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TheSanteroasCulturalCourierPedro Antonio Fresquis and Carlos Fresquez

by GlENdAL. CARNE

Thesacred images in the NuestraSenoradel Rosariochurch in Truchas,New Mexico, are testimony to thereligiosity of a community andprovide insight into important aspectsof materialcultureof earlyresidentsof northern New Mexican villages.The church was built and its altarscreatedand decoratedat the onset of a

period in which the New Mexicansanterotradition flourished The

relationship between the church andsocialprocessesin New Mexicanvillages is expressedin the santerotradition. The santoswere revered anddecoratedchurches in New Mexican

villages for about 80 years until aMexican bishop Jose Antonio Zubiria,arrived in Santa Fe and determinedthat the saints were crude andunsuitable for Catholic churches. In

villages like Truchas, the santos wereretained because they were hidden inprivate places of worship, or becausethe villages were distant and poor.Inside the church at Truchas two altarscreens, reredos, remain. They arewidely recognized as the work ofPedro Antonio Fresquls, possibly theearliest native-born New Mexicansantero.

Carlos Fresquez, an importantcontemporary Chicano artis~ isconnected to the Nuestra Senora delRosario church in Truchas. Throughhis work in his studio in Denver,Colorado, he makes personal andvisual pilgrimages to Truchas and itssurrounding areas as he paintsnarratives of contemporary urbanChicano life and his ancestry. One ofhis ancestors is Pedro Antonio

Fresqufs, the Truchas Master. Like hissantero ancestor, Fresquez is a culturalcourier, bringing both personal andcommunity values and conflicts intohis art.

A comparison of information

NuestraSenoradelRosarioChurchin

Truchas,NewMexico.PhotographbyGlendaCame.

available about two artists whose

visual narratives are closely con-nected to the Nuestra Senora delRosario church, Pedro AntonioFresquls and Carlos Fresquez, illus-trates the far reaching effects of achurch-centered community within aculture and the importance of tradi-tion and ancestry in the developmentof two artistic styles which reflect theissues, problems, concerns, andreligious connections of their respec-tive times. This connection between

the santero Fresqufs and his descen-dan~ Chicano painter Carlos Fresquez,provides a unique opportunity toexperience tradition as it relates tomaterial culture.

The Spanish commitment todevelop the Catholic communities inNew Mexico was strong. NewMexico in the middle of the eigh-teenth century was a political and

communal mission system based onreligion developed from the teachingsof thosefriarswho accompaniedtheconquistadors into New Mexico.Thisisolated community-based Catholi-cism formed the foundation for thedevelopment of church-centered, self-sufficientcommunities in northernNew Mexico.1

On North American frontiers

Spaniards never succeeded in fullyreconstructing Spanish culture andinstitutions. Spanish culture in NewMexico became simplified,its formsnever reflectingthe full variety andcomplexity of Spanish culture.Poverty,available materials,isolation,lack of prototypes,and skill shortagesresulted in a simple, clear,straightfor-ward presentation of material culture.Although life in early New Mexicowas rural, difficul~dangerous, and farfrom luxurious, colonists managed tobuild villages and churches, thusmaintaining settlement patterns thathad become familiar to their culture.

The establishment of the village atTruchas,New Mexico,was a result ofsituation and prescription.

Studying development of thesantero in Spanish Colonial NewMexico is essential to understandingthe relationship of religiosityandcultural context to the development ofcommunity. In New Mexico, thesantero used local materials;hecarved in cottonwood root and cedarand painted on pine, three- and two-dimensionaldepictionsof saintsimportant to the villagers'well-beingand spiritual guidance. WilliamWroth writes:

In the protectionand preservationof religious values in NewMexico,the holy imagesknownas santos played a significantpart.Imagesare material and visualexpressionsof religiousvalues,

PAGE 64 SUMMER1999 TRADICIONREvrSTA

and they are of particular importance in a rural societyin which written documents had a small role. In NewMexico, the santos made in the 1700sand 1800s accu-rately reflect the orthodoxy of Catholicpractice?

