Millicent Rogers Museum hosts cultural heritage collection
‘Following the Manito Trail’
FROM MARCH 26 through July 31, the Millicent Rogers Museum (MRM) at 1504 Millicent Rogers Road in El Prado is hosting a special exhibition titled “Following the Manito Trail.” It is a cultural heritage collection that shares the histories of nine Manito Hispanic New Mexican families from Taos County.
The project is a collaboration between the museum and Manito/a scholars with recorded interviews of families exploring stories about the Manito/a migration patterns and the Manito agrarian, artistic, cultural and religious practices in the American West.
Tempo invited Dr. Michelle Lanteri, the curator of collections and exhibitions at the Millicent Rogers Museum, to elaborate on the exhibit’s history and significance. Here are the edited highlights.
Why is this exhibit important now?
Many Manito/a stories are often not included in the shared history and cultural heritage of New Mexico and the American West in the classroom and in publications. That’s why the work of the FMT scholar team and the project support from the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area and the New Mexico Humanities Council is so significant to this moment in the 21st century. The Manito/a stories that the exhibition shares are unknown beyond the families’ relatives and friends. These families and the Manito/a community comprise a significant part of New Mexico’s history and culture — past, present, and future. The Manito/a experiences also speak to how New Mexico culture is carried from here to other states, like Wyoming and Texas, to create diasporas, while there is also an important element of return in later generations of family members. Manito/a migrations are another central part of Manito/a experiences that continue to affect New Mexico cultural exchange. There is also a powerful element of empathy that is key to this exhibition. Through their work, the scholar team is asking for viewers to relate to Manito/a experiences through the lens of their own familial memories and diasporas that have formed.
What is the history of the journey to MRM?
Dr. Trisha Martinez, one of the research scholars, approached the Millicent Rogers Museum about col
laborating in 2020. Because of the pandemic, conversations were limited and it was not possible to plan for almost a year. Four of the researchers — Dr. Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez (Arizona State University), Levi Romero (UNM), Dr. Trisha Martinez (UNM-Taos), and Dr. Patricia Perea (UNM) — and I picked up the planning conversations in June 2021, just a couple weeks after I started work at the museum. From there, we went through a conceptual phase, to a grant writing phase, to a gallery layout and content development phase, and to a production phase. The project is supported by the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area, for the exhibition production, and the New Mexico Humanities Council for programs, with support from the Department of Media Arts and Technology at New Mexico Highlands University and the Manitos Community Memory Project. The project includes a Humanities Discussion Series that will feature topics like cultural arts, visual and poetic forms, as well as conversations about Manito/a leadership. They will simulcast these programs through Zoom.
It was important to the research team to produce an exhibition in Taos County, since the nine families focused on are from this area. The scholars interviewed members from each of these families as part of their ongoing oral history work with Manito families. They also provided archival images, family narratives, and family trees contributed for each participant, and some families loaned objects from their home collections.
As project director, I designed the exhibition and strategized how to convey all of this familial knowledge within two of our galleries, within larger contexts of agricultural, artistic, literary, musical and culinary practices. Then I collaborated with the project’s two graphic designers, Lily Padilla and Natasha Vásquez, both graduates of the
New Mexico Highlands’ BFA Media Arts program, on the overall aesthetic for the exhibition. They’ve put in so much effort to make stunning print pieces that speak to the seasons in relation to the aspen trees in northern New Mexico.
The exhibition includes listening stations for family interviews, colchas and santos from the museum’s collection, panel displays for each family, and more.
We’re honored to work with interviews and archival photography for this project, and look forward to opening on March 26, with a simulcast in-person and Zoom program featuring the scholar team that explores the themes of the exhibition to public audiences, from 4:30–5:30 p.m.
There will be a reception from 5:30–7:30 p.m. We’re also excited to offer an Educators Day on March 27, an initiative led by Karen Chertok, the museum’s director of education. During Educators Day, we’ll also offer a simulcast in-person and Zoom program from 1–3 p.m. titled “Manito Memories and Migrations,” featuring Dr. Troy Lovata (UNM), Dr. Mathew Sandoval (ASU), with Dr. Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez as moderator. That day, we’re also hosting Dr. Cipriano Vigil, who will present “Ritual and Traditional Folk Music and Song of Northern New Mexico,” from 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m. The New Mexico Humanities Council sponsored all the programs throughout the exhibition.
The Millicent Rogers Museum is open 10 a.m.–5 p.m. seven days a week. For more details visit their website: millicentrogers.org.