That Polish Girl is Cute

 

One of Jim’s Covid projects was researching the genealogy of our families on Ancestry.com.  We are both second generation Americans – Polish/Austro-Hungarian (Marsha,) Irish/Italian (Jim.)   Neither family talked much about their ancestral history.  And of course not until they were long gone did we think of things we would have liked to have known.   We were able to trace Marsha’s paternal line back to her 4th great-grandparents in Debreczen, Hajdu, Hungary and the other three branches at least a couple of generations.  No real surprises or insights other than names and places we were unfamiliar with.  

Then we took the Ancestry.com DNA tests and found out a few things we definitely didn’t expect.  Nothing that made us think that our whole lives had been a lie.  But some minor bewilderments.  Jim discovered that almost 1/3 of his “Italian half” was French.  And Marsha learned of her single digit Ashkenazi Jewish, Swedish and French roots.  We were bemused and amused by these revelations.  

Around the same time we also were learning more about the general ancestry of the New Mexican people with whom we mingled on a daily basis and whose history we talked about at El Rancho de las Golondrinas living history museum.  And the Colonial Spanish “Casta System” – under which DNA deviations such as ours would have been taken much more seriously – Marsha’s in particular.

It began with the Reconquista – the recapture of Spain by Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II from the North African Muslim Moors who controlled it from 711 AD to 1492 AD – and the subsequent proclamation of Spain as a strictly Catholic country requiring the conversion, expulsion or execution of all Jews and Muslims.  At that time Spain’s population was approximately 7 to 8 million of which 500,000 to 600,000 were Muslim and between 80,000 and 400,000 Jewish.   Approximately 100,000–200,000 Jews were expelled, with 50,000–200,000 converting to Catholicism while at least 300,000 Muslims were expelled. Tens of thousands died during expulsion.  

But becoming a “New Christian” was not enough to provide full citizenship.  There was still the “statutes of blood purity,” which required that individuals seeking to hold particular jobs or join certain institutions must be descendants of Old Christians.   It was “the body's fluids, and especially blood, [which] transmitted a certain number of moral qualities from parents to children … Jews, as a people, were incapable of change despite their conversion …    A Jew may descend on three sides from gentlemen or Old Christians, but a single bad lineage infects and ruins him.”  (Friar Prudencio de Sandoval)   Those with pure Spanish blood were declared possessed with “inherent nobility, honor, and a natural capacity for loyalty and Christian faith.” (Duke University Press)

Converted Jews or Muslims (Conversos/Moriscos) and their descendants were prohibited from holding public office, entering religious orders, attending universities and perhaps most importantly joining many guilds.  And being in a guild was a really big deal.  “In the 1700s, Spanish guilds (gremios) and merchant guilds (consulados) were powerful, state-sanctioned institutions controlling trade and manufacturing. They maintained strict quality standards, set prices, and enforced hierarchical training (apprentice to master.)  [This system] expanded in Spain and the Americas to dominate trade, manage commercial disputes, and support the crown's economic interests.”  (Google AI)  Among the many “guild trades” were clothing & textiles, metalworking, construction & woodworking, leather & footwear and food.   

Street of the Salt-Sellers in Madrid Spain

This class system worked pretty effectively partly because of its captive audience and high percentage of on-site ruling enforcers.  There were some outliers, known as “cryptos”  – mostly Jews but some Muslims who professed to have converted to Catholicism and publicly followed its rules and rituals but continued to practice their real religion in secret.  For them the Spanish created the Inquisition.

When the Spanish Empire colonized the New World they adopted a similar “blood purity” template where people were either members of República de Españoles (Spanish republic) or the República de Indios (Indigenous Republic.)  

Peninsulares: Spaniards born in Spain.

Criollos: Children of Spanish parents born in the Americas.

     Indios: Indigenous people.

     Negros/Esclavos: African descent, usually enslaved.

     Mestizos: Children of a Spanish parent and an Indigenous parent. 

