The term farolito is a derivative of farol, meaning lantern. Throughout the years, the term has become synonymous with New Mexico’s Christmas celebrations. Historic descriptions of official and religious processions in the 18th-century include the small lantern-like bags filled with candles and dirt. In colonial New Mexico, neither metal frames nor window glass were available, so lanterns (in Spanish farols or linternas) were none virtually non-existent in New Mexico. The first square-bottomed paper bag was patented by Luther Childs Crowell of Boston, Mass., in 1872. Since the paper bags were largely of the mid-and-late-19th century, theyr wer not a part of Spanish Colinial traditions. However, their popular usage in brightening up Santa Fe’s Christmas season justifies their New Mexican label of farolito, the little lantern.

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The musical artistry of Santa Fe’s own Jerry Lopez will forever be linked to the Fiesta de Santa Fe. His grandmother, Magdalena Griego wrote “¡Que Viva la Fiesta! Which is sung at the opening of the festivity and throughout the three day event. Magdalena also wrote the song that is heard as people process with La Conquistadora, this nation’s oldest Madonna, who along with Don Diego de Vargas, are listed as the two central figures in the 1712 Fiesta proclamation. 

 Before Jerry and his brother Gilbert had reached school age they were on their way as recording artists and performed on the plaza bandstand at fiesta through their teens with performers like Genoveva Chavez and Alan Muñiz. Through the early part of the 1970s Los Hermanos Lopez were part of Santa Fe’s nightclub circuit at La Fonda and El Nido with Vicente and Ruben Romero. In 1975 the family moved  to Las Vegas, Nevada and Jerry’s dream of becoming a professional musician were realized. In addition to working as a musical director on the west coast, his band, Santa Fe & the Fat City Horns tours nationally. At the start of the millennium Jerry was the lead guitarist and sideman to Ricky Martin’s worldwide tour, Livin la Vida Loca, where he was featured on the Today Show and at Madison Square Garden. 

Never one to forget his roots, Jerry Lopez performs annually in Santa Fe during Hispanic Heritage month to raise scholarships for the National Latino Behavioral Health Association. The autumn concert is held at the Lensic Theater just up the street where his grandfather, Nicolás Escajeda, was a weaver and soloist in the choir at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in the 1930s.

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During World War II  Japanese-American prisoners began to arrive in Santa Fe. These people, who were considered of foreign enemy ancestry, were forcibly removed from other parts of the country, mostly the West Coast. Their arrival in Santa Fe was brought about through an executive order signed in 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Department of Justice purchased the Civilian Conservation Corps camp that was previously used as part of FDR’s plan to rejuvenate the economy, providing jobs for young men all over the country who came to be known as Roosevelt’s “Tree Army.” They built cabins at Hyde Memorial State Park in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains northeast of Santa Fe as well as the National Park Service building on the Old Santa Fe Trail. The newly transformed CCC became the Japanese internment camp, one of several opened throughout the country in areas considered to be of military importance to the safety of all Americans.

Within weeks, more than 4,000 men were imprisoned at the camp. These so-called “enemy combatants” were teachers, journalists, businessmen, and artists—the type of people the American government felt posed a threat because they were free thinkers. They were forced to leave their families, businesses, and all ties to the community. 

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The legacy of Santa Fe’s literary roots began in 1610 when Gaspar Perez de Villagra wrote his epic poem, La Historia de la Nueva Mexico. Villagra was a captain in the Spanish military who travelled with the Juan de Oñate 1598 expedition to New Mexico. The soldier-scribe documented the first European foothold in North America in The ancient narrative chronicles the arduous journey of those who travelled with Oñate encountering a treacherous hot desert, where even the horses suffered from consuming thirst. It also provided a succinct depiction of the cruelty thrashed upon the native people by the Spanish explorers.

Lew Wallace, who was the governor of New Mexico from 1878 through 1881, wrote the epic Ben Hur in 1880 from Santa Fe. Considered "the most influential Christian book of the 19th century," it was later made into an Academy Award movie. The Lew Wallace building on Old Santa Fe Trail is named in his honor. 

