Nasario García remembers the Río Puerco is an hour-long documentary, featuring the recuerdos/memories collected by celebrated New Mexico folklorist and oral historian Nasario García about life in the Hispanic villages (now ghost towns) of the Río Puerco valley, near Cuba, NM, between the 1900s to the 1950s. Using interviews with Dr. García, oral histories, archival photos and on-site footage, it evokes the stillness and vividness of a tactile past, one which the landscape and the ruins still remember. At the heart of the film is the belief that "aunque nosotros olvidemos, el pasado recuerda. Even if we forget, the past remembers.”
BACKGROUND
The documentary grew out of the oral history stage play, When the Stars Trembled in Río Puerco, which premiered in 2014 at Santa Fe’s Teatro Paraguas and Albuquerque’s National Hispanic Cultural Center (as part of the Siembra, Latino theater festival). The film is presented by the multimedia oral history project, Recuerdos Vivos New Mexico/Living Memories. Our goal is to conserve the cultural heritage of New Mexico by re-imagining oral histories/memories into different genres. Together with interactive events, we hope to encourage audiences to engage with this heritage, and share their own oral histories, reconnecting us to the past, and each other.
The first oral history collection that Nasario García published was about the area where he grew up, the Río Puerco valley, south of Cuba, near the Nacimiento Mountains. Recuerdos de los Viejitos, Tales of the Río Puerco (1987: UNM Press, Published in cooperation with the Historical Society of New Mexico) featured vignettes, in Spanish and English, from elders who lived in the Valley when it was a community of four Hispanic villages, San Luis, Guadalupe, Casa Salazar, Cabezón, edged by Navajo and Laguna communities. The stories spanned the life and death of the community, from raids in the early 1900s, to when - the river dry, the land dry - the post office closed and the last family left the Río Puerco. The book chronicles historical events and everyday life – the 1918 influenza epidemic devastating a family, battles over land regulation and destruction of cattle in the 1940s, somber and funny rituals about santos/saints, chiquiao verses for courtship and dances, ghost stories and ballads about tragedies and shootouts. Most of the viejitos who told these stories spoke to Dr. García from their new homes in Albuquerque and Bernalillo – some kept roots in the valley, others had left it irrevocably behind. These stories were dramatized in the stage play, When the Stars Trembled in Río Puerco, by Santa Fe playwright and director, Shebana Coelho. The play’s title comes from a recuerdo/memory in which a viejito recalls how “we used to go out on the land and sleep on it, no matter if the stars were trembling from cold.”
The documentary grew out of the oral history stage play, When the Stars Trembled in Río Puerco, which premiered in 2014 at Santa Fe’s Teatro Paraguas and Albuquerque’s National Hispanic Cultural Center (as part of the Siembra, Latino theater festival). The film is presented by the multimedia oral history project, Recuerdos Vivos New Mexico/Living Memories. Our goal is to conserve the cultural heritage of New Mexico by re-imagining oral histories/memories into different genres. Together with interactive events, we hope to encourage audiences to engage with this heritage, and share their own oral histories, reconnecting us to the past, and each other.
The first oral history collection that Nasario García published was about the area where he grew up, the Río Puerco valley, south of Cuba, near the Nacimiento Mountains. Recuerdos de los Viejitos, Tales of the Río Puerco (1987: UNM Press, Published in cooperation with the Historical Society of New Mexico) featured vignettes, in Spanish and English, from elders who lived in the Valley when it was a community of four Hispanic villages, San Luis, Guadalupe, Casa Salazar, Cabezón, edged by Navajo and Laguna communities. The stories spanned the life and death of the community, from raids in the early 1900s, to when - the river dry, the land dry - the post office closed and the last family left the Río Puerco. The book chronicles historical events and everyday life – the 1918 influenza epidemic devastating a family, battles over land regulation and destruction of cattle in the 1940s, somber and funny rituals about santos/saints, chiquiao verses for courtship and dances, ghost stories and ballads about tragedies and shootouts. Most of the viejitos who told these stories spoke to Dr. García from their new homes in Albuquerque and Bernalillo – some kept roots in the valley, others had left it irrevocably behind. These stories were dramatized in the stage play, When the Stars Trembled in Río Puerco, by Santa Fe playwright and director, Shebana Coelho. The play’s title comes from a recuerdo/memory in which a viejito recalls how “we used to go out on the land and sleep on it, no matter if the stars were trembling from cold.”
WHY THIS FILM, WHY NOW?
In 2014, we presented the oral history play in a production adapted and directed by Shebana Coelho. Accompanying select performances of the play were “Share Your Recuerdos” open mics: audiences were invited to share a memory from yesterday or many yesterdays ago. The play premiered to full house audiences in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The response was heartening - at the open mics, diverse audiences shared stories and “I remember” became a refrain that lead to conversations about land, memory, story, and connection. Such a strong community response made us want to present this story in a way that featured the landscape - a film where you could see the llanos and mesas of the Río Puerco valley animated by Dr. García's memories/recuerdos. (Read Open Mic Encounters, on TCG's Blog about engaging audiences)
In 2014, we presented the oral history play in a production adapted and directed by Shebana Coelho. Accompanying select performances of the play were “Share Your Recuerdos” open mics: audiences were invited to share a memory from yesterday or many yesterdays ago. The play premiered to full house audiences in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The response was heartening - at the open mics, diverse audiences shared stories and “I remember” became a refrain that lead to conversations about land, memory, story, and connection. Such a strong community response made us want to present this story in a way that featured the landscape - a film where you could see the llanos and mesas of the Río Puerco valley animated by Dr. García's memories/recuerdos. (Read Open Mic Encounters, on TCG's Blog about engaging audiences)