Interview

Promoting Spanish heritage in the community

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After studying her genealogy Socorro Vigil has learnt that her ancestors came to New Mexico with Juan de Oñate in 1598 and with Diego de Vargas in 1692.

She remembers that her parents didn´t want to forget their cultural heritage so they taught their children the family traditions and the Spanish language.

Socorro was honoured with the Orden de la Reina Isabel la Católica because of her work as an Ambassador of the Spanish legacy in the USA. She also belongs to the women association, Sociedad Folklórica, a collective that promotes traditional dances to younger generations.

A chat at the hairdresser (in Spanish)

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Faustino lives in a small pueblo on the way to Las Vegas (NM) and he drives 41 miles every day to open his studio in Santa Fe. He is a unique character and at just 78 years young, he combines his two creative passions from his small studio located at the Santa Fe Village. Faustino has been cutting hair all his life and in Santa Fe is a well known hairdresser who uses the razor as his main tool. But twenty years ago, a conversation with an guy from New York who was having his hair cut, inspired Faustino to explore art. He is a self-taught artist who for over two decades has painted the traditional churches found all around New Mexico. In this interview (in Spanish) Faustino narrates some of the main events that influenced his life.  

 

Passion for the past

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Today it was my third day visiting Santa Fe. I walked around the plaza and I visited some of the Spanish descendants that I met in previous travels. I also had the opportunity to enjoy a beautifully prepared lunch with Alberto Gallegos, Honorary Consul of Spain in Santa Fe, and his wife, Annabel. Alberto is a great resource on the history of the area and on the ties of the community with Spain. He has studied the history of his family reaching back almost six hundred years to discover that his ancestors came from the Villa de Riaza in Segovia, Spain. In this interview he talks about his passion for researching his genealogy and his links to Spain.

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