rutas del corazón: pilgrimage and cultural commerce on
TRANSCRIPT
New Mexico Historical Review New Mexico Historical Review
Volume 83 Number 4 Article 2
10-1-2008
Rutas del Corazón: Pilgrimage and Cultural Commerce on the Rutas del Corazón: Pilgrimage and Cultural Commerce on the
Camino Real de Tierra Adentro Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
Enrique R. Lamadrid
Miguel Gandert
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr
Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Lamadrid, Enrique R. and Miguel Gandert. "Rutas del Corazón: Pilgrimage and Cultural Commerce on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro." New Mexico Historical Review 83, 4 (2008). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr/vol83/iss4/2
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in New Mexico Historical Review by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected].
Rutas del CorazonPILGRIMAGE AND CULTURAL COMMERCE
ON THE CAMINO REAL DE TIERRA ADENTR0 1
Enrique R. Lamadrid
Photographs by Miguel Gandert
For over four centuries, the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (Royal Road
of the Interior) served as the passageway for people, politics, and trade,
linking New Mexico with Mexico and the rest of the world.zAs the oldest
continually used historical route in North America, much of the initial re
search on the Camino Real has concentrated on military history, commerce,
technology, missions, and genealogy.3 On this foundation, the more elusive
contours of cultural history can be traced through the intangible heritage of
the Camino Real. 4
During the early colonial period, the Spanish established missionary
projects to convert the local Natives as New Spain expanded into the
northlands. This legacy of intercultural spirituality still inspires the peoples
of a vast region now crossed by an international boundary. The lure of pil
grimage, self-discovery, and renewal leads the people of Mexico and New
Mexico back along the geographical and cultural corridors that join their
destiny with their history. No need to cross the ocean to find the spirit of
Enrique R. Lamadrid's research on the contexts and corridors of traditional Nuevomexicano
culture has led him up and down the Camino Real and into its watersheds. He led the design
team and was co-curator of the permanent exhibit at the International Camino Real Heritage
Center south of Socorro, New Mexico. At the University of New Mexico, he teaches folklore,
literature, and cultural history and directs the Chicano/Hispano/Mexicano Studies program.
His research on cultural hybridity culminated in his acclaimed book Hennanitos Comanchitos: 423lndo-Hispano Rituals ofCaptivity and Redemption (University of New Mexico Press, 2003)·
424 ~ NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW VOLUME 83, NUMBER 4
Nuevo Mexico. Its cultural roots are still alive and well on the Camino Real
between Santa Fe, Zacatecas, and points south into Mexico.
Culture is so closely linked to identity that we must broaden the focus for
a moment. Nuevomexicano students often ask ifwe are Spanish or Mexican.
Instead of sharing personal perceptions, I direct them to the foundational
documents of the second of New Mexico's three villas. A more comprehen
sive sense of the collective first person emerges from the proclamation of
Gov. Diego de Vargas on 19 April 1695, establishing the Villa Nueva de SantaCruz de Espanoles Mexicanos del Rey Senor Carlos Segundo (New Villa of
the Holy Cross ofSpanish Mexicans of the King Lord Carlos the Second).5 In
this document, students discover that the intertwined roots of regional iden
tity emerge and encompass both hispanidad and mexicanidad.In this cultural landscape, folk religion, ritual, dance, and music are key
components that link north and south, past and future in one of the greatest
intercultural legacies of humanity in North America. Catholic saints' devo
tions such as Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, Santo Nino de Atocha, San
Antonio, San Lorenzo, and el Senor de Mapimi are central, as well as the
confraternities that tend them, most important the brotherhood of Nuestro
Padre Jeslis Nazareno (also known as the Penitentes).6 Ritualized folk dra
mas include the Matachines (the dance of the conquest) and the plays of
the Morisma (Christians and Moors) and Pastorela (Christmas shepherds).7
Both religious and secular folk traditions served to transmit cultural values
and knowledge and satisfy the need for creative expression.
In the last decades before the United States invasion of northern Mexico
in 1846, formal education and the democratic ideals and liberal values of la
Ilustraci6n (the Enlightenment) permeated the major cultural current flow
ing northward from central Mexico. Between 1750 and 1850, dozens of
N uevomexicanos from prominent and liberal families were educated in the
Colegio Seminario de Durango, originally founded by the Jesuits, in the
fields of science, metallurgy, government, humanities, letters, and theol
ogy. They returned as leaders, engineers, educators, and clergy, and changed
New Mexico.s To see one of our hijos ilustres (eminent sons), Padre Anto
nio Jose Martinez, honored with a bronze statue with book and pen in hand,
on the Plaza of Taos is heartening.9 But the illustrious influence of the En
lightenment is a subject for another article. The focus of this inquiry is on
the popular traditions and first traveling devotions of the Camino Real, which
serve as the clearest window into the emerging mestizo soul of Nuevo Mexico
and the interconnection of its cultures.
FALL 2008 LAMADRID ~ 425
Pilgrimage remains the most dynamic and unifying link of the intan
gible cultural traditions of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. Broadly
defined as the travel of the spirit, pilgrimage can also include heritage tour
ism, the journeys of rediscovery of peoples separated by borders and other
political obstacles. According to cultural anthropologist Victor Turner, the
power of pilgrimage lies in its structural resemblance to rites of passage in
MAP OF THE CAMINO REAL DE TIERRA ADENTRO
(Map from The Royal Road: EI Camino Real from Mexico City to
Santa Fe [1998J. Map courtesy University of New Mexico Press)
426 ~ NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW VOLUME 83, NUMBER 4
which the initiate departs the everyday world and passes physically and spiri
tually through an intense liminal or threshold state into communitas, a new
stage of life and communal consciousness. 1O
Before the European incursion into Mesoamerica, pilgrimage was al
ready part of the cultural landscape. The migration of tribes from north to
south was remembered and re-enacted in ritual. Holy routes to mountaintops,
oceans, salt deposits, and water sources both celestial and terrestrial became
part of indigenous religion." According to European Christian beliefs, un
like rites of passage imbedded in the sacraments, pilgrimage was not inevi
table or obligatory, but rather volitional. The peregrino (pilgrim) chose to
hit the road and to explore the metaphorical realm of homo viator, the spiri
tual traveler on the road of life. The reward remained communitas, a new
and enhanced sense of life and shared purpose.
