TAOS, N.M. — The Sangre de Cristo Heritage Center is collaborating with La Hacienda de los Martinez Museum of Taos, New Mexico on their colcha folk art exhibit, “Colcha Embroidery: Traditional to Contemporary.” 

The exhibit will open at the Martinez Hacienda in Taos, on July 1 and will be on display until August 4. There will be an opening reception on June 30 from 3-6 p.m.  La Hacienda de los Martinez is located at 708 Hacienda Road, also known as Lower Ranchitos Road, in Taos. 

The exhibit curator is Connie Fernandez, a life-long colcha embroider. Fernandez reached out to the San Luis community through Marcella Pacheco, long time San Luis resident, to produce an exhibit with both traditional and contemporary themes featuring artists from throughout the region. 

For several decades the Sangre de Cristo Heritage Center, (formerly, the San Luis Museum and Cultural Center) has been the home of several colcha pieces, most of which were part of an economic development project in the late 1970s.  The Virginia Neal Blue Center for Colorado Women collaborated with the then San Luis Museum and Cultural Center by providing instruction, materials and the opportunity to exhibit and display.  The project was sponsored by the Colorado Endowment for the Arts and administered by Dr. Suzanne MaCaulay, colcha expert and author of “Stitching Rites: Colcha Embroidery Along the Northern Rio Grande.”

The instructor for the project was Carmen Orrego-Salas.  Orrego-Salas was also the instructor for another colcha project in San Luis in 1988. The result of these projects was an interest in learning the craft and its introduction to the San Luis Valley. 

The Sangre de Cristo Heritage Center now holds the collection and has exhibited the pieces for several years.  The colcha school in Costilla County was focused on telling the history of the region by stitching community icons such as the “the rock carriage house, “ the old Courthouse, La Vega, the San Luis Community Center, the oldest business in Colorado (R & R Market) and other identifiable icons of the area. There are also excellent landscapes, one of which was embroidered by the late Joyce Romero. The collection is a colcha historical tour of San Luis and the surrounding villages. 

The exhibit also includes excellent pieces in private collections. A beautiful landscape colcha by Evangeline Salazar is part of the art collection of Valley Wide Health Systems and is housed at the San Luis Clinic. A long time colcha artist, Josephine Lobato, continues to do colcha embroidery, which now numbers 40 pieces. Her work, “Chile Harvest Festival – 1996” is a replica of the Carlota Espinoza poster for the Chile Harvest Festival of 1996 in Denver. It is now in the private collection of Rick Manzanares. An exquisite colcha on San Cayetano by the late Sally T. Chavez will also grace the exhibit and is in the collection of the Sangre de Cristo Parish, San Luis. A relative newcomer and the youngest of the colcha artists, is Brenda Vialpando’s renditions of traditional colcha iconography.  The two colcha pieces are owned by the artist. 

There is not strong evidence that colcha embroidery was part of the traditional folk arts in the San Luis Valley although at this time, since the 1970s and 1988 project, there is much pride in the work of the local women, many of whom are now deceased. Many in Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico considered the term, colcha, simply to mean a bed cover. There is still a relationship, since many of the bed covers were decorated with traditional designs to add to the aesthetics of the home. 

The traditional colcha stitchery was not limited to bed covers however.  The Fort Garland Museum has excellent examples of colcha on curtains in the Kit Carson exhibit. Until recently, it had one of the best examples of Spanish Colonial era colcha in its Hispano exhibit. Unfortunately, it was in need of restoration, so it was sent to History Colorado’s Denver collections facility.

The exhibit at the Martinez Hacienda promises to be one of the most extensive exhibits on colcha embroidery. It will feature artists from both New Mexico and Colorado. San Luis artists will be well represented in the exhibit. It will be a tribute to the women who stitched to tell our story and to renew a folk art from Spanish Colonial times.

Regular admission to La Hacienda de los Martinez Museum for adults is $8 for adults, $7 for seniors and, free admission to children 18 and under from Southern Colorado and Taos during the month of July. Hours of operation are Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, 12-5 p.m. For additional information call 575-758-1000.