reality, López Obrador’s act was very important for the future of the basin.

–What is the value of this project, architect?

–We are more than 11,500 people working within this enormous space of 14,330 hectares. To give you an idea: it is 17 times the four sections of Chapultepec Park and almost three times the island of Manhattan, New York, and 43 times Central Park. It is two and a half times the size of Oaxaca or one time the size of Torreón. About 100,000 resident birds live there; about 200,000 more migrate from Alaska, Canada and the United States to South America every year. It is not just Lake Texcoco, but the entire system of lakes in the basin when they were joined by wetlands and formed Lake Texcoco.

We exchange rubble for earth

“There is a confusion that this project stopped, for example, the airport project, but it is the other way around, since restoration projects in that area have existed for 150 years. We have projects by engineer Garay that date back to the 19th century; projects by Miguel Ángel de Quevedo, even. Here near her house, Elena has the Viveros de Coyoacán and Miguel Ángel de Quevedo, which date back to 1936. As early as 1951, newspapers were publishing notes on the ecological recovery of Lake Texcoco.

“Nabor Carrillo managed to complete part of the construction that protects the lake and now bears his name, and the federal zone of Lake Texcoco was finally created, which was protected as federal land.

“The entire metropolitan area was a lake. The surrounding lands, Ecatepec, Nezahualcóyotl, Chimalhuacán and the agricultural zone, were part of the reserve; in 1953, the Secretariat of Hydraulic Resources tried to flood them because they were not inhabited. And look what happened! The fact that this project was in the federal zone allowed us to preserve parts of it, although they are not exempt from danger. We had to bring in the National Guard recently to clear out an area that had been invaded, not with people, but with construction material. It will be a challenge to maintain it, but it is worth it.”

“We replaced concrete and steel with earth, and created a habitat for birds and insects. There are turtles and snakes. We protected natural resources and created sports, cultural and recreational services that did not exist before. We built a nursery specializing in vegetation that tolerates the salinity and alkalinity of the area, because there is sodium and calcium carbonate; very high electrical conductivity in which not many plants can survive and, if they do, it is because they are invasive species that today are not allowed in a protected natural area.

We are talking about a very flat part at the lowest point of the valley, which is why it is so alkaline and saline. As it is an endorheic basin, the water does not flow out, there are no rivers; imagine that it is a pot and all the water goes to the lowest point. And in this process it drags and washes away salts and minerals which it makes fertile.

–And the dust storms?

–Nature is so wise that it dilutes them with the falling water and becomes a kind of cover, let’s say, that prevents the salts or dust storms from dispersing, because they are highly polluting. They are such tiny particles that they go to the lungs because they are not stopped by the nasal follicles and cause chronic respiratory diseases and even emphysema.

“The water captured ozone; it did not regulate temperature. It is not a coincidence that our capital was called ‘the most transparent region’, because by capturing ozone, it becomes clearer to the eye.”

–You took her back in time, engineer.

–To resume the tradition of projects that come from a long time ago, to recover their spirit, not as an image or as a purpose, and even less as a result; we try to design processes rather than images. When you let nature work on its own, the results are fantastic. You have to let nature do its thing.

–And the inhabitants?, who are often accused of attacking nature.

–Some people defended this space; they even had to spend time in jail, people from the People’s Front in Defense of the Land; for example, during the Peña Nieto and Fox governments. Surely you remember Atenco…