La
Entrada 300: April 21-23, 2006
Re-enactment of Founding of Albuquerque,
April 23,1706
This
weekend Albuquerque celebrated its
300th birthday. The highlight of the
celebration was the entrance into
Old Town (Plaza Mayor) Albuquerque
of a group of re-enacters who portrayed
the town's founding farm families,
priests, officials and soldiers. Here
are some images of the event.
Albuquerque mayor, Martin Chavez,
( right,) portrayed his ancestor,
Don Martín Hurtado, the first
mayor (alcalde) of the new city.
All
of the first families would have arrived
in the new town with their pigs, cows,
sheep and goats. This tiny
gang zigzagged only a bit as they
marched in the parade. They made it
all the way to the Plaza in good order
with only one brief detour into an
inviting patch of grass interspersed
with miniature roses.
This
reproduction of the 18th c. Spanish
farm cart (carreta) was part of the
re-enactment procession.
Read
more about this food heritage event
here.
Albuquerque
was founded in part to relieve the
pressure on the community of Bernalillo,
20 miles to the north. Bernalillo
is surrounded by native American communities.
The Pueblo Indians revolted in 1690
and drove the Spanish out of Northern
New Mexico. Afterwards a peace was
declared and the King of Spain decreed
that the Pueblo people's lands must
be respected. Therefore, a group of
farmer families agreed to move south
to begin a new town to be called Albuquerque.
Their trek was re-enacted as part
of the 300th anniversary of the settling
of the city.
Albuquerque
Museum
"La
Jornada " sculpture group by
Betty Sabo (2005)
outside Albuquerque Museum
The
Albuquerque Museum of Art & History
features art of the Southwest and
400 years of Albuquerque area history
through permanent displays and special
exhibitions. Under development is
an exhibit about Albuquerque's role
in the development of western cattle
ranching. Learn more about this museum
which includes displays about the
history of agriculture and eating
in the Central Rio Grande valley here.
Albuquerque: Historic Cattle Ranching
Center
& Western Saddle Origins
"Cattle
drive" portion of "La Jornada"
bronze sculpture group by
Betty Sabo (2005)
From La
Entrada 300 website:
The western saddle is an icon
of American Southwest culture recognized
around the world. That American icon
is of Spanish heritage introduced
in New Mexico. From New Mexico the
culture spread to California and to
Texas where the culture merged with
the American migration west. The ranching
culture was alive and flourishing
in the Albuquerque area in 1706. The
Atrisco land grant and the pueblos
to the west were prominent cattle
ranches. Ranching was a foreign culture
to General Stephen Kearney when he
rode into Albuquerque in 1846. As
he surveyed his conquest he wrote
a detailed log of the ranching activity
and the rancher’s elaborate
saddles decorated with silver. Albuquerque
was at the early epicenter of development
of the American ranching culture.
The
earliest surviving western saddles
date to the 1800’s. Saddles
were utilitarian and scavenged at
the end of their life for parts to
build a new saddle. Illustrations
of saddles before and after 1706 are
available and the process of evolution
of the western saddle is well documented.
We will create two 1706 saddles. One
shall be donated to the Albuquerque
Museum to anchor an exhibit of the
Albuquerque ranching culture. The
second saddle shall be part of a traveling
exhibit to promote Albuquerque’s
role in ranching and the evolution
of the American cowboy.
Golden
Crown Panaderia
They
call Pratt Morales “Hot Buns.”
He makes bread. He makes green chile
bread with a half pound of hot stuff
and tomatoes and garlic. He makes
bolilos and empanadas. He makes pigshaped
cookies called “marranitos.”
And he makes magnificent hard-crust,
Italian bread so good that elderly
Italians come into his Golden Crown
Panaderia for it and leave “gumming
a loaf to death.”
No
pies. No cakes. Just bread. Morales,
47, used to be an accountant for the
Air Force and later the controller
for the New Mexico Air National Guard.
He traveled all over the world, he
studied bread. When he was done traveling,
he went in search of a place that
could be a sort of shrine to the bread
of his childhood in San Antonio, Texas,
when he would hang out at the neighborhood
panaderia, or bakery. At the panaderia,
he recalls, he’d walk in and
maybe the baker would hand out a cookie.
“You can have any kind of bakery,”
he says, “but i wanted to give
life to my bread.” He put on
the brakes when he drove past 1321
Tijeras Ave N.W. about 10 years ago.
Read
the rest of this article here.
Visit
Golden Crown Panaderia's website here.
See
pictures of Pratt Morales' bread sculpture
here.
Pan
de Muertos
Continue
to Part Three of this exhibit.
Home
Back
to part one of exhibit
Click on images
below to visit other food heritage
of New Mexico exhibits.
