All Things 505

The Genizaro and us.

Having met  Señor Napoleón Suazo-Garcia, Sr. at Las Golondrinas and being extended an invitation to visit him in Abiquiú we did so.
We found him on the patio of his house/studio/gallery, located on the East side of the Plaza. Can't miss it, it is adorned with hand-painted signs. "Maps", "tourist information", "author book-signing today". He extended a warm welcome to enter and the three of us sat inside and talked.

Señor Garcia gave us a brief overview of the history of Abiquiú, sprinkled with some autobiography. He knew Georgia O'Keeffe well having worked for her for many years. We did purchase two copies of his book. A worthwhile read to learn more about the history of the area,  Señor Garcia, and the famous painter.

Señor Garcia in his studio, notice the Santos and crosses carved by him in background. 
We talked about his fruit trees, empanaditas recipes, his work, and his family. He often interrupted himself with "Do you have any questions?" He had two handmade maps, one of the village and one of the surrounding areas. He pointed out various areas of interest while giving us historical background, dos and don'ts. During one of my frequent "I did not know xxx was here" he said: "Often people come here and they want to see everything in two hours."
There is a lot more to see in the area than we knew, repeat trips will follow.

Cerro Pedernal, often painted by Georgia O'Keeffe

As we were chatting another tourist arrived, he bade us to remain seated, and he welcomed the woman with the same warmth with which he had welcomed us. It was her first visit to Abiquiú; she had "done" Santa Fe and Taos before after briefly looking around the gallery she left. She must have been one of the "two hour tourists"; she has no idea of what she missed.

Chimney Rock as seen from the road One last note about Señor Garcia, he is a warm, gentle man, truly interested in people and more than willing to share his knowledge. As a goodbye gift, he sang us an alabado "La mission", a truly moving hymn of praise.
If you are in the area pay him a visit and buy a copy of his book (more info for book at end).

Señor Garcia singing "La Mission"

Storm on Rio Chama

 

Christ in the Desert Monastery Church. It may well be the most beautiful church in New Mexico, its color blending with the cliffs behind it and those cliffs being visible from the inside.

His book was featured in the April 2009 issue of New Mexico Magazine:
"...Although Georgia O’Keeffe is one of New Mexico’s most frequently chronicled residents, rarely do we read about the iconic painter from the perspective offered in The Genizaro & The Artist." and:
"...this slender volume relates Garcia’s memories of his interactions with the artist—he did odd jobs for her, and worked as her chauffeur. He writes, “I want to tell the story of our village and how we accepted this world famous artist into our way of living. She became a ‘villager’ here. She respected our way of life and had no desire to change us as so many outsiders want to do.” This is a poignant book about a hardworking man, a simple northern New Mexico village, and the iconic artist who left her mark on them."

For copies of The Genizaro & the Artist, please contact:
Mr. Napoleon Suazo-Garcia, Sr.
P.O. Box 68
Abiquiu, NM 87510

Email: [email protected]

Weekend kicks on Route 66.

Some of the stuff happening in Albuquerque this weekend.  This is what we find interesting.

Lots of events sponsored by Albuquerque Pride this week.  The parade is Saturday, June the 30th.  Route begins at Central and Girard, traveling to Expo New Mexico.  Start time is 10:00 a.m.

Support local growers at our incredible Growers Markets.  From downtown Albuquerque take your taste buds along the Middle Rio Grande Valley from Belen through Los Ranchos, towards Corrales and into Bernalillo.  The New Mexico Farmers Markets site has a nice list of markets, locations and times.

The City of Albuquerque is sponsoring a daily bike tour of the Bosque that begins July 1st and runs through 2013.  For cooler fare, listen to Latin Jazz under the stars at the Museum on Saturday, June 30th.

More in a mood for a multimedia performance? Check out Río de Lágrimas (River of Tears) at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, based on the legend of La Llorona it opens Friday June 29.

We have wonderful signs in Albuquerque.  For you sign geeks and wonks, this sign workshop looks really interesting.

Las Golondrinas and other Northern New Mexico treasures.

Every year I make my pilgrimage to El Rancho de Las Golondrinas.  Las Golondrinas, a living museum just south of Santa Fe and nestled up next to La Cienega, is a colonial treasure.  The valley it was built in is full of cottonwood trees and acequias.

The Fiber Arts Festival was this weekend.  Talented artisans displayed their woven wools, felted creations, spun colorful fibers, and hand embroidered pieces of art. 

 

To say these women were talented would be an understatement.  These pieces were handloomed and then hand embroidered.

After visiting with the artisans, we made our way to Baca Plaza and Golondrinas Placita.  Museum docents were baking bread and roasting green chile in the two outdoor ovens.  The combination of baking bread and roasting green chile was overwhelming to our senses.  This was New Mexican heaven.  The ovens came complete with an altar at their base; blessings for good food.

