Heritage Hotels & Resorts Winter & Spring 2019

HERITAGE WINTER/SPRING 2019

HOTELS & RESORTS MAGAZINE

THE PERFECT ENCHILADA

NEW MEXICO

HOLIDAY TRADITIONS

HISTORIC PLAZAS

DRAW COMMUNITY

RIDIN’ LOWRIDER CULTURE

TAOS EL MONTE SAGRADO RESORT AND SPA 1-855-846-8267 ElMonteSagrado.com

Pictured is Inn and Spa at Loretto

PALACIO DE MARQUESA 1-855-846-8267 MarquesaTaos.com

SANTA FE ELDORADO HOTEL & SPA 1-800-955-4455 EldoradoHotel.com INN AND SPA AT LORETTO 1-866-582-1646 HotelLoretto.com

ALBUQUERQUE HOTEL CHACO 1-866-505-7829 HotelChaco.com HOTEL ALBUQUERQUE AT OLD TOWN 1-800-237-2133 HotelAbq.com

HOTEL ST. FRANCIS 1-800-529-5700 HotelStFrancis.com

LAS CRUCES

HOTEL CHIMAYO DE SANTA FE 1-855-752-9273 HotelChimayo.com

HOTEL ENCANTO DE LAS CRUCES 1-866-383-0443 HotelEncanto.com

Welcome HERITAGE

Dear Guest:

HOTELS & RESORTS MAGAZINE

WINTER/SPRING 2019 Published by Heritage Hotels & Resorts, Inc. 201 Third St. NW, Ste. 1140 Albuquerque, New Mexico 87102 Phone: 505-836-6700 contactus@hhandr.com hhandr.com

Publisher/CEO

JIM LONG Heritage Hotels Publication Editor

MOLLY RYCKMAN Heritage Hotels Publication Art Director

SARAH FRIEDLAND

Editorial, Production & Design by: e-squarededit.com Project Editor

EMILY ESTERSON Art Director GLENNA STOCKS Associate Editor/Account Executive

SANDRA MCGINNIS Graphic Designer MICHELLE FRANK Contributing Writers ASHLEY M. BIGGERS KELLY KOEPKE STEVE LARESE

Thank you for selecting Heritage Hotels & Resorts for your stay in New Mexico. Our mission is to share the history and culture of our state with each visitor. When you choose to stay at a Heritage Hotel you are greatly contributing to this noble purpose.

Since a portion of your room stay is donated to our cultural partners to help ensure that New Mexico’s cultural legacy is preserved and advanced, you are truly making a difference.

In this issue of the magazine we explore the landscape, culture, and history that make New Mexico unbeatable.

Northern New Mexico, specifically Taos and Santa Fe, are paradise for winter adventurers: Taos’s world-renowned skiing, plus its art galleries, museums, and charming plaza, make it a fabulous spot to spend a week or a weekend. In Santa Fe, our two properties, the Hotel St. Francis and the Inn and Spa at Loretto, have rich back stories that echo Santa Fe’s history.

And in both towns, and in fact nearly every village and city in New Mexico, you’ll find a plaza—a gathering place that hosts religious ceremonies, ritual dances, festivals and community life.

We invited Chris Wilson, landscape architecture professor at the University of New Mexico, and photojournalist Miguel Gandert to document the state’s town centers and their importance to our culture, even in the 21st century.

Our cover photo is the portrait of the perfect enchilada—found, we believe, at

Restaurante Estevan at Hotel Chimayó in Santa Fe. Made with rare Chimayó red chile, tortillas, local squash and topped with a perfectly cooked egg, chef Estevan Garcia assembles the perfect enchilada as a gateway to the cuisine of New Mexico: sophisticated, earthy, and yet close to its roots.

We have never been more excited about the many elements that shape New Mexico’s landscape. We invite you to discover these great offerings and experiences.

Bienvenidos/Welcome Jim Long Founder/CEO Heritage Hotels & Resorts, Inc.

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We l c o m e t o t h e p r e m i e r n i g h t l i f e v e n u e for Heritage guests and members.

Experience expertly curated cocktails and music a t t h e m o s t v i b r a n t s o c i a l s c e n e i n S a n t a Fe .

Casa EspaĂąa is located at 321 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe (directly West of Eldorado Hotel & Spa)

505-988-4455 | CasaEspanaSantaFe.com

HOTEL ALBUQUERQUE AT OLD TOWN HOTEL CHACO INN AND SPA AT LORETTO ELDORADO HOTEL & SPA HOTEL ST. FRANCIS HOTEL CHIMAYO DE SANTA FE HOTEL ENCANTO DE LAS CRUCES EL MONTE SAGRADO PALACIO DE MARQUESA

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Life. Love. Laughter. Rhythm.

An exhilaration born centuries ago feels as new as now.

Moments stretching into memories that last a lifetime.

Features 28

CHIMAYÓ’S CHILE CULTURE

By Deborah Madison

By Steve Larese Holiday traditions in New Mexico are as diverse

landrace chile with unmistakable character.

as its people.

Head to Estevan Restaurante.

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A HOTEL FROM HISTORY

By Kelly Koepke

GATHERING PLACES

A look back at Santa Fe’s oldest hotel,

By Chris Wilson

Hotel St. Francis.

Historic town centers are still New Mexico’s gathering places.

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A MELTING POT OF CELEBRATION

This northern New Mexico community grows a Plus: In search of the perfect enchilada?

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WINTER/SPRING 2019

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Also in This Issue

1 WELCOME

Owner Jim Long shares the treasures of this issue.

6 A SIP OF CULTURE

By Kelly Koepke Heritage Hotels and Resorts adds locally sourced craft spirits and wine tasting rooms.

10 310 DAYS A YEAR

The sun shines on New Mexico—a lot.

12 48 HOURS IN TAOS

By Ashley M. Biggers

Make the most of your weekend with this best-of itinerary.

18 RIDIN’ LOW ’N SLOW

by Steve Larese Cruise with Santa Fe lowrider culture.

20 A LINK TO SPAIN An exhibition from the Hispanic Society of America comes to Albuquerque.

MIGUEL GANDERT

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24 WESTERN LANDMARK

By Shari Morrison

The Inn and Spa at Loretto is an architectural icon.

54 EXCLUSIVELY YOURS

By Gayle Vance

Casa España and Casa Esencia tap into the private club trend.

58 FRESH AND TRADITIONAL

By Steve Larese

Chef Sean Sinclair returns to his roots, with a twist.

60 CULTURALLY DISTINCT RESTAURANTS AND HOTELS Plan your next New Mexico trip—explore Heritage restaurants and hotels.

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A Sip of Culture

By Kelly Koepke

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EW MEXICO’S COCKTAIL, wine, and beer culture is booming, and many artisanal producers have recently come on the scene.

As a way to introduce Albuquerque visitors to the spirits and wines of local producers, Hotel Chaco’s new tasting room, a contemporary Native American artist-inspired space opening in Spring 2019, invites patrons to large communal tasting tables, private booths and patio for the chance to sample, sip, and learn about the craft of local vintners and distillers. The lively, indoor/outdoor area continues Hotel Chaco’s ancient-crossroadsof-trade-and-culture theme, borrowed from Chaco Canyon in northern New Mexico. It mixes natural

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WINTER/SPRING 2019

textural elements like wood, stone, and fabric with modern, industrial materials, like iron and metal. The custom lighting in the high-ceilinged, open space is locally made, as are the cantilevered booths, shelving, and solid-stone bar.

But what you’re really there for is the drink— indulging there or buying to take home. The tasting room features gins, whiskeys, and brandies from Santa Fe Spirits, a local artisanal distillery (see sidebar). “It is a great partnership between us, a boutique whiskey and spirits maker and Hotel Chaco, a beautiful boutique hotel,” says Colin Keegan, CEO of Santa Fe Spirits.

Santa Fe’s Inn and Spa at Loretto’s new coffee and wine bar also includes a small patio to commune

Santa Fe Little Bird Gallery Featuring:

David K John & Michael Horse Inside Inn at Loretto Hotel 211 Old Santa Fe Trail Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 505.820.7413 littlebirdloretto@gmail.com

for more info visit our website

sflittlebird.com Painting by: David PHOTO CREDIT

THINKSTOCK

Artisanal spirits and wine are finding a home in Heritage hotels.

K John

THINKSTOCK

HERITAGE HOTELS AND RESORTS

with nature while sipping an espresso or a local vintage. “This space is small, cozy, and an extension of the comfortable, homey Loretto feel,” says Senior Interior Designer Carla Davis. “With exposed wood beams, native-inspired fabrics and patterns, and a large communal table for groups, Loretto’s coffee and wine bar vibe is authentic Santa Fe.” Like Hotel Chaco, Loretto’s tasting room, also opening in Spring 2019, will feature wines from New Mexico, like Gruet

GRUET TASTING ROOM When the Spanish came up El Camino Real to New Mexico from Old Mexico, they brought grape vines with them. The Franciscan monks tended their vineyards to make sacramental wine for their rituals. So it’s fitting that the oldest hotel in Santa Fe, Hotel St. Francis, in the oldest grape growing region in the country, invites visitors to sample the wines of Gruet Winery in its elegant tasting room. The Gruet family, originally from France’s Champagne region, began growing grapes and making wine in New Mexico in the 1980s. Now, Gruet’s international award-winning still and sparkling varieties are continually named among the best in the nation. Pair them with snacks from local purveyor Cheesemongers of Santa Fe. Or, take a bottle (or two) home to raise a glass as you remember your Santa Fe visit.

SECRETO LOUNGE Secreto Lounge in the historic Hotel St. Francis is Santa Fe’s premier craft cocktail bar specializing in awardwinning garden-to-glass cocktails, created using local fruits, vegetables, herbs, and often with local spirits and bitters. The solid wood furniture and brick-vaulted entry welcome cocktail and wine aficionados for signature drinks like the famous Smoked Sage Margarita, a featured drink on the Santa

and St. Clair, both to sample and take home. Loretto’s addition of coffee and pastries reflects the hotel’s location in the heart of Santa Fe’s downtown—a gathering destination for locals and visitors at all times of day, not just cocktail hour.

Look for both the Chaco and Loretto tasting rooms to open in Spring 2019. And be confident that each space and its offerings reflect the unique, individual character, and story of the hotels, and of the local wine and spirits makers of New Mexico.

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Stories

Narratives from the Old World and the New Visions of the Hispanic World Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library

Fe Margarita Trail. The wine list traces the journey of monks who smuggled grapevines into New Mexico to avoid costly wine import taxes from Spain. These vines, known as los vinos secretos, inspired the name Secreto Lounge. But it’s no secret

November 10, 2018 to March 31, 2019

that Secreto’s covered portal seating area (dogs welcome) is the best people-watching perch in town, while sipping and snacking on small bites from the Market Steer Steakhouse.

HERITAGE HOTELS AND RESORTS

Diego Velázquez, (1599 Seville, Spain – 1660 Madrid, Spain) Portrait of a Little Girl, ca. 1638-42 Oil on canvas

A Past Rediscovered

Highlights from the Palace of the Governors

SANTA FE SPIRITS

May 11 to October 13, 2019

Here’s a conundrum. What to do with the bushels and bushels of heirloom apples from your orchard?

Former architect and transplanted Englishman Colin Keegan turned his abundance into delicious apple ciders and brandies. A lover of spirits, Keegan then turned his hand to whiskey and gin. His company, Santa Fe Spirits, is now a successful, award-winning artisanal distillery with products ranging from silver whiskey to barrel-aged apple brandy, each one capturing and accentuating the one-of-a-kind essence of the Southwest. Their newest offering, Atapiño Liqueur, combines native piñon nuts HERITAGE HOTELS AND RESORTS

with their own Silver Coyote single malt white whiskey for two months to extract the essence of the piñon. The scent of vanilla and pine sweetens this unique spirit, delicious on its own or as a mixer.

Take a tour of the distillery, learn to make your own cocktails, or visit the downtown Santa Fe Spirits tasting room.

A rich story of cultures settling in Spain and bringing the best and most innovative elements of their heritage to the Iberian Peninsula and the Spanish colonies.

Photographer Unknown, Mary Brian, Paramount Pictures Actress with 1929 New Mexico License Plate, 1929, Courtesy Palace of the Governors

Following on the heels of Visions of the Hispanic World, this exhibition shares stories from the State of New Mexico, telling a history for all of us in the Land of Enchantment.

