History Colorado’s “De La Tierra” exhibit features artists from southern Colorado and New Mexico.
DENVER — When the Colorado-New Mexico border was established 156 years ago, it was imaginary, but it divided groups of Spanish-speaking people whose shared history and traditions have persisted for more than 400 years.
History Colorado’s exhibits aim to tell the history and culture of the region through arts and crafts, including old tortilla rolling pins, bronze sculptures, colchas, santos, retablos, and textiles.
9NEWS reporter Jeremy Jojola spoke with the exhibit’s organizer, Lucha Martinez de Luna, associate curator of Hispano, Latino and Chicano culture at Historic Colorado, who has called for greater recognition of the region’s artists and their mixed Spanish and Indigenous heritage.
“When I first came, unfortunately there was only a small collection from the early days of the settlement, and then there was nothing,” Martínez de Luna said.
To curate the exhibition, she selected artists from New Mexico and southern Colorado, whose work will be on display through April 2025.
Martinez de Luna said naming the exhibit was difficult because of the region’s history of shifting borders since the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The name “De la Tierra” reflects the region’s deep identity with the land, she said.
“There was a generation that really experienced a shift in borders, a shift in power, and it was all about land, the fight for land,” Martinez de Luna explained.
“Being in San Luis, in northern New Mexico, you can’t help but think about the land. My memories as a child, especially with my parents who were dedicated civil rights activists, I was always thinking about the land. So I thought that was the best expression of this exhibit,” Martinez de Luna said.
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