Sanctuaries of Spanish New Mexico "endnotes"

― 323 ―

Notes

The Setting

1. Lummis, The Land of Poco Tiempo , p. 3.

2. The phrase is from Walter, "The Cities That Died of Fear."

The Native Culture

3. These conglomerate structures grew incrementally without any overall plan. Their sense of unity was thus the product of common building materials as well as the result of adding, fitting, and adjusting the part to the whole, rather than subdividing a larger entity into discrete units. This process is characteristic of multiunit folk building throughout the world, where the structure directly reflects the process and to some degree the temporal staging by which it was realized. It becomes even more evident in multistory building construction and is characteristic of the dwellings of the Pueblo culture. See Pike, Anasazi ; and Nordenskiöld, The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde . For a concise account, see Breternitz and Smith, "Mesa Verde."

Exploration

4. The expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609-1614 reduced revenues, and the effects of a series of economic depressions from 1623 to 1650 followed by a period of severe inflation from 1664 to 1680 were compounded by a tax system that served only to increase the need for more revenue. Moreover, Spain's standing armies required maintenance, and wars had to be funded. Bottineau, Iberian-American Baroque , p. 5.

5. Ibid., p. 6.

6. The necessity for Christianization efforts in Mexico was realized within a few years after the Conquest. In a letter to Charles V dated October 15, 1524, Cortés restated the need for "some religious of good life and example; but, up to the present, only a few have come, or none, so to speak, and, since their coming would be of very great usefulness, I beg Your Majesty to send them with as little delay as possible" (p. 20). Missionaries would be best; the expense of supporting bishops and regular clergy would be excessive. The mission of the "Twelve Apostles," members of the Friars Minor of the Observance, arrived in Mexico City on 17 or 18 June 1524, but more missionaries were needed (p. 21). The conditions in Mexico in the early sixteenth century were not unlike those in New Mexico decades later. "In 1561, the second bishop of New Galacia, Fray Pedro de Ayala, begged Philip II to send him some Franciscans for his poor diocese, because the religious at his disposal were aged and worn out, and the new ones preferred to remain in easier and more agreeable dioceses, such as Mexico and Michoacán" (p. 81). Richard's general description of the Mexican religious enterprise also could serve as a characterization of the evangelical project further north, particularly the patience and flexibility necessary to sustain the spirit in trying circumstances: "one sees the character of moderation and common sense, that defiance of systematic and absolute theology, that eclecticism, which seem to be the dominant traits of the Mexican mission" (p. 95). Ricard, The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico .

7. See Kubler, "Two Modes of Franciscan Architecture," pp. 39-48. "When Quiroga became Auditor of New Spain in 1530, his first concern was to realize in America the Utopian speculations of his English contemporary, in two urban creations, one near Mexico City, and the other on the shores of Lake Patzcuaro in Michoacan. Quiroga expressly stated in later life that he had modelled these communities, designated as 'Hospitals,' upon the Utopia . They were dedicated to the attainment of Christian perfection, and served to propagate the faith among unsettled groups of new converts. Property was held communally; the Indians were relieved from personal service and tribute; subsistence was provided from agriculture and the exercise of the crafts. . . . The Mendicants adopted its form in their urban foundations throughout western Mexico, and as late as the eighteenth century, the landholding system, the community meetings, and other arrangements were maintained intact in many areas" (p. 45).

8. Mundigo and Crouch, "The City Planning Ordinances," p. 260.

9. Simmons, New Mexico , p. 11.

Moving North

10. The myth of the Seven Cities extended back centuries and was rooted in the Muslim occupation of Spain. In Universalior Cogniti Orbis Tabula (1508), Jan Ruysch, a German geographer, told of seven bishops who during the eighth century had fled westward by ship reaching "the island of Antilia (a name echoed today in the Antilles Islands), where each built an opulent city brimming with treasure." Ibid., p. 13. See also Bandelier, The Discovery of New Mexico , p. 65.

11. Esteban had been a member of the ill-fated Pánfilo de Narváez expedition to Florida in 1528. Shipwrecked on the west coast of the peninsula, he, Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, and a few other survivors spent eight years making their way back to Mexico on foot and heard tales of the Seven Cities as they traveled.

12. Bolton, Coronado, Knight of Pueblo and Plains , pp. 35-36; cited in Simmons, New Mexico , p. 18.

Colonization

13. This discussion of the Laws of the Indies is adapted from Mundigo and Crouch, "The Laws of the Indies Revisited." A book by the same authors and Garr restated essentially the same material: Crouch, Garr, and Mundigo, Spanish City Planning .

14. Prince, Spanish Mission Churches of New Mexico , pp. 38-39.

15. Bolton, "The Mission as a Frontier Institution," p. 60.

16. A mission system was established in the late seventeenth century in Pimería Alta, which extended from what is Sonora, Mexico, to Arizona. The system is almost synonymous with the name of the Jesuit Fray Eusebio Kino (1645-1711), who arrived in New Spain in 1687 and is credited with founding more than a dozen churches, including the celebrated San Xavier del Bac in 1700. The expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767 left the missions under Franciscan jurisdiction. Because of distance and hostile conditions, there was virtually no contact between these missions and those along the Río Grande. See Polzer, Kino Guide II . For a geographical discussion of the land and its settlement, see Meinig, Southwest .

17. Simmons, New Mexico , p. 41. As is subsequently noted, Oñate later stood trial for the brutality used in bringing Acoma under control.

18. To effectively administer and control disparate towns in Mexico, the Spanish devised a policy of reducciones that condensed the scattered villages into larger units under direct Spanish supervision. According to the Laws of the Indies, "The Spaniards, to whom Indians are entrusted ( encomendados ) should seek with great care that these Indians be settled into towns, and that, within these, churches be built so that the Indians can be instructed into Christian doctrine and live in good order." At first the Indians resisted relocation into non-traditional village clusters but through coercion, threat, and, one assumes, some demonstration of material gain, the reducción became a rather successful institution—at least when viewed from the Spanish side.

