Hispanic people have been an important
part of New Mexico food heritage since the first
explorers and settlers arrived in the 16th century.
Some 100 years before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth
Rock, Spanish explorers made their way into present-day
New Mexico. In 1532, Álvar Núñez
Cabeza de Vaca led the first European expedition
into the region. Other explorers quickly followed,
inspired by rumors that he had discovered Seven
Cities of Gold. Some historians believe that the
golden glow of adobe pueblos, their mica-inflected
clay inflamed by the setting sun, created an optical
illusion that spawned the belief that such a place
existed.
In 1540, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado arrived
at Hawikuh, a Zuni Pueblo, with an advance party
of cavalrymen. They quickly clashed with the Zunis,
forcing them to flee from their homes. Thus began
the colonization of New Mexico, with a cohort of
soldiers and priests arriving over the next 140
years to convert the Native Americans to Catholicism
and induct them into the ways of Spanish culture.
From the dawn of the 16th century, supplies and
communications came into the area along El Camino
Real, the Royal Road stretching 2,000 miles (3,220km)
from Mexico City to Santa Fe. Caravans of Spanish
colonizers making the six-month trek northward brought
mining and forging techniques to the Indians, teaching
them to use metals for weapons, tools, and art.
They also brought cattle and sheep and taught the
Indians how to raise them. They introduced horses,
which would eventually be used in warfare against
them. They even brought the wheel, opening the door
to a new world of technology.
Eventually, resentment over the imposition of Spanish
culture and the repression of indigenous religions
boiled over in the highly organized Pueblo Revolt
of 1680. On August 9, Indians throughout the region
overthrew their colonizers, burned their churches,
and killed their priests.
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San
Miguel Mission Chapel
The oldest church still in use in the United
States, this simple earth-hue adobe structure
was built in the early 17th century by the Tlaxcalan
Indians of Mexico, who came to New Mexico as
servants of the Spanish. Badly damaged in the
1680 Pueblo Revolt, the structure was restored
and enlarged in 1710. |
After 12 years the Spanish returned; their recolonization
succeeded because they had learned to tolerate the
practice of native religion along with Catholicism.
Worship in today's Pueblos is a fascinating blend
of the two ways of honoring and petitioning the
Creator. For example, each Pueblo celebrates the
feast day of its patron saint with a day of native
ceremonial dancing.
Yet part of New Mexico's charm is that the old
ways are not completely cast aside in favor of the
new; lifestyles and working skills from the 16th
to the 21st centuries can be found today throughout
the state.
Hispanic influence is apparent in the adobe architecture,
folk-art specialties like retablos and carved wooden
bultos, and the Spanish words like arroyo, portal,
vigas, and canales to describe features of the land
and the architecture. It shines forth in the farolitos
that line the roofs and adobe walls at Christmastime.
It permeates the air with the incense-like aroma
of piñon fires. It rings out in flamenco
music and Spanish-language radio and television
broadcasts.
Although English is the primary language of the
state, 38 percent of the population is of Hispanic
origin, while nine percent is Native American. Many
place names, as well as family names, are Spanish.
The Spanish spoken in New Mexico has traces of its
origins in medieval times. Because of the isolation
of the mountain villages, contact with spoken English
was minimal until relatively recently, and contact
with a modernizing Spain virtually nonexistent.
Today you'll find remnants of Old Spain in the vocabulary
and names still in use in these remote villages.
El Camino
Real International Heritage Center
El Camino Real International Heritage
Center, a joint project of New Mexico State Monuments
and the United States Bureau of Land Management
and supported by the El Camino Real International
Heritage Center Foundation, opens as the sixth New
mexico State Monument. The state-of-the art facility
rises from the pristine desert, as different from
its environment as from the other state monuments.
Rather than the story of a fort, a battle waged
or a history borne upon its premise, the International
Heritage Center presents a 400-year history of trade
and cultural exchange between Mexico, America, Spain,
Europe and Asia.