The first Spanish Mexicans to venture north to found new communities
in the farthest reaches of Nueva Espana faced formidable barriers. Their
passage was so dangerous that divine favor and grace seemed as necessary
and important as good planning and proper provisions. The motivations for
travel under such difficult circumstances were by definition profound and
compelling. When explorer Gaspar Perez de Villagra composed his poetic
tribute to the settlement of Nuevo Mexico a mere decade after the entrada
of 1598, he chose the heroic endecasyllabic verse of Renaissance epic po
etry. In stirring hyperbole, Villagra sang of emerging dynasties and a shin
ing new city on the banks of el Rio del Norte founded by the noble sons of
Zacatecas. Legitimacy to possess the land was based on the illustrious Indo
Hispano genealogy of don Juan de Onate's son Cristobal. Through his
mother, dona Isabel, the scion of don Juan was also a direct descendent of
Hernan Cortez and los Reyes mexicanos (the Aztec nobility). In full-blown
literary and historical allusion, Villagra linked the remote events of the up
per Rio Grande (referred to as the Rio Bravo del Norte in Mexico) to the
founding of Rome, the most famous empire of yore, as established on the
banks of the Tiber River in the verses of Virgil's Aeneid. ll To the greater
glory of the Onate expedition's families, Villagra likened them to their Ro
man and Greek forebears who survived their own ordeals to cross their great
river into the "Elysian Fields."'3 Historian fray Angelico Chavez noted the
biblical dimensions that underlie Villagra's references to classical antiquity.
As people of God, the first Nuevomexicanos crossed a forbidding Sinai to
the cool meadows and cottonwood groves of their River Jordan into their
Promised Land. '4
FALL 2008 LAMADRID ~ 427
But the epic sensibility also had a more recent inspiration in la
Reconquista (the reconquest of Spain), which was the only Holy Crusade in
which Spanish soldiers of the cross did not have to travel to foreign lands to
fight. Morisma or "Moorish" celebrations are ritual reminders ofthis struggle;
the mock battles and reconquest dramas are still celebrated on special occa
sions and feast days in Mexico and New Mexico. In the spring and summer
of 1598, "Juegos de Moros y Cristianos" (the plays of the Moors and Chris
tians) commemorated two key moments during the Spanish entrada into
New Mexico: the "First Thanksgiving" on 30 April after first crossing into
New Mexico and the feast day of Saint John the Baptist later in the summer
at Ohkey Owingeh,. San Juan Pueblo. 15 In a similar vein, "The Moors and
Christians" was performed in modern. day Alcalde, New Mexico, just north
ofOhkey Owingeh through the 1950S, and in nearby Chimayo, New Mexico,
through the 199os.16
Back in 1598, the epic struggle between Islam and Christianity was still
fresh in the popular imagination. Reveling in the triumphs of the past helped
with facing the threats of the present. As horses galloped back and forth and
harquebuses and cannons were fired, Pueblo Indians watched the spectacles
in fear and amazement. The modern Chimayo play shares motifs and epi
sodes with other Morismas in Spain and the Americas: the Moors deceive
the Christians, steal their cross, and hold it for ransom. After the battle with
"ochenta mil soldados" (eighty thousand soldiers), as the script claims, the
cross was recapturedY This claim may sound like fanciful exaggeration on
the lips of the two dozen mounted actors in the New Mexico play, but a
visitor to the Morisma de Bracho in Zacatecas for the Feast of the Martyr
dom of Saint John the Baptist celebrated annually on 29 August might see
legions approaching those outrageous numbers. In the summer of 2006,
fifteen thousand participants took to the field in Zacatecas. 18
Morisma texts have survived in various forms in villages, towns, and cit
ies between New Mexico and Zacatecas. The New Mexico play may last
fifty minutes, complete with battles on horseback. With a labyrinthine plot
that conflates eight centuries of Christian-Islamic relations, the Zacatecas
play lasts for three days. In New Mexico, after the battle and the recapture·
of the cross, the Moorish prisoners are freed by the merciful Christian king
Alfonso. In the last scene, the Gran Sultan begs to become a Christian.
Over the last eight centuries, this drama commemorates Christendom's ut
most fantasy, and the sultan has had many names, including Suleiman,
Abul Hassan, Argel de Ozman, Boabdil, Alf Pasha, Osama, and Sadaam.
ATAQUE DE LOS TURCOS
The Turks advance on the Christians during the Morisma de Bracho in Zacatecas, 2006.
(Photograph Miguel Gandert)
FALL 2008
SULTAN:
Cristiano, ya tu valorMe tiene a tus pies postrado.
Te pido por westra CruzY por tu Dios veneradoQue me des la libertadQue estoy desengafiado
Que s610 tu Dios es grandeYMahoma todo engafio.
LAMADRID 7429
[Christian, your valor has me
Prostrate at your feet.
I beg you by your Cross
And by your venerated God
That you give me liberty
Because I see the light
Only your God is great
And Mohammed is alllies.Jl9
'-:
The mercy bestowed by the Spaniards upon their repentant foes did not go
unnoticed by Native American observers in New Mexico.20 Peace, inclu
sion, and brotherhood were the rewards of conversion. By implication those
who did not submit to the True Cross could expect the flash and fury of
Spanish cannons, steel, and horses. After the Chichimeca wars of the six
teenth century, there were few local Natives to impress in Zacatecas, there
fore the current Morisma is performed entirely by and for mestizos.
Numerous scenes of conversion, baptism, and revenge lead into pitched
battles. Since 2003 the obvious parallels with the U.S. occupation of Iraq
add another level of irony for viewers and participants. The most grisly and
violent scene is the conversion and execution of King Argel de Ozman after
his defeat by the Christian knight don Armando de Guzman at the climax
of the play on day three. Moments after the waters of baptism splash his
brow, he is decapitated and his head is paraded in triumph across the battle
field, the final event of a three-day frenzy of folk plays and pitched battles.2!
But enough of historical fantasy; the realities and disappointments oflife
on the northern frontier in the sixteenth century were more sobering than
the pageant presented. The moors were a world away. Closer. at hand were
the real threats of warfare and the specter of privation. In this grim context,
the inventories of family possessions are a poignant reminder of hope and
hopelessness. In the trunk of one proud family was a selection of lace, em
broidered silk dresses, and twenty-one pairs of Cordovan leather slippers to
dance on the rough caliche plaza of San Gabriel Yungue Owingeh.22 As the
search for new bonanzas ofsilver proved fruitless, the threat of Native rebel
lions loomed.
In the early years, colonial authorities restricted travel and commerce.