19. Bolton, "The Mission as a Frontier Institution," p. 52. For a more extensive study of work policy, see Barber, "Indian Labor in the Spanish Colonies."

20. Simmons, New Mexico , p. 55.

21. Kubler, Mexican Architecture , p. 136.

22. Prince, Spanish Mission Churches , p. 44. The letter describing the situation was written by Fray Escalona to the superior of the Franciscan order in Mexico.

23. "Ultimately, New Mexico's conqueror was to be tried and convicted along with many of his leading officers for a wide variety of crimes. But the most important crime Oñate had committed in the eyes of Spain's rulers was one he was never tried for: that of failing to duplicate the feats of Cortés and Pizzaro in finding Indians of sufficient wealth to swell the bottomless coffers at Madrid." Beck, New Mexico , p. 60.

Conversion Efforts

24. Hewett and Fisher, Mission Monuments , p. 81.

25. Scholes discussed the origins of the position of custos and ascertained when the title was first used. He concluded that although there had been other Franciscans who had earlier headed the missionary program in New Mexico, it was Fray Estevan de Perea who actually served as the first custodian. Scholes, "Problems in the Early Ecclesiastical History," pp. 32-75.

The custody was established in part as a response to the Oñate crisis and to the problems involved with canceling colonization in New Mexico and the concomitant abandonment of those Indians already converted—said to number more than 2,000. "Hence, it was finally decided to turn the colony over to the crown as a mission station with control in the hands of the clergy, the entire area being converted in a custodia , with the military there only to protect the missionaries." Beck, New Mexico , p. 59.

26. Prince, Spanish Mission Churches , pp. 45-49.

27. Spicer, Cycles of Conquest , p. 167; cited in Dozier, The Pueblo Indians , pp. 48-49.

28. Hewett and Fisher, Mission Monuments , p. 102.

29. Walter, "Mission Churches," p. 116.

30. "Against smallpox, measles, whooping cough, and cholera, they had no natural resistance, and they died in droves. . . . Other epidemics in the 1660s further thinned their ranks." Simmons, New Mexico , p. 65.

The Pueblo Rebellion

31. Hackett and Shelby, The Pueblo Revolt ; cited in Dozier, The Pueblo Indians , p. 59.

32. "In spite of Popé's commands, many villagers retained their animals, continued to use their carts, refused to pull up their orchards, and some kept little forges in operation to work the scraps of iron and steel that were spoils of the revolt. A few who had been touched deeply by the friars squirreled away religious articles, salvaged from the churches, against the day when the Christians might return." Simmons, New Mexico , p. 72.

33. Hackett, Historical Documents , vol. 3, p. 132.

Spanish Town Planning

34. "Fortified village" is probably too strong a rendering of the term plaza in English because it suggests an impregnable outpost built to withstand a major battle or interminable siege. The Spanish word plaza in English, which is more commonly associated with an urban space, suggests a town plan that is more social than defensive. This was not the case. See Bunting, Early Architecture , p. 63; and Bunting, Of Earth and Timbers Made , pp. 6, 17.

35. The site of San Gabriel is marked today only by limited archaeological evidence. For the findings of a 1984 conference at San Juan Pueblo, see When Cultures Meet , especially pp. 10-38 and illustrations pp. 45-55.

36. Mundigo and Crouch, "The City Planning Ordinances," p. 248. To situate a forum at the intersection of the two main avenues of the Roman town was not common planning practice, although towns following this model did exist. The parallels with the towns prescribed by the Laws of the Indies are thus limited because the plaza was always intended to create the center of the Hispanic town; from it streets extended. Although in spite of the seeming specificity of their language, the ordinances were ultimately ambiguous and open to both interpretation and adjustment to site conditions. In theory streets led from the midpoints of the plaza as well as from its corners, but in actual practice street planning varied considerably.

37. "In 1584, finally, among a shipment of forty cases of books . . . four folio copies of a quarto edition of the 'Arquitectura de Vitruvio' arrived, as well as four copies of a quarto edition of the 'Arquitectura de Alberto [sc. Leon Battista Alberti]' and two copies of a folio edition of the 'Arquitectura de Serlio.'" Kubler, Mexican Architecture , p. 104.

38. See Kubler, "Open-Grid Town Plans."

39. Article 34. These and all subsequent ordinances are translated in Mundigo and Crouch, "The City Planning Ordinances."

40. Article 35, Laws of the Indies.

41. Article 112, Laws of the Indies.

42. Article 113, Laws of the Indies.

43. Now used as a part of the Museum of New Mexico, the palace no longer represents its former architectural self, having been stripped of its original character and length by time and a restoration early in this century. See Shishkin, The Palace of the Governors .

44. Article 124, Laws of the Indies.

45. Article 119, Laws of the Indies.

46. For an extensive discussion of the development of the plaza at Santa Fe, see Wilson, "The Santa Fe, New Mexico, Plaza." Although ostensibly about the style of Santa Fe, Johnson, "The Santa Fe of the Future," included plans of the plaza "as it is today" and "as it should be" (which is, it will be seen, how it once was).