 As a young man Felipe M. Chacon was the editor of several Spanish-language newspapers in New Mexico from 1911 through the 1930s, including Santa Fe’s El Nuevo Mexicano. He was also the author of El Cantor Nuevomexicano: Poesia y Prosa. Published in 1924, the book of short stories and poetry, was one of the few Spanish language books its kind during that era in New Mexico. 

 During the early part of the 20th century Willa Cather wrote “Death Comes for the Archbishop” at La Fonda Hotel where she lived in 1927. The quintessential book of that era was a thinly disguised fiction based on the life of Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy and the conflicts he encountered from the Spanish-Mexican clergy during New Mexico’s Territorial Period. Today, the book is listed by the Modern Library as one of the best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 1973, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp of Willa Cather.  

Oliver La Farge was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1929 for his book Laughing Boy. A descendant of Benjamin Franklin, he spent many years in Santa Fe where he championed the culture of Native Americans. As an anthropologist, his books depict an accurate representation of Native 

Fray Angélico Chávez, a member of one of Santa Fe’s founding families is considered the pre-imminent Hispanic historian of New Mexico. The Catholic priest was also an artist and the author of several books including, Origins of New Mexico Families, New Mexico’s bible for genealogists researching their Spanish roots. The Fray Angelico Chavez Library at the Palace of the Governors is named in his honor. 

Joe S. Sando arrived in Santa Fe at the age of 13-year-old to attend the Santa Fe Indian School. Although he didn’t speak a word of English, he could sing all of his Native American songs from the Jemez Pueblo in Spanish. Sando was the first Native American in New Mexico to document the culture of the Pueblo Indians through his many books that have become invaluable documentation for historians. 

The Southwest’s most renowned mystery writer, Tony Hillerman, began his career as an editor at the Santa Fe New Mexican. His award-winning detective novels introduced the world to the region’s Native American culture, which he so eloquently described in his books. His daughter,  Anne Hillerman, has followed in her father’s footsteps and is also a journalist and mystery writer. 

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The Santuario de Guadalupe honors the Mexican Mary of Guadalupe. The legend surrounding the Guadalupe of the Americas says that she appeared four times to Juan Diego, a Christianized Aztec Indian, in December of 1531. His age at the time of the Virgin’s manifestations is still uncertain, but many scholars claim he was in his late 50s, and was not the young boy depicted in most of the artwork surrounding the legend.

The story unfolds through four different events that took place on Tepeyac Hill at the northeast rim of present-day Mexico City. One account of the 1531 apparitions records that the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe called herself the “Ever Virgin.” Miguel Sánchez published the first Spanish-language imprint of the story in 1648, which was followed in 1649 by the Nahautal version written by Lasso (Lazo) de la Vega. The Virgin rapidly became the most popular Madonna of the masses, the one to whom they turned in time of need.

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Under the Spanish flag Santa Fe managed to eke out an existence via the traders, trappers, and farmers who came through town to sell their goods. But it was only after Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821 and trade opened with the United States that commerce established a foothold in the capital city. William Becknell, known as the father of the Santa Fe Trail, arrived in Santa Fe shortly after Mexican independence. Having established the trade route from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe, he received a warm welcome from its citizens. After years of isolation, Santa Fe was being introduced to people and merchandise they never knew existed. Initially only a few wagons made the journey, which took a month to complete, but by 1835, 75 wagons hauled an estimated $140,000 in goods. By 1843 the value of goods had risen to $250,000, and by 1855 the annual haul was about a half million dollars. 

Santa Fe was not the only community in New Mexico to benefit from the new trade route. In 1826 the community of Las Vegas, 66 miles from Santa Fe, had also established a thriving business community. Hispanic merchants like Miguel Romero and his sons brought merchandise west over the trail. They quickly opened stores, and Las Vegas also became a major trading hub in the southwest. 