Only the permission of an alcalde gave license to travel within the prov
ince. To venture beyond required the approval of the gobernador. In a closely
430 ~ NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW VOLUME 83, NUMBER 4
guarded world, pilgrimage was localized and increasingly polycentric. Holy
journeys only ventured as far as the local calvaria (calvary), a hill or high
spot near each settlement, where the crucifixion of Jesus was recalled in
prayer and celebration. In a syncretic embrace, many calvarias were super
imposed on already ancient sacred sites, as the contiguous petroglyphs and
ruins attest.23
The journey to the holy places of the life and death of Christ were and
are revisited ritually in las Estaciones (the Stations of the Cross), which are
especially powerful when staged outdoors in the streets of a village leading
uphill to a calvaria. Local pilgrimage is a complex surrogate for the journey
to the source and holy lands of la Santa Fe (the holy faith). The procession
is a simulated pilgrimage that resanctifies spaces, boundaries, fields, water
sources, and other sacred sites located just beyond the domestic sphere of
families and households. 24
The sense of New Mexico as a tierra sagrada (sanctified land) is a sign of
a new mestizo heritage forged after the great Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Within
a few generations, the settlers were spiritually possessed by the land. As they
became Nuevomexicanos and indigenous to the place, their Campo Santo(the Sacred Ground) boundaries extended past the narrow churchyard and
the bones of the dead toward valleys, plains, and mountains beyond.25 Cen
tral to this sacred landscape are the Native and mestizo peoples who have
survived the rigors of the northern desert and the historic encounter of Im
perial Spain and the Pueblo world. Like their ancestors from Taos to El
Paso del Norte, Zacatecas and beyond, the people of the northlands dance
in unison to the insistent but gentle music of drums and rattles, guitars and
violins. Matachines dancers are found in Indian Pueblos and Hispano vil
lages alike. The fluttering ribbons that hang from their crowns and shoul
ders are the colors of the rainbow. In proud formation they do battle against
chaos and reenact the terms of their own capitulation to a new spirituality.
A bull runs wild through their lines like the Minotaur through his laby
rinth. With rain gourds in one hand and three-pronged lightning swords in
the other, the dancers carve the wind in symmetrical arabesques.
Christian souls or Aztec spirits? They dance in graceful reconciliation,
now in lines, now in crosses. In their midst a great king receives the counsel
of a little girl. She is Malinche. In the south her name is synonymous with
betrayal, but she is no traitor in New Mexico.26 Stumbling along the edges
of the fray, the grotesque abuelos guard the dancers, make fun of the people,
and ridicule the New World order. These old men of the mountains taunt
FALL 2008 LAMADRID 4431
ABUELOS VIVOS, TaROS MUERTOS
The bulls are castrated during the Matachines dance in Alcalde, New
Mexico, 1999.(Photograph Miguel Candert)
and overpower the toro (bull). They kill and castrate him. They cast his seed
to the joyful crowd. Have they vanquished evil as the people say or has the
savage bull of European empire met its consummation? Gracias a Dios it is
a mystery, we all agree.
Legend says that long ago Moctezuma himself flew north in the form of
a bird bearing bad news and good adviceY He warned that bearded foreign
ers were on their way north, but if the people mastered this dance, the strang
ers would learn to respect them, join in, and come to be just like them. This
lore is of course a poetic description of the Matachines dance and how it
came to be shared between the cultures of New Mexico.28 Ritual dance
drama cannot be explained, only evoked.29
The yearly revival of the Fiesta de Santa Fe commemorates the
Reconquista (1692) -the return of the Espanoles Mexicanos to New
Mexico -and the Matachines dance is the truest celebration of their atone
ment and reconciliation with their Pueblo neighbors. 30 The link between
the triumph of the Reconquista of Spain in 1492 and the Reconquista of
Nuevo Mexico in 1692 was resonant in the minds of Governor Vargas and
432 ~ NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW VOLUME 83, NUMBER 4
his people. The final battle for Granada, Andalucia, was directed from the
encampment christened Santa Fe north of the Moorish city. In this light, the
fight for Santa Fe, Nuevo Mexico, two centuries later was doubly poignant.
Ask the people of Bernalillo, New Mexico, about Governor Vargas. He
died there in 1704, when he fell ill during a campaign against the Apaches
in the Sandia Mountains. According to tradition and historical memory in
Bernalillo, Vargas made a promesa (holy vow) to San Lorenzo when he
returned to New Mexico, for the Pueblo Revolt had erupted on the feast day
of San Lorenzo on 10 August 1680. According to this legend, he credited the
saint with delivering the people of New Mexico from destruction, allowing
them to escape to EI Paso del Norte, and enabling their return. The promesa
was to remember forever their deliverance through ritual dance and fiestas.
The people of Bernalillo have kept his promise and challenge the Fiesta de
Santa Fe by hosting the other "oldest continuous community celebration of
the state."l!
Ask the people of EI Paso del Norte, now Ciudad Juarez, about San
Lorenzo and the Pueblo Revolt. When their ancestors, the refugees from
New Mexico, settled just a few miles southeast of the old Guadalupe mis
sion, they named the new town San Lorenzo. Now it is a neighborhood
and parish in the great border city. For their feast day, like the people of
Bernalillo, they dance the Matachines, but in the southern style to drums
and violins in brilliant red attire with embroidered reed aprons. They dance
in lively but solemn procession, in faith and in remembrance. l2 There are
many more links to a common heritage up and down the Camino Real de
Tierra Adentro.
With the advent of more peaceful relations with the Pueblo nations,
increasing travel and trade cast the network of local pilgrimage wider. An
thropologist Turner notes that the patterns of commerce and mercantilism
that developed into capitalism owe just as much to the Catholic obligation
of holy pilgrimage as to the Protestant work ethic.ll The great trade fairs of
northern New Spain, such as San Juan del Rio, were synchronized with Catho
lic pilgrimage and feast days. In New Mexico, trade fairs were sanctioned by
the Paz de Dios (God's Truce), which created a framework ofpeace in which
enemies could conduct their commerce. By the end of the eighteenth cen
tury, Nuevo Mexico began to prosper.l4 The Bourbon Reforms brought ad
ditional military protection, subsidies from the crown, diplomacy, and peace
with the Comanches to the Provincias Intemas, which included Nuevo
Mexico and Nueva Vizcaya. Production and trade diversified to include
DANZA DE LA PLUMA
The pilgrims dance for San Lorenzo in front of Iglesia de San Lorenzo in Ciudad Juarez,
Chihuahua, 2008.
(Photograph Miguel Gandert)
434? NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW VOLUME 83, NUMBER 4
manufactured products like the beautiful banded RIo Grande style sarapes,
which were used as blankets and rugs.
Born in 1771 during these prosperous times, Bernardo Abeyta was an
enterprising individual from the emerging weaving center of Chimayo, New
Mexico. His knowledge of the intangible heritage of the Camino Real de
Tierra Adentro reached far beyond Nuevo Mexico. Whether he or some
one close to him traded or traveled south on the Camino is not specifically
documented, but through him, two new religious traditions came north.
