The CARTA Executive Board has been exceedingly busy in billing for services rendered to the NPS and the BLM, filing appropriate State and Federal forms and setting up a fiscal program for tracking purposes. I want to especially thank John Bloom, William Little, Jean Fulton, Ben Brown and editor Jay W. Sharp for their many hours in accomplishing our goals.
We are hopeful we will be able to increase our membership this year. If you haven’t renewed your membership please try and do so. Encourage your friends with similar interests to join. Ben Brown, International Liaison Officer, and I were in Chihuahua explaining CARTA goals and promoting membership.
On January 19, 2006, I attended the El Paso River Walk round table in El Paso, Texas. The purpose was to discuss interpretative themes about the Camino Real along the El Paso River Walk Trail project. The Rio Grande River Park Trail interpretive panels (10 panels) are being funded by the NPS through CARTA.
On January 20, I attended the Camino Real colloquium-planning meeting held at NPS Chamizal Park, El Paso, Texas. Representatives were there from the NPS, BLM, CARTA and the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia y Historia (INAH). CARTA’s role will largely be that of fiscal manager for the up-front costs. We will also give a small CARTA program on late Thursday afternoon.
On Thursday morning, February 16, Dr. John Wilson and I met with Pam Smith (BLM) and two representatives from the Bureau of Reclamation to relocate old Ft. Thorn (which protected the Camino Real) near Hatch, New Mexico. Thursday afternoon Dr. Wilson and I were driven to the proposed Space Port site for an orientation and location briefing. Thursday evening I spoke at a scoping meeting at the Physical Science Building in Las Cruces on the proposed location of the Space Port. The proposed location is on top of some of the best remains of the Camino Real (see page 20).
On March 6th Ben Brown and I, as CARTA representatives, attended the final planning meeting for the next International Colloquium on the Camino Real. We hope to see many of our CARTA members for the colloquium.
During March 16 — 18 Ben Brown, CARTA’s International Liaison Officer, and I traveled to the city of Chihuahua for a series of meetings with local historians and archaeologists on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. INAH extended many courtesies as well as meeting space at their regional office. We are especially grateful to Lic. Elsa Rodriguez, Director, INAH, Chihuahua and sub-director Lic. Elizabeth Bernes at the Colegio de Bachillers No. 1. (See Ben Brown’s report page 18)
On March 21 CARTA vice-president John Bloom, editor Jay W. Sharp and I attended the Camino Real Stakeholders Planning Meeting, hosted by the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro International Heritage Center. The meeting was chaired by Yolanda Nava, Director of Marketing, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. The purpose is to work together to increase awareness about El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, to promote various sites along the route, engage in cooperative programming and marketing, and to develop branding/signage for the historic trail that can be purchased by communities along the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro throughout its route in New Mexico. It is anticipated that these meetings will lead to a broader conference of stakeholders, including the business community, in the foreseeable future.
Patrick H. Beckett, CARTA President
COAS: My Bookstore
317 North Main
Las Cruces, NM 88001
Phone: 1-505-644-0868
e-mail: pat@coasbooks.com
CARTA secured NPS and BLM funding for another year. CARTA had a $12,000 operating budget for the year to help cover administrative, symposium, publication and travel costs, as well as general expenses that come up during the year. Additional monies through the BLM and various cost-share projects were also made available. CARTA secured additional NPS funding for an administrative assistant to help Pat Beckett, our new president, keep the day-to-day business of CARTA going. This should be a significant improvement over my primitive administrative methods. The assistant will streamline and facilitate some of the paper work, budgeting, translation and promotional tasks.
CARTA offered to help with a project to inventory and make recommendations about the New Mexico Department of Transportation Camino Real Highway Markers that were erected in the early 1990s. These signs are damaged, vandalized, missing, have factual errors, or are in bad locations. A call was made to report damage, text or location problems. CARTA offered to conduct the inventory but a better plan was developed by NPS and BLM for a field trip and hiring of professional inventory person. CARTA assisted Gary Williams of the El Paso Community Foundation begin work on several of these markers that were placed in Texas.
CARTA participated in the grand opening celebrations for the International Heritage Center in Socorro in November and purchased a special VIP ticket which was given to a deserving dignitary. CARTA posters of the Jornada del Muerto were distributed at the reception and several CARTA officers volunteered at the event.
A series of meetings and discussions took place during the summer with representatives of the Camino Real colloquium group, which has been having biannual conferences in the U.S. and Mexico for the past 10 years. It was suggested that the group merge its conference with CARTA's biannual conference and that in April 2006 a joint conference/symposium/colloquium of some sort take place as an experiment. The plan was to offer CARTA and colloquium members, along with the general public, an opportunity to learn about and experience El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. Planning sessions took place in the fall 2005 and a conference is presently scheduled for April 2006 in Socorro, New Mexico (see below).