The village of Truchas is 40 miles north of Santa Fe,butis isolated, built on an 8,037-foot high plateau in theshadow of Truchas Peaks. The E1Puerto de Nuestra Senora

del Rosario de San Fernando Rey y Santiago del Rio de LasTruchas Land Grant of 1754 that established the town wasoriginally granted to the Romero and Espinoza families.The town was built on the southern edge of the mesa toprotect its dwellers from Comanche Indian raids. Today itis bordered by the Pecos Wilderness to the eas~ the SantaFe National Forest to the south, and by the Carson Na-tional Forest to the north.3

The community and its church are significant becausethe Nuestra Senora del Rosario church is one of only 13remaining complete churches built before 1800 that arestill relatively intact.4 Truchas and its church are alsoimportant because they are in an enclave where over 175years ago local santeros made their entrance and left theirwork as evidence of the historical material culture of the

area. The church at Truchas contains 2 of 3 major altarscreens created by Pedro Antonio Fresqufs. Fresqufs wasborn in 1749 and baptized at Santa Cruz.5

Although many santeros and their work remainunidentified, E.Boyd, late curator of the Spanish ColonialCollection of the Museum of International Folk Art inSanta Fe,believed she found sufficient evidence that thereredos had been painted by Fresqufs. Her hypothesiscenters around some initials, possibly a livestock brand,found on animals depicted in some of Fresqufs' paintingsand a request that Fresqufs be buried in the churchyard atChimay6 as "paymenf' for the work he did on the churchat Truchas.6 Kubler tells us it is often "disturbing to thosewho value the individuality of a thing to have thatindividuality diminished by classification and generaliza-tions:'7However, what is most important about the art inTruchas is that it is early and it is local. The religious artunique to this area represents a regional style and asolution to the villagers' need for Catholic images.

Fresqufs painted in an unusual style. His work isunlike that of any other Mexican or New Mexicansantero. Panels attributed to the Truchas Master have been

tree-ring dated to the late 18th century. His style seems tohave been influenced by Mexican or European printsimported into the area. Fresqufs painted in a fla~ linear, or:alligraphic style that may have been the reflection ofEuropean or Mexican woodcut prints and images avail-"ble to be used as samples.s The requirement for local::reation of these religious items was met by a series ofirtists, like Fresqufs, who worked with available materialsmd under local conditions. Local artists had become

ikilled to fulfill a need. Local people needed santos forheir religious practices and local people provided santos?

"... -,- ..The churchatTruchascontains2 of3 majoraltarscreenscreatedbyPedroAntonioFresquis.Top:Themainaltarscreen.Below:DetailfromthemainaltarscreendepidingSanJose.Photographsby GlendaCame.

Fresqufs was literate, and he often inscribed anddescribed his work He did, in fact, inscribe the south altarat the Nuestra Senora del Rosario Church in Truchas. Tree-

ring analysis for twenty pieces from the Taylor Museumcollectiondated the work of the TruchasMaster as be-tween 1790 and 1830. It is possible that he was the earliestfolk santero painting in northern New Mexico. Wrothstates, "Circumstantial evidence suggests that the mainaltar screen in the church of Nuestra Senora del Rosario

de Las Truchas may have been painted by Fresqufs before1818, for it is mentioned in an inventory of the church inthat year~lOAnother smaller altar screen is mentioned inthe 1826 inventory:"l1

Historian Ross Frank feels the innovative style ofFresqufs' commissioned altar screens at Truchas hasresulted in a "language of religious imagery" whichoccurred through a process of "form-splitting"iformenspaltungen),a concept introduced by German arthistorian Adolf Goldschmidt in the 1930s. Goldschmidt'swork refers to artists using other artists' work as examplesinstead of creating new images. Form splitting is the

TRADIOON REvrSTA SUMMER 1999 PAGE 65

Sidealtarscreenin thechurchin Truchas.

