MCMP Spotlight
Click the title above to read about one of our community archivists Dana Maestas!
WW I Recruits ~ Taos County
During the years immediately following World War I, Lansing Bloom was hired at the Museum of New Mexico charged with directing the Museum’s War History Service. In this capacity, he was responsible for compiling the biographical records and information about New Mexico’s 16,000 World War I veterans. Toward this end, Bloom conducted a survey of surviving WWI veterans of NM. Approximately seventy-percent of the surveys were returned and are housed today at the New Mexico State Archives in Santa Fe,…
Community Cuentistas – Mapping the Storytellers in Juan B. Rael’s ‘Cuentos Españoles de Colorado y Nuevo Mexico’
One of the core lessons I learned from my grandmother was that the best storytellers are those that have mastered the ability to lean in and to listen. In this, I think of the work of now renowned linguist and folklorist, Juan Bautista Rael. As a native son of the region, he had no doubt been raised on stories, however, in the summer of 1930, he returned home, freshly minted with a Master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley….
Yearbooks- Reflections of a Community’s Youth
There is something deeply intimate about yearbooks. Filled with professions of eternal love and friendship, inside jokes and the youthful signatures of our classmates, each copy is an intense snapshot of a very particular time and and a very particular place. But, what each year’s edition has in common, beneath the personalized messages from ones friends and classmates, is a record of community.
‘Dando Los Dias’ – Greeting the New Year with Poetry and Song
In the spirt of a history that forms an arc from ancient troubadours to modern day slam poets, in my own natal villages of Amalia, Costilla, Cerro and Questa, one of the most beautiful traditions is that of ‘Dando Los Dias,’ which I translate to ‘gifting the blessing upon the day — the day of days.’ In this tradition, musicians and poets travel from home to hom serenading families. They begin striking up the music at the thresholds of each…