Copyright by David Floyd García 2015
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Copyright by David Floyd García 2015 The Dissertation Committee for David Floyd García certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: LA RESOLANA: TRACING THE COMMUNICATIVE CARTOGRAPHIES OF GATHERING SPACES IN NORTH CENTRAL NEW MEXICO Committee: Martha Menchaca, Co-Supervisor Pauline Turner Strong, Co-Supervisor Joel Sherzer Enrique Lamadrid LA RESOLANA: TRACING THE COMMUNICATIVE CARTOGRAPHIES OF GATHERING SPACES IN NORTH CENTRAL NEW MEXICO by David Floyd García, B. Univ. Studies; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2015 Dedication To the memory of all of those who have crossed over a la otra banda and now dwell en esa resolana más allá. Acknowledgements I would like to give thanks to the people who provided me encouragement to finish this project. Without their help this dissertation would have remained only a dream in the in the shadows of my unconscious. I would like to thank Paula García of the New Mexico Acequia Association who prompted this project so many years ago in a field of snowpeas in Mora New Mexico. Next, I would like to thank Enrique Lamadrid for his continuing patience and guidance all these years. I would like to also thank the numerous people whom I have played music, whom I have learned so much from. They would be too numerous to list here but you are in my heart always and in my song. To my gramita Frances L. García who always knew the right poems to recite, que en paz descanse. To my gramita Juanita Gallegos who taught me to that in order for the water to flow we need to remove the barriers that inhibit its flow, que en paz descanse. To Dr. Benito Córdova that águila negra who I miss immensely, que en resolana descanse. To maestro Facundo Valdez who taught me how to learn to sing with an out of tune guitar, que en paz descanse. To maestro Alfredo Martínez who took the time to show this guitarrero how to accompany los días del año nuevo, que en paz descanse. To maestro Tomás Atencio and maestra Consuelo Pacheco for sharing the importance of the light of resolana, especially when we find ourselves in the shadows of these days. To maestro Arsenio Córdova who encouraged me early on to sing and learn the history of New Mexico. To maestro Melitón Medina of La Canova who showed me the intricacies of playing the Matachines all these years, and to our patrón San Antonio de Padua. To maestro Cipriano Vigil who I owe a v large debt of gratitude for including me in his many projects that keep our music alive and strong. I would like to acknowledge maestro Roger Montoya and all the dancers who brought "La danza de las acequias" to life. A maestro Alejandro López por compartir el café, la buena plática, y los planes de acción. A maestro Juan Estaban Arellano que nos siempre recordaba mantener nuestra memoria y lengua viva. To maestra Janice Varela who taught me how to listen with heart to the people. To maestra Lucille Trujillo whose book project I haven’t forgotten about and who treats me like a son. To the acequia leaders who I met in the Escuelita de las Acequias, les debo tanto, gracias. To my friend y compañero en la música Jeremías Martínez, gracias hermano por compartir tanto conmigo. To all the anthropolocotes Gwendolyn Ferreti Mánjarrez, Dra. Amiee Villareal, and Gregorio Gonzales to name a few for all the support and endless hours of resolana y lucha we have shared making sense of our discipline. To the resolaner@s of Una resolana who I have learned some of my profoundest and most difficult lessons from, les mando mucho amor. To Luis and Beata, gracias from the bottom of my heart. To the Andrés family, Tamera, Benny, Abram, Elena, Sevilla and Denisa my most sincere gratitude and love. This dissertation project would have been impossible for me to complete without the support of 2014 Office of the State Historian scholars program that aided me in completing chapter 4. I need also to thank the Center for Mexican American Studies at UT Austin for granting me the Américo Paredes U.S.