The Hispanic Community in Albuquerque

Overview and Brief History:
The 2000 US Census lists 179,075 people who identified themselves as “Hispanic or Latino” living in the Albuquerque metropolitan area. It additionally lists 105,381 people as “Other Hispanic or Latino” and 78,296 people as “All other Hispanic or Latino” for a total of 362,752. Furthermore there were 21,736 who identified as “Spanish” and 4,639 as “Spanish American” for the census. The idea of a solid and single cultural identity does not easily fit this largest ethnic group in the Albuquerque Metropolitan Area. Underscoring this point is the fact that none of the terms used to describe this ethnic population, such as Hispanic or Latino, were embraced by their intended populace and this was an issue that came up in every interview within this group. Many in this community believe that the labels used to describe them were invented by outsiders and imposed upon them against their wishes.

Unlike the other ethnic cultures covered in this survey, the history of New Mexican Hispanics is the history of New Mexico since the entrada of Coronado.

Immigration to the United States and Albuquerque:
It can be said that Hispanics did not immigrate to America, the United States emigrated to New Mexico, as they were here long before the United States ever existed.

While other countries claim to have discovered America before 1492, the Spanish were indeed the first to seriously colonize the New World. The Spaniard Cortez conquered the Aztecs in Mexico in 1523 and from there spread their empire southward to the Incas, eastward into Florida, and northward into northern Mexico and what is now the American southwest.

There have been many succeeding waves of immigrants from Spain and Spanish-speaking countries to New Mexico since Don Juan de Oñate brought the first Spanish and Mexican colonists in 1598.

[Albuquerque Tricentennial 2005-06]

Each of these waves of immigrants brought their own variations of customs and traditions, some of which have been readily assimilated into the whole, and some which retain separate cultural niches. It has been well established by previous studies that many Hispanic New Mexicans proudly trace their ancestry and lineage directly to the original colonists, maintaining that they are still pure Spanish with no mingling of the mestizo blood that flows in some of their fellow Hispanics. While statistically unlikely, this perception is still fairly common. Others accept that they are likely to have some Indian ancestors, but also proudly trace their lineage back to the early colonists and still call themselves Spanish, as evidenced by the 26,375 people who identified themselves as “Spanish” or “Spanish American”in the Census. Other Hispanics in Albuquerque readily and proudly admit to being mestizo descendants of Mexican Indian, American Indian, and Spanish ancestors who came from many different parts of Mexico and the Southwest in successive waves over the last four hundred years.

However, there are additional factors that have helped to shape and confuse the cultural identities of those within this broad group. One can be attributed to the pervasive nature of American popular culture that has served to assimilate many of them into the homogenous mainstream society. Another was the practice and policy of discouraging and even punishing students for speaking Spanish in school during the early and middle part of the twentieth century. This effort to eradicate Spanish had a practical effect of making some feel ashamed of and shun their traditional culture. Many who lived through this era encouraged their children to grow to be “white” while others worked to hold on to their heritage. A backlash occurred in the 1960's-1970's when many strove to reclaim a Chicano heritage in the face of cultural homogenization; but this movement, although still around, has not gained substantial strength in the twenty-first century in Albuquerque. Justifiably so or not, Chicanismo is still largely perceived by many Hispanics in this city to be a radical political import from California and not reflective of local the New Mexican culture. The increasingly heavy immigration from Mexico into Albuquerque over the last twenty years has also served to muddy the cultural milieu. Finally, many are resentful of any broad terminology meant to encompass this extremely culturally diverse people residing in a vast geographic region.

Many Hispanics interviewed for this survey chose to simply identify themselves as Americans and New Mexicans of Hispanic or Spanish descent. This was an important distinction to many. None of the interviewees identified themselves as Mexicans, Latinos, or Chicanos. One interviewee noted that his parents always identified themselves as Spanish Americans in English to outsiders, but among their Spanish-speaking friends they said “somos Mexicanos” (we’re Mexicans). Elderly Hispanics most often self-identified as Spanish American and younger and middle-aged ones as New Mexican of Hispanic decent. Some of the baby boom generation said that they had identified as Chicanos when they were younger, but preferred to be called by a different name, such as New Mexican of Hispanic decent, now.

One interviewee, who grew up in Albuquerque’s Old Town during the Depression, was totally shocked to be labeled a Mexican and discriminated against after she had married and moved to Texas. Another woman who had moved to California after she graduated from high school said that, in order to fit into society there, she told people she was Puerto Rican. She said that if she had identified herself as Spanish or Mexican she would have been refused service. Another older interviewee, who had been raised in a small town in northern New Mexico, stated that he had never encountered racial discrimination until he enlisted in the military The rapid influx of military personnel from other American regions into the Albuquerque during WWII also awakened many local Hispanics to the realities of racial discrimination according to several other interviewees.

Most middle-aged Hispanics interviewed who grew up during the baby boom generation in the 1940's-1960's in Albuquerque told a different story. One interviewee even considered himself to be white, “just like everybody else.” An elderly woman interviewed said that her children and grandchildren consider themselves to be white. Others noted that they watched the same TV shows, listened to the same popular top forty radio stations, and ate hamburgers with their Anglo friends. Many even married Anglos. But many also describe an underlying tension in the relationship between themselves and the dominant (or dominating) Anglo culture.