That worked okay for the first generation of occupancy.  Over time however the  “ooh, that Indios(or Negros) girl is cute” became “… that part-Indios(or Negros)-looking girl is cute”  became “… that daughter of that part-Indios(or Negros)-looking girl is cute.”  And the number of logically possible combinations grew exponentially leading to the more complex “Casta System” and – since a picture tells 1,000 words –  the “Casta Paintings” to explain it all to the folks back home.   

Espanol x Espanol = Espanol

Espanol x India = Mestizo 

Espanol x Mestiza = Castiza 

Espanol x Castiza = Torna a Espanol (“Return to Spanish”)

Espanol x Negra = Mulato 

Espanol x Mulato = Morisco

Morisco x Espanol = Albino

et al.

Espanol x India = Mestizo 

The pinnacle for the Casta System and Casta Paintings was the 18th century.  The artworks were primarily produced in Mexico by prominent local artists for elite Spanish officials, colonists, clergy and European collectors.  Most commonly a series of 16 individual canvases or a single canvas divided into 16 compartments the paintings documented racial mixing –  portraying proper clothing and stereotypical behavior for each class while also showcasing the colony's bounty, flora, and fauna to European audiences.  To date over one hundred full or partial series of casta paintings have been documented.

This class structure was rigorously adhered to in Meso-America where, as in Spain, the ruling class was a significant presence and the audience was largely captive.   Working hand-in-hand with the Casta System the guilds functioned as the primary regulatory body for skilled craft production from the late 16th through the 18th century – flourishing in major economic hubs such as Mexico City where they enforced a hierarchical system of masters and apprentices, maintained rigid quality standards and played a major role in the urban economies. 

The remote New Mexico frontier however proved to be different situation.  

In New Mexico a person's casta was typically assigned by traveling priests during sacraments or government officials recording new settlers – neither of whom were likely to be personally familiar with the person.  Therefore casta assignments were based upon what the authorities were told and/or how ethnic the person looked to them (Spanish, Native American, and African features and/or skin color.)  The individual's socio-economic standing and community reputation might also come into play.  The same person sometimes showed up in different censuses in different castes.  Individuals occasionally could “pass” as a higher caste by living in a place where the rest of the population were unfamiliar with them.  Gradually many New Mexicans simply identified themselves as vecinos – working homeowners of some position, aka “middle class.”  Which, in practical terms, was what the vast majority of New Mexicans were except for the small number of higher government officials and priests who fell into the Espanol class.  

The “Spanish colonial guild system also failed in New Mexico primarily due to isolation, a lack of specialized urban economies and a small, poor population that couldn't support strict labor regulations. The frontier necessitated self-sufficiency over specialization, while constant conflict and economic strain forced a blended, informal economy that made rigid European-style craft monopolies impossible to enforce.” (Google AI)

The Casta System officially ended in Mexico and New Mexico when the former won its independence and control of New Mexico from Spain.   Other newly independent colonies also abolished their caste-based distinctions, although discrimination based on race and class persisted long after colonial rule.  The Spanish blood purity system was formally ended in 1865 for marriage, and 1870 for government and licensed professions.  The traditional Spanish guild system was officially scrapped around 1835 – but a few such as Fishermen's Guilds (Cofradías de Pescadores) remain.

So how does all this relate to us?   

Well, we learned that ethnicities can be messy – or a least not entirely straightforward.  Napoleon Bonaparte controlled Italy from 1796 to 1814.  Which might explain Jim’s French connection.   On Marsha’s side – for over 1,000 years Poland was historically home to the world's largest Jewish population; there was a 17th-century “Swedish Deluge” into the Polish regions and migrating Poles mingled with early French farmers in ancient times.  Or maybe it was just simply some individual guys from each of those ethnic groups noticing some cute, interesting Polish girls…

That’s how it happened to this Irish/Italian guy.

That Little Park at Marcy and Paseo

 

It all began with a photo-text from Monica & Bram showing a statue of a long-haired man painting at an easel and the message, “that little park at Marcy and Paseo; looks like it might be a research project.”  And, as such things often do, grew like Topsy from there.  But we promise – we will get back to the mystery maestro.

