I Got Mine: A Book Review

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I Got Mine: Confessions of a Midlist Writer
By John Nichols
University of New Mexico Press
Hardback, 280 pages, 36 halftones
$27.95

A Review by Pete Warzel

John Treadwell Nichols will be 82 years old this year. He has been writing for much more than a majority of those years, having his first publishing deal for A Sterile Cuckoo, at the age of 23. A wunderkind, for sure. The golden boy.

This memoir by Nichols covers that initial success and the years that follow, up to now, focused on the writing aspects of his 23 novels and non-fiction books, myriad essays, political diatribes, screenplays, and all the work that did not get published along the way. Some of his personal life comes through in this book, some of the marriages, the political engagement, and certainly his pure feelings about Hollywood, but it is really a travelogue through a writing life. In that, it is fascinating.

I once had the opportunity to visit John’s storage shed in Taos many years ago, to view the manuscripts, the endless rewrites, that now reside at the University of New Mexico in the John Nichols archives. I believe it is no joke in this memoir when he cites the astounding 35th draft of his book On the Mesa, a non-fiction love story about the natural world around Taos, that finally came in at 193 pages. All his manuscripts filled a shelf that ran around the shed about the size of a two-car garage. Boxes filled the floor. It was a three-dimensional visualization of this memoir.

The title I Got Mine is taken from the epigram to the book, a two verse quote from a traditional song that tells the tale of a gambler losing all his money at a crap game, but when the police broke up the game someone dropped a bet on the floor, immediately swiped by the narrator on his way out the door. That is a witty analogy to John’s success, or not, as a writer. No money, big money, broke again. The Milagro Beanfield War sells very little, lingers, becomes an underground classic, while the third book in The New Mexico Trilogy, Nirvana Blues, becomes a best-seller in major cities and sends Nichols on his first book tour. Milagro percolates and becomes a film project for Robert Redford, and so up and down, paydirt and paucity.

Nichols rings true when he recalls the screenwriting gigs for Hollywood films, capturing the essence of the biz, as only his sense of humor can do. “So we park, take an elevator to the top floor, and sit down with Eddie Lewis and eight tanned moguls wearing Armani suits… Everyone gets comfortable, politely eats a delicate little cucumber and sprouts sandwich, takes a sip of Pellegrino sparkling water and then the head addresses Costa: ‘Well Costa, tell us what you have in mind’” Perfect. Costa is Costa-Gavras the director of Missing, an outstanding film that Nichols wrote the screenplay for… and got pushed out of the film credit by the Screenwriters Guild. Hollywood politics, a cruel outcome since it won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

He also rings so very true when he talks about his adopted home of Taos, New Mexico. “The stands at Friday or Saturday Taos High football games boasted cheering fans. Overhead, doves flew south trailed by noisy sandhill cranes. The Wednesday drive-in movies featured Tony Aguilar – I parked the family there to learn Spanish and enjoy the music. Lightning streak lit up the western sky as we pigged out on butter-drenched popcorn.” Idyllic, small town America, but in the kingdom of New Mexico, Chamisaville, to some. 

There is a sense of endless energy in this book. Nichols writes and writes and rewrites, multiple novels and screenplays at once, while taking time to commit to political protest and engagement, raise a family, remarry and remarry. He describes himself as “…a one man writing factory, working on five novels at once.” My sense is that at 81 he still has a good chunk of that energy left. This book gallops and roars, laughs out loud at the publishing business, the movie business, and at the author himself. John Nichols really never pulled his punches in his writing, or in conversation or protest. This book follows suit. He is ethically consistent in everything he does, like it or not.

Let me close with an opinion. American Blood, a Nichols novel from 1987, breaks the mold of his work, and it is a masterpiece. Like Cormac McCarthy, but in Nichols own style and vision, he explores the undercurrent, no, the heart and soul of America as violent. I remember when it was first published, I bought it and read it in a night and day. It is a powerful, ugly, beautiful piece of writing, and I could not put it down deep into the night. It scared me, as does our country more and more these days. John has written a lot of very good books with his singular sense of humor and love of land and people. American Blood is a work from deeper inside. It was I thought, on that first reading, truly a great novel. I will go back and read it again and hope I was correct. It is, given the past several weeks of repeated mass killings in our country, a reflection of our society, but written 35 years ago. It is timely again, and might be of interest to you, but with a WARNING. It is violent and disturbing. The reviews Nichols includes in I Got Mine might be worth reading before trying out American Blood. A comment Nichols himself makes in this memoir about being asked to write a screenplay of the novel is to the point. “This time around I chickened out of writing a script because I couldn’t deal with the violence.”

