RELEASE FROM CIBOLA
Conquistadores, Eisenhower and Me
A Reading and Instructional Guide
Copyrighted
by
Andres C. Salazar, Author of "Release from Cibola"
Part One - Introduction
Part Two – A Conversation with Andres C. Salazar
Part Three – Reading Group Questions and Test Data Bank
Part Four – Memory and Revisiting Release from Cibola
A. Youth and Cultural Forces
B. Memory and Reality
C. Memory and Culture
D. Cibola and Faith
E. The 1950s, a Decade of Emergence
F. Cultural Conflict and Fusion in Northern New Mexico
Bibliography
Part One – Introduction
This guide contains material that can be used by reading groups or classroom instructors who choose to discuss the novel – Release from Cibola – in its historical, cultural or ethno-linguistic context. In Part Two, an interview with the author lends insight into the motivation for individual chapters and psychological profiles for characters and key situations in the novel. Part Three has sample questions for classroom instruction or for stimulating reading group discussions. These questions span the range of factual content to analytical examination of the novel’s chapters thus enabling the classroom instructor to challenge college students in ethnic studies programs at various levels of difficulty following Bloom’s Taxonomy. Part Four is comprised of the author’s essay on memory and its utilization for developing meaningful interpretation of history. The essay has both temporal and spatial dimensions in which to examine the central theme of the novel – cultural assimilation. Finally, a bibliography has been included in this guide that cites volumes in which supplemental material can be found on many topics covered in the novel’s narrative.
Note: The material in Part Three of this guide has limited copyright protection in that readers and classroom instructors are free to use the material contained herein for unlimited reproduction as long as its usage is for educational purposes or for the promotion of the novel.
Part Two: A Conversation with Andres C. Salazar
Q: Are any stories in the book autobiographical and based on actual events?
ACS: Every story comes from a memory of mine but none were intended to document events as they really happened. Each story describes aspects of the 1950’s culture of Northern New Mexico – religion, food, sayings, customs, etc. There are too many deviations from my real life to call it autobiographical.
Q: This embedded culture of Northern New Mexico is pretty well described in many other books, some by historians, some by ethnographers and then there are journalists and novelists. What aspects do you feel have been neglected?
ACS: Many of these books have focused on one or two aspects such as history or literature. In addition, a majority of the authors hailed from other parts of the country, spoke little or no Spanish and had not lived very long in the area of interest, namely Northern New Mexico, which limited their depth of understanding and knowledge of the residents. Through a number of individual stories embedded in the novel I felt I could go more into detail about the challenges in assimilation faced in the 1950’s. Some of those challenges have not been overcome and they have contributed heavily to the poverty the region still experiences.
Q: Although the Native American people do not play a major role in the book, what would you say is their major influence on the culture in Northern New Mexico?
ACS: The influence is notable in their respect for nature – water, the mountains, the regional crops and the human condition. Several of the chapters in the book are themed in nature, “Picking Chimajá,” for example.
Q: The search for Cíbola Is a major focus in the book. What is meant by it?
ACS: The quest for the magical kingdom has never stopped. Even the modern emigration, legal and illegal, from Mexico could be seen as its continuation. Although the original search was for gold and silver, its contemporary equivalent is for a better life. The concept of immediacy and the expected large benefit are important attributes of the search.
Q: The book paints a harsh picture of the American invasion of Anglophones that started in the early 1800’s. Certainly there were benefits from it as well, culminating in the American takeover in 1846 by General Kearny. Why were those benefits played down?
ACS: The integration into mainstream America has been difficult and there are still major problems that will not go away for a few more generations. George Sanchez documented several of these problems in his book entitled “Forgotten People” in 1940. The effect of these problems has propagated the evils of poverty – disease, school drop outs, teenage pregnancy, drugs, early death, etc. Whether intended or not, there has been an attitude of conqueror over vanquished that became pronounced after the American occupation. Scholars have documented the unjustified delay to statehood for the region due to the preponderance of Spanish speaking, Catholic residents who, unlike the citizens of Texas, never endorsed slavery. Being part of America, as Puerto Rican residents can attest, brings many economic benefits but the gradual loss of the native culture during the process of assimilation brings sadness and even despair.
