As a small child about 7 years old I remember my grandmother Martha inheriting a beautiful old photo album shortly after the passing of her father Abe. I remember my grandmother bringing the album home, setting it on the table, dimming the kitchen light and stressing that we had to look through it quickly to preserve the photos. I remember asking my grandmother who the people in the photos were and her response, “old people,” followed by a chuckle, “they…
In the fall of 2020, Questa Creative Council board members invited Costilla native son and accomplished musician, Chris Arellano to create and lead a project exploring musical traditions in Northern NM and Southern CO. The project was spurred on by community members’ desire for more cultural sharing, honoring, celebrating, preserving and perpetuating of beloved local religious and secular music traditions. The project began with this question: How has musical expression in its many forms shaped the culture and people of…
Hello my name is Gabriel Meléndez and I am the author of the Book of Archives and Other Stories from the Mora Valley published in 2017 by the University of Oklahoma Press. It is my pleasure to read an excerpt from the book for the Manitos Community Memory Project and to post both the recording and these selections in English and Spanish that come from the last story in the book called “The Ante, Six Bets on the Infinte/El Alce,…