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The Purgatoire River flows through Trinidad. The Puragatoire's history as an oasis for weary travelers on the Santa Fe Trail, and an early incident of lost Spanish soldiers perishing on its banks, provided inspiration for poet Katie Kingston.
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Humaña,
loving the river the way soldiers
were taught to love:
water for oxen,
tender beans, grass enough
to sleep on,
cottonwoods
whispering all day long
in the language of leaves.
Humaña with his bucket, tin cup,
arranges the river on his plate,
crazy graffiti in the beans
a map of Mexico
stained with pork salt and vinegar.
Desire spills from his sleeves,
and across the bridge of his nose,
the lineage of dust.
—from “Conquest,” a poem by Katie Kingston
(In El Rio de las Animas Perdidas en Purgatorio)
Katie Kingston is an award-winning poet and recipient of the Colorado Council on the Arts Literary Fellowship in Poetry. One of her poems was recently chosen as a First Place in the 2007 Ruth Stone Prize. She is the author of two chapbooks, El Rio de las Animas Perdidas en Purgatorio, winner of the 2006 White Eagle Coffee Store Press Award, and In My Dreams Neruda, an editor’s choice published by Main Street Rag. She has been awarded poet-in-residence fellowships at the Harwood Museum of Art and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, NM. Her poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals including Atlanta Review, Blue Mesa Review, Great River Review, Green Mountains Review, Hunger Mountain, Puerto del Sol, Nimrod, and Rattle.
Kingston is a graduate of the Vermont College MFA in Writing Program. She is available for writing workshops, readings, and seminars (see the Arts Registry for contact information). Samples of her work can be ordered online at www.mainstreetrag.com or from WECS Press, P.O. Box 383, Fox River Grove, IL 60021-0383. Books can also be purchased directly from the author and at Great Escapes Bookstore and the Corazon Gallery.
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More than once the eyes of the nation have turned with surprise and fascination on this small city. … Cowboys with their monthly $30 to spend raced horses up and down the streets, firing into the air in true Hollywood style. … Miners burrowed under the pinon-studded hills. And Trinidad—proud, bustling, and ambitious—reaped the wealth. ... Stroll the streets and, with the aid of this book, imagine the history you are seeing.
—A Walk Through the History of Trinidad by Gerald Stokes (Copyright 1986, Trinidad Historical Society, revised July 2000.)
The subtitle of Stokes’s book is “An Irreverent and Frankly Gossipy Guide Through the Corazon de Trinidad National Historic District.” This entertaining tourbook is available at all Trinidad bookstores. Stokes has also written guides for most of the national parks in the western United States.
Gerald Stokes
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On a hot and sticky July morning in 1935, a man walked into The Chronicle-News. ... His brown pants were slightly rumpled and his tie hung limply against the long-sleeved white shirt he was wearing. …
His love of horses was well known. ... His admiration for the animals stayed with him always.
“There will never be a time when the old horse is not superior to any automobile made.”
—“Will Rogers Flew into Trinidad in July, 1935” by Cosette Henritze. (In Trinidad Timelines, vol. 1; copyright 2004 by Cosette Henritze. First printed in the Chronicle-News, Trinidad.)
Cosette Henritze’s Timeline stories on the history of the region have gained such wide readership that the author has begun to collect them into a series of books. Volume 1 is available at Great Escape Bookstore, the Chronicle-News, and the Trinidad History Museum Bookstore.
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Arthur Roy Mitchell ... was king of western pulp magazine cover artists, and a meticulous historian and preservationist, but beyond all this he stood out as a colorful character. … [His] critiquing of [students’] work leaned toward the negative side with only an occasional “not too damn bad,” which was an ultimate in “Mitch-praise,” and enough to send a student’s ego soaring. ... “The artist’s purpose,” [said Mitchell] “is not to reconstruct nature, but to communicate his own emotion and interest to others.”
—Mitchellisms: Anecdotes and Utterances of a Man of Character by Richard Louden (Copyright 2003 by Richard Louden.)
Richard Louden is a local historian and rancher. His lifelong commitment to the community has included service as president of the Colorado Archaeological Society and adviser to state and local education boards. His book is available at the A.R. Mitchell Museum Gallery & Gift Shop.
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Because they lived on the Santa Fe Trail, the [Baca] family could purchase seeds and plants from Mexico, Europe, and the United States. ... Most of the herbs and vegetables in the Baca Kitchen Garden reflect the family’s Spanish heritage and the region’s native communities. ... Colorado wild flowers from the plains and foothills are planted in the beds by the pathways.
—A Guide to the Historic Baca-Bloom Gardens by Paula Manini (Published by the Colorado Historical Society.)
Paula Manini is director of the Trinidad History Museum complex on Main Street, which includes the gardens that are the subject of this book as well as three landmark historic buildings. Manini’s book is available in the museum’s bookstore.
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Look for relationships instead of things. When you see a tree as its color and value in relation to other colors and values, rather than as a separate and distinct object, then you are thinking like an artist.
—Plein Air Painting in Watercolor & Oil by Frank LaLumia (Copyright 2000 by Frank LaLumia. Used with the kind permission of North Light Books, an imprint of F+W Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Frank LaLumia is a veteran plein air painter of over twenty-five years. He holds a plein air workshop every September. Plein Air Painting is available from the author (see the Arts Registry for contact information).
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We became friends in spite of the silence. One day I got the OK to call her shinali, as Clifton did; ’Nali for short. It means “my grandma.” She usually just called me ei bilagaana, which means “that white girl.” … Navajos … give traditional names in a naming ceremony for use on special occasions. Otherwise, generic names are quite acceptable. …
These were the circumstances of the friendship between Mrs. Peshlakai and me: practical, unpretentious, and richly inarticulate. A summer went by.
-—“Saying Good-bye to ’Nali” by Jennifer Green (In Woven on the Wind, eds. Hasselstrom et al. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Woven on the Wind is part of an anthology series; see windbooks.com.)
Jennifer Green also publishes in Highlights Magazine. Green lives in a nearby canyon, where she fashioned all 2,400 adobe bricks for her home, as featured in Colorado Home & Garden Lover’s Guide (Fulcrum Publishing, 2003). Samples of Green’s work are available at Great Escape Bookstore.
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This book ... is about a new way of behaving and about the future of humanity. ... [It] is about stepping over a new threshold of time and space. ... In fact, the truth in this book is even stranger than fiction. ... “[The] progression into the unknown must come to pass and is the natural state of evolution that humans must encounter.”
—We, the Arcturians by Dr. Norma J. Milanovich with Betty Rice and Cynthia Ploski (Copyright 1990 by Dr. Norma J. Milanovich. Scottsdale, AZ: Athena Publishing, 1995.)
Cynthia Ploski’s books (including Conversations with My Healers: My Journey to Wellness from Breast Cancer) are available at Corazon Gallery or from the author (see the Arts Registry for contact information). Ploski is also a painter and actor, showing her work in the Corazon Gallery and appearing in plays staged by the Theatre Department at Trinidad State Junior College.