New Mexico Outdoor 

Roughing It In Luxury-Abiquiu, New Mexico 505.901.7321

Abiquiu


Abiquiu Walking Tour with Abiquiu Elder/Author-Napoleon Garcia

"Some brave and curious ones make their way to my porch".. 
Napoleon Garcia/The Genizaro & the Artist

   Nearly seven years ago, now, Gabriela and I visited The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. We fell for Cerro Pedernal, which she painted many times, and made a pilgrimage out to Georgia O'Keefe Country to see it first hand.

   We found the Village of Abiquiu (pronounced Ab-eeQue), and after surveying it's beautiful "period" church, I saw, in the very corner...a sign saying Tourist Information-Open! It looked to me like a home..and since it was Sunday morning and still..I began to turn away ...when somebody shouted .."Hey...what are you afraid of?"

   Well..Napoleon Garcia, who worked for Georgia O'Keeffe for decades, gave us an amazing tour of not only Abiquiu, but the region, right from his porch! It was one of the reasons we decided to relocate out here. His grasp of the History of Abiquiu, his people, The Genizaro 
...is in the form of the Native tradition ..as storyteller. 

   Napoleon recently published The Genizaro & the Artist with his wife Analinda. A Genizaro claims ancestry of both the Colonial Spanish and nomadic Indian tribes of the area and is pronounced he-KNEE-zar-o. The artist in the title is Georgia O'Keeffe. The book is a village insider's narrative of what it was like having a world renown artist as a neighbor.

The Village of Abiquiu, New Mexico, is easily missed by the casual traveller who might think that Abiquiu consists of only the post Office and a few stores along Hwy 84, about 46 miles NW of Santa Fe. If one were to go up the road, past the Post Office, onto the above mesa, one would be stepping back into an era of early Spanish and Native American History!

Abiquiu is established on the site of an old abandoned Indian Pueblo. In the mid 18th century it became a settlement of Spaniards and Genizaros. Like many Northern New Mexico Villages, Abiquiu has attracted various artists who come to this part of the world to capture the beauty of the landscape. One such artist was Georgia O'Keeffe, who first came to this area in the early 1930's. She bought a home in the village of Abiquiu in the mid 1940's and lived there for over 40 years. Napoleon lived around the corner and worked for Georgia O'Keeffe the 40 years she called Abiquiu home.


 

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If you would like to experience this slice of northern New Mexico
culture as we did, you can visit Napoleon in his front-porch gallery
right on the plaza in the village of Abiquiu. If his OPEN sign is
out don't be afraid to venture in.

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Abiquiu just after the turn of the 20th Century. Saint Tomas Near Center
(picture part of the extensive Pueblo de Abiquiu Library and Cultural Center archive)


Click Above Book Cover To Purchase $15.95

Read An Excerpt: The Ditch

 


Napoleon Garcia-Abiquiu Elder


Rosa de Lima ruin (original Abiquiu settlement of the Spaniards) with The White Place in Background              By: 2010 Featured Photographer Kirt Kempter


La Llorona-Napoleon Garcia tells his version of "The Crying Woman".
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Chama River Outside of Abiquiu

By: James Orr for New Mexico Dept of Tourism

The Rio Chama winds through northern New Mexico before joining forces with the Rio Grande. This scenic river provides both water and recreational opportunities for the region, not to mention some terrific photo opportunities of rural New Mexican life.

Also See: An Abiquiu Outing (Scenic Drive)

Abiquiu Moonrise
Oil on canvas by Featured Artist Peter Campbell


Abiquiu Lake Under Cerro Pedernal-Panning Over To Ghost Ranch

Want To View A Hi-Res 1-100,000 NGS Map of the Abiquiu area?

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Painting By Featured Artist MJAckley "Sunset Behind Fall Tree II"

 

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