First, in 1813 he petitioned to build a new Santuario (Sanctuary) on top of
an ancient Tewa sacred spring in the Potrero area of Chimayo to be dedi
cated to the miraculous Senor de Esquipulas. The veneration of Senor de
Esquipulas originated with the Chorotega Mayans in Guatemala where a
miraculous Christ hung crucified on a green Tree of Life sprouting from
holy earth, which pilgrims collect, anoint, and ingest to sooth their ills. 35
After Abeyta's death in 1856, a nearby chapel was dedicated to another santo
of the Camino Real, Santo Nino de Atocha. This devotion to the child
Jesus dressed as a pilgrim on the road to his twin brother's shrine at Santiago
de Compostela proliferated in Chimayo. In subsequent decades, except for
the collateral benefit of the holy earth that could be obtained at the same
site, the devotion to Esquipulas was eclipsed by Santo Nino who became
the unofficial patron saint of Chimayo, and therefore, New Mexico. As a
pilgrim, Santo Nino is free to wander far beyond the confines of the altar to
help people in the places where they need him. He is remembered as a
protector of travelers and rescuer of captives. By the end of the century,
Chimayo began attracting a large variety of pilgrims, both Christian and
secular, and grew into the largest and most important pilgrimage destina
tion in twentieth- and twenty-first-century North America.36
This legacy of intercultural spirituality still inspires people from the vast
regions of El Norte, which is currently divided by the U.S.-Mexico border.
American claims for Manifest Destiny imposed the international boundary
upon the region in the nineteenth century. Now, in the twenty-first century,
a globalized economy dictates that many people adopt transnational strate
gies for survival, but people displaced by migration never forget their roots
and places of origin. Just as commerce and pilgrimage interconnect on the
Camino Real, the phenomenon of heritage tourism, which entices people
to travel in search of themselves, has become another element drawing people
along the Royal Road. By the 1990S, more than half of the people born in
Zacatecas lived in the United States. They are anxious to teach their chil-
FALL 2008 LAMADRID ?435
LA CAMINANTE QUIERE CAMINAR
The pilgrims offer their prayers in the Santuario de Chimayo in
Potrero,.New Mexico, 2000.
(Photograph Miguel Gandert)
dren about their homeland in Mexico and their historical connections to
America. Another International Camino Real Heritage Center has been
proposed in Zacatecas, as well as in Chihuahua, following the lead of New
Mexico.3?
The family history of one of my students at the University of New Mexico
is a case in point. After losing their ranch and land near Chalchihuites,
Zacatecas, to drought and poverty, parents, brothers, and sisters of the
Banuelos family gravitated first to cities in Mexico and then traveled across
the border to EI Paso, Texas, then California, and finally settled in Albu
querque, New Mexico, to secure sustenance and stability. One by on~, over
fifteen years, each attained residency status in the United States. After years
of daily prayers, their mother's dream was fulfilled and their promise to
Santo Nino de Atocha could be repaid with a visita (holy visitation). The
mother had vowed to return a treasured picture of the Holy Child to the
altar where it was originally blessed at Plateros, Zacatecas.38
Parents, children, cousins, and grandchildren piled into a second-hand
recreational vehicle and made the pilgrimage south. Adventures on the road
436 -+ NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW VOLUME 83, NUMBER 4
included mechanical breakdowns and near disasters, but the manda (holy
vow) was completed. The holy picture and a five-page handwritten note of
thanks were left with tens of thousands of other ex-votos (offerings of thanks,
including texts, photos, locks of hair, etc.) on the walls of the convent of
Plateros. The earliest offerings date from the late eighteenth century. All
are stories and histories of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, despite the
present barriers and challenges of transnationalism. Now the family, like
increasing numbers of Mexican families in New Mexico, maintains the
devotion to Santo Nino, the pilgrim saint, by walking to the Santuario de
Chimayo for Semana Santa (Holy Week).
Bernardo Abeyta's second contribution has also persisted into contem
porary times. Well before 1853, he introduced the Reglas (constitutional
documents), which established the autonomy and authority of the Santa
Hermandad de la Sangre de Nuestro Senor Jesucristo, the influential Catho
lic lay penitential brotherhood.39 The brotherhood is dedicated to and now
named for Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno, which celebrates the aspects of
the Passion that recall Ecce Homo (Jesus at his trial) and the Man of Sor
rows (Jesus scourged, crowned, wounded, and humiliated). This suffering
Jesus is supremely human, a man still standing with all the strength neces
sary to fulfill his transcendental burdens. As the Son of God, he takes on the
role of his Father and exemplifies suffering humanity.
In each community, the hermano mayor (head brother) embodied pa
triarchal authority and fostered cooperation and mutual aid. After the
U.S. invasion, hermanos (brothers) in Nuevo Mexico were deeply involved
in politics and supported cultural resistance to the American occupation.
Religion was a refuge and source of strength for the larger struggle at
hand. The hermanos were and still are in charge of community resources
like land, water, and agriculture-responsibilities long taken away from
them in Mexico during the modernization programs of La Reforma in
the 1860s.40
In March 2006, a group of Hermanos de Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno
from northern New Mexico made a historic pilgrimage to Durango, the
capital city of the Mexican state of the same name. The carefully self-se
lected group, inc!uding craftsmen, singers, santeros (saint makers), and schol
ars, comprised representatives and officers from different Morada chapels
and chapters. The spiritual quest of these hermanos was as strong as their
desire to take charge of their own cultural representation and interpret their
own history.
FALL 2008 LAMADRID ~ 437
Durango is deeply significant to the Hermandad because the Archdiocese
for Nuevo Mexico was headquartered there until 1851. Considered as the Ath
ens of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the city attracted students from all
over northern Nueva Espana and Mexico. As mentioned already, the most
famous graduate ofDurango's Colegio Seminario was Padre Martfnez ofTaos,
a key advocate and mentor to the Hermandad. 41
For the journey in 2006, three cofradzas (brotherhoods) in Cuencame,
Durango city, and Nombre de Dios were identified and contacted with the
support of Mexican colleagues, including anthropologist Tomas Martinez
Saldana and historian Jose de la Cruz Pacheco Rojas of the Instituto de
Investigaciones Hist6ricas who helped arrange formal visitas for the hermanos
to meet, pray, and break bread with each other. Heated controversies exist
regarding the origins and devotional practices of the Penitentes, with some
scholars veering as far afield as Andalucfa in search of clues. The curiosity
of some writers verges on obsession. Others have been openly critical and
even hostile to the brotherhood. No need to cross the ocean because just
down the Camino Real, cofradfas abound.
