Pasa por Aquí

Pasa por Aquí is an initiative by the Council to present occasional columns by community members. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these blog posts/articles do not necessarily represent those of the the New Mexico Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Dressed in her matriarch garments, Venaya’s later maternal grandmother Jane Werito Yazzie sits in her childhood home at Dziłnaodiłthe (Huerfano) NM on the eastern region of Navajoland.

Pre-pandemic grief, ancestral memory, mourning the world in 2020 and healing in the present

Mon, Oct 2, 2023, 11:22am | By Venaya Yazzie

here desert girl emerged – she stumbled on to surface chaos where – rain bowed earthdwellers pouredpowdered turquoise on to ant hills… My late maternal...

Dressed in her matriarch garments, Venaya’s later maternal grandmother Jane Werito Yazzie sits in her childhood home at Dziłnaodiłthe (Huerfano) NM on the eastern region of Navajoland.

Huerfano Mesa sits in the background of this capture from the view of Venaya’s great-grandparents home.

Blog contributor, author, poet and multi-media artist Venaya Yazzie.

Pre-pandemic grief, ancestral memory, mourning the world in 2020 and healing in the present

Mon, Oct 2, 2023, 11:22am | By Venaya Yazzie

here

desert girl emerged –

she

stumbled

on to surface chaos

where – rain bowed

earthdwellers

pouredpowdered turquoise

on to

ant hills…

My late maternal grandmother Jane Werito Yazzie and grandfather Alfred Padilla Yazzie Sr. raised me.  It is from their dialogue and cultural narrative that I now carry inherited resilience, artistry and compassion as an adult being in 2023.

Shimá, (my grandmother) would tell me that as a young child I would suddenly just begin crying out of the blue -- though I wasn’t hurt or in any physical pain when these crying moments would happen. Eventually my sudden outbursts of tears and emotions were accepted and became a natural occurrence. Looking back at my childhood history I believe that this behavior was (and still is) a high sensitivity to the spiritual realm. But, more specifically I think it has much to do with what the late Indigenous philosopher John Trudell referred to as “inherited generational trauma.”  He stated concerning this concept that, “It’s like there is this predator energy on this planet, and this predator energy feeds on the essence of the spirit.” In his philosophies he spoke about how we as Indigenous peoples carry in our genetic DNA the memory of our tribal ancestral past, which included and still includes a plethora of spiritual and physical violence and trauma. So, I ask, was my open weeping and emotional state of distress as a child my own experience of genetic memory of my vast Diné people’s historical past? I often ponder upon this personal history of my childhood; my own personal sense is that the trauma of my ancestral past was and is embedded deep within my being, and so I mourned.

This personal history is relevant because it's linked to global events that transpired in 2020, a time when all humanity mourned as the great sickness spread around us.

…in the west

songs surged from mouths of

the

glistening earth dwellers

in unison their almond-shaped mouths murmured,

Sho

Sho                  Sho

Sho…

here

in early cover of stars,

desert girl- wearing ochre-hued earth shoes

on her calloused feet…

I now find myself dwelling upon ancestral homelands of my Diné (Navajo) matriarchs and male patriarchs in the San Juan Valley and at Huerfano, N.M., in the northwest region of the state. I am a resident of a small industrial and farming community that was named “Farmington” by early Euro-American Anglo settlers. But there exists a more beauty-full and ‘living’ expression about this place located between the Animas and San Juan rivers.  Tótá is what my Diné people call this cultural landscape -- rich with sandstone, cottonwood forests and abundant green high desert sage, an environment I am blessed to call my ancestral homelands.

Tótá is ‘the place of water,’ and water is therefore a healing element in the Indigenous spiritual epistemologies. Many Four Corners Indigenous people hold the rivers in high esteem including: the Ute Mountain Ute, Southern Ute, Jicarilla Apache, Pueblo groups and the Diné people. Besides being a “border town” Tótá is a land narrative and Indigenous cultural history that heals the spirit and soul. Land tells of the past and present Indigenous presence upon the land; sacred narrative passed on to me by my Diné people and Shimá.

…here

she emerged.

…stumbled

on to surface chaos

where -

under blue veins of eyelids,

desert girl’s story

flooded brown dirt:

in 1972 she was bundled in yucca roots.

in 1972 she was presented to the two-legged earth dwellers.

In 1972 she was present in a border town.

brown desert daughter -

spirit bare as river cobbles, murmured,

Sho

ShoSho…

Three years have passed since Shimá left this place, and I have carried my grief in the blue bird satchel on my right hip; an homage.  Shimá was my light; her dialogue shone upon my path and with her by my side I was whole. I think of her daily, how she laughed and the ways in which she told the story; this is my source of love. My grandmother’s death occurred in February of 2020, before the Covid-Monster appeared in the American Southwest. As I was mourning her, the global sickness arrived to humanity; we collaboratively became prey to an invisible entity -- just as in the ancient Diné stories, we were in essence fleeing and hiding from the giant monsters that roamed the land again. It is no doubt that we were humbled to the core. What did we learn from this disharmony? How did we survive in the intangible sense?

Our loved ones were taken from us, and the Monster kept us hidden away to deal with our individual loss and grief. Some tackled grief with a warrior spirit, some carried fear in a backpack upon our shoulders, while others gained and shared strength through the humanness of faith and prayer. This moment in our history affected us mentally, spiritually and physically, for we are not the same beings we were before 2020. There is no doubt that the pandemic changed us, but what did we take away from such an experience? Did we change how we lived? Do we still care? Do we love our family even more? Did we reform from bad habits? Do we currently live a life that is grateful for survival? Or did we just go back to our old habits, living without real compassion and empathy for our world? Do we now consider and or acknowledge the land as a healing element?

During the time of loss, fear and grief I turned to my omnipresent Creator and ancestral homelands for guidance and healing. And I still do.

…dewy with haze of morning migration

desert girl

witness to grief of the five-fingered earth dwellers,

she stands in resilience at the foot of Shiprock, the rock with wings.

early dawn

spoke

herworld

into

existence.

desert girl’s Masaní doo bi Chéí filled her sight.

in 1972 the new Life before them

like rain flooding their desert floor,

they murmured:

Sho

shidiyiin God t’aa’ayisí áhéhéé.

Venaya Yazzie is a Diné|Hopi multi-disciplinary artist and poet from the eastern region of the Navajo nation. She resides in Tóta, NM between the San Juan Animas rivers. Visit Venaya's work here: https://www.opendoorsartinaction.com/venaya-yazzie.

Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this blog post/article does not necessarily represent those of the New Mexico Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Tags 4 indigenous dine grief pandemicstories

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El Chicano Youth Center- A photo donated by CHHP participant Yolanda Martinez. El Chicano Youth Center was built in 1970 in Chihuahua Hill.

