TRADITIONAL STORIES FROM NORTHERN NEW MEXICO
Presented by Paulette Atencio
Atencio delights audiences with cuentos (stories) learned growing up in Peñasco, NM and a lifetime traveling northern and central New Mexico. Stories can be told in English or Spanish, to adults or children. The stories focus on traditions, what it means to be of Hispanic descent, and universal humor and lessons.
THE WANDERING BALLAD
Presented by Johanna and Scott Hongell-Darsee
People have sung stories since times immemorial as a way to memorize and record history and myths. A kind of stone age database. The songs we today call medieval and traditional ballads have their roots among Nordic epic sagas, French romantic lays, Celtic lore and World mythology. As the songs have traveled, they have metamorphosed and melted into various musical traditions, weaving a world of fantasy and mystery. Scott and Johanna Hongell-Darsee are a duo who perform early traditional ballads, songs and tales from Scandinavia, The British Isles and other parts of the world. Their performances blend both modern and traditional instruments in unique, original arrangements. Their wanderings have led them from Finland and Iowa respectively – through Europe, Scandinavia, India, and North America. On the way they have picked up tales and songs that they perform together with the stories behind them, in particular exploring the links between these story singing traditions.
LA LLORONA, THE WAILING WOMAN
Presented by Rosalia Pacheco
This famous ghost from Spanish folklore is known throughout the world for her eerie, spine chilling cries as she searches for her lost drowned loved ones, her darling children. Early Spanish settlers knew of her. Her folk story was ancient in European mythology, but in New Mexico it is said she lived next door, or that an ancestor actually knew her.
AMAZING WOMEN OF THE WILD WEST: TERRITORIAL NEW MEXICO
Presented by VanAnn Moore
One of the most dramatic eras of New Mexico’s rich history is the Territorial period when the United States first raised the American flag on August 18, 1846 over the plaza of Santa Fe for the first time. This program examines the territorial women through living history portrayals of Doña Tules (Gertrudes Barcelo), Susan Shelby Magoffin, and Lydia Spencer Lane. These women represented what it took to survive and thrive during very colorful and extremely challenging times in New Mexico’s Territorial Era. It brings history into an understandable and personal reality. Doña Tules opened Santa Fe and New Mexico to America; through Susan Magoffin’s detailed journal we understand the beginning of New Mexico as a Territory; and through Lydia Spencer Lane we experience frontier military life and the beginning of the American Civil War out West.