Albuquerque Museum 2000 Mountain Road NW Albuquerque, NM 87104 Located in the heart of Old Town 505-243-7255

Art. History. People. cabq.gov/museum

310 DAYS A YEAR

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KURT SCHMIDT

N NEW MEXICO, the sun shines eighty to ninety percent of the time—that’s an average of 310 days a year. Made up of three microclimates, the Northern Mountains and Central Highlands—where you’ll find most of the state’s ski areas—tend to be slightly cooler and wetter thanks to the elevation, but still sunny—the average low temperature (mostly after dark) is in the twenties, with the highs in mid-forties to low fifties. In Taos and Santa Fe, you can sometimes ski in the morning and play a round of golf in the afternoon. The state’s average elevation is 4,700 feet, with the highest point at Wheeler Peak (13,159 feet), frequently snowcapped and visible from Taos Ski Valley.

Taos Ski Valley

D I S COV E R O N E - O F -A- K I N D AU T H E N T I C N AT I V E A M E R I C A N J E W E L RY, P OT T E RY A N D M O R E AT O U R DA K KYA G I F T B O U T I Q U E .

V I S I T DA K KYA AT O N E O F T H E FO L LOW I N G LO C AT I O N S : I N H OT E L C H ACO 2 0 0 0 B E L L A M A H AV E . N W, A L B U Q U E R Q U E H OT E LC H ACO.CO M I N E L D O R A D O H OT E L & S PA 3 0 9 W. SA N F R A N C I S CO ST. , SA N TA F E E L D O R A D O H OT E L .CO M I N E L M O N T E SAG R A D O 3 1 7 K I T C A R S O N R D. , TAO S E L M O N T E SAG R A D O.CO M I N I N N A N D S PA AT LO R E T TO 2 1 1 O L D SA N TA F E T R A I L SA N TA F E | H OT E L LO R E T TO.CO M

48 Hours in Taos Make the most of your weekend with this best-of itinerary.

By Ashley M. Biggers

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HE SANGRE DE CRISTO MOUNTAINS, home to New Mexico’s tallest peaks, and the Rio Grande Gorge, New Mexico’s grandest canyon, bookend Taos. The valley and high country both are outdoor adventure playgrounds with terrain for skiing, hiking, rafting, and mountain biking. And the community has been a surprising wellspring of creative inspiration for artists and writers. That’s been in no small part because of Taos’ cultural tapestry, woven from the influences of Taos Pueblo residents, Hispanic settlers, Anglo traders, hippies, and adventure seekers who have made their homes here.

The state’s tallest peaks rise outside of Taos in a southern stretch of the Rocky Mountains.

GETTY IMAGES

JOHN ELK III/ALAMY

PALACIO DE MARQUESA

is a center for Rio Grande weavings, an art Hispanic families continue at galleries such as Centinela Traditional Arts.

Of course, that scenic hamlet is better known for the Santuario de Chimayó, a mission church where pilgrims journey to dip into its vat of healing dirt. At Easter, the pilgrimage to Chimayó brings thousands of celebrants to the sanctuary.

Afternoon Upon arrival in Taos, explore the shops and galleries around Taos Plaza and the surrounding streets of Bent and Ledoux.

The 1915 founding of the Taos Society of Artists influenced the town’s art culture, and there a plentiful galleries today. The Harwood Museum of Art chronicles that history and highlights the town’s boldfaced names, like minimalist painter Agnes Martin, who has a gallery devoted to her work there.

Continue learning about the extraordinary women of Taos by visiting Standard Oil heiress and fashionista Millicent Rogers’ namesake museum. Rogers, who lived in Taos from 1947 until her death in 1953, was an avid collector and left a lasting mark on Taos. The Millicent Rogers Museum displays a formidable

(Above) Chimayó artisans create representations of saints, called Bultos and Retablos. The Millicent Rogers Museum has a stunning collection of Native American pottery (below).

405 Cordoba Rd., Taos (575) 758-4777; MarquesaTaos.com Palacio de Marquesa’s rooms draw inspiration from women who made their marks on Taos. Their work is reflected in the furnishings, colors, and artwork that make each room unique. In addition to Georgia O’Keeffe, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Agnes Martin, and Millicent Rogers, rooms are devoted to painter Dorothy Brett, fashionista Martha Reed, and printmaker Gene Kloss. Interior designer Adriana Long designed the stylist boutique hotel.

HERITAGE HOTELS AND RESORTS

HERITAGE

Morning From Santa Fe, cruise into Taos via the fifty-six-mile “High Road to Taos,” as locals call it. This route ribbons through tan-red striated rockscapes and Sangre de Cristo mountain passes into the village of Taos. Along the way, it passes through tiny towns where artists carry on traditional Spanish Colonial arts, like punched-tin work, straw applique, and representations of saints, called retablos and bultos. The town of Chimayó

HERITAGE HOTELS AND RESORTS

JOE VOGAN/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

DAY ONE:

Rocky outcrops line the scenic High Road to Taos.

EL MONTE SAGRADO 317 Kit Carson Rd., Taos (575) 758-3502; ElMonteSagrado.com The premier luxury resort in Taos, El Monte Sagrado is known for its serene ambiance. The hotel features globally inspired guest rooms; the awardwinning Living Spa, which offers an expansive menu of healing treatments from around the world; De la Tierra restaurant; Anaconda Bar; and indoor and outdoor event and meeting space.

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SHUTTERSTOCK

Taos Pueblo is one of the longest continuously inhabited communities in North America.

HERITAGE INSPIRATIONS TOURS

DENNIS FRATES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Discover Taos with Heritage Inspirations’ immersive cultural outings and active, guided visits to the Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Taos Pueblo, and other destinations. Join a multi-day glamping tour to camp (in style) under the stars. Step off the beaten path and explore.

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collection of Spanish Colonial arts, Native American weavings, Pueblo pottery and even some of her own jewelry designs.

Once you’ve explored the town, head to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, which spans the 800-foot-deep crevasse where the river flows. The Rio Grande Gorge is a recreation hotspot no matter the season, from spring and summer rafting along the river’s white water to all-season hiking and mountain biking along its rim and into its depths. Try the six-mile Rio

Grande Gorge Trail, which follows the river from Questa (north of Taos) at the Wild Rivers Recreation Area. The trail is about 3.5 miles one way, and although it is ranked “easy,” the walk back up to the mesa is steep. The trail is great for hiking and mountain biking.

Evening After a day exploring the art mecca, check into Palacio de Marquesa, a boutique inn just five blocks from the historic plaza. A refined oasis in the middle of town, it honors the spirit and innovation of notable women of Taos. And a portion of your room stay there is donated to Heritage’s cultural partner, the Harwood Museum of Art.

DAY TWO:

The Rio Grande Gorge is an adventure playground for hiking, rafting, and biking.

WINTER/SPRING 2019

Immersive Cultural & Active Guided Tours

575.779.5516 | HeritageInspirations.com EXPERIENCE THE ARTS, CULTURE, AND HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO on the New Mexico PBS Arts & Culture Channel N ow av ai l ab l e o n t he Heritage Hotels & Resorts T V C hannel

The Springtime Rainbow, 1923 - Jozef Bakos Courtesy the NM Museum of Art

Refer to your hotel channel guide for the channel number.

Visit nmpbs.org/heritage for more information on NMPBS arts and culture programs.

DAY TWO: Morning After a made-to-order breakfast at Palacio de Marquesa, head to Taos Pueblo to tour the stacked-stone village that inspired much of today’s Southwestern architecture.

Your pueblo guide can trace his or her ancestors back to his locale more than a thousand years—Taos Pueblo is one of the longest continuously occupied villages on the continent and the community is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Midday Head to the mountains, home to Taos Ski Valley’s steep-and-deep ski and snowboard terrain, as well as miles of hiking and snowshoeing trails. Enjoy a plate of enchiladas at the Stray Dog Cantina or grab a burrito to go from Bumps Market to fuel your afternoon adventures. Hop aboard the ski area’s new quad lift, opening for the 2018–19 season, or the lift to Kachina Peak, which carries passengers to the fourth-highest lift-served terrain in the United States. When the snow melts, that high-altitude terrain doubles as prime mountain biking territory. (Gearing Up Bikes in Taos rents bikes.) Test your fitness and technical skills at Northside at Taos Ski Valley, a looped single-track network. Off the ski slopes, and no matter

RIGHT: Catch air at Taos Ski Valley. ABOVE: Taos Pueblo (left), Millicent Rogers Museum, Rio Grande Gorge.

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the season, locals trek the trail to Williams Lake, a scenic alpine jewel perfect for a picnic lunch, or Devisadero Loop Trail through the Carson National Forest.

Late Afternoon After working up a sweat, soak in the saltwater pool or reserve a detoxifying seaweed body treatment at the Living Spa at El Monte Sagrado. The spa offers the best healing practices from around the world, such as Ayurvedic massage, and uses indigenous, organic plants, flowers, and minerals for its treatments.

Evening Tonight you’ll relax at the world-class El Monte Sagrado. Begin the evening at the Anaconda Bar for a pre-dinner cocktail beneath the gilded snake sculpture slithering across the ceiling. For dinner at De La Tierra, choose between seating in the formal dining room or the indoor gardens, where you’ll dine beneath a canopy of tropical trees. Internationally inspired entrees range from shrimp noodle bowls with stir-fried vegetables, to pan-roasted venison tenderloin with saffron-tomato aioli and blackberry beurre rouge. Finish your stay by tucking yourself into one of the hotel’s luxury suites or casitas, some furnished by Taoseño artists, others reflecting Eastern sensibilities, and still others honoring Native American artists.

ART LOVERS TAOS ESSENTIALS DRIVE the High Road to Taos EXPLORE the Plaza shops VISIT the Harwood Museum of Art EXPLORE Millicent Rogers Museum TOUR the Taos Art Museum at Fechin House

OUTDOOR ADVENTURE TAOS HIKE, MOUNTAIN BIKE, and RAFT the Rio Grande Gorge HIKE in the Carson National Forest

WINTER TAOS HIKE OR MOUNTAIN BIKE the Rio Grande Gorge DOWNHILL SKI and SNOWBOARD at Taos Ski Valley SNOWSHOE in Carson National Forest

Now open.

OUR BARISTAS CAN’T WAIT TO MEET YOU. 109 N. GUADALUPE ST., SANTA FE STEPS FROM ELDORADO HOTEL & SPA

Hotel guests can cruise in Jimmy Herrera’s restored ’64 Chevy Impala.

Ridin’ Low ’n Slow Lowrider culture thrives in Santa Fe.

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N ’70S AND ’80S northern New Mexico, lowriders were the height of cool. Lowriders are still cool today, and now they’re an established part of northern New Mexico culture. Low ’n Slow Bar and Lounge at Hotel Chimayó in Santa Fe celebrates this, and now thanks to lowrider artist Jimmy Herrera, of Española, guests can cruise Santa Fe like it’s back in the day in a silver ’64 Impala lowrider that Herrera has restored. “I started working on it about five years ago,” says Herrera, who began building lowriders in middle school. “My wife, Kimberly, bought it for me for Christmas with loose change that she saved up in big water bottles.”

Herrera tore the ’64 Impala apart, cleaning and rebuilding it from scratch part by part. The back rides low on wire rims, and the sleek silver-gray paint job highlights its chrome detailing.

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By Steve Larese

“We didn’t go with a crazy paint job or anything, no loud colors or pinstriping,” says his wife, Kimberly.

“It’s just clean and classy, that’s always been his style.”

In the years following World War II, America’s youth saw cars as a way to express themselves.

Mexican-American kids in California, who were establishing their identities in post-war American culture, lowered suspensions, added artwork and chrome, and incorporated hydraulics to give a new look to vehicles they’d inherited from grandparents or saved from salvage yards. This trend traveled to New Mexico, especially to Española and Chimayó, where rediscovered wrecks found in fields and garages were given a new lease on life by talented mechanics and artists. Lowriders became a firmly established part of American culture with the rock band War’s 1975 hit “Low Rider” with the lyrics,

“Low rider don’t use no gas now/The low rider don’t drive too fast.”

“I love the old-school culture of lowriders,” Herrera says. “It was best cruising in Española in the ’80s.