The village meanders down a hill, past a mill and a blacksmith shop.  Productive fields line the pathway that takes visitors under elegant Cottonwoods that dropped  their fluffy stuff onto our shoulders and heads. 

A Penitente Morada sits up on a hill south of the schoolhouse.  Two ponds, dotted with colorful dragonflies and chock full of bright green frogs and huge tadpoles, surround the Big Sapello Mill. 

Morada

An operational water powered mill. Moved here from the Mora Valley.

A beatiful dragonfly

A curious frog approaches

The most fascinating encounter we had while at Los Golondrinas occurred in the chapel, located on the north side of the Golondrinas Placita.  It wasn’t the beautiful Retablos or the colonial Colcha at the altar; it was talking with one of the volunteer docents.

Meet Napoleón Suazo-Garcia, Sr. 

Mr. Suazo-Garcia is a poet, Abiquiú elder, historian, museum guide, and  a member of the Brotherhood of Light.  He has some stories to tell.  Stories about  his native Abiquiú, New Mexico, Georgia O’Keefe and the Penitentes;  as he pointed out to us Penintentes are private brotherhoods, not secret ones as many believe.  He offered to sing us an alabado, a hymn, from his chant book.  We were thrilled.  

His voice, big and beautiful, brought tears to my eyes.  This man is authentic.  Authentically New Mexican.

He is also the author of The Genizaro and the Artist, a book that tells the story of Abiquiú and its most famous resident Georgia O'Keeffe, from the viewpoint of someone that worked for her before she became famous.

Mr. Garcia invited us to come and visit him in Abiquiú, something we intend to do soon.

Sometimes the best things in life aren't things.

Public Art in Albuquerque. It's cool.

We've been doing our best to keep up with the public art goings on in this art friendly city of ours.  No time like the present to start blogging about it.  The City of Albuquerque has an extensive collection of art.  It is administered by the city's Public Art Department , and, various programs within. 

Check out some of the links on the city's page. For those on the go, there are apps  for both iPhone and Android available from "Museum Without Walls."

Our friend, Maxine Marks, is the board member from District 1.  She keeps All Things 505 updated on the current public art displays as well as new upcoming events.

We ran into Maxine at the recent Albuquerque Centennial Summerfest. The department had a booth showcasing their projects and activities.   Along with colorful brochures galore about what they offer us for the 1% public art allocation we all pay for, we were told that the department has a scavenger hunt art project in the works.  Clues about publicly funded art in various parts of town that leads to more clues?  And, Art?  We will keep our ear to the ground on this one.

We also picked up graphicly stunning collectors cards.  Each card exhibits a piece of public art combined with information about the piece, the works location, and, the materials used to create it.

This is your art, Albuquerque.  Enjoy it!

A pilgrimage, of sorts. Tome Hill.

Nestled between Los Lunas and Belen, and east of I-25, is Tome Hill.  An archeological gem that is full of petroglyphs and history, it is also home to Good Friday pilgrimages.  Home to rocks, sand, chamisa and trails; it is also home to love and sorrow.

We have been up Tome Hill, twice.  The first time, our virgin wanderings took us up the southern, much more difficult, path (as a friend from the area later remarked -the "rookie" path).  The second time up, we decided to venture up the western path.  Slick and steep at the beginning, it evened out.  With cameras in hand, we went up the day after Good Friday.  We were still fortunate enough to see some pilgrims ( I guess we were pilgrims, of sorts, too).  Walking up that hill is a labor of love and devotion.  We saw pilgrims on oxygen tanks and some with osteoarthritis.  Children.  Teens.  The devoted.  Those who mourn the loss of someone they loved.  Faith can be a strong driving force.

Words run dry when talking about Tome and the crosses, rosaries, momentos, photos, and love, left behind by the pilgrims.  Pictures will have to do.

Top of the hill. Faith is not a required ingredient, the journey and the view at the top are spiritual.

Some going up, some coming down.

Some crosses left on the hill.

A little girl's shoe.

Candles, rosaries, photos ... and sorrow.

A pilgrims staff and flowers left with solar powered lights.

A festoned staff that bore the name of many.

 

Festival de Otoño culminates with burning of El Kookooee.

The burning of El Kookooee culminates the Festival de Otoño (autumn festival), in Albuquerque's beautiful South Valley.
This year we noticed a much larger crowd than in years past. A sign of the times, more fears and worries to burn?

The history of El Kookooee spans the breadth of the Latin American world and culture under many names, el cucui, el coco, cocoman, and others. 
Author Rudolfo Anaya in 1990 proposed to a group of Chicano artist to create an effigy of this boogeyman and burn it at a public fiesta.
In his letter to artist he gave a reason for this. "I propose to the artistas of Albuquerque that we have an annual Koo-koo-ee fiesta where we construct a giant figure of El Koo-koo-ee, an effigy of our own personal and communal fears, and burn him at dusk. The burning of such an effigy figure which symbolizes one’s fears is a very universal phenomenon, and because El Coco/El Koo-koo-ee is part of the mythos of our culture this bulto of fears speaks to us in a very direct way. Here is the bogeyman of our cuentos, the warning of our parents. Ell Koo-koo-ee is tied to our culture, our cuentos, our history on the Rio Grande."

