BY STEPHANIE NAKHLEH | PHOTOS BY GENE PEACH

For Randy Randall, executive director of Tourism Santa Fe, planning the city’s holiday calendar in the face of a pandemic has been a challenge. “Every plan seemed to need a contingency, and that contingency often needed its own,” he said. “My philosophy has been to allow change caused by the pandemic to happen and not let that change interfere with progress. Flexibility is the word that comes to mind.” That flexibility has paid off, as many of the city’s usual holiday events — the Christmas tree lighting on the Plaza, the Farolito Walk on Canyon Road on Christmas Eve and the New Year’s Eve celebration on the Plaza — are all happening in 2021. In contrast, some other beloved traditional events have been canceled. These include Christmas at the Palace, the Young Native Artists Winter Show and Sale and the annual candlelit Las Posadas procession around the Plaza. “At the Museum of International Folk Art and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, the Holiday Stroll — a collaboration with the other Museum Hill partners — will likely not be happening this year,” said Daniel Zillmann, marketing and communications manager at the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. Other state-run events, from Christmas at the Palace to the holiday open house at the Museum of Art, are canceled as well. Department of Cultural Affairs events, including the library open house at the Museum of Art, Farolitos at Los Luceros and Light Among the Ruins at the Jemez Historic Site, have also been canceled. The Santa Fe Botanical Garden will not host its annual GLOW holiday light show, the Santa Fe Railyard has canceled its annual Santa’s Village family event and Pojoaque Pueblo has canceled its annual Our Lady of Guadalupe Feast Day celebration. Other plans are still in flux: “It’s just too early to say whether we’ll have the Matachines Dances,” said Raylene Povijua, spokesperson for Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo north of Española. The Matachines Dance tradition dates back hundreds of years and has been carried down for generations in New Mexico, both in Hispanic villages and Indian pueblos. “I would hate to say, ‘Yes we are [holding the dances],’ and then it doesn’t happen. My best advice is to call the [Ohkay Owingeh] governor’s office at 505-852-4400 and ask. Things can change at the last-last minute, so call before coming.” Povijua paused for a moment before adding, “Personally, I hope it happens. These communities suffer a lot when we can’t have our traditional cultural events, and that’s true for the Pueblo side as well as the Spanish side. I’m Native and my husband is Spanish, so my children participate in the dances on both sides, here at home in Ohkay Owingeh and also at the Matachines Dance in Alcalde. I miss doing that. It’s such a special thing.” On a hopeful note, “We will be [dancing] again in 2021,” confirmed Adam Martinez, mayordomo of the village of Alcalde. “But we don’t have dates yet . . . . People can call me at 505-927-9864 for the details.” In 2019 Los Matachines de Alcalde included two days of celebration, starting with an afternoon performance of the dance at the Capilla de San Antonio and a rosary that evening. The next day included a Mass at St. Anne’s Catholic Church, followed by a Matachines performance, lunch and another rosary. Martinez expects to follow the same schedule this year. The city of Santa Fe brings back two annual outdoor holiday events: the Canyon Road Farolito Walk on Christmas Eve and the New Year’s Eve celebration. “From everything I read and hear, outdoor events are definitely safer,” said Randall. “Everyone is anxious to return to some level of normality, even if it is a bit different than ‘normal’ was in the past. We need to make every effort to allow this to happen for both our residents and our visitors.”

Santero organizes a winter Spanish colonial art show

When he heard rumors that the Spanish Colonial Arts Society might not hold a 2021 winter art market, Charlie Carrillo decided to take matters into his own hands. “I started thinking, I’ve been doing this close to 40 years, so maybe I can pull something together — you know, for the artists,” Carrillo said. “I’ve named it the Spanish Market Artists Winter Show, so it has its own name. What I wanted to do was provide an opportunity, a venue, for the many artists who normally do a winter market. I also wanted to bring this family of artists back together.”

Since SCAS took the market to Albuquerque about a decade ago, it has struggled with attendance, said Carrillo. “I wanted to bring [winter]

Spanish Market back to Santa Fe. “There’s no blame; it just wasn’t working.

So I negotiated with Santa Maria de la Paz to use their large parish hall and community center. I’m a parishioner at Santa Maria de la Paz, so I talked to Father Daniel Balizan there, and lo and behold, I now have 70 artists and the space is filled up.”

Organizing the market “has been a major undertaking, especially without financial backing,” Carrillo said. “But, thank God, it’s going to happen. It’s so important that we return to Santa Fe. It’s important that we take a stand and reground Santa Fe with a tradition like this. A lot of locals feel disenfranchised these days.”

Marketgoers can do their holiday shopping, and Carrillo has “arranged for the Knights of Columbus to provide local comfort food, maybe Frito pies. The Catholic Daughters at the church will provide cookies and hot chocolate.”

“The artists are all juried into multiple categories,” said Carrillo, “like Spanish colonial embroidery, called colcha; traditional Spanish weaving; and santos — both kinds, bultos and retablos. We will have straw appliqué and a type of art called encrusted straw — those are mostly crosses and boxes. We’ll have punched-tin art and tin repujado [embossed]. We’ll also have traditional Spanish colonial pottery . . . . It looks a bit like Native American pottery, but it’s made in Hispanic villages. There will also be furniture makers, and that furniture must be made of pine; it can’t be any other kind of wood. Finally we’ll have cooking ware, micaceous pottery and jewelry.”

The jewelry will feature turquoise, silver, gold and other precious gems and metals. “I have a blacksmith signed on for ironworks,” Carrillo added with a chuckle. “Jewelers always do well at an art show. Men buy for their wives, and the women buy for themselves.”

The market runs Friday, Dec. 3, from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 4, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Santa Maria de la Paz Catholic Church community parish hall, 11 College Ave. Free parking and admission.