Clarita Garcia de Aranda Allison

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

Born on January 11, 1921 to Juanita Candelaria and Nevarez Garcia de Aranda in Albuquerque, Clarita Garcia de Aranda grew up in a large musical family, with five sisters and three brothers. In a 1988 interview, she said she learned to dance “when I knew my left foot...

Debbie Martinez, “La Chicanita”

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

In the mid-1970s, when many young Chicano teenagers were protesting, attending college, or working for family businesses, a flowering music scene was blossoming in the central Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. Starting in the 1950s, a blend of music from Mexico in the...

Katherine Stinson Otero, the “Flying Schoolgirl”

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

Katherine Stinson Otero was the fourth American woman to earn a pilot’s license and the first female skywriter. She overcame pioneering aviator Max Lillie’s reluctance to teach her to fly, and became the “Flying Schoolgirl,” nicknamed for her youthful looks, small...

Evelyn M. Vigil, Phan-Un-Pha-Kee (Young Doe)

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

In 1583, approximately two thousand people lived in the Pecos Pueblo, one of the most heavily populated pueblos. By 1838, disease and raids had drastically reduced the population. The last remaining seventeen Pecos residents packed up their belongings and relocated...

Florinda Naranjo Ortiz

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, traveling circus acts and vaudeville-style road shows called revistas brought fun and entertainment to families throughout New Mexico, especially rural areas. Many were owned and operated by families with roots in...

Cleofas Martinez Jaramillo

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

By the early 20th century, Spanish traditions hundreds of years old began to fade in northern New Mexico. Newly arrived artists and people whose families had lived the traditions for generations made concerted efforts to preserve traditions. Cleofas Martinez Jaramillo...

Zuni Olla Maidens

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

Zuni Olla Maidens are one of the most renowned dance groups in New Mexico. The members, all women, dance with fragile water jars, or ollas, balanced on the top of their heads. These women play an important role in Zuni, acting as cultural ambassadors for the community...

Women of Cochiti

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

By the late twentieth century, Pueblo figurative sculpture began to be valued as art, partly due to the popularity of storytellers, seated human figures with mouths wide open to represent the tradition of oral storytelling. Storytellers are now widely collected,...

Virginia T. Romero

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

Virginia T. Romero was a prominent Taos potter who helped to keep micaceous pottery alive in her community. Micaceous pots are excellent for cooking and are renowned for their ability to retain heat. In recent years, collectors and museums have recognized these pots...

Virginia Duran

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

Three Picuris women, Maria Ramita Simbola Martinez, Cora Durand, and Virginia Duran, helped to preserve the micaceous pottery tradition that remains important in Picuris and other nearby pueblos today. Picuris is a Tiwa speaking Pueblo located fifty-seven miles north...