Q: Several chapters have scenes of illusions and what appear to be supernatural events. What do these represent?
ACS: There is still a strong religious thread in the culture with roots from the Pueblo and Hispanic populations. When those deep-seated beliefs take over in everyday life, illusory events seem to occur more often. Many critics of religion believe that such illusions serve to mask the terrible problems that beset the faithful. You cannot describe the culture without acknowledging the occurrence of these unexplainable events.
Q: The book plays up the importance of English in assimilation. Surely the mastery of language is too simplistic an answer. What is the intent of this proposed solution?
ACS: Language is a compendium of many cultural factors, including attitudes and hidden meanings in social interactions, religion, food, nature, etc. Through idioms, nuances of pronunciation and even linguistic gesticulations the speakers connote many cultural influences. Mastering English is not just learning the vocabulary and grammar along with its regional pronunciation; it is the understanding and integration of all the cultural attributes associated with the society that speaks it. Taking on this dual personality to the point where a native speaker of English cannot tell whether you can speak another language or not is the goal of assimilation. Upon this achievement you can mingle in the new society and fit well into its fabric. Until that happens, you are a visitor, even treated as an alien.
Q: Reyes Córdova, the protagonist, wrestles with the cultural differences in his town of San Isidro. His major challenge is earning a living and he is being forced to choose between his native culture and American society in order to cope with that challenge. Did you intend the challenge to be that black and white?
ACS: Reyes slowly comes to realize that the number of jobs open to someone who prefers to live in the world of Cíbola is severely limited. A world of opportunity awaits those who embrace English and Americanism, flaws and all. The closer he gets to Americanizing himself, the more he is rejected by Cíbola. This rejection makes it easier for him to make his way to assimilation. Even his high school graduation is bittersweet, having to deal with a paranoid principal and a capricious teacher, both Anglophones, who mistake his ardor as a threat to their authority.
Q: Do you endorse total assimilation whereby all connection to the native culture is broken?
ACS: That was never the message in the novel. I believe it is possible to enjoy one’s cultural identity without compromising one’s ability to merge into the economically dominant society. It is important to recognize and integrate the minimal requirements for assimilation – language, mores, norms, ethics, etc. – and then reach conformance in order to avoid alienation. Too often in our zeal for cultural identity we alienate friends, fellow workers and supervisors who simply see that zeal as a desire for arm’s length separation or even isolation from mainstream America.
Q: Reyes is portrayed as illegitimate and a welfare child. Is his condition purposeful in depicting his struggle for assimilation?
ACS: Both of these traits form a stigma in the regional culture that can be burdensome for anyone trying to crawl out of poverty. I felt it was important to show how steep the climb can be. In many chapters, Reyes shrugs off the effect of the stigma simply because he is aiming for a bigger goal – total assimilation into a society that values achievement more than who his father was.
Q: In the chapter of ADNU, where minority rights are discussed, Reyes dismisses the comparison of the Civil Rights movements in the South with the non-violent cultural conflict he sees in San Isidro. Why is the comparison not appropriate?
ACS: First, the numbers are reversed. The Hispanic residents form the majority in the San Isidro Valley, own the vast majority of the land, and have a powerful political influence. However, economically they are destitute and they do not own the banks or even the majority of commercial enterprises, so in this aspect it is a valid comparison to the Southern Negro population at that time. Second, the lynchings and severe mistreatment experienced by the colored population in the South have no equivalent in the San Isidro Valley. The ethnic problems in San Isidro are more subtle, and yes, non-violent but still psychologically devastating.
Q: The Eisenhower years form an era of social and economic change. Why did you use those years as a backdrop for the novel?
ACS: The end of the Korean conflict ushered in an age of discontent despite a time of peace with people building bomb shelters, using the word “Communist” as a dirty word, looking at the sky for Russian satellites, and the civil unrest from rights marches in the South and from the women’s liberation movement. These were tectonic shifts in America. For Reyes, it was not clear that Americanizing himself was the right move. It takes courage to leave his ancestral home with no safety net. The chapter “Miss Jane Bell” outlines this decision being cast on the youngster. She didn’t say it this way but she was basically describing the oncoming knowledge economy and what role he could play in it. She was the ideal teacher – tough and demanding but encouraging at the same time.
Q: The “Mesa de Cíbola” figures as the signature story in the young life of Reyes. The reader sees a lot of obvious symbolism here, sometimes confusing and contradictory. What are the main points you wanted to get across?
ACS: A good story has multiple interpretations. Readers can connect the dump to the recycling of civilization – conquistadores came and found a civilization living on the remains of others. They imposed a Christian layer on top of what they found and created yet another society, an amalgam of European and aboriginal cultures. From afar, the new land glistens with beauty and mystery but it is really nothing more than raw nature and a future fraught with danger and hard work. Reyes recognizes the value of examining the past by visiting the Mesa but Lloyd’s parents have only revulsion for the past and represent those that crave immediate gratification – the nice car, dressy clothes, going shopping, etc. Don Marquez is an old man, a soothsayer and father figure for Reyes who speaks in the unintelligible phrases of an oracle. He represents the cultural past to Reyes. In his advanced age Don Marquez finds himself now tattered, homeless and abandoned in his own land.
Q: The chapter entitled “Going to the Movies” starts out as an ethical dilemma and then goes through a frightening shakedown of Reyes’ motives. The personage of LeRoy is played out as a Luciferian character. Why go to the extreme on LeRoy?
ACS: LeRoy comes from the dark side of the San Isidro Valley culture. He demands cultural allegiance regardless of circumstances. In his mind, knowledge is second to tradition and ancestral lineage. His club foot, pock-marked face and pulsating cigarette give him away but he is no match for Reyes’ good nature and purity of heart. The encounter with LeRoy only strengthens Reyes’ resolve to leave the culture of Cíbola.
Q: In several chapters Reyes deals with a father figure – Don Filigonio, Tranquelino, Don Marquez and maybe Mr. Wainwright. Why does the father theme weave its way into so many stories?
ACS: The assimilation struggle is made more difficult without a fatherly guide. Don Filigonio does give advice but it is obscure and Reyes is too young to understand it. All the others you mention lack the credibility for any advice to stick. Cíbola and its culture never had a father or leader. Coronado was considered a fool to believe in the seven cities of gold. Oñate was a wealthy and successful businessman but he failed as a colonist leader and was later disgraced because of his mistreatment of the Indians. Armijo, the last Governor of the New Mexico colony, fled cowardly in 1846 when the American General Kearny approached Santa Fe. Cíbola has always been fatherless, lacking a George Washington or Simon Bolivar, and even today the culture in Northern New Mexico does not celebrate any native leader’s birthday. In the ADNU chapter the Anglophone complaint is that the region suffers from a lack of leadership.
Q: Release from Cíbola is the first novel of a trilogy. What’s in store for the other Reyes Córdova novels?
ACS: The second novel spans the undergraduate and graduate education of Reyes so it is basically a college campus story. The final part of the trilogy has to do with Reyes’ entry into the commercial world of America and what he encounters there. Both of the sequels have elements of societal assimilation for Reyes.
Part Three – Reading Group Questions & Test Data Bank
A. True/False Questions:
A1: Age is a factor affecting assimilation.
A2: Assimilation in American culture is a process that depends only on the speed of learning English.
A3: Cultural assimilation can be affected adversely by one’s foreign accent.
A4: Cíbola is another name for Texas.
A5: Oñate’s colony in 1598 was founded on a site near what is now El Paso, Texas.
A6: General Kearny’s invasion of Santa Fe occurred in 1845 under orders from President Polk.
A7: President Martin Van Buren asked Congress to declare war on Mexico in 1845.
A8: Spain ended its claim to Mexico in 1832.
A9: The Texas Republic claimed lands east of the Rio Grande including the eastern part of New Mexico.
A10: Many Spanish colonists from Northern New Mexico fled to El Paso after the Pueblo Rebellion of 1680.
