Who's Who
Taos history is packed with interesting people
Taos history is full of people you've never heard of -
but once you do, you'll never forget them.
There are no images of Don Fernando de Duran y Chaves,
first Spanish grandee of what would become the first permanent
Spanish settlement, Ranchos de Taos and one of three male
survivors of the Pueblo Revolt. Nor do images exist of Cristobal
de la Serna, the soldier to whom the La Serna Grant was
awarded to, being that Duran y Chaves never returned. Gov.
Juan Bautista de Anza insured Taos would survive raids by
nomadic tribal people, in particular the Comanche Cuerno
Verde.
There are still images of Padre Antonio Jose Martinez and
Gov. Charles Bent. These were both contemporaries. The controversial
Martinez is famous for encouraging education, establishing
the first school in Taos, originally intended as a prep
school for future seminarians, and later also offering the
schools services to young women. Taos journalistic tradition
was begun by the padre, who had the first printing press
brought here from Mexico City. Martinez's tenure as a community
leader and defender of everyday people lasted from the 1830s
to the mid-1860s. He was censured by the Catholic church
for opposing policies of Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy.
Bent, a member of a merchant family long involved in fur
trapping and trading, was the first United States governor
of New Mexico appointed when this territory was taken by
the United States during the War with Mexico. Bent married
Maria Ignacia Jaramillo of an old Taos family. As a representative
of the new government, he came into conflict with Pueblo
and Hispanic patriots resentful of treatment of locals by
American volunteer soldiers. They revolted in 1847, and
Bent was killed at his home on the street bearing his name.
As the 19th century approached, Bert Phillips and Ernest
Blumenschein took a shortcut en route to paint in Mexico.
Near Taos, their wagon wheel broke, delaying them. One never
left, and the other soon returned. Enchanted by the local
light, mountains and residents, the two started painting
here, instead, and thus was born the Taos Art Colony in
the late 1890s.
Writer D.H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, Baroness von
Richthofen, arrived in the 1920s. Soon followed Mabel Dodge
Stern. She divorced her husband and married her new love,
Tony Luhan from Taos Pueblo. These new bohemians came to
Taos fleeing the rapidly changing American society. Mabel
and Tony Luhan bought land from Manuel Trujillo, adjacent
to the reservation, and built a large multi-storied adobe
home with many rooms where they welcomed guests who wished
to honor their creative urges in an unspoiled rural mountain
setting.
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