THE MEETING Meridel Rubenstein 1995
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THE MEETING Meridel Rubenstein 1995 Palladium prints, steel, single-channel video Video assistance by Steina Video run time 4:00 minutes Tia Collection The Meeting consists of twenty portraits of people from San Ildefonso Pueblo and Manhattan Project physicists—who met at the home of Edith Warner during the making of the first atomic bomb—and twenty photographs of carefully selected objects of significance to each group. In this grouping are people from San Ildefonso Pueblo and the objects they selected from the collections of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture to represent their culture. 1A ROSE HUGHES 2A TALL-NECKED JAR 3A BLUE CORN 4A SLEIGH BELLS 5A FLORENCE NARANJO Rose Hughes holding a photograph of WITH AVANYU One of the most accomplished and (Museum of Indian Arts and Culture) Married to Louis Naranjo; her father, Tony Peña, who organized (plumed serpent) made by Julian and recognized of the San Ildefonso Sleigh bells are commonly used in granddaughter of Ignacio and Susana the building of Edith Warner’s second Maria Martinez, ca. 1930 (Museum of potters. Like many women from the ceremonial dances to attract rain. Aguilar; daughter of Joe Aguilar, who house. Hughes worked at Edith Indian Arts and Culture) Edith Warner pueblos, she worked as a maid for the Tilano Montoya returned with bells like helped Edith Warner remodel the Warner’s with Florence Naranjo one was shown a pot like this one in 1922 Oppenheimers. these from Europe, where he went on tearoom. Edith called her Florencita. summer. She recalls that Edith once on her first visit to San Ildefonso, in the tour with a group of Pueblo dancers. When she was about eleven, she and used an old clothes iron, warmed on home of Ignacio and Susana Aguilar. 3B CORN Rose (Peña) Hughes worked for Edith the stove, as a compress to She noted in her diary that the Corn, a staple and ritual food, is 4B ADAM MARTINEZ in the kitchen. relieve Rose’s headache. Avanyu, more than an ordinary snake, ground to meal and used by women Adam Martinez, the son of Maria is a sacred force who represents the to bless every aspect of daily life Martinez, the most famous Pueblo 5B RABBIT-HUNTING STICK 1B PRUNE PIE natural energies of water in the clouds, and religious practice. The corn ear potter, who owned the house at Otowi (Hopi, Museum of Indian Arts and Made by Pilar Aguilar She said that rain, and rivers. According to Polly represents the feminine generative bridge, where Edith Warner and Tilano Culture) whenever she made this pie, people Schaafsma, Avanyu “inhabits springs powers latent in seeds, the earth, Montoya lived. It was Maria who came to visit. and other underground waters. His and women. At birth every female suggested to Tilano that he work for 5C PILAR AGUILAR coming is announced by blowing on Pueblo child is given a corn fetish Edith. Adam, with his wife, Santana, Aguilar is holding a photograph of 1C LOUIS NARANJO a conch shell. He sends rain to those representing the Corn Mother, lived at the house but got lonely so her mother, Desideria Sanchez (sister (Santa Clara) Louis Naranjo was who lead good lives, and his horn who has given life to all humans, far away from the communal life of of Maria Martinez), who helped married to Florence Aguilar, is a symbol of his knowledge and plants, and animals. the Pueblo. Maria helped to plaster her plaster Edith Warner’s second granddaughter of Ignacio and supernatural powers. But as a the second house. Adam and Santana house. Pilar Aguilar worked at the lab Susana, Edith Warner’s first friends fearsome, unitive face, he sends 3C ISABEL ATENCIO also stayed in the second house, for fifteen years and was awarded at San Ildefonso. Fought with the destructive flooding rains and Niece of Tilano Montoya, cousin caring for Tilano after Edith died. They the Woman of Science Award. She liberating forces in Germany and earthquakes cleansing the powers of of MariaMartinez, who raised her. An were with him when he passed away. remembers the excitement of visiting Austria in 1944–1945. On his return, devastation.” accomplished potter. Helped plaster Adam’s older brother, Popovi Da, Edith’s at Christmas and getting gifts. he worked on construction and waste- Edith Warner’s second house. was stationed at the lab and shared a cleanup crews at the lab for over 2B SANTANA MARTINEZ bunk at Trinity test site with Kenneth 5D PUEBLO CLUB thirty years. He brought the vigas Married to Adam Martinez. Her sons 3D GAMING TUBES Bainbridge. (Jemez, Museum of Indian Arts and (beams) from Santa Clara Canyon for helped Tilano Montoya with the (San Ildefonso, Museum of Indian Arts Culture) Edith’s second house. chickens