The visual arts play a major role in Santa Fe’s ambience and personality.   Home to more than 250 galleries, plus hundreds of artists and craftspeople the town is the third largest art market in the United States after New York and San Francisco and has been honored with UNESCO’s “Creative City” designation – one of 408 worldwide, NY & SF are not.   “The two major factors that make Santa Fe a major tourist destination for over one million visitors a year are the cultural heritage and history of the city and the art that reflects this legacy.” (santafe.com)

And it’s been that way basically forever.

From 1050 to 1609 Santa Fe, then named Ogapoge (oh-gah-POH-gay, “White Shell Water Place,”) was comprised of several Pueblo Indian villages and served as a major commerce center for the exchange of pottery, jewelry, turquoise, and textiles with neighboring Pueblos, Navajo, Apache and Plains tribes.

Ogapoge potters incorporated black and red on white designs into their works for spiritual, utilitarian, and identity-based reasons.  Geometric patterns, clouds, feathers, and cosmological elements offered prayers for rain, agricultural fertility, and protection.  Different patterns distinguished Puebloan groups from one another and established ownership by a specific clan or household.  

In 1598 the Spanish took over what they called Nuevo Mexico and in 1610 renamed Ogapoge to “La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís” (Royal Town of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi.)  Then built their new territorial capitol city on top of existing Pueblo settlements forcing Indigenous Natives to construct their adobe Spanish-style government buildings and Catholic churches.  Most of these structures were burned or destroyed during the 1680 Pueblo Revolt which drove the Spanish out of their colony for a dozen years.  The Spanish reconquered in 1692, and reconstructed their version of Santa Fe.

They also reorganized the Indigenous commerce system establishing annual fairs that featured captive and slave trade, agricultural goods, buffalo hides, European tools and horses thereby changing the region's economic dynamics.  Spain prohibited any Nuevo Méxicano from doing business outside of the Spanish Empire.

Because of its geographic location what is now called Mexico provided easy entry for incoming goods from Spain and direct availability of materials like silver and tin for which there was a workforce of skilled, trained-in-Spain artists and craftspeople.  Nuevo México, due to its isolated location did not have any of these things.  As a result Mexico received and/or created high quality works of religious art for its Catholic houses of prayer and home chapels.  Nuevo México – nada.

Nuevo Méxicanos were 24/7/365 Catholics and sacred iconography was important for their personal devotions and for the Franciscan priests in their conversion of the Native Americans.  Thus, in the late 1700s, the Santero tradition was born when local, untrained artisans began creating “santos” (devotional art) using natural pigments derived from in the earth and vegetation around them – “retablos” (two-dimensional paintings on wood) and “bultos” (carved statues).  The artwork remained within Nuevo México.

Then in 1821 Mexico won its independence from Spain, became its own nation (which included Nuevo México) and opened the Santa Fe Trail.  Nuevo Méxicano marketeers began swapping mules, wool and locally produced blankets for American manufactured cotton fabrics, iron hardware, and tools.   Good for most residents – but not the Santeros because the mercantile traffic brought with it a supply of tin in the form of large discarded containers (kerosene, smoked oysters, lard, etc.)  The tin was used in lieu of silver to make decorative, religious items like nichos, frames, and sconces – many incorporating off-the-rack devotional images on paper which U.S. merchants brought with them.  The need for santeros dried up and the craft basically died out until the tourist influx in the early 1900s.

In 1847-48 Nuevo México became a U.S. Territory now called New Mexico and in 1912 a state.

“From the point of view of east coast Anglo culture, Santa Fe looked like a backwater in 1900, but by the early 1920s it boasted a thriving, nationally-known art colony …  a byproduct of a larger effort to culturally revitalize Santa Fe by preserving and promoting its Hispanic and Native architecture as a draw for tourism.  The driving force in this effort was the newly formed Museum of New Mexico [led by archaeologist, anthropologist and ambitious visionary Edgar Lee Hewitt who] realized that high-profile artists could play a useful role in their preservation efforts and actively solicited their participation.”  (canyonroadarts.com)

The first member of the new Art Colony was New York artist Carlos Vierra who joined the Museum in 1904 followed by other east-coasters such as Sheldon Parsons, Paul Burlin, Gerald Cassidy and Robert Henri who observed, “here painters are treated with that welcome and appreciation that is supposed to exist only in certain places in Europe.”   In 1917 the city opened its Art Museum – the first in the Southwest dedicated to artists of the region.  And things grew from there.