So let’s end with this to put it all in perspective. Nichols is on the set of The Milagro Beanfield War in Truchas, New Mexico, 1986. Robert Redford walks by and says “ Oh, John Nichols, are you slumming in Hollywood again?” Enough said. John Nichols has had a wild ride.

Mescalero Apache Tour Recap

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An article by Hanna Churchwell

St. Patrick Chapel by Pete Warzel

In April of 2022 Historic Santa Fe Foundation had the pleasure of hosting an architectural and cultural history tour of three churches on the Mescalero Apache Reservation with Frank Graziano, founder of Nuevo Mexico Profundo and author of Historic Churches of New Mexico Today. We were accompanied by 16 tour attendees and two speakers in addition to Frank: Harry Vasile and Father Dave Mercer. The tour commenced on Sunday, April 24 with a dinner and presentation by Frank on the history of the Mescalero Apache and St. Joseph Apache Mission which provided context for the tour the following day.

The Mescalero Apache have bravely fended for their people, way of life, and land for centuries, surviving war and subjugation by Spain, Mexico, and the United States. Throughout the mid- to late 1800s and early 1900s the U.S. government imprisoned the Apache, attempted to destroy their culture through boarding schools, and continuously encroached upon the reservation established by Ulysses S. Grant in 1873. It was the Mescalero Apache’s welcoming of the Lipan and Chiricahua Apache in the early 1900s that eventually gave them the strength in numbers to combat the intrusion into their land by settlers and the U.S. government. Understanding this era in Mescalero Apache history is key to understanding the cultural and religious synthesis apparent in St. Joseph Apache Mission and the role of Catholicism in the lives of Mescalero Apache people today.

On Monday, we first visited St. Joseph Apache Mission: a tall Romanesque church in between Sierra Blanca and the Sacramento Mountains, two of four mountains sacred to the Mescalero Apache. Harry Vasile, Frank Graziano, and Father Dave Mercer told us about the past, present, and the future of the chapel. Built over the course of 20 years, starting in 1920 under the guidance of Father Al Braun and with help from Mescalero Apache and Franciscan volunteers, St. Joseph was constructed from materials that were locally sourced. Father Al Braun shaped the reputation, practices, and aesthetics we associate with the mission. He recognized the spirituality of the Mescalero Apache people, and rather than demonizing their religion and practices as the Catholic Church advocated for at the time, Father Al encouraged the Mescalero Apache to continue their traditions by utilizing the mission.

Apache traditions and values are incorporated into St. Joseph Apache Mission through paintings, stained glass, sculpture, seasonal décor, and performance. A tapestry honoring Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American Saint, hangs near the altar. A depiction of Christ as a Mescalero Apache Medicine man by icon artist Robert Lentz hangs on one end of the church. At the opposite end, there is a mural which features crown dancers at the puberty rites ceremony, which is a four-day long rite of passage from girlhood to womanhood. The puberty rites ceremony is a highly important tradition to the Mescalero Apache that Father Al Braun fought against the Catholic Church to support instead of banning. Also lining the entryway of the church are portraits of Apache leaders including Geronimo. The stained-glass windows were sponsored by different families who were allowed to choose what their window depicted with the caveat that each window must include imagery associated with Mescalero Apache culture. One window depicts Mary as a girl wearing the buckskin dress associated with puberty rites and holding the baby Jesus in a traditional cradleboard. Another depicts Harry as St. Joseph and his son in garb traditionally worn by Mescalero Apache boys.

The left hand of a statue of St. Joseph holds one of the small trowels used to slowly fill the cracks between rocks with fresh mortar during the mission’s recent restoration. The restoration began in 2000 and was completed 14 years later, except for the bell tower which still requires maintenance. Over the years, Harry worked with a diverse and varying group of four to dig out the remnants of the broken-down lime-mortar cement and painstakingly apply new mortar. One participant stayed on for the entirety of the restoration, Tommy Spottedbird; others who participated included young Mescalero Apache women, men involved in job programs, and at-risk youth. The lime-mortar concrete used to construct the cathedral requires maintenance almost every 80 years and the process must be undertaken again by the end of this century.