Nuestra Voz: The Chihuahua Hill Story and the importance of community, self-representation, and remembrance.

Mon, Oct 2, 2023, 11:20am | By Javier Marrufo

“Aye, como pasan los años.” This was a phrase that my maternal grandmother’s adopted tia, Rosa V. Castillo, would voice in bittersweet reminiscence as my generation, unbothered and uninterested...

El Chicano Youth Center- A photo donated by CHHP participant Yolanda Martinez. El Chicano Youth Center was built in 1970 in Chihuahua Hill.

Chihuahua Hill 2023-The barrio of Chihuahua Hill looking south towards La Capilla. 2023

The Flores Family- The Flores has lived on Chihuahua Hill for 5 generations. Left to Right: Maria Flores, Delfina Flores, Marcos Flores, y Rosa Castillo

La Capilla- A close up of La Capilla. The original capilla was torn down in 1914. It was rebuilt in 2004 by members of the community.

Blog contributor and historian, Javier Marrufo.

Nuestra Voz: The Chihuahua Hill Story and the importance of community, self-representation, and remembrance.

Mon, Oct 2, 2023, 11:20am | By Javier Marrufo

“Aye, como pasan los años.” This was a phrase that my maternal grandmother’s adopted tia, Rosa V. Castillo, would voice in bittersweet reminiscence as my generation, unbothered and uninterested by the conversations of our elders, played and grew before their wistful eyes. 

Rosa Castillo was born in Silver City, New Mexico, in 1917, just five years after New Mexico was admitted into the Union as a full-fledged state. She lived in this town, en el barrio de Chihuahua Hill, for most of her life. As a child, she endured the semi-segregated schools of Silver City, where a community’s language was suppressed in favor of the socially acceptable English. She helped raise multiple generations of children, although she had none of her own. She moved away from Chihuahua Hill only when Alzheimer’s disease rendered her unable, though not unwilling, to care for herself. While living in a care facility, her memories of family and friends faded, yet her insistence that they continue buying her Big Red gum remained. She lived a long, undoubtedly difficult yet beautiful life, one that she never spoke of and that I never thought to ask about. Rosa Castillo died on April 26, 2009. Tenía noventa y dos años. She was buried in the Catholic Cemetery beside the adopted siblings who took her in on Chihuahua Hill nearly a century before. Whatever stories Rosa left unsaid, all the things she knew, and how she felt about them, are gone. En su lugar, solo recuerdos. 

I remember Rosa in the background of my own life, always there but rarely a focal point. Looking back, I am ashamed about how little attention I paid to those conversations in Spanish punctuated by quick bouts of English that formed an ever-present backdrop to my childhood. Everybody, at some point, pays the world the disservice of thinking it’ll never change. You take for granted the voices of those around you, thinking that if they’re here today, they’ll be here tomorrow. Pero no es asi. Elders pass away, and the places they inhabited give way to new voices. Now that warm atmosphere of Spanglish that surrounded my youth has slowly been replaced by English and my own bittersweet reminiscence of what once was. Aye, como pasan los años. 

Rosa’s story is representative of the history of Chihuahua Hill, a historically Mexican American neighborhood on the southern edge of Silver City. The neighborhood gets its name from the home state of many of its original settlers. Wherever you are in the town, La Capilla, a small chapel overlooking the neighborhood, makes a visible backdrop. The barrio is a pillar of our history. The first silver produced in the fledgling mining camp that became Silver City was smelted at the foot of Chihuahua Hill by Mexicanos in an adobe smelter. Families worked as miners, freighters, servants and farm hands, people whose labor ensured the continued success of local industries. Generations of gente, just like Rosa Castillo, lived and died there without ever being asked about their stories. Societies, just like people, take for granted what is around them. The Silver City Museum faces Chihuahua Hill yet has seldom featured the community’s history within its walls. The Chihuahua Hill History Project is an acknowledgement, and a correction, of that disservice. 

Started in 2021, the Chihuahua Hill History Project was envisioned by the Silver City Museum to bring the community, as a whole and as individuals, to the forefront of history. It concerns itself less with dates and events and more with the context that surrounds them. Experiences, memories and perspectives. The project demands that history only becomes important when understood through the lens of human life. With this in mind, the project was built from the ground up around oral history. Themes, or areas of importance, emerge from the stories told by Chihuahua Hill residents. Making personal experience the centerpiece of our research provides a new toolkit for collecting and presenting local history. It reorients our emphasis back to the community we serve, transforming our institution from a place that tells you what history is into a mirror that reflects the communal experience. It is history for and by the community.

The history being uncovered is staggering in its scope and relevance to the present day. Chihuahua Hill residents have recounted stories of the joys of culture, the hardships of poverty, the pain of discrimination and the reality of change. It has helped uncover the stories of those people who are no longer with us. Ensuring that people, just like Rosa Castillo, will not be forgotten. Instead, they will be forever represented, in their own words, in their own voice, for generations to come. A living and ever-expanding marker of what we thought, and who we were, and why we mattered.

The project will be presented in its first official exhibit, Nuestra Voz: The Chihuahua Hill Story on September 29. The exhibit will explore the history of the barrio through the words of those who lived it. It is a multimedia, multi-themed, exhibition with the core idea that the past, just like today, isn’t composed from one single perspective, but of many. Every perspective is important because every person is important, not just the rich or the powerful, or those whose lives are written about and well documented. History is not just about their voice, or your voice, or mine, but all of ours. Nuestra voz. Our voice, as a collective, is what brings the past to life, and what makes history more than just words in a book, or on a wall. 

The Chihuahua Hill History Project has been the greatest pleasure for the Silver City Museum to embark on. Nuestra Voz: The Chihuahua Hill Story is just another big step in a continuous project that will continue to evolve with the neighborhood it represents.

To get a firsthand look at the stories featured in this exhibition, click on the link and watch the short video which provides a glimpse into the captivating and moving stories you'll encounter in: Nuestra Voz: The Chihuahua Hill Story

Javier Marrufo is a Chicano historian from Silver City New Mexico and the current curator of the Silver City Museum. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from Western New Mexico University in 2016 and will receive a master’s degree in history from the same institution in December of 2023. His work is centered around Indigenous, Mexican, and Chicano history from Southwest New Mexico. He is the head researcher for the Chihuahua Hill History Project which has accumulated over 80 hours of audio with 75 participants to date.

