SPANISH ARTS AND CATHOLICISM AND OTHER SOCIO-CULTURAL CONCERNS IN SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO by Paul Henrickson,©2007

The Spanish Market in Santa Fe was first established in 1925 some seventy-five years after the Mexican American war and a dozen years after New Mexico had become a state.

I have often wondered what the private comments, discussions and negotiations were relative to breaking up the territory and partitioning it into what is today known as two states, New Mexico and Arizona. I shall have to research the matter to see whether any concern had been expressed over the nature of the New Mexican Hispanic personality.

Certainly, nothing I have read thus far would indicate that the decision of the inhabitants area was based on their obstinate determination to resist outside influences of any kind –which is fine in itself. But when it takes the enlarged shape of niggardly, and meanly depriving others ,namely non-Hispanics or anyone not this brand of Hispanic, of their rights, dignity and property it becomes offensive.

When this attitude becomes institutionalized, which it has, wherever, as in the court rooms and the offices of government it becomes a matter of considerably more seriousness.

My drawing the reader’s attention to those historical events could lead a reader to suppose that the Hispanic ranching and farming families of New Mexico had little interest in developing the more “lofty” expressions of civilization. There would be some basis for this conclusion for even as early as 1909 the committee numbering five or six persons, as I recall only one of whom was Hispanic and he spoke negatively of the project on the grounds that encouraging the arts was inconsistent with the practical experiences of the population and their economic interests.

This committee which formed what is today known as The Museum of New Mexico was largely the result of a private effort to create a venue for practicing painters. These men had a vision, perhaps, in part, selfishly motivated, but large enough a vision to include the beneficial effects on future generations.Today the Museum of New Mexico comprises several divisions and is actively involved in research and other aspects of cultural development. The effort has proved notably successful and stands as a refutation of the argument based on the practical needs of the coming generations to make a living. This is an

argument that even today can be heard in many non-Hispanic households elsewhere.

Today, the participation of the Hispanic in all areas of expressive activity that might be called an art form is noticeably tenuous. It is regrettable for where the talent does reveal itself it is a moving contribution to our insights into human behavior and an instructive mode of transmitting concepts, but these efforts, are largely literary and have little to do with the formal aspects as one knows them in the plastic arts of painting and sculpture.

Orlando Romero who may be the best Hispanic writer in the area as one might judge by his novel “Nambe Year One”, which I found particularly rich, although strongly reminiscent of Herman Hesse, in his use of language.

It is, by the way, the English language and not, as it might have been, in the local Hispanic dialect, which was, as His Majestry Juan Carlos noted to Concha Ortiz y Pino de Kleven the language Spain spoke 400 years earlier. There may have been economic reasons for the choice of language as well, for there are fewer numbers, even among the New Mexico Hispanics who are fluent in that language.

To my knowledge he has not written anything that significant since. He has written a great deal, however, but much of it has been directed toward more practical ends such as the creation of a climate of Hispanic despair, but a despair that is not at all as rich as one experiences it in some of the works by Octavio Paz, “The Labyrinth of Solitude”, for example, which is like looking at the world through several layers of black lace. Romero’s column in The Santa Fe Reporter was entitled LA VILLA REAL, the royal city, an attribution which needs a lot of explanation.

The focus of one of his articles was something called “The Agresto Affair”, which had its origins in the regrettable incident where a relatively small (3’x5’ approximately) fresco which had been placed on one of the corridor walls of St. John’s College. I had seen the fresco on one occasion and was pleased to see the attempt at experimentation—experimentation on the part of the College, not the artist, for St. John’s has not been known for being particularly sensitive to graphic works and the ones that have been there are so innocuous that they are hardly worth a mention.

It had never occurred to me that what I had seen was intended to be a permanent fixture, so when suddenly there had been an outcry from Orlando and others that St. John’s, Like Rockefeller, had willfully and scornfully destroyed a work of art I was quite bewildered. I wasn’t particularly enlightened, either, when for

some reason, equally bewildering to me, I had been included in a to be videoed informal discussion organized by Charles Bell one of the more outstanding and better known St. John’s celebrities.

The makeup of the discussion was in itself interesting as I was the only person not associated with St. John’s. All others were either currently or had been at one time associated with the College, including one Indian woman and one Hispanic by the name of Alejandro Lopez, a self-styled art historian.

I was impressed, however, by Charles Bell’s thoughtfulness in organizing the group and explaining, as he does, on the tape, that he felt the affair needed to be recorded…for posterity, I suppose.