47. Article 122, Laws of the Indies.

48. Article 129, Laws of the Indies; Article 127, Laws of the Indies; and Article 126, Laws of the Indies.

49. Article 133, Laws of the Indies.

50. Domínguez, The Missions , pp. 39-40. In his condemnation of the capital, Domínguez expressed views on the character of cities that underlay the Laws of the Indies, that is, a nearly direct correlation between the political and social entity and urban form. "Surely when one hears or reads 'Villa of Santa Fe,' along with the particulars that it is the capital of the kingdom, the seat of political and military government with a royal presidio, and other details that have come before one's eyes in the perusal of the foregoing, such a vivid and forceful notion or idea must be suggested to the imagination that the reason will seize upon it to form judgments and opinions that it just at least be fairly presentable, if not very good." The actuality of Santa Fe did not bear out this preconception, despite the exceptional setting. Domínguez termed the town "a rough stone set in fine metal." To provide a more suitable example, the friar cited the pueblo of Tlatelolco, a suburb of Mexico City. "Although a pueblo (a less pretentious title than villa) [it] has the very greatest advantages over this villa [Santa Fe]; not superficially, as one might suppose, but indeed in its actual appearance, design, arrangement, and plan, for in it there are streets, well-planned houses, shops, fountains; in a word, it has something to lift the spirit by appealing to the senses." At this point he rendered his verdict on Santa Fe: "This villa is the exact opposite, for in the final analysis it lacks everything" (p. 39).

The Hispanic Dwelling

51. See Bunting, Early Architecture ; Bunting, Of Earth and Timbers Made ; Jackson, "New Mexico Houses," pp. 2-5 and Wilson, "When the Room Is the Hall," pp. 17-23.

52. Notwithstanding its height, Pueblo architecture was essentially single-story construction stacked in floors. Walls may or may not have continued through more than one floor, but each roof became a potential building surface for the story above it, allowing for an agglomeration of units that to some degree were structurally independent. Each unit could appear, expand, decay, or even disappear with a minimum of influence on its neighbors. The need for coordinating communal building efforts was also reduced. Bunting showed how oblique windows at Zuñi overcame some of the difficult conditions created by this piecemeal construction pattern. See Bunting, Early Architecture , pp. 32-51, especially Figure 25; and for a description of Pecos, see Kessell, Kiva, Cross, and Crown , pp. 8-12.

53. Knowles argued that Anasazi and Pueblo Indian architecture represented building in complete accord with solar and thermal principles. Although the residential blocks on the Acoma mesa follow rules of orientation quite closely, this is the exception rather than the rule. Similarly, Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde also faces south and is thus shaded by the cavern ceiling during the hot summer months. But other clusters such as Spruce Tree House face in many different directions, suggesting that a cave with sufficient building surface was more important than its orientation. See Knowles, Sun Rhythm Form .

54. "In warm weather the zaguan was often a family work area, and piles of drying corn, wheat, chile, melons, onions, and tobacco were strewn in it for cleaning or tying in strings; farm tools and drying hides hung from the vigas." Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 27.

55. Ibid., p. 23. "Well-to-do Spanish families built torreones (towers) next to or near their houses for defensive purposes. Composed of adobe, ledgestone or lava rocks according to their locations, these towers were frontier extensions of medieval European fortified castles, at least in the minds of their owners. They had blank walls with crenellated adobe parapets above the upper room and a few peepholes in the upper walls to shoot through at hostile raiders. Either round or square in shape, the lower room was used to shelter livestock when an alarm of approaching Indians was given. Women, children, and neighbors who had time to reach the tower stayed in the upper room along with the food and water that had been collected for the besieged. Fighting men crouched behind the parapets and endeavored to shoot the enemy with their often inadequate firearms. Nomadic Indians soon learned to hold the Spanish prisoners by staying out of gun range while others of their party drove off whatever human captives and livestock they could find in the neighborhood, seizing corn and other loot and making their escape. At best a torreon might save the lives of its occupants, but more often this method of defense turned out to be the funeral pyre of those who had taken refuge in it." Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 23.

56. Although no real tradition of meditative or ornamental gardens developed in the harsh conditions of New Mexico, vegetable gardens and orchards could serve ornamental purposes, particularly when fruit trees came into bloom. At Acoma water was brought to the mesa with great effort to irrigate small peach trees, which no doubt addressed both functional and decorative needs. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 192.

57. As a result of the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, the mission program in California late in the eighteenth century was placed under Franciscan jurisdiction—but by this time the Franciscans' doctrine had undergone fundamental change. "With this earlier [utopian] urban ideal of the Franciscans for the converted Indian settlements, the later practice of the Order in California has very little in common. Whereas in New Spain and in New Mexico, supervision had served only to regulate an established Indian culture, and to protect the Indians against European exploitation, the Franciscans in California produced a mission discipline fundamentally military in character. Imposed upon primitives, it implied a permanent state of tutelage and a mechanization of society at the expense of inner development. On the other hand, it was a most successful solution to the basic colonial problem—the education of primitives to systematic habits of work." Kubler, "Two Modes of Franciscan Architecture," p. 46.

Church Patterns

58. Kubler and Soria, Art and Architecture , p. 71.

59. Toussaint, Colonial Art , pp. 275-277.

60. The full story of Hispanic-American architecture lies beyond the scope of this book; what concerns us, however, are those church structures built specifically for other remote native populations in the Americas that provide parallels with the churches built later in New Mexico.

61. Wethey, Colonial Architecture , p. 18. The churches that were supposedly built on the model of the Gesú in Rome actually displayed a greater affinity for Gothic and Renaissance prototypes. "The truth is that the Jesuit order never officially adopted a specific type of floorplan in Peru or anywhere else" (p. 18).

62. Kubler, Mexican Architecture , pp. 105-106. Kubler confirmed that "the vast official documentation for the colony contains almost no reference to drawings prepared in Spain for American use" (p. 105).

63. For the definitive presentation and analysis of the atrio and the development of related Mexican religious architecture, see McAndrew, The Open-Air Churches ; and Toussaint, Colonial Art , pp. 25-31, 57.

