Viewing page 33 of 39
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
Genealogy center rooted in history | H [[left margin]] MIGUEL GANDERT [[image]][[[/image]] El Comanche David, Talpa, N.M. 1996. MIGUEL GANDERT [[image]][[/image]] Devoción de Mano Lupe, Tomé, N.M. 1989. MIGUEL GANDERT [[image]][[/image]] Alegría de los Matachines, Picurís, N.M. 1996. [[/left margin]] In 1846, Americans officially occupied this geographic area and found more than 100,000 official documents accumulated since the first two and a half centuries of Spanish and Mexican residence. Native New Mexicans love to track relationship, whether documented in official papers or in story. Who is whose cousin is a worthy question. Carlos Vásquez, director of the Research and Literary Arts Program at the National Hispanic Cultural Center of New Mexico has found that the desire to carry culture through time does not fade away. "I have been doing workshops for two years up and down the state, and no matter how much we try to keep it quiet, they fill up within a day or two. There's an incredible pent-up demand for genealogy and family history training out in New Mexico in all the different parts of the state." Rather than just focusing on the creation of genealogy charts, Vásquez hopes to invite context and meaning into the information that is discovered. "The objective, the idea, behind this is people want to do their family history. People want to do their genealogy/ Why not invest a little time and a few resources and bring the information up to the standards of a library. There are hundred, if not thousands, of family histories that we can accumulate here over the years—sort of the little brick of which we can view the whole mosaic," Vásquez says. To this end, the center has developed programs to encourage participatory research in areas of genealogy, family and community history, ethnology, oral history, folklore, music and other performing and visual arts. One component, in the Scholar-in-Residence programs, has engaged Dr. Lucy Vigil of Mora in translation, transcription and linguistic annotation of alabados (hymns) of the Penitente brotherhood. Her work brings to light the social, moral and ethical roles of their rituals as well as archaic and localized uses of Spanish. "One of the hallmarks of our genealogy center is going to be to promote the best history in the best historical context possible: not only to dig up names, dates of baptisms, deaths and marriages of your family; but who were these people? What time did they live? What place did they live? What was going on?" Some issues are specific to New Mexican patrimony: extensive migration patterns, the presence of Spanish and/or indigenous ancestry, as well as the probable inclusion of ilegítimos, captivos and conversos (hidden Jews) in the record. Vásquez plans to "use every bit of the latest technology to make that information available. Our collections are not going to rival the Mormon Church. But what's going to be different is anybody can come and access what we have. We have some very rare and some very unique stuff. And we are digitizing it on our internal web." The center's holdings include, or are in negotiation for, state, church and military records, more than 2,000 reels of microfilm dealing with New Mexico history, private papers and serials, censorial records of Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, land-grant records and microfilms of Juárez and Chihuahua ayuntamientos (municipal governments), especially Hidalgo de Parral, which was the point of departure for migration of many north New Mexican populations). One recent acquisition is the rare 88-volume Enciclopedia heráldica y geneológica hispano-americana by the García Carrafa brothers and its final 15-volume Diccionario hispano-americano de heraldia omnástica y geneológica de apellidos españoles y americanos. The center will also design extensive databases holding material on CD-ROMs, including the records of Central and South America, as well as Cuba, Puerto Rica and other national origins. —Micaela Seidel 30 NEW MEXICO/JANUARY 2001
