Peter J. McCormick, "An Unrelenting Land: The Southwest
Revisited"
Articles
Jeffrey S. Smith, Matthew R. Engel, Douglas A. Hurt, Jeffery
E. Roth, James M. Stevens, "La Cultura de la Acequia Madre:
Cleaning a Community Irrigation Ditch"
Throughout rural New Mexico and south-central Colorado, acequias
(irrigation ditches) are the lifeblood of Hispano communities.
Without the water delivered by acequias, residents would face
the all but impossible task of trying to farm in the region's
harsh, semiarid environment. Irrigation water is vitally important
to village life. From their initial construction to the equitable
distribution of water, acequias bring village residents together
for a common cause. Particularly important is the annual spring
cleaning. Few village events are more culturally significant than
la limpia de la acequia (the cleaning of the ditch). Each
year residents set aside time to help repair and maintain the
village waterway. As people gather, ties between family and friends
are strengthened. But more importantly, the annual event plays
an invaluable role in helping to shape and sustain the local culture.
Through an examination of the spring cleaning of the acequia
madre (mother/main ditch) in the village of El Cerrito, New
Mexico, our central objective is to articulate some of the various
underlying ways cultural messages are being projected and received
by local residents. Keywords: New Mexico, El Cerrito, Acequias.
Kevin S. Blake, "Contested Landscapes of Navajo Sacred Mountains"
Sacred mountains are integral to the Navajo worldview, yet their
land use is often incongruous with their spiritual significance.
Nearly all of the land of the six massifs that are deeply symbolic
within Navajo origin stories is located beyond the Navajo Reservation
on federal land. This paper compares Navajo symbolism to land
use at Blanca Peak (CO), Mount Taylor (NM), San Francisco Peaks
(AZ), Hesperus Mountain (CO), Huerfano Mountain (NM), and Gobernador
Knob (NM). Each mountain has multicultural symbolism and land
use that imprints several layers of meaning upon the peaks. Non-Navajo
uses include transmission towers, ski areas, mineral development,
and mountaineering, whereas Navajo use includes visits to collect
plants and soil for ceremonies and to connect with spiritual powers.
Public land management attempts to balance contrasting environmental
perceptions, but competing resource demands and mountain aesthetics
often create contested landscapes. Keywords: Navajo (Diné),
mountains, sacred places, contested landscapes, public land management,
American Southwest, environmental ethics.
Carlos Tovares, "Urban Redevelopment and the Multicultural
Politics of Public Space: The San Antonio, Texas, Central Library"
This paper examines the transformation of the San Antonio, Texas,
downtown public library from a neglected institution to a prominent
site of civic pride. In its metamorphosis, the library became
an integral part of the city's ethnic cultural landscape. My research
explores how the library was simultaneously modernized and racialized.
In bringing to the surface a significant racial dimension to the
symbolic economy, this case study reveals how the meaning of particular
sites and the broader construction of a community's sense of place
are dynamic and subject to change. Key words: San Antonio, landscape,
race, sense of place.
Peter J. McCormick, "When Geography Listens: Rudolfo Anaya
and the Politics and Poetics of the New Mexico Landscape"
New Mexico is one of the most highly imagined places in the United
States. It is the consensus of most artists, novelists, and academics
that its cultures, when combined with the physical landscape,
produce an almost hallucinogenic quality. The state's place within
the American imagination has been highly influenced by predominantly
White, eastern North Americans who produced an array of artistic,
photographic, and literary texts that still perpetuate the state's
image as the "Land of Enchantment." This essay is a
critical alternative to the dominant discourse about New Mexico
and engages the writings of one of the Southwest's most prolific
and highly regarded Chicano/a writers, Rudolfo Anaya. In the creative
fiction of the award-winning novelist, characters connect with
the magical qualities of place and unearth the spirits that move
the land. But his writing also is empowered and mediated by colonial
politics. Multiple levels of imperial practices—from discourse
to physical manipulation of the landscape—over-ride and over-determine
Anaya's New Mexico. In a complex web of historical process and
cultural signification, his writing exemplifies the tropes, metaphors,
and subversive practices of post-colonial literature. He contests
the dominant modes of representing the Southwest and its marginalized
peoples. Finally this essay offers potential avenues for exploring
the moral and political dimensions of the Southwestern landscape.
Keywords: Rudolfo Anaya, literary landscapes, New Mexico, American
Southwest.