PhotographbyGlendaCame.

process of the transmission andtranslation of images from morepopulated areas into areas which areso remote that their unique circum-stances require some adjustments bemade to the original images. Frankfeels the early New Mexican santerocreated a 'Vecino (local) language;'preserving elements of the earlierworks and translating them into local"language" which would appeal to thecommunity Frank adds:

In the process,santerosmade theirsaints New Mexican: santeros

changed religious scenes in orderto place them in a context mean-ingful to the Vecino laity; theychose to depict religious eventsthat resonated with the experi-ence of life in New Mexican vil-

lages;and they emphasized a par-ticular tone of religious devotionand piety that reached its emo-tional peak in the selected scenesof Christ's' life portrayed in NewMexico.12

Given Frank'sopinions about thenature and role of the santos in the

value system of early New Mexicanresidents, earlier assertions of localadaptation become clearer.

The nine-panel altar screen inTruchas pays tribute to Our Lady ofthe Rosary/Nuestra Senora delRosario placed in the prominent,middle position on the altar.Santiago/Saint James is mentioned inthe original land grant. Santiago isclosely identified with the Spanishwar against the Moors. It was notunlikely that the originators of theland grant took into consideration thedangerous location of Truchas andgave the grant a powerful sainfsname as a "spiritual" defense for thecommunity Thomas Steele summa-,rizes:

. . . the naming of Spanish NewMexican village chapels andsome of the villages themselveswas a mode ofhorizontalcommu-

nication among the people,assur-ing them that they had a sure holdon centeredness, validation, andsecurity because they were prop-erly relatedto the absolutelife-giv-ing powerY

On the side, or south altar, of thechurch are four images of saintscommonly used in northern NewMexico. They are, The Trinity/LaTrinidad, Our Lady of Mount Carmel!Nuestra Senora del Carmen, TheCrucifixion, and Our Lady of Sor-rows/Nuestra Senora de Los Dolores.

There is an inscription which con-firms the side altar screen was madein 1821.

The tradition of the New Mexican

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SideAltar enTruchas,oil on canvas,byCarlosFresquez.Photographby CarlosFresquez.

RetablodeFernandoFresquez,mixedmedia,by CarlosFresquez.Photographby CarlosFresquez.

santero remains important in the areaaround Truchas. Also important wasthe fortunate survival of works of art

in the church at Truchas that repre-sent an early and local solution to theproblem of importing art and trainingartists to decorate churches and

provide religious images for homes ofthe inhabitants of these remoteareas.14

The religious practices of NewMexican Spanish people of theeighteenth and nineteenth centuriesrequired large numbers of images,statues and paintings of saints.Because these images were notreadily available until years laterwhen commercial lithographs wereimported into the area, New Mexicanresidents began producing the imageswithin their communities in a

practical manner which was relevantto their cultural context.15The preva-lence of the tradition of the santero

represents a link, a connection to theearly physical evidence of a localsolution that became a tradition. The

language of the santero was a lan-guage of a people, speaking to theircommunities' system of values andneeds.

In studying the history of objectsof material culture such as the

PAGE 66 SUMMER 1999 TRADICIONREvISTA

Nuestra Senora del Rosario church, it is important todiscover the "scripts" and "texts" illuminating the principaltheme of a particular record. Nuestra Senora del Rosario'ssantos represent a dominant resource to establish thesescripts and texts.16People currently associated with thechurch continue to demand its tradition, a testimony to theimportance their religion and its artifacts have to thecommunity

Contemporary Chicano artist Carlos Fresquez is animportant artist connected to the Nuestra Senora delRosario church in Truchas. Fresquez, in his work in hisstudio in Denver, Colorado, paints narratives of contempo-rary Chicano life and his ancestry. Social processes helpcreate the meaning of Carlos' work His art provides anaesthetic, cultural, and community focus for many people,representing a cultural and social experience layered withtradition, struggle, and imagination. like his santeroancestor, Fresquez is a kind of cultural courier, bringingvalues and conflicts into his art.

A February 1997 interview with Fresquez providedinformation about his personal, religious, cultural, andartistic experiences. The information helps to illustrate thefar-reaching effects of community-centered art that hadsome of its origins in small villages such as Truchas. It alsoillustrates the importance of tradition and ancestry in thedevelopment of an artistic style reflective of contemporaryissues,problems, concerns, and religious connections.

