Forever Young

By Dr. Spencer G. Lucas and Mary Ann Hatchitt

A groundbreaking juvenile dinosaur discovery in northwestern New Mexico enlivens the record.

BY DR. SPENCER G. LUCAS

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Dr. Spencer G. Lucas is a curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. He received a BA from the University of New Mexico and his MS and PhD from Yale University. As a paleontologist and stratigrapher, he specializes in the study of late Paleozoic, Mesozoic and early Cenozoic vertebrate fossils and continental deposits, particularly in the American Southwest. Lucas has extensive field experience in the western United States as well as in northern Mexico, Costa Rica, Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, Soviet Georgia and the People’s Republic of China. He has published more than 1000 scientific articles, co-edited fourteen books and authored three books.

Mary Ann Hatchitt is a former communications director of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.

Indelible Grace

By Lars Krutak

BY LARS KRUTAK

IN ASIA, TATTOOING TRADITIONS ABIDE AS BOTH PRAYER AND PROTECTION [wonderplugin_slider id=”62″] (more…)

Lars Krutak (opens in a new tab) is an anthropologist at the Indian Arts and Crafts Board and Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. He is the author of Tattoo Traditions of Native North America: Ancient and Contemporary Expressions of Identity (LM Publishers, 2014) among other works on the subject.

The Adobe Ambassador

By Khristaan D. Villela

The Curious Backstory of the New Mexico Museum of Art’s Genesis. . . and Edifice

BY KHRISTAAN D. VILLELA

Next year will mark the centenary of the debut of the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, now called the New Mexico Museum of Art. [wonderplugin_slider id=”60″] (more…)

Khristaan D. Villela is the associate director at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles and is a former executive director of the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He holds an MA and a PhD in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin.

The Exile Factor

By Dr. Ron D. Hart

Spanish Judaism, the Inquisition, and New World identities

At an unprecedented exhibition, a hidden diaspora finally gets its due.

BY RON D. HART

Along with empire building and dreams of gold, the Inquisition’s ejection of thousands of Jews drove Spain’s conquest of New Mexico. [wonderplugin_slider id=”59″] (more…)

Dr. Ron D. Hart is a cultural anthropologist and ethnohistorian who did postdoctoral work in Jewish studies at the University of Oxford. His books include Sephardic Jews (2016), Judaism (2015), and Islam and Muslims (2011). He has received awards for his work from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation, and the Fulbright Program, among others.

Machine Dreams

By Don J. Usner

A LOW, SLOW JOURNEY FROM PACHUCO TO PRICELESS

BY DON J. USNER

It all began for Johnny Martinez when he went with his family to work in the fields of Southern California in the late 1950s. [wonderplugin_slider id=”58″] (more…)

Don J. Usner (opens in a new tab) was born in 1957 in Embudo, New Mexico. He has written and provided photos for several books, including Sabino’s Map: Life in Chimayó’s Old Plaza, Benigna’s Chimayó: Cuentos from the Old Plaza, Valles Caldera: A Vision for New Mexico’s National Preserve, and Chasing Dichos through Chimayó. Don is also the photo editor consultant for the annual New Mexico Treasures Engagement Calendar published by the Museum of New Mexico Press.

Chasing the Lowrider Muse

By Katherine Ware

BY KATHERINE WARE

It takes a special vision and a lot of hard work to transform an abandoned car into a one-of-a-kind sculpture on wheels, but that’s exactly what makes New Mexico’s lowriders so extraordinary. [wonderplugin_slider id=”66″] (more…)

Katherine Ware is the curator of photography for the New Mexico Museum of Art. She organized the recently released online exhibition Fear and Loathing and is author of recent essays on the photographs of Caleb Charland, Chris McCaw, and Terri Warpinski. Her piece “Focus on Photography” was the first installment in this series of three articles about the museum’s year-long photography initiative.

A Moving Passion

By Daniel Kosharek

BY DANIEL KOSHAREK

In 1977 Lowrider magazine quietly launched in San Jose, California, with the intent of giving voice to a popular Chicano lifestyle that blossomed after World War II and had yet to be righteously portrayed in print, TV, or film. Riding low and slow, or bajito y suavecito, had become a cultural identity. (more…)

Daniel Kosharek (opens in a new tab) is a writer and former photo curator at the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives at the New Mexico History Museum.

Some of the Great Potters

By Dr. Frances H. Harlow

I Have Known: Maria Martinez

BY FRANCES H. HARLOW

The pueblo nearest Los Alamos is San Ildefonso. First occupied in the 1300s, the village is situated north of the highway linking Los Alamos and Pojoaque. There is a large open plaza with a circular kiva in the center. Enormous cottonwood trees flank some of the adobe houses facing the plaza, where ceremonial dances take place. (more…)

Dr. Frances H. Harlow (opens in a new tab) (1928-2016) was a physicist in the Theoretical Division of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. In addition to his achievements in science, he had an international reputation as a specialist in pueblo ceramics. A research associate at the School for Advanced Research and the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, he studied the stylistic evolution of historic pueblo pottery, about which he wrote seven books. He was also an artist whose paintings are included in collections around the world.

What Difference Does Archaeology Make?

By Scott Ortman

BY SCOTT ORTMAN

This is a question I worry about constantly. We live in a world with many challenges, from climate change to inequality to discrimination to political conflict. In this world it is reasonable to ask what people who spend their lives studying the detritus of long-lost societies have to contribute to understanding or even solving these problems. (more…)

Scott Ortman is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder and an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute. His research focuses on collaborative archaeology with contemporary Native peoples and complex systems approaches to human societies.

Everything New is New Again

One hundred years of genius

By Cindra Kline and Lloyd Henri Kiva New (Cherokee, 1916-2002)

BY CINDRA KLINE

LLOYD HENRI KIVA NEW’s life as designer, artist, scholar, and visionary educator remains a call to creative souls still listening to what New frequently referred to as “the sound of drums.” In celebration of his influence, and honoring what would have been his 100th birthday, a collaborative effort between three Santa Fe museums spotlights the man and the motivation he has provided to so many individuals.

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Cindra Kline is an award-winning author, editor, and regular contributor to El Palacio. One of her projects, Awakening in Taos: The Mabel Dodge Luhan Story, was chosen as Best Feature Film Made in New Mexico in 2015 at the Santa Fe Film Festival.

Lloyd Henri Kiva New (Cherokee, 1916-2002) (opens in a new tab) was best known for fashion design and developing innovative concepts in culturally-based education for Native people. Earning a degree in art education from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1938, New taught painting at the Phoenix Indian School until enlisting in the Navy in 1941, where he served on the USS Sanborn on the Pacific Front. Upon returning to Phoenix after World War II, New became a charter member of the Arizona Craftsmen cooperative, a group of artists who helped develop Scottsdale, Arizona into a western center of handcrafted arts. New took the trade name Kiva in 1946, and the Lloyd Kiva Studio built an affluent clientele and earned national acclaim for handbags, clothing, and printed textiles throughout the 1950s. In 1961, New changed his career path, accepting a position as Art Director at the newly formed Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). New was appointed director of IAIA in 1967 and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1978. Although officially retired, New continued to be active in the Native arts community, serving on the Indian Arts and Crafts board, several boards of national museums, and engaging in writing and speaking engagements world-wide until his death in 2002.