They described a home life that was a little different from the TV image of Americans. They retained their Catholic traditions. They still ate New Mexican cuisine at home. Many of their parents or grandparents still spoke Spanish to them at home. One male who’s parents had moved to the northeast heights said that he refused to call it the heights and instead referred to it as the “upper valley.” He also noted that he and his Hispanic friends would always hang out with the valley kids after school rather than their Anglo classmates from Del Norte.

Cultural Traditions:
One of the biggest concerns among this was the loss of the Spanish language, especially the idioms that were uniquely New Mexican. Those who spoke Spanish bemoaned its loss among their children and grandchildren. Most all who did not speak Spanish wanted to make sure that their children had opportunity, encouragement, and motivation to learn. Optimism for reclaiming the language was higher among baby boomers than seniors. There was a sense of resignation among seniors who believe that there has to be a much greater appreciation throughout society of the language and who Hispanics are for it to survive.

One organization that has been credited by many Albuquerque Hispanics as key in helping them maintain their community and culture is the Catholic church. The church provides them a venue to socialize and to share traditional knowledge. Many feel that the Catholic church is also an integral part of their cultural identity as Hispanics, although not all Hispanics are Catholics. However, many worry that the church is losing its once prominent place in the community and the cultural continuity that it once provided. Fewer people are attending mass, and morning mass, once a daily ritual for many older Hispanic Catholics while they were growing up, is now considerably less common.

Foodways are an extremely important facet of Hispanic culture in Albuquerque. There is most definitely a distinctive type of New Mexican cuisine to be found in Albuquerque and there are many, many restaurants that prepare it. It was described by one restauranteur who was interviewed as New Mexican/Mexican. Among the distinctive foods cited by interviewees, sopaipillas, chile rellenos, and carne adovada most commonly topped the list as being indicative of Albuquerque Hispanic cuisine. Chicos and posole were also cited as unique to New Mexico, though less often. Tortillas, both corn and flour, have a long history in New Mexico as well. Most older Hispanics remember eating meat, potato, and vegetable dishes growing up; but also that beans and red and green chile were always dietary staples. “Chile was our gravy,” was how one interviewee put it. Wrapping leftovers in flour tortillas for sandwiches and snacks was a common practice, but older interviewees said they didn’t start calling them burritos until much later. Enchiladas, tacos, tamales, burritos, refried beans, and menudo, were most often considered to be a part of the local Hispanic cuisine that was imported from Mexico.

The Spanish rice with tomato sauce that is commonly served in almost all New Mexican food restaurants alongside many of the above dishes was cited by one interviewee as having been made by her grandmother in the 1930's when she was growing up in northern New Mexico. A woman from Spain who was interviewed in the Spanish focus group said that it was unlike any rice she had eaten anywhere in Spain and that, in her opinion, there was nothing Spanish about it. Others said that they never remember eating Spanish rice until much later. That arroz con caldo de pollo or con carne (rice with chicken or rice with beef broth) were more common. Anthropologist and historian Dr. Charles Carrillo told me that rice was the preferred grain to transport among early colonists to New Mexico as it kept well for long periods of time did not spoil as easily as wheat.

Sweets such as flan, bizcochitos, and empanaditas were also often named as common traditional New Mexican culinary dessert creations. One interviewee talked of eating atole, a sweetened cornmeal gruel, for breakfast as a young girl but said that it was more commonly eaten in the rural towns than in the city and that she had never fed it to her children. Likewise the custom of eating toasted fava beans, which was cited by one person as an Easter treat in rural northen New Mexico, was not brought into Albuquerque.

Artistic Traditions:
Although many Hispanics blame the media and popular culture for the loss of their cultural traditions, many in the community also credited local television and radio programming for helping to preserve the local artistic culture. From the 1950's to the 1970's there were television programs, such as the "Val de la O Show", aimed at Albuquerque’s Hispanic citizens. Radio stations, such as KABQ-AM, broadcast local musicians singing in Spanish. Today, outside of a small bit of programming on the community access cable station, there are no locally produced television shows showcasing local Hispanics and many in the community bemoan the lost of this important communication medium. On radio, the once local Spanish music station KABQ has gone to an English-speaking talk format and there are very few radio stations, with the exception of KANW-FM, that still cater to the local Hispanic music scene. There are still many stations that are programming Spanish music, but it is Salsa from Cuba and Puerto Rico, Tex-Mex and Norteño from Texas, or Northern Mexican music, and is not representative of nor catering to the needs and interests of many New Mexican Hispanics.