Church Types

64. This term architectural competence is borrowed from Glassie: "The learning designer develops a set of pure and simple geometric ideas. As thinker, as perceiving, conceptualizing human being, he shatters and rebuilds reality by dint of an inward capacity for sundering and ordering. Without limiting his thoughts in terms of future need, he constructs ideas that are inherently useless but of enormous potential owing to their very simplicity. He relates these essential ideas into a geometric repertoire much the same way the learning speaker develops a set of phonemes or the learning musician develops a scale of notes. The designer's geometric repertoire is not composed of models of the sights of the phenomenal world. It is not a set of abstracted trees or faces, but a set of simple shapes abstracted beyond any connection with trees and faces. It is an unreflectively held repertoire of geometric entities, elegant summaries of features of shape, such as line or angle or curve." Glassie, Folk Housing , pp. 19, 19-40.

Siting

65. See Stubbs, Ellis, and Dittert, "'Lost' Pecos Church."

66. Kubler, The Religious Architecture , p. 19.

67. While visiting Picuris in 1776, Domínguez recorded the uncertainty of existence on the frontier. The new church would be built, he assured the reader, but its site was to be adjusted to take defense into account. The Comanche raids "are so daring that this father I have mentioned [Don Pedro Fermin de Mendinueta] assures me that he escaped by a miracle in the year '69, for they sacked the convent and destroyed his meager supplies; yet he considered them well spent in exchange for his life and freedom from captivity. . . . Orders were issued for the erection of a new building [church] in a safe place. This is near one block of, but outside, one plaza of the pueblo, with the intention that the convent should be in that block. But according to the plan, all is to be defensible as a unit, for the present space between the church and the block where the convent is to be built will be a cloister." Domínguez, The Missions , p. 92.

68. Schuetz, Architectural Practice , p. 43.

Layout

69. The supplies for each friar establishing a mission included "one ream of paper." Scholes, "The Supply Service," p. 100.

70. "After outlining the foundation with powdered lime, the trench is opened, leveled, and straightened with a mason's square and lines." Schuetz, Architectural Practice , p. 21.

71. Kubler cited the surveying practice of "setting cords for a new town," illustrated in Pintura del Gobernador , circa 1566. Kubler, Mexican Architecture , p. 159.

72. Scholes, "The Supply Service," pp. 103-104.

Sitework

73. Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 48.

74. Ibid., p. 446.

73. Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 48.

74. Ibid., p. 446.

Walls

75. Cited in Walter, "Mission Churches," p. 116.

76. The Casa Grande was built by the Hohokam people between A.D . 1300 and 1400. Hand-formed lumps of soil (called "turtle backs" because of their rounded forms) patted into place are believed to be the principal elements of construction. See Wilcox and Shenk, The Architecture of the Casa Grande .

77. Lumpkins, "A Distinguished Architect," p. 3.

78. Nelson, Preservation of Historic Adobe Buildings . The process of burnishing, more effective when the device is slightly wet, is actually a process of sealing and polishing by gradually redistributing surface particles through continued rubbing. This technique is used to great aesthetic effect in the making of unglazed ceramics as the burnished areas—whether reduced or oxidized—acquire a brilliant shine without glazes.

79. Dickey, New Mexico Village Arts , p. 51.

Roofs

80. Note the resemblance between this technique and the function of foundation stones. Halseth, "Report of Repairs," pp. 10-12.

81. "There is no heading for the nave of this church, because its adornment is so soulless that I consider it unnecessary to describe anything so dead. Nevertheless, although its chief resemblance is to a culverin because of its length and narrowness, it also resembles a wine cellar, and it contains two poor benches provided by Father Fray Sebastian Fernandez." Domínguez, The Missions , p. 115.

82. Kubler, The Religious Architecture , p. 34. Ivey, however, stressed the importance of block and tackle in church construction: "It is frequently forgotten that such equipment was known to virtually every Spaniard in the New World, since all had arrived there on board ships with innumerable pulleys, winches, and other lifting devices in constant use." He dismissed Kubler's interpretation that one nave wall's greater thickness was due to its use as a lifting surface: "Shear legs or some similar system of lifting had to have been used in the construction of the Salinas missions, contrary to the statements of George Kubler." Most of the beams had intricate carvings and were finished before they were installed. "If finished beams had been rolled to a wall top and then dragged into position, as depicted by Kubler, they would have been extensively damaged on the finished surfaces and edges. Instead they had to be lifted clear of the walls and lowered into position." Ivey, In the Midst of Loneliness .

83. Bunting and Conron, "The Architecture of Northern New Mexico," p. 27.

84. Hesse, "The Missions of Cochití and Santo Domingo, N.M.," p. 27.

Apertures

85. See Toulouse, The Mission of San Gregorio . It was more common for doors to be mounted on wooden pivots than on metal hinges. "A pintle hinge would be fashioned from a stile extended beyond the top and bottom rails of the door, and allowed to rotate in a socket carved from the door frame. Such a pintle pivot door is known in New Mexico as a zambullo ." Holmes, "Architectural Woodwork," p. 18.

86. Domínguez, The Missions , pp. 198-199.

Illumination

87. Lummis, The Land of Poco Tiempo , p. 6.

88. "Like the alabaster window panes of Ravenna's Byzantine churches, selenite is not transparent but is translucent, giving a subdued bath of light to the interior. Electric bulbs dangling from a cord, fluorescent tubes and plastic shades that have been installed in several chapels to replace obstructed clerestory windows give, in comparison, sorry lighting." Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 48.

89. Inventory of goods from Glascow and Brother, St. Louis, which consisted mostly of clothing and food stuffs: "3 half boxes window glass 8 × 10. 3 half boxes window glass 10 × 12." Ibid., p. 325.

90. Kubler, The Religious Architecture , p. 67.

91. Ibid., pp. 69-70.

Architectural Effects

90. Kubler, The Religious Architecture , p. 67.

91. Ibid., pp. 69-70.

92. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 205.