The Monument presents an historic corridor of trade,
immigration and ideas. This corridor originated
as a series of indigenous trails used to exchange
goods between Mesoamericans and Native Americans,
centuries before the arrival of the Spanish. The
Spanish expanded the northern portion of the road,
claiming the New Mexico Territory for the Spanish
crown. El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal
Road of the Interior Lands, is recognized as the
first European road in North America and one of
the most important historic trails in the United
States. It is also one of New Mexico's most important
cultural treasures.
Present day I-25 parallels the historic camino
and continues to serve as an economically viable
and important north/south corridor for trade, commerce
and cultural exchange.
The mission of the Heritage Center is to inspire
all people to engage in lifetime learning about
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro - its worldwide
impact and importance in linking the diversity of
culture, people, and place to the past, present,
and future.
Learn
more here.
El
Rancho de las Golondrinas is a living historic farm
museum
photo credits: Los
Golondrinas website
El Rancho de las Golondrinas one of New Mexico's
premier food heritage sites is located on 200 acres
in a rural farming valley just south of Santa Fe,
New Mexico. The museum, dedicated to the heritage
and culture of Spanish Colonial New Mexico, opened
in 1972. Original colonial buildings on the site
date from the early 18th century. In addition, historic
buildings from other parts of northern New Mexico
have been reconstructed at Las Golondrinas. Villagers
clothed in the styles of the times show how life
was lived in early New Mexico. Special festivals
and theme weekends offer visitors an in-depth look
into the celebrations, music, dance and many other
aspects of life in the period when this part of
the United States was ruled by Spain and Mexico.
El Rancho de las Golondrinas (The Ranch of the
Swallows) was a paraje on El Camino Real from Mexico
City through Chihuahua to Old Santa Fe. Acquired
by Miguel Vega y Coca about 1710, it is one of the
most historic ranches in the southwest. The daughters
of Vega y Coca inter-married with the Baca family
and the property subsequently passed to their descendants.
In the diaries and reports of yesteryear, "el
paraje de las Golondrinas" is often mentioned.
It became the last encampment before reaching Santa
Fe, the end of the long journey on horseback or
by carretas from far away Mexico City. Juan Bautista
de Anza, Governor of New Mexico in 1778, searching
for a direct route to Arizpe, Sonora, Mexico, spent
the night here with a one hundred fifty-one man
expedition.
El Rancho de las Golondrinas grew out of the vision
of the Curtin-Paloheimo family, who acquired the
property in the early 1930s. Existing historic buildings
were restored, authentic structures erected on old
foundations and related buildings brought in from
other sites. Now, an 18th century placita house
complete with defensive tower, a 19th century home
and all of its outbuildings, a molasses mill, a
threshing ground, several primitive water mills,
a blacksmith shop, a wheelwright shop, a winery
and vineyards depict many of the essential elements
of Spanish Colonial culture. The Sierra Village
portrays life as it was lived in the mountainous
regions of New Mexico. A morada, descansos, a Campo
Santo and an Oratorio testify to the deep religious
faith that sustained the early settlers.
Through living history, El Rancho de las Golondrinas
hopes to foster understanding of, respect for and
pride in the language, culture and history of Spanish
Colonial New Mexico. Particular emphasis is placed
on its use as an educational facility. It welcomes
teachers and students for tours, workshops, seminars
and other learning experiences. The museum is now
owned and operated by the El Rancho de las Golondrinas
Charitable Trust, a non-profit entity. It is a member
of the Association for Living Historical Farms and
Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM).
Los
Golondrinas website
Los
Golondrinas park map
Twenty years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth,
Massachusetts, hardy Spanish pioneers were already
settling the southwestern part of the United States.
One of their settlements was El Rancho de las Golondrinas---a
self-sufficient fort and an inn for travelers on
El Camino Real---near what is now Santa Fe, NM.
Las Golondrinas, now a living historic farm community
museum, features volunteers who reinact everyday
life in the mid-1700's for visitors. Spanish
Pioneers of the Southwest by Joan Anderson
and photographs taken at Las Golondrinas by George
Ancona features these volunteer interpreters to
illustrate daily life.
Typical mealtime scene in a Spanish Colonial New
Mexico home. Settlers had little furniture. Floors
were hard packed earth. An open hearth was used
both for cooking and heating.
Sleeping arrangements in the same room.