By 1790 there were over 150 cofradfas registered in Nueva Vizcaya.42 As
in Nuevo Mexico, their responsibilities included ensuring the general spiri
tual and material well being of the community, plus maintaining the devo
tions dedicated to their patron saints. Some cofradfas in mining areas
accumulated capital in silver. Other cofradfas controlled farms, sources of
water, orchards, livestock, and even property in urbanized areas. Besides
economic resources, the cofradfas also had political influence. Hermanos
often held political and administrative posts such as alcalde mayor. Despite
the similarities, by the nineteenth century the Hermandad located north of
the international border faced a new crisis as they dealt with an American
political system intent on the subordination of the Hispano and Native popu
lation. In Mexico the Hermandades confronted a triple crisis: the Bourbon
and Jansenist reforms of the late eighteenth century; la Reforma in the lat
ter nineteenth century, which eliminated traditional systems of land and
water governance; and the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the counter
revolutionary Cristero wars from 1926 to 1929. The Church recruited
hermanos to challenge the new revolutionary government and its armies
with tragic and disastrous results. In Mexico it is remarkable that any cofradfas
survived at all.
The first visita of the hermanos Nuevomexicanos in 2006 was to
Cuencame, an old mining settlement on the Camino Real as it winds north
438 -+ NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW VOLUME 83, NUMBER 4
HERMANOS DEL SENOR DE MAPIMI: BROTHERS OF OUR LORD OF MAPIMI FROM
CUENCAME, DURANGO, 2006
(Photograph Miguel Gandert)
of Zacatecas and into eastern Durango state. The devotions and rituals in
Cuencame center on Nuestro Sefior de Mapimf, a miraculous crucified
Christ that is especially significant to miners and to frontline communi
ties that fought the Indians during the colonial period. On Jueves Santo
(Holy Thursday) in 1715, the Toboso Indians attacked a procession at
Mapimf and killed over three hundred people. Two soldiers managed to
escape to the east with the Cristo to the Sierra de Jimulco, where they hid
the santo in a mesquite tree by a spring. A pious Indian woman found and
guarded the saint, and notified the nearest village. On 6 August 1715, the
Cristo was brought to Cuencame and a cofradfa was soon organized. When
the saint was loaded for transport to Mapimf, the wagon became too heavy
to move, a sign that the Cristo wanted to stay in Cuencame. Because
many of its members were miners, the Cofradfa del Sefior de Mapimf
grew and prospered. In a 1790 register, its assets totaled 3,825 pesos, a size
able fortune.
The devotions to San Antonio, Nuestra Sefiora de los Dolores, and Jeslls
Nazareno are also prominent in Cuencame, with societies of Matachines
and Pluma dancers all around. An identical ritual cluster can be found in
FALL 2008 LAMADRID ~439
AND LITTLE BROTHER OF OUR FATHER
TRISTEZA DEL VIERNES SANTO: SISTER
JESUS IN IGLESIA DE SAN AGUSTIN IN
CIUDAD DURANGO, DURANGO, 2008
(Photograph Miguel Gandert)
the villages of the Sandia and Manzano mountains, complete with the color
ful Matachines conquest dance drama. In 2005 mayordomos (fiesta stewards)
from San Antonito in the Sandia Mountains made their own visitas to
Cuencame to make personal contact with their patron saint, el Senor de
Mapimf. The Mexicanos were amazed that Nuevomexicanos from the other
side of the border shared their devotion, which dates to the late eighteenth
century in New Mexico.43 In Cuencame on their pilgrimage in 2006, the
Nuevomexicano hermanos were received by their Mexicano hermanos with
a reZiquia (reliquary) or communal meal ofcaZda duranguefio, known as green
chile stew in Nuevo Mexico. They learned that since the parish priest serves
as hermano mayor, the Hermandad
del Senor de Mapimi is effectively
under the control of the Catholic
Church. The lack of local autonomy
sets this cofradia apart from the New
Mexico cofradfa, although devotions,
customs, foodways, and even music
share so many commonalities.
In Durango the next visita was the
Iglesia de San Agustin, home to a size
able congregation of hundreds of
Hermanos de Nuestro Padre Jesus
Nazareno divided into seven caTOS(choruses), each in charge ofspecific
devotions, music, and days ofSemana
Santa. In 1673 the Cofradfa del Dulce
Nombre de Jesus and its prominent
Spanish and criollo members brought
a stunning image of Jesus Nazareno
in the Escuela Montanesa style from
Sevilla.44 If the strategy of Counter
Reformation art was to persuade and
impress, this Nazareno fulfilled its
function and attracted many new
members to the devotion. Abp. Pedro
Tamar6n y Romeral was especially
moved by the sculpture. When Au
gustinian friars selected a group of
440? NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW VOLUME 83, NUMBER 4
ESCLAVOS DE JESUS
Three generations of faith come before God in
the Templo de Jesus de Nazareth in Nombre
de Dios, Durango, 2006.
(Photograph Miguel Gandert)
pardos brothers to be in charge of the church in 1746, there was a struggle
for ownership of the image, which still resides there today.
The cuadernos (notebooks) of alabado hymns sung at San Agustin in
Durango contain many of the same hymns used in Nuevo Mexico, per
formed in the same a capella musical style sung in unison and in antipho
nal dialogue between prayer leaders and the congregation.4\As in Cuencame,
governance of this cofradfa is dominated by the church, with the Augustin
ian order clearly in charge. Again, autonomy and governance are the key
distinctions between this cofradfa and the Nuevomexicano cofradfa.
In stark contrast, the Hermandad de Nuestro Padre Jesus in the town of
Nombre de Dios has always
been autonomous and inde
pendent. As with the Her
mandad of the same name
in Nuevo Mexico, the clergy
visits by invitation only. An
early Franciscan outpost was
established here in a well
watered valley south of
Durango in 1561, the first
mission north ofZacatecas.46
On each side of a river, twin
communities emerged; Nom
bre de Dios was where Span
ish Mexicans and criollos
lived, and San Francisco del
Malpafs was the Indian town.
The first brotherhood to take
root was la Cofradfa de la
Santa Vera Cruz. The Native
cofradfa was named Dulce
Nombre de Jesus, founded
in 1671.This latter group coa
lesced around an image of
Jesus Nazareno named
Dulce Nombre de Jestls.
The devotion to this santo
FALL 2008 LAMADRID ~ 441
CONCILIO DE LOS HERMANOS
The council of the brotherhood met in Nombre de Dios, Durango, in 2006.
(Photograph Miguel Candert)
became a focus of resistance and social opposition to the civil and ecclesias
tical authorities. The independence of the Templo de Jesus de Nazareth
was never fully respected, but persists to this day. Its struggle for land and
water is personified by Urajen de Luna, a legendary Indian leader from the
beginning of the eighteenth century. In a water rights dispute he sustained
a massive skull injury from which he miraculously recovered. His battered
but intact skull still guards the church of his brotherhood, just as the carved
death cart figures guard the Morada chapels of Nuevo Mexico.