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Nambé Pueblo, which is located at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains 15 miles from Santa Fe, was one of the Native American groups that relocated during the Reorganization Act of 1934. Known as the “Indian New Deal,” the people of Nambé were moved to California under the premise of assimilating into American society. After two decades many of them decided to move back to their agrarian way of life which had been kept intact by the fifty remaining families that had stayed.  Today, about 600 people live on the pueblo where they sustain themselves through farming. 

 The people of Nambé, like other pueblo Indians are most likely descended from the Anasazi who migrated to the northern New Mexico in search of a better climate.  The pueblo of Nambé has been in existence since at least the 14th century. Many of the residents continue to speak a dialect of the Tewa language, as well as Spanish and English. They are proud of their self-reliance that undoubtedly stems from their proud history. When Juan de Oñate arrived in 1598 he ruled with an iron fist forcing the pueblo to pay taxes and convert to Catholicism. The people of Nambé took part in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt against Spanish oppression. For the next twelve years the people of Nambé, along with neighboring pueblos, managed to keep the Spanish government out of New Mexico. Their leaders was Po’pay a Native Indian from Ohkay Owingeh (formerly San Juan Pueblo). He served the Tewa people as an Indian medicine man and religious leader. In recognition of the suffering of his people under Spanish rule, he masterminded the Indian Pueblo Revolt of 1680, successfully driving the Spaniards completely out of New Mexico for twelve years. His statue is one of two on display in the National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C.

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 La Conquistadora, the oldest Madonna in the U.S., arrived in Santa Fe in 1625. She was carried in the arms of Fray Alonzo de Benavides, a Franciscan priest who came across the 28-inch-tall statue depicting a Marian figure carved in willow wood with the liturgical title “One Assumption of Mary into Heaven.” Padre Benavides, who was preparing to become the new superior for the Franciscan missionaries, believed that Mary Immaculate would provide the inspiration to the settlers of the barren northern frontier in the high desert. When he arrived with eleven Franciscans in his caravan, they received a warm welcome, and the legacy of this revered icon took root. The statue resided in the Santa Fe parroquia (parish), where it became the most important religious symbol for the Spanish pioneers. Sometime between 1625 and 1655, a rosary confraternity was founded around the statue’s presence, and she was given the name La Conquistadora. For the next 75 years she remained a symbol of religious devotion. During the Pueblo Revolt that drove the Spaniards from Santa Fe to El Paso del Norte (present-day El Paso, Texas), La Conquistadora was rescued from the burning chapel and carried by Josefa López Sambrano de Grijalva, wife of Francisco Lucero de Godoy, to safety. Lucero de Godoy was the eldest grandson of Francisco Gómez and Ana Robledo, who were two of Santa Fe’s founding families. 

 La Conquistadora returned 13 years later when she accompanied Diego de Vargas in the Spanish reconquest of New Mexico. The religious devotion of De Vargas was displayed by the banners representing the Marian figure in his entrada (parade entrance) to the capital city. De Vargas had petitioned La Conquistadora to assist him in his efforts, and he had vowed to establish a throne in her honor. She was enshrined at a chapel in the Casas Reales until 1714, ten years after the death of De Vargas, when the new chapel was completed.

 The two central figures listed in the 1712 proclamation of the reconquest are Don Diego de Vargas and La Conquistadora. The proclamation is read each year at the Fiesta de Santa Fe, the oldest continuous community celebration in the U.S. In 1956, writer and historian Pedro Ribera Ortega and a group of devout men began La Cofradía de La Conquistadora. Today, this group continues as the caretakers of New Mexico’s most historical icon. Throughout Santa Fe’s history she has also been known as Our Lady of the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of the Rosary, the Queen of New Mexico, and, more recently, Our Lady of Peace. In the 1970s she was given that name by the late Archbishop Robert F. Sánchez, who rightly sensed a need to modify the name to better promote a deeper unity among the different cultural groups, especially within the Native American community. La Conquistadora has been in Santa Fe for 390 years, and currently resides in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.

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