That first effigy made of wood, paper and metal was sixteen feet tall; had rooster's feet, large hands with long arms, a big head and a green chile for a nose. He carried a big bag that spectators were encouraged to fill with pieces of paper listing their fears and worries.

El Kookooee has grown in stature, each year he is depicted differently since no one knows what he looks like, 7th grader Tyler Young designed this year’s Kookooee. Unlike the burning of Zozobra in Santa Fe, which has degenerated into a pay-per-view event seemingly geared to attract tourist, El Kookooee remains free and retains its spirit, with low-key fundraising for the community.

Enjoy! 

                            El Kookooe stands awaiting his destiny.

  

    A number of smaller puppets were piled around the base of El Kookooee

A beautifully decorated chest served as the repository for fears and worries. The chest was put into the base of El Kookooee prior to the burning.

A father holds up his young daughter so she can insert her paper in the chest. There was a long line.

Xochipilli Aztec Dancers perform.

                        The burning begins.

The flames reveal a demon within.

The Universal theme of catharsis and rebirth through fire.

Santuario de Chimayo: a labor of love

One of the most beautiful places in New Mexico, at least in my humble opinion, is the Santuario de Chimayo.  Santuario is on the High Road to Taos, nestled in a beautiful valley. 

It is the final destination of multiple pilgrimages during the year.  It is a place of faith, healing, and loss.  It is a labor of love.  It doesn't matter what faith one may practice or live. It doesn't matter if one be agnostic or atheist.  Going to Santuario is a human experience that transcends a boxed church or varied religious rules.  A visit transcends religious barriers and dogma.  Hundreds of crosses, pictures, carvings, prayer beads and handmade ornaments are on the fences and walls.  Some hang in a shrine with lit candles.  All are dedicated to those who have left this life, or, who are ill.  All of these artifacts are left by those with love.

The pictures tell a better story.

A shrine of candles, beads, pictures and milagros.

I will leave you with this final picture.  Grace against a New Mexican blue sky.

 

 

Graffiti and Street Art in the 505.

We like finding good graffiti.  And when we do find good graffiti, we like taking pictures of it.  Lots of pictures. 

Through our camera lenses we see stories told in explosions of intricate color.  There are lots of stories to see in the 505.  Pay attention and you just might see them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to come, because like we said, we like the Graffiti and the Street Art in the 505.

 

Hot cars and hot color

Saturday brought us nice weather, a partial return of our fabulously blue New Mexico skies....and a car show next door to the Sonic on San Mateo.  It wasn't a big car show, but, as in some gifts, nicer things come in smaller packages.  Color was the key word for this show.  Cars in blue, silver, gray, purple, red, orange and yellow.  We saw custom hotrods, vintage Chevy's and a suped up lowrider (sans hydraulics); all crafted by someone who cares a whole lot about cars.  The shutters were flying on our cameras as we walked by each model.

 

We met up with Bruce Shaffer who organizes car shows in the metro area.  He gave us a heads up on a "Neon Cruise" that will take place in conjunction with the Nob Hill Route 66 Summerfest .

The cruisers will convene around 1:00 PM at the corner of Washington and Copper (signs will be posted), at 8:30 PM they will cruise through the crowds, winding up at Enchanted RV park on top of Nine Mile hill for the outdoor viewing of a movie on a large screen.

For more info: visit Old Route 66 Car Show or email bcougar67 at msn.com

 

Summerfest combined with a Neon Cruise and drive in movie?  More 505 coolness on a hot Summer's evening.

Yarn bombers strike Nob Hill

Under the cover of darkness, last Friday night, the yarn bombers struck again in Nob Hill. Any fixture was fair game, lamp and sign posts, parking machines, bicycle racks, and even trees.

Nob Hill does not suffer from a lack of color or whimsy. Both are amply represented by the business located there, and by the local wildlife circulating through it. Oh alright, the hipsters do add a certain drabness to it in their Urban Outfitters uniforms.

Colorful, inventive, whimsical are adjectives that describe both the individual pieces as well as their placement. Some parking machines had both a top and a bottom; a bike rack appeared to being devoured.

After taking several photos, a flowery theme emerged, what struck me most were the texture and color combinations of some of the pieces. The other thing that struck me was how oblivious many of the people walking along the sidewalk were to the art displayed.

The next time you are in the area, look for it and if you are lucky it will still be there. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on the original intent of the bombers, some pieces are popular enough that people are taking them.

On Sunday afternoon when we took theses pictures I noticed some of the fastenings used for the art pooled at the bottom of a light pole. If it had been a city crew they would have removed the piece higher up as well. Enjoy.