The Upper Penitente Morada Chapel, Arroyo Hondo, Taos County, NM. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Buildings Survey. Part of the cultural documentation found in New Mexico's Local Legacies projects.

New Mexico

The American Folklife Center was created in 1976 by the U.S. Congress through Public Law 94-201 and charged to "preserve and present American folklife." The Center incorporates the Archive of Folk Culture, which was established at the Library of Congress in 1928, and is now one of the largest collections of ethnographic material from the United States and around the world.

Collections

The collections of the American Folklife Center contain rich and varied materials documenting the Native American and other folk traditions of New Mexico. Among this material are early cylinder recordings of Zuni songs and folklore, collected by Jesse Walter Fewkes in 1890 and 1891; many hours of songs and spoken narrative from the Acoma, Cochiti, Isleta, Jemez, Laguna Picuris, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Santo Domingo, and Taos pueblos; materials from the Mescalero and Chiricahua Apache peoples; the John Donald Robb collection of Spanish-American folksongs; and cowboy music.

American Folklife Center Collections presented online through the American Memory project include Hispano Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: the Juan Rael Collection, an ethnographic field collection documenting religious and secular music of Spanish-speaking residents of rural Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado compiled by Juan Batista Rael in 1940.

• New Mexico Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture [draft available upon request]

New Mexico is participating in the Library's Bicentennial Local Legacies project, which includes documentation of local traditions and celebrations for the American Folklife Center's Archive of Folk Culture.

• View New Mexico's Local Legacies projects

Concert Webcast

November 16, 2005: Dineh Tah Navajo Dancers. Dances and songs of the Navajo Nation. [catalog record] [webcast and event flyer]

Publications

• "Finding the"True America" Ethnic Tourism in New Mexico During the New Deal," Folklife Annual 88-89. [catalog record]
• The Federal Cylinder Project: A Guide to Field Cylinder Recordings in Federal Agencies, Volume 5. [catalog record]

Published Recordings

• Pueblo: Taos, San Ildefonso, Zuni, Hopi, Library of Congress AFS L43. [audiocassette]