There is not a day that goes by that I don’t acknowledge the contributions of women, including in shaping who I am as a man to this day. Indeed, When I think of the power of the human spirit, realized especially through the deepest love that one person can hold for another, I think of mamá, my grandmother, one of the two women who raised me up in beauty and vision. Yet, as we close this month, where we pause…
Recent articles in NPQ, Nonprofit Quarterly, have profiled the ways in which urban libraries across the nation support both learning and the economy. In addition, they are expanding their roles not just as places to borrow books but also as community hubs that make a difference—with everything from makerspaces and gardens to seed exchanges and lending programs for musical instruments and tools. Libraries serve as sanctuaries, open to their communities during times of civic unrest, on the front lines of…
One of the most famous and most sought after photographs in American fine-art photography is called “Moonrise, Hernandez, NM” shot by Ansel Adams in 1941. I first encountered this photograph as capital “A” art in my university art history course. I was taught to appreciate this photo from an objective perspective, to memorize all manners of facts about its medium and technique. It is silver gelatin print that stands the testament of time for many reasons, but particularly in terms…
In the Facebook groups where manitas and manitos meet, digital communities centered around identification with the manitas and manitos homeland of Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado, group members have become quite adept at using the power of online crowdsourcing to create meaningful accretions of collective knowledge and memory.
Whether tucked away in a shoe box, lovingly placed into a photo album or nestled comfortably into the same frames for a century or more, the photos that link to us to the stories of our heritage are fragile artifacts that require careful attention, even as we steward them into the digital age.
My interest about my family history began as a young child during our annual visits to my grandfather Jose Tiburcio Argüello and Antonia (Tonita) Cordova Argüello’s farm in Llano de San Juan Nepomuceno, now known as Llano, New Mexico. During our visits to my grand-parents farm my grandfather always reminded me of how our ancestors were the ones who settled all the villages in the surrounding area many years ago. In 1946 after my father Clarence Argüello completed his military…
The Manitos Community Memory Project recognizes the important role of libraries in achieving cultural equity for rural communities in New Mexico. Often they are the only places in the community that provide Internet access and space for public gatherings. In addition to their traditional roles, they offer GED programs, after school programs, and programs to promote STEM learning and early childhood development. Libraries in Abiquiu, Dixon, and Questa are among our community-based partners for the Manitos Project. The concept of…