Tags 4 chihuahua hill silvercitynm nuestravoz silvercitymuseum

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Southwest Word Fiesta 2023

Mon, Oct 2, 2023, 8:57am | By Catalina Claussen

Southwest Word Fiesta 2023

Mon, Oct 2, 2023, 8:57am | By Catalina Claussen

Sprung from our wildest imaginations, the Southwest Word Fiesta, originally known as the Southwest Festival of the Written Word, was established in 2010 to honor and celebrate writers who live and work in the Southwest. The event is designed to bring together “those who create with those who appreciate.” This year’s hybrid festival of both in-person and Zoom events will be held October 22-29, 2023, honoring the theme "We Are All Connected."

The Steering Committee for the Southwest Word Fiesta dreams big. With each fiesta we gather a list of celebrated writers and standouts in the industry along with those who are fresh on the scene to create a program that offers a mix of readings, workshops, and how-to sessions for attendees. This year’s fiesta includes retired National Public Radio (NPR) correspondent John Burnett as keynote speaker and sessions on outdoor experience, poetry, crime writing, children’s books, science fiction, fiction, audio recording, film, essays, young adult writing, songwriting, history, oral history, the book business, and more. The first League of United Latin America Citizens (LULAC)-Southwest Word Fiesta (SWWF) award recognizing the best book by an author of Hispanic descent will also be presented. For a full list of sessions and the schedule visit swwordfiesta.org.

The first winner of the LULAC-SWWF award is Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz for her book Earth Medicines: Ancestral Wisdom, Healing Recipes, and Wellness Rituals from a Curandera, published by Roost Books in November 2021. Roost Books is an imprint of Shambhala Publications, a countercultural publisher since 1969. Their books are distributed by Penguin Random House. Last year Earth Medicines received a Reading the West Award in the category of Eating the West.

Ruiz is a curandera (a traditional healer), and an indigenous foods activist and holistic chef. She lives in Phoenix with her husband. She is of Hispanic and indigenous descent. Earth Medicines is available from Shambhala Publications. Known as the “Kitchen Curandera,” Ruiz shares her knowledge in private consultations, workshops, and ceremonies.

The Southwest Word Fiesta offers a crossroads where writers, industry professionals, and word lovers meet to discuss the craft of written and oral expression, publishing, and other topics that inspire. We gather on Zoom and in-person in historic Silver City, N.M., to delight in and immerse ourselves in the wonder of words.

Catalina Claussen is a member of the Southwest Word Fiesta steering committee. She is an award-winning young adult novelist, poet, and short story author who carries on a love affair with the land, language, and people of southwest New Mexico. She lives with her dog and tends a prolific garden on a ranch in the Mimbres Valley. To find out more about Catalina Claussen and her work, visit her website at: catalinaclaussenbooks.wordpress.com.

Tags 4 poetsandwriters soutwestwordfiesta2023 silvercitynm weareallconnected

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Blog contributor and student at Western New Mexico University. Dillon Pacheco. -- Photo not provided by blog contributor and WNMU student, Andrea Galindo.

Censored Voices: Banned Book Project Co-written by Dillon Pacheco and Andrea Galindo

Thu, Sep 28, 2023, 2:35pm | By Dillon Pacheco

Blog contributor and student at Western New Mexico University. Dillon Pacheco. -- Photo not provided by blog contributor and WNMU student, Andrea Galindo.

Censored Voices: Banned Book Project Co-written by Dillon Pacheco and Andrea Galindo

Thu, Sep 28, 2023, 2:35pm | By Dillon Pacheco

In the realm of intellectual freedom, censorship emerges as a contentious force, stifling vital narratives, limiting awareness, and creating huge knowledge gaps. One of the most conspicuous manifestations is the banning of books. Doing so not only withholds invaluable insights into the harsh realities faced by many individuals, but it also fosters a silence to which society is unaware of how common some challenges and experiences are that shape our collective existence. As we dive deeper into the world of band literature, we are able to unravel that tapestry of conceal truths, and shed light on the imperative, need to resist the suppressive forces of censorship.

Sandra Cisneros is a distinguished Mexican American author, who depicts the uncharted territories of womanhood within a Hispanic household in her literature. She captures a myriad of struggles she herself endured on the pages of her novel The House on Mango Street. In this collection of vignettes, she unpacks the stories of families, unveils poverty, scrutinizes the complex facets of femininity, and confronts the traumas that shadow her sexual assaults. She was able to paint a vivid portrait of a world filled with pain and home, resonating deeply with those who have traversed similar paths.

As we read The House on Mango Street we found ourselves mirrored in one or more of the vignettes — including living in a racially segregated neighborhood with immigrant parents grappling with poverty, to shouldering the weight of unspoken traumas like sexual assault. These were not simply an occurrence for us, but lived experiences that found their reflection in Cisneros’ words. Had we both been exposed to such literature in our grade school days, it may have offered a lifeline, a sanctuary of understanding in the heart of our Chicano households. It is through Cisneros’ courageous storytelling that we begin to comprehend the transformative power that literature is capable of. It illuminates the darkest corners of our shared experiences and challenges and offers a sense of solace. It is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Cisneros' narrative demonstrates that minority groups, each with their own culturally diverse backgrounds, often find themselves silenced when coming forward with the harsh realities depicted in many different narratives. In this world, one that yearns for connection and understanding, the right to share one story, should not merely be a privilege, but a fundamental human right. Each voice, each narrative, carries the potential to inspire and empower others to find themselves on similar journeys. By embracing the diversity in the words, the challenges, and experiences that make up our collective human tapestry, we forge a path towards a more compassionate and enlightened society — one that thrives on the unimpeded exchange of ideas. It is in this spirit that we must stand firm against the suppressive forces that seek to eliminate these narratives. It is a call to action, inclusivity, and understanding, reminding us that different arenas and values should never dictate what we are allowed and not allowed to read. Therein lies the illumination, a promise of greater empathy and understanding and unity.

Dillon Pacheco, a Santa Fe native, is a freshman and dedicated football player at Western New Mexico University. Andrea Galindo is a committed student currently pursuing her education at Western New Mexico University.

Tags 4 readbannedbooks bannedbookweek2023 protectourbooks readwhatyouwant

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WNMU student presents on banned children's books at Hurley Elementary

An Educational Moment and Movement: Banned Book Week

Tue, Sep 5, 2023, 1:33pm | By Heather Frankland

WNMU student presents on banned children's books at Hurley Elementary

WNMU student discusses her banned book selection at the WNMU Banned Book Week Event.

WNMU Miller Library Stuff and Professor Frankland's students create Banned Book Week Table, poster student-made.

Author, English Professor and blog contributor, Heather Frankland.