I would put rims on the family car to make it look like a lowrider and cruise around before I started making my own. When Heritage Hotels and Resorts approached me about buying one of my cars to park outside of Low ’n Slow, I was really honored. It’s really cool that they’re respecting this part of New Mexico so much. It’s about friends and family, working on cars with your dad and cruising with friends. You learn a lot and it kept us out of trouble.”

For a true local experience, Hotel Chimayó guests can cruise in Jimmy’s customized Impala, riding low and slow through the streets of Santa Fe as the driver/ guide points out the fascinating details and history of the City Different. Back at the Low ’n Slow Bar and Lounge at Hotel Chimayó, they can enjoy specialty

drinks named in honor of notable New Mexico lowrider artists and their cars, such as the Chimayó Vigil (a customized Manhattan named for Pete Vigil’s 1931 Ford) and the First Car (a Cosmopolitan that nods to Orlando Martinez, Jr.’s 1983 Monte Carlo). Photographs of lowriders from the book Low ’n Slow: Lowriding in New Mexico by Carmella Padilla and Juan Estevan Arellano, with photography by Jack Parsons (Museum of New Mexico Press, 1999), further enhances the experience.

“It’s a great way for visitors to Santa Fe to learn not just about the city’s history on these tours, but also the history of the people who call Santa Fe home,” Jimmy Herrera says. “This doesn’t just honor lowriders, it honors us and our family and friends. I have a lot of great memories around lowriders. I don’t think fifteen-year-old me would believe that lowriders are being celebrated like this now.”

ABOVE: Kimberly Herrera bought husband Jimmy his classic Chevy.

He preserved its details and added custom elements, like chrome accents.

FOR MORE INFORMATION visit hotelchimayo.com/lowrider-bar or call (505) 988-4900.

Hotel Chimayó, 125 Washington Ave., Santa Fe.

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A Link to Spain The Hispanic Society’s survey of Hispanic art and culture comes to the Albuquerque Museum.

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Joaquín de Sorolla y Bastida (1863 Valencia, Spain–1923 Madrid, Spain), After the Bath, 1908.

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HE EXHIBITION Visions of the Hispanic World: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum and Library, showing at the Albuquerque Museum through March 2019, includes more than 200 exceptional works spanning 3,000 years from the Hispanic Society of America collections. A significant number of these works have not been exhibited outside of the Hispanic Society, and some have never been exhibited at all.

“Visions of the Hispanic World tells a rich story of cultures settling in Spain and bringing the best and most innovative elements of their respective heritages to the Iberian Peninsula and the Spanish Colonies,” says Andrew Connors, Albuquerque Museum director. “This exhibit celebrates world cultures through exceptional artistic masterpieces of a nation linked through history to many who live here.”

The Albuquerque Museum’s collections celebrate the city’s 300-plus-year history, much of it linked to Spain. In addition to the ground-breaking exhibition, Visions of the Hispanic World, the multimedia and interactive exhibition, Only in Albuquerque, tells the city’s rich history. The museum’s permanent collection exhibition, Common Ground, celebrates tradition, innovation within heritage, and the artworks of the people of diverse cultures of New Mexico.

Curated by Mitchell A. Codding, executive director at the Hispanic Society, Visions of the Hispanic World highlights works from Spain and Latin America drawn from the Hispanic Society’s renowned museum and library collections. The expansive exhibition includes archaeological works from the Iberian Peninsula; arts of Islamic Spain; paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, and manuscripts from Medieval, Golden Age, and eighteenth-century Spain; Latin American colonial and nineteenthcentury paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, and

manuscripts; and Spanish paintings of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Visions is extraordinary for reasons beyond the exhibition’s art: It has catapulted the Hispanic Society’s significant collection into the spotlight.

The exhibition will only be shown in three cities in the United States.

Archer Milton Huntington (1870-1955), philanthropist and heir to a shipping empire, founded The Hispanic Society in 1904—and it’s largely thanks to his personal acquisitions that the collection is so esteemed. Quiet and studious, as a child Huntington built make-believe museums out of boxes and pictures cut from magazines, according to James F. Cooper, who wrote an essay about Huntington and the Hispanic Society in the Fall 2010 edition of American Arts Quarterly. During Huntington’s teenage trips to Europe, he fell in love with Spanish culture, and subsequently spent years studying the language (as well as Arabic), collecting items, meeting the people, and developing relationships with artists, patrons, and royalty. When his father asked him to take over the family shipping business, he opted out, choosing instead to establish a free, public museum and reference library for the study of the art and culture of Spain, Portugal, Latin America, and the Philippines. His obsession went beyond collecting: He also sponsored expeditions and

excavations, building the Hispanic Society’s collection ABOVE: Juan Rodríguez Juárez of antiquities—some of which he discovered—into (1675 Mexico City, Mexico – 1728), one of the most important in the world.

De Mestizo y de India The Society is located in New York City’s Washproduce Coyote, Mexico ca. 1720. ington Heights neighborhood, far from the Midtown Manhattan cultural corridor, in ornate Beaux Arts/ LEFT: Francisco de Goya y American Renaissance–style buildings developed in Lucientes (1746 Fuendetodos, the early twentieth century. Huntington designed Spain – 1828 the buildings as “an American Parnassus,” wrote Bordeaux, France), The Duchess of Alba, 1797.

Cooper. “… a sacred place of learning … and the arts.” The complex housed other societies, including the American Geographical Society. When the city’s cultural life shifted to Midtown, the Hispanic Society became a somewhat forgotten and obscure institution, albeit with 18,000 important works in a stunning campus. The collections of the Hispanic Society include works by El Greco, Velazquez, Goya, and Sorolla, as well as 6,000 objects in the Society’s decorative arts collection, 15,000 prints from the seventeenth to early twentieth century, and photographs from 1850 to the early twentieth century. Before MUSEUM ROW: closing for renovations in 2017, Located just a few blocks the museum received only about from Hotel Albuquerque and 25,000 visitors a year.

Hotel Chaco, Mountain Road Its rejuvenation project preis home to three stops on a sented an opportunity to bring guest’s museum tour: more of its collection out of the Albuquerque Museum, vaults and share it with people far the New Mexico Museum beyond Manhattan’s north end. At of Natural History & Science, the traveling exhibition’s first stop and Explora science center. in Spain, Museo del Prado opened a All are walking distance museum-within-a-museum for the from the hotels. collection, devoting three floors of a new wing to Visions. Two of the first

U EL

NOVEMBER 10, 2018–MARCH 31, 2019 PART I Runs through March 31 Ancient, Islamic, Medieval, Golden Age Spain, Colonial and 19th c. Latin America, including works by El Greco, Velázquez, and Zurbaran PART II Runs December 22 through March 31 Goya through the 1920s in Spain

Diego Velázquez (1599 Seville, Spain – 1660 Madrid, Spain), Portrait of a Little Girl, ca. 1638-42.

visitors were Spain’s King Juan Carlos and his wife, Sofia, according to an article in The New York Times.

The Prado’s director told The Times that they were expecting 400,000 total visitors. After Spain, the exhibition traveled to the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, in Mexico City. Its third stop is Albuquerque.

The Hispanic Society deliberately chose places with deep historical roots to Spain and large Hispanic populations to show Visions. New Mexico is

a perfect fit, given the state’s history. Spanish settlers brought many elements of Spanish culture, technology, and faith to this region, says Connors.

“What is less known here, and throughout most of the United States, is the exceptionally diverse cultural heritage that makes up Spain itself.” Items such as Celtiberian jewelry, a fifteenth century Hebrew bible, and a Visigothic belt buckle highlight that diverse heritage. One item of interest is the funerary monument of the Duchess of Alburquerque, Mencía Enríquez de Toledo, an ancestor of the Duke of Alburquerque, for whom, in 1706, the city was named.

Thanks to the Hispanic Society’s renewed energy, plus local and national funders, the fruits of Huntington’s obsession are available to many more people, telling an important, complex, and artistically rich story.

Reprinted with permission from the Albuquerque Museum Foundation magazine, Art. History. People. Images from The Hispanic Society Museum and Library.

HOTEL ALBUQUERQUE at Old Town delights travelers with a distinctive blend of historic grandeur and contemporary comfort.

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The landmark Albuquerque luxury hotel is conveniently located in the heart of Old Town, offering hotel rooms with Old World style, and amenities including on-site restaurant and bars, an outdoor resort swimming pool, a romantic wedding chapel, and more than 62,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting and event space.

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UPCOMING EVENTS EL MUSEO’S WINTER MARKET

Every weekend – October 1, 2016 to May 28, 2017; Saturday 8-3PM; Sunday 9-4PM; Art, Antiques, Jewelry, Books, Textiles, Furniture – More than 50 vendors

A Center of Hispanic Culture and Learning

21 YEARS IN THE RAILYARD

THEATER & COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES • The Tempest – Upstart CrowsEl of Santa Fe Experience Museo: January 20-22, 27-29

Braddy Romero of Cuzco, Peru currently on display for Intipunku: Puerta del Sol

THEATER & COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Almost Maine – Red Thread Santa Fe ARTS EVENTS & EXPOSITIONS: February 10-12, 17-19, 24-26 El Museo produces/hosts exhibits, activities, & events

EL MUSEO’S WINTER MARKET that celebrate and promote arts, culture & local ARTS EVENTS & EXPOSITIONS Every traditions. weekend – October 1, 2016 to May Upcoming:

28, 2017; Saturday 8-3PM; Sunday 9-4PM; • Anri•Tsutsumi, Salsa Rhapsody CENTER –Wasabi Photo exhibit, Art, Antiques, Jewelry, Books,featured Textiles,Joel-Peter Witkin, art installation – June 2 – July October 2018 Furniture – More than 50 vendors30 • Intipunku: del Sol – Braddy Romero, • Currents 2017 –Puerta June 9 - 25 Peru, October-December, 2018 THEATERCuzco, & COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

• Miranda & Lois Viscoli, Cuban collection • Arthur Haddock/Susana Ferguson – Words & Art, •exhibit The Tempest – Upstart Crows of Santa Fe – July/August Retrospective - January-March 2019 January 20-22, 27-29 • Pecos NM – Music &American Memory – April/May • Objects of Art/Antique Indian 2019 •Art Almost Maine – –Red Thread Santa Fe –• Expositions August 10-13, Currents New Media Festival –15-18 June 2019 February 10-12, 17-19, 24-26

THEATER & COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

ARTS EVENTS & EXPOSITIONS

CELEBRATING CULTURE CULTURE & HISTORY: ARTS COMMUNITY, EVENTS & EXPOSITIONS El Museo presents hosts arts community events and • Santa Fe Fiber Crawland – Fiber festival • Anri Tsutsumi, Wasabi Salsa Rhapsody Maytraditions: 12-14 art•installation June 2– –Altars July&30 Día de los – Muertos Community Celebration, October/November 2018

Currents 2017 – June 9 - 25 El •Museo produces/hosts exhibits, • Pandemonium Productions - Youth dance activities, and events that celebrate • Miranda & Lois Viscoli, Cuban collection & theater classes, Fall 2018; Spring 2019 – July/August andexhibit promote local culture and traditions.

We are creating a library, MERCADO EL MUSEO: • Objects of Art/Antique American Indian present Spanish language learning, ARTS & CULTURE MARKET: Art – Expositions – August 10-13, 15-18 and host community events,Jewelry, such as • Art, Antiques, Collectibles, Books, Textiles, CELEBRATING CULTURE - More than 50classes vendors with buildingFurniture Zozobra, & youth • Every weekend, October 6, arts 2018festival to May 26, 2019.

Pandemonium Productions.

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ARTS EVENTS & EXPOSITIONS

CELEBRATING CULTURE Margaret Tafoya of the Santa Clara Pueblo, on display for Born of Fire in 2017

El Museo produces/hosts exhibits, activities, and events that celebrate Gateway Partner with the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area and promote local culture and 555 Camino dede laa Familia, 505.992.0591| elmuseocultural.org elmuseocultural.org 555 Camino la Familia,Santa SantaFe Fe | 505.992.0591 traditions.

We are creating library, present Spanish language learning, and host community events, such as

Inn and Spa at Loretto shares its history with Santa Fe.

Western Landmark The Inn and Spa at Loretto is an architectural icon.

