2018 Santa Fe Fiesta Symposium Speakers & Topics Announced

August 10th, 2018

(Santa Fe, New Mexico) – Genetic genealogy, Place and Identity in New Mexico; and Native American Slavery During the Pueblo Revolt are the topics that will be covered during this year’s free all-day public symposium at the New Mexico History Museum during Santa Fe Fiesta week. This year’s symposium will be held Wednesday, September 5 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the New Mexico History Museum Auditorium.

Andrew J. Wulf, Ph.D., Executive Director of the New Mexico History Museum and the Palace of the Governors, today announced this year’s symposium speakers will be Miguel A. Tórrez from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Enrique R. Lamadrid, and R. Moises Gonzales, both University of New Mexico professors; and Andrés Reséndez, a History professor at the University of California Davis.

A Research Technologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory working in Material Science, Miguel A. Tórrez is. Tórrez also serves as the administrator of the New Mexico Genealogical Society’s DNA project. He will discuss genetic testing for genealogical and anthropological research, employing genetic genealogy to investigate the origins of New Mexico’s Colonial lineages to gain a better understanding of the contemporary New Mexican’s ancestry.

Enrique Lamadrid is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Spanish from UNM, who taught folklore, literature, and cultural history there since 1985. His research interests include traditional culture and bioregionalism, ethnopoetics, and folklore. His book Hermanitos Comanchitos (Albuquerque: UNM Press 2003) won the Chicago Folklore prize, and he now edits the Querencias Series of UNM Press. Querencia is a popular term in the Spanish-speaking world used to express love of place and people. This series promotes a transnational, humanistic, and creative vision of the US-Mexico borderlands, based on all aspects of expressive culture, both material and intangible.

R. Moises Gonzales is Associate Professor of Urban Design in Community and Regional Planning at the School of Architecture and Planning at the UNM. He is a genízaro heir of both the Cañón de Carnué Land Grant and the San Antonio de Las Huertas land grant. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Carnué Land Grant and has written various articles on the history and culture of genízaro settlements of New Mexico. He is a danzante of the Matachín and Comanche traditions of the Sandía mountain communities.

Lamadrid and Gonzales are co-editors of the forthcoming book: Genízaro Nation: Ethnogenesis, Place, and Identity in New Mexico, under review with UNM Press. They will be discussing the research that went into the writing of this work.

A Professor of History at the University of California Davis and author specializing in colonial Latin America, borderlands, and the Iberian world, Andres Resendez’s work has long been concerned with the dynamics of borderlands in North America, whether in terms of the emergence of ethnic or national identities or the prevalence of labor coercion and enslavement of indigenous peoples. He has also been interested in the earliest exploration of the Americas and the Pacific Ocean, and the role of technology in these early voyages of exploration. Selected Publications: Resendez, A. (2016) The Other Slavery, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Resendez, A. (2007) A Land So Strange, Basic Books; Resendez, A. (2005) Changing National Identities at the Frontier, Cambridge University Press. Reséndez is the winner of a 2017 Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy for his book The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (Mariner Books, April 2016), which was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. His talk will be based on this work and is entitled, “Native American Slavery During the Pueblo Revolt.”

About the New Mexico History Museum and Palace of the Governors National Historic Landmark: http://www.nmhistorymuseum.org

Opened in May 2009, as the state system’s newest museum, the New Mexico History Museum is attached to the Palace of the Governors National Historic Landmark, a distinctive emblem of U.S. history and the original seat of New Mexico government. The History Museum serves as an anchor of the campus that includes Palace of the Governors, the Palace Press, the Fray Angelico Chavez History Library, and Photo Archives. The Museum presents exhibitions and public programs that interpret historical events and reflect on the wide range of New Mexico historical experiences and serves as a history center for research, education and lifelong learning, delivering quality programs that encourage knowledge, understanding and appreciation of New Mexico’s diverse cultures. A division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. 113 Lincoln Ave. in Santa Fe, NM 87501. (505) 476-5200. Hours: 10 am to 5 pm daily, May through October; closed Mondays November through April. Events, news releases and images about activities at the History Museum and other divisions in the Department of Cultural Affairs can be accessed at media.newmexicoculture.org.