An Educational Moment and Movement: Banned Book Week

Tue, Sep 5, 2023, 1:33pm | By Heather Frankland

As both an educator and a writer, I care deeply about the freedom to read. At Western New Mexico University in Silver City, N.M., where I teach English, each fall my students do a special project for Banned Book Week. It’s a collaboration with the Miller Library librarians and staff, and I work closely with Mindy Sandoval, the Head of Public Services. It has been great to see how much this event has grown over the years, such as including middle school students from the Aldo Leopold Charter School, the WNMU Queers and Allies Club, the Grant County Poet Laureate, the WNMU Writer-in-Residence, and others. We have had banned books donated to our students by faculty, SWAG — a local used bookstore, and COAS Bookstore and Casa Camino Real Book Store & Art Gallery in Las Cruces. A local elementary, Hurley Elementary School, invited my students to give a presentation about banned children’s books to their library classroom. On the one hand seeing so many people involved and caring about the freedom to read is awe-inspiring, but on the other hand, it’s sobering and saddening that this issue is still current.

There was a time not too long ago when my college students marveled at this thing called “book banning,” as if it were only a movement of the “dreaded, ancient 1980s and 1990s”. I would tell them about one of the most banned writers from that time, Judy Blume, and the death threats that she received for having the gall to write about girls having their periods or teens having sex. At a lecture series I attended where Blume spoke, she joked that she wrote Forever, one of her mostly frequently banned books, because she wanted to write a book where a teenage couple had sex, and nothing bad happened — the boy wasn’t a villain, and the girl wasn’t destroyed or punished. At this lecture series, I remember looking around at this room full of women, many of whom raised their hands to request the mic so that they could express their gratitude to Blume. They gushed to Blume about how her stories and heroines personally spoke to them, helping them navigate their own girlhood and young womanhood. That awe and gratitude is long-lasting; in 2023 Amazon created a documentary, Judy Blume Forever, which includes multiple interviews by readers who felt seen and heard by Blume, who felt a connection to the flawed but honest heroines. As a teen, I read Forever and loved it. As of this March, this book was one of 80 books removed from the stacks of a Florida School District. (https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/2023/03/16/list-florida-school-district-removes-books-sex-racial-content-martin-county/70009140007/)

In 2022, it was reported by the American Library Association that the number of books challenged was the “highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began compiling data about censorship in libraries more than 20 years ago” (https://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2023/03/record-book-bans-2022). Many of the books challenged are those written by and about traditionally marginalized populations — LGBTQ+, people of color, women. Attempting to ban literature proves how potentially powerful literature can be. Literature can be a mirror in which you see your experiences represented, but also can be a door through which you can walk through experiences vastly different from your own and come to an understanding.

I see this in how my students respond to the book selections they read for the Banned Book Week Project. I remember one student immediately checking out the full book of The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, telling me that she had never read a book that connected so much to her family, her neighborhood and her voice. I also remember other students telling me how The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea taught them to see undocumented immigration differently, telling me how much they cared for the men in the story, how much they wanted the men to survive.

Is this the danger perceived by those who try to ban books? This increase of empathy? Reading books, especially those that are character-driven, increases empathy, as multiple studies demonstrate, the first widely recognized one dating back to 2013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3559433/ If you are a reader, it’s likely that your experience matches these results. If you have cried or felt happy or became angry from what a character was going through, then you were transported emotionally into the story. Is this level of connection perceived as dangerous by those who try to ban books? Or is it a case of misguided protection, as Blume said in a PBS interview this April:

And I hear there are groups around here, and they will say. . .that we want to protect our children. We don't want them to read anything that isn't nice. We don't want them — you know, everything should have a happy ending. We don't want — basically, we don't want them to think. We don't want them to ask questions. You know, we just want their lives to be perfect.

Well, that's not possible, because lives are not perfect, and kids have a lot going on. And you can't control that. You cannot control that. (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/judy-blume-describes-latest-wave-of-book-bans-and-censorship-as-disgusting-and-fascist)

Some of the stories about book banning literally hit closer to home for my students — the Alamogordo book burning of Harry Potter in 2001, the banning of the Tucson School District’s Mexican American studies program in 2008, the banning and burning of Bless Me, Ultima in N.M. in 1981 and 1982. By students practicing their voices, by reading books that represent their experiences and those that don’t, there may be hope yet. After all, it was students who took a banned book case to the Supreme Court in 1982 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/05/20/book-bans-supreme-court-pico/), the very same year that Banned Book Week started.

https://wnmu.edu/banned-books-student-presentation-and-melodrama/

Originally from Indiana, Heather Frankland currently lives in Silver City, NM where she is an Assistant Professor of English Composition at Western New Mexico University. Heather has lived in NM for cumulatively, about a decade, and she holds both a MPH and an MFA from New Mexico State University. She also served in the Peace Corps in Peru and Panama. She is a published writer and has a chapbook of poetry coming out this fall, “Midwest Musings,” from Finishing Line Press.

Tags 4 readbannedbooks freespeech freedomtoread silvercitynm

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Crews setting up Zozobra for the big day. September 2, 2022.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: The Burning of Zozobra and Heralding the New Season

Thu, Aug 31, 2023, 11:53am | By Nicolasa Chávez

The sweltering days of an extremely hot summer are finally cooling down. The sun sets slightly earlier each evening leaving a golden glow upon the land, and the first smells of green chile roasting...

Credit: The black shawl, known as the tápalo, was a symbol of mourning widely worn by women in New Mexico from the 1600s through the mid-20th century. Photo John Candelario. Courtesy Palace of the Governors [NMHM/DCA]. No.0165857.

Ancient Death Rituals Run Deep in New Mexico

Tue, Aug 1, 2023, 8:05am | By Ana Pacheco

In my 2019 book, Death Rituals of New Mexico, I delved into the rituals and customs of caring for the dead in Hispanic New Mexico. In 1850 when New Mexico became a U.S. territory, its citizens began...

Credit: Photo Courtesy of Jimmy Miller. Where it all began for NMHC, site of the initial public meeting in San Juan County.

My Half-Century-Plus Association with the New Mexico Humanities Council

Mon, Jul 31, 2023, 7:19pm | By Jimmy H Miller

I recently received an e-mail from Michelle Quisenberry, deputy director of the New Mexico Humanities Council, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. She had seen my name associated...

Credit: Dmytro, stock.adobe.com

THE FREEDOM TO THINK Or Why Banning Books Is Boring

Mon, Jul 31, 2023, 9:01am | By Emily Romero

I value the freedom to think. It is a close bedfellow for me with other valuable intangibles, such as being able to accept, challenge and/or enjoy mystery, to cultivate wonder,...

New Mexico Gov. Jerry Apodaca with civil rights leader Reies Lopez Tijerina at the New Mexico State Capital building in Santa Fe. The New Mexico State Public Education Department building is named after Governor Apodaca. Photographic Collection (#000-654-

Civil Rights and Justice-The Force of Reies Lopez Tijerina

Wed, Jul 5, 2023, 3:55pm | By Ray John de Aragon

The decade of the 1960s was marked by racial and social unrest, the Vietnam War, protests, tension, and cultural chaos. Heroic national social justice and civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther...

