April 23rd is the 300th Tricentennial of Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1706 Alburquerque was founded, named for the Duke of Alburquerque. Fiestas, balloons and royalty are celebrating away. Mayor Martin Chavez and the Spanish Duke of Alburquerque Osorio y Beltran de Lis and his wife, Dutches Blanca Suelves Figuerjo,went up in the air trailed by 100 balloonists to look down on the city founded on the banks of the Rio Del Norte (Rio Grande today, Rio Bravo to many still).
Founding families are retracing the journey on the Camino Real from Bernallio, with Spanish horses. A mid-day mass at the Cathedral church, San Felipe de Neri, Old Town, commemorates the occasion in a ceremony based on traditions brought north with the Spaniards.
La Ciudad: beans and tortillas, mountain and valley, and a confluence of cultures then and now. Not morphed: Sandia (watermelon) and Monzano (apple) mountains. Morphed: The city's spelling dropped an "r" and just like Columbus' claim on America, the Conquistadores have written the history.
The confluent cultural truth of the matter out west has to be deeply mined and broadly pondered to be appropriately appreciated.
Nueva Espana? The Camino Real? Los Conquistadores? Really! The Pueblo of Taos? The Sky City of Acoma?
Both were there way before the Spaniards came to El Norte and there is
a different story told threading back way before the Spanish explorers
came in and sent turquoise jewels for the crowns of the rulers in Spain. Taos and Acoma still exist as the two oldest continuous settlements in the United States. The Pecos pueblo today is an empty village of wind with only rubble remnants remaining. The few speakers of the language long ago dispersed to other pueblos.
Hopis speaking a distant dialect of Chinese? Plains Indian tent constructions and social arrangement similar to the yurts of the Turkish nomads? Proof of very distant trade relations? All to be studied, as is the Spanish dialect spoken by many, especially around Santa Fe, that can be identified with specific regions of Spain and frozen in time to remain archaic when heard by modern speakers of Castilian.
300 years young, Feliz Navidad Albuquerque! The media are all over the story in this state full of cultural depth.
With roots going back to the settlement of Alb it was pretty cool to be down in Old Town. My dad and mom have been telling a lot of stories the past few months.
Posted by: Marty Pena | April 23, 2006 at 07:18 PM