Taos Funk and Freedom Under Siege

Back in 1922 novelist Sinclair Lewis wrote a novel, Babbitt, which accelerated his literary journey to the Nobel Prize. The novel satirized middle class values and conformity and is an ironic ode to “Boosterism.” Today, Taosenos see and hear the Booster’s voice, more business at any cost, being played out in the plans being presented by the Mayor and Manager regarding the Smith’s Super Store.

Prior to this 2016 version of “Big Box Boosterism,” the 1999/2003 attempted coup against community by Fast Fred (mayor) and Slick Gus (manager) arrived at our doors in the form of Super Walmart (1999/2002-3 twice), as well as the Town’s conspiracy with Taos Pueblo government to build a $37 million casino at the Kachina Lodge.

Neighborhood activists, Taosenos Against Walmart Superstores (TAWSS), Residents in Support of Education (RISE of Taos Pueblo) and Citizens for a Better Taos (CBT, the B&B crowd) combined efforts and beat back the booster ideology. Corporate conformity and cannibalization of smaller businesses is an assault on the very soul of Taos.

Never have a mayor and manager seemed more at odds and more intent on creating divisiveness in general: Farmer’s Market v. Plaza Merchants; Smith’s Super Store v. a stable commercial status quo; the promotion of selected music venues and craft beer shops at the expense of those without “juice” at Town Hall. The manager and mayor promote the “new” recreation demographic to the disadvantage of the art and culture demographic.

Big Dan and the Red-headed Stranger would cast the community in their own image. Just because Dan’s a helluva lumberjack and sawmill man does not mean he knows much about history and culture. His Managers speech reflects not realities but fantasies.

Greater Taos is a funky community of “subcultures” and eccentric individuals, who live in a provocative and polycultural environment, both physical and social. Living in a “funky state” means as Ramon Hernandez used to sing, “you can be anything you want in Taaaosss, New Mexicoooo.” You can drop out on the Mesa, still become a ski bum, or take up rafting and walking the Rio Grande. Or maybe you want to make art and paint your heart out like the very visible Ed Sandoval or retire to a long held dream and show your stuff in one of the many coop galleries. The longstanding real artists seem to exist more and more in the shadows.

Still, the representatives of “primordial emergence” at Taos Pueblo who have adapted to 20th Century mores and the first Hispano immigrants maintain ancient, medieval and modern mores side by side. The Americano occupiers (eternal newcomers) arrive and stay because in Taos one can engage in “aversive thinking” and enjoy the practice of individual freedom, choose the century in which you wish to reside without the statutory duties of the dominant culture. You might live in your father’s new or traditional house at Taos Pueblo, your Tia’s adobe or your Mama’s trailer, in a gated Turley Miller or a funky fixer-upper on Montoya St.

Each morning a resident can engage in the sight of the Sacred Mountain and the sound of birds or breezes whispering in your ears, the smell of sage and the sound of trucks whistling down the highway or the beauty of Valdez as you drive up to Taos Ski Valley, or watch our funky friends migrate in from the West Mesa, or study the architectural bricolage of the Penasco Valley while driving to town from Rodarte. Everyone wants to enjoy that unity of feeling that sings joyously of home, family, beauty, death, ancestors and friends. Many revel in the feeling of authentic grit and funk that keeps the Natives here and tempts visitors to dive into the trap of enchantment.

But there’s another spirit or being somewhere, which gives voice to “boosterism” and clones mayors and managers, developers and do-gooders, folks like Fast Fred, Slick Gus, Mayor Dan, Manager Rick, KCEC Luis Reyes, Casino promoter Tom Teagarden et al who would tame the mystery and “corporatize” the culture of funk. In order to save the Town, they would destroy the attractions of the village and rural environs and turn place and people into objects of exploitation.

We can all appreciate modest improvements in a well-designed Smith’s to accommodate growth and profit, not to mention filling a few more potholes in Town. But, despite the manager’s crackpot claim, we cannot imagine ourselves as a “destination target” for “grocery store tourism.” Oh, sure, the Mayor and Manager have their sub-culture of supporters. But few natives or newcomers want the social restrictions that herald a corporate culture that would further reduce our funky freedom. We are not what we buy but what we dream, while we experience the creative enjoyment of life aqui en Taos.