Book Description

One of the great festival traditions shared by Pueblo and Hispano across New Mexico is the celebration Los Comanches. In this series of winter festivals, communities come alive with colorful processions, boisterous ceremonial dance, allegorical nativity plays, and a folk drama on horseback which portrays the 1779 defeat of famed war chief Cuerno Verde. In a mixture of defiance and emulation, these events honor the historic relations of war and peace with the Comanches, the feared and admired warriors and traders of the south plains who once held the fate of all New Mexico in their hands. Lamadrid and Gandert provide historic, poetic, and photographic documentation of one of the richest legacies of the upper Rio Grande, a cultural crossroads known for its mestizo traditions and transcultural exchanges. A CD anthology of "Comanche" music accompanies a stunning selection of Gandert's photographs.