Author holding a piece of history, The Best of Dolly Parton record album. Photo Courtesy of Leeanna Torres.

Como que Dolly Parton ?!

Wed, Jul 5, 2023, 11:17am | By Leeanna Teresa Martinez y Torres

“Workin’ 9 to 5…,” sings my little boy, out loud while I cook and he draws in the kitchen; only seven years old and he already has a Dolly Parton song stuck in his head. “…what a way to...

Photo of article published in the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Associated Press in 1963. Photo Courtesy of Mario Martinez

The B-52 Bomber That Fell from the Sky

Fri, Jun 16, 2023, 10:19am | By Mario X Martinez

Located on the outskirts of Roswell, New Mexico, Walker Air Force Base served as a key U.S. military installation during the Cold War. It operated under the Strategic Air Command from 1946 until its...

Hakim Bellamy. Photo courtesy of Mavel Photography

Parable of the Papa

Fri, Jun 9, 2023, 11:52pm | By Hakim Bellamy

Parable of the Papa by Hakim Bellamy Ever since “Mother May I…” became an anachronism of the Virgin Mary...conception has been synonymous with immaculate, while insemination has become...

Martinez family members of Los Reyes de Albuquerque L-R: Rob Martinez, founder Roberto Martinez, Larry Martinez and Lorenzo Martinez in Old Town Albuquerque in 1994..

From Mora to Mariachi: My Dad and his Magical Journey of Music

Mon, May 15, 2023, 5:11pm | By Rob Martinez

My dad wanted to be Pedro Infante when he grew up. His name was Roberto Martínez. As a young boy living in the Mora Valley during the Great Depression, hard work and scarcity were the norm....

Paul Ingles with his father John, in 2014.

A SOLDIER'S PASSAGE: A New Mexico-made Film Explores the Art of Saying "Goodbye" to Dad

Mon, May 15, 2023, 1:56pm | By Paul Ingles

Dec. 5, 2004, I was standing in the wings of Albuquerque’s historic (and some say haunted) KiMo Theater, watching the talented singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier close a fundraising concert I was...

Esther Martinez, Native American storyteller, from Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico. Photo Courtesy of Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico.

Esther Martinez (P’oe Tsáwä/Blue Water): A Matriarch of Pueblo Language Preservation

Tue, Apr 18, 2023, 9:52am | By Kim Suina Melwani

We come from a tradition that values the music of language, its poetry, and its ability to conjure images. There is a love for the sound of the language, a love for the beauty of a phrase. —Tessie...

Author and blog contributor, Elaine Montague with her husband Gary Montague.

MUSINGS OF A LOCKED-OUT WIFE

Tue, Apr 18, 2023, 9:25am | By Elaine Montague

With thanks to Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, Camus, Plato, Rousseau, Kafka and Saint-Exupery © Elaine Carson Montague 2023 How do we celebrate what it means to be human? Are we human when the Office...

Credit: Dr. Joe S. Sando. Photo Courtesy of the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.

Telling our stories: Pueblo author and teacher, Dr. Joe S. Sando

Sat, Apr 1, 2023, 10:00am | By Jonna C. Paden

Despite the Pueblo’s long history in the Southwest, little has been written about Pueblo people and our contributions to history. What was written, especially for children, was not always complimentary...

Laruen Camp, New Mexico Poet Laureate 2022 to 2025.

Meticulous Answer Inspired by artist Agnes Martin

Sat, Apr 1, 2023, 12:00am | By Lauren Camp

My mind keeps moving. The country is nearly at war with satisfactionor could be.I want to set down my mind. A miniature lullaby. Watch the sloshing water, lost list, crisscrossed waves, a glass pane.One...

Credit: Huerta at the LBJ Presidential Library in 2019. Jay Godwin (public domain).

Dolores Huerta: A Legacy

Wed, Mar 1, 2023, 10:00am | By Maria Vielma

One of the most insulting insinuations made about women is that we are not meant to lead. As a little girl, I almost bought into this lie after hearing male names of leaders pertaining to my Mexican-American...

Credit: The Magic Circle” by John William Waterhouse, 1886. Retrieved from: File:The magic circle, by John William Waterhouse.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Witch: From Villain to Victorious

Wed, Mar 1, 2023, 7:00am | By Keelyn Byram

Until quite recently, the archetype of the Witch in Western culture has been the primary representation of the monstrous feminine. However, in the last century this archetype has been transformed from...

Dr. Meta L. Christy Credit: Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Healer of the Unseen: Dr. Meta L. Christy

Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 8:56am | By Ina Jane

Although systemic racism in America attempts to ensure the odds remain stacked against African Americans, Dr. Meta L. Christy proceeded to pave the way for many aspiring future Black doctors. As the first...

Ivan B. McClellan, Kortnee Solomon, Hempstead, Texas, n.d., photographic print, 38 x 29 in. Courtesy of Ivan B. McClellan.

The Harwood Museum of Art Presents “Outriders: Legacy of the Black Cowboy” Narrating the Rich History of the Black Cowboy in the American Southwest

Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 12:10am | By Ariana Kramer

African Americans have been an integral part of the history of the Southwest since preCivil War days. However, their stories have largely been expunged from the cultural imagination. The Harwood Museum...

Colonial period chocolate making implements and ingredients. Photo by Nicolasa Chávez.

Chocolate: From Food of the Gods to the Food of Love

Sun, Jan 29, 2023, 11:41pm | By Nicolasa Chávez

This Valentine season stores large and small fill up with festive chocolate items from elegant hand-crafted bonbons to heart-shaped boxes to tiny teardrop-shaped morsels wrapped in pink and red. One often...

Print made by John Simon (1675–1755), Portraits of Four Indian Kings of Canada: Sa Ga Yeath Pieth Tow, King of the Maquas, C. 1755, Mezzotint, third state, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B2001.2.1506. https://collections.britishart

What's in the word, savage?

Fri, Dec 30, 2022, 10:51am | By Felicia Bartley

“My grandpa was a savage before savage was in style.” -Snotty Nose Rez Kids, “Savages” I have been hearing the word savage more than I would like to acknowledge. I have noticed...

President Lyndon B. Johnson and Martin Luther King Jr. after signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 Credit: The LBJ Presidential Library

Now What? Civil Rights & The Post-Pandemic Iconography of King’s Dream

Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 2:01pm | By Cathryn McGill

Now What?Civil Rights & The Post-Pandemic Iconography of King’s Dream How did buying a new mattress become the most prominent symbol in the annual celebration of President’s Day? (The holiday is...