The work under discussion, executed by Frederico Vigil, had been vandalized by some unknown individual who, it had been reported, objected to some graphic details in the work.

The video tries to clarify what those details were. After this occurrence the work was removed. Nothing to my knowledge has ever been said about what arrangements had been made between the artist and the College either before or after this incident, but it occurs to me that the College, if it has a responsibility at all in this matter, that that responsibility lies only in the area of education and that the college would take, as I believe it did, the opportunity to demonstrate that acts of vandalism are inappropriate.

Having been involved in renting residential facilities to various St. John’s students I can also testify that, in general, they are a very uncivilized and callous lot. A characteristic which, I assume, had been built into their character long before they ever thought of attending St. John’s College .

During the video taping of this meeting I limited my comments to the observation that the work , as I had seen it, could only be considered no more than a fresco sketch and not at all a finished work. A sketch is valuable in itself, or course and becomes a valuable document, at least for most scholars they do.

The video tape does very clearly demonstrates, however, the current Hispanic attitude toward their lives’ experiences and the rather twisted logic of Alejandro Lopez put a real strain on my reserve. More later about Alejandro.

The matter of the so-called Agresto Affair, named after the then President of St. John’s College, together with the complaint brought forth by a coalition of Indian and Hispanic artists that The New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts and its new curator exhibited an Anglo-centric perspective which excluded indigenous

artists from the important alcove shows…this, Orlando points out, is the equivalent of invalidating not only the presence of the artists but their history and culture as well.

Well, Romero’s conclusion is correct, but it is, in truth, a conclusion looking for a cause, not unlike that of the lizard being chased by a predator, disengages his tail allowing the essential self escape into the foliage. It is a bogus argument designed to rouse the rabble.

We do not want to raise the rabble, for little good is accomplished by that. Let us, instead, discover who may be invalidating whom, and what, and why. Let us certainly talk about our cultures openly and truthfully in so far as we are able.

Orlando complains that in its long history The Museum of Fine Arts has never had a Chicano or a native American director or curator. Has Orlando forgotten that it was primarily Anglo artists who created the museum and, after its creation, it was later turned over, obviously mistakenly, to the State? Has Orlando failed to see that it is largely the Anglo population, including Jews, which continues to augment and enlarge, and enrich the cultural life of Santa Fe?

As talented a writer as Orlando has been with his book “Nambe Year One” which I have very much loved, his claims in this article are quite malicious. And it is this that seems to characterize the contemporary cultural stance of the Hispanics in Northern New Mexico. When Orlando takes off on the St. John’s College intellectual foundation on “The Great Books” and suggests that all tourists wishing to come to the Southwest should be required to read a list of the “Great Southwestern Books” I am certain he is correct and that such a reading regimen would be helpful to Orlando as well as well everyone else.

I would like to offer an additional contribution to Orlando’s commentary: I have been told it takes five generations (125-150 years) of repeated intermixing of blood and genes to create a new race.

The Chinese, at one point in their history, have been said to have dealt with an influx of Jews in this way, ordaining that they could not marry each other but must choose a Chinese mate. I have also been told that in pre-Christian times there were important differences between those who worshipped the sun and those who worshiped the moon and that some of those differences continue today among and between religions most of us recognize quite readily. There I no doubt in my mind that Orlando knows I love him, not physically, of course, but intellectually, and most of all creatively. Since Orlando mentioned the Agresto Affair somewhat pejoratively, I thought it timely that I repeat what I

had suggested to Mr. Agresto at one of Elaine Horwitch’s grand entertainments held under large tents that he simply re-present one of the classic arguments of reason available to him through The Great Books. I do not know whether he did this or not.

For a more complete picture of my relationship with Elaine Horowitch who functioned as the owner-director of the Horwitch Gallery.(Her husband was in the ink

business.) at one time one of the largest art galleries in town, and in Scotsdale, Arizona, which had a thunderishly daring approach to its exhibition program. There seemed to be little aesthetic cohesion. My probably having come out with some such statement in print may account for the fact that I was never personally invited to the two or three events I attended.

My presence there was accounted for by the fact Eleanor Steinert, a former employee of Henry Luce of Time Life asked me to be her escort. Elaine’s eagle eye always gave me a dart of hatred which I never could understand unless, of course, she had grown so accustomed to people trembling in her presence that my indifference to her assumed importance was a threat to her ego. By way of comparison Elaine’s behavior was not unlike that of Dorothy Pillsbury of Minneapolis whose social behavior was demeaning to all whom she thought could not match her material value. Women with strong social ambitions rarely know how to benefit the arts, in point of fact, I think they lack comprehension of what the arts actually are...WHEN AT THEIR BEST.