In awe and slightly behind schedule, we continued to Three Rivers Petroglyph Site for lunch. As we headed back on the road, we observed several crosses perched on steep hilltops with well-worn trails before arriving at Santo Niño de Atocha Chapel. The small, white chapel is minimalist from the outside, but packed with religious paintings and votives on the inside. Santo Niño de Atocha is uncommon among New Mexican churches because much of the material culture contained within its walls alludes to the practices of Mexican Catholics. Under a statue of the child saint several votive offerings are placed, including a long hair braid. Paintings, toys, sculptures, and bandanas with hand-written messages are abundant in the space. One notable exception to this trend is a prayer for farmers which is written in English and takes up a large portion of the back wall. Frank Graziano suggested that Santo Niño de Atocha Chapel itself may have been built as a votive offering.

Only a few miles from Santo Niño de Atocha Chapel, the final church on our tour was St. Patrick Chapel (also known as San Patricio). St. Patrick Chapel stands beautifully in front of Sierra Blanca, its small arched windows bracketing the entryway. When driving up to St. Patrick, the arch which frames the chapel’s small bell also frames the clouds above the mountain. St. Patrick is sparse on the inside, with a few rows of wooden pews and four rectangular stained-glass windows. However, the windows, though simple, cast brilliant blue, red, and yellow light around the small space, making them the chapel’s most striking interior feature. The altar screen has several three-dimensional elements and replicates the same color scheme as the stained-glass windows.

St. Patrick was constructed in the late 1920s after being commissioned by two sisters from New York; it was named in honor of their parents. The chapel has since been associated with the Klinkole family who live nearby. At St. Patrick Chapel, Father Dave recalled the beautiful love story of Virginia and Bruce Klinkole. Virginia Klinkole, the first woman president of the Mescalero Apache, married Bruce after his military service in World War II. Shortly after the war, Bruce showed up on Virginia’s doorstep, telling her that hearing stories about her helped him survive the Bataan Death March. The love story associated with the chapel and its gorgeous backdrop of the Sierra Blanca give an air of romance to the small stone chapel.

We capped our tour with a return trip to and brief hike at Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, trying to absorb as many of the petroglyphs as possible in one short trip. These prehistoric images cover a wide area but are densely located and feature a wide array of imagery from people to geometric patterns to animals. They are varied and open to interpretation. To me, they were a reminder of how recently the construction of the churches occurred, our proximity in the grand scheme of things to the violence inflicted upon the Mescalero Apache people by Spain, Mexico, and the United States, and of the incredible resilience of the Mescalero Apache people in the face of dehumanization. Leaving Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, we had plenty of time to reflect on the history of South-Central New Mexico as we waited for one passing cargo train to make way for another as they intersected blocking the only country road leading back to Highway 54 and our journey home.

Frank’s book Historic Churches of New Mexico Today is currently on back order in our gift shop; however a copy can be purchased from Oxford University Press or Amazon. Read more about Nuevo Mexico Profundo’s restoration work and tours here.

Donaciano Vigil: A Book Review

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Review by Pete Warzel

518 Alto Street is an elegant, traditionally adobe plastered home, formerly owned by the Historic Santa Fe Foundation, and recognized as historically significant by the Foundation’s Register of Properties Worthy of Recognition, as well as the National Register of Historic Places. HSFF holds a preservation easement on the property ensuring the façade, footprint, and specific elements be maintained as is, in perpetuity.

The house was brought to prominent public attention in the 1960s when owned and renovated by Charlotte White and companion, the sculptor Boris Gilbertson. It was much earlier owned by the Vigil family, the land purchased and the home built sometime between 1792 and 1800. It is the birthplace of Donaciano Vigil, Territorial Governor of New Mexico following the murder of Governor Charles Bent during the Taos Revolt in 1847. His fascinating life spanned Spanish, Mexican, and United States jurisdiction of the area in the 19th century, and so was at the center of the change to what we are now.

Authors Maurilio E. Vigil (descendant of Donaciano) and Helene Boudreau, both professors at New Mexico Highlands University, have written a thoroughly researched, engaging history of Donaciano Vigil, within the context of New Mexico history, and the long arm of Spanish colonization of New Spain and the northern reaches of what would become our state. The detail in this book is prodigious, the writing well done, the story fascinating. And because of our former ownership of the Alto Street House, Donaciano feels like a cousin we are just learning about.

The authors trace the origination of the Vigil family from Spain, and follow the emigration of the noble class to the new world due to “…the many Spaniards trapped in this archaic social and political system…” that arose under the Austrian Habsburg monarchs of Spain during the sixteenth century. Juan Montes Vigil II was the third named Vigil immigrant to the Americas, and the patriarch of the family in New Mexico. Juan Montes Vigil III had a son out of wedlock, Francisco Montes Vigil, most likely a mestizo, and the first Vigil to move his family to New Mexico, following Don Diego de Vargas’ call for settlers to propagate the newly reconquered land in 1695. (The authors pull no punches in describing the years of Spanish return following the Pueblo Revolt, “Santa Fe was liked an armed camp….Food was scarce, and it was up to Vargas to remedy the situation. He commanded a force to Picuris and Taos to steal food from the natives.”)  Juan Cristobal Montes Vigil II, great grandson of Francisco Montes, purchased the land and built the home on Alto Street sometime around 1800, where Donaciano was born in 1802.

