{"id":4078,"date":"2021-02-14T16:21:01","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T16:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toonsarah-travels.blog\/staging\/?p=4078"},"modified":"2021-03-18T10:57:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T10:57:00","slug":"following-the-high-road-to-taos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toonsarah-travels.blog\/staging\/following-the-high-road-to-taos\/","title":{"rendered":"Following the High Road to Taos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are two ways to get to Taos from Santa Fe. There is the quicker (but still pretty) Low Road, and the more dramatically scenic and historically interesting High Road. This winds over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains through high desert, forests and tiny communities. On the way there are stories to be discovered, stunning landscapes to marvel at and picture-perfect churches to explore.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So for this week\u2019s Friendly Friday challenge, with Amanda\u2019s theme of On the Way<\/a>, let me take you on the High Road to Taos, one of the designated Scenic Byways of New Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mountain<\/figure><\/div>
\"Yellow<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Santuario de Chimay\u00f3<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Santuario de Chimay\u00f3 has been a place of pilgrimage for over two centuries. It was built in 1816 on the site of an earlier chapel, and on the site of a miraculous discovery. In 1811 a villager saw a light shining from a spot in the earth. He dug down and found a large crucifix. This he named for Our Lord of Esquipulas, also known as the \u2018Black Christ\u2019. A local priest, Father Sebastian Alvarez, was called; he organized a ceremony to carry the crucifix to a church in Santa Cruz about eight miles away, where it was placed on the altar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the next morning the crucifix was back in the spot where it had been found. The villagers tried twice more to move it to Santa Cruz, before they realised that Our Lord of Esquipulas wanted to stay in their village, so they built a church to house him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However there are variations to this legend, and some that pre-date it. According to the neighbouring Tewa people, this spot had been sacred to various Indian tribes for many generations. At one time there had been a spring here, rich in iron and other minerals, which gave healing. When the spring dried up, the people still came for the dirt left behind to benefit from its powers. Many Tewa also held sacred the mountain behind the church, T’si Mayoh, which gave the village its name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some believe therefore that the Pueblo people were forced by Spanish colonists to build the church over an already sacred site. There are certainly other instances where early Christian settlers chose to build their churches right on top of the indigenous people’s sacred sites, and to force those people to do much of the building, for example at Acoma Pueblo<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another version of the legend says that the crucifix originally belonged to a priest who had accompanied the first Spanish settlers to Chimay\u00f3 and who had a devotion to Our Lord of Esquipulas. He was killed by Indians and buried here. A flood of the Santa Cruz River in the spring of 1810 uncovered the body and the crucifix; and the villagers, who remembered the priest fondly, built a church to honour him and the Black Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n