I Fresquezgraduated from Metro State CollegeinDenver in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, andearned his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1995 from CU-Boulder. By 1989 he was supporting himself and hisfamily with his art. He has been a part of many exhibi-tions, important to him on several different levels. On thecultural and artistic level, Carlos is proud to have been apart of a traveling exhibit called CARA (face in Spanish) anational Chicano Art show. CARA stands for Chicano Art:Resistance and Affirmation 1965-1985. Carlos considershis art true American art, truer than some other formswhich have drawn upon European influence. Judith Bacasays,"Chicano art originates in the creation of a commu-nity.It represents a particular stance which engages in theissues of its time:'l? Personally, Carlos feels his most impor-tant exhibit was at the Cultural Center in San Luis, Colo-rado.San Luis is located between the hometowns of his

mother and father. His show included contemporaryretablosin which Carlos transferred the images of hisgrandparents onto the panels traditionally reserved for thesantos.He feels a spiritual connection in San Luis becauseIheknows his family is from the northern New Mexico-southern Colorado area. Carlos has grandparents who are&omnear Las Vegas, Pecos (Upper Colonias), and RanchosdeTaos,New Mexico, and Tercio,Colorado. His grandpar-entsmoved from New Mexico during the 1920s, migrat-ingto the north for undisclosed reasons. By the 1950s hisfamilyhad relocated to Denver.

SanFranciscodeRanchos,serigraph,byCarlosFresquez.Photographby CarlosFresquez.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Carlos began to search for hisfamily's roots. He was involved in the Chicano movementbecame interested in the ideas of caesar Chavez, andwanted to discover where he came from. Carlos considers

himself a Chicano by self-definition, but doesn't resentbeing called Mexican-American. For the purpose ofdiscussing Carlos' art as a manifestation of church andcommunity the term Chicano is 'appropriate. Carlos'ancestors were in northern New Mexico before the

Mayflower landed.Many of Carlos' pieces have churches and crosses in

the background or foreground. The expression of Chicanoreligiosity in art is syncretic, combining Indian deities andCatholic saints and symbols, a combination with manyprecedents in New Mexican folk art. The image of theVirgin of Guadalupe is often juxtaposed with serpentsand jaguars. Catholic crosses, churches, Sacred Hearts, andother Catholic symbols are common in the art?8

An important work for Carlos was a 1992 Denvercommunity project called CodicesoftheBarrio.Fresquezworked with local gangs in the urban community ofDenver. They took words from a poem by Fresquez'sfriend Joe Navarro titled 'Why Can't Chicanos get Edu-cated in America;' and graffiti experts from gangs sprayedthe words to Navarro's poem onto the walls. They createdwhat Fresquez called an urban mural, incorporating thewords of the poem and the placas(graffiti)into the workThere were fivekids with five differentkinds ofplacas(graffiti styles) and the result was a painting-poem, mural,barrio codices. There was also an altar that contained

tributes to 11 children slain in violence that particularyear. The ''Barrio'' show was held at the EDGE gallery, analternative gallery in Denver.

Philip Brookman writes:The concept of self-definition is paramount to discus-sions of Chicano art. Tocreate art means to create one-

self.Cultural representation is the manifestation of one's

TRADICIONREvrSTA SUMMER 1999 PAGE 67

~life or the illustration of a com-

munity bound by the symbolsthat delineate a grot!P of beliefs.Defining one'sown cultureisbotha personal and a public action. Itis personal since the input neces-sary to develop a sense of culturecomes from private sources, likefamily and indigenous traditions.Definitions become social when

they are expressed through art oracts of creation, left in the openforpublic interactionand interpre-tatiOn.19

Carlos said the idea of an altar asart has never seemed unfamiliar to

him. He feels that his art is a part ofan inherited, collective unconsciousthat he has been able to tap in to.Carlos has been to Truchas severaltimes. The first time he was in the

church he noticed the calligraphicscript that is visible on the side altar.He had an immediate reaction to that

altar. '1 felt like those were my brushstrokes; he told me. '1 felt like I madethose marks:'

One of his pieces, TheAltar atTruchas,is taken from a photograph hetook on one of his visits to theNuestra Senora del Rosario church.

