John Pen La Farge

My Santa Fe innkeeper left this book in my room. Because of its charm and eyewitness approach to Santa Fe history, I bought a copy to take back East with me.

This book is a collection of 23 narratives and reminiscences of Santa Fe residents, all talking about their city and their life in it. Some of the contributors are from families that have been in New Mexico for generations; others came in the early to mid-twentieth century - some Hispanic, some Anglo. They tell a mostly loving story of a special place that has been formed by three cultures (Hispanic, Native American and Anglo) and has attracted artists and counter-culture types for much of its history.

The entries are mostly lightly edited transcripts of the taped descriptions and rememberings of Santa Feans. A few chapters are previously published writings. The collector and editor is John Pen La Farge, son of Oliver La Farge, a New Mexican writer of note. The editor has a very light hand. The repetitions, non sequiturs and contradictions of the narrators remain; any questions or prompts by the editor during the recording sessions are omitted.

Humble citizens are described, as are politicians and renowned artists and others such as Gustav Baumann, Aaron Copeland, Randall Davey, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Robert Henri, Peter Hurd, Christopher Isherwood, Stephen Spender, Oliver La Farge, Frieda and D. H. Lawrence, Charles Lindbergh, Georgia O'Keefe, John Sloan, Igor Stravinsky and Thornton Wilder.

The birth and early travails of the Santa Fe Opera in the '50s are recounted. The changes that came to the region after World War II and the nearby Los Alamos Manhattan Project are mostly lamented, as is the surge in tourism that came mid-century.

After reading this collection, I feel I am an intimate of Santa Fe and privy to its secrets, blemishes and triumphs.… (mer)