By Shari Morrison

I

N 1853, AFTER AN ARDUOUS JOURNEY from Independence, Missouri, to the territory now known as Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Sisters of Loretto founded the Academy of Our Lady of Light, a Catholic school that grew from small beginnings to cover a square-block near the plaza.

The Sisters had responded to Archbishop John-Baptiste Lamy’s pleas for clergy to teach in New Mexico Territory. Seven of them made the journey, and some of them survived a bout of cholera to establish the school. It grew to serve approximately

PALACE OF THE GOVERNORS

The Sisters of Loretto

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300 students and persevered for decades, despite smallpox and tuberculosis, leaky mud roofs, and even a brush with Confederate Texans during the Civil War. Archbishop Lamy also hired a father-and-son team of French architects—Antoine Mouly and his son, Projectus—to build the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, a Romanesque Revival landmark completed from 1869 to 1886.

During the cathedral’s lengthy construction, the Moulys designed a nearby chapel for the Sisters of Loretto. The chapel was designed after the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, which Mouly had helped restore earlier in his career and which was also the favorite chapel of the French archbishop. It’s reported that the sisters pooled their own inheritances to raise the $30,000 required to build the beautiful, Gothic structure.

Perhaps the pièce de résistance of the Loretto Chapel is its miraculous staircase. Built between 1873 and 1878, when wagons rolled past on the Old Santa Fe Trail, the spiral staircase is more

HERITAGE HOTELS AND RESORTS

The transformed school is a true, iconic Santa Fe landmark, well known for the luminarias that light the multi-level structure at Christmas time. The Inn and Spa at Loretto embodies the history of the region, not only in its architecture but also with its casually sophisticated guest rooms that include kiva fireplaces, hand-carved furnishings, and Native American weavings.

The public spaces feature original works by Santa Fe artists, including Armond Lara and Gregory Lomayesva. Lara’s painted and beaded canvases hang throughout the inn, while Lomayesva’s work is seen in the hand-carved and painted ceiling of the popular lounge.

To add to the delight of its art-loving guests, the inn also hosts several galleries. And Luminaria, the inn’s restaurant, evokes charm with an inventive rustic yet sleek décor, where guests enjoy fresh, organic cuisine. Its outdoor patio is made intimate with white draperies and chandeliers adorned with amethyst crystals.

The Inn and Spa at Loretto shares its history with Santa Fe, and is continuing to help that history grow, providing memorable experiences for visitors today.

This story originally appeared in the September 2018 edition of Western Art & Architecture. Reprinted with permission.

THINKSTOCK

than 20 feet tall with no means of support—it is constructed without glue and nails, using only wooden pegs. Creating a mystery one yearns to investigate, the circumstances surrounding its construction were considered miraculous by the Sisters of Loretto, who credited St. Joseph as the builder.

Today, the chapel and the miraculous staircase operate as a private museum. The Loretto Academy buildings deteriorated after 115 years of use, closing in 1968.

But James Kirkpatrick and his family envisioned the old, abandoned school as a hotel and acquired the 4.5-acre property. By 1975, the Inn and Spa at Loretto was born.

Kirkpatrick chose architect Herald Stewart to refurbish the inn. Stewart proposed several designs, but it was a four-story, Pueblo-style building that won approval by Santa Fe’s notorious historic review board, known for being sticklers for maintaining “Santa Fe style.” Two of Santa Fe’s most venerated architects, John Gaw Meem and William Lumpkins, sat on the review board. Meem was said to have been ecstatic at seeing the Pueblo-inspired design, praising Stewart by saying, “I could kiss you! Finally, someone gets my vision.” And it would seem his intuition was accurate, as Santa Fe’s current popularity is due, in large part, to its notorious Pueblo Revival architecture.

The floating staircase at Loretto Chapel is often called miraculous, thanks to its unique engineering.

The chapel’s gothic style is modeled after Sainte Chapelle in Paris.

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PLAN YOUR PERFECT DAY TRIP AT HeritageInspirations.com

Step Off the Beaten Path

T

HE PERFECT WINTER DAY TRIP is snowshoeing through the silence and beauty of an old growth forest of ponderosa pine near Taos, where pristine snow sparkles in sunlight.

So says Angelisa Murray, owner and guide of the immersive travel

company Heritage Inspirations.

artisans who perpetuate Taos’ acclaim as an artistic capital.

Perfect day trips from Santa Fe and Albuquerque are just as rich and remarkable.

A journey from Santa Fe to Bandelier National Monument includes exploring the Ancestral Puebloan village of Tsankawi and the Tyuonyi village cliff dwellings.

“Floating on Snow” is her guided winter excursion to Amole Can-

Guests can take an otherworldly adventure through 115,000-year-

yon in the Carson National Forest, just twenty minutes north of Taos.

old lava formations and caves with Murray’s hiking tour of El Malpais

Snowshoeing is a family-friendly and accessible activity. It doesn’t re-

National Monument. And her “Mezcla de Culturas” walking tour of

quire expensive or heavy equipment (Heritage Inspirations provides

Albuquerque’s historic Old Town and burgeoning Sawmill District cel-

lightweight aluminum snowshoes), and the canyon’s relatively flat

ebrates the convergence of the city’s seventeenth century history and

and unspoiled terrain is great for exploring, Murray says.

vision of new urbanism.

Heritage Inspirations offers unforgettable, off-the-beaten-path

Heritage Inspirations also offers unparalleled glamping trips to the

experiences centered around Taos, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque. “I

UNESCO World Heritage Site Chaco Culture National HIstorical Park

really want to find things that are intrinsic to that environment, but

on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, and to the Carson National

that are not forced or replicated—something that’s authentic and

Forest during the summer Perseid meteor shower.

unique—and with people who are extremely passionate about their own home,” Murray says.

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HERITAGE

Day trips with Heritage Inspirations

“New Mexico is one of those places that’s like a foreign country within our country,” Murray says. Heritage Inspirations is about cre-

Murray’s top experience within Taos is a three-hour walking tour

ating deep connections through the layers of history and culture, and

highlighting the city’s funky artistic spirit (no snowshoes required).

natural spirituality that make New Mexico the Land of Enchantment.

Guests can meet some of the fabulous painters, jewelry makers and

“It’s about the landscapes, the people, the voices,” she says.

WINTER/SPRING 2019

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Hot days, cool nights, and family traditions give this legendary New Mexican pepper its unmistakable character.

CHIMAYÓ’S CHILE CULTURE

By Deborah madison HHANDR.COM

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D

TOP: BHAMMOND / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; BOTTOM DANITA DELIMONT / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

RIVING NORTHEAST FROM SANTA FE TO CHIMAYÓ IN NORTHERN NEW MEXICO, you pass through grass-covered badlands scarred with erosion, scattered with red rocks formed into fantastic shapes, softened slightly by rabbitbrush and piñon and juniper trees. For a long time, there isn’t a dwelling in sight. The tail end of the Rockies slopes up to the east. To the west, across the Rio Grande, rising above blue mesas, are the Jemez Mountains.

Though Chimayó, which takes its name from the Tewa Indian word for flaking red stone, is only twenty-six miles from Santa Fe, it completely lacks that town’s stylishness and cosmopolitan flair. There is a quiet sweetness and calm about the place, enhanced by the broad shallow river that flows through it, keeping the landscape soft and green in the midst of Chimayó’s harsh surroundings.

Evidence of a way of life that has endured for generations can be seen in the old apple orchards and gardens, and in the small fields of chiles for which Chimayó is renowned. In autumn, the scents of apples and of piñon smoke, from fires used to roast the chiles, saturate the air.

Unlike larger, mass-produced chiles grown in other parts of the state—whose conformity makes them perfect in the way that iceberg lettuce is perfect—Chimayó chiles are unpredictable. A single plant might produce some chiles as long as six or seven inches and many more that are shorter; a few might be straightish and skinny, but most will be bent oddly into curlicues. Their irregularity seems to reflect the landscape, with its winding roads and dry-rock badlands juxtaposed with lush valleys and tiny fields.

But looks are only one way to judge this chile. Once it has ripened and been dried and ground, its perfume is remarkable—a particular mix of sweetness, richness, and spiciness— simultaneously grounding and exhilarating. It is piquant without being overbearingly hot, with a bite that offsets the complexity of its distinctive chile flavor.

Chimayó chiles are the same variety grown throughout northern New Mexico—a variety that has been around for so long that it’s known generically as native chile. No one knows for certain how these chiles first came to New Mexico to begin with, but one story is that the colonial entrepreneur Don Juan de Oñate brought them from Mexico in 1598 when he settled the area on behalf of the King of Spain.

Native chiles go by many names in the region. There’s the Velarde chile, the Española, the Taos Fiesta, the Dixon, and the Santo Domingo. All are small and twisted, but each has its characteristic balance of heat and flavor. The plant is so sen-

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SHUTTERSTOCK

Chimayó chile is sold in local stores and the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market. The chiles ripen to red and are dried in hanging strings called ristras. The classic New Mexico question: “Red or green?”

sitive to soil, temperature, and water that the fruit varies from one patch of land to the next.

Chimayó chile farmers still irrigate by the communal-ditch system, meaning that water isn’t always available. It’s widely believed that the stress of irregular irrigation, plus the strain of hot days followed by chilly nights, adds to the special character of local chiles. Of all the native chiles, those from Chimayó have long been considered the standard in New Mexico, and have brought the highest prices.

Whenever people in Chimayó talk about chiles, they invariably say something like, “My grandmother gave me seeds from the attic.” And, in fact, seeds are often passed down through families. Chiles are bought and sold with a sense of ritual—over a conversation or a meal, or during a visit to the family. When seeds or their fruit change hands, it is not simply a financial transaction; it is a communal act.

Most people outside the region who are familiar with the Chimayó chile know it only in its powdered form, called molido. But the chiles are also eaten green. Because of their twisted shape and thin skin, they have to be roasted with great care.

Some locals still do it the traditional way, blackening them

over a thin layer of embers in an horno, or clay beehive oven.

The ends are snipped to let the steam out, which more or less flattens the pods and exposes them evenly to heat. The roasted chiles are dipped into water, put into gunnysacks to sweat, and peeled. Then, in a concession to modern technology, they are frozen for use throughout the year.

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IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT ENCHILADA This simple, savory dish conveys a sense of place.

SOME PEOPLE JOURNEY TO ITALY for The perfect enchilada at Estevan Restaurante

pasta; to France for the perfect baguette or cassoulet; to Germany for lager; to the Southern United States for shrimp-and-grits or fried chicken. To visit a place is to taste its origins, the foods that are true to the community and families that live there. To eat like a local is to deepen your experience of a place: a cloud of smoky aroma, the sound of the plate on the table, the hum of fellow diners in conversation, the vibrancy of the local red chile sauce, the texture of the egg yoke spreading when pierced by the side of your fork.

The food pilgrim in search of the perfect enchilada would be well served to visit Estevan Restaurante in Hotel Chimayó in Santa Fe. At the skilled hands of former Franciscan monk and local food enthusiast Estevan Garcia, the enchilada is elevated beyond its origins, while maintaining a nod to them—actually, its more like an homage.

The enchilada came to New Mexico via the Spanish Conquistadors. But the true enchilada probably dates to the Mayan people of pre-Columbian days. Corn tortillas were a Mayan staple, and food historians note

HERITAGE HOTELS AND RESORTS

that the rolled tortilla often contained fish, and was sometimes dipped in pumpkinseed and chopped boiled eggs. According to experts, the original enchiladas contained no cheese—it was added after the Spanish imported it. Still, the enchilada is a simple dish, all the more delightful for the purity and contrast of its ingredients. The first

version. The dazzling red chile sauce that

gardens. Any Chimayó abuelita undoubtedly

cookbook mention of the enchilada is The

tops the stacked tortillas (because this

has some in her kitchen.

Mexican Chef published in 1831, and 14

being New Mexico, enchiladas are made

years later in the Diccionario de Concina.

stacked, not rolled) comes from just 30

layers cheese and onion between two corn

miles up the road in Chimayó, where this

tortillas, adding the red chile sauce, and

word enchilada: It means “to add chile

tiny community tucked against the Sangre

topping it with an egg, over-easy. Calabac-

pepper to” or “to season/decorate with

de Cristo mountains grows chile from the

itas (local squash and onions), along with

chile.” And that chile is precisely what

original heirloom seeds. This is no com-

beans with chicos, are served on the side.

makes Estevan Garcia’s red chile enchilada

mercial growing operation—Chimayó chile

That’s the perfect version and it’s well worth

a must-taste for those looking for the perfect

is grown on small farms and in kitchen

making the trip.