Farm chores included regulating irrigation ditch
flow, feeding, milking and sheering livestock.
A wood carving of San Ysidro is paraded from the
village church down to the irrigation ditch. The
statue of the saint is blessed before being placed
on the altar of a tiny chapel next to newly planted
fields. The villagers chant: "San Ysidro, land
tiller; protect our crops from pests and storms;
SanYsidro, golden whiskered; Pray to God; To send
us rain in torrents.
San Ysidro remains a popular subject
for New Mexican wood carvers.
Leopoldo
Garcia with San Ysidro carving.
About San
Ysidro: Patron Saint of Farmers
San Ysidro carving
(Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center)
Isidore was born to very poor parents
near Madrid, about the year 1070. He was in the
service of the wealthy Madrid landowner Juan de
Vargas on a farm in the vicinity of Madrid. Juan
de Vargas would later make him bailiff of his entire
estate of Lower Caramanca.
San Isidro retablo (wooden painting
of a saint) by Catherine
Ferguson
Every morning before going to work, Isidore was
accustomed to hearing a Mass at one of the churches
in Madrid. One day his fellow-laborers complained
to their master that Isidore was always late for
work in the morning. Upon investigation, so runs
the legend, the master found Isidore at prayer while
an angel was doing the ploughing for him.
Image
credit
On another occasion, his master saw an angel ploughing
on either side of him, so that Isidore's work was
equal to that of three of his fellow-labourers.
Isidore is also said to have brought back to life
his master's deceased daughter, and to have caused
a fountain of fresh water to burst from the dry
earth in order to quench his master's thirst.
His master Iván de Vargas's house in Madrid
is now a museum with temporary exhibitions on Madrilenian
subjects, as well as on the life of the saint.
Isidore is widely venerated as the patron saint
of peasants and day laborers, as he had been one.
In 1947, at the request of the National Catholic
Rural Life Conference, he was officially named patron
of farmers, with a feast day on March 22 in all
dioceses of the US, with a proper Mass and Office.
More
about San Isidro here.
Origins of the US Cattle Industry
Origins of the Cowboy
Sheep Herding
About the National Hispanic
Cultural Center
National Hispanic Cultual Center Plaza's fountain
recalling irrigation canals
developed by early Spanish Colonial settlers.
The National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) is
dedicated to the study, advancement, and presentation
of Hispanic culture, arts, and humanities. Since
its grand opening in 2000, the NHCC has staged over
20 art exhibitions and 400 programs in the visual,
performing, and literary arts. Programs have featured
local, national and international artists, scholars
and entertainers. The NHCC provides venues for visitors
to learn about Hispanic culture throughout the world.
In 1998, a sixteen-acre site was chosen for the
$34 million project along the east side of the Rio
Grande River in the heart of the historic Barelas
neighborhood in Albuquerque. Since then the project
has grown to encompass over 50 acres with an estimated
cost of over $50 million. Barelas, a traditionally
Hispanic neighborhood, has historically been a crossroads
for New Mexico’s people. The community was
settled for its proximity to a natural ford in the
Rio Grande river and the Camino Real, the Spanish
colonial era Royal Road used primarily for trade
between Mexico and northern New Mexico.
The architectural design of the NHCC has been created
to accommodate a wealth of cultural programs in
the visual, performing, media and literary arts.
The various buildings and structures speak to the
history and culture of hispanidad with features
recalling styles from Spain, Mesoamerica and early
New Mexico.
The National Hispanic Cultural Center enjoys the
broad support of the New Mexico State Legislature
as well as the federal government. The NHCC is part
of the State of New Mexico’s Department of
Cultural Affairs along with seven other state museums
and six state monuments.
The Cultural Center will offer visitors an opportunity
to sample cuisine from the Hispanic world in a restaurant
located on the premises.A teaching kitchen will
provide the aficionado of Hispanic cuisine the chance
to learn time-honored epicurean secrets. The Culinary
Arts program promises to be a popular attraction
for visitors. It will play an important role in
the sharing and preservation of the varied and delicious
history of Hispanic food from around the world.
Learn more about the National Hispanic Cultural
Center here.
A
Global Food Heritage Project
