Santa Fe Markets and Fiestas 

Spanish Market
July 30 & 31, 2005 on the Plaza in Santa Fe

The rich Hispanic culture of Northern New Mexico will be celebrated at the 54th annual Traditional Spanish Market, Saturday and Sunday, July 30th and 31st, 2005 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The oldest and largest exhibition and sale of Spanish colonial art forms in the United Sates, Spanish Market features more than traditional Hispanic artists, continuous live music, art demonstrations and regional foods. It is a unique opportunity for visitors to enjoy a taste of New Mexico’s vibrant Spanish culture, both past and present. Admission is free to the public. 

The traditional art forms featured each year at Spanish Market include the following: 

Santos - depictions of religious figures in the form of bultos (carvings in the round), retablos (paintings on wooden panels) and gesso and wood relief carved panels Hide paintings - religious images painted on deer or elk hide Straw Appliqué - crosses, chests and boxes meticulously decorated with applied straw Textiles - hand-woven on looms using handspun yarns Furniture - usually made from pine using mortise and tenon joints Colcha - unique regional embroideries employing the colcha stitch Tinwork - decorative and utilitarian objects of cut and punched tin Ironwork - tools, fastenings and household object forged from iron Precious Metals - silver or gold jewelry, utilitarian and devotional objects Pottery - hand sculpted bowls, pots and other ware made from micaceous clay Bonework - decorative anillos (rings) and tool handles carved from bones Ramillets - decorative paper garlands Basketry - baskets hand-woven from red and brown river willow

In addition to traditional artworks, Spanish Market will also showcase some of the finest musical performers in Northern New Mexico and participating artists will demonstrate their craft throughout the weekend. 

Spanish Market is sponsored and produced by the Spanish Colonial Arts Society which supports Hispanic artists through educational programs, grants and the production of Spanish Market in July and Winter Spanish Market in December. These two major exhibitions give visitors a rare opportunity to meet some of the best Hispanic artists working in the region today. The Society’s collection of more than 3,500 art objects is housed at the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art which opened in 2002 at 750 Camino Lejo in Santa Fe. The collections include Spanish Colonial art forms covering four centuries and five continents.
 

Santa Fe Indian Market
August 20 & 21, 2005, on the Plaza in Santa Fe

Each August for the past eighty years, Santa Fe Indian Market has brought together the most gifted Native American artists from the U.S. with millions of visitors and collectors from around the world. The extended weekend of beauty and celebration ranks as the worlds largest and most highly acclaimed Native American arts show and as New Mexico’s largest attended annual weekend event. 

Santa Fe Indian Market is widely known as the place where Native American art and culture meets the world. As a primary vehicle for showcasing Native American arts, Indian Market also serves as a principal means for advancing the careers of many of today’s noted American Indian artist. Jamie Okuma (Luiseno, Shoshone/Bannock), SWAIA Best of Show winner 2000/2002, states “SWAIA’s Indian Market awards have given me my career. Lonnie Vigil, distinguished micaceous potter from Nambé Pueblo (Best of Show 2001) eloquently describes Indian Market as, “the place where the makers and receivers of our works come together in a special appreciation of the art.” Perhaps summing it up for generations of artists who have participated in Indian Market, SWAIA Fellowship Winner Michele Laughing (Navajo) shares, “It has made my journey possible.” 

SWAIA’s mission of “cultural preservation, intercultural understanding and providing economic opportunities for American Indians through excellence in the arts” is not only evident throughout Santa Fe Indian Market bit in all of its programs as well. These include SWAIA’s Lifetime Achievement Awards, Fellowship Awards, Business Training Seminars, Youth Markets, Council of Artists and committees which establish and uphold the highest known standards for traditional and contemporary Native American art. 

Indian Pueblo Cultural Center Website 

Pancakes on the Plaza
4th of July, annually 

The Untied Way of Santa Fe sponsors this annual event on the Plaza. Volunteers run the show from cooking pancakes, wiping off tables, pouring coffee and just being friendly. This event represents the “small town” atmosphere of Santa Fe with continuous music on the bandstand and thousands of hungry Santa Feans supporting the community. Another place to see everyone you know and meet new people. 

Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta
September 21-25, 2005 at the Santa Fe Opera

The premier food and wine event of the Southwest. The Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta is a sell out event and must not be missed. Get your tickets as soon as they are available. Wine connoisseurs and gourmands alike enjoy the plethora of wine seminars, cooking demonstrations, guest chef luncheons and most particularly Santa Fe’s large and extremely talented culinary community. Nearly every restaurant in the area participates in this great event. You can wander around the Opera grounds tasting delicious food from local chefs and sample numerous wines. You’ll meet new friends and run in to all your old friends at this event. 