I have long pondered the lack of focus on Mexican history in Santa Fe, and why that might be. It is a significant missing piece in the way the city promotes its past, and a hole in our own knowledge of the cultural history of our city. No longer. Donacinao Vigil’s life is at the heart of Mexican rule in New Mexico, and the authors fill in the blanks with great research and detail. In many ways, Donaciano is a cultural bridge between Spain and U.S. ownership of the land here. Born under Spanish rule in Santa Fe, he begins his prodigious career in the military, as many of his forefathers had done for Spain and Mexico. He serves during the rebellion in Santa Cruz in 1837, and again during the attempted Texas invasion of New Mexico in 1841, takes on a political persona as secretary of the assembly in the Department of New Mexico under Mexican regime in Santa Fe, and following General Kearney’s invasion by the Army of the West, and proclamation that New Mexico was now part of the U.S., is appointed Secretary of the first, civil U.S. government. That position was second in political command to the governor, Charles Bent. Upon Bent’s murder in Taos during the Taos uprising, Donaciano Vigil stepped into the position and began to create new government structure and process, following the Kearney Code, and supervised the creation of the Vigil Index, a guide to the document archive of Spain and Mexico for future use by the United States in lawsuits and land claims. His dedication and energy out ran the new national affiliation’s timeframe as he was informed the structure could not stand, since the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo had not yet been signed by Mexico and the U.S., so ownership of New Mexico was still under Mexico jurisdiction. Ooops.  

The subtitle of the book cites Donaciano Vigil’s service as soldier, statesman, and territorial governor, but that leaves so much of his life out of the picture. An active life of community and political involvement put him at the center of everything. He retired to land purchased in Pecos, NM, ostensibly as a gentleman farmer, yet continues to be called and serve as a Territorial Representative to the New Mexico legislature. He built a molino, grist mill, on his land beside the Pecos River, and ground corn and threshed wheat for his neighbors, augmenting his income. Upon his death, he received a spectacular send-off by his fellow New Mexicans, the authors quoting historian Ralph Emerson Twitchell, “…by far the largest and most distinguished gathering ever witnessed in New Mexico.”

Professors Vigil and Boudreau have written an important book on a native born New Mexican who straddled three political and cultural worlds, and was instrumental in forming the government of the United States in the Territory that would eventually become the forty-seventh state. In doing so, they highlight Mexican history in Santa Fe, and how governmental transition worked and cultures interacted on way to becoming New Mexico.

Donaciano Vigil: The Life of a Nuevomexicno Soldier, Statesman, and Territorial Governor
By Maurilio E. Vigil and Helene Boudreau
University of New Mexico Press
Hardbound, 318 pages, $39.95

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The Renovation of Historic St. Antonio de Padua in Cordova

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Photos by Victor Goler. Conservation work by Victor Goler, Felix Lopez, and Jerry Sandoval.

Article by Pete Warzel

In November 2021, Victor Goler, master santero and art conservator, along with fellow santeros Felix Lopez and Jerry Sandoval, began a project enabled by Nuevo Mexico Profundo, a non-profit organization focused on the historic, some forgotten and neglected, churches of New Mexico, for repair and stabilization. Tours and events held by Profundo raise money that goes directly to the churches for their care.

This project was quite something different. The altar screens and bultos, originally created by the iconic New Mexico santero José Rafael Aragón in the early 1800s, were in disrepair due to age and climate changes within the church at Cordova, New Mexico. It was not an instance of neglect or mishandling, rather the erosion by time. Profundo hired Victor and his associates, after fundraising for the project, substantially endowed by the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust, and individual donors, to conserve and stabilize the important and beautiful artwork.

The project was completed in March 2022, with stirring results.

This is an endeavor that highlights community – the love of the church by the mayordomos, the caretakers, the villagers in Cordova, and the community of santeros who collaborated on the stabilization of the artwork. It is important to cultural history, and it is important to Cordova.

Two weeks ago, our Stewards Members were invited to see the results, with a presentation by Victor Goler on the work. We had visited in December 2021, as the work began, and Victor presented the process and steps he and his colleagues would be following for the next four months. In this piece are photographs of the completed project. You can see that the artwork, the space, the accomplishment, are very special and a testament to the longevity and continuity of Northern New Mexico.