Not among the joiners however was the artist whose name is probably most associated with The City Different.  Georgia O’Keeffe was too reclusive to live in New Mexico’s growing capital – “I find people very difficult.”   In 1940 she instead found solitude in an isolated part of Ghost Ranch Dude Ranch in the out-of-the-way village of Abiquiú.   Nine years later she built a larger house within that hamlet and traveled between the two sites until physically unable.  An increasingly frail O’Keeffe moved to Santa Fe in 1984 and died two years later.  

In 1997 the private Georgia O’Keeffe Museum was opened celebrating the painter’s “art, life, and independent spirit.”  The building holds the largest collection of her work in the world including 140 oil paintings, sketches and personal items.  And is among the top art-tourist attractions in the city along with Canyon Road (a half-mile walkway featuring over 100 art galleries, studios, and restaurants) and Meow Wolf’s “House of Eternal Return” immersive art installation (one of Time Magazine’s “10 Most Influential Travel and Tourism Companies of 2026.”) 

One tenet of the UNESCO Creative City movement is “showcasing heritage arts.”  In the 1920s Santa Fe civic leaders established “Indian Market” and “Spanish Market” to preserve each group’s art traditions and support local artists.  Today they draw an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 visitors apiece annually.

Then there are the large number of lesser-known locals who, attracted by this art-appreciative ambience almost 1,000 years in the making, now contribute to the composition of this creative city.  Such as, at long last, the long-haired man painting in that little park at Marcy and Paseo. 

Known as “El Diferente” Thomas Silvestri Macaione was a creator of colorful, post-impressionistic plein-air paintings of flowers and landscapes as well as an occasional barber, failed mayoral and presidential candidate as well as “an eccentric, a humanitarian and a delightful spirit known and loved by many.”

Thomas Macaione was born in New London, CT in 1907 to a Greek father and Italian mother who after their divorce moved to Sicily where (per New Mexico Magazine) “he began studying the old masters with such passion that [he] would forget to eat.”  He returned to New London at the age of 15 and began formally studying art first with a Yale University graduate student, then at the Art Students League in New York and lastly Rhode Island School of Design.  He served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during WWII learning barbering on the side, which he used to support his art.

He arrived unplanned in Santa Fe in 1952 while hitchhiking from Florida after having been dumped by friends during a planned cross-country drive to San Francisco.  And stayed until his death in 1992 becoming such a town figure that the “little park at Marcy and Paseo” is named in his honor and Nov. 13 (his birthday) has been proclaimed  “Tommy Macaione Day.”   In Santa Fe his work can be found in public places such as City Hall, Shed Restaurant, Santa Fe New Mexican and Santa Fe City offices in the Railyard.

Perhaps inspired by Santa Fe’s artful ambience Marsha’s knitting projects have become more complex out here.  In search of more new challenges she will be taking a “free form” knitting class this summer at Santa Fe Community College.  Jim hasn’t made pottery for 30+ years but inspired by Marsha is resuscitating his clay-building skills with a wheel-throwing and hand-building Raku class at the same school.  

Currently there are 77 developed parks and 26 undeveloped spaces in Santa Fe  – many of them still looking for a name.  (That’s one park for every 864 residents.  Nationwide, the average is one park for every 2,400 residents.)  

It’s too late for Miss O’Keeffe to nab one – she’ll just have to settle for a world-class museum and international recognition instead of an eponymous public recreation area.  But maybe if one of us can get some of our own creations out there in the public domain and become friendly with the right people…

Out Here We Love Our Ruts

 

While not universal many people have an inborn desire to, in some way however small, leave their mark on the world.

