Los Luceros Press Release on the UNM Cultural Getaway Event for Saturday
November 20, co-sponsored by Los Luceros and Chicano / SW Hispanic Studies

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: UNM Getaway Adventures
277-3733 for ticket information
($11 plus lunch at Los Luceros)
November 11, 2004

HISTORIC LOS LUCEROS, UNM GETAWAY ADVENTURES, & CHICANO/SW HISPANIC STUDIES
PROGRAM PRESENT

COMANCHES AT LOS LUCEROS: A CULTURAL EVENT
The November 20 event will include performances, tours, and a lecture by
UNM Professor and Indo-Hispano scholar Enrique R. Lamadrid

(LOS LUCEROS COMMUNITY, NM)

Historic Los Luceros will present Comanches at Los Luceros: A Cultural
Event, a celebration of New Mexico's cultural history on Saturday, November
20 at the Historic Los Luceros ranch near Alcalde in Northern New Mexico.
Featured events will include a lecture at 2 p.m. on the cultural impact of
Comanches in New Mexico by University of New Mexico professor, folklorist
and cultural historian Enrique Lamadrid. The lecture is followed by a
performance of a 1780 Los Comanches folk drama portrayed by actors from
Alcalde and their spirited horses, and a performance of the Tewa Dancers of
San Juan Pueblo with lead singer Andy García. Tours of the historic ranch
and Casa Grande, with walks in the beautiful Río Grande bosque and orchards
of Los Luceros, will be offered throughout the day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
and a New Mexican lunch will be served at Los Luceros' Placita Café at
12:30 p.m. Los Comanches, a cycle of regional celebrations commemorating
the historic relations of war and peace with the Comanches, is one of the
most colorful traditions shared by Pueblo and Hispano groups of New Mexico.
The Española Valley was at the heart of the struggle between the feared and
admired warriors and the traders of the south plains who in the 18th
century held the fate of all New Mexico in their hands. The people of
nearby Alcalde still celebrate the end of the Comanche wars with a
spectacular historical drama performed on horseback which dates to the 1779
defeat in southern Colorado of famed war chief Cuerno Verde by a coalition
of Hispano militia plus Pueblo and Ute allies. The Los Luceros' event will
include a performance of the face off between Cuerno Verde and local hero
Don Carlos Fernández on the battlefield. San Juan Pueblo, like every other
New Mexico Pueblo, features year round Comanche dances. The Pueblo's Tewa
Dancers will perform their historic and beautiful Comanche dances and
songs, along with other animal and social dances at the event. Enrique
Lamadrid is author of the award-winning book Hermanitos Comanchitos:
Indo-Hispano Rituals of Captivity and Redemption. He teaches New Mexico
folklore, literature, and cultural history in the Department of Spanish and
Portuguese and directs the Chicano/Southwest Hispanic Studies Program. His
research includes Nuevo México Profundo: Rituals of an Indo-Hispano
Homeland (SW Book Award 2000), and Pilgrimage to Chimayó, as well as
numerous articles. He is a frequent collaborator with Smithsonian festivals
and exhibits, which include Corridos sin fronteras: a New World Ballad
Tradition, currently on display at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in
Albuquerque.
###

Historic Los Luceros is a recently restored 1800s-era, 140-acre ranch
nestled in the heart of Northern New Mexico eight miles north of Española.
It is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week from April
1 through October 31, and by appointment only from November 1 through March
31. Features include Casa Grande, Placita Café, an art gallery, a
bookstore, a chapel, gardens and a working farm. The ranch is owned and
operated by the nonprofit Historic Los Luceros Foundation, whose mission is
to honor the history, culture, landscape and art of Northern New Mexico.
For more information call (505) 852-1895 or (505) 852-3245.