The 10th International Colloquium on Camino Real de Tierra Adentro will be held the week of April 27 - 30 in Socorro. The Colloquium celebrates the rich historical legacy of the Camino Real and has a seven-page agenda. It will be conducted in Spanish and English at Socorro's Macey Center for four days from April 27 - 30.
http://www.steppinoutnewmexico.com/images/azteccity2.jpg
As you see, Pyramids were popular in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan.
But Visa, Mastercard and Burger King hadn't arrived yet.
Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (which translates roughly as the Royal Inland Road) is the name given to the trade road that ran from Mexico City (the ancient Aztec capitol of Tenochtitlan) to Santa Fe in New Mexico. As Spanish and native traders and settlers traveled, explored and settled the lands along this route from the early 16th to the early 20th century, they left their cultural and spiritual mark along 1,200 miles of that well-traveled dusty trail.
Historians say the road's origins are actually much older dating back to prehistoric times. Indians used variants of the route long ago to trade along a road that stretched from the Aztec capital (now known as Mexico City) to Paquimé in northwest Chihuahua, where Pueblo Indians from what's now "New Mexico" went to trade centuries ago. By 1540, Spanish miners, traders, missionaries, soldiers and cattlemen moved north from Mexico City to Zacatecas and Durango. In the 1590's, Juan de Oñate and his settlers blazed a trail north to a settlement they named Paso del Norte, (now, El Paso), and continued north to found the village of San Juan de los Caballeros -- New Mexico's original capital. A decade later, the road streteched north from Mexico City clear to Santa Fe carrying goods and settlers into New Mexico.
http://steppinoutnewmexico.com/images/churches1.jpg
Catholic churches and missions had a key role in the history of Camino Real.
Pictured here are a Cathedral in Zocalo and a mission church in El Paso.
(Steppin' Out file photos)
The legacy of the Camino Real lies in its historic character as a road along which people traveled, migrated and conducted business as well as one that transmitted culture, religion and the Spanish language along a frontier that stretched through the heart of old Mexico. In the 19th century, the Camino Real joined the Old Santa Fe Trail at Santa Fe, and American traders made their way along it south into Chihuahua.
The international colloquia on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro was created a decade ago as a way to commemorate the history shared by the United States and Mexico -- and especially along this ancient trade route. Today, the trail reaches about 400 miles into the U.S. from EL Paso. Another 800 miles of the road extend far south from the border all the way to Mexico City.
To recognize the importance of this road, in 2000, the U.S. Congress declared the U.S. part of Camino Real de Tierra Adentro a national historic road to be administered by the National Park Service and the BLM.
The colloquium happening in Socorro this week has been held annually since 1995 at various locations along the trail. It is designed to promote and support common goals, encourage cooperation, historic preservation and research and foster economic development and tourism along this historic highway. The themes of the event will be historical research, management and administration, heritage, culture, tourism and the like. But there will be a lighter side, too, in the form of cultural demonstrations, especially over the weekend (April 29-30) which should be fun for the entire family.
The best part is there is no registration fee, although participants are being encouraged to register in advance.
http://steppinoutnewmexico.com/images/churches2.jpg
A Catholic church in Santa Fe and the Mission Church in Socorro.
(Steppin' Out file photos)
Ten "contributing partners" are putting it on, not the least of which is the City of Socorro, who, under Mayor Ravi Bhasker's leadership, has been Camino Real's strongest supporter since long before it became a national historic trail in 2000.
Also involved will be the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service, sister Interior agencies who are joint overseers of the trail. Then there's the Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Historia, Mexico's equivalent to NPS, and New Mexico State Monuments, co-operators with BLM of the International Heritage Center south of San Antonio.
There's also the Instituto Chihuahuense de la Cultura, Socorro Chamber of Commerce, Socorro Historical Society, and the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro Trail Association, or CARTA. It is the national historical trail's official citizens body, serving as as interface between the federal government and the private sector.
CARTA has already held two seminars in Socorro since its founding, but this colloquium is twice as long, with a meatier agenda that covers "Yesterday," "Today," and "Tomorrow."
The colloquium started in 1995 according to Ramón Olivas, of Las Cruces and Santa Fe, whose International Affairs Office was instrumental in getting it started, initially "to get a full picture of (El Camino Real's) importance" during a time when legislation was being introduced to make it a national historic trail.
