King of the Road - March 2010
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Common Threads
Touch Villanueva's tapestry interwoven with heritage and family
Story and Photography by Lesley S. King
Standing on a hill in northeastern New Mexico, I take in the Spanish Colonial village of Villanueva below. Its patchwork of tin roofs shines in the morning light, and its irrigated fields stretch into the distance. La Gruta de la Familia Sagrada, (The Grotto of the Holy Family) a hilltop shrine built of local stone and facing the sunrise, stands nearby. Inside are graceful statues of the Holy Family.
The key word is familia—and family is what is most treasured by this village on N.M. 3, some 50 miles southeast of Santa Fe. I’ve been told that the 267 people who live here are connected, many of them by blood. The notion strikes a chord in me, because I have no family of my own. Yes, I have a mother, a brother, and stepsisters, but I’ve never married, and have no children. As I drive down the hill, a longing for family fills my heart.
At the Villanueva General Store, I meet Josie Torrez, a descendant of the Villanuevas for whom the village was named. She comes from a long line of merchants—her great-grandmother Manuelita Villanueva Lucero opened the store in the early 1900s, and it was passed down through the generations until it became Josie’s. “I remember, as a child, I was always in the store,” she says. “I’m the only fool who enjoyed it.”
DAY-TRIP TIPS What to do: Villanueva Tapestries at Where to Dine: Where to stay and dine: Historic Plaza Hotel Where to shop:
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The store is a central meeting place where locals come to visit, many of them Josie’s siblings, cousins, uncles, or aunts. “I hear all the stories of their families,” she says; “what went on or didn’t go on, what they wish for.” Villagers buy avocados, tomatoes, and tortillas here, as well as motor oil and propane. And they feast on Josie’s homemade burritos and Frito pies.
Back when Josie was growing up—and even in Villanueva’s founding years, in the early 1800s—life here centered around the church. “We celebrated religious holidays, and lots of weddings and baptisms. For those ceremonies, you didn’t just include the families, you invited the whole town.”
Today, life in the village has changed. “It’s not the church-centered community it once was,” says Josie. Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, a graceful 1830 structure with a stone face, still holds weekly services and hosts weddings and funerals, but these days villagers go to Las Vegas or Santa Fe to work and play, and many members of these extended families now live elsewhere.
But there’s still a strong sense of community here, and its most enduring symbol is the Villanueva Tapestries. I’ve wanted to see these pictorial representations of the village’s history for decades, but before entering the church where they hang, I head to the home of 97-year-old Isidora (Lola) Flores, one of the women who embroidered them.
In her cozy living room, Lola explains that, from 1974 through 1976, to celebrate the bicentennial of the founding of the United States, 36 women met weekly to embroider the 41 tapestries. “We each decided what we wanted to show, and we made our own sketches,” she says. “Mine was The Good Earth. I thought it was
going to be easy, but then I realized, ‘My God, there are so many things of the good earth!’”
Anxious to see her creation, I say good-bye and head across the street to the church. There I find The Good Earth, a whimsical depiction of nature, with a river, a coyote, birds, and a rainbow. This and the other tapestries, which stretch for 265 feet along every wall of the church, are graceful, with a childlike freshness.
Beginning with Lola’s panel, I follow the story through the 16th- and 17th-century conflicts between the Spaniards and Native Americans, to the early-19th-century fortification of Villanueva, and the fiestas for the village’s patron saints, Santiago and Santa Anna, which are still celebrated here each July. Villanueva’s entire history is laid out here, told through the hearts and needles of these women.
Senses full, I leave the church, climb in my car, and meander one mile on Dodge Road, along the Pecos River, past stunning red cliffs, to 1,679-acre Villanueva State Park. At 5,600 feet in elevation, its mild climate allows visitors to fish and hike year-round. Under cottonwood trees, along with camping and picnic sites, is a small museum with exhibits on the area’s early settlers, plants, and wildlife.
On foot, I cross a bridge over the Pecos and climb along the 2.5-mile Canyon Trail loop, which leads to an overlook above the park. Along the way, a historical marker points out a stone corral used by local rebels who fought the United States when it annexed the territory in 1846. The corral sits high above the valley, with views out across irrigated fields, angular mesas, and Villanueva itself, its church tower shining in the evening sun.
The scene reminds me of one of the Villanueva Tapestries. The embroidery shows sheep, cattle, and horses, but most notably the villagers rejoicing in the wealth of their lives. For them, the entire community is family. I reflect on my own family—the parents, sisters, brothers, and children who fill my days, most related to me not by blood, but by love.
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"King of the Road" columnist Lesley S. King visits another little-known community in New Mexico each month.
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