It wasn’t I who was one of the frustrated anti-Semites in attendance. I suppose it was by chance that Eleanor and I sat at the same table as Agresto. It certainly wasn’t by my design, and I briefly wondered at the time whether there had been space at his table just because of his relationship to the so-called Agresto affair. From a comment of his about Elaine I quickly learned that he, more perhaps than anyone else that evening was annoyed by Elaine’s manner, except, perhaps, one young man who, at the entrance to the house and in the presence of thirty or forty people was yelling highly insulting epithets at the hostess who assumed an air of indifference.

Agresto’s clearly annoyed manner which spilled over sufficiently for notice was a break in the usual St. John reserve was breached by the readily identifiable bile. I raised my eyebrows, I suppose, in appreciation of his comment and changed the topic to suggest that I would joyfully take on the defense of St. John’s behavior regarding the destruction of the Frederico Vigil fresco. I wondered later whether this suggestion had not reached the ears of Charles Bell and that might have been the reason why I found myself invited to this video session which, by the way, never really got down to an issue more important than attempting to discover the meaning of some “stalks” represented in the

fresco sketch which was one, and , perhaps, the only fruitful avenue of discourse in the groups sympathetic attempt to find a reason, or an excuse, for the claim of racialism for the mural’s destruction. In retrospect I think it may have been better had St. John’s donated a wall for the execution of the mural full size.

This lack of intellectual focus for this racist clain may also explain why the session itself seemed never to come to grips with any of the essential problems involved, but simply to hover on the fringes of the possibly tinged reputation of the College and the culturally abused Hispanic genius ...a role amusingly adopted by Alejandro Lopez .

If I had been invited as a consequence of an assumed Agresto’s suggestion then, It was clear Charles Bell had changed his mind and that after it had begun, did not want me there and that the proceedings, as they developed, were the result of a collusion between two or three of those present, Charles being one of them and another elderly colleague whose name I have forgotten and possibly Alejandro himself who introduced to the group the concept of racism as the source for the destruction and had produced this sham.

Ordinarily, I believe, few would pay attention to the spelling of Frederico’s name were it not for the fact that Orlando Romero had made such a point of Vigil’s being Spanish and on pushing his suggestion that St. John’s had been racist in the destruction of the mural. Be that as it may, the spelling of the name suggestions Italian, not Spanish. The lack of purity in Orlando’s argument of the significance of race becomes acute and more complex if we allow for the presence of the first “r” in “Frederico” which suggests, horrors of horrors, something Teutonic. Orlando has allowed it to be known that he is proud of his descent from Spanish Jews. In this regard the reader may wish to refer to “New Mexico’s Sephardim: Uncovering Jewish Roots”, by Emma Moya in “La Herenciadel Norte”,Winter 1996, and “Moorish and native American Influence Enrich our Heritage” by Jerry Padilla“La Herencia del Norte”Winter, 1997.

In short, the joining of the various races in the small community of Santa Fe, New Mexico has not produced a civilized harmony and more destructive behaviors are expected for the future. The persistent insistence that racial discrimination is involved, that is, from the Anglo toward the Hispanic, is not likely to end what doesn’t exist, but, instead, to create it. There is evidence it has already done so.

It is not an inappropriate response that Agresto is reported to have said he had not found the Vigil work aesthetically satisfying. It is certainly a far cry from the response Harry Truman had when the local music critic criticized his daughter Margaret’s singing and the President of The United States threatened to beat up the critic. Though Mr. Truman, as certainly a Democrat, art, in a democracy, as, hopefully, elsewhere, must indicate the uncommon. Otherwise what’s the point? Is not art expected to be at least a notch above the average? Is it unreasonable to expect genius to transmute the common?

The agenda in Santa Fe to replace the Anglo with the Hispanic is seen as well in the efforts to arrive at a decision as to who should head the activities of a state museum. To arrive at a decision on the basis of race is absurd and illogical.

Attention should not be called to it ,yet it is, and it is clear that the primary motivation is not the exercise of ability, but the appointment to a sinecure and the power to control events associated with it. Can one imagine Zubin Mehta not conducting the Israel Philharmonic or Seigi Osawa not being accepted in Boston on the basis of their ethnic origins? Here is also something to be learned from these examples, one an East Indian and the other an Oriental having musical traditions quite different from the western have succeeded in establishing themselves in high positions within a musical culture ethnically originally alien to them.

