Category: Pueblo

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Quarai 2014

Quarai
Quarai 2014

Quarai in Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument was one of the places my mom and friends Tim and Laurie found ourselves on our birthday celebration photo excursion, subsequently named “The Road Less Traveled.” In the prior post, I showed images from 1991. On this October day in 2014, differences are apparent.

Quarai
Quarai Mission Ruin, Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

The “landscaping” is more manicured and not as much in the natural state seen in 1991. My personal preference is for the more natural state, although I do understand that greater access for more people may have necessitated some changes. You will also note the walk ways are different.

Quarai
Inside Quarai Mission ruin, on an intermittently cloudy day

The light, which was beautiful in typical New Mexico fashion on that Autumnal Equinox day in 1991 was a little more dramatic on this October 2014 day. Within the church ruin itself, I could not have hoped for more dramatic lighting. Although it lasted only briefly – as these things do – it was enough for an image I will never forget.

Photography comes literally from the word for “light” and “write.” Photography = “writing with light.” Photographers are aware of this in any image that they create; sometimes it is just more apparent to viewers than at other times. One viewer referred to this particular image as “painting with light.” I am more than happy to take that not only as a compliment but as a statement that the light so briefly available that day spoke for itself.

Quarai in Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument in New Mexico – just one more reason to try “The Road Less Traveled.”

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Quarai 1991

quarai
Quarai 1991

Quarai 1991 on the Autumnal Equinox, for the wedding of friends.

quarai
Quarai 1991 on the Autumnal Equinox, for the wedding of friends

Guests are arriving for the wedding. The tipi on the right was the bridal party’s “preparation room,” and had been transported from Albuquerque.

Quarai
The inside of the Quarai Mission ruin being set up for the wedding

As you can see, it was a very beautiful day, even by New Mexico standards. These images are simply scanned 4x6s from film, developed at a “One Hour” kiosk (that was how we saw images in a hurry back in the film days 🙂 ). I have searched for the negatives, without success.

I am showing these images of Quarai from more than 20 years ago, because Quarai was one of the stops on our “Road Less Traveled” excursion this past October. Images from the 2014 visit will appear in the immediately next post.

Quarai is one of three Spanish mission ruins in the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument; Quarai, Abo, and Gran Quivira, built in the early 17th Century and abandoned by 1670. It became a National Monument in 1909, initially as Gran Quivira National Monument. The name was changed to Salinas Pueblo National Monument in 1988.

While the stone ruin itself may not appear much changed when the 1991 and 2014 images are compared, Park Service “landscaping” as well as just the ever-changing light of New Mexico will be seen to combine to make the images appear much different to the viewers. Please watch for the subsequent post and images from the 2014 “Road Less Traveled” visit to Quarai.

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Old Adobe – Kuaua Pueblo

Old adobe – Kuaua Pueblo at Coronado State Monument, just a little north of Albuquerque and just a little west of I-25, is an example of old adobe construction. Built around AD 1300, Coronado encountered this pueblo when he entered the Southwest in AD 1540 searching for the famed Seven Cities of Gold (he was looking for the wrong thing 🙂 )

Coronado State Monument
Coronado State Monument

The major pueblos are often thought of as the Western Pueblos (Hopi, Zuni, Acoma) and the Rio Grande Pueblos, and then further characterized by language groups. In New Mexico, there are living Pueblos along the Rio Grande from Isleta to Taos, and archaeological sites are numerous in the same – and probably somewhat larger – area. It makes sense that people would locate along this major Southwestern waterway. The puebloan peoples were agricultural, and a river location is great for a lot of reasons.

Visitors today can see spectacular views of the river, as well as the Sandia Mountains looking toward the southeast, from Kuaua. This image was taken in the morning, and the mountains are essentially shading themselves. At sunset, the mountains are a totally different color. Often I cannot help remembering one of my old professors, Clara Lee Tanner, who would speak of the “blues, purples, and reds of the mountains and skies of the intermontane valleys of the Desert Southwest” (that was long before those colors had any political significance).

adobe pueblo site
Pueblo location along the Rio Grande River

Kuaua Pueblo was abandoned sometime in the 16th Century (relations and interactions between the pueblos and Spaniards are for discussion in another time and place). It fell into disrepair, and slowly returned to the earth, as adobe will do when not constantly maintained.

weathering adobe
Weathering adobe, returning to the earth

Continue reading “Old Adobe – Kuaua Pueblo”

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