93. For additional information on wooden chests, see Boyd, Popular Arts , pp. 246-265; Taylor and Bokides, Carpinteros and Cabinetmakers ; and Dickey, New Mexico Village Arts , pp. 50-82.

The Convento

94. Adams and Chavez (Domínguez's translators and editors) defined the term first fruits as follows: " Primicias . A voluntary Annual offering from the harvests and herds, seldom requested from the poor and never from the Indians" (p. 355). Yet Domínguez's entry on "How He [the Franciscan] Acquires Necessities" for Picuris stated, "Although it comes out the same everywhere according to the usual method and by exchange, this father says that here, in order not to deprive himself of the little grain he acquires by harvests and first fruits and perhaps an obvention or two, most of it comes from the royal alms in chocolate, linen, or winding sheets." Domínguez, The Missions , p. 96.

95. Domínguez, The Missions , pp. 192, 193.

96. "The Cubero document does not say whether the convent was actually south of the church or viceversa; because the south would be the better protected side, we can suppose almost with certainty that the Fathers used the higher church structure as a wind and weather break on the north. Invariably they chose the sheltered side for their convents in all the missions. Chavez, "Santa Fe Church and Convent Sites," p. 93. Acoma is another very apparent example of the pattern Chavez described.

97. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 27.

98. Ibid., p. 48.

99. Ibid., p. 93.

97. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 27.

98. Ibid., p. 48.

99. Ibid., p. 93.

97. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 27.

98. Ibid., p. 48.

99. Ibid., p. 93.

Beyond the Church

100. Lange, Cochiti , pp. 419-420. "The new burial ground was opened about the turn of the century. This occurred after a severe epidemic of 'Los Frios,' mountain fever, and another of malaria had plagued Cochití in the 1890s and the early 1900s. At that time, numerous deaths in the village, sometimes five or six a day, filled the campo santo immediately in front of the church, and the new burial ground west of the pueblo was consecrated. Like the Indians, the Spanish families at Cochití have used both campo santos " (p. 419).

101. Kubler, The Religious Architecture , p. 75.

102. McAndrew, The Open-Air Churches , p. 349.

103. Toulouse, The Mission of San Gregorio , p. 61, n. 7.

Furnishings and Decoration

104. Dickey, New Mexico Village Arts , p. 59.

105. Bolton, "The Mission as a Frontier Institution," p. 64. As late as 1853 "the New Mexico woman's preference for sitting on the floor, even if she had 'American' furniture," made an impression on foreign eyes. W. W. H. Davis, El Gringo, or New Mexico and Her People ; cited in Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 43.

106. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 65.

107. This development is traced in Mather, Baroque to Folk .

108. "The Laguna santero, working just at the end of the 18th century, was a true folk artist in his use of tempera pigments and abandonment of perspective and realism for two-dimensional treatment of his subjects." Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 162. See also Wroth, Christian Images , pp. 69-92.

109. Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 275.

110. Ibid., p. 118; and Wroth, Christian Images , pp. 47-50.

109. Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 275.

110. Ibid., p. 118; and Wroth, Christian Images , pp. 47-50.

111. Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 118.

112. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 66.

113. Cited in Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 125.

114. Ibid., p. 275. Among the metal goods at Abiquiu Domínguez found "a saw. A lever. Two crowbars, so worn out that they are no longer useful. A plane. All came from the King, and the said inventory so records them. Still another crowbar. Adze. Chisel, but Father Fernandez did not find this, for they say it is lost, and so there is nothing but what has been listed before." Domínguez, The Missions , p. 123.

113. Cited in Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 125.

115. Simmons and Turley, Southwestern Colonial Ironwork , pp. 22-32.

116. Scholes, "The Supply Service," pp. 100-109.

117. Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 64.

Ritual

118. "Epistle side, lado de la epistola . The right side of the altar as one faces it, where the Epistle of the Mass is sung or recited; hence, the entire right side of the church." Domínguez, The Missions , p. 355. Thus, the gospel side is to the left.

119. Domínguez, The Missions , pp. 308-310.

Music

120. Cited in Bolton, "The Mission as a Frontier Institution," p. 63. "[He] was able to report fourteen monasteries, serving fifty-odd pueblos, each with its school, where the Indians were taught not only to sing, play musical instruments, read, and write, but, as Benavides puts it, 'all the trades and polite deportment,' all imparted by 'the great industry of the Religious who converted them'" (p. 63).

121. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 67.

122. Bloom, "Bourke on the Southwest X," p. 251.

123. Ibid., p. 197.

122. Bloom, "Bourke on the Southwest X," p. 251.

123. Ibid., p. 197.

Architectural Sources

124. "Among the Mendicant builders, the incidence of formal architectural education, low everywhere in Europe at the period, remained very rare in Mexico. . . . Architectural education, then, among the Mendicants, remained highly informal, guided by no theory other than that which could be assimilated from reading and from experienced men in civilization and monastic life. The new quantum that must not be overlooked, however, is the presence in Mexico after 1550 of men bearing an academic, bookformed standard of classicizing taste in architecture." Kubler, Mexican Architecture , p. 128.

125. Ibid., p. 104.

126. Schuetz, Architectural Practice .

127. Ibid., pp. 50-51.

128. Ibid., p. 21, n. 9.

126. Schuetz, Architectural Practice .

127. Ibid., pp. 50-51.

128. Ibid., p. 21, n. 9.

126. Schuetz, Architectural Practice .

127. Ibid., pp. 50-51.

128. Ibid., p. 21, n. 9.

129. Manucy, The Houses of St. Augustine , p. 27.

130. Kessell, The Missions of New Mexico , p. 156.

Governance and Church Form

131. Wroth, The Chapel of Our Lady of Talpa , p. 43, n. 15.

132. "Except for two known cases, New Mexico had no native vocations from 1600 to 1800. The reason is obvious. As a mere military outpost, the Spanish population never got educational help or facilities from the Crown; moreover, the number of people and their economy were kept down at a miserable low level by the poverty of the land and the continuous Indian invasions." Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Lamy Memorial , p. 23.