Grullas in a twilight sky Credit: Photos by Laura Paskus

Grullas

Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 7:57am | By Leeanna Teresa Martinez y Torres

Each year grullas arrive by the hundreds, settling over the valley’s farm-fields, seeking shelter on vegetated islands of the Rio Grande. But the year my boy was born, I missed their lone, throaty-calls,...

Green Chile Stew Credit: Vanessa Baca

Slow Burn: A Family History of Green Chile Stew

Thu, Dec 1, 2022, 11:20am | By Vanessa Baca

Wintertime in New Mexico is unique. The relatively mild weather, the smell of pine-scented woodsmoke in the air, the farolitos and luminarias that light up the nights throughout the...

Luminarias light up adobe wall in New Mexico. Credit: Photo Courtesy Leeanna Torres.

Little brown bags: A brief meditation on a Nuevo Mexico tradition

Thu, Dec 1, 2022, 9:25am | By Leeanna Teresa Martinez y Torres

How many candles come in a pack? How many paper sacks will accompany each pack of lights? How many to get? And will it be enough? These are the decisions before me, in the aisle of...

Josh2021-01-1715.05.43-1blackwhitecopy.jpg

Credit: Joshua K. Concha

Cultural Identity Theft: Immeasurable Suffering

Mon, Nov 14, 2022, 2:08pm | By Joshua K. Concha

unauthorized access to your personal information has occurred, including your name children were given Anglo names. Their native languages and cultural practices were forbidden.

Rosalia de Aragon as La Llorona Credit: by Rosa Maria Calles.

Cosas Extrañas y Duendes---Strange Things and Goblins

Wed, Sep 28, 2022, 12:32pm | By Ray John de Aragon

¡Los muertos se espantan con los vivos! The dead are scared by the living! New Mexico is a land of mystery, suspense, and intrigue. One is easily captivated and drawn by immortal tales filled with energy,...

Martin and Refugio Amador surrounded by their seven children in a family portrait taken in Las Cruces around 1900 Credit: Photo Courtesy of Amador Family Papers. Ms 0004. New Mexico State University Library, Archives and Special Collections Department.

Hispanic Heritage Month – Amador Family

Wed, Sep 28, 2022, 10:00am | By Jennifer Olguin

September 15 to October 15 marks Hispanic Heritage Month. This monthlong celebration recognizes the contributions and influence of Hispanic Americans throughout the country. The monthlong observation...

Prompt for image generation: 4-year-old, vaguely punk freestyling Credit: DALL-E generation by Philip Allfrey, @dr_pda

Everything is COM-PLI-CA-TED!!

Sun, Aug 14, 2022, 3:09pm | By Ellen Dornan

After robots write and perform a new hit song about the humanities, things get complicated!

Michael Running Wolf Credit: Photo by Adam Glanzman/Northeastern University

Indigenous in AI - Lakota Language Camp

Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 1:46pm | By Ellen Dornan

In January 2022, Michael Running Wolf joined our Augmented Humanity podcast to talk about his efforts to create machine learning models for Indigenous languages. Recently he caught up with us to let us...

Hampton Sides Credit: Photo by Kurt Markus

The Click of the Shutter Means “Yes” Kurt Markus, 1947-2022

Thu, Jul 28, 2022, 11:45am | By Hampton Sides

When I think about Kurt Markus, the internationally acclaimed fine-art photographer who died last month at his home in Santa Fe, I think of the word slow. Slow, as in, he always had to meditate on things,...

AIMING FOR THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD

Sat, Jul 2, 2022, 1:27pm | By Richard Etulain

The noted Western novelist and historian Wallace Stegner once wrote, "I have been convinced for a long time that what is mistakenly called middle of the road is actually the most radical and difficult...

“Lumbre salvaje.” Fire cresting in trees, Monte Aplanado.

Las lumbres del 2022 en el norte de Nuevo México

Thu, Jun 30, 2022, 2:41pm | By Gabriel Meléndez

1. In late summer, clouds thicken quickly on the ridgeline of the sierra, and the distant rumble of their thunder echoes endlessly in the mountain canyons and in the tall stands of spruce...

Credit: Billy the Kid, circa 1873 - 1881. Ben Wittick. Wikimedia Commons

A DIFFERENT KIND OF BILLY THE KID

Thu, Jun 30, 2022, 11:00am | By Richard Etulain

Billy the Kid is the most-written-about New Mexican. Most of the nearly 1,000 books and essays about Señor Billy picture him as a villain, hero, or combination...

Sean Cardinalli

Juneteenth and Violence, Revisited

Wed, Jun 1, 2022, 8:27am | By Sean Cardinalli

Juneteenth is once again on the horizon. It reminds of emancipation. It is characterized by celebration. It is rooted in Black freedom delayed and so, therefore, denied. Our Black freedom is still delayed...

Credit: Vicente Fernandez in 1965 Wikimedia Commons

El Grito Eterno: Imagining Vicente Fernandez and Remembering My Father

Tue, May 31, 2022, 8:20am | By Matthew Villegas

The mariachi legend, Vicente Fernandez, passed away late last year at 81. Affectionately known by his legions of fans as "Chente," he left a legacy that will likely go unmatched. Chente was...

Photo Courtesy of Vanessa Baca Credit: Ultima and Owl, artist Kathy Gidden, oil on canvas.

Burning Última: Rudolfo Anaya and the Impact of Book Bans on Democracy

Tue, May 31, 2022, 8:10am | By Vanessa Baca

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines democracy as a government by the people, especially the rule of the majority, and one that is characterized by free and open elections. As Americans, most of us tend...

The La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, ca. 1930-1940. The La Fonda was built in 1922, and was acquired by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad in 1925, who leased it to Fred Harvey. It was a Harvey House from 1926 to 1968. It has been locally own Credit: UNM Library, William A. Keleher Collection http://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=nmupict000-742.xml

Mapping Queer History in New Mexico

Tue, May 31, 2022, 8:05am | By Ellen Dornan

For this month’s Augmented Humanity podcast, we’re talking with Dr. Amanda Regan, and Dr. Eric Gonzaba, co-creators of Mapping the Gay Guides, which is built around interactive geographic visualizations...

Chábáh Davis Watson of the Tl'aashchi'i Clan, Red Bottom People, from Wheatfields, AZ. Photo Courtesy of Ninabah Davis.

Teacher Warrior

Sun, May 1, 2022, 11:40pm | By Ninabah Davis

Just recently I watched a movie on Netflix called Te Ata, the story of Mary Thompson Fisher, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, an actress and storyteller who called herself Te Ata (which is thought...