During their Lenten visita in 2006, the Nuevomexicano hermanos recited
the Estaciones and participated in a communal meal and meeting with their
Mexicano counterpartsY In the church, they were astounded to find the same
constellation of devotions that are now found in the north, including Jesus
Nazareno, el Santo Entierro, Nuestra Senora de los Dolores, Nuestra Senora
de la Soledad, la Virgen de Guadalupe, Santo Nino de Atocha, las Animas
Benditas del Purgatorio, San Francisco, San Antonio, San Ysidro, Santiago,
and the memento maTi (reminder of death in the form ofa skull or ofa carved
death image). In our Semana Santa rehlfn visita in 2008 we observed an
ancient full-scale santo with flexible leather shoulder joints in use for
442 ~ NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW VOLUME 83, NUMBER 4
multiple aspects of the Passion,
the Prendimiento (arrest and
imprisonment of Jesus), the
standing Nazareno figure for
his trial, the Crucifixion itself,
the Descendimiento (descent
from the cross), and the buried
Christ in the glass pane coffin
of the Santo Entierro (Holy Sep
ulcher).48 Bearing witness to
these venerable rituals and the
accompanying music and pray
ers gave the distinct sensation of
returning into a distant past to
witness Nuevomexicanos' cul-
tural origins.
Heritage tourism cast in the
tradition of pilgrimage and visi
tas led these hermanos and col
leagues past regional horizons
fixed in place by the tradition
ofpolycentrism and the barrier
of the border to reaffirm and
rediscover the intangible heri
tage of the Camino Real de
Tierra Adentro, break the illu
sions of the Spanish fantasy
heritage, and connect Hispano and Native peoples again to the Greater Mexico
that unites us all. For Nuevomexicanos, travel up and down the Camino Real
de Tierra Ade~tro offers a poignant sense of deja vu, knowing that ancestors
have trod the same routes, sought their fortunes in the same towns, eaten the
same foods, and prayed in the same sanctuaries. The same plazas and edifices
remain, a tangible heritage waiting to be rediscovered. Intangible traditions
are less overt, more fleeting, and easily overlooked. In the fiesta and pilgrim
age, however, cultures in conversation are on full display, negotiating identi
ties, filling byways and public spaces. Pilgrims and heritage travelers are
mindful ofseason and calendar, so their efforts are rewarded with finding and
encountering the human communities from which they sprang.
GUARD lANES DEL TEMPLO
San Francisco and the skull of Urajen de
Luna are the guardians of the Templo de
Jesus de Nazareth in Nombre de Dios,
Durango, 2006.
(Photograph Miguel Gandert)
FALL 2008
Appendix. Nos vemos en eJ Camino . ..
LAMADRID ~ 443
We close with a brief list of the northern pilgrimages along the Camino
Real de Tierra Adentro, which unite the people of northern Mexico and the
Southwest United States in a common transnational legacy. This partial list
is a call for travel and discovery, for a reconnection with Mexico, for future
research, collaboration, and celebration:
• To Tepeyac and the Virgen de Guadalupe from Queretaro (and many
other points of departure), all year round, but especially for the feast
day on 12 December
• To Cerro la Bufa and la Virgen del Patrocinio in Zacatecas, who is
credited for delivering the city from the U.S. Army in 1847
• To Aguascalientes and the feast of Santiago on 25 July and la Asuncion
de Marfa on 15 August, which features a miraculous appearance of
Santiago on a white horse bringing an army ~f dead Moors back to
life
• To Zacatecas for the feast of the Martyrdom of San Juan Bautista and
the phenomenal Morisma de Bracho in the hills east of the city on 29August (Morisma battles and celebrations also occur in many other
cities and towns of the state of Zacatecas; the feast of San Juan on 24
June and the feast of Santa Cruz on 3 May are examples.)
• To Plateros, Zacatecas, and the Santo Nino de Atocha from all points
of the compass, which is the second largest pilgrimage in Mexico all
year round, but especially at Christmas
• To Cuencame, Durango, and el Senor de Mapimf, from Mapimf and
all northern Mexico, on 6 August
• To EI Tizonazo, Durango, and el Sei'ior de Guerreros, a Chichimeca
shrine and missio~ (with no accompanying village) on the first Friday
of March
• To El Zape, Durango, and la Virgen de la Macana, a wounded survivor
of Indian rebellions, on the feast of la Virgen de Inmaculada
Concepcion, 8 December
• To the San Lorenzo church in Juarez, where refugees of the Pueblo
Revolt of 1680 settled, with Matachines in procession from the
Guadalupe Mission in central Juarez, on New Years Day and 10 August
• To the Guadalupe Mission at the central plaza of Juarez, from barrios,
towns, and villages all over Chihuahua for the feast of Guadalupe on 12
December
444 ~ NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW VOLUME 83, NUMBER 4
• To Monte Cristo Rey, a monumental Christ figure on a mountain nearEl Paso where Texas, New Mexico, and Chihuahua meet for Holy Week
(The U. S. Department of Homeland Security has fenced off the routes
of this pilgrimage in fear of international terrorism.)
• To Tortugas Mountain near Las Cruces, New Mexico, for the feast of
Guadalupe on 12 December
• To the large Calvaria at Cerro de Tome near Belen, New Mexico, for
Holy Week (In this pilgrimage, people have symbolically reclaimed
the lost common lands of the Tome land grant.)
• To Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, and a Santo Nino figure rescued from
the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, probably the oldest santo in New Mexico,
all year round
• To Bernalillo, New Mexico, for the grand fiesta of San Lorenzo, 10
August
• To the Santuario de Chimayo and Santo Nino de Atocha for the holy
earth of el Senor de Esquipulas, all year round but especially for Holy
Week
• To all points of the compass, every town and city, and all the local sa
cred sites for Holy Week in our polycentric pilgrimage tradition-the
center is everywhere
• And finally back to Santa Fe to more fully understand its fiesta, which
in spite of cultural differences and the contradictions of our history,
would seek to join us together in celebration
• After visiting primos and hermanos along the Camino Real, then we
will finally be truly ready to visit our abuelos in Spain
Notes
1. Preliminary versions of this essay were originally delivered at the Coloquio del
Camino Real de Tierra Adentro in Socorro, New Mexico, and the 2006 Santa Fe
Fiesta Lecture.
2. Carninos reales (royal roads) linked regional capitals. From 1598 to 1610 the capital
of New Mexico was San Gabriel (across the river from Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo
and north of Espanola), which operated as the official terminus of the Camino
Real de Tierra Adentro for twelve years. With independence from Spain in 1821,
the caminos reales officially became carninos nacionales (national roads). How
ever, communities from El Paso to Taos still call local routes "El Camino Real" as
a kind of popular anachronism.
