Since arriving in Deming, I have
checked out several books on the bowl designs of the Mimbres people
whose culture thrived in SW New Mexico from around 200 to 1100 A.D.
There are murals featuring these designs on the walls of Pepper’s,
a local supermarket, and under the I-10 overpass. Even trash cans
around town have been painted with the images found in these bowls.
Admired by artists and archaeologist, the interiors of the bowls
depict, in black-and-white clay slips, the animal and plant life of
the region, the everyday life of the people, and apparent
mythological subjects. Named by the Spanish for the desert willow,
the osier, the Mimbres were a wild-crafting and agriculturally-based
society similar to the Pueblo, who may have descended from them.
Those who write about the Mimbres often interpret the designs on the
bowls based on the known stories and myths of the Pueblo and other
latter-day post-prehistorical cultures. One such writer is Bara H.
Fischer, whose _The Hole Book_ offers a thesis about the Mimbres'
practice of punching a hole in a bowl when its owner dies and placing
it over the head of the corpse. The consensus among scholars seems to
be that this "kill hole" was there to help the soul leave
the body and ascend to a higher domain.
crackpot!
So, Deming...
Not much to do in Deming but go to the
public library or eat authentically Mexican food at the many such
restaurants in town. As a result, I expect this blog-journal will
feature a goodly number of book reports, but also maybe a few
mouth-watering anecdotes about food, desert nature, archeological
sites, local history, border ferment, etc. etc.
Deming, New Mexico, is a desert town of
about 15,000 inhabitants, mostly Mexican-American, in the
southwestern part of the state about 30 miles from the international
border with Old Mexico. Affixed to Interstate 10 between Las Cruces
about 60 miles to the East and Lordsburg about 60 miles to the West,
it seems, at first glance, the kind of town one merely passes
through. Geronimo passed through here. Billy the Kid passed through
here. Pancho Villa passed through here. We too are here temporarily,
8 months at most, until we learn where fate and effort lead us.
We are situated southerly about 5-6
miles out of town in a hacienda owned by relatives who moved back to
Ohio about 8 years ago. The front of the house looks out over a vast
alfalfa field, which evidence shows was once an onion field and is
likely to be sown with chiles next.
Through the large picture windows
we can and do view the sun rise every day, 12 miles away, over the
Florida Mountains. Behind the house, to the West, is a
mesquite-ridden expanse of wildlife and dust, and in the distance a
pyramidal pile of rock and gravel known as Red Mountain -- which to
date and from our perspective has never been more than a dull gray.
To the South, about 15 miles away, looms the mountain range known as
Tres Hermanas (Three Sisters) and, as noted, the border is 15 miles
farther, with Columbus, NM, on this side and Las Palomas on the
Mexican side.
In the North, about 55 miles across the
desert and up into the hills, is the funky-hippy town of Silver City,
to which we will be traveling at least twice a week during spring
2014. My beloved, who will in this journal go by the name of Agapi,
which in Greek means beloved, will be teaching an adjunct course in
Sustainable Design at Western New Mexico University. I will major in
cafe life and possibly host a program on poetry at the community
radio station.
That's the state of affairs for now in
the Land of Enchantment. Please tune in occasionally but please don't
"follow" me. Disgusting concept.