Perhaps there is an argument for hiring either a Native American or a Hispanic as the Director of The Fine Arts Museum, if so, there should be other qualifying considerations. What seems to be, in the minds of those who favor a non-anglo director for the job is that aesthetic or historical judgments cannot be appropriately made by anyone not of the same ethnic background as those who created the objects. Such a view, of course, would preclude the development of many academic disciplines.

This is certainly a provocative subject for research. In the world of the plastic arts we have numberless examples where the French critics, for example, have not initially, understood the work of their French artists, for example, Cezanne, Gauguin, Monet. The same may be said of the Dutch with, for example, Van Gogh and Rembrandt. To further degrade aesthetic sensibilities anywhere in the world in the bogus and fruitless search for racial legitimacy would be regrettable.

I might also call Orlando’s attention to the fact that in no way could D.H. Lawrence legitimately be called a “Yankee”. I should probably also add that the word “Chicano” only obliquely refers to Hispanics. The term is a kind of mutation from the term “Chinese”, or “chink” which was used when Chinese

laborers came here to build the railroads and is, probably, an outgrowth of their Mexican colleagues’ mutated attempt to say “Chinese” just as “Yankee” was the east coast Indian tribes’ attempts to pronounce “English”.

It would be so much neater to be able to talk about The Spanish Market as a single and isolated event if it were not for the fact that for those who can see below the surface the attempt is so very pitiful.

Granted, a few of the products that are produced do achieve a level of expertness that can legitimately be admired. Some of the tin work one might proudly display in one’s home and a few of the wooden icons depicting religious legends will, and should, certainly attract attention. However, by and large that is the extent of the value of The Spanish Market which does, nevertheless attract hundreds of people for reasons other than an appreciation of craftsmanship.

The level of erotic appeal is high and it is evident that negotiations are not only on the value of works of art. I know of no other unified cultural attempt made by the Hispanic population in New Mexico to present an image of themselves as accomplished and mature exemplars of the creative spirit and innovators to the cultural scene. However, while there is no concerted effort among this population group that successfully identifies creative individuals from within the group there are few, very few, who singly manage to represent themselves and their vision. The most notable in that category is Glynn Gomez, who , in addition, has also spoken perceptively of his limitations stating, on one occasion, that he was not an artist, but a designer. This observation was also surprising for its intellectual clarity as much as for its honesty in the area of self-appraisal. That openness is unusual in any population group. I regret that I am unable to state something equivalent in praise about Orlando Romero , mainly, I suppose, because he seems to have stopped writing and this places another burden on his reputation which questions whether “Nambe Year one” which made him famous was genuinely his.

Very few offer their creative efforts for the evaluation of other members of the community, but they are now complaining that they are not allowed to take over institutions which were created and sustained by others. I can only suggest that we reconsider the meaning of what Jose Ortego y Gassett may have had in mind when he wrote something to the effect that the commonplace mind, knowing itself to be commonplace will strive to drag the excellent down to its own level. This may be one reason, indeed, that Orlando has, to my knowledge, not written anything better than “Nambe Year One”, not that he cannot, but that he dare not, for fear of offending his peers.

Since a good part of my own effort is focused on understanding and cultivating the multidirectional aspects of creative thinking I remain appalled by the willing sacrifice a mind such as Orlando Romero’s has proved itself to be in “Nambe Year One” is willing to endure for the sake of tribal unity… what humiliation.

The cover story of the August (1994) issue of THE SUN entitled “The Plastic Shaman Phenomenon” by Richard Mahler, raises some very interesting questions, not least of which might be: from where do these people who are not indigenous come? Obviously, the meaning of the term has migrated sufficiently to exclude the white man, the Jew and even the black from inclusion in the term.

Unless we are willing to accept the alternative suggestion that there are some of us whose roots can be found in the Pleiedes we shall have to return to a more strict definition. Perhaps “return” is not the best word here either for the mental set that the word “indigenous” is applied to is a cultural sub-set, carrying with it the idea of economic inferiority (which is no longer true in New Mexico), behaviorally eccentric, and intellectually and creatively aberrant.

Obviously, the very act of studying another culture or person creates immediately an imbalance in the relationship. He who studies has adopted a certain distance from the object he studies. We have been taught that that is the proper thing to do when one assumes the student attitude. It is called discipline. Discipline, we are taught, is a virtue. However, there are exceptions as some of the best known anthropologists, Margaret Mead, for example, failed to detect one of the better known characteristics of Pacific Islanders and as a consequence misled generations of students.

