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NUEVO MÉXICO PROFUNDO RITUALS OF AN INDO-HISPANO HOMELAND PHOTOGRAPHS BY MIGUEL GANDERT OCTOBER 21, 2000 - MAY 27, 2001 In the summer of 1598, a diverse group of Spanish-speaking families, soldiers, and priests ventured into the Pueblo Indian Provinces of the Upper Río Grande Valley, known even then as Nuevo México. They called themselves "Españoles Mexicanos," or Spanish Mexicans, and they came fully prepared to stay and establish farms, ranches, mines, and missions. Over the next four centuries, in spite of conflict and resistance, Spanish, Mexican, and Native American peoples and cultures blended with each other as the different groups shared material culture, agriculture, language, and spiritual traditions. The story of Indo-Hispano culture, in all its depth and complexity, is just beginning to be told. Nuevo México Profundo sets aside the quixotic quest to highlight "pure" Spanish or Native American cultures in favor of telling the story of the Indo-Hispano, a hybrid or mestizo. In Indian and Hispano communities from the San Luis Valley of Colorado in the north to Ciudad Juárez, México in the south, the people dramatize their cultural and spiritual history through rituals, performances, and pilgrimages. Miguel Gandert's camera bears witness to this pageant. Our Lady of Guadalupe - and the mestizo reality she represents - is the central figure and symbol of Indo-Hispano culture. The twin ritual traditions at which she is present across Nuevo México are the Matachines dance drama and the Comaches celebrations. In their representations of the Spanish conquest, and the coming of a new religion, the Matachines dances offer a colorful and mysterious feast of symbols, complete with Virgins and Kings, monsters and bulls. With both sacred and satirical elements, the elaborate choreography culminates in the sign of the Cross. Less known are the spirited Comanches celebrations where Pueblo Indians and Hispanos honor relations of peace and friendship between former enemies and visitors from the Great Plains. Included are an 18th century equestrian victory play, boisterous dances, and even a Nativity celebration in which the Comanches take the Holy Child captive. The oldest purely European folk play used for propaganda purposes in the conquest and still seen today in New Mexico is "Moros y Cristianos," the epic struggle between Christianity and Islam. In the four hundred years since the arrival of the Spanish Mexicans, the intercultural struggle for land, culture, and identity has yielded compelling stories - stories set in a sacred landscape crisscrossed with procession and pilgrimage, and permeated with history and myth. MIGUEL GANDERT Miguel Gandert has been photographing the social rituals, people, and landscapes of his native New Mexico for twenty years. His photographs have been exhibited widely in museums and galleries throughout the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American Art and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. He is an associate professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of New Mexico. EXHIBITION CATALOGUE A catalogue with foreword by Helen R. Lucero and essays by Ramón A. Gutiérrez, Enrique R. Lamadrid, Lucy R. Lippard, and Chris Wilson is available from the Museum of New Mexico Press, P.O. Box 2087, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504. CLOTHBOUND: $50.00 PAPERBOUND: $29.95 NATIONAL HISPANIC CULTURAL CENTER OF NEW MEXICO 1701 4th STREET SW ALBUQUERQUE NEW MEXICO 87102 505.246.2261
