My first inclination in a situation like this is to look for a cookbook. I found a true classic in our stacks: "The Feast of Santa Fe: Cooking of the American Southwest" by Huntley Dent. Born in Mississippi and educated at Harvard, Dent was apparently seduced by travels in the Southwest and eventually settled there permanently.
His "Feast" — published in 1985 and still in print — reflects his background in American history, and features meticulous research as well as delicious recipes with detailed instructions. Red, green or Christmas, New Mexican cooks know what to do with a chili pepper.
Digging a little deeper into our stacks, I came across two largely forgotten series designed to enrich the experience of American tourists, abroad in their own country. The first, "Art of the State," is a true charmer. These are square little books put out by publisher Harry N. Abrams. With Abrams' usual exquisite production, the stated intention of the series is to capture the "authentic spirit" of a state through its art.
It certainly was a success with the volume for New Mexico. In 95 pages, the land, history and culture of the state are presented through photos, folk art, stamps, artifacts, movie stills, fine art and a few pictures of chili peppers. Fresh from my travels, I read it straight through and found it enriching and remarkably comprehensive.
My other discovery was the "American Guide Series." These guides were produced through the Federal Writers' Project, part of the Work Projects Administration established by Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s to put Americans back to work during the Great Depression. The guides all follow the same format and include essays on history and culture and descriptions of every city and town in each of the (then) 48 states. They were conceived as true guidebooks and include detailed automobile tours and photographs.
Studs Terkel, Zora Neale Hurston, John Cheever, Dorothy West, Ralph Ellison and many other famous authors participated in this project. Some of the guides, such as the one on Idaho by Vardis Fisher, are considered masterpieces of description and social history.
The authors of the volume for New Mexico, though, remain anonymous. I fully expected to find this "Guide to the Colorful State" little more than an interesting curiosity. Instead I found it not only fascinating but relevant.
I started by reading the tours that covered places I had visited. It is in the "tours" that the descriptions of every city and town are included, and they are packed with enticing tidbits of information, anecdotes and local color. As an actual guidebook there are, of course, anomalies. The average admission price to an attraction is now considerably more than 25 cents and "ringing thrice" and waiting for a Brother to appear is no longer the usual way to view an historic church.
Nevertheless, historic sites and natural wonders tend to endure and this American Guide remains illuminating. The illustrations provide an added bonus for the New Mexico guide reader. Laura Gilpin and Ernest Knee, both of whom went on to win major recognition for their work, contributed most of the photographs, and they are remarkable.
The introduction to "New Mexico: A Guide to the Colorful State" says "New Mexico today represents a blend of three cultures — Indian, Spanish, and American ... [and] the veneer of Americanization in places runs thin indeed."
Dent speaks of the same mix of cultures and reminds us that "the linking of Santa Fe to the rest of the nation by railroad is less than a century old, and statehood came within living memory [1912]."
In "New Mexico: Art of the State" the "human story of New Mexico [is] called a pageant of three peoples." Apparently the spirit of a place is enduring as well.
One question remains: Why are there so many men with long gray ponytails in New Mexico? Is it simply the favored retirement location for aging hippies, or is there a deeper story? My research continues: I'll keep you posted.
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