CARTA received notification of an Army Corps of Engineers project to eradicate salt cedar in the Galisteo Dam and Reservoir area of Santa Fe County. The Corps’ report identified the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro as being in the general vicinity, but states that no segments of the trail are in the area where the eradication will take place. There was discussion of implications for the trail as drainage and erosion patterns in the area may change. Several CARTA members commented on the report.
A pilot project for Mexican memberships was also begun. Working with the president and board member Ida Baca, two Mexican organizations — the Nombre de Dios Church in Chihuahua City and the Historical Society of Chihuahua — were brought into CARTA as institutional members. Sponsors volunteered to pay the annual dues for these new memberships.
Our 2005 elections took place in July. Several new officers and board members were elected. Pat Beckett, who had been serving as vice-president, became president. John Bloom became vice-president. Founding president George Torok moved to a position on the board. Jean Fulton assumed the responsibilities of secretary.
In September we held a CARTA general members and board meeting at the Rancho de los Golondrinas in Santa Fe. NPS’s Mike Taylor and BLM’s Sarah Schlanger attended the meeting and presented updates on projects underway.
CARTA assisted with a NPS cost-share project for Groundwork El Paso, an organization involved with the development of river walk projects along the Rio Grande in the El Paso area. CARTA was asked to serve as the distribution agent for the funds and play a role in the planning and implementation of the program. CARTA officers attended planning sessions to help develop ideas and plans for carrying out interpretative projects.
CARTA officers also attempted to get NPS/BLM certification for San Elizario during 2005. The initial documents and forms were produced but problems with ownership of historic sites and complications in processing the request through the county court have delayed the certification process.
Also among those on hand for the 1940 dedication were John E. Miles, Governor of New Mexico, and Don Juan Francisco de Cárdenas, the Ambassador of Spain. Rinaldi, then a sophomore at Bernalillo High, performed for them, other assembled dignitaries and an overflow crowd. Outfitted as a conquistador in Coronado’s expedition, he marched and danced on a huge outdoor stage during a reenactment of the Spanish explorer’s arrival.
Rinaldi returned recently, on March 11, 2006, for the re-dedication of the monument, which protects the ruins of the Tiguex Puebloan village of Kuaua. It is located on a bluff fast against the west bank of the Rio Grande, overlooking the fabled El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro — the Royal Road to the Interior Lands — across the river. With Rinaldi was his grandson, also named Justin Rinaldi, a high school sophomore who was experiencing some of what his grandfather had in 1940.
Young Rinaldi soon learned, if he didn’t know already, that the 2006 re-dedication was more than the just-completed renovation of the visitor center at the monument. It was also an anniversary celebration of two events significant to historians and the people of the desert Southwest. First, it was the 75th anniversary of state legislation creating the state monuments system. Second, it was the 100th anniversary of the Antiquities Act, the landmark federal law that authorizes a U. S. President to declare historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest to be national monuments if they are located on lands owned or controlled by the government of the United States.
Both acts served to build a foundation and precedent for historic preservation in the United States, according to National Park Service historian Richard Sellars, Ph.D., keynote speaker at the re-dedication. "The acts provided momentum for the preservation of the pre-history and history of this country," said Sellars. "They were particularly important catalysts in the Southwest. It was rampant vandalism of ancient archaeological sites that spurred Congress to pass the Antiquities Act in 1906, resulting in the creation of many national monuments in the Southwest."
In a roundabout way, the early legislation also nurtured a kernel of generational pride in Southwest history and culture—as exemplified by the Rinaldis. It fired political support for such legislation as the 1968 National Historic Trails Act, prompting the addition of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail in October, 2000, as well as other trails across the Southwest. Our trail is fostering fresh interest along its length, including new construction, for instance, the recently dedicated El Camino Real International Heritage Center.
Grandfather Rinaldi, an alum of the University of New Mexico and Regis University, went on to become a writer and "amateur historian," in his words, intent on instilling the history of "tierra adentro," in new generations not only of his extended family, but beyond. "As a student of history, especially the history of New Mexico, I have made a special effort to speak to young people from grade school to the university level in hopes they will realize that U. S. history doesn’t revolve around the eastern seaboard," he said.
The younger Rinaldi understands where his grandfather is coming from, having taken a class in New Mexico history in the seventh grade at Bernalillo Middle School. "I’ve been to the state monument before," he said. "And I was eager to return with my grandfather, whose stories I have heard many times."