Long before the arrival of Europeans in America the Ancestral Pueblo people memorialized themselves by incising petroglyphs onto the dark, patinated rocks of New Mexico.  The meaning of many carvings is known only to their creators, but virtually all hold deep spiritual and cultural meanings to contemporary Native communities.  Some images such as deers, mountain lions, snakes, and birds seem self-evident, but may not be.   Patterns, zigzags, and lines might represent lightning, water. mountains – or not.  Humanoid figures and masks can be downright eerie and otherworldly in appearance –  ideal fodder for the “ancient alien theorists” on the eponymous History Channel television program.

The self-effacing English Pilgrims who came to New England on the Mayflower in 1620 however eschewed their opportunity to register their presence publicly on Plymouth Rock – instead signing the Mayflower Compact a month prior to settling at Plymouth in a private ceremony onboard ship while anchored near present day Provincetown, Cape Cod.  The Brits’  3,000 mile oceanic trip took 66 days following a long-established sailing route used by English explorers and fishermen.   However severe, unseasonal storms pushed them significantly off course causing them to land at P’town rather than their target of Northern Virginia.  

Twenty-two years earlier the recognition-seeking Spanish who settled New Mexico in 1598 incongruously left perhaps their most enduring mark in the form of a series of unobtrusive, long deep tracks imbedded in the earth.  Fortunately for them, out here we love our ruts.

Spanish colonizers led by Juan de Oñate y Salazar came to New Mexico on their feet – trekking 1,600 miles in about six months.  Unlike the Pilgrims Oñate absolutely nailed his intended destination – the Tewa village of Ohkay Owinge (“place of strong people”) – by adapting a series of centuries-old, well-defined Indigenous foot trails into a roadway that could accommodate a caravan of massive European-style wagon trains, soldiers, and livestock.   He christened the resulting thoroughfare “El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro” –  “The Royal Road of the Interior Land.”

(The Spanish Empire's “Caminos”  were a system of government-created routes connecting missions, forts, and mining centers to Mexico City or other regional capitals. They were paired with an equally well-organized network of oceanic routes to efficiently connect the various parts of the Spanish Empire e.g the Galleon Trade Route linked the Philippines to New Spain.   Other major Caminos in North America were El Camino Real de los Tejas (connecting East Texas/Louisiana to Mexico) and El Camino Real in California (connecting the 21 missions, presidios, and Pueblos from San Diego to Sonoma.)  In South America major networks extended from the Viceroyalty of Peru down to the Río de la Plata, connecting cities and mining regions in present-day Peru, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, and Bolivia. The original Camino Real was in Spain, connecting cities like Gijón, León, and Madrid.) 

Oñate proclaimed Ohkay Owinge the first Spanish capital of New Mexico renaming it San Juan de los Caballeros to honor his patron saint, John the Baptist and to recognize the “gentlemen” (“caballeros”) of his expedition.  The location was chosen based on reports from an earlier scouting party in July of that year.   Its position at the confluence of the Rio Grande and Rio Chama provided fertile land and water; its inhabitants welcomed the Spanish and it was centrally located among the Native villages (“pueblos”) allowing for easy, surveillance of the region.  Perhaps most importantly, driven by the myths of Cibola and “Cities of Gold,” Oñate absolutely expected to find that precious metal and/or other wealth at Ohkay Owingeh and the surrounding area.  He didn’t.

Lack of riches and insufficiency of day-to-day resources led to low morale among the settlers.  San Juan de los Caballeros was abandoned the next year and the capital moved up the road near present-day Española to another village Oñate called San Gabriel del Yunque to recognize the displaced Tewa pueblo site of Yunque-Ouinge (“anvil pueblo”) and to honor another of his patron saints. (Oñate had several guiding spirits including The Virgin Mary, St. James and San Miguel.)  The new location however also failed to meet expectations leading to the capital moving to its ultimate home in Santa Fe in 1610. 

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro however was definitely a winning proposition, serving as the primary trade and colonization route between Mexico City and New Mexico for over 300 years facilitating goods transportation, economic development, and cultural exchange  – America’s first cross-country highway.

