LOS HUERTOS DEL SEMIDESIERTO MEXICANO, SIGLOS XVI-XVIII.

During the New Spain viceroyalty, cultivation in irrigated orchards was a common practice in the semi-arid region of the west of the current state of Hidalgo, Mexico, where the ethnic group known as hñähñü settled. In this paper we focus on the analysis of the areas bathed by rivers and springs in the towns of Ixmiquilpan, Tecozautla and San José Atlán. Our objective is, in the first place, to expose the process of arrival of new plants as a result of the conquest that the Indian peoples adapted to their agriculture; second, to describe the variety of products obtained in orchards between the 16th and 18th centuries, and, finally, to show the relevance of the uses of water as a factor that favored cultivation in this agroecosystem. The sources that fed the investigation are wills, letters of rent or sale, judicial files and general descriptions made in the territory of New Spain. We conclude that hunting and gathering were not the only economic activities of the indigenous population in the studied region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]