Santa
Fe Food Heritage: Territorial
& Statehood
Eating
History of Santa Fe | First
Americans | Colonial
| Territorial/Statehood
|
| Food Santa
Fe: guide to organizations promoting
food awareness |
Plaza community garden and view to the
west, 1867.
Santa Fe Trail
monument "Journey's End"
The Santa Fe Trail
was a historic 19th century transportation
route across southwestern North America
connecting Missouri with Santa Fe, New
Mexico. First used in 1821 by William
Becknell it served as a vital commercial
and military highway until the arrival
of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880.
At first an international trade route
between the United States and Mexico,
it served as the 1846 U.S. invasion
route of New Mexico during the Mexican-American
War.
Just as hardened mud
recorded nearly 60 years of turning
wagon wheels along the Santa Fe Trail,
hardened bronze captures a moment when
people traveled along the Trail dreaming
of the end to a long and difficult journey.
"Journey's End," by Albuquerque
artist Reynaldo Rivera, in collaboration
with landscape architect Richard Borkovetz,
is placed within sight of actual Santa
Fe Trail wagon ruts.
The sculpture portrays
the lead wagon of a Trail caravan as
it makes its final approach into Santa
Fe. Weary mules struggle to pull the
wagon up a rise. Nearby, a Pueblo woman
observes, while a boy and his dog run
to watch the excitement.
Journey's End is located
at the entrance to Museum Hill, on Camino
Lejo off the Old Santa Fe Trail in Santa
Fe, NM.
Learn more about the
Santa Fe Trail Association here.
urro Alley
Views of Burro Alley
a hundred years apart, circa 1900; below
2006.
Burro Alley mural painted by Howard
Coluzzi
In Death Comes
to the Archbishop Anglo novelist
Wila Cather tells of two French priests
who helped to bring civilization to
New Mexico. As Spaniards had done before
them, these missionaries planted orchards
and gardens, and nurtured vineyards
Death
Comes for the Archbishop
book cover and woodblock
print illustration
But Father Vaillant
and Bishop Latour (Father Joseph Machebeuf,
and Jean Baptiste Lamy, who became Archbishop
of Santa Fe in 1875, were the Franciscans
whose letters and papers Miss Cather
used to document her novel.) never succumbed
to the peppery tastes in cooking that
had evolved after the Spanish conquest.
Once, visiting a parishioner near Santa
Fe, Father Vaillant is told that his
host's dinner of young lamb is to be
stewed "with chili and some onion...."
The prospect causes the priest to ask
leave to personally roast his portion
quickly, as it would be done in France."Cook
a roast in an hour! Mother of God, Padre,
" the rancho cook cries, "the
blood will not be dried in it!"
"Not if I can
help it!" says Miss Cather's priest,
and she pictures him carving while watched
by serving girls appalled at "
the delicate stream of pink juice that
followed the knife."
(Source: Evan Jones American Food:
The Gastronomic Story)
A 1910 view of Santa
Fe --Before Santa Fe turned urban, it
featured
small farms and backyard kitchen gardens.
And not all was "faux adobe!")
"Much has been
made of the tricultural heritage of
Santa Fe - Indian, Spanish and Anglo.
Four centuries ago, Pueblo Indians apparently
used the site as a seasonal residence;
three centuries ago, a more permanent
settlement consisted of Spaniards and
Indians trying to adjust to each other
while making a meager living, and in
the last century or so, Anglos
(basically anyone who is not Indian
or Hispanic) have come to intermingle
with the others.
Lately, that community,
grown to about 55,000, has seen its
ranks suddenly expand to nearly 90,000
on summer weekends, leading some people
to suggest adding an often high-profile
fourth group: out-of-town-visitors.
While not altering the city's basic
character, neither can so many visitors
melt into the background. Santa Fe-style
decor and fashions, whether in Los Angeles,
New York or Europe, seem the product
of a four-ply populace."
Read
the full article here.
The US government officials
and soldiers (shown here at a Fort Marcy
banquet in 1887)
were early Anglo residents of Santa
Fe.
