The 400th Anniversary of
SANTA FE
by Joseph Schmitt
In 1609, Don Pedro de Peralta received
orders from the Spanish viceroy to settle La Villa Real
de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis. While greater
New Mexico has been populated by Native Americans for
many thousands of years, the city charter of Santa Fe
was officially established in 1610 by Spanish explorers,
making it the oldest European settlement west of the Mississippi,
and one of the oldest cities in the United States. Known
around the world as “The City Different,” Santa
Fe is home to a vibrant combination of cultures that over
the last four centuries have forged a rare bond and new
identity that is distinctly, Santa Fe.
The citizens and government of Santa
Fe, indeed, all of New Mexico, are aware of the significance
of this historic anniversary. It’s not a celebration
per se, rather a commemoration of 400 years of modern
history. Untold heartbreak and bloodshed occurred to
get to this day, and unthinkable wrongs were done in
the name of progress and exploration. Entire cultures
were altered. Such is the global cycle of conquest and
destruction. Yet, this landmark number of 400, a large
one in the new world, signifies much that is right with
humanity. Through civic and governmental actions, many
personal stories and cultural histories have been preserved,
both in still-thriving communities around Santa Fe,
and in many of its finest museums and monuments. In
no way is it possible to cover in one article all the
cultural and historic attractions that one should experience
when visiting this region, but what’s covered here
are some of the most important sights, and personal
explorations that have inspired me.
An integral destination in your cultural
explorations of Santa Fe will be Museum Hill,
a short drive or shuttle ride from the city’s downtown
Plaza. Here you’ll find four distinct museums that
beautifully chronicle the last 400 years of Santa Fe’s
history from different perspectives. Located on this
hilltop, The Museum of Spanish Colonial Art is
housed in a building that is itself an important expression
of living tradition, having been designed as a residence
in 1930 by John Gaw Meem, a leading figure in the development
of New Mexico’s Spanish Colonial/Pueblo Revival
architecture.
Unique in their global range and their
representation of daily life in the colonial world,
the 3,000 objects in its collections include devotional
and decorative works as well as utilitarian artifacts
representing an artistic heritage of five centuries
and four continents. Works by New Mexico’s present-day
Hispano artists are also included. You’ll discover
beautiful old-world religious paintings on wood, called
retablos, and many bultos, freestanding religious sculptures,
along with colonial furniture and textiles.
The vast array of personal adornment
objects such as crucifixes and rosaries, necklaces,
and fanciful hair combs really gives a human touch to
the museum, making it feel like you’re walking
through someone’s home. For me, it was these small,
intimate items that really conveyed the humanity behind
the history contained in this museum. It was also fascinating
to fantasize about the vast global commerce that forged
modern New Mexico, with many of these objects originating
in Spain, Argentina, and Brazil, even the Caribbean,
China, and Morocco. I was in absolute awe, pondering
the transportation routes that existed in those times.
Meanwhile, The Museum of Indian Arts
and Culture, also on Museum Hill, focuses on the
wide cultural spectrum of the indigenous peoples who
have inhabited these lands for many thousands of years.
The mission of the museum, and its Laboratory of Anthropology,
is to “inspire appreciation for and knowledge of
the diverse native arts, histories, languages, and cultures
of the Greater Southwest.” During my visit, I found
a beautiful exhibition on contemporary Santa Fe fashion
and jewelry, tracing the roots of this Southwestern
signature style. There was understandable excitement
around this exhibit, as designers Dorothy Grant, Patricia
Michaels, and Virgil Ortiz showed during the 2009 New
York Fashion Week, an historic first for Native American
designers.
An engaging core exhibition is Here,
Now, and Always, based on eight years of collaboration
among Native American elders, artists, scholars, teachers,
and writers. This multi-media journey has you explore
vast regions of the American Southwest and the many
tribes and cultures that continue to call this land
home. Voices of fifty Native Americans guide visitors
through the Southwest’s indigenous communities
and their challenging landscapes, weaving a story that
begins in a time, “before words, before mountains,
before rivers, before people.” More than 1,300
artifacts from the museum’s collections are displayed,
accompanied by poetry, stories, song, and scholarly
discussions. At the entrance to this gallery, I was
touched by the audio warnings in native Tewa and Navajo,
cautioning tribal members to possibly avoid sections
of this exhibit for spiritual reasons. Out of respect
for their ancestors, some Native Americans choose not
to view these archeological ancestral pieces. For me,
it was moving to connect with this exhibit, as it afforded
me a glimpse into many personal stories and a way to
better understand the intricacies of daily native life,
pre-historic to present.
 Also
at Museum Hill are other prominent museums, the Museum
of International Folk Art and the Wheelwright
Museum of the American Indian. Clearly, a comprehensive
visit to Museum Hill is not possible in one day alone.
Consider purchasing the New Mexico Culture Pass
and schedule your visits over several days. While there
are numerous fine museums and monuments worth visiting
in Santa Fe, you’ll definitely want to tour the
Palace of the Governors, the oldest continuously
used public building in the United States, and its adjacent
New Mexico History Museum, which just opened
last year. Also downtown is the New Mexico Museum
of Art, highlighting artists who have worked, lived,
or been influenced by travel through the region since
the introduction of the railway, around 1880.
This past year, for the first time,
I visited one of New Mexico’s 19 Pueblos; living
communities where descendants of indigenous cultures
keep their heritage alive. San Ildefonso is one
of the best-known New Mexico Pueblos because of its
famous black-on-black pottery. The unassuming village
has dirt roads and a large central plaza where dances
are held on feast days. A beautiful kiva anchors the
pueblo’s spiritual center in the middle of town
and traces its origins to the 1300s. Before the Spanish
conquest, the village was thought to have around 2,000
members, but by the early 20th century, the population
had dwindled to less than ninety. At a time when inexpensive
Spanish tinware and Anglo enamelware had replaced traditional
containers and cooking pots, the art of pottery making
was quickly fading away into the history books.
One hundred years ago, a woman named
Maria Povenka Martinez and her husband Julian Martinez
fortuitously saved the community’s signature pottery
from extinction. Not long after her marriage, Maria
was asked to replicate some pre-historic pottery styles
that had been discovered in an archaeological excavation
of an ancient Pueblo site near San Ildefonso. These
excavations of 1908 and 1909 produced examples of many
pre-historic pottery techniques. It was then that Maria
and her husband (who painted the designs on the pottery
after Maria shaped them), began a lifelong artistic
collaboration that would resurrect this craft and bring
economic prosperity to their Pueblo.
Today, San Ildefonso is world famous
for its handcrafted pottery, especially the signature
black matte on black gloss, a style created by Maria
and Julian in the 1920s. During my visit I had the great
opportunity to meet a master potter at his private home
studio, just off the plaza. Krieg Kalavaza told me how
he works with his family, preserving his centuries-old
culture by making beautiful artisan ware. From start
to finish, his creations are fashioned in similar ways
to those from many generations past. Like his ancestors,
he collects the clay and ash from selected places on
the reservation, forms the pots with a coiling and pinching
technique on a dining room table, and eventually fires
the pieces in an outdoor, Arabic-style oven. The San
Ildefonso Pueblo is a 30-minute drive from downtown
Santa Fe.
Continued
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