The Hispano Homeland:

Past, Present, and FutureAnd the Pecos River as Hispano Homeland Relict

Brock Brown

Texas State University—San Marcos

Fall, 2011

The Hispano Homeland:

Past, Present, and

Future•Geographical perspective (review)

•Cultural change/persistence (review)

Innovation/invention or isolation

•Unique nature of Hispano Homeland

Development of dire economic conditions that

The good years and the bad years.

Persistence during the Great Depression

The great out-migration.

Recent trends in the homeland

Region-wide

In the Pecos Enclave and the study village

Possible futures for the Hispano Homeland

Geography is a broadly applicable, interdisciplinary perspective that allows for the observation and analysis of anything distributed across Earth space.

First, it observes spatial distributions (anything that can be mapped) by asking “who or what is being observed, when is it being observed, and where is it?” (knowing)

Next, it investigates the underlying spatial processesresponsible for the observed distribution by asking “how and why?” (understanding)

Finally, it attempts to make spatial predictions and decisionsby asking how can the observed distributions be preserved or changed by asking “how can and what if?” (applying)

Definition of Geography--ReviewG

eosp

atia

l techn

olo

gies/a

naly

sis

Causes of All Cultural Change

Innovation/Invention

Think it up themselves

Not very likely

Spatial diffusion

How innovations spread from place of origin

Barriers to diffusion slow or stop change

resulting from diffusion

In the absence of diffusion, little change is

expected to occur—evolution of archaic folk

culture

Homelands and

People

Review

Homeland, an uncertain concept

People - unifying ethnic identity, self-conscious awareness

Place or territory

Bonding with place - emotional feelings of attachment

adjusted to its natural environment, and left their impress in the form of a cultural landscape

Control of place - desire to possess, even compulsions to defend, facilitates bonding

Time – to bond

Geographical distribution of Homelands

Most isolated-least change

Archaic Folk Culture:A group of people who . . .

Premise, all cultural change is due

to:

1) local Innovation/Invention; or

2) it is due to Spatial Diffusion.

Examples:

The English in the Appalachia

The French in Canada and

Louisana

Hispanos in New Mexico

Hispano Homeland compared to

other early

Spanish areas of settlement.

Early diffusion

Preservation through geographical

Hispanos as a distinctive subculture

Came earlier, and with exceptions, more

directly from Spain to the Borderlands than

Tejanos or Californios

After initial colonization, Hispanos were

isolated from outside contact and their

numbers grew (Nostrand, 1992)

Archaic folk culture evolved

Archaic Folk Culture Markers

Language

I believe there is no modern Spanish dialect,

either in Spain or America, that can surpass the

New Mexican in archaic words, expressions,

constructions, and sounds. Aurelio M. Espinoza, 1911

Distinctive Hispano Surnames

Esquipula, Secundino, Ornofre, Belarmino

Folk plays and songs (from oral traditions)

Hispano Culture – Erosion of

Isolation

Period of isolation following initial settlement

Later Anglo intrusions

AT&SF Impact on diffusion to the region

San Miguel replaced by Las Vegas as regional center

Anglo-centric economy and political infrastructure

United States and New Mexico

Adjudication and loss of land resources

Men working outside the community

Women and children seldom left the immediate region

Deterioration of agricultural infrastructure

Hispano Homeland Environmental adjustment

Environmental modification

Deterioration of upland resource base

Hispano Homeland Landscape impress

Hispano Homeland

Place identity-bonding

Distinctive Hispano Culture

Markers

Sectors of Economy•Upland grazing – land held in common by land grant

•Irrigated plots, held individually, become family

lands of sort

•Home sites held individually

•Outside cash employment to supplement family

income

•Originally agricultural, local and regional

•With Railroad, variety of basic and multiplier

jobs in region

Persistence of Hispano Homeland

along an urban hierarchy

Las Vegas

Villanueva

El Cerrito

Urban Hierarchy to El Cerrito

Las Vegas

Las Vegas

San Miguel del Vado

1794

Along the urban hierarchy-Las Vegas to El Cerrito

Along the urban hierarchy

Villanueva

The El Cerrito Exit

Upland mesa supports grazing and

some gathering, held in common,

impacted by fire suppression and over

grazing

El Cerrito-the village, irrigated land and home plots

Late 1930s

Late 1980s

Little landscape change over time in the isolated heart of

The Hispano Homeland

El Cerrito Church

The Pecos River and the

dam, essential element

of resource base

Upland grazing

Irrigated

land

Home

plots

El Cerrito

The little hill

A meander core on

the Pecos

Irrigated farm land

Water, sewer, and community needs

Tenacity in the Homeland during hard

times before the period of out migration

Agricultural and Great Depression

Many push factors, few pull factors

Family

Community

Homeland

The school at El Cerrito

World War II and the

evolution of push

factors in out

migration

Pueblo, Colorado

Volunteers camping in El Cerrito

El horno

Local building materials

The ‘hood

Scientific research into the homeland and El Cerrito

Contemporary

El Cerrito