In the Meade case, the characteristic so common to Pacific Islanders is that “fact” for them is not what it is for “us”. They simply answered Mead’s questions with the answers they determined she wanted to hear. The enlarged question of cultural usurpation in Santa Fe also involves the Indian. The author of “The Sun” article records that there are growing instances where non-Indians are forbidden to partake, observe, write, or come into contact with places and things sacred to the Indian. In general, having been raised to respect others traditions and to cherish a respectful interest in them I find this shift in values most perplexing.

Well, at least the Indian cannot be described as a proselyte, but such exclusivity may have its drawbacks and maybe some surprising repercussions in a world that is very rapidly becoming more rather than less integrated.Cultures have borrowed from each other throughout history and such borrowings have frequently been the source of significant development, but

most of the borrowings to which the Indians seem to object seem to be centered on the religious, or sacred aspects of Indian culture.

Is there any aspect of Indian culture which is not sacred…or any other culture for that matter? It seems to me that there is not, yet, certainly the Indian borrows from the culture of others, for example, the horse, turquoise and silver jewelry from the Spanish, to say nothing of their Roman Catholicism. More exotically, there is the possibility that the Indian “borrowed” not only certain socio-political concepts, but the patterns of naming individuals from, of all people, the Viking. One Argentine scholar claims that the “white” Indians of central Paraguay speak a 10th century Icelandic, and a Mexican anthropologist claims that Quetzalcoatl was a Viking…certainly an instance where one culture profoundly influenced the concepts of the sacred of another culture. That relationship may explain why Christopher Columbus was certain he could sail from Spain to a new world to the west for there have been rumors of an old map which indicted the possibility of such a voyage, and as well, reports that Columbus had 15 years previous to 1492 approached the western Hemisphere from the north from Iceland and Columbus is thought, by some, to have been a second generation descendant of Scandinavian immigrants to Italy might have heard some stories not generally available to others, especially in a culture which repressed information and placed politically correct behavior as the ideal.

An additional aspect of the matter of cultural borrowing is the name, for example, of the Director of the Center for Research and Cultural Exchange, Gloria Emerson. The Center is based, quite appropriately, at The Institute of American Indian Arts. However, under the present circumstances one is encouraged to ask why should the title of the Center include the phrase “cultural exchange”? If the transfer of cultural information is going to be a one-way affair then, it would seem, the center is operating fraudulently. In the Pacific basin there is a culture on the outskirts of Australia which has developed a cult involving a crashed airplane toward which, at the appropriate season they pay obeisance.

As T. Lobsang Rampa would have it, no one has the right to criticize another’s religion, so, one respectfully laves the matter alone. One, nevertheless, makes note of its existence, just as one makes note of Gloria Emerson’s name, as we have heard it, makes no difference to her Indian background, anymore than the name Bjornstierna Bjornssen, century might be considered Indian because if one translated his name into English it would read “Bear Star, Son of Bear” Would it be reasonable to assume that Bjornssen was Indian or that Emerson was not? Below is a transcription of a letter from one Linden Gilbert in response to mine paraphrased above:

“CULTURAL COLONIALISM The letter from Mr. Paul Henrickson in the September issue (“Cultural Borrowing”)responding to your article on ‘Plastic Shamans’ calls for a response. Mr. Henrickson speaks from a profound ignorance of Native American spirituality, culture, and history. It is just this sort of attitude which has prompted the Elders and other leaders to begin to close the ceremonies and rituals and withhold the teachings. Nativepeople wish that he dominant society would adopt more of their world view and this is what prompted the opening up of teachings and ceremonies long kept secret; the need for this was foreseen and it seemed, during the 60’s, that the society would be responsive. But this is not what happened. ‘Cultural Borrowing’ is not the same as cultural colonialism and exploitation. Native American cultures have been among the most adaptable in the world. Sitting Bull said it clearly, ‘when you find something in the white man’s road that is good, pick it up, but when you find something that is bad, throw it away.’ Implicit in this is that ‘good” meant good for the culture, for the people. By the same token, traditions that were longer deemed ‘good’ were discarded. That is why we have survived 500 years of unceasing assault. Cultural colonialism, on the other hand, is not concerned with such values, only exploitation and individual profit, and it is this that our Elders and spiritual leaders are protesting. The teachings are distorted, misrepresented, mixed up with new age gobbledygook and other people’s traditions and packaged, marketed like toothpaste. Thisis desecration, this is disrespect, this is defilement of what is sacred to us. Nothing is given back, not to the Creator, not to Mother Earth and not to the people. Linden Gilbert”