133. Ellis, Bishop Lamy's Santa Fe Cathedral , p. 65.

134. Cited in Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 163.

135. Weigle, The Penitentes , pp. 8-13.

136. Wroth, The Chapel of Our Lady of Talpa , p. 44, n. 17.

137. See Bunting, Lyons, and Lyons, "Penitente Brotherhood Moradas." "Penitente observances usually require not only a morada , or meetinghouse, but also a separate chapel which serves as the place of communal observances involving not only Brothers but also members of the families and guests. The morada itself is more exclusive and usually more isolated. It is the center for the Brothers and their private penitential practices (necessarily private since the strictures of Bishop Zubiria in 1833). During Holy Week both structures, the chapel and the morada , are utilized, the chapel is the deposito (depository) for the Virgin Mary and the dwelling for the women and children, while the men are in retreat for the week (or longer) in the morada ." Wroth, The Chapel of Our Lady of Talpa , p. 44, n. 17.

138. Although much of the current sculpture is sold to collectors as sculpture, rather than as devotional images, the Cordova woodcarving tradition continues, producing some of the finest works sold each year at the Spanish market in Santa Fe. The buyer sees there familiar names—Ortiz, López, Córdova—suggesting that ideas and craft are still transmitted through family lines. See Briggs, The Wood Carvers .

139. Dickey, New Mexico Village Arts , p. 183.

140. Simmons, New Mexico , p. 120.

141. The shift in the siting of the church from the periphery to the center of the plaza accompanied the deterioration of the architecturally defined plaza, and with it, a further weakening of the influence of the distant Laws of the Indies. Like the stylistic modifications upon the church fabric encouraged by physical isolation, climate, and later the change in government, the town pattern as a whole was evolving. See Jackson, Landscape Autoguide , p. 19.

142. Kubler, The Religious Architecture , p. 105.

143. Ibid., pp. 22-23. A flat earthern roof fit between parapets can be a truly satisfactory solution only in a climate without rain. Because the parapet is exposed to the elements on three surfaces, because water collects on the roof surface and infiltrates the joint between roof and parapet, the connection will always remain problematic and will require constant vigilance. Any sloping roof that extends over the walls will function more competently than a flat earthen roof—hence the widespread popularity of the pitched roof once metal sheeting became available.

142. Kubler, The Religious Architecture , p. 105.

144. Johnson Nestor Mortier & Rodríguez, Architects, Santa Fe, surveyed Catholic churches built before 1940 during 1984-1988. A second phase of the study is in progress.

Restoration

145. The construction and conversion of Old or New Santa Fe style buildings reached epidemic proportions during the 1930s. John Gaw Meem was the most prominent among the architects working in the "historical" idiom, his work including stylistic renovations as well as new construction. The architectural gloss he applied to the Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe in 1939 was so extreme that even a regular churchgoer might have mistaken what had been a Neo-Gothic building for a colonial Catholic church. See Bunting, John Gaw Meem . For Cristo Rey, see Krahe, Cristo Rey .

146. For the story of artists in New Mexico during the 1920s and 1930s, see Robertson and Nestor, Artists of the Canyons and Caminos ; and Eldredge, Schimmel, and Truettner, Art in New Mexico .

147. Carlos Vierra's paintings of the missions appear in Walters, "Mission Churches"; and in Hewett, Mission Monuments . In "New Mexico Architecture," Vierra argued for a regional architecture and condemned the Anglo remodeling of Cochiti as "benevolent vandalism." "Exterior arches have no place in this architecture—peak roofs are no part of it, and steeples—impossible. Peak roofs, steeples, the Roman arch of the Spanish colonial, and the Moorish arch were ruled out through the limitations of adobe as material in which these forms could not endure" (p. 46).

148. Because of the nature of adobe, there have been significant changes to the churches recorded by the HABS during the nearly half-century that has elapsed since the work was undertaken. A comparison of the plan of Isleta in this book and the HABS drawing (a plan based on it is published in Kubler, The Religious Architecture ) will show that one of the major buttresses has been removed. Many other changes in the structures are less drastic; but the buildings continue to evolve. Drawings of Acoma Pueblo—but, unfortunately, not of San Esteban—have been published in Nabokov, Architecture of Acoma Pueblo .

149. The Santa Fe Planning Department's Design and Preservation in Santa Fe tried to remedy some of the flaws in the Historical Style Ordinance, principally to develop guidelines for a coherent townscape rather than for aesthetically correct (if artificial) individual buildings.

150. Ruskin chided the reader (and the scraper): "Do not let us deceive ourselves in this important matter; it is impossible , as impossible as to raise the dead, to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture that which I have above insisted upon as the life of the whole, that spirit which is given only by the hand and the eye of the workman, never can be recalled. Another spirit may be given by another time, and it is then a new building; but the spirit of the dead workman can not be summoned up, and commanded to direct other hands, and other thoughts." Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture , p. 184.

151. Owings, "Las Trampas," pp. 30-35.

152. Bunting, "San Agustín de la Isleta," pp. 14-16.

153. Kessell, The Missions of New Mexico , pp. 219-220.

154. One should not be too optimistic, however, as buildings of mud exist in a state of constant crisis. Picuris collapsed in the late 1980s; and several smaller churches have been allowed to deteriorate or have been bulldozed when there was no other alternative. Given the problems of continual care that adobe structures require, the existence of the smaller structures will always be tenuous.

