La Rosa
At the last book group discussion at the botanical garden we got talking about roses and I said it surprised me how they are such a big thing in Santa Fe. Yes, I've learned they grow well in this dry, sunny, summer-cool climate, but so do other non-native plants. Why are all the garden centers, even the native plant nurseries, filled with so many roses?
It's the Spanish influence, the SantaFeans said. Europeans brought rose cuttings to New Spain and treasured the familiar flower that grew so well for them in the new world.
Of course. Now I get it. Roses are iconic images in Mexican folk art. The flower is a signifier of Spanish culture that has been incorporated in Mexican history since the 1500s.
Spanish Europeans were conquerors in the new world. Unlike the Puritans who came to North America with their families and remained an intact culture apart from the natives, the Spanish sent waves of single men --soldiers and adventurers -- without women. They quickly and inevitably mixed with indigenous women, creating a complicated fusion of people over the centuries that gives us what we think of as Hispanics today.
And the key elements of New Spain's conquest and dominion -- Spanish language, Catholic faith, horses and cattle, sheep herding, and even roses -- are still symbols of what it means to be Hispanic in this part of the world. Mixed with native horticultural elements of corn, chiles, beans and dahlias, the modern Hispanic identity is a rich one.
Santa Fe was the farthest northern outpost on the frontier of New Spain. The Spanish came north looking for gold (there wasn't any) and native souls to convert (there were a lot). Despite conflict, a famous uprising, and years of brutal subjugation, the Spanish customs mixed with the native, and to this day there are emblems of that mixing that still retain European Spain's overwhelming influence in this area.
Including roses.
It's the Spanish influence, the SantaFeans said. Europeans brought rose cuttings to New Spain and treasured the familiar flower that grew so well for them in the new world.
Of course. Now I get it. Roses are iconic images in Mexican folk art. The flower is a signifier of Spanish culture that has been incorporated in Mexican history since the 1500s.
Spanish Europeans were conquerors in the new world. Unlike the Puritans who came to North America with their families and remained an intact culture apart from the natives, the Spanish sent waves of single men --soldiers and adventurers -- without women. They quickly and inevitably mixed with indigenous women, creating a complicated fusion of people over the centuries that gives us what we think of as Hispanics today.
And the key elements of New Spain's conquest and dominion -- Spanish language, Catholic faith, horses and cattle, sheep herding, and even roses -- are still symbols of what it means to be Hispanic in this part of the world. Mixed with native horticultural elements of corn, chiles, beans and dahlias, the modern Hispanic identity is a rich one.
Santa Fe was the farthest northern outpost on the frontier of New Spain. The Spanish came north looking for gold (there wasn't any) and native souls to convert (there were a lot). Despite conflict, a famous uprising, and years of brutal subjugation, the Spanish customs mixed with the native, and to this day there are emblems of that mixing that still retain European Spain's overwhelming influence in this area.
Including roses.
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Karen