The Hinterland I presently hail from is Taos, New Mexico, USA. A strange place with big beautiful mountains and painterly blue skies unlike anywhere in the world. It is and has been the home to many of the world's most famous artists. It is the "secret" destination of many of our nation's elites.
New Mexico is "The Land of Enchantment" and the birthplace of "The Bomb." Over on the other side of the Central Mountains and just a short time after the first atomic bomb was tested south of here, the Roswell Incident occurred. Los Alamos is down the road from Taos. But don't worry, I'm not going to write about space aliens here. I mean, really, they're much more likely to be where you are than where I am. The Taos Hum might deserve an explanation, but so far as we can tell, an alien origin to the Hum would be a great Science Fiction story.
Far and remote from the coasts are we. No airline hub here. Nope. California has 5 counties with populations larger than the entire State of New Mexico. Texas has 2, New York 2 as well.
Since you'd have to drive about two and a half hours to get to Taos from an airport that has more than one airline, you're probably wondering why 2 million visitors make the effort every year. Put another way: You have to really understand why Taos is important in order to make the effort to get here.
La Posada de Taos was the first B&B in Taos and remains one of the oldest continuously operating in the state. It's a great business and it's an even more wonderful opportunity to live and be present in such an amazingly beautiful home where our doors are open for visitors to enjoy as their home away from home in this incredible place. If you want to catch a glimpse of what I'm talking about, check out some of my photos on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/r.brad.malone?sk=photos.
In 2007, before I became an Innkeeper in Taos, I began this blog as a forum for both storytelling and social commentary. Although I'd love to have a political discussion with you, it's inappropriate for an Innkeeper to be harsh or opinionated when his guests are more interested in learning about Taos Pueblo than in discussing the federal deficit. Washington, D.C.? Where's that?
My days begin sitting down at breakfast with our guests at La Posada de Taos. Each day our Chef, my partner Michael, prepares something entirely from scratch. And each day I set plates of gourmet breakfasts down and then join our guests for a shared meal around the dining room table. It's a magical time for me. Meeting folks from all over the world and facilitating their interaction with one another as well as with Taos is a gift.
As I've been honing my storytelling skills at the breakfast table, I've been asked to also share some of them on the blogosphere.
Thus, a blog begins anew. I've retained a few blog posts about interesting things that happened here in New Mexico in the years or months leading up to our arrival in Taos. It is my intention, however, not to keep the focus on personal stories and to ultimately relay to you some of the quintessential Taos history that will amaze and, hopefully, entertain you.
The English hadn't even come to the East Coast by the time the American Indian and Spanish Colonials had already settled their boundary disputes in New Mexico. The history of this region can be traced through tales dating back to pre-history and moving forward through the Spanish era that began over 400 years ago to the immigration of Anglos in the mid-1800's, artists at the turn of the 20th Century and then the Hippies of the late 1960's.
Why Taos, New Mexico? It's a fair question. A lot of Americans don't even know where it is. Some folks out here like it that way. New Mexicans revel in being mistaken as being from somewhere else. It's true that some Americans believe that a passport is required to enter or leave the state. Each month New Mexico Magazine prints a column entitled "One of Our 50 is Missing" featuring stories from citizens who have been, for example, denied insurance coverage ("We don't insure persons or property outside the US.") or unable to pass through TSA Security without first giving passport information.
Albuquerque, with over a million people in its metro area, is the most remote large city in America. Thus, Taos is even more remote. It's a town of 5000 people that was described in 2009 by culture critic Dave Hickey in this way:
In the twentieth century, it has probably produced more serious art and literature than any other non-metropolitan area in the United States, and, throughout this century, Taos' virtues have remained more amenable to producers of art than to it's consumers. It has resisted gentrification. . .I'll be getting back to Mr. Hickey's observations in a future post, but suffice it to say that there is no other town of 5000 people like Taos. It is geographically isolated -- surrounded on three sides by the Sangre de Christo Range of the Southern Rockies. Trains never came to Taos. The closest Interstate Highway is over 60 miles away. There is a old-guard of isolationists who fight hard to keep Taos' unique identity and to prevent it from becoming what many perceive as the horror: an adobe-themed tourist park similar to Santa Fe.
All the photos included on this site are my own. You can visit me on Facebook both as an individual and through posts on our B&B's website at laposadadetaos.com.
If you want to know more, or if you're going to be visiting Taos, it is my hope that you can use me as a resource. It's time to get on with it. See you back soon, I hope.
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