Key to the success of the Caminos were their parajes – stopping points 10-15 miles apart (one day’s travel.)  Not all of them were manned, but they all were planned. In the beginning most were simply unattended designated campsites that provided fresh water and a resting place for animals and travelers.  Some were mission churches or Native Pueblo villages with food and trading goods, fresh livestock and safety.  The Texas routes relied almost exclusively on the former, while California's route was anchored by missions.  de Tierra Adentro began with mostly unwatched sites plus a few churches and Native Pueblos – then grew to include managed locations such as working ranches and other businesses that provided paraje services.  Some parajes eventually evolved into permanent settlements with a few growing into modern cities like Albuquerque, Socorro, and El Paso.  El Rancho de las Golondrinas living history museum where we volunteer, became a working sheep ranch and full-service paraje around 1720.  Santa Fe’s “first and last” – first stop out, last stop in.

Oñate's 1598 expedition to New Mexico was made up of over 400 soldiers and settlers including 130 families, 83 wagons/carts and over 7,000 head of livestock (mules, horses, sheep, goats, cattle) stretching for four miles.  Subsequent supply caravans generally consisted of 32 wagons with around 100 people, including Franciscan missionaries and merchants accompanied by military and roughly 1,000 head of animals.  Each wagon was typically pulled by eight mules and carried about 4,000 pounds of freight.  During the 1600s, these government-organized supply caravans usually traveled north from Mexico City only every three to four years.  Annually in the 1700s and 1800s.  Trips were usually scheduled to avoid the worst of the summer heat and winter snow.  Northbound, they brought new settlers, missionaries, clothing, metal farming and mining tools, religious items, and food.   Southbound, they transported sheep, wool, hides, and pinyon nuts.  By the mid-19th century, private trader caravans were smaller, often consisting of around 14 wagons.  Big or small the trip still took about six months.

Travel was hazardous for the convoys.  Apache and Chichimeca Indians targeted the livestock.  The trail was made up of steep rocky terrain, deep sand, and treacherous arroyos that broke wagon wheels and brought progress to a halt.  Lack of fresh water, and the immense length of the trip led to sickness and death among settlers.  Unrelenting desert heat, sudden cold, droughts, and lack of forage for animals plus flash floods from the Rio Grande provided environmental dangers.

Perhaps the most perilous part of the trail was a 100-mile section of desert between Las Cruces, NM and Socorro, NM known as “Jornada del Muerto” (“Route of the Dead Man.”)  Most of the time de Tierra Adentro tracked closely to the path of the Rio Grande providing nearby access to water and forage.  Here however, the trail diverged from the river due to rough terrain and arroyos, which the caravans could not traverse.  It took five days of little water to cross this segment.   As one Spaniard wrote,  “Oh Dios, qué tierra tan solitaria,” “Oh God, what a lonely land.”     

So, with no GPS or Rand-McNally maps how did the travelers of de Tierra Adentro know where to go?  In most cases the caravans contained trail-experienced traders and Spanish soldiers.  But the basic rule for finding your way was to “follow the ruts” – the deep, enduring tracks left in the landscape by previous journeyers.

Segments of those same ruts are still visible today.  At La Bajada Mesa, south of Santa Fe, you can see the paths used by wagons to descend the rugged escarpment from mesa into the valley below.  And the National Park’s Yost Draw in Jornada del Muerto features a 1.5-mile interpretive path where you can walk directly alongside original trail tracks and wagon ruts.  

Yost Draw also provides a glimpse of  Spaceport America, which now occupies the middle portion of the Jornada – “the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world.”  On May 22, 2021 Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity ascended over those centuries-old furrows on that company’s first crewed flight to the edge of space with the ship’s owner Richard Branson onboard.  

One has to wonder why Branson chose this particular location to launch his business.   Could it be that he was aware of earlier space flights that took place in the area?  Furthermore, could it be that those 1598 Camino Real de Tierra Adentro travelers might themselves have gazed in amazement at one such high-flying spaceship?  And if so did they wonder if its inhabitants might have been responsible for the otherworldly petroglyphs the caravans continued to encounter on their own terrestrial travels?   

Nah!  They were probably too focused on just staying alive to think of anything else.