https://www.thewetlandfilm.com/home daily 1.0 2026-05-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/45a1c9ed-14cd-43c4-80f7-f6975ecaefc4/01_DJI_20231209131303_0034_D.jpg home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/71f72f39-1e9b-4b8a-83e3-a4c88e737c60/The+Wetland+-+Film+Stills+-+MAY+-+01.jpg home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/12579b8e-b872-4b71-b051-810801a7f92e/04_MEX_06752.jpg home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/fe0a703b-059c-4b67-8bda-0e856d450320/The+Wetland+-+Film+Stills+-+MAY+-+02.jpg home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/48663598-5ac0-4408-89ea-f466ac10f00e/02_MEX_09478.jpg home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/5cda4008-5c2a-40f5-bd90-d61c98f2b5d4/The+Wetland+-+Film+Stills+-+MAY+-+03.jpg home 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https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/31fcf120-ea03-4119-8140-a5cc18d9d55e/Mat+Saatchi+Gallery+_Z8A7510.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/0956f4ee-9608-46b0-8273-639ae48b87f1/Gabriela+Mercado.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/9d1c4dba-29e9-450b-bddc-278dca128954/Mat+Hay+Photo+Story+-+01.jpg https://www.thewetlandfilm.com/about daily 0.75 2026-05-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/c7d24741-4804-4cd4-abda-6d27a8300429/Chinampero+2MEX_06044%2C+Mat+Hay%2C+Chinampa%2C+chinamperia%2C+chinampera%2C+chinamperos%2C+Chinampas%2C+Xochimilco%2C+San+Gregorio+Atlapulco%2C+Mexico+City%2C+Mexico%2C+documentary+photography%2C+portrait%2C+landscape%2C+farming%2C+UNESCO%2C+agroecology.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/37a01859-0e29-414c-8187-79d3aeea6cd1/Chinampero+5MEX_09478%2C+Mat+Hay%2C+Chinampa%2C+chinamperia%2C+chinampera%2C+chinamperos%2C+Chinampas%2C+Xochimilco%2C+San+Gregorio+Atlapulco%2C+Mexico+City%2C+Mexico%2C+documentary+photography%2C+portrait%2C+landscape%2C+farming%2C+UNESCO%2C+agroecology.jpg https://www.thewetlandfilm.com/photo-story daily 0.75 2026-05-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/678740d8-8534-49e0-a165-bb1ee58b3add/01_DJI_20231209131303_0034_D.jpg photo story Mist forms at dawn inside the Chinampas wetland, located amongst the remnants of Lake Xochimilco, one of several interconnected lakes that once filled the Valley of Mexico. Overlooking the wetland are the neighbourhoods of San Gregorio Atlapulco and San Luis Tlaxialtemalco, and in the distance the 5,426m summit of stratovolcano Popocatépetl, the ‘Smoking Mountain’, affectionately referred to by the local community as ‘El Popo’. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/2ae44361-003c-4af9-87d1-7e8898f3cd71/04_MEX_06752.jpg photo story The phrase La Chinampería is a broad term that encompasses the Chinampero community, their history and culture, the wetland they preside over, their traditional agroecological farming methods, and their reverential ethos towards Mother Nature and the environment. To Felipe Barrera Aguirre, whose Chinampero heritage stretches back generations, its meaning is incredibly important. “La Chinampería is life itself. It is the origin of our culture, it is the heart of Mexico. If the Chinampería had not existed, Mexico would not be the Mexico we know.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/e1cbbb13-f69d-461b-8140-7488ae9261db/09_MEX_09826.jpg photo story Felipe and his daughter Mixtli visit Laguna de Tezhuilo (meaning ‘water mirror’). The community still holds rituals and celebrations in these sacred lagoons, which at one time were accessible only on special occasions in order to preserve the water and wildlife that breed here, but are now visited by increasing numbers of tourist boats and kayaking tours. Originally the Chinampas were fed by natural springs that welled up into lagoons such as this, providing the community with water clean enough people would drink straight from the canals. However, those springs have been diverted to upmarket neighborhoods in downtown Mexico City and replaced by gray water from treatment plants, sewage from surrounding neighbourhoods, and toxic pesticides and chemicals from modern industrial farming and floriculture practices brought into the Chinampas in recent years. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/8dd7fa28-c478-4f52-8cb0-3105543ed9e6/Chinampero+2MEX_06044%2C+Mat+Hay%2C+Chinampa%2C+chinamperia%2C+chinampera%2C+chinamperos%2C+Chinampas%2C+Xochimilco%2C+San+Gregorio+Atlapulco%2C+Mexico+City%2C+Mexico%2C+documentary+photography%2C+portrait%2C+landscape%2C+farming%2C+UNESCO%2C+agroecology.jpg photo story “If these problems are not fixed, our history, my history, my family's history, is going to end (and) apart from losing this historical memory, the city itself is also lost, because there would no longer be water. …This opportunity to have this land so rich, so fertile to produce food, that opportunity would also be lost, and we would be talking about a possible collapse of Mexico City …and we still have time.