The date of the definitive desiccation of Lake Texcoco is not filed in official documents. Some residents of Texcoco City I’ve interviewed state that in 1970, in the rainy season, it was still possible to row on a raft on the lake’s water and get to the center of the Federal District. However, there are evidences that show how the desertification was imminent by the mid-60s. The movie Black Wind, premiered in 1964, tells the story of the Sonora-Baja California Railroad. On the background of some scenes, a huge desert looms, which really was the northern area of Lake Texcoco, where the new airport is being built. Drastically and ironically, the lake became a desert similar to the Sonora Desert. The wind wafts up intense sand storms; temperature rises by day and drops by night.
An equally radical transformation of the site started in the 70s. The Ministry of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources instated the Lake Texcoco Commission, and started sowing one single vegetal species on the unlikely fertile soil. The Distichlis spicata grass grows like a rhizome, shooting out new stalks like radiuses in different directions. [...]