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The Hispano Homeland:
Past, Present, and FutureAnd the Pecos River as Hispano Homeland Relict
Brock Brown
Texas State University—San Marcos
Fall, 2011
The Hispano Homeland:
Past, Present, and
Future•Geographical perspective (review)
•Cultural change/persistence (review)
Innovation/invention or isolation
•Unique nature of Hispano Homeland
Development of dire economic conditions that
The good years and the bad years.
Persistence during the Great Depression
The great out-migration.
Recent trends in the homeland
Region-wide
In the Pecos Enclave and the study village
Possible futures for the Hispano Homeland
Geography is a broadly applicable, interdisciplinary perspective that allows for the observation and analysis of anything distributed across Earth space.
First, it observes spatial distributions (anything that can be mapped) by asking “who or what is being observed, when is it being observed, and where is it?” (knowing)
Next, it investigates the underlying spatial processesresponsible for the observed distribution by asking “how and why?” (understanding)
Finally, it attempts to make spatial predictions and decisionsby asking how can the observed distributions be preserved or changed by asking “how can and what if?” (applying)
Definition of Geography--ReviewG
eosp
atia
l techn
olo
gies/a
naly
sis
Causes of All Cultural Change
Innovation/Invention
Think it up themselves
Not very likely
Spatial diffusion
How innovations spread from place of origin
Barriers to diffusion slow or stop change
resulting from diffusion
In the absence of diffusion, little change is
expected to occur—evolution of archaic folk
culture
Homelands and
People
Review
Homeland, an uncertain concept
People - unifying ethnic identity, self-conscious awareness
Place or territory
Bonding with place - emotional feelings of attachment
adjusted to its natural environment, and left their impress in the form of a cultural landscape
Control of place - desire to possess, even compulsions to defend, facilitates bonding
Time – to bond
Geographical distribution of Homelands
Most isolated-least change
Archaic Folk Culture:A group of people who . . .
Premise, all cultural change is due
to:
1) local Innovation/Invention; or
2) it is due to Spatial Diffusion.
Examples:
The English in the Appalachia
The French in Canada and
Louisana
Hispanos in New Mexico
Hispano Homeland compared to
other early
Spanish areas of settlement.
Early diffusion
Preservation through geographical
Hispanos as a distinctive subculture
Came earlier, and with exceptions, more
directly from Spain to the Borderlands than
Tejanos or Californios
After initial colonization, Hispanos were
isolated from outside contact and their
numbers grew (Nostrand, 1992)
Archaic folk culture evolved
Archaic Folk Culture Markers
Language
I believe there is no modern Spanish dialect,
either in Spain or America, that can surpass the
New Mexican in archaic words, expressions,
constructions, and sounds. Aurelio M. Espinoza, 1911
Distinctive Hispano Surnames
Esquipula, Secundino, Ornofre, Belarmino
Folk plays and songs (from oral traditions)
Hispano Culture – Erosion of
Isolation
Period of isolation following initial settlement
Later Anglo intrusions
AT&SF Impact on diffusion to the region
San Miguel replaced by Las Vegas as regional center
Anglo-centric economy and political infrastructure
United States and New Mexico
Adjudication and loss of land resources
Men working outside the community
Women and children seldom left the immediate region
Deterioration of agricultural infrastructure
Hispano Homeland Environmental adjustment
Environmental modification
Deterioration of upland resource base
Hispano Homeland Landscape impress
Hispano Homeland
Place identity-bonding
Distinctive Hispano Culture
Markers
Sectors of Economy•Upland grazing – land held in common by land grant
•Irrigated plots, held individually, become family
lands of sort
•Home sites held individually
•Outside cash employment to supplement family
income
•Originally agricultural, local and regional
•With Railroad, variety of basic and multiplier
jobs in region
Persistence of Hispano Homeland
along an urban hierarchy
Las Vegas
Villanueva
El Cerrito
Urban Hierarchy to El Cerrito
Las Vegas
Las Vegas
San Miguel del Vado
1794
Along the urban hierarchy-Las Vegas to El Cerrito
Along the urban hierarchy
Villanueva
The El Cerrito Exit
Upland mesa supports grazing and
some gathering, held in common,
impacted by fire suppression and over
grazing
El Cerrito-the village, irrigated land and home plots
Late 1930s
Late 1980s
Little landscape change over time in the isolated heart of
The Hispano Homeland
El Cerrito Church
The Pecos River and the
dam, essential element
of resource base
Upland grazing
Irrigated
land
Home
plots
El Cerrito
The little hill
A meander core on
the Pecos
Irrigated farm land
Water, sewer, and community needs
Tenacity in the Homeland during hard
times before the period of out migration
Agricultural and Great Depression
Many push factors, few pull factors
Family
Community
Homeland
The school at El Cerrito
World War II and the
evolution of push
factors in out
migration
Pueblo, Colorado
Volunteers camping in El Cerrito
El horno
Local building materials
The ‘hood
Scientific research into the homeland and El Cerrito
Contemporary
El Cerrito