My friend La Llorona, 2018 Credit: Photo by Rica Maestas

Loving La Llorona

Sun, May 1, 2022, 11:38pm | By Rica Maestas

It has always been easy to see myself in the infamous “crying woman,” La Llorona. Like her, I am brown and femme, a survivor of abuse and mental illness, a child forced into adulthood too soon. A consummate...

Shozo, Goro, Mamoru and Keigo Takeuchi taken in Alvarado, CA in 1939. Credit: Photo courtesy of Shelley Takeuchi.

Shikataganai - It Can't Be Helped

Sun, May 1, 2022, 11:36pm | By Shelley Takeuchi

80 years ago, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that began an irreversible tidal wave of racial prejudice towards Asians, particularly those who were Japanese. Issei and Nissei were first-...

New Mexico State Poet Laureate, Levi Romero

Carlos, Prieto, and Ramiro Come to Hoe the Milpa

Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 12:40pm | By Levi Romero

I have been unable to keep up with the gardening This year and have had to hire help. I have never hired help before, and I feel as if I Might be breaking a code-of-honor, An unstated rule where we...

Diana Velazco

SOY MAGDALENA…Y HE PECADO

Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 12:35pm | By Diana Velazco

Me han maltratado Me han herido Por dar lo que me exigen Me han perseguido. Mis ropajes me han desgarrado Tanto y aun mas mi moribundo Corazon y sin latidos. Tengo ojos, tengo oidos; Tengo manos...

Gottlieb, W. P. (1947) Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown, Milt Milton Jackson, and Timmie Rosenkrantz, Downbeat, New York, N.Y., ca. Sept. United States, 1947. , Monographic. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https

International Jazz Day: Jazz and Democracy

Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 12:32pm | By Andy Kingston

In 2011, UNESCO teamed up with the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz to designate April 30th as International Jazz Day “in order to highlight jazz and its diplomatic role of uniting people in all corners...

Credit: Image Courtesy Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Accessed through the New Mexico Digital Repository

Sufragista y más: Adelina "Nina" Otero-Warren

Mon, Feb 28, 2022, 1:22pm | By Dr. Anna M Nogar

Nuevomexicana Adelina “Nina” Otero-Warren (1881-1965) is one of the outstanding early feminist figures in United States history and an actor for representation...

Credit: Ida B. Wells. Late 19th century Credit: From Wikimedia Commons

Ida B. Wells: The Power of the Pen

Mon, Feb 28, 2022, 12:24pm | By Ina Jane

"I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap.” (I.B. Wells) Ida B. Wells, a renowned American journalist and social activist from Holly Springs,...

Credit: graphic courtesy of Ariel Dougherty

COMMUNITY VISIONS – Cinematic Narratives by Women

Mon, Feb 28, 2022, 11:46am | By Ariel Dougherty

My friend Laura X, founder of the Women's History Library, sends me two and three notices a day about film screenings. A multitask-juggler of scores of feminist concerns, it is difficult for me to keep...

Credit: Darryl Lorenzo Wellington

Encountering New Mexico

Mon, Jan 31, 2022, 9:17pm | By Darryl Wellington

 This nation’s greatest commentator on race relations, James Baldwin, never visited New Mexico (as far as my research can tell).    But Baldwin published an...

Credit: Creative Commons photo of MLK

The Last MLK Day

Sat, Jan 1, 2022, 12:00am | By Hakim Bellamy

“On August 6th, 1965, the President’s Room of the Capitol could scarcely hold the multitude of of white and Negro leaders crowding it. President Lyndon Johnson’s high spirits were marked...

New Mexico's State Cookie: The Biscochito Credit: Photo Courtesy by Vanessa Baca

A Sweet and Spicy Memory: Biscochitos in New Mexico Culture

Wed, Dec 1, 2021, 6:52pm | By Vanessa Baca

In my memory, I am standing next to my grandmother, watching her roll out the dough, deliciously studded with tiny seeds of anise. I have the very important job of cutting the dough into the shapes of...

Credit: https://web.archive.org/web/20160112123725/http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-001138.html

Instrument of Change: A Brief Look at Photography in the United States

Wed, Dec 1, 2021, 6:34pm | By Mathew Contos

Some of the earliest photographs in history captured the brutality of war, a major departure from the heroic and romantic stylization of battle paintings that preceded them. Photographs of the Mexican-American...

Credit: Private Augustus Walley Credit: National Museum of African American History and Culture, Ellen Dornan photographer

1867: A Snapshot of the Military Occupation of New Mexico

Mon, Nov 1, 2021, 3:54pm | By Ellen Dornan

The 1867 U.S. Topo Bureau map showing the Old Territory and Military Department of New Mexico, “compiled in the Bureau of Topographic Engineers of the War Department chiefly for military purposes under...

Credit: Unknown author; Public Domain; "Annie" daguerreotype of Poe circa 1849 jpg; originally from http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=39406

Beyond the Macabre: Edgar Allan Poe and the Psychology of Horror

Tue, Sep 28, 2021, 2:22pm | By Chrysta Wilson

Edgar Allan Poe’s status as the father of contemporary horror is so fully entrenched in the American psyche that his portrait is instantly recognizable to people who have never read his work.

The author’s personal altar with paper flowers, candles, autumn leaves and food items. In the center is a drawing of the author’s sister Christel Angélica Chávez, Captain U.S. Air Force. Drawing by Anthony Thielen (cousin). Credit: Photo Courtesy by Nicolasa Chávez

Celebrating the Dead: Día de los Muertos and All Hallowe’en

Tue, Sep 28, 2021, 2:05pm | By Nicolasa Chávez

Many people do not know the origins of this fun - and fright-filled night, nor of the similarities its’ origins share with Día de los Muertos

Scene at Signing of the Constitution of the United States." Credit: Howard Chandler Christy, 1940

America’s Constitution: A Machine That Does Not Run By Itself

Wed, Sep 1, 2021, 9:28am | By Christian Fritz

When the Founding Fathers drafted America’s frame of government in Philadelphia during the constitutional convention of 1787, they knew they had begun a journey and not completed a task. By creating...

Jack Loeffler on the San Juan River in 1971 Credit: Photo Courtesy by Terrence Moore

Invigorating Metamorphosis

Tue, Aug 31, 2021, 11:37pm | By Jack Loeffler

It’s tough to overcome inertia, especially when it is self-imposed by presumed limitations. I speak from experience as a mid-point octogenarian having survived the last eighteen months of pandemic...

Credit: Photo Courtesy Melissa Auh Krukar

Hispasian

Fri, Jul 30, 2021, 9:06am | By Melissa Auh Krukar

The questions are always the same: “Where are you from?” or worse, “Where are you really from?” or worse yet, “What are you?”

