![]() ![]() In the 1980s, Santa Fe style rose to national prominence, inspiring crafts, furniture, and architecture. It may be the most concentrated art center in the world, with one of every six residents employed in the business of art. Today it stands as an icon: a multicultural society that celebrates and preserves centuries-old traditions. While most Western communities were founded in the mid-1800s as boomtowns associated with mining strikes, Santa Fe already had a patina: The city was two centuries old when settlers headed west. Soon after emerged two industries: mining and cattle, boosted by completion of the cross-continental railroad in 1880. ![]() Using the rugged, 900-mile Santa Fe Trail from Franklin, Mo., to Santa Fe and beyond, traders, immigrants and adventurers left the East Coast of the newly formed American nation to seek their fortunes. During the 17th and 18th centuries, New Mexico was the heart of the Spanish empire in the Southwest.įollowing Napoleon’s defeat of Spain and the independence of the Spanish colonies, a third force, Anglos, joined the Indians and Hispanics to complete the cultural mosaic. Spanish towns developed, the most important being the new capital: Santa Fe. Onate supervised the building of missions and mission churches at many pueblos. The Southwest received an imprint that changed the flow of culture from Indian to Spanish. In 1598, Don Juan Onate, with a force of 200 and a contract to colonize New Mexico, left Mexico for San Juan, founding it as the New Mexico capital. The two-year mission turned up neither a treasure nor a conquest, but it inspired missionary zeal to create converts to the Catholic faith. The expedition visited most of the Rio Grande valley pueblos, the Great Plains, and central Kansas, finally struggling back to the Rio Grande and home to Mexico. The seven cities turned out to be pueblos around Zuni, N.M. They became the first Europeans to organize an expedition to the American Southwest. Fired by the “seven golden cities” legend popular in Spain, the group believed that other fabulous cities existed. ![]() In Culiacan, on the west coast of Mexico, Spaniards commanded by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado gathered in 1540. Beginning in the Caribbean and fanning into the heart of Mexico and South America, Spaniards seeking gold and conquest arrived with weapons and precision warfare unknown to the Indians - including horses that made them mobile and devastating in battle. In between lie wondrous stories.Īt the opening of the 16th century, a force came to leave a lasting imprint. Many millennia later, man successfully released atomic energy. The Indians’ weavings, ceramics, carvings, and jewelry permeated these lands in the earliest days. They introduced building techniques and architectural styles still ecologically correct in this extreme landscape. These American Indian cultures developed agricultural societies using corn, squash, and beans introduced from Mexico. Centuries before European nations came into being, Asians crossed the Bering Strait and explored the Americas from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. The history of Santa Fe is a triumvirate of cultures. The Santa Fe Opera, SITE Santa Fe, Art Santa Fe, and Indian Market celebrate the roots of the city while firmly planting its flag as a formidable destination for cutting-edge contemporary art. A four-pack of cultural events makes Santa Fe, N.M., the best getaway in the West this summer. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |