by Joe Schepps | Aug 17, 2023 | education, history, Santa Fe
Richard Jessor – one of WW II’s super-heroes
When I think of War, my most recent memories are of course Vietnam, then Iraq and Afghanistan. Vietnam was truly my coming of age –protesting the Vietnam War right in the 1960’s in the San Francisco Bay area. My father fought in World War II and said it was the only time he really earned his paycheck. World War II was clearly the most moral war we have fought, one we had to win at all costs. If the Axis powers, Japan, Italy and Nazi Germany had succeeded and won this war, the face of the entire world would have been changed possibly forever. This war called upon the bravest of the brave.
Iwo Jima was the first Japanese soil conquered by US Forces. This tiny island was a key component of the Allies’ strategy to capture islands closing in on Japan from which to launch our powerful B-29 bombers which delivered 1000’s of tons of ordinance and eventually the 2 atomic bombs that brought Japan to its knees. The cost was immense to capture the island which had long been preparing for its defense, connecting through caves much of the island where the Japanese soldiers could wait out the naval bombardment proceeding the invasion. The strategic Mount Siribachi dominated one end of the island which was the last stand for the Japanese defenders. 7000 Americans paid for Iwo Jima’s capture, making it by far one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. More Medals of Honor were awarded here than at any other battle in US History. The survivors are some of the bravest soldiers io our history.
Last week, I had the great honor to meet Richard Jessor, a 98-year World War II hero of the battle for Iwo Jima. This small island was a key stepping-stone in the Allies’ advance on Japan’s mainland. This gentleman had all his wits about him, (much better than I do at 75!) was funny, articulate and still physically fit, traveling with his wife Jane Menken. I am including some photos from Richard’s time during and after the war. He is as handsome now as he was in his 20’s, and as much a hero in my eyes as if he himself were at this very moment raising the American flag on Iwo Jima. Both he and Jane had fantastic careers as professors at the University of Colorado. There is a link attached to read more about Richard’s professional teaching career. One picture I have included shows Richard holding a Japanese Flag on Iwo Jima and another of him as the longest serving professor at University of Colorado.
No picture from WW II better symbolizes the bravery exhibited by our soldiers than the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima.
If you ever run across Richard and Jane, you will have the great experience of talking to a real hero!
Joe Schepps
Owner
Inn On The Alameda
To learn more about Mr. Jessor, got to:
https://www.colorado.edu/asmagazine/2021/07/30/shocked-battle-iwo-jima-young-scholar-vowed-make-difference
by Inn on the Alameda Santa Fe Hotel | Apr 27, 2022 | Art in Santa Fe, Art Museums, art travel, contemporary santa fe art, culture & tradition, Hispanic Culture of New Mexico, history, Lensic Performing Arts Center, Museums, Music in Santa Fe, Native American Art, Native American Culture of New Mexico
Santa Fe has always been known for creative innovation in art, craftsmanship, and design. Since its founding in 1609, art has always characterized this colorful city. The city’s art history is a diverse blend of styles from Pueblo ancestors in 1050 A.D. to its current inhabitants. There are many traditional art forms to experience here.
Replete with natural materials, such as wool and plant fibers like yucca, Santa Fe and its surrounding areas were conducive to woven works. Ancestors fashioned blankets, sandals, baskets, and other goods. Traditional pottery featured painted motifs and optical illusions that fascinate archaeologists today. Potters applied readily available plant or ground mineral pigments to clay, wielding frayed twigs or yucca brushes to create various effects. Pueblo dwellers used vessels for storing or serving food and water. These days, artisans take the pottery tradition to fine art heights with delicately painted motifs.
As more Spanish settlers made their way to Santa Fe in the 1600s, the more word spread about this mysterious, remote land. Spanish colonists brought Catholicism, and religious motifs became common themes for artwork. They introduced embroidery, furniture-making, wood carving, painted flourishes, tinwork, and jewelry making to the local art traditions.
Around the 1920s, Santa Fe’s bustling art scene and natural environs beckoned creatives from across the country. Among these aspiring newcomers was Georgia O’Keefe, whose life’s work is on display at the Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe.
Current Ways to Experience Art in Santa Fe
Today, you can find artistic works in every corner of Santa Fe, but Canyon Road is a cultural mecca, boasting countless galleries, outdoor exhibits, museums, and restaurants along the mile-long meandering road.
Regular events such as the weekly Road Art Stroll help preserve Santa Fe’s prominent standing in the art world and bolster local artists. But it is also easy to spend time exploring on your own. Browse the collections, dine at a cafe or restaurant, and spend an afternoon at any of the 80 galleries found there.
Aside from conventional art forms like pottery and weaving, Canyon Road is home to contemporary art forms like glassworks, abstract paintings, and digital media. Boutiques deliver a range of jewelry, bespoke footwear, leather outerwear, and handmade wooden furniture. No matter what artistic styles you prefer or your budget, there is something on Canyon Road for everyone.
Find your inner artist
Are you more of a hands-on type of traveler? Unleash your creative side with the help of Lisa Flynn’s Inner Artist Workshop as she takes you on a tour of historic Santa Fe and helps you create watercolor postcards of what you find along the way. The customizable session accommodates both individuals and groups of all ages and levels. Just bring an open, curious mind—Lisa Flynn provides the art supplies needed for the class.
Are you looking for a place to stay during your artistic explorations of Santa Fe? The Inn on the Alameda is the perfect place for your Santa Fe getaway. To learn more about the Santa Fe area, or for help planning your trip to Inn on the Alameda, visit our website.
by Inn on the Alameda Santa Fe Hotel | Nov 4, 2020 | culture & tradition, history, NM History
If you have lived in Mexico as I have, the Day of the Dead is an absolutely wonderful time to visit a town such as San Miguel de Allende. This traditional celebration of the dead is not a sad ceremony at all. Families come together to share their fondest memories of the deceased family members. In preparation of the big night and day, the entire town is busy cleaning graves, decorating them with their dead relatives’ favorite foods, brands of alcoholic beverages, candies, and cigarettes. Later in the evening at the cemetery, everyone enjoys singing their loved one’s favorite Spanish songs. Here, death is seen as just a part of life, a returning guest with nothing to fear; the Day of the Dead is about sharing fond memories with friends and family. Not coincidentally, Day of the Dead begins October 31 and ends November 2. Halloween also has its roots in All Saints’ Day.
Traditional Day of the Dead Altar
Bright orange marigold pedals are the calling cards for the departed souls and they decorate the home-made altars. These pedals line the pathways of the Jardin (Plaza) and potted marigold plants adorn every home. It is believed that the pungent and distinctive odor of the marigold leads the souls to their respective families for a visit and a nostalgic get-together between the living and the dead.
tradition ORIGINs
The origins of this predominately central and southern Mexican tradition are an interesting mixture of Catholic and Aztec rituals. Of course, the invading conquistadors, as here in New Mexico, brought with their military invasion a slew of new Catholic holidays and traditions, completely alien to the indigenous peoples. As is always the case, the conqueror makes the rules and enforces his religions onto the conquered. However, in Mexico, there was such a disproportionate number of Aztecs to the very small European military and religious presence, a melding of the two religious and traditional culture’s rituals was necessitated. While every effort was made to force the Spanish’s beliefs upon the Aztec, the indigenous peoples found a way to weave the new ways into their old ways.
All Saints Day began in the 4th century in Europe as a day to honor and remember the Saints and those humans who had entered Heaven. In present-day Mexico, the Aztecs also had a day of celebrating their dead, and the Day of the Dead traditions were born. An Aztec festival dedicated to the spirit of the Aztec god Mictecacihuatl is considered the first remembrance of a departed soul in current-day Mexico. From Europe came All Saints’ Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day which all fall during a three-day period. Both cultures shared an appreciation and respect through ceremonies for departed souls, reaching back to souls from past lives. Both were a common tradition of the continuance of someone’s life, and a marriage of these two traditions merged. Now, for instance, the altars for the Day of the Dead feature crosses and the Virgin of Guadalupe as well as skull masks with calavera make-up that came from the ancient Aztec rituals.
Today’s customs
Enough history. More to the fun. The young teenagers dress impeccably in tuxedos and evening gowns with calavera skulls painted on their faces. Everyone lines up in the Plaza to be painted by make-up artists to make sure to look their best. The original calavera was a fancily dressed woman of Spanish culture with a parasol. This was a parody of the Spanish ladies who did not deem it respectful to attend and participate in indigenous festivals. The food is fantastic, like during the Fiestas here in Santa Fe. But in Mexico, instead of chimichangas and tacos like here at Fiestas, chocolate and sugar skulls are both eaten and placed around the altars. Light and fluffy chicken tamales with tomatillo-cilantro salsa are served, along with classic chicken breast with Mole (chocolate) sauce. Candied pumpkins and Oaxacan hot chocolate are enjoyed everywhere, at home and in the streets.
Even pets wear skeleton costumes and everyone from babies to old folks participate in the fun. A parade usually closes the celebration, and the most outlandish and fascinating costumes and faces all gather at the Jardin for one last evening of celebration, respect and remembrance of the Dead. We at the Inn on the Alameda serve some of these dishes on the Dead of the Dead and you (while still living) can enjoy your favorite foods, drinks and desserts in our beautiful Agoyo Lounge.
Best,
Joe Schepps
Owner, Inn on the Alameda
by Inn on the Alameda Santa Fe Hotel | Dec 4, 2019 | history, NM History
Santa Feans will gladly tell you the many superlatives that define the city. The oldest. The highest. The best. While there’s no denying the city’s altitude, the veracity of the best is up to you because when it comes to oldest, there’s some debate.
American chapel of San Miguel, by Wittick, Ben, 1845-1903
Santa Fe’s status as a Capital city of New Spain is undisputed, and it has held the title of Capital for over 400 years, making it the oldest Capital city in the United States. But is it the oldest inhabited town? No, that honor goes to St. Augustine.
Juan Ponce de Leon | Image from the British Library
The shorelines and nearby interior of Saint Augustine, Florida, were first discovered in 1513 by the ambitious Spanish explorer, Juan Ponce de Leon. The verdant coastline was named, Florida (or flowery land), after the flora seen growing in abundance. Claims of De Leon’s mad quest for the Fountain of Youth are probably exaggerated contemporary tales, however, the restless De Leon did continue onwards, travelling many intercostal waterways and mapping the coast of Florida. He did not create settlements or forts to protect the Spanish claim, as he was more intent on mapping and understanding the coast.
It was not until 1562 and later in 1564 that the French mounted two separate expeditions to explore this area of Florida. The first French fort was established north of Saint Augustine and named Fort Caroline. As a response, Spain dispatched Pedro Menendez de Aviles to establish a fort at Saint Augustine, which he did on August 28th, 1565. Following the sacking by Spanish soldiers of Fort Caroline, fears of future French colonization assured that Spain would maintain Saint Augustine as a permanent fort and settlement on America’s eastern coast. The first “registered” European child was born there in 1566. This date is 21 years before the first English settlement of Roanoke Island in Virginia, and 42 years before the establishment of Jamestown and Santa Fe.
Having been to Disneyworld in August, and experienced the unremitting heat and humidity, there’s no denying the fervor and devotion of Spanish colonists in settling Florida several hundred years before air conditioning.
Hernan Cortes conquered Mexico in 1519, close to the same time that Juan Ponce de Leon named and mapped Florida. However, as with Saint Augustine, much time passed before colonization began in either parts of our country, and it was not until much later in 1598 that the explorer Don Juan de Onate traveled north from Mexico into what would be named the Provinces of New Mexico. He established a small settlement on the banks of the Rio Grande River about 30 miles north of present day Santa Fe. In 1607, Don Pedro de Peralta established a second city (Santa Fe) to which he moved the capital in 1610. These facts absolutely clear up any confusion over which two cities we are discussing is the older – Saint Augustine wins hands down! But Santa Fe claims to be the oldest capital in the U.S. and that is also true and deservedly so, without argument.
We always proudly describe Santa Fe’s San Miguel Chapel as the U.S.’s oldest church, having its first walls built in 1610 by Tlaxcalan Mexicans, most assuredly slaves brought north to help the colonization of the Provinces of Nuevo Mexico. Finished in 1620 and refurbished in 1710, it still stands today as the oldest church in the US.
The first Spanish settlers of Saint Augustine were assuredly Catholics, it is hard to imagine any group of Spanish Catholics not building a church within the first decade of the establishment of a foreign outpost on the edge of an unexplored continent. These settlers came from a culture that had experienced the Inquisition to purge the world of non-Catholic religious believers. They would have wanted and needed a church for their souls as much as houses for their bodies. Despite a lack of archaeological evidence, we can assume that the establishment of a spiritual building was a priority in St. Augustine. Despite this, Santa Fe can definitely lay claim to oldest still standing church in the United States.
All Inn on the Alameda blog posts are written by Joe & Michael Schepps. Read more from the authors here.
by Inn on the Alameda Santa Fe Hotel | Nov 19, 2019 | history, NM History, Restaurants, Santa Fe, santa fe travel
How The West Was Fed:
A Tale Of Fred Harvey And His Girls
Will Rogers described Fred Harvey as the man that “kept the West in food…and wives.” Fred Harvey pioneered many of the innovative approaches to food service, hospitality, and of the Southwest style in both jewelry and architecture.
As a young freight broker, Fred was appalled at the lack of any coordinated approach, inconsistency of service and food quality available to rail passengers. Partnering with the country’s biggest railroad company, the AT & SF, Fred Harvey began first building restaurants and then hotels along the RR route from Chicago to Los Angeles, bringing at the time “ New York and London” quality food to the West. The greatest challenge was to serve excellent meals that could be enjoyed in 20 minutes or less – the allocated time for dining stops.
Fred Harvey’s commitment to excellence and a standard of quality and service set the tone for the changes the Railroad would bring to this new and growing part of our country. The opening of the Raton, NM pass to rail traffic in 1879, heralded the beginning of the end of the Old Santa Fe Trail, and this new mode of transportation, stretching all the way to the Pacific, required the creation of the first chain of restaurants, and then hotels. Standardization, so necessary then, later sadly grew into rampant American led, world-wide “white bread” commercialism. But then, understandably, everything had to be done the “Fred Harvey way,” which assured excellence and predictability to the diners heading west. This was how Fred Harvey fed the West.
Fred Harvey Lunchroom, Santa Fe Hotel, Canadia, TX
Scene from “The Harvey Girls” Film
And how to keep the restaurant service consistent? Fred Harvey created a service army of honest, skilled, educated and attractive women – quickly dubbed “The Harvey Girls,” and from the 1880s until the end of the 1940s, the Harvey Girls totaled 20,000 young ladies spread out along the Western railroad stops. Here were the brides-to-be for the ranchers, merchants and entrepreneurs that grew this country.
And to assure a definitive style and architectural excellence, Fred Harvey brilliantly employed the great architect Mary Coulter to design his beautiful hotels…from Las Vegas, NM to Santa Fe, to Albuquerque and on past the Grand Canyon. Mary Coulter is credited with creating what would become the world recognized “Santa Fe Style.”
And finally, from simple counter sales in Gallup, NM, Fred Harvey brought together the Indian jewelers with their one-of-a-kind handicrafts, potters and weavers – orchestrating and coordinating their efforts into a look that became, like everything else Fred Harvey, a distinctive style that would lead the way for the future successful refinement and commercialization of Southwestern arts and crafts that we know so well today.
So, within a score of years, what began as an idea brought on by Fred Harvey’s distaste of bland and inconsistent railroad fare, turned into the first chain of restaurants, hotels and gift shops in the West. Today, “Fredheads” keep his legacy alive, honoring a man whose vision literally changed the West for the better in everything he touched.
Presently, the New Mexico History Museum has a “must see” show on display commemorating the great visionary and his Harvey Girls. And if you wish to delve more into this historical time, watch The Harvey Girls, a 1946 musical film starring Judy Garland about the opening of a “Harvey House” at a remote whistle stop to provide good food and company to railway travelers.
by Inn on the Alameda Santa Fe Hotel | Sep 26, 2019 | culture & tradition, history, NM History
Historic Madrid, New Mexico, and Baseball
Historic Madrid, NM, as it appears today.
If you haven’t ever visited Madrid, New Mexico, consider adding it to your tourism bucket list. Located outside of Santa Fe, near the mineral-rich Ortiz Mountains, Madrid offers you a fascinating trip into the history of art, coal mining, and even baseball!
Madrid originated as a coal mining town known as Coal Gulch. In the 1850s the town began to grow in size and importance. This trend continued through the 1880s with the arrival of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. The railroad created a tremendous demand for coal, which fueled the expansion of the town to 2,500 people. During the 1920s, Madrid was even known for a Christmas light display with over 150,000 lights. The display was powered by coal generators that also supplied electricity to the entire town.
Like many company towns, the residents of Madrid relied on their employers to provide stores, amusement, schools, and hospitals. Employers even sponsored entertainment and social activities in order to prevent “idle hands from becoming workshops of the devil.” In 1919, the recently hired town superintendent, Oscar Huber, created a baseball team known as the Madrid Miners. Along with the team, he also oversaw the construction of the first lighted ballpark west of the Mississippi.
Oscar Huber Memorial Ballpark, Image courtesy of ‘visitmadridnm.com’.
Madrid quickly became a model for mining towns across the country. Baseball teams like the Madrid Miners popped up around country, and the sport grew into a popular pastime for laborers on their days off. The Madrid Miners were instrumental to the development of baseball in our country, and the Oscar Huber Memorial Ballpark can still be seen today.
After World War II, the demand for coal diminished, and by the late 1950s, Madrid became a ghost town. Still, the houses and cabins that were built during the boom still remain. In the 1970s, the town started to repopulate again with artists, artisans and other “free spirits.” Along with the new influx came new art studios, bars, galleries, and restaurants.
Just a 45-minute drive from the Inn on the Alameda, Madrid offers a fascinating piece of New Mexico history. Shop, eat, drink and experience the architecture and community spirit that has revitalized this important historical gem.
