Letting Sleeping Dogs Lie...

Unabelle Crimson Sawyer

Wednesday, April 8, 2009, was the day that my little brother's daughter, Unabelle Sawyer, was born. She is the firstborn of this generation, and my parents have become grandparents for the first time, and my Aunt Judy a great aunt. Anne is an aunt, and somehow I've become an uncle. This is a watershed event, as you can imagine. My parents are jumping into their car the day after Easter to drive to Oregon from Minnesota to meet the baby for the first time....Photo: Ted, Tara, and little Unabelle

Chimayo pilgrimage

Yesterday, the Preservation and Heritage Tourism class in which I am enrolled visited Chimayo, where annual Easter pilgrimages by the devout bring thousands to the Santuario de Chimayo, come rain or shine. It was snowing on the High Road to Taos, along which pilgrims by the hundreds were walking on the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Part of the goal of the visit was to meet some of the people who want to help the economy of the little unincorporated town straddling Santa Fe and Rio Arriba counties by encouraging an influx of year-round visitors and more permanent members of the "creative classes" (a la Richard Florida & Joel Kotkin) to settle there to live and work. Among the people we visited were bronze sculptor, wood carver, and equine geneticist Marco A. Ovieda (one of the photos shows one of the rare mammoth donkeys he breeds). We also visited Plaza del Cerro, the ancient dilapidated defensive square that still stands at the heart of Chimayo, as well as Galeria Ortega, the weaving shop of one of the two great weaving families of Chimayo (the others are the Trujillos). We also visited the Santuario de Chimayo itself and the Santo Nino Chapel, the Chimayo Museuma and the Ortega Family museum. A member of the Ortega family also allowed us to see the interior of the Ortega family's private Oratorio, or prayer chapel, on the Plaza del Cerro, which has not been in use since the 1950s but which dates to the early 19th century (see photo).

SPRING comes to New Mexico...

A Face in the Wilderness

Not far from the memorial mentioned in the previous entry is another curious creation.

Descansos

Descansos are a common feature of roadscapes in the Hispanic Southwest. Memorials to loved ones who have died in car accidents, they dot the sides of highways and of city streets in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, in Las Cruces and Silver City, in Cuba and in the villages of the high road to Taos.

An offshoot of this cultural landscape phenomenon is ditch-side descansos -- memorials to those who have died in or next to the acequias, the irrigation ditches that line and carry water to pastures and cropland in the valleys of New Mexico. On the ditch just behind my house is one such memorial; the story behind it is unclear, but every now and then somebody comes and tends the memorial, refreshing flowers, leaving a doll, a figurine, or a photograph, or some other token of affection and remembrance for the deceased. I have posted the photo I took of this memorial about two weeks ago. Click on the image to see a larger view of the objects arranged on, under, and around the tree.

Silver City, New Mexico

Went to Silver City, New Mexico, to attend a Preservation Pilgrimage put on by the Preservation Alliance of New Mexico. Saw some great old railroad-era architecture, and a lively street scene, art galleries, and thriving businesses in the old downtown area. Urban theorist Richard Florida says that Silver City is one of the little towns to watch, a magnet for the creative classes who will dominate the economic landscape in the coming decades. Here are some photos from the trip. This photo is a Pueblo Deco movie theatre (the tall building in the middle of the block) that is on Bullard Street. Click here to see the full album. El Paso architect Henry Trost's bank building is in the far right hand photo, which is now used as City Hall. In the middle photo is the Grant County Courthouse, also on Broadway. Notice the very tall cypress trees along the front elevation.