12,000
years of hunting, gathering, raising, growing,
cooking, marketing &
Eating in New Mexico:
Hispanics
Spanish and Mexican Colonial Eras
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 attempt 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/slaves 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.
Romero Mill & Store (detail),
La Cueva. (1850)
with architectural features from both Hispanic
& Territorial periods (Arthur Lazar photo)
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,
is 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 or "bulto"
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.
Acequia
irrigation system
An acequia is a community operated
waterway used in the American Southwest for irrigation.
Acequias are usually historically engineered canals
that carry snow runoff or river water to distant
fields.
The word "acequia"
comes from the arabic language and means irrigation
system. The Arabs brought the technology to Spain
during their occupation of the Iberian peninsula.
The technology has since been adopted by the Spanish
and utilized throughout their conquered lands.
Most acequias were established
more than 200 years ago, and continue to provide
a primary source of water for farming and ranching
ventures in areas of the United States once occupied
by Spain or Mexico.
Known among water users simply
as the Acequia, various legal entities embody
the community associations, or acequia associations,
that govern members' water usage, depending on
local precedents. An acequia organization often
includes ditch riders and a major domo who administers
usage of water from a ditch, regulating which
water-rights holders can release water to their
fields on what days.
Source
The New Mexico Acequia Association
at: www.acequiaweb.org
The Acequia Institute at: www.acequiainstitute.org
Images are from The Mother Ditch by Oliver
LaFarge with illustrations by Karl Larsson. (Houghton
Mifflin and Co., Boston, 1954)
The Hacienda
de los Martinez
Martinez
Hacienda Museum
The Hacienda de los Martinez
is one of the few northern New Mexico style, late
Spanish Colonial period, "Great Houses"
remaining in the American Southwest. Built in
1804 by Severino Martin (later changed to Martinez),
this fortress-like building with massive adobe
walls became an important trade center for the
northern boundary of the Spanish Empire. The Hacienda
was the final terminus for the Camino Real which
connected northern New Mexico to Mexico City.
The Hacienda also was the headquarters for an
extensive ranching and farming operation.
Architectural rendering of Martinez
Hacienda (source)
Today the Hacienda's twenty-one
rooms surrounding two courtyards provide the visitor
with a rare glimpse of the rugged frontier life
and times of the early 1800s. Additionally, regularly
scheduled demonstrations present the continuing
traditions of northern New Mexico.
Learn more about this food heritage
site here.
Origins of the first
US Cattle Breed, US Ranching Industry and the
First Cowboys
Corriente cattle (image
source)
Corrientes were a breed of cattle
brought from Spain, through Mexico into New Mexico.
The breed is now used for rodeo roping events
but is making a comeback as part of the beef industry.
The qualities of the breed are desirable and are
contributing to the improvement of the gene pool
of the angus and other breeds common in the beef
industry. The corriente is the breed that was
raised in Albuquerque in 1706 and has the appearance
of a miniature Texas Longhorn. The Texas' Longhorns'
origins can be traced from the corriente base
stock.
Imported from Mexico, American
ranching traditions began in New Mexico. The Spanish
and Mexican people heading north with their cattle,
horses, and sheep used methods of animal husbandry,
many gleaned from the Moors, that had been learned
over centuries in Iberia. Branding irons, spurs,
bridles, all came from this world.
The huge ranches established
south of the border were emulated in the north,
and picked up steam after the Civil War. 80,000
head were raised on a million acre spread in Gila,
New Mexico, for example. The U.S. government bought
herds to feed the Indians lodged on reservations
and with the advent of the railroad, markets in
cities far from the range lands began to demand
its meat as well..
Commerce in cattle meant that
land became a commercial commodity, as it did
for sheep raising as well. Masses of sheep raised
in New Mexico were driven south to Mexico in the
mid 1820’s.
Shepherd and flock were part of
the
Tricentennial celebration of the founding
of
Albuquerque in April 2006.
At one time 20 families, most
of them Hispanic, owned three quarters of the
region’s sheep. Many thousands more were
herded to the California gold rush camps. And
still later New Mexican sheep were driven north
past Taos, over the mountains and eastward down
the Arkansas River to the Kansas feed lots.
Those who did the hard labor in all weather of
rounding up livestock, branding them and driving
herds to market terminals were the cowboys or
cowpunchers.
Learn more about the origins
of ranching in Elna Bakker and Richard Lillard's
The Great Southwest: the story of a land and
its people, NY: Weathervane, 1972.
Vaqueros
or Caballeros: Origins of the Cowboy
"One of the highest stations
you could have in life was to be a caballero,"
said Chavez, a resident of New Mexico whose lineage
can be traced to the Don Juan de Oñate
colony, the caballero who was among the first
cowboys in the U.S.
"Even the poor Mexican vaqueros
were very proud and there were few things they
couldn't do from a saddle."
Caballero is literally translated
as "gentleman." The root of the word
comes from caballo—Spanish for "horse."
For every caballero there were perhaps dozens
of independents—the true "drivers"
of cattle: vaqueros.
"All of the skills, traditions,
and ways of working with cattle are very much
rooted in the Mexican vaquero," Nelson told
National Geographic News. "If you are a cowboy
in the U.S. today, you have developed what you
know from the vaquero."
It was something the vaqueros
had been doing for 223 years, since 1598, when
Don Juan de Oñate, one of the four richest
men in New Spain (present-day Mexico) sent an
expedition across the Rio Grande River into New
Mexico.
Oñate spent over a million
dollars funding the expedition, and brought some
7,000 animals to the present-day United States.
It eventually paid off; the first gold to come
from the West was not from the Gold Rush, but
rather from its wool-bearing sheep and then its
long-horned livestock.
Read the full report on the history of the vaqueros
here.
View a photo gallery devoted
to cowboys here.
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 offers 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.
Continue
to the next part of the exhibit about
the Territorial and Statehood food heritage of
NM.
Below are links to other parts of this exhibit.
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