Epilogue

155. Hesse, "The Missions of Cochití and Santo Domingo, N.M.," p. 30.

156. Bloom, "Bourke on the Southwest X," pp. 262, 279.

157. Dozier, The Pueblo Indians , p. 50.

158. Lummis, The Land of Poco Tiempo , p. 3.

159. Bandelier, The Delightmakers (a thinly veiled anthropology).

160. Meinig, Southwest , p. 74.

Santa Fe

1. "Almost every town in Spain has its ermitas, small chapel-like buildings or shrines, often on hilltops or in other out-of-the-way places, not unlike the late nineteenth century Penitente moradas of New Mexico. In the case of San Miguel, 'outlying chapel' seems a better rendering than 'hermitage.' After its rebuilding in 1710, San Miguel was no longer called an ermita." Kessell, The Missions of New Mexico , p. 57, n. 29, n. 30. Johnson-Nestor, San Miguel Chapel , p. 3.

2. See Stubbs and Ellis, Archeological Investigations .

3. Simmons, "Tlascalans," p. 102.

4. Ibid., p. 108.

3. Simmons, "Tlascalans," p. 102.

4. Ibid., p. 108.

5. Cited in Prince, Spanish Mission Churches , p. 72.

6. Scholes, "Church and State," pp. 297-342.

7. Kubler, The Rebuilding of San Miguel , p. 9.

8. Ibid., p. 21.

7. Kubler, The Rebuilding of San Miguel , p. 9.

8. Ibid., p. 21.

9. A document listing the payment to workers was discussed in ibid., p. 6.

10. Ibid., p. 5.

9. A document listing the payment to workers was discussed in ibid., p. 6.

10. Ibid., p. 5.

11. Adams, Bishop Tamarón's Visitation , pp. 46-47.

12. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 38.

13. De Morfi, "Geographical Description," pp. 91-92.

14. Kessell, The Missions of New Mexico , pp. 50-51. Boyd stated that Don Antonio José Ortiz, who funded repairs to the Parroquia and the construction of the Rosario chapel, also contributed to repairs at San Miguel undertaken in 1798. Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 33.

15. Bloom, "Bourke on the Southwest VII," p. 303.

16. See Johnson-Nestor, San Miguel Chapel .

17. The dating of the "oldest house" is also questionable. As the principal body of San Miguel dates from the 1710 rebuilding, both Acoma and at least parts of Isleta and other churches are actually older and could claim the title. St. Augustine, Florida, also claims to possess the "oldest house."

1. Crouch, Garr, and Mundigo, Spanish City Planning , pp. 14-15. Ordinance 126 stated, "In the plaza, no lots shall be assigned to private individuals; instead they shall be used for the buildings of the church and royal houses and for city use" (pp. 14-15). In later years at least two chapels were built on the plaza: Nuestra Señora de la Luz (La Castrense) on the south side and the Chapel of the Vigiles (Holy Trinity) on the west. Prince, Spanish Mission Churches , p. 68.

2. See also Wilson, The Santa Fe, New Mexico, Plaza .

3. Kubler, The Religious Architecture , p. 100.

4. Chavez, The Santa Fe Cathedral , unpaged.

5. Hodge, Hammond, and Rey, Fray Alonso de Benavides , p. 68.

6. Ibid.

5. Hodge, Hammond, and Rey, Fray Alonso de Benavides , p. 68.

6. Ibid.

7. Kubler, The Religious Architecture , p. 100.

8. Scholes, "Documents for the History of the New Mexican Missions," pp. 46-47.

9. Chavez, "Santa Fe Church and Convent Sites," p. 91.

10. Boyd, Popular Arts , pp. 36-37. The structure was razed in 1714 to give the plaza a more proper figure. By this time, however, the entire palace was in such an extremely poor condition that demolition and rebuilding were contemplated. Shiskin, The Palace of the Governors , pp. 17-18.

11. Prince, Spanish Mission Churches , p. 73.

12. Adams, Bishop Tamarón's Visitation , p. 46.

13. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 39.

14. Ibid., p. 39.

15. Ibid., pp. 13-14.

16. Ibid., p. 13.

13. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 39.

14. Ibid., p. 39.

15. Ibid., pp. 13-14.

16. Ibid., p. 13.

13. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 39.

14. Ibid., p. 39.

15. Ibid., pp. 13-14.

16. Ibid., p. 13.

13. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 39.

14. Ibid., p. 39.

15. Ibid., pp. 13-14.

16. Ibid., p. 13.

17. Sena, "The Chapel of Don Antonio José Ortiz," pp. 355-356.

18. Ibid., p. 356; Chavez, The Santa Fe Cathedral , unpaged.

17. Sena, "The Chapel of Don Antonio José Ortiz," pp. 355-356.

18. Ibid., p. 356; Chavez, The Santa Fe Cathedral , unpaged.

19. Ellis, Bishop Lamy's Santa Fe Cathedral , pp. 66-69, 77. Ellis offers a detailed investigation not only of the cathedral but also of all the structures that preceded it.

20. Abert, Report . . . 1846-47 , pp. 454-455; cited in Kessell, The Missions of New Mexico , pp. 38-39.

21. Calvin, Lieutenant Emory Reports , p. 59.

22. Ellis, Bishop Lamy's Santa Fe Cathedral , p. xii.

23. Ibid., p. 11.

22. Ellis, Bishop Lamy's Santa Fe Cathedral , p. xii.

23. Ibid., p. 11.

24. Daily New Mexican , January 3, 1873; cited in Ellis, Bishop Lamy's Santa Fe Cathedral , p. 2.

25. Ellis, Bishop Lamy's Santa Fe Cathedral , p. 20.

26. Both characterizations were cited in ibid., p. 16.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid., p. 32: "The original Mouly plan had called for stone towers 100 feet high, without spires."

