Our Back Pages August 2015

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Our Back Pages

A LOOK INSIDE THE ARCHIVES AT ONE OF OUR CLASSIC ISSUES FROM NINE DECADES OF NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE.

August 1962

MUSIC SINCE CORONADO

SALUTE TO FIESTA

By Carmen Espinosa

According to records of the archives, the first music teacher who worked within the region which is now the United States, was a musician from Mexico City, Cristobal de Quinones, of the Franciscan Order. It is believed he came to New Mexico with or during the founding of Oñate’s colony between 1598 and 1604. Before his death, Quinones had erected the church and monastery at San Felipe Pueblo and taught many of the natives to sing the church service. At the time Jamestown was founded, and 13 years before the landing of the Pilgrims on the Massachusetts coast, New Mexico not only had a music teacher who had a musical education obtained in Europe, but was in possession of an organ.

Santa Fe’s 1962 queen, Antonia Loyola Lucero. The queen is chosen for personality, appearance, poise, charm, and ability to speak both Spanish and English. A further qualification: she must have been born in Santa Fe County and be between 19 and 24.

The nation’s biggest sandpile is located at White Sands National Monument near Alamogordo. The group shown on the cover is the Youth Group of Fort Blvd. Methodist Church at El Paso, Texas, on a visit. The sands are actually crystals of gypsum, covering 176,000 acres. Color photograph by John Whiteside for Dick Kent Photography.

EVEN NOW in this age of moon-reaching, Cleveland still looks old. And remote. Drive off the paved highway (Farm Road 121) that goes through town and you’ll find enchanting scenes along the winding way. Locust trees are everywhere in pink and white and purple. Behind highwalled enclosures you catch glimpses of clean-swept yards, vine-tangled and tree-shaded. And where the flowers grow gayest you’ll hear the murmuring water of the always-there acequia. Chickens dust themselves beside adobe walls, family dogs lie sleeping in the shade of yellow rose bushes. There is a pastoral stillness about the place and the valley, a stillness smothered by age, perhaps.

ANNIVERSARY MEDALLION The Golden Anniversary of New Mexico’s statehood is expressed this year in bronze and silver medallions, one of the commemorative items being issued during the 50th celebration. The New Mexico medallions, designed by a Santa Fe sculptor, Donna Quasthoff, are expected to become valued nationally by collectors.

VOLUME 93, ISSUE 8 New Mexico Magazine (ISSN 0028-6249) is published monthly by the New Mexico Tourism Department at 495 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87501-2750. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: $25.95 per year, $45.95 outside the United States. Periodicals postage paid at Santa Fe, NM, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to New Mexico Magazine, PO Box 433148, Palm Coast, FL 32143-9881. Copyright © 2015 by New Mexico Magazine. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. The magazine is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, or artwork.

72  NEW MEXICO | AUGUST 2015


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