B. Multiple Choice Questions:
B1: Reyes Cordova believes that he can get a good job if:
(a) he gets good references from Anglophones; (b) he marries an Anglophone; (c) he dedicates himself to learning English well; (d) none of the above;
B2: Reyes’ teachers advise him that:
(a) he should comply with the norms of his culture; (b) he should stop speaking Spanish; (c) he should get a college education; (d) none of the above;
B3: Reyes’ mother advises him that:
(a) he should get a college education; (b) he should get married and have children; (c) he should get a job at the post office; (d) none of the above.
B4: Despite high grades in his courses, the high school principal fears Reyes will:
(a) be successful in college; (b) accuse him of prejudice against Hispanics; (c) say something negative about Texans; (d) all of the above;
B5: Reyes joined the drama group and entered a speech contest so as to:
(a) become more popular; (b) please his teachers; (c) meet more girls; (d) none of the above;
B6: Don Marquez, speaking in barely understandable terms, declares that:
(a) there is gold but only “deeper”; (b) Reyes is his son; (c) he will die soon; (d) none of the above;
B7: Abrán, Reyes’ cousin, says that his father is despondent because:
(a) he owns no land; (b) he doesn’t like his job; (c) he doesn’t like to work hard; (d) none of the above;
B8: Reyes compares San Pablo Day to another American holiday, namely:
(a) Memorial Day; (b) Independence Day; (c) Arbor Day; (d) none of the above;
B9: Reyes believes that the enrollment of the Dam Kids in San Fernando High:
(a) brought only resentment among the students; (b) brought more “worldliness” into the town; (c) brought spoiled kids into town; (d) none of the above;
B10: Tranquelino, Reyes’ estranged stepfather, was a man of nature in the following way:
(a) he was a contented sheepherder; (b) he lived simply and minimally; (c) he wrote and sang idyllic poems; (d) all of the above.
C: Essay Questions:
C1: Release from Cíbola mentions several obstacles to achieving cultural assimilation. Name three of them and describe them, giving an example for each from the book.
C2: Abran’s father turned to drink for a number of reasons. Identify at least two of them and describe how they manifested themselves with his family and relatives. Do you believe that this behavior influenced Abran’s difficulties in finishing school?
C3: There are significant differences in the religious beliefs of the Pueblo Indians compared to those of the Hispanic population. Explain how these differences might have led to bloody conflict in the early settlement days of the seventeenth century.
C4: In the ADNU Chapter the Board complains about perceived shortcomings of the San Isidro population which is mainly of Hispanic heritage. What is the basis of those complaints and do you believe they contribute to prejudice?
C5: Reyes believes that he has been rejected by his own ancestral culture. He cites examples of behavior he observes in his fellow classmates. Do you believe he is justified in his belief? If not, what is his motivation for his belief?
C6: Various chapters of the book allude to “Texas phobia” among the San Isidro Valley residents. What incidents, starting with the bogus land claims of the Texas Republic and others that still occur today, give rise to these destructive feelings?
C7: Cíbola and Atalia were names associated with magical kingdoms in the new World. Historically, the search for new lands has been fraught with danger. Arguably, this search is the basis for immigration. What were the dangers in the past, for example in the 17th century, compared to the modern day?
C8: Statistics demonstrate that it is exceedingly difficult for a new generation to escape poverty. What are the principal barriers that a poverty-stricken Spanish speaking youngster faces in trying to achieve personal success through his/her own efforts in America?
C9: Release from Cíbola contains references to the rural to metro migration that started in the 1920’s and continues through today. How has this movement affected the economy of the American Southwest? What have been American efforts to mitigate its economic effect?
C10: The novel depicts education as a core process in the march to cultural assimilation. Reyes’ teachers play a central role in this process. Identify and illustrate by example what these teachers did to further his progress.
Part Four - Memory and Revisiting Release from Cibola
Memory is thus that aspect of human freedom which is most determinative in the construction of historical reality. It gives meaning to historical events without reducing them to natural necessity and recurrence; and it thereby gives the agent of action a dimension of freedom in the present moment which proves history to be a realm of freedom as well as destiny.