Zozobra

To kick off the annual Santa Fe Fiesta, the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe stages the burning of Will Shuster’s Zozobra on the weekend following Labor Day. Zozobra centers on the ritual burning in effigy of Old Man Gloom, or Zozobra, to dispel the hardships and travails of the past year. In 2001, Zozobra attracted over 32,000 spectators to view the conflagration ritual and fireworks show at dusk in Ft. Marcy Park. 

The Fiestas celebration began in 1712 to celebrate an expedition by Don Diego de Vargas, who re-conquered the territory of New Mexico. Zozobra became part of the Fiestas in 1926 and the Kiwanis Club began sponsoring the burning in 1963 as its major fundraiser. 

Local artist William Howard Shuster, Jr. (1893-1969) conceived and created Zozobra in 1924 as the focus of a private fiesta at his home for local artists and writers in the community. His inspiration for Zozobra came from the Holy Week celebrations of the Yaqui Indians of Mexico; as effigy of Judas, filled with firecrackers, was led around the village on a donkey and later burned. Shuster and E. Dana Johnson, a newpsaper editor and friend of Shuster’s came up with the name Zozobra, which was defined as “anguish, anxiety, gloom” or in Spanish for “the gloomy one.” 

Santa Fe Fiesta
September 3-11, 2005

The cry of “Viva la Fiesta” has been reverberating through the streets of Old Santa Fe every autumn for 292 years. The sound generates a curious blend of thanksgiving, revelry and pride in the hearts of Santa Feans who celebrate Fiesta annually to commemorate Don Diego De Vargas’ peaceful reoccupation of the City of Holy Faith (Santa Fe) in 1692. 

The historical capitol is one of the oldest in the United State. It was established by Don Juan de Oñate at San Gabriel in 1598 and moved over 30 miles south to the foot of the Sangre de Christo Mountains where Santa Fe was founded in 1610. In 1680 the Indians revolted, burned the city and drove out the Spanish colonists who fled to Guadalupe del Paso, now Juarez, Mexico. They rescued from the burning church the 29 inch wood carved Marian statue, La Conquistadora, originally brought to Santa Fe in 1625 by the missionary, Fray Alonso de Benavides. 

Twelve years later, the King of Spain appointed Don Diego De Vargas to join the exiles in Guadalupe de Paso and organize a campaign for the resettlement of Santa Fe. He accomplished this difficult and remarkable mission without bloodshed on September 4, 1692. In December of the next year, the Indians resisted when De Vargas returned from a trip to recruit more colonists, so he set up an encampment outside the city near the present site of Rosario Chapel. The anxious colonist placed La Conquistadora in a makeshift altar and implored her to intercede for the successful re-entry into the town. Before the end of December 1693, De Vargas led his triumphant forces back into the City of Holy Faith where La Conquistadora was likely enshrined temporarily in the Palace chapel.  

Eight years after the death of De Vargas, Lt. Governor Paez Hurtado, who had been one of his Captains and a close friend, influenced city officials to draft a proclamation for an annual celebration commemorating the peaceful 1692 resettlement. The 1712 proclamation establishing the first Fiesta de Santa Fe was signed by Governor Marquez de la Peñula. The document specified a mass, vespers and a sermon, thus setting the religious tone still characterizing modern fiestas. La Conquistadora is among the most venerated Marian figures in the world. She was crowned in 1954 by Cardinal Francis Spellman and again in 1960 by an apostolic representative of Pope John XXII. Her golden crown is studded with precious stones including a three carat diamond. Her extensive wardrobe includes an exquisite lace mantilla from Sevilla, Spain and an elaborate costume fashioned from ancient French vestments found in the old Cathedral museum. They appear to be of the secular and American periods of Bishop Lamy’s clergy. 

And so it is that La Conquistadora, a conqueror of hearts, and De Vargas, a conqueror of the new world, join forces to inspire our unique and enduring celebration, La Fiesta de Santa Fe, a time of prayer, rejoicing and hospitality for all.
 

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
First week of October, Balloon Fiesta Park, Albuquerque

From a small gathering of 13 balloons in 1972, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has grown to become hands-down the largest balloon event in the world. The Fiesta hosts hundreds of balloons and over 1,000 pilots from around the world. The first gathering of 13 balloons in 1972 was held in the parking lot of Coronado Center in uptown Albuquerque. The following year, 13 countries took part in the “First Hot Air Balloon Championships” held at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds. The event had already caught on. By 1978 Albuquerque was playing host to the world’s largest ballooning event (273 entries that year alone). Today this event draws 750,000 visitors to view the balloon races, Special Shapes Glowdeo™, morning ascensions and evening events. It’s the most photographed event in the world. To view the morning ascension is stunning and not to be missed.