2023-06-01 05:22:02
HOLMAN, N.M. (AP) — On a spring Saturday followingnoon, two “brothers” knelt in prayer in the chapel of their Catholic brotherhood of San Isidro Labrador, nestled in the pine forest outside from this village in a high mountain valley.
The words of Fidel Trujillo and Leo Paul Pacheco resonated in New Mexican Spanish, a unique dialect that evolved through the blending of medieval Spanish with indigenous forms. The endangered historic dialect is as central to these communities as their iconic adobe churches, and their best chances of survival might also be through faith.
“Prayers sung or recited are our sacred heritage,” said Gabriel Meléndez, emeritus professor of American studies at the University of New Mexico, who is also a brother. “When the prayers are said in Spanish, they have more force. They connect us directly with the people who came before us.”
Preserved primarily in devotions, especially in humble “moradas”—as brotherhood chapels, built from mud and straw in rural communities along the northern reaches of the state—are known, New Mexican Spanish is distinct from all other varieties of the language.
“Unlike most other forms of Spanish used in the United States today, it is not due to immigration in the last 100 years, but rather has its roots in the 16th century,” said Israel Sanz-Sánchez, a professor of languages at West Chester University in Pennsylvania who has researched the dialect.
Spanish explorers and missionaries first arrived in these isolated valleys between mountains, deserts, and plains in the late 16th century. Forced to retreat south by the Pueblo Indians, they recolonized a century later, and their language evolved to incorporate not only words carried over from medieval Spain but also a mixture of expressions derived from Mexican Spanish, indigenous modalities, and eventually some English following the territory became part of the United States.
Away for centuries from the centers of political and economic power, these towns preserved the dialect orally.
“You never heard English here,” Félix López said of his upbringing in the 1950s in Truchas, a town located on the crest of a mountain range between the cities of Santa Fe and Taos, where this “santero” teacher — a artist specializing in religious art—has been helping to preserve the Santa Misión temple, erected in the 1760s.
But by the mid-20th century, the drive to promote schooling in English led many teachers to correct students who used the idiosyncratic mix of grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary, said Damián Vergara Wilson, a professor of Spanish at the University of New Mexico. .
He has been working on teaching Spanish not as a foreign language, but as a patrimonial language that has evolved to become something unique to the state.
It contains some medieval Spanish words, but also includes pronunciations that developed in the towns of New Mexico and words unique to its geographic and historical site at a crossroads of American civilizations. For example, there are several words to refer to a turkey, including an anglicized one used in the context of Thanksgiving.
With that kind of code-switching sometimes underestimated in education and among the public, younger generations often stick with only English or learn contemporary Spanish, especially as it is spoken in Mexico, which borders the state. Given this, many residents are concerned that they will not be able to preserve New Mexican Spanish.
“The dialect we speak is dying. We are the last generation that learned it as a mother tongue,” said Angelo Sandoval, 45, the “mayordomo” in charge of looking following the 1830s-era San Antonio Church in Cordova, a town further down the valley. and close to Truchas.
Your best chances of survival are in prayer. The traditional devotions have been passed down by the brothers from generation to generation, easy to memorize due to their ballad-style rhymes. Sometimes they are transcribed into notebooks called “notebooks”. In an adobe alcove in a Holman chapel, some of the handwritten notebooks are 120 years old.
Even in large cities, people often request prayers in New Mexican Spanish for special occasions, such as rosaries in honor of the deceased or novenas for patron saint festivities.
In Santa Fe, the prayer to the widely revered image of Our Lady of Peace contains some of the original Spanish terminology, such as “Most Holy Son,” said Bernadette Lucero, director, curator and archivist for the Santa Fe archdiocese.
A women’s folk society founded nearly a century ago — the New Mexico Folk Society — also regularly practices the dialect in its hymns and nine-day “novenas” to Baby Jesus, Lucero added.
In the small town of Bernalillo, where the Albuquerque periphery gradually disappears into huge mesas, the mayordomos of San Lorenzo also preserve the dialect in their annual prayers and celebrations.
“When we sing an old ‘alabado,’ we can trace back who wrote it,” Santiago Montoya said of the Catholic hymns of praise that have been passed down through time in New Mexico brotherhoods.
For 23 years, Montoya and his sister have been the mayordomos of San Lorenzo, a church that was built in the mid-19th century with 4-foot-thick adobe walls. The community fought to save it when a larger modern temple was erected next to it.
But he is also a “rezador”, reciting or singing the Rosary, something he does in the community and especially for the deceased. He insists on using New Mexican Spanish even if the families only speak English.
“I tell them: ‘I’ll do three ‘decenas’ (of the Rosario) in English, but we’re going to teach the kids (the New Mexican Spanish version),” Montoya said.
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The Associated Press’s religious coverage is supported through the AP’s partnership with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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