The Art and Culture of the New Deal at the Old County Courthouse

On September 26 the Fall Arts Festival will open and feature a display of historic WPA photos at the Old County Courthouse in the “Mural Room” where ten social-realist frescoes depict themes of law and justice. Perhaps the most popular fresco, among tourists, especially visiting lawyers and legislators, is “Demasiadas Leyes Oprimen or Superfluous Laws Oppress” followed by “Ley Suficiente Protégé or “Sufficient Law Protects.”

In a country where the “rule of law” itself seems under siege whether by Congress or the Supreme Court, the frescoes almost seem sentimental. Yet the WPA era represents a version of social justice, created at a time when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt recognized the threat of inequality and social unrest to the country as a whole, due to reaction against elite bankers and industrialists.

Recent events in Taos, the brouhaha over the Kit Carson Park, the expansion of the airport runway, the struggle for control of the Old County Courthouse between representative officials of the economically driven Town of Taos and elected representatives of, as one commissioner recently put it, “La Familia,” at Taos County, can all be viewed in the light of social justice.

The historical figure of Kit Carson, who followed orders and did the bidding of his “betters” and the greater social forces, as tracker, guide for Fremont’s explorations, defender of the Union, Pueblo and Ute tribes, can be seen as a “man of his times.” But the symbol of Kit Carson, as representative of “Manifest Destiny,” the American occupation of Hispanic and Indian Country, the scorched earth leader of the coup against the Dine’ and resulting long walk, represents rapacious capitalism, white patriarchy, and the false tales told by the victors (middle-aged white scholars). Contemporary human beings live between the competing stories of history and myth. When historical narratives misinterpret the account of “what really happened,” myth comes into being as narrative truth.

Similarly, today, we have a battle at the airport, wherein contemporary economic notions say let’s cater to the wealthy or show the world that “Taos is moving forward,” not to mention notions re: public safety. In a tourist economy, many local businesses and vendors survive off the “trickle down.” But when the “economos” are in conflict with “due process” and the “rule of law,” not to mention the troubling issues of war, climate change, the inequality of wealth, the residents resist. Citizens’ voices, which cannot be heard at the national level, turn inward and seek justice in their own backyard, where “all politics is local.”

Now the Old County Courthouse (OCC) has become a focal point for control of a new cultural narrative. Representatives of Town of Taos interests, particularly Mayor/Commissioner Barrone and Manager Rick Bellis, who are supported by Commissioner Blankenhorn, see joint control over the OCC by the town and county as key to revitalizing the historic Taos Plaza—though none of them lived and worked on the Plaza during its heyday. Still there are several individuals, generally ignored, at work in the OCC shops, who remember well those days.

The issue of the OCC “commodification,” paying market rents, installing a brew pub or tap room, breaking down the Plaza facade, developing pocket parks, etc. has been on this or that County Agenda for the last couple of months. County Chairman Gabe Romero is leading a rear-guard action in an attempt to preserve the sovereignty of the Old County Courthouse as a symbol despite the alleged financial forces, which appear more speculative than real.

Ironically both the Town and County envision the OCC as a cultural institution that represents the historic culture of La Gente from town, the neighborhoods and villages in the outlying areas. But the issue of control is the point here. And this is where the conflict over the OCC becomes an interesting commentary on social and cultural justice.

The Healy Foundation recently announced a grant in support of the WPA photos to be displayed in the mural room during fall arts. Here’s an excerpt from the grant application:

“By displaying Tri-Cultural WPA images from photographers et al, the County wants to document the landscape, architecture, artifacts, school children, acequia, farming, cooking, and other activities at the villages, neighborhoods, Taos, Taos Plaza, Taos Pueblo, and Picuris Pueblo.

“During the New Deal era, the Hispanic culture constituted about 90% of the population yet Dr. George Sanchez has characterized the majority of local residents as The Forgotten People, in his 1940 book. Dr. Sylvia Rodriguez In Art, Tourism, and Race Relations in Taos, notes that for Taos Artists “Hispanos were never [a] popular subject.” Dr. Suzanne Forrest in The Preservation of the Village writes that the New Deal “helped to preserve the physical existence of many Hispanic villages in northern New Mexico.” While celebrating all three cultures, the County aims to correct the gap in public images and aims to honor the “Forgotten People” or transform them into the Remembered People, who still constitute 55% of county residents today.”

In addition to correcting a cultural anomaly, whether due to mainstream prejudice or insensitivity among the members of the Taos Artist Colony, there’s an issue of political liberty and recognition embodied by both the display of WPA photos and the OCC. To wit, in “In Two Concepts of Liberty” (1969), philosopher Isaiah Berlin (1969) makes a point about the way ethnic groups prefer to be governed by their own representatives, no matter the short comings. Here’s Berlin:

“The essence of the notion of liberty, in both the ‘positive’ and the ‘negative’ senses, is the holding off of something or someone – of others who trespass on my field or assert their authority over me, or of obsessions, fears, neuroses, irrational forces – intruders and despots of one kind or another. The desire for recognition is a desire for something different: for union, closer understanding, integration of interests, a life of common dependence and common sacrifice.”

Just as the Kit Carson Park and the Airport arouse feelings of social justice, so the Old County Courthouse stimulates memories of survival and celebration. In the sixties town cops and sheriff deputies stood outside the building, one foot braced at an angle against the wall or hands folded over the parking meters, discussing the kids and cars parading round the Plaza. Then the Plaza merchants sold merchandise everyone needed or tempted tourists with authentic art and artifacts rarely seen in other parts of the country.

Visitors to the WPA display will see scenes of the Plaza in the forties when war was declared and wheat was threshed by hand and primitive machines, when sheep were herded to market, and bread was baked in ornos. Indeed, the Old County Courthouse then was just a few years old and representative of the survival of La Gente out here in the isolated outback of America.

Full Disclosure: As a member of the County’s Art and Artifacts Committee I wrote the grant excerpt above, based on classes in local culture I have taught at UNM. Moreover, I registered to vote when I was 21 at the Old County Courthouse. And I saw the Plaza in its heyday during the 60s. Then Taosenos extended the hand of hospitality to a young man, deeply troubled by existential angst, and, despite his peccadilloes, made him feel welcome in the community.

So I am as sentimental as the next Taoseno.