In the later half of
the 19th century, large numbers of Anglos
and others (non-Hispanic or Native American
peoples) began arriving in Santa Fe
as a result of the Santa Fe Trail and
Santa Fe railroad. These first Anglo
settlers were business and development
oriented.
"In the early
20th century a community of mostly Anglo
artists, writers, and archaeological
researchers established themselves in
Santa Fe and vicinity. At the helm of
this community was Edgar L. Hewett,
a former president of New Mexico Normal
College in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and
an archaeologist. Hewett engaged in
archaeological investigations in the
area surrounding Santa Fe as well as
in cultural and fine arts promotion.
He headed both the Museum of New Mexico
and the School of American Archaeology,
and by 1920 he was at the center of
a Santa Fe community of archaeologists,
architects, and a small number of artists.
Edgar Hewett with other
archaeologists (date and photographer
unknown)
Hewett and his allies
were keen on promoting northern New
Mexico's charms to tourists. Via argument,
experimentation, and cooperation, they
developed the unique architectural style
that continues to dominate national
perceptions of Santa Fe's buildings,
and they contributed to Santa Fe's image
as an exotic wonderland with Anglos,
Hispanos, and Indians each offering
their unique cultural assets. Hewett's
timing was key. His activities corresponded
with a surge in visitors to the Southwest
that began with the completion of the
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad
line through the Southwest in 1881 and
exploded with the development of the
Harvey House restaurant and hotel chain.
Santa Fe Superchief dining car.
Although the railroad
did not take visitors to Santa Fe's
city limits, the Harvey Houses promoted
arts and crafts associated with Santa
Fe and provided auto tours to Santa
Fe. Hewett contributed to the market
for Santa Fe-themed goods by providing
patronage for both Anglo and Native
American artists, particularly under
the auspices of the Museum of New Mexico.
Though many of Hewett's allies saw value
in cultural expression for its own sake,
most were happy to link promotion of
the arts with promotion of the city.
Alongside, and sometimes
even within Hewett's coalition, another
group of artists, writers, and activists
had grown in Santa Fe. Many had arrived
in the final years of World War I, seeking
a place where they believed they could
be free from the evils of modernity.
Casting the area as a primitivist wonderland,
this second group of creative workers
believed that Santa Fe and its environs
offered an antidote to the industrialization
and mechanization of life that they
felt had birthed the evils of the war
and drained life of its meaning. More
through example than active promotion,
this second community presented a public
image of Santa Fe as an oasis of artistic
activity, healthful contemplation, and
natural beauty.
This second group included
a large number of independent women
with activist backgrounds. Many of the
women were single; most had forged professional
or social reputations independent of
their husbands, fathers, and sons. Their
numbers included philanthropists, arts
patrons, ethnologists, writers, and
artists.
Writer Mary
Austin, founder of the Spanish
Colonial Arts Society (left);
Historian Mary
Cabot Wheelwright, founder of Wheelwright
Museum of Amerian Indian
Some were veterans of the struggle for suffrage for women,
and most had been involved in activism
targeted at increasing workers' wages
and improving social programs. Several
had connections to the bohemian community
that had flowered in Greenwich Village
prior to World War I. When they arrived
in northern New Mexico, many of these
women and their male allies concluded
that they could best employ their talents
in supporting causes related to local
conditions, particularly legislation
and publicity related to the area's
Pueblo Indians, a linguistically diverse
group of indigenous people that had
lived for centuries in the region that
became New Mexico and Arizona."
Read
the full article here.
"Though New Mexico
became the nation's 47th state in 1912,
Indians were not recognized as U.S.
citizens until 1924 and were not allowed
to vote until 1948, Newly arririved
Santa Fe and Taos artists and writers,
such as Mabel Dodge Luhan and Mary Austin,
who made northern New Mexico their adopted
home, were instrumental in winning Indian
rights and in cultural preservation."
(Sharon Niederman in The Santa Fe
& Taos Book, Bershirehouse
Publishers, Lee, Massachusetts, 2002)
Learn more about the
Santa Fe/Fred Harvey hotel and restaurant
business connection here.
Continue
to the next part of this exhibit.
Click
on the images below to visit all the
New Mexico Food Heritage Exhibits.