and his garden. Two of her and Culture) Gaming tubes were used 4C PUEBLO SHIELD sons, Julian and Frank, served in the for a Pueblo guessing game called (San Ildefonso, Museum of Indian Arts 1D FIRE DRILL AND HEARTH armed forces in World War II. Katce˙p ee˙, or concealed game stick. and Culture) Rawhide. (Ancestral Pueblo, Museum of Indian At Zuni Pueblo, this game was sacred Arts and Culture) 2C RATTLE to the War Gods, but at San Ildefonso 4D TOMASITA “CEDAR” Hearth found near Puye. (Santa Ana, Museum of Indian Arts and it is a gambling game in which players SANCHEZ Fire drill, used to start fires. Culture) Petrified wood. This rattle was guess the location of a hidden small Married to Red, grandniece of Tilano used in ceremonial dances to attract stick within the four hollow tubes. Montoya. Worked for Edith in the rain. The tubes are arranged in symbolic kitchen. With Edith when she died. patterns similar to those in Tewa 2D FACUNDO “RED” visual arts. Songs accompany the SANCHEZ game to distract the guesser. Son of Desideria Sanchez, married to Cedar. Worked for Tilano in the garden. He remembered taking surplus vegetables to town and selling them to buy food for the dinners. He also drove Tilano Montoya to people’s homes in Los Alamos to perform Pueblo social dances. Sanchez was with Edith Warner when she died. Died in 1993. The Meeting consists of twenty portraits of people from THE MEETING San Ildefonso Pueblo and Manhattan Project physicists— Meridel Rubenstein who met at the home of Edith Warner during the making 1995 of the first atomic bomb—and twenty photographs of carefully selected objects of significance to each group. Palladium prints, steel, single-channel video In this grouping are Manhattan Project physicists and Video assistance by Steina Video run time 4:00 minutes the objects they selected from the collections of the Tia Collection Bradbury Science Museum that are all related to the making of the atomic bomb. 6A NICOLAS METROPOLIS 7A LOPO REACTOR 8A CARSON MARK 9A MOLTEN GLASS FROM 10A DAVID HAWKINS Nicolas Metropolis was a physicist at Los (Bradbury Science Museum, Los Alamos Carson Mark came back to Los Alamos NAGASAKI David Hawkins received his PhD in Alamos. He worked with Edward Teller National Laboratory) The first water boiler from Canada in 1945 as part of the British philosophy from UC Berkeley in 1940 and on the reactor project at the University of reactor, a critical assembly, was nicknamed Mission collaborating on the Manhattan taught there for two years before going to Chicago and joined the Manhattan Project Lopo because it ran at low power. It pro- Project. He managed the laboratory’s Los Alamos. He was a very close friend of J. in 1942 as a member of the Theoretical duced the first man-made, self-sustaining theoretical physics work between 1947 and 9B EDWARD TELLER Robert Oppenheimer and had been active Division. He and Richard Feynman set nuclear reaction with enriched uranium 1973 and served as a laboratory consultant Edward Teller was one of the most in leftist circles before the war. At the lab up a repair shop to fix the Marchant and (U-235). and member of the Nuclear Regulatory controversial of the Manhattan Project he was the administrative officer in charge Friden hand calculators, which had broken Commission’s Advisory Committee on scientists, many of whom found him of security and draft deferment, the liaison down due to the enormous number of Reactor Safeguards. difficult to work with. His unwavering between the community and the army, and calculations necessary to the work at the 7B PHILIP MORRISON He and his wife, Kay, worked on Edith commitment to nuclear weapons was in charge of military personnel. In 1945 Lab. By 1943 the overtaxed calculators Philip Morrison was a theoretical physicist Warner’s second house. culminated in his design of the SDI he became the project historian, writing were replaced by the IBM punch-card teaching at MIT. He studied with J. Robert (Strategic Defense Initiative). He received Project Y: The Los Alamos Story. After the system. By 1948 Metropolis had become a Oppenheimer at UC Berkeley. At Los his PhD in 1930 but was forced to leave war he taught philosophy at the University leader of a Los Alamos team that designed Alamos he worked on the critical assembly 8B COCA-COLA BOTTLE Hungary, then Germany, because he of Colorado at Boulder. In the 1950s, and built the MANIAC, one of the of the implosion bomb. He rode with the (Bradbury Science Museum, was Jewish. He studied with Bohr in the University of Colorado stood behind first electronic digital computers. plutonium core in the back seat of an army Los Alamos National Laboratory) Copenhagen, went to the US in 1935 to him during the McCarthy hearings.