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/ff2d7c47-37d1-4582-ab9f-8d6a1bd9c351/02_MEX_09478.jpg photo story Seen here paddling to her family’s farm inside the Chinampas wetland, Mixtli Barrera Fernandez is part of a new generation of farmers and scientists trying to protect the wetland and the traditional community who have farmed here for more than 1000 years. In the future she plans to combine her degree in biology with the traditional skills passed down from her father and other mentors to work on conservation and restoration projects in the area. “If the Chinampas disappear, it is just a reflection of this general mindset in societies, this Western belief that nature or spaces are at the service of human beings and nothing more.” “I can't imagine a world where there aren't chinampas, but that's why I'm here, to ensure that doesn't happen.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/482c3fd2-8c75-4e3e-8107-46a084264c32/06_MEX_09010+1.jpg photo story Mixtli Barrera Fernandez working on her family’s chinampa. “The Chinampería and how it was created is precisely this close relationship between human beings and their environment. It's from observing what surrounds us that the Chinampería is built. And it's precisely human beings with nature, not without it.” “In the future, I would like more young individuals, like myself, to embrace the identity of being Chinamperas and Chinamperos. Through this, I hope that the Chinampas can be restored, driven by our shared interest. “These lands suffer from abandonment, they suffer from being forgotten by the new generations, and by reclaiming them, I am engaging in a political act.” - Mixtli Barrera Fernandez. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/89526136-e2b5-43bc-a630-1b2d8317e51e/07_MEX_09096+2.jpg photo story “My dad, as a chinampero and as a person, has completely influenced how I think and how I relate to living beings. It is because of him that I studied biology, due to this connection I have always had with nature. Here in the chinampa, it's an infinite world of things happening in the soil, in the water, in the crops, and he has made me pay attention to all these processes that are so important for life to continue existing and reproducing.” - Mixtli Barrera Fernandez. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/b1d8b34e-5816-410e-8a55-81158b83b6ed/10__Z8A3483.jpg photo story Felipe and Mixtli working on their family’s chinampa. “When I was a child I grew up with my grandfather's stories, talking about the chinampa, how delicious he ate, what he planted, this abundance, I imagined a paradise. And in some way, I want to make these stories real (...) for my grandsons, my granddaughters, for my daughter, so that they have the opportunity to live them, so that it's not just a story, so that they live it.” - Felipe Barrera Aguirre. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/054ec5dc-dbc4-4f7a-8aab-0be8e962051e/08_MEX_00896.jpg photo story Migratory Pelicans inside Laguna Tlilac, inside the Chinampas. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/6fa956dc-f937-4629-855c-c840d0e1c126/03_DJI_20231217141720_0079_D+1.jpg photo story Xochimilco, Mexico City. Canals run from the Chinampas all the way into the bustling heart of Xochimilco, a farming town established on the southern shore of Lake Xochimilco dating back to pre-Mexica (Aztec) times, which now forms the southeast edge of Mexico City. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/49e18bf0-948e-4d41-8182-d4666f4c028e/12_MEX_14180+WPP.jpg photo story A great egret perches on a traditional ‘canoa’, used by Chinampero farmers to transport produce from their farms into town. The canal system in the Chinampas is a haven for aquatic wildlife and birds, even here in the more urbanised and polluted canals near downtown Xochimilco in southern Mexico City. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/e347eea6-7579-4c9e-96ec-29448fa5a576/13_MEX_14260.jpg photo story Illegal Housing in the Chinampas. Although building and human habitation is restricted in the Chinampas wetland, poorly constructed and illegal housing is common, leading to trash and sewage being dumped into the canals, polluting the water and negatively impacting the aquatic wildlife and migratory birds that are found throughout the area. Signs of illegal housing are the thin black tubes carrying drinking water between homes breaching the water surface while electric cables span overhead. