In this post, we reveal how there are many ways to tell a story. In this instance, we share how a memory that is passed from generation to generation is taken up by the writer, who inspires the choreographer. Each telling building upon the last, developed to sustain the power of memory and history.
The Manitos Community Memory Project was recently launched with this ‘Digital Resolana’ serving as a way to generate an interest in the community toward developing a community archive. The blog also serves to document the process and progress of the overall project. In this thread, my own goal as the director of the project will be to use this space to journal short reflections about the project sharing my thoughts about the project, words, ideas, people and places. March 9,…
Today, on this highest of holy days to Catholics, I recall the deeply resonant sounds of the ancient spiritual hymns known as alabados. Recognizing the value and importance of recording these spiritual praises and other musical and religious traditions, folklorist and linguist Dr. Juan B. Rael returned home in the summer of 1940 and recorded the voices of fifteen men and four women from villages in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, including these deeply spiritual hymns. Listening to the alabados in moradas,…
New Mexicans with Colonial ancestry can be traced to the early settlers who traveled from the “old world”, as well as those of Native American and Mestizo roots. Origins of New Mexico Families by fray Angelico Chávez as well as In El Camino Real De Tierra Adentro – Five Waves of Settlersby J.A. Esquibel, C. Preston, and D. Preston outline these settlers and settlement timelines. Three of the five main waves of settlements during the Colonial period, the Juan de Oñate settlement…