The Albuquerque Journal published an excellent article on the restoration.

Master Plan Update: Enhanced Entry and Acequia Underway

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Construction for the El Zaguán Master Plan is underway! It is an exciting time at Historic Santa Fe Foundation, as years of planning and dreaming begin to manifest themselves physically. There is much still to be done, but at this point in the process, it feels good to savor the initial progress.

In January of 2022, a long anticipated improvement to our front entry was begun. For the stretch at our turquoise gates, where the courtyard wall is plastered with the traditional mud over its adobe structure, the earthen sidewalk was replaced with dark colored bricks. This was also extended into the courtyard, replacing the uneven flagstone paving leading to the zaguán and smoothing out a too-steep slope leading in right at the gates (a byproduct of raising the street level when it was paved). Drainage had long been an issue, with that slope washing mud from the sidewalk into the too-small drain inside the courtyard so that water ponded even in slight rainstorms, and this to has been addressed with an enlarged French drain funneling water away below ground to the garden where it will benefit plantings. We think the contractor, Sunsilk Landscaping, did a great job not only making it more inviting and safer but also fitting the changes in with the historic surroundings.

Hot on the heels of the success of the brick installation, planning for one of the most exciting educational enhancements of the Master Plan came together. This is the revival of the historic acequia which was the life force of the property during the time that it was an active farm. The Canyon Road Community Ditch fed the farms along the full length of what is now the bustling downtown city street, and an attentive viewer can see hints of it in the landscape at several points. It is, however, fully inactive, and so our acequia will be contained to the short section along the east edge of the garden, recirculating in front of the portal.

The project, which was designed by Surroundings Studios and is being constructed by Oasis Aquatics, is reusing every possible piece of stone lining the historic path. When it is completed, a small lock gate, as is used in still active acequias, will allow HSFF staff and docents to demonstrate how the system works to flood irrigate fields and gardens. In conjunction with the impending interpretive space inside, this will greatly add to the Foundation’s resources to enact its educational mission. Stay tuned for more exciting updates as The El Zaguán Master Plan becomes reality.

In Memoriam: Nancy Owen Lewis

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We have lost a wonderful friend, a committed scholar, a valuable leader at HSFF, and a great lady. Nancy Owen Lewis passed away last Wednesday evening, and there is a void at 545 Canyon Road.

“Dr. Lewis provided us with wisdom on the Board of Directors, leadership on two projects that were dear to her – the 5th edition of Old Santa Fe Today and the history interpretation plan as part of our Master Plan for El Zaguán. I believe the first time I met Nancy eight years ago now, she was prodding me to have the foundation publish a new edition of the book, and so proud that The School of American Research, SAR (now the School for Advanced Research), had published the first edition of OSFT in 1966. She had a long affiliation with SAR as a Scholar in Residence from 2011 to the present and as former Director of Scholar Programs. Likewise, her long-time commitment to HSFF filled many roles: former Chair of the Board, Board Director, Chair of the El Zaguán Interpretation Committee, Editor, and coordinator of the publication committee for Old Santa Fe Today, 5th edition.

She is an integral part of our foundation’s history and has moved us towards our future.

It is a very sad time in Santa Fe for everyone she worked with and touched. I will miss her sagacity and her wit. Several years ago I visited her office in the SAR Press building and after a serious conversation about some HSFF governance issue, I turned to leave and saw a table lamp that appeared to show a cow, inside the clear body of the lamp, being raised in a beam of light to a UFO hovering above. I was certain this was a person to be reckoned with. And so she was.” — Pete Warzel, HSFF Executive Director

Read the obituary and find out about the services for Dr. Nancy Owen Lewis.

As a Board Director and historian, Dr. Lewis had an incredible passion for the history of Santa Fe especially surrounding many of the women who arrived in Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico in the 20th century including the White Sisters, El Zaguán owner Margretta Dietrich, and Dietrich’s sister, the artist Dorothy Stewart. We are pleased to offer a wonderful example of her ability to engage an audience through her fascinating storytelling abilities based in scholarly research. In this video, she traces the history of the home of Historic Santa Fe Foundation and its many inhabitants over its history. We always enjoyed a presentation by Nancy with her lively style and personality and evident knowledge and passion for her topics. We hope you enjoy this video of Nancy’s history of El Zaguán.

For so many reasons, we will miss Nancy Owen Lewis at Historic Santa Fe Foundation.