Caja is enchanting — and needs protections
On Easter Sunday, I joined over 50 New Mexicans on the Caja del Rio for our annual Easter sunrise service. As the sun began to rise, we prayerfully reflected on the profound convergence of land, water, wildlife, culture and spirituality alive on the Caja. This unique crossroads has shaped the identity of New Mexico and our nation.
The Caja del Rio is a deeply spiritual place for many communities throughout New Mexico. Its beauty, vastness, silence, and solitude offer the true depths of desert spirituality. Covered in countless archaeological and petroglyph sites, the Caja serves as a geographic linchpin and cultural crossroads connecting different Pueblos from northern and central New Mexico.
In the late 1500s, the Spanish traveled from Mexico City along the famed El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro and arrived at the edge of a massive cliff face that later became known as La Bajada. The Spanish found themselves at a great crossroads. Standing at the southern edge of the plateau, the Spanish had to discern whether to ascend the mighty rock face of La Bajada, or traverse the Santa Fe River canyon, which of course was flatter but also prone to flooding and ambush, or go toward the Galisteo mountains.
Sending out scouts to discern the best route, over 400 years ago, the Spanish noted that the Caja del Rio was a distinct crossroads between what they deemed the Rio Arriba and the Rio Abajo — the upper and lower river areas with their own distinct cultures, identities, cuisines and economies.
Over centuries, the famed El Camino Real became a complicated crossroads of cultural, religious and economic exchange marked by years of both conflict and collaboration between communities that still call the Caja home.
As the sun began to rise, and we reflected on the Caja as a major crossroads, we encountered John’s Easter gospel passage where Mary Magdalene, Jesus’ faithful friend and follower, finds herself at Jesus’ empty tomb. Like us on the Caja, Mary that morning stood at a place of great spiritual convergence, a place where heaven and earth were about to meet, a place where new life is about to emerge from the earth. Yet, in the midst of uncertainty, there is the promise of new life.
On Easter morning on the Caja del Rio, we were reminded of our own spiritual crossroads and that we as a community and nation must actively choose between hope and despair, faith and fear, and unity and division.
Worshiping on the Caja, we were deeply aware that we stand at a great ecological crossroads where we must choose to either keep going down a path of wastefulness, environmental destruction and climate chaos or actively change our ways to be more responsible stewards of creation, protect and care for this amazing landscape and stand in solidarity with the creator who seeks to restore our harmony with creation.
Heeding this sacred call for responsible stewardship, on Saturday, April 20, the Caja del Rio Coalition will host its annual Earth Day Hike and Clean-up. We will meet at the Bureau of Land Management La Cieneguilla Petroglyph site with the hike starting at 9 a.m. and cleanup taking place at 10:30 a.m. Lunch will be provided, and all are welcome to participate in this communitywide stewardship event that seeks to honor the Earth. To learn more, visit cajadelrrio.org