"In the Art of My Profession": Adrian Boot and Dutch Water Management in Colonial Mexico City

Headnote

Abstract

In 1614, the Dutch hydraulic engineer Adrian Boot arrived at Mexico City to assist Enrico Martínez with the desagüe-a project to drain the lakes surrounding the city into the Gulf of Mexico to prevent flooding. Boot rejected drainage and instead proposed regulating the lakes, employing Dutch hydraulic practices. This paper explains why Boot rejected the desagüe; why he championed a water management plan centered on containment and regulation of the lakes, and thus their preservation; and how he reimagined Dutch hydraulic technology to suit the environmental and social character of the island of Mexico City.

Keywords: Adrian Boot; Mexico City; flooding; Dutch hydraulic technology

Resumen

En 1614 el ingeniero holandés Adrian Boot llegó a la Ciudad de México para apoyar a Enrico Martínez con "el desagüe"-un proyecto para llevar el agua de los lagos que rodeaban la ciudad hacia el Golfo de México que tenía la intención de prevenir inundaciones. Sin embargo, Boot rechazó el proyecto de Martínez. En este ensayo explico las razones que tuvo para hacerlo, y discuto su proyecto alterno basado en la regulación de las aguas lacustres a través de la reutilización de tecnología hidráulica de su tierra natal. Mantener las aguas, sin duda, era más acorde con el entorno ambiental y social de la isla en la que se había fundado México.

Palabras clave: Adrian Boot; ciudad de México; inundaciones, tecnología hidráulica holandesa

Introduction

Flooding has plagued Mexico City and its pre-Columbian predecessor Tenochtitlan since 1429.1 The effort to control the propensity toward flooding transcends the pre-conquest and colonial periods of this nearly seven-hundred-year-old city. The causes of inundations are simple: Mexico City is built on an island located at the lowest point of the Basin of Mexico where water naturally settles, and despite its elevation of 2,240 meters above sea level, it has no natural outlet (Figure 1; Excurra 2003: 11-12). Although floods have repeatedly overwhelmed the city more than half a millennium, the solutions proposed to end this age-old problem have varied. Like the Aztec, the Spanish sought to control the six lakes surrounding the city, yet their approach was quite different. The Aztec had relied on an extensive network of dikes, causeways, and floodgates to contain and regulate the lacustrine environment, while the Spanish...