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!

The Land of Enchantment

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Woo!  So the drive from Oklahoma City to Albuquerque (which was where I stayed in New Mexico) was LONG.  It probably would have been a good idea to wear sunscreen, because my left arm/neck ended up being completely fried.  It is still peeling now - ouch!   However, I made it alive and I really enjoy driving through New Mexico (though I prefer the more western part of the state) so I would say the burn was well worth it.  

When I got to Albuquerque my host Alejandro (Alex) was still on set for a movie he is filming in Santa Fe [which is based off of the book "Bless Me, Ultima"].  So while I was waiting for him to get home I just went and sat outside at a coffee shop.  The weather was beautiful.  He lives right by the campus, so there were plenty of people to watch while I sat.  When he got home I headed over to his place to get settled in.

Alex was great.  He was super friendly from the get go.  We decided to walk around Nob Hill (the campus area) and get some dinner.  We ended up having Korean BBQ (neither of us had ever tried it) and it was delicious!  I had some type of spicy squid dish which the chef told me would not taste right because I could not have it prepared with the soy based sauce added - but I thought it was very delicious.  I wish I knew how to make that spicy sauce...mmm.  

We had great conversation and there was not really ever a pause the whole night.  Alex is an aspiring actor so we talked a lot about movies and movie stars.  It is really exciting that he is going to be in this movie - it will be his first big role!  Don't forget to include me in your entourage, Alex!  It can be my job to keep Juanito and Kyle from killing one another =) 

I had a VERY SCARY encounter with a crazed spider - Alex took care of it.  After that we made our plans for the morning and went to sleep!

April 19, 1995

 

"We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those who changed forever.  May all who leave here know the impact of violence.  May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, love and serenity."

Those are the words written on the outside of the Oklahoma City National Memorial, which I visited during my short time in the city.  While I expected to be saddened and moved at the memorial, it was so much more overwhelming than I can truly put into words.  As I was wondering around the Reflection Pool I happened upon a tour group getting a verbal explanation of the outside memorial from one of the guards.  I just sat in and listened - and cried.  It is so strange how people my age are so able to remember September 11 and feel moved by it every year when that day comes...but I feel like I never hear much about the OKC bombing.  Just because the scale was smaller does not mean the people affected were affected any less.  Just walking around the memorial fence and seeing the things people have written and placed upon it was enough to make you realize that the impact of that day on several people was enormous and will never be forgotten.  Okay...enough of my rambling, here are some pictures.

9:01a - April 19, 1995.  The minute before the bomb when off.  The east gate symbolizes the last moment the city had it's innocence.

9:03a - April 19, 1995.  The minute after the bomb went off.  The west gate is meant to symbolize the moment the city was changed forever, as well as the hope that stemmed from the horror in the hours and days following the bombing.

These two images were taken of the survivor wall, which lists the names of all of the people in the building or in the surrounded affected buildings that escaped the tragedy with their lives.  There are over 600 names inscribed here on these pieces of granite which were actually part of the original Murrah Building.

This is the Field of Empty Chairs.  There are 168 chairs here.  Each one stands for a person who was killed in the attack on the Murrah Building.  They are placed in nine rows, which are meant to stand for the nine floors of the building. 

Hopefully you can tell that the center chair here is smaller than the ones surrounding it.  This is because it is meant to stand for a child whose life was lost.  There are 19 of these smaller chairs.

The base of each chair has the deceased's name engraved on it.  At night time the bases are lit up from the inside (I was there during the day).  The chairs are never in darkness...which I thought was nice.

These five chairs on the end represent the people who were killed that were not inside of the Murrah Building. 

The next several are all of the Memorial Fence.  Initially this fence was placed around the rubble and remainder of the building.  However, so many people came to see the building and placed things along the fence to show their support, love and hope.  The design of the memorial ended up being altered to include 200 feet of the original fence.  People continue to leave things along it to this day. 

Sorry this is sideways - I cannot get it to turn around in the blog post.  There were several poems along the fence.  This was not my favorite one, but a good one all the same.  The one I found the most sad was written by a man whose daughter (pictured in the photo above this one) was killed in the blast.  It was heart breaking.

I found this butterfly resting on the fence and could not help but wonder about reincarnation and the afterlife.  There are so many gorgeous bright blue dragon flies that play all day over the Reflecting Pool...I definitely think it is possible.

Here is one of those dragon flies...

Again, sorry it is sideways.  It just talks about how children played a large role by sending in cards, letters, tiles, etc...it brought a lot of smiles and a lot of hope to the victims, their families and residents of the city in general.  Due to this fact, they have actually constructed a wall made of a sampling of tiles sent in by children.  I took some pictures of the wall and included them below.  It was a very powerful sight.

In front of the tile wall they also have these areas where children visiting the memorial can borrow some provided chalk and write messages.  They were very sweet.

This 90+ year old American Elm is called the Survivor Tree.  Despite it being so close to the blast, it still stood when all was said and done and continues to stand 15 years after the fact.  It is obviously a powerful symbol of resilience and strength.  The writing on the wall around it gives thanks for the people who came from near and far and gave service in the time following the attack.

All in all I was extremely impressed - and I did not even visit the inside of the memorial (which is a museum that my host says is extremely well done).  There are other parts that I did not explain here, but everything is very well thought out and meaningful.  If you would like to know more about the lay out and a more elaborate explanation of what certain things mean, please visit the memorial's website.