Sabino's Map: Life in Chimayó's Old Plaza: Life in Chimayó's Old Plaza

by Donald J. Usner

Sabino's Map: Life in Chimayó's Old Plaza recounts and celebrates the history of the Plaza del Cerro, the only fully intact colonial plaza remaining in New Mexico. With its lively oral histories and rare historical photographs, Sabino's Map is the first in-depth look at perhaps the best known Hispanic village in the American Southwest. Sabino's Map provides a thorough cultural history of Chimayó, from prehistoric settlements to the current struggles of an isolated community in a modern and changing world. Through historical photographs, collections of documents preserved by author's family, and from the words and memories of the people who live there, Usner evokes a poignant sense of the colorful people who remember and continue to make the history of the Plaza del Cerro.

264 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1996

Reviews

[Loretta Miles Tollefson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sabino’s Map is clearly the result of a labor of love, but it is also a very useful book for anyone who wants to know more about the history of the northern New Mexico village of Chimayo, its people, and its landscape. Usner uses in-depth interviews of with plenty of stories to tell to provide the ballast for this book. This level of detail could easily overwhelm a community narrative, but Usner does an excellent job of sifting through a wealth of knowledge and story to give us the nuggets that help the reader see what it might have been like to live in the Plaza del Cerro or its surrounding homes and farms in the late 1800’s and early 20th century. I highly recommend this book!

[Susan Eubank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here are the questions discussed at the Reading the Western Landscape Book Club at the Arboretum Library of the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden on November 30, 2016:

• What is this book about?
• What did you make of the chapter about all the families on the plaza and their relationship to each other?
• Did the “poems” at the beginning of each chapter help you understand? Why? Why not? Did you like them? Why? Why not?
• What new facts did you learn that surprised you?
• Was there any part of the story you didn’t understand?
• Were you disillusioned or uplifted by the book? Why? Why not?
• What audience was this book written for?
• Is this type of story one that only gets told in New Mexico? Why? Why not?
• What did you like/not like about his writing style and the structure of the book? Why?
• Does this story relate to other stories of the same time period? Other places? Examples?
• Do you have any questions you would like to ask the group?