By Roger Martínez

Being born at a time in Taos history that there was no Catholic church in town, I believe, has further encouraged me to search for the sacred.
When I was born, the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe had just burnt down and it would be several months before a new church would come up in its stead. Meanwhile, I was baptized in the St. Joseph School gymnasium. I may have been one of the first children to run up and down the aisles of the current standing church of the Virgen de Guadalupe, but knowing my parents, I was merely one of the first to cry in the church. I was already a year and 10 days when the new church was dedicated.

Growing up I got to listen to the Penitente Brothers, Los Hermanos de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno, sing their spiritual songs, alabados. Back then, there was an undying breed of men who would celebrate their spirituality at the historic Taos Morada throughout the year, during Holy Week in particular. This morada was also named in honor of the Virgen de Guadalupe back in 1698 when it was built at the edge of Taos Pueblo land with an amazing view of the sacred Taos Mountain. Shortly after it was built, the Taos Pueblo deeded a strip of land to the east of the morada for spiritual/religious use as a place to invoke Christ while praying to the Stations of the Cross in supplication.

One afternoon, while taking my almost daily walk, I happened about the morada and the stations. This was a moment in my life I could not, and still have not, found the words to express how I felt. I was guided through each of the stations, sensing, feeling some of what Christ Himself must have experienced. I had been here about 25 years before and had experienced a similar sensitivity, only this time with more intensity. I am drawn to this place; I can easily spend hours on any one particular station or at the foot of the cross at the end of the stations, el Calvario, or the cross outside the morada at the end of the stations. Each room within the morada carries a presence within that fills my soul with joy, the pure joy that Saint Francis of Assisi talked about and shared amongst those he preached to.
From the sight of the morada, to the path of the Calvario, every step I take, every breath I breathe in and around the morada, bring in the sacred presence of a history of faith, of joy, of love for Christ, of love of Christ. This spiritual place: numinous, solemn, cherished, venerable and holy are for me what is sacred in Taos.

Roger Martínez is a photographer, native of Taos and active parishioner at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.