3. Max L. Moorhead, New Mexico's Royal Road: Trade and Travel on the Chihuahua
Trail (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995); Jose de la Cruz Pacheco Rojas
FALL 2008 LAMADRID + 445
y joseph P. Sanchez, eds., Memorias del Coloquio Intemacional El Camino Real
de Tierra Adentro (Mexico, D.F.: Instituto Nacional de Antropologfa e Historia,
2000); Gabrielle G. Palmer, comp., june-el Piper and LouAnn Jacobson, eds., ElCamino Real de Tierra Adentro, vol. 1, Cultural Resources Series, no. 11 (Santa Fe:
Bureau of Land Management, New Mexico State Office, 1993); Gabrielle G. Palmer
and Stephen L. Fosberg, comps., June-el Piper, ed., El Camino Real de TierraAdentro, vol. 2, Cultural Resources Series, no. 13 (Santa Fe: Bureau of Land Man
agement, New Mexico State Office, 1999); and Christine Preston, Douglas J.
Preston, and jose Antonio Esquibel, The Royal Road: El Camino Real from Mexico
City to Santa Fe (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998).
4- Article 2 of the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage
in 2003 defines the intangible cultural heritage as "The practices, representations,
expressions, knowledge, skills-as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and
cultural spaces associated therewith -that communities, groups and, in some cases,
individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural
heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by com
munities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with na
ture and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity,
thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity.... The 'intan
gible cultural heritage' ... is manifested inter alia in the following domains: (a)
oral traditions and expressions, including language as a vehicle of the intangible
cultural heritage; (b) performing arts; (c) social practices, rituals and festive events;
(d) knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe; (e) traditional
craftsmanship." UNESCO, "Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cul
tural Heritage" (Paris, 17 October 2003).
5. J. Manuel Espinosa, Crusaders ofthe RIO Grande: The Story ofDon Diego de Vargasand the Reconquest and Refounding of New Mexico (Chicago: Institute of Jesuit
History, 1942), 225-26.
6. See Marta Weigle, Brothers ofLight, Brothers ofBlood: The Penitentes of the Southwest (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1976).
7. Tomas Lozano, Cantemos al Alba: Origins ofSongs, Sounds, and Liturgical Dramaof Hispanic New Mexico, trans. and ed. Rima Montoya (Albuquerque: University
of New Mexico Press, 2006); and Marta Weigle and Peter L. White, The Lore ofNew Mexico, Publications of the American Folklore Society (Albuquerque: Uni
versity of New Mexico Press, 1988).
8. Research on the impact of Durango's Colegio Seminario on New Mexico and the
identification of Nuevomexicanos in academic records is ongoing at the Instituto
de Investigaciones Hist6ricas de Durango. See jose de la Cruz Pacheco Rojas, ed.
Los Jesuitas en el norte de Nueva Espana: sus contribuciones a la educaci6n y el
sistema misional (Durango, Mexico: Universidad Juarez del Estado de Durango,
Instituto de Investigaciones Hist6ricas, 2004).
9. Karla Baca, "The Taos Priest: A Monument to Honor Father Antonio jose Martinez
is Unveiled," Santa Fe New Mexican, 17 July, 2006.
446 + NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW VOLUME 83, NUMBER 4
10. Victor Turner and Edith Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture: An
thropological Perspectives, Lectures on the History of Religions, no. 11 (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1978), 1-39.11. Leslie A. White, The Acoma Indians: f<orty-Seventh Annual Report ofthe Bureau of
American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1929-1930
(Glorieta, N.Mex.: Rio Grande Press, 1973), 139·12. Gaspar Perez de Villagra, Historia de la Nueva Mexico, 1610, trans. and ed. Miguel
Encinias, Alfredo Rodriguez, and Joseph P. Sanchez (Albuquerque: University of
New Mexico Press, 1992), 6.
13. Ibid., 126.1+ Angelico Chavez, My Penitente Land: Reflections on Spanish New Mexico (Albu
querque: University of New Mexico Press, 1974), 1-17.
15. For a number of years since the Quincentennial in 1992, the El Paso Chamber of
Commerce and other local organizations have been laying claim to the idea that
El Paso, Texas, and not Plymouth, Massachusetts, is indeed the site of North
America's "First Thanksgiving."
16. Mary Austin, "A Drama Played on Horseback," The Mentor 16 (September 1928):
38-39; and Enrique R. Lamadrid, Hermanitos Comanchitos: Indo-Hispano Rituals ofCaptivity and Redemption (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,
2003), 20-26.
17. Josie Espinoza de Lujan, Los Moros y Cristianos: A Spectacular Historic Drama
(Chimayo, N.Mex.: J. E. Lujan, 1992).18. David F. Garcia, "Moros y Cristianos: Intangible Cultural Exchange along the
Camino Real" (master's thesis, University of New Mexico, 2007)'19. Enrique R. Lamadrid, Tesoros del espiritu: A Portrait in Sound of Hispanic New
Mexico (Albuquerque, N.Mex.: Academia/EI Norte Publications, 1994), 10.
20. Native Americans in Mexico have appropriated Morisma celebrations, unlike their
brethren in New Mexico, who have distanced themselves from the observances. There
is only one reference to Pueblo participation in Morismas at the turn of the twentieth
century. See Aurelio M. Espinosa, The Folklore ofSpain in the American Southwest:Traditional Spanish Folk Literature in Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado, ed. J. Manuel Espinosa (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976), 23·
21. Juan Jose Zaldivar Ortega, Las Morismas de Bracho: Investigaci6n Hist6rica de laFiesta de Moros y Cristianos, Serie Antropologia, no. 5 (Zacatecas, Mexico: Fondo
dc Cultura Zacatecana, 1998), 76-77.22. George P. Hammond and Agapito Rey, cds. and trans., Don Juan de Onate: Colo
nizer ofNew Mexico, 1595-1628, 2 vols., vols. 5-6 of Coronado Cuarto Centennial
Publications, 1540-1940, 12 vols., ed. George P. Hammond (Albuquerque: Univer
sity of New Mexico Press, 1953)'23. Archaeological surveys of the Cerro de Tome, a calvario and pilgrimage site south
of Alburquerque, note over eighteen hundred petroglyphs around the same geo
graphical feature, a clear indication that it has always been a sacred site. See Dan
Scurlock, Joseph C. Winter, and Ronald L. Stauber, Spiritual Land, Historical
Land: Tome Hill, New Mexico (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, Office of
Contract Archeology, 1999)'
FALL 2008 LAMADRID 7447
24. Sylvia Rodriguez, "Procession and Sacred Landscape in New Mexico," New Mexico
Historical Review 77 (winter 2002): 1-26.
