Here we see my Mexican friend and canalero Umberto. He is the field operator who schedules and distributes water to the farmers’ fields in the irrigation system. As low-ranked personnel, canaleros play an important role and have situated local knowledge of fluctuating water flows and the human and infrastructural interactions involved. They emerge as key actors who make the system work by connecting those different social and technological worlds. You often see similar field-level staff operating irrigation systems around the world: ditch tender in the United States, sectorista in Peru, tomero in Spain, ghaffir in Sudan, lascar in India, oeloe oeloe in Indonesia, water bailiff in Australia, etc. They are like the street-level bureaucrats, nurses or conductors who meet and provide services to the public in everyday life. They have to execute orders but also have a certain discretionary competence or agency connected with the infrastructure they operate. Only recently it occurred to me that 'canal' is already in the name of the canalero, just like 'engine' is in the name of the ‘engineer’. I would love to discuss the implications this has with you.