It is important to note the origin of the

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To create the perfect enchilada, Estevan

WINTER/SPRING 2019

HERITAGE HOTELS AND RESORTS

A love of local ingredients informs the culinary artistry of Estevan Garcia.

ALAMY

ESTEVAN RESTAURANTE IN HOTEL CHIMAYÓ Chef Estevan Garcia buys all produce locally and searches out organic products. Garcia visits the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market every Saturday morning to hand-pick the freshest and best ingredients.

His poultry, beef, and lamb are bought locally as well from Shepherd’s Lamb in Española,

It takes an entire family days to roast enough green Chimayó chiles to last until the next crop. By comparison, chiles from the area around Hatch—hybrid varieties with names like Big Jim and Numex 6—can be thrown a bushel at a time into a hopper, roasted, and dumped into plastic bags for sweating. Then one person can peel a sack of them in a matter of hours.

Chimayó chiles that aren’t picked green are allowed to ripen on the vine until they turn red. Then they’re dried and strung into long chains called ristras. It is said that the length of a ristra was traditionally related to the height of the person stringing it: Supposedly a ristra as long as a person was tall would meet his or her chile needs for the year.

Whether red or green, dried or fresh, chiles are the backbone of the straightforward local cooking. Ristras hang in every native New Mexican kitchen. Pods are pulled off as needed and added whole to a pot of posole (hominy stew) or beans, crumbled to make the red flakes called caribe, or ground into molido for the red chile sauce (chile colorado) that’s eaten on a daily basis all over the state. Whenever you order a dish in a local restaurant, the waitress asks “Red or green?”—referring

HERITAGE HOTELS AND RESORTS

New Mexico.

to the type of chile you want with it. If you can’t decide, you ask for “Christmas” and get some of both.

Chimayó chiles remain something of a rare commodity, though, even for local residents. Much of the ground chile and the ristras sold around Chimayó are likely to be made from Hatch chiles—though you can buy Chimayó and other native chiles at the local farmers’ markets.

Are Chimayó chiles really the best in New Mexico? Wherever people grow chiles, passions are strong about the subject. If someone from Chimayó says that Chimayó chiles are the best, there is no arguing. It’s not a question of intrinsic good. It’s a taste and smell people have grown up with—their version of Proust’s madeleine or an Italian mother’s cooking. They’re not just a spice; they’re part of an old culture, an ancient way of life.

Saveur article by Deborah Madison, author of fourteen cookbooks, her latest include Vegetable Literacy and In My Kitchen (both Ten Speed Press). She lives in Galisteo, New Mexico. Reprinted with the author’s permission.

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Folklorico dancers on the plaza in southern New Mexico.

GATHERING PLACES NEW MEXICO’S TOWN CENTERS ARE DEEPLY ROOTED IN THEIR COMMUNITIES.

by Chris Wilson | photos Miguel Gandert

I

t’s early Saturday morning on the Taos plaza.

Couples and families set out blankets and collapsible chairs to define a home base for the coming festivities.

By mid-morning baby strollers and grandmothers in wheelchairs join the clusters of people.

Everyone takes a turn visiting the booths encircling the plaza to inspect Latin hip-hop and ranchera CDs, Guadalupe and Sacred Heart t-shirts, sets of plastic jewelry with Cinderella slippers, and Viking swords with shields. There are tacos al pastor, smoked turkey legs, roast ears of corn, and tamale boats dripping chili from their sides.

Young children make their way to the vintage merry-goround at one corner of the plaza. An occasional couple pauses quietly before the Veterans Memorial. Old school friends and distant cousins stop to embrace as they meet.

Medieval shields festoon the base of the main stage, emblazoned with historic family names: Coronado, Oñate, Peralta, Lucero, Trujillo, and Mondragón. A flamenco guitarist accompanies dancers in bright, tiered dresses. Next, the high school mariachi band performs. Then, a teenage girl with a powerful but uneven voice, singing to recorded instrumental tracks, pours her heart into songs made popular by Selena and Shakira.

THREE TRADITIONS OF PLACE-MAKING The Taos plaza is one of more than sixty community spaces in New Mexico: pueblo center-places, Spanish plazas, and Anglo courthouse squares.

People have been creating plazas here for over a thousand years, and with its three distinct cultural traditions, New Mexico may well have not only the oldest, but also the most varied set HHANDR.COM

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The plaza is the community theatre, the gathering place, the center of community continuity.

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of community spaces in the United States. Some still-occupied pueblo plazas date back to the 1100s. Spanish and Mexican colonists founded dozens of plaza-centered towns between 1610 and 1886. Anglo-Americans added the courthouse square to the mix after the coming of the railroad in 1880.

Terraced residential blocks and round ceremonial kivas mark pueblo plazas as domestic and religious spaces. A prominently located church and surrounding courtyard houses imparted a similar religious and residential character to Spanish settlements, while business blocks surrounding a courthouse centered on its square reflected the alliance of commerce and government in Anglo-American towns.

Community celebrations in each tradition reinforce community identity: ritual dances to ensure bountiful hunting and crops at the pueblos, religious processions asserting Catholic beliefs, folk dramas recalling local conquest history in Spanish plazas, and Fourth of July and Old Timers Day parades around Anglo courthouse squares celebrating national and local identities. Indeed, participation in shared community rituals set in these plazas—year after year, generation to generation— has been pivotal to the continuity of communities and cultures over many centuries.

life. Shrines on four sacred mesas, and the earthen buildings of the village likewise encircle the plaza, echoing the surrounding sacred mountains.

As a primarily religious space, each plaza hosts an annual cycle of as many as forty ritual dances. In his classic 1891 Study of Pueblo Architecture, Victor Mindeleff describes one dance in the main plaza at Hopi Pueblo: “In earlier times, too, so the priests relate, people were more devout and the houses were planned with their terraces fronting the courts, so that the women and children and all the people, could be close to the masked dancers (kachinas) as they issued from the kiva.

The spectators filled the terraces, and sitting there they watched the kachinas dance in the court, and the women sprinkled [corn] meal upon them, while they listened to their songs.”

PUEBLO CENTER PLACES The characteristic components of a pueblo village—and by implication the pueblo worldview—began to coalesce about 700 AD: circular religious chambers known as kivas and multistoried residential room blocks wrapping a ceremonial dance plaza. In Chaco Canyon, villages had grown to as many as five hundred rooms, organized into regular, south-facing U- and D-shaped forms.

In story, myth, and everyday language, the pueblo world is conceived of as a sphere formed by an earth bowl and a sky basket. Sacred mountains at the cardinal directions define the perimeter of the earth bowl, and when the afternoon thunderstorms of July and August form, seemingly off of the mountain tops, and sail across the valley, the sky basket pulses with

Ritual dances, reigious processions, and shared community rituals have been taking place in plazas and squares since the 1600s.

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“Anyone who has the good fortune to follow the circuit of calendrical rituals . . .,” adds Ohkay Owingeh–Pueblo-born anthropologist Alfonso Ortiz, “can appreciate . . . how fully the dramas mobilize a community’s moods and motivations and reflect their collective identity.” Many ceremonies have but one drummer, and a handful of singers and dancers. But at major fiestas—at Santo Domingo on Christmas day, say— three drummers and a chorus of forty singers accompany two hundred or more dancers. The long rows of costumed dancers, alternating men and women, start with couples in their prime followed by others in descending age down to children as young as five or six. The chorus’ sung prayers call for fertile crops and successful hunts, and the dancer’s repetitious thudding steps pound these wishes into the plaza’s earthen floor.

SPANISH AND MEXICAN PLAZAS When the first Spanish colonists arrived in New Mexico in 1598, they brought their own well-defined approach for establishing new settlements—a tradition rooted in European practices, but already refined through a century of colonialism in the New World. In 1585, Felipe II of Spain had already codified these practices in a set of 148 town-planning ordinances, commonly referred to today as the Laws of the Indies: Choose an elevated, well-drained site for your town, with easy access to water, pastures, firewood and building timbers, the Laws counseled. Lay out your plaza first and surround it with a grid of streets and blocks. The church should first select one side of the plaza, preferably the high end to give it prominence.

Then government buildings take a second side, and finally, the houses of merchants fill the remaining perimeter. Government and merchants must line their buildings with portales (porches) as a shared public amenity.

The church and its weekly, sometimes daily, Masses focused the community’s moods and motivation in much the same way as the dances of the pueblos. But while celebrations at Christmas, Good Friday, and village saints’ days began with a Mass, they were followed by a procession of the priest and the congregation carrying statues and religious banners. These processions stopped at temporary altars on the plaza, often ventured farther into the village, then returned to circle the plaza to reenter the church.

Dancers entertain the crowd at the Old Town Plaza in Albuquerque, a vibrant space for community gatherings since its founding.

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On the village saint’s day, a community fiesta lasting one to three days followed the Mass and procession. Plazas filled with music and dancing, vendors and food stalls, people strolling and stopping to renew acquaintances. Children brought to the plaza with their families from their earliest years, like the youngsters at the end of pueblo dance lines, thereby formed deep attachments to their community, attachments grounded in the plaza space.

Another type of celebration, mytho-historic rituals such as los comanches and los matachines, address a more specific New Mexican history of conquest and hybridization. Matachines, for instance, serve both as a celebration of the triumph of Spain and Christianity, and an acknowledgement of the mestizaje—the racial and cultural mixing—that gave birth to these communities.

In 1918, an historic pageant movement swept the United States, the Museum of New Mexico developed the modern Santa Fe Fiesta, including a Spanish conquistador pageant. Hispanics soon took control of this pageant and reshaped it into a celebration of Hispanic cultural virtues cast in terms of the chivalrous behavior of the conquistadors. But in the face of recent pueblo protests over this reenactment of the violent Spanish reconquest of 1692–93, the City of Santa Fe ended the conquistador pageant this year.

ANGLO-AMERICAN COURTHOUSE SQUARES This third of New Mexico’s traditions developed in the eastern and southern states in the early 1800s. A reflection of the organization of democratic government at the local level, each county seat boasted a courthouse set in the middle of its own city block, surrounded by a grid of blocks and lots staked out for real estate speculation. A capitalist ethos of investment and improvement suffused the square. Business blocks ringed the square with family-run shops on the ground floor and the offices of attorneys,

Pageants, music, dancing, strolling, gathering: New Mexico’s plazas remain the center of community life.

doctors, and title companies above. With the courthouse at its center, where deeds were recorded and property disputes settled, they perfectly manifest the alliance of commerce and government. Hispanic communities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries added business blocks around the plazas, infusing them with this new commercial spirit. that tourism has totally taken over. Yet when Sunday Mass, in In this new, more secular society, Fourth of July parades both English and Spanish, at San Felipe de Neri in Old Town and Memorial Day commemorations at veterans memorials Albuquerque fills to overflowing, or when annual fiestas fill on the square celebrated national allegiances. While in most plazas across the state, the importance of the plaza to on-going Anglo communities, Old Timers, Frontier, or Pioneers Days community identity is undeniable. celebrations also commemorated local history. A series of parade MEANWHILE BACK IN TAOS floats might encapsulate local history as steps in the March of Afternoon shadows stretch across the Taos Plaza concrete Progress. For Roswell’s 1936 Old Timers parade, for instance, dance floor. A five-piece norteño rock band launches into the the oldest of the old timers came first in antique wagons and obligatory ballad Volver. Everyone joins in on the chorus—even carriages, “vehicles with real history behind them,” as then-Lt. those not fluent in Spanish. “Volver, volver; a tus brazos, otra Governor Hi Dow announced the names and histories of each old vez,” they sing, “Return, return; into your arms, once again.” timer as they passed the viewing platform. Next came a group of After one has heard these words sung year after year at Hispanic men on horseback including political leaders; then a Butterfield fiestas across the state (indeed after one has learned the words stagecoach, a cab, and a hack bearing fourteen women who had oneself), it becomes clear that people long not so much for the lived in the territory more than fifty years; and finally “hundreds ballad singer’s return to his lost love, but for their own return to of New Mexico pioneers riding on horseback and in all of the family, to friends unseen for years, to home ground, and to the vehicles of the frontier days before the time of the automobile.” embrace of their community.

