Preserving Heritage at Casa San Ysidro

View of Heritage Field with Casa San Ysidro to the right. Drone imagery: Consuelo Martinez-Moya

Growing and Preserving Heritage

Plans guide building and farming preservation at Casa San Ysidro

AGRICULTURE HAS BEEN AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE WAY OF LIFE IN THE VILLAGE OF CORRALES for centuries, driven by the flow of water that irrigated the land. Corrales' acequia, or irrigation ditch, was dug in the early 18th century to guide irrigation water throughout the village.

Casa San Ysidro’s Heritage Field is a 2.38 acre strip of farm land adjacent to the property. In 2008, Dr. Ward Alan Minge donated the land to the Albuquerque Museum and established a Deed of Conservation Easement that preserves the field from development and keeps the land in agricultural production. To engage the community with interactive programs exhibiting traditional agriculture and to provide stewardship for Heritage Field, the Albuquerque Museum entered into partnership with Rio Grande Return, a non-profit dedicated to the protection and restoration of New Mexico’s habitats.

Rio Grande Return’s partnership with Casa San Ysidro has resulted in the creation of community projects, public education regarding historical agricultural methods, and generating seeds for communities and habitat restoration. The partnership also helps to preserve the state’s cultural heritage and increase community involvement.

“The Heritage Field is looking into a future where agriculture and wildlife

habitat restoration are close partners,” says RGR’s Conservation Director, Cameron Weber. “Heritage crops from seeds that were carefully carried and saved for generations contain traits that make them especially valuable for high desert gardens. We are also growing wild native species ... valuable to our more-than-human neighbors—the pollinators, the birds, the wildlife who depend on healthy native plants to thrive here. It is planting these together that makes the Heritage Field special. We are looking ahead to a future where our interdependence with the local ecology is once again deeply appreciated.” The project will also partner with Santa Ana Native Plants to grow native species seedlings that RGR plans to transplant into the growing beds.

Volunteers are welcome. Contact Rio Grande Return to learn more: Cameron@RioGrandeReturn.com.

Preserving precious resources

Last spring, Casa San Ysidro received a new set of front doors, built to preserve the architectural style of originals that were no longer functional. The door replacement project was part of an overall Preservation Plan for Casa.

A number of other documents are part of the ongoing work to preserve the site. For example, the Historic Structures Report (HSR) is a record of Casa’s past, its historic significance and conditions, and its current state, plus what needs to be done to maintain the buildings in the future. The HSR helps the site manager and museum curators prioritize maintenance plans based on historical significance as well as develop recommendations for work based on preservation priorities.

Curators and educators also prepare an Interpretive Plan which guides messages, stories, and experiences at Casa San Ysidro. The plan might include what items/artifacts to display, how they play a part in the overall story, who the audience is and how they should be addressed. Additionally, a Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) serves as a tool for the management of landscapes, determining which have historical significance. A CLR might include archeological records, maps, field notes, primary documents, drawings, and plant materials. An architectural conservator is engaged to make recommendations for the Preservation Plan. The regular program for the preservation of the structure is then updated based on the recommendations.

The second element of the overall strategic planning process is a Conservation Assessment, which lists all collection objects that are in need of conservation, prioritized in two levels. Once those priorities have been met and a plan for conservation of the items most in need, a team of conservators assesses the rest of the collection. CASA SAN YSIDRO

UPCOMING EVENTS

Find the Zoom link to these events at cabq.gov/casasanysidro

OCTOBER 9 2ND SATURDAY From Spain to New Mexico: The Journey to Keep a Secret

This presentation traces the history of the Crypto-Jews in Inquisitional Spain, including how Crypto-Jews kept their secrets in very dangerous times. Norma Libman researches Crypto-Jewish history and has interviewed more than 50 individuals about their family histories and religious practices. This program is cosponsored by the Historical Society of New Mexico

NOVEMBER 13 2ND SATURDAY Civil War History in the Lower Rio Grande Valley

The Rio Grande’s unique role in the history of the American Civil War has been largely forgotten or overlooked. Professor of Anthropology Russell Skowronek discusses Civil War history in the Southwest.

DECEMBER – JANUARY

Closed for the Season