Today, with the trail a reality, it is more focused on execution of heritage tourism, and looking toward a similar nationally-sponsored trail in Mexico.
The colloquium has generally moved between Mexico and the United States, starting in Valle de Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico, in June, 1995, and has gone back and forth between the two countries ever since, including Santa Fe and Española in the U.S., Durango, Zacatecas and Guanajuato in Mexico, and El Paso/Ciudad Juarez on the border.
Attendance runs as high as 200. This is the first meeting that has a significant cultural component, however, according to State Archaeologist Glenna Dean, who has put together an enticing program of more than 25 exhibitors. As a result Socorro might be hosting many more visitors, including exhibitors, families and arts and crafts buffs.
Dean said some of the exhibits will look at the nature of arts and crafts before the trail and after the trail, comparing and contrasting the differences in such areas as moccasin-making, pottery, hide and leather work, tin work, music, food, hand-spinning of yard, dyeing yarn with plans and many more.
Aside from the Macey cultural presentations, two Chautauquas, one by state historian Estevan Rael-Galvez on slavery along the trail, and one by Rosalia de Aragon, on La Llorona, will be held for students only at Socorro High and Middle School.
The keynote speaker, or ponencia magistral, Enrique R Lamadrid, director of Chicano, Hispano, and Mexicano studies, University of New Mexico, will address the group at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Lamadrid, a native of Embudo, located between Española and Taos, is a literary folklorist and cultural historian, will speak on "the intangible heritage of 'tierra adentro'," including such central components as "ritual, dance, music and pilgrimage."
"People don't forget their roots," said Lamadrid. "Commerce and pilgrimage have always been intertwined, and now the phenomenon of heritage tourism is leading people back up and down the geographical and cultural corridors that join their destiny with their history."
Kudos to Dr. Lamadrid and Mayor Bhasker, for anticipating the value of cultural corridors in the mid-90s, and the value of "critical mass" in attracting tourists.
------------
(Ben Moffett, a native of San Antonio, has lived along the Camino Real in four counties during his lifetime -- Socorro, Valencia, Bernalillo and Santa Fe. Contact him at benmoffett@comcast.net (benmoffett@comcast.net)).
By: Ben Moffett - Contributing Reporter
© 2006 Ben Moffett - Reprint Permission Granted
The 10th International Colloquium on Camino Real de Tierra Adentro will be held the week of April 27 - 30 in Socorro. The Colloquium celebrates the rich historical legacy of the Camino Real and has a seven-page agenda. It will be conducted in Spanish and English at Socorro's Macey Center for four days from April 27 - 30.
http://www.steppinoutnewmexico.com/images/azteccity2.jpg
As you see, Pyramids were popular in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan.
But Visa, Mastercard and Burger King hadn't arrived yet.
Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (which translates roughly as the Royal Inland Road) is the name given to the trade road that ran from Mexico City (the ancient Aztec capitol of Tenochtitlan) to Santa Fe in New Mexico. As Spanish and native traders and settlers traveled, explored and settled the lands along this route from the early 16th to the early 20th century, they left their cultural and spiritual mark along 1,200 miles of that well-traveled dusty trail.
Historians say the road's origins are actually much older dating back to prehistoric times. Indians used variants of the route long ago to trade along a road that stretched from the Aztec capital (now known as Mexico City) to Paquimé in northwest Chihuahua, where Pueblo Indians from what's now "New Mexico" went to trade centuries ago. By 1540, Spanish miners, traders, missionaries, soldiers and cattlemen moved north from Mexico City to Zacatecas and Durango. In the 1590's, Juan de Oñate and his settlers blazed a trail north to a settlement they named Paso del Norte, (now, El Paso), and continued north to found the village of San Juan de los Caballeros -- New Mexico's original capital. A decade later, the road streteched north from Mexico City clear to Santa Fe carrying goods and settlers into New Mexico.
http://steppinoutnewmexico.com/images/churches1.jpg
Catholic churches and missions had a key role in the history of Camino Real.
Pictured here are a Cathedral in Zocalo and a mission church in El Paso.
(Steppin' Out file photos)
The legacy of the Camino Real lies in its historic character as a road along which people traveled, migrated and conducted business as well as one that transmitted culture, religion and the Spanish language along a frontier that stretched through the heart of old Mexico. In the 19th century, the Camino Real joined the Old Santa Fe Trail at Santa Fe, and American traders made their way along it south into Chihuahua.
