The Genízaro & the Artist
Stories from New Mexico Villages
by Napoleón Garcia and Analinda Dunn


Publication Date: August 2008
54 photographs - 124 pages
$15.95/PB (978-1-890689-28-5)
$29.95/HB (978-1-890689-36-0)

Genizaro cover
The village of Abiquiú, New Mexico, is easily missed by the casual traveler who might think that Abiquiú consists of only the post office and a few stores along Highway 84, about 46 miles northwest of Santa Fe. If one were to go up the road, pass the post office, onto the above mesa, one would be stepping back into an era of early Spanish and Native American history. Abiquiú is established on the site of an old abandoned Indian Pueblo. In the mid-18th century it became a settlement of Spaniards and Genízaros. (A Genízaro claims ancestry of both the Colonial Spanish settlers and Native American Indian tribes of the area.) Like many northern New Mexico villages, Abiquiú 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 early 1930s. She bought a home in the village of Abiquiú in the mid-1940s and lived there for over 40 years.

Many journalists and authors have come to the village, interviewed some of the locals and then return to their big city desks and write about the quaint village life, its inhabitants and its famous world reknown artist. However, there has never been a book written from the perspective of a native from the village. Not only is Napoleón Garcia a native of Abiquiú, he knew and worked for Georgia O’Keeffe over the 40 years that she made Abiquiú her home, living “around the corner” from his home on the plaza in the pueblo.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
After completing 30 years with the Federal Civil Service in Washington, D.C in computer technology, Analinda Dunn began a 15-year career in elementary education. She traveled the Lewis and Clark Trail during the recent Bicentennial Commemoration events of 2003-2006 in her 16 foot travel trailer, journaling and documenting her adventure. Napoleón Garcia is a Genízaro native of Abiquiú, New Mexico. Native folklore, area history, and personal tales of growing up and living in a remote village in northern New Mexico provide the substance of the stories that Napoleón likes to tell. He also knew and worked for the artist, Georgia O’Keeffe who lived the last 40 years of her life in his village, just “around the corner.”