EXPLORING NEW MEXICO

An amazing cultural center
​and its even ​more amazing fresco
Seventh of a series
​Frankly, I didn't know what to expect to find at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, in Albuquerque. After doing some superficial reading, I was not sure about whether it was a gallery, a library, a theater or a school. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is all of the above, and even more!

​​​Yet, as you know, first impressions count. And when you walk into this center, in the first of several buildings, just past the receptionists, you are shocked to find a mesmerizing circular room with a ceiling fresco that leaves you in awe.

As you contemplate this ceiling, it will literally force you to shift your feet and twist your neck in every direction, and yet you are enjoying every second of it. This is candy for your eyes!
There is so much to see, so much to try to interpret, that you could get a little dizzy from too much twisting and turning. lol It happened to me!

It's called Mundos de Mestizaje and it "depicts thousands of years of Hispanic identity and history in the broadest sense, from Europe to Mesoamerica to the U.S. Southwest," according to the fresco's image guide.

​It took New Mexico artist Frederico Vigil eight years — from 2003 to 2010 — to complete this masterpiece. But frankly, I like the way he spends his time. I mean, WOW!
​​​Featuring 220 images and covering 4,000 square feet, it is considered the largest conclave fresco in the United States! And it is housed in what the center calls "el Torreón," or the tower.

​But this is only in the first building. This is a 20-acre campus with separate buildings for a performing arts center, an art museum, a research library, a genealogy center, and a restaurant. 

Built in the Barelas neighborhood, a historic Hispanic community that grew near the Camino Real and a natural ford in the Rio Grande, the center is in a Hispanic barrio, in a city where half the population is Hispanic.

​This center presents art, history and literary exhibitions; theater, music and dance productions; classic and contemporary films, book readings, family and school events and Spanish language courses offered by its own branch of the prestigious Cervantes Institute.
Picture
I saw many wonderful works of art in the center's museum. But this linocut by Juan De Dios Mora was particularly striking. It depicts the dilemma experienced by many Hispanic immigrants. It's called, "¿Me voy, o me quedo?" Do I leave or do I stay?
"So why is Albuquerque so lucky to have this place," I kept asking myself. "Shouldn't this "national" center be in Washington, D.C.?" Why don't they have a place like this in Washington, where for many years we have been fighting, and waiting, just to get a Hispanic museum?

​But it didn't take me long to find the answer:  This is a state institution, not a federal one, funded by the State of New Mexico's Department of Cultural Affairs. Except for the word "national," everything else belongs here, celebrating Albuquerque's Hispanic heritage. After all, half of the state's population is Hispanic!

​New Mexico deserves kudos for this incredible cultural center.​ You don't see this in other states.
To enlarge these images, click on them!
​To find even more New Mexico Hispanic history, perhaps from a different perspective, there is another Albuquerque cultural center that we must visit. For my next article, let's go to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.
To read other parts of this ongoing series, click: EXPLORING NEW MEXICO