Losing Kuaua

Group: Richard, Heather, Rachel

In 1540, Spanish Captain General Vasquez de Coronado arrived in Kuaua, meaning "sacred evergreen" in Tiwa, seeking converts and the famed Cibola gold. Within less than 60 years, the once thriving, 1,200 room pueblo was abandoned. Since then, the site has been reappropriated and named after it's conqueror, Coronado.

Throughout the self-guided tour amongst the ruins, there are numbered placards that explain what occurred at each location. We found it interesting that most of the placards were accompanied by a quote from the Spanish. Pedro de Castaneda (1540) and Gaspar Perez de Villagra (1610) were repeatedly quoted throughout the tour. In their descriptions of Kuaua, they maintain a detached, scientific tone reminiscent of something written in Samuel Morton's anthropological journals. This tone clearly indicates a perceived disconnect between the Spanish and the people of Kuaua and suggests that the Spanish felt that it was their God-given mandate to “help” these people.

What does it take to use millions of New Deal money in order to reconstruct and preserve a site (and a name) that most native New Mexicans would probably like to forget?

In response to the Great Depression, FDR pushed legislation that provided the country with the “3 Rs:” Relief, Recovery, and Reform. It is also during this time that the public's support and trust of the federal government was waning, precipitating the need to invigorate patriotism. In 1933, a portion of New Deal money went towards to excavation of the “prehistoric” Kuaua pueblo.

Yet what does “prehistoric” mean? When I think of prehistoric, I think of dinosaurs and primordial goo. From the morals uncovered in the kivas on-site, their history was recorded, and communicable. The Kuaua people were people who traded (as indicated by the macaw feather masks they used during ceremonies and the shells the used to adorn their dress).

While I was walking with Richard, I turned and asked him, “Why do people visit places like this?” We came to the same conclusion as FDR, Relief, Recovery, and Reform. In walking through the ruins of our ancestors, we are reminded of our influence, our resilience, and our progress.

But in visiting the ruins, we are more importantly constructing our historical identity. The danger in this is that we begin to romanticize the more primitive, Kuaua people in a similar way that we see Pedro de Castaneda and Gaspar Perez de Villagra do in the placard quotes. The Kuaua people become less like people and more like an objectifiable stepping stone on the Darwin-inspired Evolution of Man diagram.

While we have come a long way from grinding corn by hand, we need to recognize our generational xenophobia and understand that in 400 years, our microwaves and internet will join the primitive hearths and kiva murals.