He has transferred his experiencewith the santos at the church onto a

canvas using colors and shapes thatare unique, but obviously inspired bythe side altar painted by his ancestorin the early 1800s. He also transferredhis personal signature into the exactspot where the early santero wrote onhis altar.

Carlos has known he was related

to Fresquis, the early New Mexicansantero, since high school, when hewas involved in the Chicano move-

ment (1974). He was constantlylooking in books about New Mexicohistory and family history andfinding bits and pieces about his pastHe stumbled upon information aboutthe santos, learned of Pedro AntonioFresquis, and found that his familyhad descended from the Fresquis/Fresquez family in New Mexico. Thefamily name had been changed inthe late 1800s from Fresquis toFresquez. He has several generationsof his genealogy completed.

He specifically visited the churchat Truchas after he learned of thisconnection. As a child, he had madeseveral trips into the area to visit theSantuario de Chimay6 to pray andcollect sacred soil. There he experi-enced strong emotions. Carlos isCatholic but doesn't feel connected toCatholicism in the orthodox sense. He

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Missing YOufrom thePantz Series,acryliconcanvas,by CarlosFresquez.PhotographbyCarlosFresquez.

PAGE 68 SUMMER 1999 TRADICION REvISTA

!

understands that in northern NewMexico the church was the center ofhis ancestors' lives.He knows thatSan Isidro (Saint Isadore)was carriedinto the fields for a ceremony at thetimes of cultivating and harvest Heknows that every day is an importantsaints' day and believes that inaddition to the CatholicEuropeanconnections his family has, he alsohas strong indigenous connections.His patron saint is Saint Anthony/San Antonio. "Peoplein New Mexicoeat com and chili.These are not

Spanish foods; he said However,Fresquezwas raised Catholicand heis raising his children Catholic.

Finding Carlos'work in the SanLuis Cultural Center on a summer tripto New Mexico helped me in under-standing the strong influences ofsanteros and their roles in the devel-

opment of the material culture ofchurch-centered communities innorthern New Mexico. Seeing animportant urban artis~a Chicano byself-definition,paint a contemporaryrendition of an altar his ancestorpainted almost 200 years ago illus-trated the vast connections of thereligiosityof a community. In Truchas,people identified with their patronand community saints,and althoughCarlos is physically detached from acommunity where the ideas of hisancestors were formed,he retains aspiritual and artisticconnection to asystem which is centered in thechurch and in small communitiessuch as Truchas.Fresquezand his artare connections between the art of

Truchas'past and a broader,moreglobal concept of Chicano art whichhas its origin in these communities.His work and experiences provide acontemporary look at the effectreligion,early santeros,and theNuestra Senora del Rosariochurch inparticular have had on an artist withconnections to the community andeffectivelyillustrate the concept of theartist as cultural courier.

Endnotes:1 David J. Weber, TheSpanish Frontier in North

America, (New Haven: Yale University

Press, 1992) p. 94.William Wroth, 'The New Mexican Santos and the Preservation of

Religious Traditions;'ElPalacio94, no. 1 (Summer/Fall 1988): 10.Lenore Harris Hughes, Holy Adobe(£1Paso: Hughes Publishing

Company, 1982), 120.14The other churches and tl;eir approximate dates of construction are:

Zia-1614, Isleta-1629, Acoma-1644, Laguna-1700, Albuquerque-1793, San Felipe Pueblo Church-1706, Santa Fe's San Miguel-1710,Cochiti-l71?' Santa Ana-1734, Tome-1739, Santa Cruz-1730-40, and

Las Trampas-1760. It is estimated that the church at Truchas isapproximately the same age as San Jose de Las Trampas, 1760.Source is Paul Rhetts, Albuquerque.

RobinFarwell Gavin, TraditionalArts ofSpanishNewMexico(Santa Fe:Museum of New Mexico Press, 1994),9.

Fresquis is also known as the "Calligraphic" Santero/Master. Many ofthe retablos in the Taylor Museum are identified as the work"CalligraphicITruchasMaster:' In PopularArts ofSpanishNewMexico,£. Boyd suggested that Pedro Fresquis as a painter brands horsesand donkeys with ''PF'.Boyd further cites a request in AASFPatentes Book LXX, Box 4 (1841) where Fresquis requests burial inChimayo. Wroth counters with his inability to find a regularpattern of the PF brands markings. He concludes "it is a tantalizingbit of information that is not strong enough to assure a positiveattribution (1982:171nY Today, the majority of sources feel £. Boydhas made a positive identification of Fresquis.

