Chimayó

We feel as if we have come to Another Country. This little town nestled among Native American lands (“Reservations”) exists as a center of pilgrimage for some Native American and thousands of Chicano, Guatemalan, “Hispanic,” or  “Latin American” people, about 300,000 each year. It is also the chile capitol of the American Southwest, and there are tiny shops selling religious artifacts (milagros, crosses, rosaries), and bags of chile powder as well as hanging strings of chiles (ristras) (Extra 1).

This is an area of tiny winding roads, adobe houses for every income level, from tiny hovels to massive haciendas (Extra 2), and churches, shrines, roadside memorials called descansos, and evidence of the holiness people bring to those locations (Extras 3 & 4). We are moved by the trust, the love, the kindness of the people we meet; by their strong beliefs; by their courage and hope. Most are "poor" by material standards, and they come here for healing or for comfort for their griefs. We have not come at the time of an official pilgrimage, so the town and the shrines are quiet, waiting for the next wave to arrive.

I am posting this on October 20, as we have had no Wifi or cell phone connectivity since Oct. 17. We will remain in New Mexico till the 22nd, but we have now left Chimayó. All our travels since we left Albuquerque have been in sparsely populated areas, and we are still in "Indian Country," though of course all land in this vast continent would be their lands, were it not for colonization.