Images Historic Churches In New Mexico

A brief introduction about NM and churches; 19 photographic images; bio of photographer/artist

Churches have played a major role in New Mexico's culture and history since the earliest days of its colonization. Lavishly illustrated with more than 100 photographs by Daniel Nadelbach, Historic New Mexico Churches tells the story of New Mexico through its churches: their history and legends, and the people who built them. From the massive mission churches built by the Franciscan friars during the days of the conquistadors through the smaller adobe chapels lovingly created by Spanish settlers to the grand Gothic and Romanesque edifices erected by New Mexico's first bishop, the book leads readers on a journey through war and famine, growth and expansion, rebellion and reconciliation.

This interpretive guide combines history and ethnography to represent living traditions at the adobe and stone churches of New Mexico. Each chapter treats a particular church or group of churches and includes photographs, practical information for visitors, and context pertinent to current understanding. Frank Graziano provides unprecedented coverage of the churches by combining his extensive fieldwork with research in archives and previous scholarship. The book is written in an engaging narrative prose that brings the reader inside of congregations in Indian and Hispanic villages. The focus is less on church buildings than on people in relation to churches -- parishioners, caretakers, priests, restorers -- and on the author's experiences researching among them.

In this stunning collection, the photographer/author has fulfilled a long-term mission to photograph the captivating and evocative historic Catholic churches of the state of New Mexico. The mission became a journey that covered the highways, back roads, and SUV trails of the state, from north to south, east to west. He has driven these roads, photographing these churches that reflect New Mexico's complex history and beautiful landscapes, and talked to many people who attend, maintain, and love them. His descriptions of the churches reflect that complex beauty and provide enough information for the reader to find each of them. The photographs and descriptions also reflect an urgency: many small, rural, historic churches in New Mexico lack funds for maintenance as rural populations decline, and some of them are at risk of disappearing forever. This volume covers the churches along the Rio Grande, a transportation and trade corridor for millennia and home to many of New Mexico's oldest Catholic churches. The churches include famous and imposing ones like Holy Cross in Santa Cruz de la Cañada, with its glorious artwork, and more-modest ones off the beaten track like San Antonio Mission Church in Alamillo. They include churches from near the Mexican border in the south to Taos County in the north, covering not only a geographic span but a time span from the early 1700s to the 20th century. The churches reflect the diversity of New Mexico's communities and history. Each is unique and each one claims the Land of Enchantment as home.

"A photographic collection of New Mexico's historic Catholic churches along the Rio Grande"--