George Kubler, TheShapeof Time(New Haven: Yale University Press,1962), 36.

William Wroth, ChristianImagesin HispanicNewMexico,(ColoradoSprings: The Taylor Museum of the Colorado Springs Fine ArtsCenter, 1982), 172.

The Taylor Museum of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center has 25retablosattributed to the Truchas Master (Fresquis).In addition tothese retablos,there are another 23 which are attributed to his"school" or style. The collection of is available for view by scholarsand collectors. Upon reques~ one may visit the recently renovated,basement storage area and view the works of the Truchas Masterwhich are consolidated and contextualized as of March, 1997 The

project was completed by Nancy McCollum and Glenda Carne,Humanities Department at Pikes Peak Community College.

The first inventory of the church was done by Dan Juan Ladron delNino de Guevara from Durango. Guevara visited Truchas in 1818and inspected the church for additional information and thecomplete inventory, see £. Boyd, Popular Arts of Spanish New Mexico(Tuscan: Walter Lithocraft, 1974),332.

William Wroth, Christian Imagesin Hispanic New Mexico: TheTaylor

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~oughRide, serigraph, by CarlosFresquez.Photographby Carlos~quez.

MuseumColledionofSantos,173.The 1826 inventory describesanaltar screen and a missal stand by Pedro Antonio Fresquis.Additional information may be found in the AASF Accounts,BookLXIV, July 2?, 1826. See also, £. Boyd, 1974.

12 Ross Frank, 'The Life of Christ and the New Mexican Santero

Tradition,"The]oumalof TexasCatholicHistoryand Culture7 (Augus~1996),44-45.

13 Thomas 1. Steele, 'Naming of Places in Spanish New Mexico:'HispanicArts andEthnohistoryEdited by Marta Weigle,et aI. (SantaFe: Ancient City Press, 1983),301-302.

14 Thomas 1. Steele, Santosand Saints: TheReligious Folk Art of Hispanic NewMexico, Second edition (Santa Fe: Ancient City Press, 1994), 12-13.

15 Steele, Santosand Saints, 1994, 22-23.

16Themes developed from George Kubleis ShapeofTime(New Haven,Yale University, 1962).

17Judith Baca, Interview, November 10, 1989 in ChicanoArt: ResistanceandAffirmation,1965-1985,Edited by Richard Griswold del Castillo,Teresa McKenna, Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano (Los Angeles: WrightArt Gallery, University of California, 1990): 21.

18Shifra M. Goldman and Thomas Ybarra-Frausto, 'The Political and

SocialContexts of Chicano Art~ChicanoArt: ResistanceandAffirma-tion, 1965-1985,Editedby Richard Griswold del Castillo,et al. (LosAngeles: Wright Art Gallery, University of California, 1990): 89.

19Phillip Brookman, "Looking for Alternatives: Notes on Chicano Art,1960-1990;' in Griswold del Castillo, 182.

Glenda Came has a Master of Arts degreefrom the University ofColorado. She is an Instrudor of Humanities and Program Assistant

at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Photographs are by Glenda Came with the exception of the images of

Carlos Fresquez's work which are courtesy of the artist.

CarlosSantistevansantero del norte

MASTER FOLK ARTIST

1999 HERITAGE AWARD

COLORADO COUNCIL ON THE ARTS

MUSEUM COLLECTIONSNATIONALMUSEUM OF AMERICANART

WASHINGTON, DC

MILLICENTRODGERSMUSEUM

TAOS, NM"FOUNDER & MASTER

OF THE COLORADO STYLE"

THOMAS J.STEELE,S.J. REGIS UNNERSITY COLLECTION

DENVER, CO

Studio by Appointment2560 Glenarm PI., Denver, CO 80205

(303) 297-1370

TRADICIONREvISTA SUMMER 1999 PAGE 69