El Santuario de Chimayo

Sorry I have not been keeping you up to date on my travels.  I was very sick the last week and have been on antibiotics and lying low.  I am beginning to come out of the infection now and feeling a little better.  It was appropriate that the first thing I did this week was go with the group to El Santuario de Chimayo, a famous pilgrimage spot nearby which is know for its healing powers.

El Santuario has been called the "Lourdes of America". No one seems to know exactly how this came about. However, there are testimonies that the extraordinary has occurred. Fr. Sebastian Alvarez in his letter to the Episcopal See of Durango, dated November l6, l8l3, expressed his feelings of the people coming from afar to seek cures for their ailments and the spreading of the fame of their cures, induced many more faithful to come in pilgrimage. He did not mention any specific fact, but something was there. El Santuario has been a place of worship from the beginning - a place to pray, to thank, to ask, to meditate and to experience peace of mind as well as of body.

El Santuario (The Shrine) was built between l8l4 and l8l6. The "miraculous" crucifix of Our Lord of Esquipulas was found around l8l0. There is no written testimony concerning the apparition of Our Lord in the Chimayo area. What we have is tradition passed from one generation to another by the people of El Potrero. Here is one account of a "true" story as told by the storyteller.

One tradition recalls that during Holy Week on the night of Good Friday, Don Bernardo Abeyta, who was a member in good standing of the Hermandad de Nuestro Padre Jes6s el Nazareno (Penitentes) was performing the customary penances of the Society around the hills of El Potrero. Suddenly he saw a light springing from one of the slopes of the hills near the Santa Cruz River. Don Bernardo went to the spot and noticed that the shining light was coming from the ground. He started to dig with his bare hands, and there he found a Crucifix. He left it there and called the neighbors to come and venerate the precious finding. A group of men was sent to notify the priest, Fr. Sebastian Alvarez at Santa Cruz.

Upon hearing the extraordinary news, the priest and people set out for Chimayo. When they arrived at the place where the Crucifix was, Fr. Sebastian picked it up and carried it in a joyful procession back to the church. Once in the church, the Crucifix was placed in the niche of the main altar. The next morning, the Crucifix was gone, only to be found in its original location. A second procession was organized and the Crucifix was returned to Santa Cruz, but once again it disappeared, The same thing happened a third time. By then, everyone understood that El Sefior de Esquipulas wanted to remain in Chimayo, and so a small chapel was built.

El Santuario was a privately owned chapel until the year l929. At that time several people from Santa Fe bought it and turned it over to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
A more detailed history of El Santuario is available in "EL SANTUARIO on the High Road to Taos" available at the Santuario Gift Shop.

Unlike Lourdes, which has its miraculous water, Chimayo has its "holy dirt" which pilgrims dig and bring home to cure your their ailments.  After being so sick I had to get my little bag of holy dirt.  So far it is working for my return to health.

After spending some time at the Santuario de Chimayo, we headed off to a tourist spot for fine indian weavings, Ortega's Weaving Shop (http://ortegasweaving.com/). 

In  the early 1700's, a young man named Gabriel Ortega was among a group of settlers who came to the Northern Rio Grande Valley to settle in what is now Chimayo, New Mexico. In those days Chimayo and the surrounding area were the last frontier of New Spain. Life was difficult which meant Gabriel Ortega and his contemporaries were self-sufficient people. One of the skills needed to survive was weaving, with which they made clothes, blankets, rugs and even mattresses.

Life continued much the same for Gabriel and his son Manuel, Manuel's son Jose Gervacio and Jose Gervacio's son Ramon. The Ortega's wove, farmed and made do with what they had.
In 1885, a few years after Jose Ramon's son Nicacio was born, the railroad came to nearby Espanola and things soon began to change. The American culture started to mix with the isolated Spanish and Native American cultures of Northern New Mexico. New products such as roofing, canned foods, tools, sewing machines, etc. became available for the first time. In contrast, the newcomers wanted chile rastras, Indian pottery, hand woven Chimayo blankets and other indigenous products.
 
In the early 1900's, Nicacio and his wife Virginia, who was also from a weaving family, opened a general store in Chimayo. Nicacio had a loom in his store and sold his weavings along with those of his sons, relatives and friends. The demand kept growing as more people discovered Santa Fe and New Mexico.
After World War II, Nicacio's sons, Jose Ramon and David, along with their wives Bernie and Jeanine joined their father's business. It continued to grow. The Ortega's hired other families to help keep up with the demand. They started to make coats, vests, purses and other apparel out of their weavings. The general store was a thing of the past and the present day Ortega's Weaving Shop came into being.
 
Nicacio passed away in 1964 and Jose Ramon in 1972. David and Jeanine kept up the tradition and in the mid-1970's were joined by their sons Andrew and Robert. In addition, David's brother Merardo opened a shop in Old Town Albuquerque to sell the families weavings.
 
