National Hispanic Cultural Center

“If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.” - John F. Kennedy 

So Alejandro is a volunteer docent for the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque.  He was kind enough to take me down there to see what it was all about.  It is the largest center of it's kind in the United States, largely funded by Roy Disney (Walt's brother).  If you want to know more, just click on the link in the name!  Photography is not allowed in the museum, but since he knew the security schedule he was able to tell me when I could sneak pictures here and there (hooray for connections).  The main exhibit featured pieces of furniture hand crafted.  They were beautiful!   Here are some pics!

Happy almost Dia de Los Muertos! (This one is for you Bfrank) Also...note my sun burnt left arm from the ten hour drive the day before.  I now drive with a shirt covering that arm. 

This one is of a high ceiling in one of the entryways to a play house at the center.

Amazing hand carved crib with beautiful detail work.  So pretty!

I really wish this was not side ways (again, check the Picasa)...but those are guns painted onto the seats.  Also, the inscription says: Borracho Perdido.  This translates to: Lost Drunk.  I thought it was funny =)

With this being sideways it loses some of its charm...but it is a woodworking shop in the museum.  A painting of one.  Doesn't it look real?  It even has the little fire extinguisher in the corner.

I just thought these were awesome. 

Grrr!! Of course one of my two favorite pieces shows up sideways here ...but it is based on the book Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus.  "Venus" is on top and the bull represents the man (that's pretty damn accurate!) below.  I liked the contemporary feel of it and how the artists (two brothers) incorporated the Shell logo.

Alright - so check this out.  It is very pretty right?  I thought so...then I walked two feet to the left and saw what is pictured below.

It is a functional centerpiece!  You set it on your table and then when company comes over: Voila!  Each piece is a different dish, bowl or cup!  I was very impressed.  I just kept walking back and forth looking at the big piece and finding the little dishes within it.  So cool!

Okay, so this one is supposed to be the other way (of course), but it was my favorite piece.  It is a deity piece.  If you will look you can see a bird, wolf and horse head - all sharing one all knowing eye.  I thought it was fantastic - and trippy.

All in all I was very impressed with the exhibits at the center.  It was a nice break from the heat to walk around indoors for a while, too!  Plus, I learned a lot!

New Mexico...New Friends!

 “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill

 So my host for Albuquerque was phenomenal.  We had a great time when he showed me around during the day.  Unfortunately for him, he was in the process of moving while I was there.  So I figured since he helped me out by letting me crash - I would help him out moving some things and cleaning his old apartment up a bit while the boys did the heavy lifting.  After the moving was all done, we had pizza and drinks over at the new place.  It was here that I was able to meet a lot of his friends from the area.  I got pictures with all of them but since it was late and we had been on the go all day - some of them are rather nasty.  Here are the decent ones!

This is Farit, he is from Bolivia.  He was not there too long - but he was funny and had a fantastically bright smile!

This is Kyle - he is so fun!  He and Juan(ito) [whose picture is absent due to it being disgusting] and I had some great conversation about the educational system in this country - particularly in New Mexico.  They were both super intelligent men and I really enjoyed meeting both of them and talking late into the night.  Oh, and Kyle is from Michigan - so he was a polite Midwesterner like me! 

Alejandro!! Or Alex, as he is also known...  Fantastical host!  I learned a lot from him - including that tongue tacos are amazing, furniture IS art in New Mexico, Leonardo DiCaprio is not as good of an actor as I think...and much more.  He is going to be famous one day - look for his movie Bless Me, Ultima to come out sometime in 2011.  Thanks for everything, man!

Of course - the couch! (Complete with Packer and Pong - who of course are alone for the journey!)  It was sooo comfortable and spacious!  Great rest was gotten on this couch!

Old Town New Mexico

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener

My second day in Albuquerque, my host took the day off of work to show me around some places in the city.  The first place we went was "Old Town."  It is what used to be down town Albuquerque.  There were several beautiful older buildings, including some chapels.  I did some touristy type shopping for gifts and post cards and then we walked around for a bit.  One of the coolest parts was a row of Native American people selling their own hand tooled jewelry.  I could not get a picture of them because my host said they do not like people taking their pictures...however, I did buy some turquoise earrings!  Here are some pictures from Old Town: 

This is the statue/fountain that heads up Old Town in Albuquerque. 

Each different plaza in Old Town has a sign over it.  It is a very nice place to walk around and act like a tourist (re: buy things)!

This made me laugh..yes, sorry - I guess sometimes I still have a fifteen year old's sense of humor. =)

This next set of photos were taken of the church and the smaller chapel.  However, some of them are sideways (which I guess is a common problem between Canon cameras and the Blogger site...there is no easy way to fix it - so sorry...), you can always log on to my Picasa and see ALL of the pictures, too.

Plaque outside of the church of San Felipe de Neri.  There was actually a mass being held inside of this church when  we walked in - so I did not take any pictures of the inside...but it was stunning!

Lovely statue in the garden of the San Felipe de Neri church.

Luckily Alejandro knew where this hidden tree carving was.  I thought it was pretty cool.

Here is just the face of the carving inside of the tree.

This was taken from inside of the little chapel.  Clearly it is a popular place for people to come and pray.  Many candles were lit and there were beautiful flowers everywhere.

From inside the same tiny chapel.

Here are some more from just walking around:

I took this one for you Brittany - I know how funny you think skeletons are - and this one was no exception!  Wait until you see the next blog - I have an even better one for you!

This is the Candy Lady's sign.  Alejandro tells me she is pretty well known for making delicious candies - I would not know because we went inside and the candy was SO expensive.  For example, there were little caramels - like the kind you can buy in a bag at Wal Mart, for about $14.99/lb.  Whoa!  There were also a lot of sexual shaped candies.  Like a one pound piece of chocolate in the mold of a penis...bahaha.  I didn't bother asking how much THAT was. ;)

Speaking of delicious things to eat...my host and I had gone to a Korean BBQ the night before where we had a discussion about food.  While we were talking about some of our favorite things to eat, the subject of weird food came up.  He told me one of his favorite authentic Mexican dishes was a taco de lengua.  You know...a  TONGUE TACO.  Gross, I thought.  I like trying to new things but NOT that.  Well...the next morning I woke up and thought - if I am not going to try new things, then what am I doing on this trip?  So I told him I wanted him to find me a tongue taco for lunch.  After we worked up an appetite looking around Old Town we went in search of one.  And we did indeed find one:

If you will look above the red TACOS part of the sign, you will see Lengua.  So that was what I ordered (well, Alejandro ordered it for me)...

Here it is: tongue, onion, cilantro, lime juice and some salsa.  Verdict: most amazing thing I have eaten in a very long time (and I just had Kokoro sushi before leaving Indiana)!  I have tried to find another one ever since, but nowhere serves tongue!  One of the best things about it: it was ONE DOLLAR.  Cannot beat that! Yum!