Lucille celebrates proudly her heritage and the traditions of her Spanish and Native American ancestors. Three years after moving to Santa Fe, Lucille started to visit the local archives to learn more about her genealogy. In this video she tells us about her exciting journey to the past and about how she met her husband whilst researching at the archives.
Santa Fe
Promoting Spanish heritage in the community
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)
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.
In downtown Santa Fe
Photo by Matt Wright- After meeting with Faustino Herrera de Vargas, a local artist who has painted over 700 churches around New Mexico, I felt compelled to visit the Cathedral downtown.
- Located near the plaza, Saint Francis of Assisi is one of Santa Fe´s key landmarks. Santa Fe is considered the oldest state capital in the USA as it was founded in 1610, the same year its first church was built. The original adobe church was replaced years later by a newer construction that was damaged during the Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1680. It wasn’t until few years later when the spaniards had already returned to New Mexico that the new church was rebuilt.
- The small adobe chapel dedicated to La Conquistadora, the statue that arrived to the new world in 1625 with the first settlers, still remains within the Cathedral. La Conquistadora is considered to be the best dressed woman of Santa Fe as she has more than 200 outfits that have been made by volunteers as a sign of devotion.
Passion for the past
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.
Colcha Embroidery Class
It was great to have the chance to meet with Julia Gómez at the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art and get to know more about the Colcha stitch.
Santa Fe arrival
After a long flight from London and a brief detour through Denver where I was presenting at Imersa, I have finally arrived to Santa Fe. I hope that after a couple of days preparing the logistics of the trip I will have time to post more often. I just collected the RV that I will be using to travel across the Southwest. I will name it Orwell, because he first hit the road in 1984! Although he is not perfectly in shape I have no doubt he is going to be a great colleague in this adventure.