Many once-vibrant community spaces stand overlooked and neglected today. Others, like Las Vegas, Portales, and Socorro, have seen better days, yet still bustle with weekday activity, and fill to overflowing for annual celebrations.

Portions of this article adapted s of And a few, such as Taos Pueblo, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, T h e P l a z aic with permission from: Chris Wilson N e w M e x o and Stefanos Polyzoides, and Mesilla, are now famous as tourist destinations.

The Plazas of New Mexico, Surrounded by restaurants and shops, and filled Trinity University Press, 2012. with strolling visitors, one can easily get the impression Edited by Chris

aphy by Miguel ontemporary photogr s Polyzoides | C

Wilson and Stefano

Gandert

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STEVE LARESE

St. Francis de Neri, in Albuquerque, glows with luminarias on Christmas Eve.

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A MELTING Pot OF CELEBRATION Holiday traditions in New Mexico are as diverse as its people.

by Steve Larese

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ANY BELIEFS AND CULTURES over centuries have forged New Mexico’s rich traditions. Most have Roman Catholic origins, but the rituals celebrated during holidays here are seasoned with Native American and even Moorish influences. This amalgamation of customs has developed into traditions that make the holiday season in New Mexico unique in the world.

Matachines and Pueblo Feast Days Throughout the year, New Mexico’s 19 pueblos and Hispanic communities commemorate their patron saints with feast days. Stemming from Medieval Spain, the Catholic Church assigned communities a patron saint and the communities would host a celebration and Mass on their saint’s established day of honor. Spanish colonists brought this tradition with them as they founded towns. Spanish priests assigned Catholic patron saints to the Native American pueblos already here. Before Ohkay Owingeh changed its name back to its pre-Spanish name, it was called San Juan Pueblo in honor of its patron saint.

It still celebrates Saint John’s Feast Day every June 23. Santo Domingo Pueblo celebrates Saint Dominic’s Day on August 4.

Like many pueblos, Santo Domingo also incorporates a corn dance into its saint day celebration, bridging Christianity and Native American religion. San Ildefonso is known for its feast day that spans the night of January 22 and 23, and that incorporates a beautiful, fire-lit deer dance. Because pueblos consider Feast Days Christian celebrations as opposed to traditional Native American religious ceremonies, outsiders are often permitted to attend. Most pueblos observe Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Feast Day on January 6. See indianpueblo.org for Feast Day dates and visiting etiquette.

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The Magic of Santa Fe Santa Fe welcomes with a special warmth during the holiday season. From seasonal concerts filling the spectacular Loretto Chapel with music to Las Posadas in the plaza to the return of The Nutcracker performed by the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, there’s something to get everyone into the holiday spirit.

Christmas Eve itself is marked by Santa Fe’s most beloved Christmas traditions: the farolito walk up Canyon Road. On this night, the road—already renowned for its artists galleries and shops—becomes a magical pathway lit by the glow of luminar-

STEVE LARESE

El Santuarío de Chimayó beckons the faithful in every season.

On Christmas Eve, some pueblos mark an even more deeply entwined tradition. Matachines dancers blend Spanish, Moorish, and Native American symbolism into a story that recounts the New World’s conversion to Christianity, per the Spanish worldview. The Moors controlled much of Spain from 711 until 1492, and this influence can still be seen in New Mexico today. Matachines dancers wear mitre-like hats with fringe that covers their faces, and dance in lines with a young girl dressed in white called La Malinche, and a dancer portraying a bull called El Toro. This blend of Moorish and Spanish dance was brought to Mexico, where indigenous people there added their own elements before it was exported north to New Mexico.

Taos Pueblo is known for its Christmas Eve Matachines dance.

Matachines dances also take place on Easter at pueblos and villages throughout New Mexico, but it’s Chimayó that becomes the focal point for Holy Week in New Mexico.

Taos Pueblo

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DANITA DELIMONT

Taos farolitos during the holidays.

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Farolitos lining the Inn and Spa at Loretto’s tiered, adobe-style roof; opposite, Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe.

Holiday Tastes As it does in many cultures, food plays an important part in New Mexico during the holidays. Biscochitos are a cinnamon and anise-infused sugar cookie mostly served in December.

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Tamales are especially popular during the holidays. A laborintensive dish, tamale making brings families together for afternoons in the kitchen preparing masa and folding corn husks. Posole, a red chile, hominy and pork stew, is another favorite holiday comfort food. New Mexicans consider it good luck to eat posole on New Year’s Day. Garduños at Hotel Albuquerque, Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces, and De La Tierra at Taos’ El Monte Sagrado, all prepare special holiday menus that feature these traditional favorites.

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ias and farolitos. Thousands gather in the street to greet each other, stroll and hear groups of carolers sharing the festive spirit.

One week later, Santa Feans come together again to welcome a new year with fireworks in their historic plaza.

Lighting the Way On Christmas Eve, simple paper lunch sacks filled with sand and votive candles line New Mexico’s street curbs, driveways, and rooftops. Called luminarias in Albuquerque and south of Interstate 40, and farolitos in Santa Fe and throughout northern New Mexico, these simple decorations have become an iconic symbol of New Mexico. Their origins trace to small bonfires that traditionally lit the way for the Niño de Atocha—the Christ Child—who visits homes throughout New Mexico to bestow blessings upon families. The story goes like this: In Spain during the Moorish occupation of Atocha in the thirteenth century, only children were allowed to bring food and water to Spanish prisoners. One young boy who brought food and water to prisoners was thought to be Jesus Christ. Catholics began praying to him to help prisoners and eventually anyone in need. Villagers lit small bonfires on Christmas Eve called luminarias to help guide Niño de Atocha to their homes to receive blessings. They left out small shoes to replace his worn-out pair, and children could expect to find treats left in their own shoes. The tradition became especially poignant during World War II, when many New Mexico National Guard soldiers became POWs. Then the paper lunch sacks called farolitos (little lanterns) became sym-

bols of remembrance for those fighting and imprisoned overseas. These days, this beautiful tradition continues across all faiths, representing hope and peace at Christmas and into the new year.

Today, large luminaria/farolito displays bring people together from across the state. In the Village of Mesilla just west of Las Cruces, luminarias cover the plaza on Christmas Eve. Chihuahuan Desert Nature Park, New Mexico State University, and Fort Selden State Monument also have luminaria displays throughout December. In Albuquerque on Christmas Eve, just a few blocks from Hotel Albuquerque and Hotel Chaco, Old Town hosts the state’s largest display with 23,000 luminarias. The historic and beautiful San Felipe de Neri church is open to all, and carolers warm the winter night with song. Santa Claus takes a break from his busy schedule to greet the thousands who visit Old Town, and bell choirs’ carols peal into the night. Afterward, many visitors cross the street to Garduños restaurant at Hotel Albuquerque for a steaming bowl of posole or other traditional holiday fare (hotelabq.com). In Santa Fe on Christmas Eve, farolitos line the Plaza and Canyon Road. The Taos Plaza glows with an impressive light display throughout December, and on Christmas Eve farolitos contribute to the magical scene.

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A HOTEL FROM HISTORY The St. Francis has been around since before statehood.

By Kelly Koepke

T

HERTITAGE HOTELS AND RESORTS

HE STORY OF THE HOTEL ST. FRANCIS, NAMED AFTER SANTA FE’S PATRON SAINT, starts much earlier than its current, serene incarnation on Don Gaspar Avenue. Its roots date to October 1881, when The Palace Hotel opened on Washington Avenue near Marcy Avenue.

At the time, Santa Fe was abustle as the capital of what was then the New Mexico territory. The railroad was bringing an influx of new business and tourists daily. Travelers needed a hotel to shelter them. Santa Fe’s leading merchants, the six Spiegelberg brothers, donated the land for a grand French Second Empirestyle hotel. Its three stories, second floor balconies, and high turret towered over the neighboring low-slung adobes, reminded passers-by more of New Orleans or a European city than the desert Southwest. There was no mistaking the imposing edifice of the city’s first and only first-class hotel.

New Mexico’s statehood in 1912 infused the city with more visitors and entrepreneurs. W.H. Mendenhall of Kansas City, Missouri, and W.M. Mabson of Alabama, purchased the Palace. In 1915, they renamed the Palace the De Vargas, after Don Diego De Vargas, the Spanish conquistador who led the reconquest of New Mexico after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, according to Paul Secord’s book, Santa Fe’s Historic Hotels.

They also remodeled the De Vargas, a response to city leaders’ desire to unify the architecture of the city as a tourism gambit. The porch became heavily arched, a nod to Spanish-style architecture. Stucco now covered the original wooden clapboards, turning the De Vargas into what is now commonly known as “Santa Fe style.”

By the 1920s, the hotel had changed hands again. William Sargent, a former mayor of the city, had purchased it. But in January 1922, the De Vargas perished HHANDR.COM

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The De Vargas Hotel, circa 1920s.

in what was the city’s largest fire in 300 years, and certainly one of the most mysterious. According to lore, the fire raged for six hours despite the efforts of the nearby fire department.

Was the “mysterious explosion” reportedly heard by Sargent the result of a Prohibition-era bootlegger making peach brandy in a copper still in the basement? Whatever the cause, spectators called the fire “the darndest show ever,” Secord noted in his book.

Only the three-story brick chimney remained to mark the De Vargas’ location. With the insurance money, Sargent rebuilt his beloved hotel in its new and current location on a vacant lot on Don Gasper Avenue. According to the July 1, 1922, edition of The Hotel World, a journal for hoteliers and travelers, “Construction work is now well under way on the new De Vergas (sic) Hotel which W.G. Sargent and Tom Doran are erecting in Santa Fe, N.M. The building will be three stories high and contain guest rooms, half of them with bath. It is probable that the hotel will be ready for occupancy some time in November.”

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The new Mission-Revival style building, now built of brick, opened in 1923 with ninety-eight guest rooms. Only a stone’s throw from the State Capitol and other government buildings, the De Vargas, its spacious lobby, and inviting covered portal soon became a center for “unofficial” business. Its first-class service featured bellhops to escort guests to their rooms, but only after the guests had shown their marriage licenses if traveling as couples, of course. The hotel bar maintained a large blackboard where news of the day and important events like election and World Series results were posted. Anyone wanting to see and be seen from the 1920s to the ’40s could do so at the De Vargas Hotel bar, including almost all of New Mexico’s governors and scores of politicians.

After World War II, Pat Vigil and David Armijo purchased the hotel. But, in the mid-20th century, full-service hotels began losing popularity in favor of motor-hotels (motels) with their convenient near-room parking. In the 1950s the city of Santa Fe reacted by requiring hotels to have designated parking. To comply, the Vigil family purchased and demolished

The Santa Fe New Mexican reported on April 1, 1987, that, “A grand old hotel in fancy new finery greeted a new generation of Santa Feans Tuesday at the reopening of the Hotel St Francis once a downtown landmark as the De Vargas Hotel.

The hotel has been open since Dec. 23 but Tuesday’s party signified the completion of the $6 million renovation. ‘It’s a

COURTESY PALACE OF THE GOVERNORS PHOTO ARCHIVES (NMHM/DCA), NO. 019507

T. HARMON PARKHURST, COURTESY PALACE OF THE GOVERNORS PHOTO ARCHIVES (NMHM/DCA), NO. 010786.

the Methodist Church next door. From the 1950s to 1984, the hotel served the working man, with amenities described as “basic: a bed and a sink and a bathroom down the hall. There is maid service, but that’s it. Basic needs were met so the guests were warm, dry and safe,” Secord wrote.

The family ran the De Vargas until Pat died in 1981. Patricia and Goodwin Taylor purchased, remodeled, and reopened it in late 1986 as the Hotel St. Francis. Taylor hired George Pearl, an influential local architect (after whom the University of New Mexico’s School of Architecture and Planning building is named) for the project.

He reduced the number of guestrooms to create private bathrooms, and replaced the original barber and beauty shops with a new restaurant and bar.

RIGHT: The original Palace Hotel on Washington and Marcy Streets. BELOW: It changed hands becoming the De Vargas Hotel in the 1920s.

T. HARMON PARKHURST, COURTESY PALACE OF THE GOVERNORS PHOTO ARCHIVES (NMHM/DCA), NO. 010785.

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The lobby’s focal point is a baptismal font.

