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New Mexico |
Taos Pueblo
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Taos Pueblo. The domed structures in the foreground are baking ovens. New Mexico is the land of the Pueblo Indians, the atomic research centers at Los Alamos and Albuquerque, and the Ranchos of the Spaniards who arrived via Mexico in the late 17th century. An interesting and not always smooth mix of the prehistoric and the ultra-modern: The taxi drivers and minor clerks at Los Alamos are all Indians. On the way from Santa Fe to Los Alamos you drive through San Ildefonso Pueblo where Maria produces her famous and very highly priced black pottery — without a wheel and over an open fire! Next door, in Jacona live sevaral of my Los Alamos physicist friends and Robert Sze, a highly regarded poet of Chinese descent, and across the Santa Fe Highway lies the Spanish Rancho de Chimayo with its Santuario where pilgrims dig red, supposedly healing soil from a small hole — which according to local rumors is regularily refilled by the clever priest.... The newest additon to this scene are gambling casinos along the highway, owned by Indians who do not pay taxes....
The Pueblo Indians have been sendentary since before the Spaniards arrived. They live in numerous villages of several-stories high adobe houses, which they climb on ladders and enter through the roofs.... Next to the pre-Columbian Acoma (on Interstate 40 west of Albuquerque) Taos Pueblo is the best-known of these villages — and one of the few accessible to tourists — for a stiff price.... The Indians don't like to be photographed (in Taos you pay for taking pictures) — and be forewarned, they will throw stones or worse at outsiders who try to photograph their villages.
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A corner in Taos Pueblo.
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As a modern concession many houses now have doors....
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All adults in the Pueblo were hiding in the houses during opening times except for this bunch of youngsters, who had their fun with the bearded gringo. After I had taken this picture a woman appeared and ordered them inside....
Rancho de Taos
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The Spanish settlements, invariably bitterly impoverished today, are called Ranchos. They go back to Royal Spanish Land Grants from the time of the Conquistadores. Taos Rancho has collapsed in the last 10 years except for its famous church (these pictures were taken in December 2001).
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The adobe structure of the church is the delight of every photographer, a prime example of "architecture without architects."
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Santa Fe, one of the Oldest Towns of North America
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Fashionable, but beautiful Santa Fe has, since D. H. Lawrence and Georgia O'Keefe become the quaint abode of exlusive artists and intellectuals, and the distinguished super-rich who try to be inconspicuous, dressed in handwoven materials, big hats and lariat strings instead of ties... One of the most innovative opera companies in the US makes its home here. See the extraordinary pottery shop of Andrea Fisher on San Francisco Street, an old friend of ours, who lives in a pre-Columbian house in Jacona (don't worry, you cannot pay for any of her pots!).... But before all of this, Santa Fe was one of the oldest towns, and this is the oldest church in North America.
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The interior.
Rugs for Sale, Mádrid, New Mexico
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Less exclusive are some of the delapidated towns around Santa Fe. This place in Mádrid, NM caught our eye because of the display of Tibetan prayer flags and rugs — in New Mexico?! It is owned by a giant, blond, blue-eyed Finn and his two young daughters. He sells a fabulous selection of Tibetan and Oachacan Mexican-Indian rugs at very reasonable prices. At Christmas 2001 we bought the rug in our living room from him. He is worth a detour!
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A prayer flag from Eastern Tibet.
The Santuario de Chimayo
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The pilgrims' church El Santuario de Chimayo. The Spanish village Rancho de Chimayo lies a few miles from Espanola northeast of the Los Alamos turn-off on Route 68 from Santa Fe to Taos. The enlightened descendent of the Spanish Huedalgo to whom the Rancho was deeded still lives there and runs a highly recommended restaurant, and a small old-fashioned, plush hotel in his forefather's ranch house. We stayed there on Christmas Eve 2001. — The church is a place from a world unimagined to exist in North America.... By the way, do drive up to Los Alamos, its location is exceptional and its small museum an eye-opener for German physicists. — Many of the protagonists were trained in and emigrated from Göttingen....
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The interior. The famous hole in the ground is in a small room to the left of the altar where you also find...
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... Little Jesus usually decorated by the faithful with dollar bills....
The Cemetery at Las Truchas
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The cemetery at Las Truchas at sunset. Further afield from Chimayo, east along route 76 lie a string of Spanish villages, which except for their existance hold little interest. Except that a celebrated photograph of the cemetery of Las Truchas (The Trouts) by Ansel Adams has persued me for decades. In December 2001 returning along this beautiful back-road from Taos we arrived at the same time of the day as Ansel Adams. I had to stop and try to catch the view. This is how these touching pictures came about.
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The graves of two motorcyclists....
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and that of a child (it says Happy Birthday on the cross).
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Some time later I came upon Ansel Adams' "Moon Rise" again and find that, besides that there was no moon, there may be another cemetery nearby....