Such proud traditions as those exhibited by the Rinaldis were likely enabled not only by legislation, but also by those behind it—a cadre of Southwest historians and archaeologists hell-bent on examining historic and prehistoric sites and making their findings available to the public.
They were spearheaded by Edgar Lee Hewett, nicknamed "El Toro" because of his controversial, flamboyant style and tenacity in discovery and preservation. Hewett led the excavation of the Kuaua Ruins at Coronado. He was instrumental in writing the Antiquities Act and facilitating its passage. The act was then adopted almost word for word in the 1935 legislation creating New Mexico’s state monuments. Other notable names of the day, famous across our desert Southwest, were Adolph Bandelier, Alfred Kidder, Neil Judd and Jess Nusbaum.
Hewett was also instrumental in the founding of Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park. In 1907 he helped establish and was the first director of the School of American Archaeology in Santa Fe. In 1909 he established the Museum of New Mexico as the education and public outreach division of the school—all before New Mexico became a state in 1912.
The year-long 75th anniversary celebration, honoring Hewett, his peers and latter-day leaders of state parks, was set in motion by José Cisneros, director of New Mexico State Monuments, as an educational tool to lure both adults and young people into the monuments for the purpose of learning about their heritage. Cisneros selected the re-dedication of Coronado State Monument as the kick-off event because the recent renovation naturally focused attention on the historic events that happened there.
Those who attended the re-dedication, sponsored by a new support group, Friends of Coronado State Monument, discovered that the Pueblo Revival style John Gaw Meem Visitor Center had acquired a modern heating and cooling system and a state-of-the-art sewage system. New viga ends were added, replacing rotted ones. Most important to art buffs was the renovation of the Kuaua Room, including updated lighting. The room contains some of the treasured kiva murals discovered during 1935 excavation work by archaeologist Gordon Vivian.
Vivian and his crew knew they had found something extraordinary when an uplifted hand and a portion of a mask painted on a layer of plaster in a kiva became visible. The figure was one of hundreds, dating to the 16th century, that appeared on the kiva walls as excavation progressed. Today the delicate murals, moved to the visitor center and other locations for preservation purposes, are regarded as among the finest examples of prehistoric mural art in the United States.
The Kuaua story at the site, in fact, is so compelling that, had the monument been opened at any time other than on the 400th anniversary of Coronado’s expedition, it would likely have been named "Kuaua."
The village was occupied by generations of Kuauans who began building the multi-storied village in the early 1300s. By the 1500s, 1200 rooms of adobe construction connected together to form the village, one of about a dozen Tiwa-speaking sites located along a 30-mile corridor on the Rio Grande. The villages held a strategic position on the pre-European trails that utilized the river resources, and were a superb zone of prehistoric commerce.
But in February, 1540, an event occurred that would permanently change the way of life for the Kuaua, their neighbors on the Rio Grande, and beyond. About 1400 miles to the south, an army led by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado departed the frontier town of Compostela, Mexico, in search of the legendary Seven Cities of Cíbola.
The Coronado expedition spent two winters, 1540-41 and 1541-42, and left in the spring of 1542. The Coronado party was initially welcomed, but acts of brutality by the Europeans and resultant retaliation by the Tiwa people ultimately resulted in open conflict. The Kuaua way of life would never be the same, despite a respite from European contact until the late 16th century, when Spanish exploration along El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro resumed.
Much of what is known about Kuaua is the result of historical records, including Spanish journals written by members of the Coronado expedition. Other vital information came from the late 19th and early 20th century excavations and from oral histories by modern descendants of the Tiguex people.
Members of both nearby Sandia Pueblo, whose original language is Tiwa, and Santa Ana Pueblo, whose language is Keresian, claim ties to Kuaua, and they often appear at special events at the monument.
Today’s visitor will find a walking trail behind the visitor center that goes through some of the restored ruins, including a reconstructed kiva, where artifacts from a hands-on teaching collection can be held. This is part of the monument’s effort to educate school children about their history.
To promote education, Cisneros said special 75th anniversary events will be held throughout 2006 at each of the six monuments in New Mexico’s system, including the three units situated along El Camino Real. In addition to Coronado, there is Fort Selden, near Las Cruces, and the newly-opened El Camino Real International Heritage Center, between Truth or Consequences and Socorro.
"When you put children, or adults for that matter, in a historic setting, all the senses kick in and what is learned is not soon forgotten," said Cisneros, who during his career has served as superintendent of such historic sites as San Antonio Missions, Bandelier and Gettysburg. "It’s easier to learn about the Kuaua when you stand inside a kiva, rather than when you read about a kiva in a textbook.
"The real trick is getting them there," Cisneros noted. "Special events such as the Coronado re-dedication are helpful. Working closely with teachers is important, too."