Notes
247 Introduction 1. Michael P. Marshall, “investigations at the Mission of san estevan rey, Acoma Pueblo, new Mexico: A Preliminary report” (Historic Preservation Program, new Mexico Department of educational finance and cultural Affairs, 1977), 6. 2. interview, Dennis Playdon, July 2007, Philadelphia. Gustavo Araoz expressed his views in a letter from June of 1999 to eileen rojas, cornerstones community Partnerships, that the value of the mission lies in the site. 3. cristo rey church in santa fe, designed by John Gaw Meem and built by the cristo rey Parish community in the 1940s, is a larger adobe structure. The adobe wall structure is supported by a steel frame. 4. “These linear measurements all depended for their accuracy on a standardized vara. even though Mexican law set the vara at three feet, in practice, the vara was based on a vara stick in the possession of the alcalde, or local official of each jurisdiction. since these were not uniform, the vara varied from jurisdiction to jurisdiction in new Mexico.” Malcolm ebright, “land Grants in a nutshell, lecture notes,” 1997, center for land Grant studies, www.southwestbooks.org/ nutshell.htm. At Acoma the vara was approximately 27 inches. 5. The dirt for the adobe came from sites on Acoma lands. Michael P. Marshall, “Acoma Pueblo, An Archaeological investigation” (october 1979), 6, states that the Acomas were able to exploit a resource using a technology introduced by fray Juan ramírez. Adobe blocks “were manufactured almost entirely from midden debris which had accumulated about the margin of the mesa through early centuries of habitation.” 6. The clerestory was described by Diego de vargas in 1692; see Diego de vargas, “ritual repossession, of the Pecos, Keres, Jemez, Acoma, Zuni, and Moqui notes 248 notes to PaGes 5–10 indians; summary; and letters of transmittal to the viceroy, 16 october 1692– 10 January 1693,” in By Force of Arms: The Journals of Don Diego de Vargas, New Mexico, 1691–93, edited by John l. Kessell and rick Hendricks (Albuquerque: University of new Mexico Press, 1992), 539. it was eliminated from the structure sometime after that, probably in the early-eighteenth-century rebuilding of the church. 7. it is important to note the difference between what is speculative in the oral history, what is confirmed through the historical record, and the importance of the building itself confirming both. in the case of the second story for both the baptistery and the convento, the speculation about the extent of the second story continued with the reconstruction drawings that were part of the HAbs drawing set completed in 1934 (see chapter 8). The second story of the convento is illustrated in photographs, but only for the north side of the convento. The reconstruction drawings suggest the second story covered the east side as well. As for the baptistery, there was no reason for a second story. The reconstruction drawings suggest a second-story porch, but the building and the historical record do not provide enough evidence about whether this existed. 8. The result was an inversion of the renaissance objective of lighting the sanctuary while keeping the congregation in shadow. 9. Marshall, “investigations,” 67–83. 10. Marshall, “investigations”; Marshall, “Acoma Pueblo.” 11. interview, Damian Garcia, curator, Haak’u Museum, Acoma Pueblo, August 2007. 12. see the appendix for a synopsis of groups and individuals mentioned in the letters and involved in the preservation work on san esteban in the 1920s. 13. The Acoma Meeting House, recorded as part of the HAbs survey in 1934, is adjacent to the church and sits on an old foundation. it might have served as a temporary church over the period of mission building. This is speculation on my part; however, the dimensions of the meetinghouse are consistent with those at other sites: in plan it measures approximately 19 feet by 63 feet, and the orientation is close to north-south, which might explain the historical record that says there was a prior north-south church on the site. it is important to note that francisco Atanasio Domínguez, The Missions of New Mexico, 1776: A Description, translated and edited by eleanor b. Adams and Angélico chávez (Albuquerque: University of new Mexico Press, 1956), 190n1, includes the possibility that an earlier north-south church was underneath the current church. 14. quoted in france v. scholes and eleanor b. Adams, “inventories of church furnishings in some of the new Mexico Missions, 1672,” in Dargan Historical Essays, edited by william M. Dabney and...
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