The Search for Worldly Treasures leads to the Sacred

By Larry Torres, Associate Professor, UNM-Taos

The year 1540 marked a pivotal time in the history of New Mexico. Their hearts and minds filled with thoughts of treasure drove 336 men and 3 women into this territory. They were accompanied by a retinue of some 500 Tlaxcalan Indians from Mexico and hundreds of animals on the hoof. The 16th century ballads of Spain that lured them here told a tale of a land where worldly riches were as plentiful as harlots in Extremadura.

In the ancient ballad called La Tierra de Jauja “Tortillas hang from treetops and plants hold cornmeal mush near huge pots of warm menudo and posole nice and lush. The mountains are spun from sugar and the hills are made of tea. In the rivers flows nice coffee, rich with cream as it can be. The lakes are filled with oil seeping from each pore and fault and roast ducks fly through the heavens spiced with pepper and with salt. In the gullies runs rare whiskey if you’d like to sip and slurp and they strike ambitious people who prefer to sweat and work.”

After the initial expedition returned to Mexico in 1542, having found neither gold nor silver, subsequent entradas concentrated more on other kinds of treasures, namely, on spiritual treasures. The settlers began to focus more on the sanctity of the land and on seeing the majesty of God revealed in His creation.
They were to set the example for other residents hoping to wring out a living from the desert floor. The Sosa, the Oñate and even the DeVargas Expeditions knew before they arrived that the only real riches to be found were interior ones. Their descendants echoed their sentiments in their chapels and moradas, prayers and devotions. The few Franciscan monks who had accompanied them really came to try to Christianize the Indians. The settlers were left largely on their own to interpret holy writ by themselves.

Remnants of their efforts can still be seen in reredos (altar screens) in many churches around and close to Taos. Works of devotional arts by Rafaél Aragón can still be found in the chapel of San Juan de Los Lagos in Talpa. The elongated figures of Antonio Molleno are visible at San Francisco de Asís in Ranchos and the fine brush strokes of José de Gracia Gonzales can be studied at Holy Trinity Church in Arroyo Seco and in Trampas.
There are also religious pieces on a smaller scale scattered throughout the valley. The church of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores in Arroyo Hondo boasts of a small high relief retablo by The Laguna Santero. Ranchos church has a greenish crucifix by Benito Ortega. Arroyo Seco has crucifixes by Juan Miguel Herrera and Rafaél Aragón. Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Taos has a bulto statue of San José by The Santo Niño Santero aka José Manuel Benavides. Lesser known treasures of devotional are the property of moradas and museums around Taos County.

Taos is also the adopted home of modern masters such as Patrocinio Barela who was called “the find of the century” by Time Magazine. Leo Salazar popularized devotional art in cedar sculptures and even Argentine-born Victor Góler has chosen Taos to be his adopted home. Questa’s own santera Arlene Cisneros Sena decorated the Cathedral of Santa Fe’s Chapel of Perpetual Adoration.
The sacredness of the entire valley is reflected in all of these masters who came to work in Taos and make it their spiritual home on earth.