Moments in Time: Stories of New Mexico’s History; Tesoros de Devoción: Treasures of Devotion

The artisans that jump into this medium, even though they're not religious in any way, eventually will be transformed. The term Santo is a vernacular Spanish term and refers to any image of a saint, either painted or three-dimensional. A santero or a santera is a person who actually carves or paints those images. Prior to 1680 and the public revolt, much of the artwork that adorned churches in New Mexico

missions were either imported from Spain or brought up from Mexico City. Then the public revolt happened and most of the artwork was destroyed. It wasn't until the recolonization with De Vargas in 1692 that you see the real blossoming of the classical santero tradition happening around 1750 going all the way up to the late 19th century. A retablo is a hand-adds pine panel called a tabla. A bulto is a three-dimensional sculpture of a saint, either carved from Pandaro's a pine or cottonwood. So many of the pieces from New Mexico, both bultos and retablos, were used either in churches, private chapels or for home worship.

Most of them were cared for like family members. So many of these old world saints were reinterpreted in New Mexico, for instance, Saint Joseph generally holds in his hand a lily, but in New Mexico holds a local flower, the holly hawk. Another saint that comes to mind is Anacasio, who was a Roman soldier. He's usually depicted in his soldier garb, but in New Mexico he is wearing the soldier's uniform of the northern frontier and down below him his army also dressed in the same uniforms. So again reinterpreting old world saints in a new world setting. With the opening of the Santa Fe Trail and the coming of the railroad into New Mexico,

there was an abundance of mass-produced religious artifacts coming into New Mexico, and there was often replaced the Santos that were being made in New Mexico, that Santero tradition in New Mexico slowly died out. I was inspired by my grandfather who was a Santero here in San Antonio, Mexico. With the research that I've done in the past and the beautiful examples that the museums do have, that has helped me in respect and honor the abilities of the artisans from long ago. The Santero tradition certainly has had a renaissance really starting in 1930s, 1940s, with such

Santeros as Charlie Correo and Victor Golaire and Bremón Lopez, and they are still using those techniques that the early Santeros used, such as water soluble paints produced from minerals and plant materials. There's a personal satisfaction in creating and making the paints. I mean, you're bonding with your medium. This iron oxide comes from Castilla New Mexico, it was used as face paint by the Indians, mineral pigment, and so is this Tierra Verde, and also the yellow ochre. In this brown color, it's black walnut, it's made from black walnut halls, it's beautiful color for hair, the beards and stuff, this looks very nice.

The work that the Santeros make today will live on and keep our culture strong, and there's no one saying what I like to say is, Los Santeros se van, pero sus obras quedan. The Santeros eventually die, but their work remains.