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/d72027f3-6452-433f-b7f1-324b2982301d/14_MEX_16044.jpg photo story Running directly from San Gregorio Atlapulco to the Central Market in downtown Xochimilco, the busy Avenue Nuevo León and its adjoining canal is lined with businesses, commercial floriculture farms, and residential homes. Driving this road gives a sense of the pressure canals come under as the city envelopes them. Although a natural volcanic filtration system has been installed at this section, which the municipal workers in green were maintaining, the stench of pollution in the water here is intense. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/42fded9a-e86a-412b-acba-f6b4c68e0454/15_Nuevo+Leo%CC%81n+Canal.jpg photo story Returning to Avenue Nuevo León in 2025 and the continued degradation of the Chinampas canal system is apparent. This section has almost completely dried up, revealing the trash and toxic pollution that is entering the waterways. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/42c6547b-7df6-4985-aecf-2ab984e2deb9/16__Z8A5044.jpg photo story The name Xochimilco comes from the Mexica language of Nahuatl, roughly translating into English as 'where flowers grow', and today floriculture plays a large part of the local economy. However, the majority of flowers now produced in the Chinampas are no longer grown using the traditional organic methods of the Chinamperos, and instead are grown by farmers (many of whom come from other parts of Mexico) that use industrial techniques involving pesticides and chemicals, growing each plant in a single black plastic bag filled with soil usually imported from mountains elsewhere. The agrochemicals and plastic subsequently find their way into the soil and canals, negatively impacting the traditional organic farmers and all of the surrounding environment. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/413297e0-3d02-41c6-8519-2269070dd05d/17_DJI_20250218155423_0065_D.jpg photo story Although restricted, urban development steadily continues inside the Chinampas for a variety of reasons. For instance, with the installation of polytunnels that develop into more permanent agricultural buildings (like the ones seen here amongst rows of ornamental plants being grown in single plastic bags). Or with the construction of illegal housing for families that own land they no longer wish to farm or who can’t afford to live elsewhere. The combination of these things has led to an increase in sewage, agro-chemicals, and plastic entering the canals and severely polluting the wetland. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/379222e1-889d-4b3a-8bd9-b1377a489cb6/11_MEX_12065.jpg photo story To the majority of visitors the Chinampas are seen as more of a novelty tourist destination; somewhere to drink and party at the weekends on brightly coloured trajinera boats (above), unaware of the vital role it plays for the city or the threats the wetland and the community are facing. And while tourism brings money into some parts of the local economy, many chinamperos view this as coming at the expense of the wetland and their traditional way of life. Trash and pollution entering the waterways is increasing, while growing numbers of local families abandon traditional farming in favour of more lucrative commercial tourism opportunities. “Right now, Xochimilco is very focused, if not entirely focused, on being a tourist destination. Both the government and the chinamperos are moving in this direction because it's a way to generate a lot of money. (...) but what are the effects of tourism and what does it cause?” - Mixtli Barrera Fernandez. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/5e0cfa9a-a922-4af1-beca-fc9efb240e4c/85+La+Chinamperi%CC%81a+by+Mat+Hay%2C+Chinampero%2C+Xochimilco%2C+San+Gregorio+Atlapulco%2C+Mexico+City%2C+Mexico%2C+Indigenous+community%2C+farming%2C+polyculture%2C+wetland%2C+documentary+photographer%2C+landscape+photographer%2C+Scotland.jpg photo story Despite the Chinampas being designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, RAMSAR Wetland of International Importance, and Globally Important Heritage System, increasing areas of traditional farmland inside the wetland are being destroyed to make way for commercial football pitches. These pitches often lie unused during weekdays, but can be easier to maintain than farmland and can offer a good source of income. However, every football pitch built here means less potential food for the city, the removal of the ecosystem, and an influx of toxic chemicals and trash into the canals. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/a6f08250-90a9-4acd-a1ac-5d096e50d140/19__Z8A4710+for+WPP.jpg photo story A large portion of the northern wetland has been converted into recreational facilities for sports including basketball, tennis, and golf, which lie empty during most weekdays. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/96570a52-697f-4969-b0cb-961a96309543/20__Z8A5831.jpg photo story In 2024 a group of Xochimilco, Tláhuac, and Iztapalapa residents, along with collectives and civil society organizations in Mexico City filed a collective petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) asking them to investigate wether the Mexican State had violated a number of human rights during the recent construction of a freeway bridge through the north west section of wetland, which they say destroyed part of the ecosystem and proceeded without proper environmental or civic consultation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/95e7291c-5a61-4562-b906-5a174edc1961/21__Z8A4124.jpg photo story Dawn in the ecological reserve looking south toward the neighbourhood of San Gregorio Atlapulco in southern Mexico City. The Chinampas wetland has become an increasingly vital source of water for Mexico’s megacity capital as its water infrastructure has started to collapse. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/d7f5c23d-6d8e-40b2-b56c-755b5be9fe9e/05_MEX_16587.jpg photo story Slender ahuejote trees cast shadows across tightly packed chinampas in the more industrious agricultural areas around San Gregorio Atlapulco, on the southern edge of the Chinampas wetland and ecological reserve. While the ahuejote’s branches and leaves provide shade for farm workers, their roots form the outer structure of chinampas, which originally began as staked-out islands continuously infilled with organic matter from the surrounding lake beds and marshland. The canals that formed between each one provide easy transportation of people and produce, and an endless supply of water and the nutrient rich sediment that helps make chinampas so productive. The canals also provide habitat for a range of aquatic wildlife that play an essential part within the local ecosystem and the Chinampero’s traditional agroecology. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/e1d4caf5-e180-455a-b90d-e8214ae2fa76/23_MEX_08519.jpg photo story Established in 2017, Colectivo Ahuejote is a local NGO initiative working to reactivate and empower Chinampera agriculture. Its co-founder Raúl Mondragon (left) is seen here talking to one of the collective’s members Ernesto Reyes Perez on his chinampa. “Ernesto is a cool chinampero. He’s young and curious, eager to explore and discover how to achieve a full sustainable chinampa. He’s been experimenting with different ecotechnologies like solar power plants for irrigation systems or water filtration systems to get water with better quality, his work is interesting, and it could be a role model for the Chinampería.” - Raúl Mondragon. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/0e7a6db6-4fc0-43c0-9b34-8cccd119926d/24_MEX_12716.jpg photo story Chinampera farmer Eva Fragoso Galicia Fives times a week Eva and her cousin Andrés Galicia Hernández send crates filled with fresh produce from their farm on the edge of San Gregorio Atlapulco to their collective’s distributor waiting for them in town. Raúl Mondragon, co-founder of Colectivo Ahuejote, who began working with the cousins to help with distribution and accessing more customers in the city told me Eva and Andrés “...have a magnificent production system, with different persons helping and doing what they are best at. For example, Eva is a postharvest expert and Andrés (…) is a traditional techniques master.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/6b4cfb2a-1352-439f-ba7f-b065c84db7c1/22_DJI_20231217232208_0092_D.jpg photo story In the past Chinamapero farmers were able to transport their produce via an extensive network of canals all the way into the historical centre of Mexico City. Today the remaining canals begin to disappear here at the northern most point of the wetland. “Hundreds of canoes navigated along Canal Nacional, reaching the city center.” “Even recently, my grandparents delivered food on canoes, filled with tomatoes that supplied Mexico City”- Felipe Barrera Aguirre. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/e72c6d38-aa8c-4d2c-b681-f0c87b3f98d1/Chinampero+28MEX_15887%2C+Mat+Hay%2C+Chinampa%2C+chinamperia%2C+chinampera%2C+chinamperos%2C+Chinampas%2C+Xochimilco%2C+San+Gregorio+Atlapulco%2C+Mexico+City%2C+Mexico%2C+documentary+photography%2C+portrait%2C+landscape%2C+farming%2C+UNESCO%2C+agroecology.jpg photo story Fresh radishes at the San Gregorio Atlapulco market. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/6375812e-fbba-4c74-a0ee-7dda8f1fc71d/26_Chinampa+School.jpg photo story The creation of the first chinampa farming school has been an important milestone in the struggle to safeguard the future of the Chinampería. Attracting people of all ages, especially youngsters to stay in, or enter, a life of farming can be a difficult task in modern times, especially if your family’s farmland sits within the boundary of a modern mega-city. But even after extensive setbacks and delays to the program, co-founder Felipe Barrera Aguirre and his fellow teachers display an optimistic and unwavering sense of duty to both future and past generations. “The Chinampera School is an invitation to our entire community, to the youth, to come to the chinampa and learn… [We teach] agroecology, water and land conservation, cooking, traditional medicine, and arts. All of that, and much more… The Chinampera School includes many areas of knowledge; it is the lacustrine culture that made the Mexica culture, the mother culture of Mexico.”- Felipe Barrera Aguirre. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/61985c25-7457-4afe-be2e-8f6cf9795ab6/27__Z8A6088.jpg photo story PhD candidate in Biological Sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Clara López Marmolejo (left), has been collaborating with the Tlamachtiloyan Chinampaneca farming school to research the ecological processes that occur within a traditional milpa: an ancient Mesoamerican agricultural system where multiple crops (often beans, maize, and squash) are planted together in one field. More productive per area than monocultures (single-crop fields) and fully organic, the milpa is a fundamental element of traditional Chinampero farming culture. Over the previous months teachers and students from the farming school helped to prepare and then plant this milpa, which Clara and her colleague Marlen Salinas Monter (right) have been monitoring and are starting to harvest. The fresh vegetables were then taken straight from the field and used for a traditional cooking class on the chinampa that afternoon, where everyone involved in the project got to prepare and eat a traditional Chinampero meal. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/30a2d63b-c1b3-4038-b7bd-6d8d8997da0b/25__Z8A7314+1.jpg photo story Environmental biologist Paola Cervantes (left) and biology intern Fatima Marichi Gallardo (right) watch as hydrobiologist Vivian Crespo wrangles an axolotl salamander. All three are recent graduates from universities across Mexico City who have come to monitor axolotls placed in purpose-built underwater cages at selected locations inside the Chinampas. Run by the Ecological Restoration Laboratory at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Chinampa-Refuge project collaborates with a number of chinamperos to reintroduce these celebrated but critically endangered amphibians back into the area where they once thrived, and in doing so, helping restore the land and water quality of the surrounding area. Named after Xolotl, the Mexica (Aztec) god of fire and lightning, the axolotl has been celebrated in Mexican culture for centuries and is endemic to the Valley of Mexico. However, due to habitat loss across the valley, along with pollution and invasive fish species inside the wetland, wild axolotls are on the brink of extinction. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/ecb3efc1-e228-4c17-83e1-98102df88067/30_MEX_10999.jpg photo story Local beekeeper and chinampero Sergio Castillo Cerraldi drives through the wetland’s ecological reserve after showing me where he keeps his family’s beehives. Despite its protected status there are old tyres, plastic, and trash scattered everywhere. When asked who is responsible for maintaining and protecting the ecological reserve, Sergio explained that ultimately it’s left to the community “…and the governors are the biggest threat; the agrochemicals and demagogy are the weapons.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/e88e18ad-e351-419d-92fb-5acf404f4f77/28_MEX_14102.jpg photo story Rosalinda Rosas Salas in the garden of family's house: the Casa de Salud Calpulli Amalinalintzin healing centre in Xochimilco. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/4a6e448a-3620-4b56-9217-1cdf38e84f9a/29_MEX_14042.jpg photo story Known to those close to her simply as Abuelita (Grandma), Amalia Salas Casales is a well-respected spokesperson and activist who has spent much of her life promoting and defending the chinampas. Approaching her 90th birthday she is still full of energy and maintains a busy schedule of public appearances. At home at her health house Casa de Salud Calpulli Amalinalintzin, a government certified healing center for Mexican Traditional Medicine, she explained that the positive force of nature and her connection to it is what motivates her, and that respecting what you put into your body and give out to the world should be a priority. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69f8ca30769d7e1d6ea989c6/edaae363-428f-4cd4-a99f-5913c5ed1c5b/Creative_Scotland_bw+copy.png