Day: October 17, 2017

 

We stopped to see the Trujillo’s Weaving Shop in Chimayo, Maria was on fire to see some of the famed weavers in this town, who have kept a dying tradition alive for decades. I thought she was about to run off with Carlos Trujillo, who was weaving on the loom his grandfather built a hundred years ago.

He and Maria connected and she had a hundred questions for him that he was only too happy to answer. I felt out of reach of these two, and wandered the store, and I was happy to see Maria so transfixed, and Carlo so happy to teach her.of his

The weaving tradition in New Mexico is very old and Carlos Trujillo is one of the very few weaving masters left, each of his gorgeous old looms was build by a different member of his family, including the one he built. He said he has no children, but some of his nieces and nephews might take over one day, although they have already moved away and have their own careers.

Carlos’s father and grandfather worked as weavers, it would be sad if this long tradition faded away. But it seems likely, like so many other traditions. Modern America has not been kind to craftsmen and women.

I found some wonderful jewelry and carvings in his shop to bring back to Cambridge for the Mansion residents and staff. I bought a necklace for Maria. She was transfixed by Carlos and the things he taught her in such a short time. She can’t wait to start working on her new table loom, and he gave her some ideas.

Fortunately, they did not run off,  but I suspect we will see more of Carlos before we leave. He is a lovely human being.

 

Faith is a subject of endless fascination to me, and I usually avoid popular tourist spots, they just rarely touch me or interest me.  The Church of Santuario is a beautiful famous church believed to be a source of great healing, we both wanted to see this beautiful structure. The lame and the sick gather outside the church every day, and there are scores of crutches left behind, presumably after their owners are healed.

Architecturally the Church is gorgeous, inspiring and haunting.

I was put off by the gift shops and Disney-like aura surrounding the church, build around a cross found planted in the ground. They sell tins to hold the holy dirt. I don’t doubt or question anybody’s faith or testimony but my unease around healing sites and throngs of busses and shops bubbled up again.

America’s capitalist machine leaves nothing untouched.

The expensive wooden and ceramic images of Jesus being brutally and graphically nailed to the cross in the gift shops were disturbing to me, not what he is primarily about for me, and no mentions or representations of his struggles on behalf of the poor and vulnerable, all the art was about his agony.

I understand his suffering is an enormous part of Christian theology, but I never really see the Jesus I have read about so often. It is not for me to tell anybody else how to portray their religion, I just didn’t want to stay there for too long, and I hope all the stories about healing are true.

I thought the most authentic and moving thing I saw was the fence that led from the giant parking lot to the hauntingly beautiful and ornate Church. It was lined with crosses and ribbons and photos and messages to the dead. We spent a long time reading them and feeling them, it touched me much more deeply than the church itself, which surprised me. The messages were beautiful and so very real.

I loved the look of Renee’s hair cutting salon and we pulled in so I could take a photograph. Renee came out and I thought she would demand to know why I was taking a picture, but like most people here, she just wanted to talk and say hello. She asked where I was from, and we talked about food. “Do you want Mexican American food?,” she asked, “or Mexican-Mexican food?” We chose the later and had some tonight. She invited us to come back anytime.

When I started taking photos in upstate New York, the farmers would sometimes come up to me with rifles, wondering if I was an assessor or realtor, since I had such a fancy camera. Here, every is upset if I don’t come in and say hello. Renee didn’t want to be photographed, for reasons I understood, but I promised to visit on our next drive back. She wants to know what a blog is and why I have such a big camera.

A topsy-turvy day for us,  my insulin pens were somehow crushed in transit and destroyed, and I had to do some quick scrambling to get them replaced at a pharmacy in nearby Espanola. The pharmacy said it would cost $1,000 to replace the three pens, and I gulped and called the health insurance company.

They were very good about it, they authorized the replacement for a fraction of that, and I am grateful for that, it would have been a very different vacation. I did not like the idea of vacationing with no insulin, and my heart goes out to the many people who cannot afford their medication. The pharmacist said it is rare to see such a happy ending. I think the fates want me to have my vacation.

It is not good for a diabetic to have no insulin. I’m good now.

I love New Mexico, it has beauty and much soul. I see why artists love to come here and live here. I love the landscapes but they are much photographed, feel like a cliche to me, I am looking to see what catches my eye and one thing did right away. Because there is so little moisture here, cars do not rust and almost every yard is filled with beautiful old cards who are spared the junkyard and retire to people’s yards.

They are everywhere, an art form in itself. Tonight, we found a great taco stand in Espanola and had a great dinner – I had chicken Tostados, and I am loving the food we are eating here, my food horizons are already broadened. I just have to watch the spices, Mexicans must have iron stomachs.

Tomorrow, to Abiquiu to spend some time in Georgia O’Keefe’s last home and studio.  I want to get a photo of Maria there. Looking forward to it. The B&B has no working wi-fi in our room and there is no cell phone service (for AT&T customers) in most of Northern New Mexico, so I can only blog late at night in the kitchen here.

It is a transformative experience to be offline for most of the day, and I like it very much. Nobody is talking about tweets here, and I feel I am finding a lost part of myself, I can’t check into the world 50 times a day, and I am not missing it.

New Mexico seems very real to me, immensely stimulative and evocative (and friendly), all kinds of beauty mixed up all kinds of junk and all of it works here, it is a place of great light and beauty in many different forms.

Hope to get up early and wade further into the wonderful book about Henry David Thoreau I am reading.  I’ll sit in the patio when the sun comes up and listen to dogs and coyotoes and watch the sun light up the beautiful trees, to my surprise, there are lots of them. Lots of cactus and scrub too, gorgeous mountains everywhere.

The less cell service, the more reading, I like it, although blogging is not work for me. I have a few more photos to post tonight if I can. All the news from Bedlam Farm is good, the animals are happy and healthy, I think of them but do not miss them, at least not at this point.