taos moradas
seiselt@smu.edu
The Penitente are the spiritual and cultural backbone of many of the small villages of the Northern Rio Grande, but this fact has often been overshadowed by negative depictions of their religious practices in books, news media, and magazines. Although racism and anti-Catholic sentiment are often cited to explain the sensationalist coverage of Los Hermanos, our research instead considers the political dimensions of the Hermandad and its role in resisting American expansion into the Southwest.
The Taos Morada is the physical manifestation of this history - the hands of successive generations having shaped its ultimate form - and yet we know very little about it even though it has served as a local museum and archive since 1977. When and how was this morada built? What role did it play in political and social developments of the region? The Taos Morada project seeks to investigate these questions through archaeological and archival research.
The SMU project will be the first archaeological excavation ever conducted on a morada, and we will initiate this project during the 2010 field school in collaboration with the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish and members of the Taos area Hermandad. The goal is to maximize the information potential of morada research without causing unnecessary damage to the structure or offending the religious sensibilities of our constituents.
The SMU project will be the first archaeological excavation ever conducted on a morada, and we will initiate this project during the 2010 field school in collaboration with the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish and members of the Taos area Hermandad. The goal is to maximize the information potential of morada research without causing unnecessary damage to the structure or offending the religious sensibilities of our constituents.
Moradas are the sacred chapter houses of the Penitente. The Taos Morada is the focus of our research. This morada is the largest and least altered of its kind in the state and is highly significant to our understanding of the Hermandad. Not only was Taos a major stronghold for the brotherhood throughout the tumultuous 19th-century but it also is one of three likely locations where it originated, the other two being Abiquiú and Santa Cruz de la Cañada. Neither of these villages could boast as close an association as Taos with the legendary Don Antonio José Martínez, who along with his Penitente followers played a key role in the fateful 1847 Taos Rebellion. During the mid-1800s the influential Taos chapter worshiped openly under the protection of their cherished Padre, but after his death in 1867, ecclesiastical authorities in Santa Fe stepped up efforts to ban public penance, forcing the Hermandad underground and transforming it into one of the most powerful political forces in the state throughout much of the 20th-century.
The Morada de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Taos Morada)