GEORGE C. BENNETT, COURTESY PALACE OF THE GOVERNORS PHOTO ARCHIVES (NMHM/DCA), NO. 0077667.

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The Spirits of Hotel St. Francis

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For those with a nostalgic bent, head to the hotel’s second level for a walk down memory lane. There you can view treasures from the hotel’s almost 100-year history. This visual museum displays historical photos and copies of old hotel registers, rescued from the trash by the hotel’s longtime former concierge Inger Boudouris. Guests can imagine what Santa Fe was like 100 years ago.

Through March 29, 2019

GENNEXT Future So Bright

HERITAGE HOTELS & RESORTS

wonderful old building and a great location,’ said Michael Cerlitti, general manager. ‘We just felt it worthy of being restored back to the grandeur of its earlier days.’”

The new St. Francis reflected Santa Fe charm reminiscent of the 1920s—an expansive lobby greeted visitors, with a fireplace dominating the room. The remodel preserved historic details so that the hotel qualified for the National Register of Historic Places. The 1920s Victorian-style interior and room décor, featuring furniture sourced from estate and garage sales from Patricia Taylor’s native Virginia, brought to mind the frilly elegance of an earlier era.

To mark the event, guests dressed in flapper-style beaded and fringed dresses, and broad brimmed hats. Mayor Sam Pick cut a pink ribbon to commemorate the opening, and presided over a time capsule’s placement in the wall behind the National Register plaque. The capsule included hotel menus, articles about the old hotel, and favors from the party; it will be opened when the hotel turns 100 years old in 2023.

The property regained its prominence when Heritage Hotels and Resorts purchased it. An extensive remodel commenced.

This time, the inspiration would be the hotel’s namesake and the patron saint of Santa Fe, St. Francis of Assisi, who chose to give up his life of wealth and privilege to follow a simpler path.

“Each Heritage hotel starts with a design concept, the driving element behind each. The Hotel St. Francis design concept is the story of Franciscan missionaries and their contributions to New Mexico culture,” says James Long, Heritage Hotels and Resorts’ CEO. “My uncle, Father Salvador Aragon, was the last of the Franciscans to oversee the Santa Fe Basilica, which they oversaw for 450 years. To honor the Franciscans’ contributions, the hotel’s design concept is ‘in simplicity is complexity.’

That sentence drove every design decision in the hotel. Peace and tranquility are the underlying elements.”

From the simple, earthy colors of the hotel, to the natural wood furniture, to the elements of candlelight that soften the spare, quiet common spaces, Hotel St. Francis harkens the 16th century when the Spanish arrived in New Mexico. The archways, colonnades, and red-tile roof reflect the monastic feel of a Catholic mission. Telling story of the Franciscans meant including a baptismal font in the lobby as a design focal point symbolizing their faith.

Interior designer Kris Lajeskie focused on creating a strong sense of place, which The New York Times heralded as “spectacular” in 2010. “We incorporated Italian arches reminiscent of Assisi in the lobby,” she says. “And we imagined how people in

April 12 – October 20, 2019

PAUL PLETKA

Converging Faiths in the New World

MUSEUM OF SPANISH COLONIAL ART

On Museum Hill in Santa Fe | 750 Camino Lejo | 505.982.2226 Open 10 am – 5 pm, Tuesday – Sunday | www.spanishcolonial.org

Santa Fe would have lived in the 1500s when the Spanish arrived. Guestrooms are furnished with hand-crafted, historically appropriate, yet comfortable furniture created by Santa Fe artisans. Many guestrooms have the original hardwood floors exposed, too. Simple, hand embroidery like the dove of peace on pillows and the sacred heart on the sconces represent traditional handwork and elements of the time.”

The color scheme throughout the guest and public areas is based on the natural hues of the churro sheep the Spanish brought with them. This simple palette of creams, grays and browns is what the monks wore themselves, reflecting their order’s love of animals and nature.

“There is a spiritual, meditative quality when you walk into the lobby,” continues Long. “You feel a calming presence that starts to take away and reduce your stress level. This allows guests to enjoy Santa Fe in a different way than what they might expect from the vibrant, busy city right outside the door.”

Of course, the story of the hotel isn’t only about the past. As Santa Fe evolves, so do the ways the Hotel St. Francis expresses the unique concept of “in simplicity is complexity.” Five private soaking rooms are under construction, each with deep tubs, fireplaces, and vaulted, plaster ceilings. Soothing water

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Hotel St. Francis features hand-crafted, historically appropriate furniture.

December 1

December 9

Christmas in Cruces Celebration

The Roadshow Christmas Tour

Movie: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

December 10-12

December 1-2

Tortugas Village

Play: Inspecting Carol

December 15

Downtown Plaza de Las Cruces

Rio Grande Theatre

NMSU Center for the Arts

Our Lady of Guadalupe Fiesta at Tortugas Las Noches de Las Luminarias

December 1-16

Fort Selden State Monument

Play: Mary Poppins

December 16

December 7

Taylor-Mesilla Historic Property Nacimiento House with J. Paul Taylor

Lighting of Christmas Tree and Shopping Late in Mesilla

December 22

Las Cruces Community Theatre

Old Mesilla Plaza

Downtown Art Ramble Downtown Main Street

Mexican Cultural Series: Horacio Franco Rio Grande Theatre

December 8 For a full list of events go to VisitLasCruces.com

NMSU Pan American Center

Movie: The Polar Express Rio Grande Theatre

Taylor family home

Movie: White Christmas Rio Grande Theatre

December 24

Christmas Carols & Luminarias at the Plaza in Old Mesilla Old Mesilla Plaza

December 31

Chile Drop

Downtown Plaza de Las Cruces

will be drawn for each guest to soak individually in a softly candlelit oasis; the rooms are slated to open in late spring 2019. In addition, a relaxation and yoga room will provide additional opportunities for guests to escape and renew.

The completion of a new luxury two-room “Cardinal Suite” with handcrafted furniture, historic artifacts, and with a view of the dining patio also headlines these updates. The dining patio belongs to The Market Steer Steakhouse, which serves refined, modern, and fun takes on classic American dishes.

Co-owner and executive chef Kathleen Crook returned to New Mexico, her home state, after a far-ranging career to share her knowledge of beef, respect for fresh foods, and her own particular brand of joie de vivre with the Santa Fe community. The Market Steer’s co-owner and general manager Kristina Goode, whose hospitality experience is broad and deep, watches over the restaurant’s elegantly appointed dining room and one of the most beautiful patios in Santa Fe. Despite all the changes in almost a century, the Hotel St. Francis continues to tell the story of Santa Fe—a place where visitors experience, honor, and explore the city’s historic and cultural roots while enjoying modern amenities and conveniences. St. Francis would approve.

A GALLERY OF FINE HANDWOVENS & WEARABLE ART

“The owner is a warm gracious lady who offers excellent service in her lovely store filled with unique and beautiful clothing. I highly recommend Artemisia Artwear!” — Linda O. ««« »»» • 117 Bent Street, Taos, NM 87571 One block north of Taos Plaza on historic Bent Street

575-737-9800 • www.artemisiataos.com

Exclusively Yours When you’re ready to let your hair down, do it in style at one of our posh nightclubs for guests and members only.

by Gayle Vance

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HERITAGE HOTELS & RESORTS

NCE SIGHTSEEING IS DONE for the day, evenings in New Mexico beckon with a different kind of promise. The sky changes colors, the temperature cools down, and, for Heritage Hotels and Resorts guests, the night life heats up.

No matter which Heritage Hotel you choose, you’ll find great places to relax and recharge after dark without ever leaving your hotel. And if you’re with us in Santa Fe or Albuquerque, you can dial the party up—way up—at two of the state’s hottest weekend night spots.

Casa España is steps away from Santa Fe’s Eldorado Hotel and Spa, while Casa Esencia is a stone’s throw from Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town and Hotel Chaco. Both nightclubs combine luxury, history, and glamour to elevate your evening—and both are available exclusively to our hotel guests and club members. Fashionistas, take note: These are places to see and be seen. It’s your time to shine!

Casa España and Casa Esencia are part of a growing trend among upscale hotels to provide exclusive experiences for their guests. Because “seeing the sights” is no longer enough for discerning travelers, both clubs immerse visitors in local history and culture, inviting them to engage more authentically with the spirit of the Southwest.

Casa España has a colorful past. It began as an 18th-century fur trader’s residence and later became a brothel. Today, the storied casa lives on as a stunning, one-of-a-kind destination.

Passing through the Casa’s doors is like entering another world, one with eye-popping environs unlike any you’ve seen. Heritage worked closely with New Mexico interior designer Adriana Long and renowned Spanish Colonial antiques purveyor Holler & Saunders, Ltd. to create this oasis, which pairs original architecture with a lavish blend of old and new furnishings: Ornate silver-framed mirrors and carved sidebars reminiscent of old Spain are paired with deep blue couches and steel and glass tables. You’ll want to wander through each of the Casa’s eight sumptuous rooms, taking in the mix of antiques, modern art, plush contemporary furnishings, and subtle Asian influences.

All have been meticulously chosen and arranged to engage and delight the senses.

Complementing this warm and welcoming space is a tempting menu of fresh craft cocktails

LEFT: Casa España is a place to see and be seen. TOP (clockwise from left): Casa España intimate gathering spaces.

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Casa Esencia is a Spanish-style hacienda reimagined as an elegant nightclub.

you won’t find anywhere else. Each has been thoughtfully designed by our Northern New Mexico spirit specialist/sommelier and can be made to order by our mixologists. A creative choice of light bites rounds out the menu.

Whether you come to the Casa to light up your night or to unwind in a lower gear, we promise a stellar experience. You can savor your liquid refreshments at one of our beautiful bars or lounges, or relax in one of our intimate sitting rooms. Or to really amp up your evening, you can hit the dance floor. At 10:30 p.m., the club’s house DJ shifts the music from ambient to danceable, so don’t be surprised if the vibe pulls you up out of your seat and into the lively throng. Go ahead, let loose. It’s the perfect way to cap off your night.

In Albuquerque, dance the night away at Casa Esencia, a gorgeous and historic nightclub exclusively for guests and members only.

The Spanish-style hacienda that contains this club was built in the 1840s and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Once known as the Salvador Armijo House, the grand estate was a collection of indoor and outdoor living spaces that sheltered multiple generations of the Armijo family and was occupied by the Union Army during the Civil War. The bones of the original domicile are still part and parcel of Casa Esencia, but today they’re the backdrop for an exciting, contemporary venue.

You’ll love these elegant surroundings, from the plush and comfy couches to the custom artwork.

The club has several sitting rooms available where the mood is more intimate and atmospheric. And weather permitting, you can unwind under the stars in one of our cozy courtyards, warming yourself by the fire or enjoying the reflecting pool.

Of course, you’ll find a wealth of craft cocktails and world-class spirits available to add oomph to your evening. They’ll pair nicely with the tempting delectables featured on our menu.

CASA ESPAÑA at Eldorado Hotel and Spa, Santa Fe Open Fridays 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Saturdays 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.

CASA ESENCIA (opening March 2019) at Hotel Albuquerque Open Fridays from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m Saturdays 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Chef Sean Sinclair brings a taste for tradition with high-level culinary skills.

Fresh and Traditional A New Mexico chef returns to his roots, with a modern twist.

By Steve Larese

A

S A YOUNG BOY EXPLORING THE CANYONS and mountains of Tijeras, east of Albuquerque just off of Old Route 66, Sean Sinclair had no idea that he would someday become executive chef of one of New Mexico’s premier restaurants, Luminaria Restaurant & Patio at The Inn and Spa at Loretto in Santa Fe. But the skills and respect he was learning in nature would pave the way for his culinary career.

“My parents really instilled in me a love for the outdoors,” says Sinclair, who still loves to fly fish on the rare days he’s not in the kitchen. “I’d go hunting with my dad every season all throughout New Mexico, and then help my grandmother in the kitchen. This really gave me a sense of respect for where food comes from, how to handle and process it properly, and the joy of creating meals for your loved ones. When I discovered that I could make a career being a chef, it all came together.”