In the mid-1980's, Andrew and his wife Evita opened Galeria Ortega in the old home of Jose Ramon. They wanted to feature the other arts and crafts of the people of New Mexico. At Galeria Ortega you will find the same respect for traditions of New Mexico with their fine selections of gifts, woodcarvings art, music, pottery, Kachinas, books, cards, T-shirts, chile and native food products and even a cup of coffee and a "bizcochito" the New Mexico state cookie. Galeria Ortega is a somewhat modern version of Nicacio's general store, complete with Andrew's looms and the weavings of Andrew, his father David and Andrew's children Katherine and Paul the eighth generation of Ortega weavers. Visit Galeria Ortega at http://www.galeriaortega.com/.
 
Since David's retirement, Robert has taken over the reins of Ortega's Weaving Shop. In Nicacio's old loom room at the shop you can still see weavers ply their ancient craft. The showroom features beautiful Indian jewelry and pottery from nearby pueblos, along side displays of world-renowned Ortega blankets, coats, rugs, vests, purses and cushions, all hand-woven in fine wool in the "tradition of Gabriel Ortega."

 Since I couldn't afford to buy the rugs, I decided to take pictures and maybe I can reproduce some of the patterns in my upcoming weaving class at Sangre.  I did get a chance to try my hand at one of the looms in the shop, which was fun.



 Our next trip will be this saturday when we go to the International Balloon Festival in Albuquerque, NM.  We are praying that the weather holds since it is supposed to be fantastic with over 900 hot air balloons!

Bandelier National Monument, Los Alamos, NM

We took our first field trip as a group this past Friday to Bandelier National Monument in Los Alamos, NM.  It is a beautiful little park with wonderful films, exhibits, and trails that take you to the cliff dwellings and long houses of the Puebloan peoples.

Bandelier has a long human history and links to the modern Pueblos. Traditions which began in the distant past are still practiced today. At Bandelier, evidence of the Ancestral Pueblo people can be found in the dwellings, artifacts, and continuing culture of the modern pueblos. Early Spanish settlers, the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC), and  the National Park Service also left their mark on the local landscape.

People have lived in this area for over 10,000 years.  Ancestral Pueblo people built homes in the park's canyons and on the mesas.

Hunting

Groups of Paleoindians followed the movement of large, now-extinct species of ancient bison and mammoths. For the hunt, they crafted stone spear points and cutting tools, such as the Clovis point seen here. To improve their hunting success, they propelled their sharp spears with an altatl. This tool improved the power and distance a spear could be thrown. Warming temperatures and the extinction of many species of large animals brought an end to the Paleoindian lifestyle.

By 1550, the Ancestral Pueblo people had moved from this area to pueblos along the Rio Grande.  After over 400 years the land here could no longer support the people and a severe drought added to what were already becoming difficult times. Oral traditions tell us where the people went and who their descendents are. The people of Cochiti Pueblo, located just south and east along the Rio Grande, are the most direct descendents of the Ancestral Pueblo people who built homes in Frijoles Canyon.  Likewise, San Ildefonso is most closely linked to Tsankawi.

Sangre – Wk 1

After leaving the peace and quiet of Christ in the Desert, I headed to my destination here in New Mexico – the Sangre de Cristo Center near Santa Fe.  It, too, lies snuggled up in a canyon in the Sangre de Cristo mountains.  We are 34 religious men and women from every continent on the earth.   Some people come from places I have yet to find on the map!  It is a wonderful mix of priests, brothers and sisters.  Most of them have had extensive missionary experience.  It is nice to be able to talk about mission issues with people who can understand the complexities we deal with.  Some of them have even been to Brazil.

It took us all a while to get used to the altitude.  Sangre stands at over 7,000 ft.  We all experienced headaches, shortness of breath, and had trouble sleeping the first week.  After a while we were able to take short walks and do regular house work.  But no one is considering running a marathon yet!

The first week was like “Hell Week” at a Fraternity, since we had lots of planning meetings and demonstrations to help us get to know the house and how things work.  We all help with the upkeep, cleaning and cooking.  I do some music work, am a driver who brings folks into Santa Fe on our days free, and most importantly, I am the “Massage Czar”!  I help coordinate the massage appointments of the members of the group each week.  It is quite popular and we all get a free one hour massage to start off.

Usually we have Wednesday and Saturday afternoons free to explore Santa Fe.  The first weekend here coincided with Santa Fe Fiesta Days, so there were lots of things to see in the central Plaza.  We saw mariachis and dance groups, as well as sampled many of the local delicacies from the street vendors.  My friend Vitolia, from Somoa, was intrigued by the different costumes and music.

It is a city of artists and their work is everywhere.  It is very beautiful.  Since I like flutes, I decided to purchase a beautiful Native American Flute, which has wonderful deep tones.  I play at prayer services and Masses here at the Center.

Every street has some kind of art displayed either in galleries or in storefronts, or in gardens and parks.

Santa Fe has a wonderful cathedral, and also has many other interested churches.  The Loretto Chapel has the famous staircase built by an anonymous stranger which no one can figure out how it is still standing after all of these years since there are no nails in the structure.  Also, the oldest church in America is here, San Miguel’s.

The group is mature and serious, but also fun and creative.  Already we have had some very moving liturgies and prayer services.  As we all reflect on our religious lives thus far, it is a rich and grace-filled spirit which surrounds us.  The Staff is excellent, competent, and very helpful.  It is good to be here.