—Rheinhold Niebuhr in Faith & History 1949
A. Youth and Cultural Forces
Scientists tell us that the amount of knowledge and formation of memory occurs at a furious pace in our youth and starts to slow in adulthood. But youth finds itself bombarded with sensory stimulation at a time when a stable frame of reference may be absent. Worse, primal forces like fear, hunger and lack of shelter can permanently damage a youth’s ability to develop higher level human activity such as compilation, analysis, compassion, planning and macroscopic thinking. Growing up in a single culture is already intimidating for youth as it deals with finding one’s own place in the world with respect to family, language, religion, occupation and marriage and other cultural forces. Superimposing another culture on the young person makes it more challenging and can bring about inner conflict and confusion for years, if not a lifetime. In physics, solving one-body problems in classical mechanics is basic and over time mastery can be achieved. In similar fashion, youth can acclimate to a single culture given the proper support. Solving two-body problems in physics takes a more sophisticated knowledge of mathematics and more discipline of scientific principles. It takes longer to master the theory involved. Likewise, youth can learn to deal with two cultures over time. It can be done in different ways but it requires the discipline to be open-minded, patient and respectful of cultural differences. Unfortunately, solving three body problems in physics is nearly impossible regardless of mathematical ability. The analogy may be appropriate for youth dealing with three cultures every day. Our human capacity for processing information in three different contexts is easily strained. I am not sure it is possible to deal with the complexity of interactions that three cultures can have. It is not a matter of languages alone. Many people can speak three or more languages. Language is only one dimension of culture. What eventually happens in the human arena is that a single culture becomes dominant in an individual while the others recede into shadowy forms, appearing once in a while and for brief periods, as if summoned upon command. It is best to choose one and not have the choice be imposed. Resentment can be minimized that way. The choice will depend on what is important to the youth. Unfortunately, sometimes the choice has to be made when little counsel is available and in the midst of contradictory information.
The journal entries of the novel as set in the turbulent period of the 1950’s typify the difficulties that a young person encounters when growing up in a region of three powerful cultures, none of which is going away anytime soon. The entries are snapshots of the influence of three cultures, the threads of which are being experienced by Reyes and the people around him. There are three different languages, three different religions, three different views of personal, economic and behavioral values. The competition may take place in quiet scenarios but there is a vicious battle nonetheless. Victory, of course, is the capture of the soul.
Memory allows us to examine the cultural state at different points in time. Despite the advances in technology, the human mind is still our window to the world, trying to reconcile conflict that does not go away, figuring out how best to spend our time and energy, learning new things about ourselves and nature, and passing on, through literature, our understanding of a changing world to future generations.
B. Memory and Reality
This novel is about memories. But what is written goes beyond journal entries made from a simple remembrance of facts, names and dates in boyhood years. Memories take a long time in forming and they come from many sources, their impressions somehow accumulating in our mind. The raw material may occur only once but over time the mind starts working on it, coloring it in patterns that bring out its true meaning to us on a personal level. Sometimes the outcome is more detailed than real but work is required to coax the truth out into an understandable form which we deem is reality. There was something there in our formative years to create the thought that lingers in our consciousness
No character described in the novel, including Reyes Córdova, the major protagonist, is real in the sense that I can ascribe to him/her a person who lived back in the mid-twentieth century in Northern New Mexico. Yet a few of these journal entries are based on personal experiences and some friends of mine will recognize part of a person’s character here and there but it really is a waste of time to argue that a character described herein is a particular person.
A memory is really not a picture because some of the image is blurred. It is more a concept or outline that needs to be filled in like a form in a child’s coloring book. But what remains indelible is a set of features that affected us. I don’t know that anyone can tell us why a memory sticks and why it is so hard to erase it. Memory does seem to mature and harden over time so that it becomes unchangeable.
