On the Move: Jemez, Los Alamos, Chimayo

Will and Maya came on July 1 to join us for a week at Horseshoe Springs. Their arrival coincided with the acquisition of our new Honda ATV. The first few pictures in this album capture the maiden voyages of the yellow ATV. A trip to Los Alamos (about 30 miles east of here) included the must-see landmark known as The Black Hole, a surplus market for discarded equipment from the labs. We also took a drive up the Taos high road to Chimayo, a village famous for its weavers and for the pilgrimage site known as the Santuario de Chimayo.

http://picasaweb.google.com/SteveDC505/OnTheMove#

4-H Junior Rodeo (San Isidro, NM)

The village of San Isidro lies at the foot of our valley, about 30 miles from Horseshoe Springs. On Saturday (27 June), it was the site of a 4-H Junior Rodeo. The contestants ranged in age from 6-16 years old and competed in age groups in a variety of riding events ("mutton busting," saddle bronc riding, bareback calf and steer riding) and racing events (pole bending, flag racing, and barrel racing). The animals and riders all displayed incredible skill and athleticism. The hotdogs were tasty as well.

This set begins with two still photos. The rest are videos, so you might have to be patient while they buffer. http://picasaweb.google.com/SteveDC505/Rodeo#

Drum Corps

On 23 June we went with our friends Ralph and Jan Stone to the town of Rio Rancho, a suburb just northwest of Albuquerque. The event was a Drum Corps competition featuring six groups from Colorado, Arizona, California, Ohio, and Wyoming. If you haven't witnessed this particular American sub-culture, you don't know what you are missing. Each group consists of a marching drum line and a huge brass section (no reeds allowed), a stationary percussion section on the sidelines playing vibraphones, tympani, bells, etc., and a "corps" of dancers, twirlers, and flag-tossers. The music is superb and the band is in a constant swirl of highly choreographed motion, an overwhelming feast for eyes and ears. I would have made videos, but only still pictures were permitted.


The members of each drum corps practice 10-12 hours a day for months on end, then travel to various competitions before the national championships in early August. All participants are in their teens and early 20s. The man sitting behind us was an original member of the Blue Knights from Denver, founded in 1958.
http://picasaweb.google.com/SteveDC505/DrumCorps#

Acoma Pueblo

For obvious reasons, Acoma Pueblo is also sometimes referred to as Sky City. The pueblo was settled sometime before 1150 AD and (along with Taos Pueblo) claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited site in the United States. The mission church and residences of Acoma are nestled on top of a mesa with extremely steep cliff sides rising more than 365 feet off the flat desert floor. Three miles away is Enchanted Mesa, the legendary home of the Acoma people. As a particularly sacred site, it is off limits to all visitors.

Most of the Acoma people now live in small villages scattered across the reservation, but about a dozen families -- the heads of the various clans -- occupy the mesa year round. The pueblo still serves as the center of tribal life on ceremonial occasions. There is no electricity or running water. Firewood and propane must be transported in; water is collected in cisterns and in hand-dug pits in the rock floor of the mesa.

When Coronado's soldiers first saw Acoma in 1540, they reported that it was impregnable. In 1598, however, Spanish troops managed to scale the cliffs and slaughter hundreds of pueblo inhabitants. The captured women and children were sentenced to 20 years of slavery; Acoma men were subjected to the amputation of a hand and foot and 20 years of slavery. Relations were not improved when Acoma men were forced to construct the massive mission church of San Estevan del Rey over a pre-existing kiva in the early 1600s, including the requirement to carry massive ceiling beams all the way from Mount Taylor (50 miles away) without allowing them to touch the ground. Today, Acoma people practice a combination of Catholicism and native religion.

http://picasaweb.google.com/SteveDC505/Acoma#

Easter in the Jemez

Easter fell on Sunday, April 12. We celebrated by watching the snow fall in the woods. We got several inches and so we stayed indoors by the fire for several days -- except when Susie had a project to complete!

http://picasaweb.google.com/SteveDC505/EasterInTheJemez#

Postscript

We came back to the States in early March. Since then, several of my students have kept in touch with me via e-mail. They are halfway through the spring semester now, studying hard for the national examinations they will have to take soon.

Some of my students have sent me pictures of themselves, their classmates, and their lives in the dorms at Liaoning Normal University. I think the pictures make an appropriate postscript to our stay in Dalian. These young men and women touched my heart and enriched my life. I'll never forget them.

http://picasaweb.google.com/SteveDC505/Postscript#

Two Videos: Carnival at Limoux

Two of our previous entries described our visits to the town of Limoux in order to get a little taste of the pre-Lenten celebrations that take place on the town square. Here are the links to those entries and picture galleries:

February 6: http://wrightingchinese.blogspot.com/2009/02/narbonne-lagrasse-and-carnival-in.html

February 16: http://wrightingchinese.blogspot.com/2009/02/limoux-return-to-carnival.html

I also tried to take some video footage using our little camera. I'm still a total amateur at this and I haven't tried to edit the files yet, but you can click on this link to get a quick taste of Carnival in Languedoc. When you get to the album, click on view all to see the links to both files.

http://picasaweb.google.com/SteveDC505/VideosLimoux#5307385313624969474