At 29, Chef Sinclair is one of the youngest executive chefs in the nation. Taking the helm of renowned Luminaria in the summer of 2018, Sinclair brings what he’s learned during his intense and traveled career back to New Mexico. His experience

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belies his youth, and the creative curiosity and energy that he brings to the kitchen is what eventually brought him back to his home state.

Sinclair began working at Albuquerque’s Chama Brewing Company when he was 15, and he soon earned a spot at the grill station.

“When I graduated high school, the chef sat me down and said that I should consider making cooking a career,” Sinclair says. “He really pushed me and saw my passion. So I enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Portland (Oregon), graduated and then learned from some old-school chefs who introduced me to the art of volume cooking and fine dining.”

Sinclair worked at some of Portland’s top-tier restaurants before returning to Albuquerque to become chef at the highly regarded restaurant Farm & Table at age 24. It was here that he first met Jim Long, CEO of Heritage Hotels & Resorts.

“I always appreciated what Jim was doing with Heritage, how he was really incorporating authentic New Mexico culture into the brand. He’s a great guy and I got to know him to where I was testing out new specials on him for his opinion.”

Sinclair seized an opportunity to become sous chef under acclaimed Chef Patrick O’Connell at the AAA Five-Diamond, Mobil Travel Guide Five-Star, Inn at Little Washington in Virginia. He was there when the restaurant received the call informing the staff that they had earned a two-star Michelin rating in 2016.

“I can’t explain getting a phone call that we earned a two-star Michelin rating,” he says. “Every second of every day you have to be excellent, and it paid off.

You’re always in the spotlight at that level, every day is like playing in the Super Bowl. It’s intense.”

All the while Long had been keeping track of Sinclair’s success, and when the position of executive chef at Luminaria opened, Long offered it to Sinclair. The young sous chef readily accepted the opportunity to lead a highly respected restaurant in his home state.

“I want my guests to have a dining experience like they’re being welcomed into a home, which essentially they are,” Sinclair says. “We source locally, and the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market is just excellent.

The quality of ingredients here makes combining New Mexico culinary concepts into creative dishes inspired from around the world.”

New menu items include Sinclair’s Hamachi Aguachiles that marries salt and sugar-cured hamachi with red chile that’s seared and plated with avocado mousse, brined onions and jalapeños, micro cilantro,

fried tortilla crisps, and drizzled tableside with an aquachile broth. Winter brings braised beef ribs and hearty soups, and for dessert cast-iron pecan caramel cobbler with bourbon ice cream.

“We’re excited about creating some new, New Mexico dishes,” Sinclair says. “We have this historic, beautiful, intimate patio and dining room to serve as setting for some innovative takes on classics.

New Mexico has always been a meeting of different cultures, and we’re honoring that.”

But one dish will be readily recognized by New Mexicans: green chile casserole.“That’s in honor of my grandmother, Dora Lorenzo,” Sinclair says. “It’s such a comfort food that everybody here knows but you don’t see on menus. It’s a way of sharing my family with new friends.”

Luminaria features a cozy and historic dining room and patio. Below, an heirloom tomato salad is served with locally made feta.

The fontina tortellini combines shishito peppers, yellow squash, and earthy mushrooms for a nontraditional take on an Italian classic.

HHANDR.COM

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Level5

CULTURALLY DISTINCT RESTAURANTS New Mexico is world renowned for exquisite culinary offerings.

at Hotel Chaco 2000 Bellamah Ave. NW Albuquerque, NM 505.247.0708 • HotelChaco.com Enjoy beautifully layered flavors and outstanding panoramic mountain views at Level 5, the rooftop restaurant and lounge at Hotel Chaco. Savor craft cocktails and an unforgettable culinary journey.

agave at Eldorado Hotel & Spa 309 W. San Francisco St. Santa Fe, NM 505.988.4455 • EldoradoHotel.com Enter a world of celebrated culinary delight and libations at the Agave Restaurant & Lounge.

Agave is a chic, casual dining experience with bold, clean flavors and fresh, local ingredients.

LEVEL 5 AT HOTEL CHACO

de la Tierra

Luminaria

Estevan

at El Monte Sagrado 317 Kit Carson Rd. Taos, NM 575.758.3502 • ElMonteSagrado.com

at Inn and Spa at Loretto 211 Old Santa Fe Trail Santa Fe, NM 505.988.5531 • HotelLoretto.com

at Hotel Chimayo de Santa Fe 125 Washington Ave. Santa Fe, NM 505.930.5363 • EstevanRestaurante.com

Enjoy a taste of the local, seasonal flavors

Luminaria Restaurant and Patio is

Estevan Restaurante is New Mexican fusion with a

that make the region unique. De la Tierra’s

recognized by locals and visitors alike

French flare, where Chef Estevan Garcia has created

menu features healthier options including

for its tranquil, inviting setting and inventive,

a menu using favorite traditional

vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free.

globally inspired menu. We invite you to dine

Northern New Mexico dishes including Chimayó red

and discover the flavors of Santa Fe.

chile, chicos, posole, and calabacitas.

All items are organic and locally purchased.

Market Steer Steakhouse at Hotel St Francis 210 Don Gaspar Ave. Santa Fe, NM 505.992.6354 • MarketSteerSteakhouse.com

Garduños

Garduños

at Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town 800 Rio Grande Blvd. NW Albuquerque, NM 505.843.6300 • HotelABQ.com

at Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces 705 S. Telshor Blvd.

Las Cruces, NM 575.522.4300 • HotelEncanto.com

Enjoy authentic regional New Mexican

Savor the distinctive flavors of Southwestern

Chef Kathleen Crook’s creative approach to classic

and Mexican cuisine in the inviting

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traditional New Mexican and Mexican favorites

refreshing take on fine dining in a charming atmo-

patio. Garduño's offers an extensive selection of

and modern twists on the classics at our own

sphere. Enjoy a bowl of steaming mussels on the

tequila, wine, liqueurs, and world-class margaritas.

Garduño's of Mexico Restaurant & Cantina.

patio or an elegant cut of prime beef inside.

HHANDR.COM

61

Hotel Chaco

CULTURALLY DISTINCT HOTELS

2000 Bellamah Ave. NW Albuquerque, NM 505.247.0708 • HotelChaco.com This new hotel is a contrast of ancient

Each of our hotels and resorts in New Mexico celebrates the rich, multicultural heritage of the Southwest, drawing from its unique blend of Native American, Mexican, Spanish, and Western cultural and historical influences.

Through architecture, interior design, original artwork, landscaping, entertainment, and cuisine, Heritage Hotels & Resorts provides guests with an authentic cultural experience in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Taos, and Las Cruces.

and modern elements. Hotel Chaco is the first New Mexico property designed by legendary global design firm Gensler, which drew inspiration from the Ancestral Puebloan people and the ruins of Chaco Canyon.

CONNECT WITH US @HeritageHotelsandResorts @HeritageHtls HeritageHtlsandRsts @heritagehtls @heritagehtls newmexicotravelblog.com

Heritage Hotels & Resorts, Inc. 201 Third St. NW, Suite 1140 Albuquerque, NM 87102 HHandR.com Email: contactus@hhandr.com

HOTEL CHACO

El Monte Sagrado

Eldorado Hotel & Spa

Inn and Spa at Loretto

317 Kit Carson Rd., Taos, NM 575.758.3502 • ElMonteSagrado.com

309 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe, NM 505.988.4455 • EldoradoHotel.com

211 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 505.988.5531 • HotelLoretto.com

Immerse yourself in a world of serenity and

Condé Nast Traveler’s 2017 readers’ choice

Condé Nast Traveler’s 2017 readers’ choice

wellness at El Monte Sagrado, the premier luxury

winner for Southwest and West, Eldorado Hotel &

winner for Southwest and West, this iconic hotel

resort in Taos. The hotel features the award-

Spa is conveniently located near the historic Plaza.

is just steps away from the historic Santa Fe Plaza.

winning Living Spa, De la Tierra restaurant,

Guests experience luxury amenities including an

The architecture is modeled after Taos Pueblo

Anaconda Bar, and exquisite indoor and

on-site restaurant and bars, rooftop pool, world-

and the property features an award-winning spa,

outdoor event and meeting space.

class Nidah Spa, and more than 22,000 square

outdoor pool and Santa Fe’s only penthouse suite.

feet of indoor and outdoor event space.

The hotel has 12,000 square feet of meeting and event space.

Hotel St. Francis

Hotel Chimayó de Santa Fe

Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town

125 Washington Ave. Santa Fe, NM 505.988.4900 • HotelChimayo.com

800 Rio Grande Blvd. NW, Albuquerque, NM 505.843.6300 • HotelABQ.com

Historic Places and sits just one block from the

A boutique hotel in the heart of downtown,

Offering historic grandeur and comfort,

Santa Fe Plaza. This historic hotel embodies

Hotel Chimayo is conveniently located steps

Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town exemplifies

210 Don Gaspar Ave., Santa Fe, NM 505.983.5700 • HotelStFrancis.com Hotel St. Francis is on the National Register of

Santa Fe and is named for the city’s patron saint.

away from the historic Santa Fe Plaza and

Albuquerque style and features an on-site

The décor features authentic wood furniture

celebrates the culture of Chimayó, a distinctive

restaurant and bars, outdoor swimming pool,

hand-crafted by local artisans. It also features Se-

Northern New Mexico community. The hotel

romantic wedding chapel, and more than

creto Lounge, a Gruet tasting room, and Market

features the Low ‘n Slow Lowrider Bar

62,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor

Steer Steakhouse.

and Estevan Restaurant.

meeting and event space.

HHANDR.COM

63

Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces 705 S. Telshor Blvd.

Las Cruces, NM 575.522.4300 • HotelEncanto.com A unique hotel that reflects New Mexico’s Spanish and Colonial traditions, Hotel Encanto has a beautiful resort pool lined with palm trees and 35,000 square feet of meeting and event space. Hotel Encanto features Garduños Mexican

EXPERIENCE VALUE AT OUR LODGES

Restaurant & Cantina and Azul Ultralounge.

Palacio de Marquesa 405 Cordoba Rd. Taos, NM 575.758.4777 • MarquesaTaos.com Palacio de Marquesa is conveniently located near the historic Taos Plaza.The design pays tribute to the remarkable women artists of Taos. This inn offers custom made-to-order daily breakfast.

64

WINTER/SPRING 2019

Nativo Lodge

Lodge at Santa Fe

6000 Pan American Fwy. NE Albuquerque, NM 505.798.4300 • NativoLodge.com

750 N. St. Francis Dr. Santa Fe, NM 505.992.5800 • LodgeAtSantaFe.com

Nativo Lodge is inspired by the vibrancy

On a hilltop overlooking downtown, the Lodge at

of Native American culture and traditions.

Santa Fe is just five minutes from the Santa Fe

The hotel features artist rooms designed

Plaza and minutes from Ski Santa Fe and the

by contemporary Native American artists.

Santa Fe Opera. Experience rooms furnished in

It was named “Artiest Hotel in America”

custom Southwest décor, with an outdoor pool

by World Property Journal.

on site and beautiful mountain views.

World Class Relaxation Nidah Spa

The Spa at Loretto

Living Spa

Eldorado Hotel & Spa

Inn and Spa at Loretto

El Monte Sagrado Resort and Spa

309 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe 505.995.4535 EldoradoHotel.com/NidahSpa

211 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe 505.984.7997 HotelLoretto.com/Spa

317 Kit Carson Rd., Taos 575.737.9880 ElMonteSagrado.com/Spa HHANDR.COM

65

TAOS EL MONTE SAGRADO RESORT AND SPA 1-855-846-8267 ElMonteSagrado.com

Pictured is Hotel Chaco

PALACIO DE MARQUESA 1-855-846-8267 MarquesaTaos.com

SANTA FE ELDORADO HOTEL & SPA 1-800-955-4455 EldoradoHotel.com INN AND SPA AT LORETTO 1-866-582-1646 HotelLoretto.com

ALBUQUERQUE HOTEL CHACO 1-866-505-7829 HotelChaco.com HOTEL ALBUQUERQUE AT OLD TOWN 1-800-237-2133 HotelAbq.com

HOTEL ST. FRANCIS 1-800-529-5700 HotelStFrancis.com

LAS CRUCES

HOTEL CHIMAYO DE SANTA FE 1-855-752-9273 HotelChimayo.com

HOTEL ENCANTO DE LAS CRUCES 1-866-383-0443 HotelEncanto.com