-Mexico Borderlands Research Award that aided my writing during the summer of 2014. In addition, I owe a huge amount of gratitude to the UT Department of Anthropology for the US Mexico- Borderlands fellowship I was awarded in 2014. I would like to acknowledge my vi committee, especially Polly Strong and Martha Menchaca my Co-Chairs who have been with me all the way despite my fears and disillusions; they have kept me on track. I wish to acknowledge all those who I have failed to mention and who have shared the light and warmth of the resolana, the place where this project is centered. Finally, to Carmella Jácquez my compañera who I love with all my heart. Thank you for your patience and support while I finished this project.Lastly I would like to acknowledge the prayers of my aunt Lucille, and a special thanks to my parents Floyd and Ruth García. vii LA RESOLANA: TRACING THE COMMUNICATIVE CARTOGRAPHIES OF GATHERING SPACES IN NORTH CENTRAL NEW MEXICO David Floyd García, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2015 Co-Supervisors: Martha Menchaca, and Pauline Turner Strong This study investigates how public gathering places directly relate to the formation of social movements in the Española Valley of northern New Mexico. Specifically, the project examines la Resolana, a local tradition of congregating in a public place where the sun reflects its warmth off a southern-facing wall in a plaza or courtyard. This study brings together anthropological and ethno historical data in order to contextualize the emergence of new politically active gathering spaces that invoke the historical name of resolana. Following the production and circulation of the term resolana, this project pursues three lines of investigation: first, I will present ethnographic research of contemporary resolana practices in public places such as town plazas, restaurants and department stores. Next, I will discuss the cultural production of a local Chicano think tank, La Academia de la Nueva Raza, (LADLNR) from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s. Then, the dissertation will address LADLNR’s theorization and deployment of the concept of resolana as a cultural metaphor for political action and local knowledge production. Finally, I will viii address how today these forms of resolana articulate and factor into its contemporary implementation in the growing social movements in the state by socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers in acequia (communal irrigation) communities. This study engages a fundamental question in anthropology, which asks, how does place and space shape the formation of social movements? This question is explored in a new way theoretically in this study by looking at how resolana as a cultural form constitutes larger subjectivities called publics and counter-publics. In other words, this study offers an approach to cultural public spheres in northern New Mexico by examining discursive forms of speaking, gathering, and social mobilization. ix Table of Contents. List of Figures………………………………………………………………………….xiv Introduction……………………………………………………………………………...1 A. A Hometown Ethnographer……………………………………………...........4 B. Background ………………………………………………………………......10 C. Methodology………………………………………………………………….11 D. Theoretical Summary of Chapters……………………………………………13 E. Organization of Dissertation…………………………………………………15 F. Significance ………………………………………………………………….16 Chapter 1: On the Plaza: Latina/o Public Space in the Heart of Pueblo Country…18 A. Speaking in the Sun: Plazas in North Central New Mexico………………….18 B. “Indian Country”……………………………………………………………...25 C. La Villa Real………………………………………………………………….30 D. War of Maneuver……………………………………………………………..35 E. Española es una chiquilla: Gendered Plaza Space …………………………...37 F. Placita de Alcalde……………………………………………………………..46 Chapter 2: Ethnohistory and Memory of the Lightscapes of the Resolana…….......51 A. Raising their Voices in the Resolanas………………………………………...54 B. The Sun Club: Resolana through the Modernist Lens………………………..68 x C. La Resolana of the Works Progress Administration………………………….71 D. Coda: Resolana in the Valley Today……………………………………….…84 Chapter 3: “La Nueva Resolana”: Everyday Gathering Spaces in Commercial Places in Río Arriba…………………………………………………………………….89 A. “I go there for the social aspect” …………………………………………..…96 B. The Table of old ones ……………………………………………………...…97 C. Los Políticos ……………………………………………………………...…105 D. La Despedida …………………………………………………………..……110 Chapter 4: Writing in the Resolana: Two Print Counter-Publics in Río Arriba, La Academia de la Nueva Raza and Una Resolana …………………….....112 A. En Estas Salas Relumbra el Oro del Barrio ……………………………..….115 B. Writing in the Resolana: Local Journalism in Río Arriba ……………….….121 C. Publications of La Academia ……………………………………………….129 D. The Light of Our Words ………………………………………………….....134 E. Una Resolana - First Meetings ……………………………………………...138 F. Later Meetings of Una Resolana ……………………………………………143 G. Declamación Chapbook as Print Public ……………………………………150 H. Declamación II ………………………………………………………..……151 Chapter 5: Acequia Resolanas: Mutuality, Social Praxis and the New Mexico Acequia Association’s Escuelita de las Acequias …………………………………...156 xi A. The Acequia Cleaning …………………………………………………...….158 B. Local Acequia Assocaitions: “You have to know to talk to the people” …...164 C. Gendered Spaces and Governance in Acequia Resolanas ……………….....172 D. Conviviality