(October 1994)Well, I take back my earlier statement suggesting that the Indian doesn’t proselytize. He does, but he is more subtle about it than Jehovah’s Witnesses, but, it seems, more profoundly disappointed when they think it doesn’t take root. It has, done so, of course, not only here, but in Europe as well in terms of the various Green Parties making themselves heard. In Mr. Gilbert’s time line, using his base line of the 1960’s, at the time he wrote this rebutle to my comments that movement had been a mere thirty some years, only one generation. It took Rome 400 years to officially accept Christianity and then, as we know, it did so somewhat perversely…more than that it did so in a grand way changing a religion of peace into “In this sign we shall conquer”“in hoc signes vincus’.

Most of the above has been included here as an effective way to demonstrate that the small, but intense, area known as Santa Fe, New Mexico, inhabited by approximately50,000 people and about equally divided between Hispanic and non-Hispanic residents and bordered on its surrounding territory by individual sovereign Indian nations has been undergoing, of late, some rather disrupting, but culture forming experiences. The final result, of course has yet to be

determined, but let us look further into this phenomenon. If we look at the scene from the traditional point of view that Santa Fe is a locale which can logically be divided into three relatively distinct cultures, Anglo, Indian, and Hispanic we note that since the year 1950, and actually earlier, the emphasis on the arts has grown significantly, to the extent, in fact, that it would not be too unreasonable to state that Santa Fe is the third largest art center in the United States after New York and Los Angeles.

That statement, however, says nothing about the quality or the nature of the art which gets sold in Santa Fe, nor does it say anything about the nature or the quality of the art being sold in New York or Los Angeles. What it does signify is something about human activity and the scale human values. In 1950, the dominant cultural flavor in Santa Fe was distinctly Indian and Spanish which, considering the nature of the Anglo to check things out, was one of the primary reasons Anglos decided to move there. It was my sense of adventure which brought me there. It was then a place where the human beings closeness to nature, the elements, the smell of pinon fires in a snowy winter, the vast heavens were some of its most appealing offerings.

In the next half century most of that disappeared and I join the Hispanic lament that that quality of life can no longer be available to us. I personally enjoyed the opportunity to observe how creative artists and thinkers behaved when one is close to them day after day, which had not been possible for me in either Boston or New York. Somehow that distance between the creator and his product was shortened in Santa Fe and this had offered me an insight I cherished.

In the intervening fifty years Santa Fe has increased to about three times its size and most of those new arrivals were people who were strongly motivated to create, on one level or another and another in-force group which has found its way to Santa Fe are those who enjoy the human interaction that takes place when they manage the create products of others, the gallery directors, support services, publishers and the like. The end result of this development is that Santa Fe now has six museums rather than one, three symphony orchestras, an internationally known opera, several colleges and universities, more restaurants, theatres, and galleries per capita, I believe, than any community anywhere else in the world.

Such a displacement of the normal civic profile is bound to have an effect upon the quality and the intensity of life in a relatively still small community, so I am not surprised, although I am greatly fascinated. Equally interesting is how the three major groups, Hispanic, Indian and Anglo have reacted to this development. Since most of this development, though not, all of it, has been the

result of Anglo enterprise and patterns of cultural thought we should not be surprised to see that they have reacted most positively to the changes.

The Indians have gradually and consistently incorporated certain aspects of these changes into their lives and today are thriving on their reputations as potters, jewelry designers and weavers of blankets and most recently as operators and owners of many highly profitable casinos, these last, I fear, may not have such a positive cultural effect as do the other enterprises.

The Hispanic population, on the other hand, has consistently resisted these changes, which is within their right, but many of the ways they have done so have been illegal and counter productive for them and, in many cases, destructive to the interests of the Anglo. This Hispanic attitude is particularly apparent in the public behavior of both Alejandro Lopez and Orlando …as both of them are good writers but have used their writing talents of late not to help create, but to destroy. This is the basis for current racial conflict in Santa Fe which has already, reached the Federal level and could, potentially, which is what I believe the Hispanic population is striving for, a cessation from the United States of America and a take over of all of the facilities present there now including the San Dia and Los Alamos Laboratories. This would leave New Mexico as a broker between the Anglo, Hispanic, and Chinese spheres of influence if, and that “if” is highly important, there were the trained intelligences and the cultural and moral commitments required to do so. I think it might be helpful to keep all this in mind as we, finally, approach the matter of art criticism.