29. Ibid., p. 28.

30. Ibid., p. 35.

26. Both characterizations were cited in ibid., p. 16.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid., p. 32: "The original Mouly plan had called for stone towers 100 feet high, without spires."

29. Ibid., p. 28.

30. Ibid., p. 35.

26. Both characterizations were cited in ibid., p. 16.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid., p. 32: "The original Mouly plan had called for stone towers 100 feet high, without spires."

29. Ibid., p. 28.

30. Ibid., p. 35.

26. Both characterizations were cited in ibid., p. 16.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid., p. 32: "The original Mouly plan had called for stone towers 100 feet high, without spires."

29. Ibid., p. 28.

30. Ibid., p. 35.

26. Both characterizations were cited in ibid., p. 16.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid., p. 32: "The original Mouly plan had called for stone towers 100 feet high, without spires."

29. Ibid., p. 28.

30. Ibid., p. 35.

31. Defouri, Historical Sketch of the Catholic Church in New Mexico , pp. 143-146; cited in Kessell, The Missions of New Mexico , p. 42.

32. Bloom, "Bourke on the Southwest VII," pp. 303, 307.

33. Kessell, The Missions of New Mexico , p. 43; Bunting, John Gaw Meem , p. 117.

34. Chavez assigned credit for the design to Urban C. Weidner, Jr. Chavez, The Santa Fe Cathedral , unpaged.

1. The statue was kept in the small chapel in the Palace of the Governors until the reconstruction of the Parroquia in 1714. Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 331.

2. Ibid., p. 332.

1. The statue was kept in the small chapel in the Palace of the Governors until the reconstruction of the Parroquia in 1714. Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 331.

2. Ibid., p. 332.

1. Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

2. Twitchell, Leading Facts of New Mexico History ; cited in Prince, Spanish Mission Churches , p. 188. Defouri, Historical Sketches of the Catholic Church in New Mexico ; cited in Prince, Spanish Mission Churches , p. 117.

3. Kubler, The Religious Architecture , p. 101.

4. Abert, Report of the Secretary of War, communicating . . . a report and map . . . of New Mexico , pp. 39-40; cited in Kubler, The Religious Architecture , p. 102.

5. Bloom, "Bourke on the Southwest VII," p. 321.

6. Prince, Spanish Mission Churches , p. 119.

7. Ibid., p. 121.

6. Prince, Spanish Mission Churches , p. 119.

7. Ibid., p. 121.

1. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 40.

2. Hodge, Hammond, and Rey, Fray Alonso de Benavides , p. 68.

3. Adams, Bishop Tamarón's Visitation , p. 46.

4. Ibid., p. 47.

3. Adams, Bishop Tamarón's Visitation , p. 46.

4. Ibid., p. 47.

5. Von Wuthenau, "The Spanish Military Chapels," p. 187.

6. Adams, Bishop Tamarón's Visitation , p. 47.

7. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 40.

8. Ibid., p. 34.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

7. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 40.

8. Ibid., p. 34.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

7. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 40.

8. Ibid., p. 34.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

7. Domínguez, The Missions , p. 40.

8. Ibid., p. 34.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. "Although the stone altar screen at La Castrense unquestionably was the model for later wooden examples in New Mexico, the designers of these did not attempt to reproduce the flat pilasters decorated all over with carving. Instead they made full rounded, salomonic pillars of an earlier period." Boyd, Popular Arts , p. 60.

12. Ibid., p. 34.

13. De Morfi, "Geographical Description," p. 91.

14. Kessell, The Missions of New Mexico , p. 45.

15. Guevara, Santa Fe, March 2-April 8, 1818, Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe; cited in ibid., p. 45.

16. Krahe, Cristo Rey , p. 26.

17. Adams cited the memoirs of Colonel Perea, "who visited Santa Fe as a boy in the winter of 1837-38: Opposite the Palace stood the military church, called La Castrense, then the handsomest building of its kind in the capitol city. This house of worship was most gorgeously adorned within with pictures of saints and other portraits, some of which were said to be very valuable. The altar in every appointment was very tastefully adorned, and was a thing of dazzling beauty." Allison, "Santa Fe as it appeared during the winter in the years 1837 and 1838," p. 177; cited in Adams, "The Chapel," pp. 338-39.

18. Bieber, "The Papers of James J. Webb, Santa Fe Merchant, 1844-1861," p. 276; cited in ibid., p. 339.

19. Abert, Western America , p. 41; cited in Kessell, The Missions of New Mexico , pp. 45-46.

20. Ibid., p. 47.

21. Ibid., p. 48.

19. Abert, Western America , p. 41; cited in Kessell, The Missions of New Mexico , pp. 45-46.

20. Ibid., p. 47.

21. Ibid., p. 48.

19. Abert, Western America , p. 41; cited in Kessell, The Missions of New Mexico , pp. 45-46.

20. Ibid., p. 47.

21. Ibid., p. 48.

22. From Krahe, Cristo Rey , p. 24; cited in Chauvenet, John Gaw Meem , p. 83.

23. Bunting, John Gaw Meem , p. 125.

Tesuque Pueblo: San Diego

1. For a discussion of architectural planning in relation to the surrounding landscape, see McCaffrey and Needham-McCaffrey, "Old as the Hills."

2. See Knowles, Sun Rhythm Form .

3. Dutton, Let's Explore Indian Villages , p. 25.

4. Hodge, Handbook of American Indians , p. 735.

5. Walter, "Mission Churches," pp. 119-120.

6. Kessell, The Missions of New Mexico , pp. 61-62.

7. De Morfi, "Geographical Description."

8. Adams, Bishop Tamarón's Visitation , p. 54.

9. Ibid.

8. Adams, Bishop Tamarón's Visitation , p. 54.

9. Ibid.