In spite of this loss of media coverage, there still is a vibrant Hispanic New Mexican music scene with performers such as Al Hurricane, Roberto Griego, Roberto Martinez, and Thee Chekkers active and playing. The Spanish music scene appears to have a future in Albuquerque as the enormous success of young musicians, such as Al Hurricane’s nephew Juan Gabriel and his nieces’ group Sparx attests. Earlier types of New Mexican Hispanic music, such as the chotizes, valses, and cunas, which were once popular dance forms in Albuquerque, are now only played by a handful of musicians, notably those in the Roberto Martinez family. Barring some popular resurgence of it, this music will likely soon be forgotten. Likewise, the singing forms, such as the decimas and cuandos, from the Colonial days, that were being collected by people like John D. Robb as late as the 1960's. These songs are nearly extinct with only a few old timers, notably in the East Mountain region and in the valley south of Los Lunas, who still sing them. The orquestas tipicas, once so prevalent in the night club scene during the 1920's-1940's in Barelas and Old Town Albuquerque, are completely gone, though many older people still fondly remember them.

There was a surge of interest in mariachi from Mexico and flamenco from Spain during the second half of the Twentieth Century that continues today. Mariachi is now being taught in the Albuquerque Public School system and there are many festivals and workshops devoted to this musical form annually. Many Mexican musicians are immigrating to Albuquerque and they are also contributing to the popularity of mariachi. While not yet being taught in the public schools, there is a formal Institute at the University of New Mexico that teaches flamenco dance and there is an annual festival during the summer. There are many accomplished flamenco instructors, such as Eva Encinias and Pablo Rodarte, who are helping to perpetuate the art of flamenco dance in the city. There has been a presence of the Baile Folklorico from Mexico within the Hispanic community for quite some time as well, with groups such as Baile! Balile!, and it is growing even more rapidly with the recent large influx of Mexican immigrants into Albuquerque. These new imported musical and dance forms appear to be supplanting the earlier and fast disappearing traditional forms in the Albuquerque Hispanic Community.

In the East Mountains and Bernalillo, the Matachines dance is still performed on community Saint’s Days. The Matachines is a dance drama of disputed origins that has been performed in New Mexico for hundreds of years. It is a dance that consists of several different sequences and requires the participation of a large group of people. In Bernalillo, the dance has nine sequences and two groups of sixteen dancers accompanied by a dozen musicians.

There are several Hispanic theater groups active in the city. There appears to be an audience for these groups and some of them, such as La Compania Teatro de Alburquerque, have been around for over twenty-five years. There was even a Zarzuela company performing regularly at one point in the 1980's. It has traditionally been difficult for many of these groups to find facilities for their performances at prices that they can afford. According to one interviewee, recent hikes to the rental prices of city-owned performance venues have hit many Hispanic theater organizations very hard.

Visual arts are quite varied within this cultural group. They range from traditional straw applique, bulto carving, and retablo painting to mural painting and lowrider automobile customization. There does not appear to be any formal organization in Albuquerque that caters to and supports the needs of these visual artists; but there are many venues for them to display and market their wares such as the New Mexico State Fair and others that are noted in the following section. The National Hispanic Cultural Center in South Barelas was cited by many as a new venue that was featuring the work of New Mexican artists. Many traditional artists belong to, or aspire to join, the Spanish Colonial Arts Society in Santa Fe, which offers them a bi-annual venue to vend their creations. There are informal lowrider clubs that meet irregularly and offer advice provide a network for restoration and parts.

Annual Events and Celebrations:
Popular annual holiday celebrations, such as Cinco de Mayo, were not considered important by most New Mexican Hispanics interviewed. Instead, Easter and Christmas were often listed as the more important celebrations. Additionally they cited the many church fiestas and pageants that have become important annual events in their local communities. Examples included Las Posadas de Barelas, the Our Lady of Guadalupe Fiesta in Williams (South Broadway), the San Felipe de Neri Fiesta in Old Town, the Fiestas de Bernalillo, north of the city, and the Santo Niño Fiesta in Tijeras, east of the city.

There are new non-religious annual events as well, such as the ritual October burning of KooKooie in the South Valley and the Marigold Day of the Dead parade down Isleta Boulevard that are helping to bring Hispanic people together. The Feria Artisana that began as a Spring event Tiguex Park and has now become a part of Balloon Fiesta was also cited as an annual event that helps the Hispanic community in maintaining and showcasing their traditional arts.

Conclusions:
There were several needs identified by those interviewed that they felt would help preserve and perpetuate Hispanic culture in Albuquerque. Some thought that the history of the Spanish colonization and governance of New Mexico needed to be better taught in the local school system in order to instill a sense of pride among Hispanic students. One person stated that there is currently a profound crisis in funding for culture and the arts that also directly affects Hispanics. “There are limited and decreasing funds and more and more hoops to jump through to get to them; but the crisis is at a deeper level. The business community is going to have to give something back to their community if they want culture to thrive. The Hispanic business community must take a stand in supporting their own culture with their dollars to help provide funding for Hispanic arts and culture.”

The loss of Summerfest, prominent in so many other cultures’ reports, was bemoaned by only one individual interviewed for this survey. Most everyone interviewed is very proud of the National Hispanic Cultural Center and the fact that it is located in Albuquerque. All have high expectations for it but most are also aware that there need to be even more venues for Hispanics in the community to share their rich cultural heritage.