The canals and chinampas (raised fields) of Xochimilco are the last substantial remnant of the extraordinary wetland agricultural system that fed Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Mexica Empire, and Mexico City, the seat of power for the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Inscribed as a unesco World Heritage site in 1987, a portion of Xochimilco has enjoyed a degree of protection from development unparalleled in the region, but its complex and remarkable history has remained relatively unknown. In Islands in the Lake, Conway brings this rich history to light through a careful and comprehensive study of the Spanish and Nahuatl documents produced in and around Xochimilco from the 1540s to the 1790s.
Islands in the Lake provides a detailed account of Xochimilco’s political and social organization, land tenure, demography, and economy during the colonial era. Conway argues that Xochimilco persisted in the ways that it did because “the lakes, and...