ALAMOSA — Rural villages of Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area, in Northern New Mexico, and the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area in Southern Colorado, represent some of the oldest land-based communities in the United States.

They form a cohesive regional culture that is connect by shared family linages, traditions, histories, and a distractive dialect of Spanish. Juan B. Rael (1900-1993), a linguist and folklorist from the village of Arroyo Hondo, was one of the first scholars to document the storytelling tradition of the region. Rael traveled to 23 villages during the 1930s and 1940s, collecting more than 400 stories from over 97 storytellers.

Inspired by the work of Sanford University Professor Juan B. Rael, students of Dr. Estevan Rael-Galvez of New Mexico Highlands University’s Department of Media Arts and Technology produced this multimedia exhibition on behalf of the Manitos Community Memory Project.

The goal of this project was to create a digital community archive of the cultural heritage of the region. In bringing light the research of Juan B. Rael, and the stories he collected, the hope was to inspire the next generation of storytellers. The exhibition encourages visitors to share their own stories as they contribute and inspire future heritage “guardians.”

In collaboration with New Mexico Highlands University, Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area was graciously lent a pop-up exhibit temporarily to host multiple pop-up exhibits around the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area.

Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area invites the community to explore the exhibit at the San Luis Valley Museum in Alamosa, which will host the exhibit from Dec. 6 to 17.

The pop-up exhibit will also be at the Fort Garland Museum & Cultural Center in the summer of 2022 on a date that is yet to be determined.

For more information about the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area, visit sangreheritage.org. If an organization is interested in hosting the pop-up exhibit, contact Shannon Powers, Grants and Projects Coordinator, at [email protected].