C. Memory and Culture
Culture is the aggregation of pieces of memory preserved in writings, sayings, music, mannerisms, attitudes, language and ethics with the backdrop of nature in a specific region. The physical attributes of the region – the sky, mountains, rivers, plants, wind and storms - form the environment without which some of the memory would not be formed. The mass of memory contained in a culture is indeed enormous, amorphous and pervasive. It is almost impossible to alter, erase or stop its existence. If the culture has a different language, it is perhaps more resistant to change. Spanish has protected the Hispanic culture in Northern New Mexico. It acts like a shield or a blanket that shuts out the trends from another culture. Living in a remote location can isolate a culture from the winds of change. The vast distances between Northern New Mexico and anywhere else has probably contributed to the preservation of both the Hispanic and Pueblo Indian cultures. Even today, New Mexico lacks a major airport hub, has limited rail service and is home to only one north-south and two east-west interstate highways.
Being situated on the border with Mexico, the state has also kept alive many of the Hispanic traditions that date back to the Spanish colonization period. But there is less affinity between the state and Mexico when one compares the latter’s pride in its liberation from Spain which began with El Grito in 1812 and whose war ended in 1821. New Mexico did not experience much economic or demographic change during that revolutionary period partly because of its distance from Mexico City. It was only a short twenty five years later that the U.S. invaded the region in 1846 and declared it annexed by 1848. That date marked the official entry of the Anglophone or simply Anglo, the English speaker, a term that is void of race or ethnicity but does represent the third culture that entered a region that had been settled first by Native American tribes, most notably those who lived in or near the upper Rio Grande Valley – the Pueblo Indians.
Observers today find it strange that Northern New Mexico has little or no allegiance to Mexico. In fact the population still resents being referred to as “Mexican.” This is not, as some detractors claim, a result of feeling superior to those who were not part of the annexation. It is the simple fact that New Mexico was really not involved in Mexico’s separation from Spain and had little reason to declare its independence unlike central Mexico where the Criollos (Spanish born in the New World) were discriminated against by the Spanish Crown that allowed corruption and unfair taxes to run rampant. It is now almost one hundred and fifty years since New Mexico was separated, both physically and politically, from Mexico and the gap in language and culture has widened and not just in subtle ways. Even today there is tension between Hispanics that have been Americanized through annexation and those who have migrated, legally or illegally, to the U.S. since 1848.
D. Cibola and Faith
We are all part of some regional culture. I acknowledge that I grew up in the culture of Northern New Mexico that is still in flux and whose Spanish influence originated with settlements in 1598, la “tierra nueva” as it was called then, at the confluence of the Chama and Rio del Norte. It was the first royally sanctioned push to settle the huge western area of the North American continent referred to as Cíbola, mostly by the Spanish explorers and mapmakers. It was first associated with the fabled Cities of Gold. In 1540, Coronado was commissioned to pursue the stories of gold in what is now the American Southwest. He found only Native American villages of mud huts and a population at peace with nature. The mysterious Quivira, another land whose location is attributed to be further east of present day New Mexico, was again associated with untold riches. Later, Juan Oñate raised funds, mostly his own, to become the leader of the first major colonization attempt in 1598 at a place he named San Gabriel. That historical region at the confluence of two rivers saw a major collision of European and Pueblo Indian understandings of the world that led to a continuous conflict that became more complicated when the American push for Manifest Destiny brought to the region yet another point of view of human conduct.
It took courage to venture into unknown lands, populated by tribes whose acceptance of European settlement was uncertain. To drum up the courage, the story of fabulous wealth waiting to be found was used. It was a drug that lured those who hungered for fame. Cíbola symbolizes a search not so much for riches as for immortality. By finding a treasure that so many have sought brings the ultimate fulfillment. The searing sun, the arid expanses, the unending dust storms: it would take a prodigious reward to justify the torture endured. My friends from the Midwest and the East Coast ask why this migration by Europeans is any different from others. Only someone who has not lived in the Southwest would ask that question. In other areas, the fertile valleys and plains, the abundant rainfall, the myriad rivers and streams were similar to those in Western Europe. The weather and terrain were not inhospitable. Settlers could live off the land. There was plenty of small game in the forests and fish in the streams. In contrast, the Southwest had little arable land, the mountains were rugged and game was scarce. Despite the environmental challenges, the drive for a magical kingdom of Cíbola is all encompassing. It is irresistible. The Spanish explorers and settlers reached the storied land, and not finding treasure, kept the fable alive anyway.