25. Anthropologist Alfonso Ortiz fully develops the parameters of sacred space in the
Puebloan cosmos. See Alfonso Ortiz, The Tewa World: Space, Time, Being, and
Becoming in a Pueblo Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969)'26. Max Harris, "Moctezuma's Daughter: The Role of La Malinche in Mesoamerican
Dance," Journal ofAmerican Folklore 109 (spring 1996): 149-77.27. Enrique R. Lamadrid, "From Santiago at Acoma to the Diablo in the Casinos:
Four Centuries of Foundational Milagro Narratives in New Mexico," in Expressing New Mexico: Nuevomexicano Creativity, Ritual, and Memory, ed. Phillip B.
Gonzales, 42-60 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2007), 52.28. Two styles ofMatachines dance exist in the Borderlands. Danza de la Pluma (Dance
of the Feather) in Mexico, also referred to as Matachines in northern New Mexico,
features mitre-shaped headdresses, trident-shaped wands, violin and guitar music,
and two unique characters-Monarca (also known as Moctezuma) and the torito(little bull). The other type, called "Chichimeca" or "Apache" style Matachines,
includes dancers dressed in red wearing aprons embroidered with horizontal reeds,
drum accompaniment, and a clacker that resembles a bow and arrow. Both
Matachines styles use gourd rain rattles and have ancestral figures called abuelosor viejos (grandfathers or old men). Little girls also play the main role ofMalinche
in both Matachines dances. See Sylvia Rodriguez, The Matachines Dance: RitualSymbolism and Interethnic Relations in the Upper R(o Grande Valley, Publications
of the American Folklore Society (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,
1996).29. Rodriguez, The Matachines Dance; and Lozano, Cantemos al Alba.30. For an analysis of the symbolism and public ritual of the Fiesta de Santa Fe, see
Ronald 1. Grimes, Symbol and Conquest: Public Ritual and Drama in Santa Fe,New Mexico, Symbol, Myth, and Ritual Series (1976; repr., Alburquerque: Univer
sity of New Mexico Press, 1992). Although Matachines dances can o~casionallybe
seen in Santa Fe, they are not a central component of this fiesta, which is largely
civic in character. The fiesta triumphantly celebrates the "peaceful" Reconquest
and excludes elements centered on atonement or reconciliatiol. These latter themes
are present in Bernalillo, the other Hispano New Mexican fiesta, which references
the Reconquista in a traditional and religious manner. Picuris Pueblo also cel
ebrates San Lorenzo's feast, but from a decidedly Puebloan perspective.
31. Lamadrid, "From Santiago at Acoma to the Diablo in the Casinos," 51-52.
32. Dolores Araceli Arceo Guerrero, San Lorenzo, los que cuentan su historia: memoria hist6rica y tradici6n oral (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua: CONACULTA, 1997)'
33. Turner and Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture, 234.
34. Ross Frank, From Settler to Citizen: New Mexican Economic Development and the
Creation ofVecino Society, 1750-1820 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000),
119-75·35. Stephen F. de Borhegyi, "The Miraculous Shrines of Our Lord of Esquipulas in
Guatemala and Chimayo, New Mexico," El Palacio 60 (1953): 83-111.
448 -7 NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW VOLUME 83, NUMBER 4
36. Sam Howarth and Enrique R. Lamadrid, Pilgrimage to Chimayo: Contemporary Por
trait ofa Living Tradition (Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1999), 13-25.
37. Tomas Martinez Saldana (scholar on the Tlaxcalan Diaspora and the Camino Real
de Tierra Adentro, Colegio de Post Graduados de la Escuela Nacional de
Agricultura), in discussion with the author, Mexico, D.F., January 2005.
38. Jose Banuelos (trained scholar of Mexican and Latin American literature), in dis
cussion with the author, Sombrerete, Zacatecas, May 2006.
39. The oldest surviving record of the Reglas is dated 1853, but this version is assumed
to be a second or third generation copy. Thomas J. Steele, S.J. and Rowena A.
Rivera, Penitente Self-Government: Brotherhoods and Councils, 1797-1947 (Santa
Fe, N.Mex.: Ancient City Press, 1985), 18.
40. La Refonna was a revolutionary period of liberal reforms in Mexico from 1854 to
1876, led principally by Pres. Benito Juarez. The Catholic Church lost vast land
holdings and power. Land grants and other traditional forms of government and
resource management were abolished as the modern state took control.
41. Michael P. Carroll, The Penitente Brotherhood: Patriarchy and Hispano-Catholi
cism in New Mexico (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 178.
42. These data and discussion points derive from the research and presentations of the
Seminario Internacional sobre la Cofradia de Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno, and
the dialogues they have produced are the result of research and an ongoing semi
nar between scholars and hermanos from New Mexico and Durango at the Instituto
dc Investigaciones Hist6ricas, Universidad Juarez del Estado de Durango in March
2005 and March 2008. See also Pacheco Rojas, Los Jesuitas en el norte de Nueva
Espana.
43. Contacts were made in Cuencame in 2004, when Enrique Lamadrid and Tomas
Martinez Saldana led a research expedition and University of New Mexico (UNM)
class to Zacatecas with the purpose of collecting photographs, interviews, and maps
for the permanent exhibit of the International Camino Real Heritage Center south
ofSocorro, New Mexico. The next summer, UNM graduate student David F. Garcia
led a pilgrimage to Cuencame for Dorela and Roberto Perea and family, longtime
mayordomos of el Senor de Mapimf in San Antonio, New Mexico. They were
given a santo of el Senor de Mapimf to replace the one stolen from their church
during the folk art boom of the 1970S.
44. Jose Ignacio Gallegos, Historia de la Iglesia en Durango, Colecci6n Mexico Heroico,
no. 100 (Mexico: Editorial Jus, 1969), 181.
45· During a visit to the San Agustin church and its hermanos in 1994, Cecile Turrieta
collected a number of cuadernos with alabado hymns. See "Inventory of the
Hermandad de Nuestro Padre de Jesus Semana Santa Songbooks, 1912-1979:' MSS
608 BC, Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New
Mexico, Albuquerque.
46. Jose de la Cruz Pacheco Rojas, Breve Historia de Durango, Secci6n de obras de
historia (Mexico: Colegio de Mexico, Fideicomiso Historia de las Americas, Fondo
de Cultura Econ6mica, 2001), 44-45.
47. In March 2008, the New Mexico/Durango research team reassembled to revisit
FALL 2008 LAMADRID -+ 449
Cuencame, San Agustin, and Nombre de Dios for a full documentation of the
rituals of Semana Santa.
48. Scholar William Wroth discusses how the eighteenth-century innovation of articu
lated santos allowed for multiple uses in various rituals and processions. In New
Mexico, they were produced through the 1860s and used into the early twentieth
century. See William Wroth, Images of Penance, Images of Mercy: Southwestern
Santos in the Late Nineteenth Century (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press for
Taylor Museum for Southwestern Studies, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 1991).