Credit: Pixabay photo by Bruce Tunget

Growing up “Coyota” in New Mexico

Thu, Jul 29, 2021, 3:49pm | By Nicolasa Chávez

Did being a coyote make me any less New Mexican? What exactly did it mean to be a “Coyota” in New Mexico?

Howe, Henry. Historical Collections of the Great West, Volume I. 1855. James A. Roberts. Greenville, TN.

Map of the Indian Territory, Northern Texas and New Mexico, Showing the Great Western Prairies

Sun, Jul 25, 2021, 11:56am | By Ellen Dornan

Josiah Gregg's 1844 map is ostensibly included in Commerce of the Prairies to help the gentle reader follow the “Wild West” adventure to an exotic, foreign destination, but that neutrality is quickly belied by a closer look.

Artist: Unnamed Youth in Immigration Detention Center Credit: Photo by: Justin Hamel

Art Cannot be Caged: Detained Migrant Youth Create an Exhibit

Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 12:07pm | By Kayla Myers

“Uncaged Art Tornillo Children’s Detention Center” is fundamentally about Central American children who came to our nation seeking security and safety and found themselves incarcerated within the walls of a sterile detention center built in the Chihuahuan Desert.

Credit: Photo curtesy of Samantha Bomkamp

How Has the Pandemic Affected Museums? Examples from the Blackwater Draw Museum at Eastern New Mexico University

Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 10:02am | By Samantha Bomkamp

The Blackwater Draw Museum (BWDM) was among the many museums in the country whose daily operations were disrupted during the pandemic.

Credit: Tarot de Marseilles Justice card beside Dolores Huerta mural painted by Jodie Herrera. Credit: Photo by Bethany Tabor

The Fool's Journey

Tue, Jun 1, 2021, 8:00am | By Bethany Tabor

It’s impossible to travel through Albuquerque without encountering at least one beautiful, larger-than-life mural on the side of a building or wall. The practice of mural painting—which has...

Lágrimas: Poems of Joy and Sadness

Fri, May 28, 2021, 2:36pm | By Nasario Garcia

Beyond people, the landscape and animals were dear to my heart. “Me hablan/They Speak to Me” is a vivid manifestation of how I as a kid communicated with the peaks, valleys, ravines, and arroyos.

National Parks Service; “Journey’s End” Artist Reynaldo “Sonny” Rivera, in collaboration with landscape architect Richard Borkovetz Credit: National Park Service

The Santa Fe Trail

Fri, May 28, 2021, 1:51pm | By Thomas Chavez

For much of its history New Mexico was an island in the wilderness, a unique European settlement among Native cultures in the middle of the continent distant from the so-called frontier lines of the United States and Mexico

Into the Beautiful North

Fri, Apr 30, 2021, 12:12am | By Ann Bentley

What do you think of when you hear “book club”? Middle aged women discussing the latest literary fiction or, maybe chick lit, novel, while drinking wine of course. Or maybe you think of retirees, discussing the latest John Grisham or C.J. Box novel. You probably don’t think of inmates discussing the plot line of any novel; much less bring up the plot device of “the hand of God” also known as “Deus ex machina”.

Credit: Credit: Ernest Hemingway at his home in Cuba, circa 1950s. Courtesy of AE Hotchner.

Hemingway

Wed, Apr 7, 2021, 9:29am | By Michael Privett

For me, the Hemingway work that stuck was The Old Man and The Sea. I was stunned at its raw emotion, specifically Hemingway’s ability to depict a man fiercely at war with the natural world. I struggled with the symbolism; was the fish really a fish, or a metaphor? Did the boy represent the hubris of youth and the Old Man, God?

Credit: Leonard Martinez (~1942, ~age 27) Credit: L. Torres

MANITO

Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:15pm | By Leeanna Teresa Martinez y Torres

Manito: Examining and Deconstructing New Mexico’s Tri-Cultural Myth; “Patterns of Migration”

Denise Chávez in front of "Lalo" Chávez's mural in the lobby of La Posta in Las Cruces, NM. Photo by Daniel Zolinsky.

Sun, May 1, 2022, 11:42pm | By Denise Chavez

Bendito, Bendito, Bendito Sea Dios Los ángeles cantan y alaban a Dios Yo creo Jesús mío que estás en el altar Oculto en la ostia te vengo a adorar I climbed one bumpy narrow step at a time with a rickety...

Vanessa Baca

Fish Not Flesh: Symbolism of the New Mexico Lenten Feast

Thu, Mar 31, 2022, 12:33pm | By Vanessa Baca

When I was growing up, my New Mexico Catholic family each year would enjoy what we call the Lenten meal. Though Catholics are asked to eschew eating meat on Fridays during Lent, it was the Good Friday...

Miguel Trujillo with his daughter Josephine. Credit: Photo Courtesy from the collection of Josephine Waconda.

Miguel Trujillo

Wed, Sep 1, 2021, 12:09am | By Gordon Bronitsky

For most Americans, Indians remain the backdrop to American history. Indian heroes are the warriors of the past. Miguel Trujillo was an Isleta Pueblo Indian living at Laguna who directly confronted the...

Credit: Mural near International Border Crossing as seen with AR viewer. (screengrab of the Augment El Paso app) Credit: Ellen Dornan, photographer

Why is El Paso in Texas?

Fri, Aug 27, 2021, 2:49pm | By Ellen Dornan

Today, Southern New Mexicans frequently cross the border to El Paso, Texas, to enjoy shopping and entertainment, perhaps appreciating the culture without understanding the long history of why El Paso...

George Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart Credit: Retrieved from the Library of Congress

Washington’s Farewell Address: Timeless Wisdom

Wed, Feb 24, 2021, 9:38am | By Brandon Johnson

A lesson from Washington’s earlier life illustrates his deep understanding of how unchecked power and privilege can do violence to the fragile nature of liberty and self-government.

Recent Columns

Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these blog posts/articles do not necessarily represent those of the New Mexico Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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Pre-pandemic grief, ancestral memory, mourning the world in 2020 and healing in the present

Pre-pandemic grief, ancestral memory, mourning the world in 2020 and healing in the present

Nuestra Voz: The Chihuahua Hill Story and the importance of community, self-representation, and remembrance.

Nuestra Voz: The Chihuahua Hill Story and the importance of community, self-representation, and remembrance.

Southwest Word Fiesta 2023

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Censored Voices: Banned Book Project Co-written by Dillon Pacheco and Andrea Galindo

Censored Voices: Banned Book Project Co-written by Dillon Pacheco and Andrea Galindo

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An Educational Moment and Movement: Banned Book Week

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MOTHER’S DAY. 2019. ©2022

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Miguel Trujillo

Seeking to understand
who we are,
who we were
and who we aspire to be.