E. The 1950s, a Decade of Emergence
This book describes representative people from Northern New Mexico in the decade of the 1950s. Some characters are descendants of the early settlers, carrying with them visions that ownership of land in Cíbola still holds power and wealth. Disputes over rightful ownership of land grants from the crown of Spain continue today. Not finding the happiness of Cíbola by generations before them has not deterred them from continuing the search. Recently, it took a charismatic preacher from Texas, Reies Tijerina, to inflame the yearning in modern times for more land by Hispanic families. The uprising came to a head at the county seat of Tierra Amarilla in 1977 with an old fashioned shoot-out with governmental officials. The resentment from the perceived injustice of the official American takeover in 1848 is still being passed on from generation to generation.
The 1950s was the second decade after the initial westward migration of American families from the Midwest and eastern seaboard that came following the establishment of nuclear research and development facilities in Los Alamos and Albuquerque. The population growth for the state between 1940 and 1960 was 78.8% while the country’s growth was less than half that. The huge growth spurt during the 1950s required massive new housing developments in Albuquerque and a few in Santa Fe, the capital city sixty miles to the north. Large infrastructure projects in the Santa Fe-Albuquerque corridor were undertaken to cope with the needs of people who were accustomed to modern urban facilities back East. Additional water supply to both cities was contracted through the landmark San Juan-Chama Diversion Project started in 1951 under the leadership of then Senator Clinton P. Anderson. Albuquerque’s airport was enlarged next to Kirtland Air Force Base and the Eisenhower Interstate project placed the intersection of I-25 and I-40 at the city’s center. The Atomic Age brought large numbers of people from other states who then joined resident Native American and Hispanic population groups that had been in the area for centuries.
The establishment of Los Alamos as an atomic research facility in the 1940’s brought tremendous change to Northern New Mexico. The influx of scientists, engineers and other support professionals implanted an iconic American culture that had developed in the Midwest and the East. It was a time for the older cultures of New Mexico to sit up and take notice of the newcomers and how they lived. It was an awakening that could not be ignored. It had been one hundred years since the official acquisition of the territory by the United States in 1848. Although disputes still linger about the fairness of the acquisition and how the native and Hispanic populations were treated during that century, the American government did not grossly interfere with the continuance of the cultures present in the mid 1800s. But the Atomic Age and what was happening in the rest of the country changed all that. The state experienced a tsunami of a more traditional and arguably homogeneous American culture in the 1950s. American movies and television, chain stores, and paper media of American magazines like Life, Look and The Saturday Evening Post provided widespread exposure to that culture. Northern New Mexico, the site of the first European colony in 1598 and more than 350 years of settlement and a marginal merger of culture with the Pueblo Indian tribes, was now subjected to an inflow of American migrants that quickly took over banking, educational and medical facilities and soon dominated the commercial landscape of the region. There was inevitable conflict, usually not the physical and violent kind, but the internal, subtle and pervasive kind that causes pain through mutual prejudice, suspicion and ethnic segregation.
F. Cultural Conflict and Fusion in Northern New Mexico
Complete assimilation into the American culture has not occurred in the region even today. In sixty years since the 1950’s there has been considerable progress but there is still rampant poverty and more recently, a serious substance abuse problem among the Hispanic and Native American populations. Certainly English is more commonly spoken now, compared to the 1950s. Hispanic children now bear Anglo first names like James, Richard and Robert for boys or Leslie, Miriam, and Jennifer for girls. But the educational achievement gap is still prevalent between Hispanic and Anglo children and similarly between Pueblo and Anglo. The state per capita income is among the lowest in the country and has not improved relatively speaking in that time period. The government is still the largest employer in the state and continues to grow.
Hence, since 1848, the official start of the American influence, the region has seen the comingling of three distinct cultures, one with roots dating back thousands of years, one with over three hundred and fifty years of mostly European influence and the third becoming more dominant with every passing day.
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Warren, Nancy Hunter (1981), Villages of Hispanic New Mexico, Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.
Weigle, Marta (1976), Brothers of Light, Brothers of Blood: The Penitentes of the Southwest, Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.