The international colloquia on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro was created a decade ago as a way to commemorate the history shared by the United States and Mexico -- and especially along this ancient trade route. Today, the trail reaches about 400 miles into the U.S. from EL Paso. Another 800 miles of the road extend far south from the border all the way to Mexico City.
To recognize the importance of this road, in 2000, the U.S. Congress declared the U.S. part of Camino Real de Tierra Adentro a national historic road to be administered by the National Park Service and the BLM.
The colloquium happening in Socorro this week has been held annually since 1995 at various locations along the trail. It is designed to promote and support common goals, encourage cooperation, historic preservation and research and foster economic development and tourism along this historic highway. The themes of the event will be historical research, management and administration, heritage, culture, tourism and the like. But there will be a lighter side, too, in the form of cultural demonstrations, especially over the weekend (April 29-30) which should be fun for the entire family.
The best part is there is no registration fee, although participants are being encouraged to register in advance.
http://steppinoutnewmexico.com/images/churches2.jpg
A Catholic church in Santa Fe and the Mission Church in Socorro.
(Steppin' Out file photos)
Ten "contributing partners" are putting it on, not the least of which is the City of Socorro, who, under Mayor Ravi Bhasker's leadership, has been Camino Real's strongest supporter since long before it became a national historic trail in 2000.
Also involved will be the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service, sister Interior agencies who are joint overseers of the trail. Then there's the Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Historia, Mexico's equivalent to NPS, and New Mexico State Monuments, co-operators with BLM of the International Heritage Center south of San Antonio.
There's also the Instituto Chihuahuense de la Cultura, Socorro Chamber of Commerce, Socorro Historical Society, and the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro Trail Association, or CARTA. It is the national historical trail's official citizens body, serving as as interface between the federal government and the private sector.
http://steppinoutnewmexico.com/images/cortesattack.jpg
CARTA has already held two seminars in Socorro since its founding, but this colloquium is twice as long, with a meatier agenda that covers "Yesterday," "Today," and "Tomorrow."
The colloquium started in 1995 according to Ramón Olivas, of Las Cruces and Santa Fe, whose International Affairs Office was instrumental in getting it started, initially "to get a full picture of (El Camino Real's) importance" during a time when legislation was being introduced to make it a national historic trail.
Today, with the trail a reality, it is more focused on execution of heritage tourism, and looking toward a similar nationally-sponsored trail in Mexico.
The colloquium has generally moved between Mexico and the United States, starting in Valle de Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico, in June, 1995, and has gone back and forth between the two countries ever since, including Santa Fe and Española in the U.S., Durango, Zacatecas and Guanajuato in Mexico, and El Paso/Ciudad Juarez on the border.
Attendance runs as high as 200. This is the first meeting that has a significant cultural component, however, according to State Archaeologist Glenna Dean, who has put together an enticing program of more than 25 exhibitors. As a result Socorro might be hosting many more visitors, including exhibitors, families and arts and crafts buffs.
Dean said some of the exhibits will look at the nature of arts and crafts before the trail and after the trail, comparing and contrasting the differences in such areas as moccasin-making, pottery, hide and leather work, tin work, music, food, hand-spinning of yard, dyeing yarn with plans and many more.
Aside from the Macey cultural presentations, two Chautauquas, one by state historian Estevan Rael-Galvez on slavery along the trail, and one by Rosalia de Aragon, on La Llorona, will be held for students only at Socorro High and Middle School.
The keynote speaker, or ponencia magistral, Enrique R Lamadrid, director of Chicano, Hispano, and Mexicano studies, University of New Mexico, will address the group at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Lamadrid, a native of Embudo, located between Española and Taos, is a literary folklorist and cultural historian, will speak on "the intangible heritage of 'tierra adentro'," including such central components as "ritual, dance, music and pilgrimage."
"People don't forget their roots," said Lamadrid. "Commerce and pilgrimage have always been intertwined, and now the phenomenon of heritage tourism is leading people back up and down the geographical and cultural corridors that join their destiny with their history."
Kudos to Dr. Lamadrid and Mayor Bhasker, for anticipating the value of cultural corridors in the mid-90s, and the value of "critical mass" in attracting tourists.
------------
(Ben Moffett, a native of San Antonio, has lived along the Camino Real in four counties during his lifetime -- Socorro, Valencia, Bernalillo and Santa Fe. Contact him at benmoffett@comcast.net (benmoffett@comcast.net)).