Assignments

SANTA ROSA Field School Assignments = 0 to 60 mph by Day 1

 

“Regionalism” & “Preservation”: Key Concepts

Approached from east or west across the windblown llanos, Santa Rosa seems like just another fading roadside attraction.  The “mother road,” Old Highway 66 was more like a cruel stepmother, with ghost caravans of Dustbowl Okies bound for California and Easy Riders discovering America.  Interstate 25 replaced it with amphetamine driven trucker convoys, and post-industrial refugees from the rust-belt headed for the sun-belt.  For 21st century America, I-25 is its most notorious corridor for drug and human trafficking.

At 75 miles per hour, the narrow valley of the Río Pecos is there and gone in a blink of an eye.   Only two in ten travelers stop for gas and notice the boarded up motor lodges, the corporate motels, and the strange sandstone buildings.  Since so few people are familiar with this seemingly desolate part of New Mexico, Santa Rosa makes a great case study for cultural and historic preservation.

Such concerns are intimately tied and deeply motivated by love of place.  And without a deep knowledge of cultural and natural history, regard for place is shallow and easily de-railed.

 

Capturing the Spirit of a Region

You have less than a month to develop a knowledge base for Santa Rosa.   A novel and a folk-history are the fastest two short-cuts to get you there.  (Both are available at UNM Bookstore and other local sources)

-Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless me, Ultima will give you a sense of the spirit of the people of the Pecos valley.  You will soon be camping at Puerto de Luna, the gateway of the moon and the home of its sweet water people.

-Fabiola Cabeza de Baca’s We Fed them Cactus is a chronicle of the salt water people, the pastoralists who took their herds out to the oceans of grass of the great llanos.

-Take a look at regional websites to see how Santa Rosa represents itself to travelers passing by.

-Then take a look at the Content Clusters which will serve as the base of the documentary work that you will complete for the Santa Rosa Field School

 

Virtual Histories: Digital Documentation

Become familiar with your tools and toolkits:

-Software Tutorials: Amadeus, Soundslides, Powerpoint, Photo Shop

-Workbooks:  Audio Guide, Folklife and Fieldwork, Sample Field Notes, Elements of

Seeing, Powerpoint scoop sheet

 

Assignments – Due June 11 (first day of class):

-Begin construction of your Blog.

-Do some notes in journal format based on your readings.

-Take three new photographs that present at least five “elements of seeing”

-Pick a Content Cluster to develop