Tony Hillerman’s Four Corners region of the U.S. and an encounter

by Jamie Rhein on

“An author knows his landscape best; he can stand around, smell the wind, get a feel for his place.” –Tony Hillerman

Yesterday, when I read that Tony Hillerman died, I flashed back to one afternoon when I went as a guest to a writer’s group meeting at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As I introduced myself, was I surprised when I shook one man’s hand, and his warm voice said, “My name’s Tony Hillerman.” I had no idea that this was the writers’ group he attended.

What struck me about Hillerman was his unassuming aura. He was generous and thoughtful with his comments to the other writers, and not any more important than the others in the room.

Like anyone else who lives in Albuquerque, I was aware of Hillerman’s work as a mystery writer whose stories center around the Southwest. A person cannot live in that city without being aware of how he brought weight to the region. Plus, his books are everywhere. I recall racks of them.

I’m in awe of writers who are able to attach themselves to a place and dive deep into its nuances. Reading a Hillerman novel is a trip to the Four Corners region of the Southwest. His version is not the one that requires putting one foot in New Mexico, one foot in Arizona, one hand in Utah and the other in Colorado before buying a Navajo taco from one of the food vendors.

If you go to Four Corners with Hillerman’s eye, you look for the person behind the scenery. Who is the person who is selling you that turquoise bracelet? Who lives in the houses far flung at the edge of the hills? What about life matters most to them?

Although tourists may visit the various pueblos and Native American reservations across the Southwest, those experiences are merely glimpses of these cultures. Hillerman wrote about people here by getting under their skin.

As he said, “I always have one or two, sometimes more, Navajo or other tribes’ cultural elements in mind when I start a plot. In Thief of Time, I wanted to make readers aware of Navajo attitude toward the dead, respect for burial sites.” [Brainy Quotes]

Considering that Halloween is coming up this week, here’s a Hillerman title for you: Dance of the Dead. The novel is the second one in his series featuring protagonist Lt. Joe Leaphorn. It won the Edgar Award for best novel.

For an interview with Hillerman in Book Page, click here, and for yesterday’s NPR All Things Considered segment on Hillerman, click here.

Sex and the City: You can catch up with a craze in the modern age

by Jamie Rhein on

Sex and the City was the hot topic the summer between our two years living in Taiwan and our two years in India. I saw it once at a friend’s house when I stopped over in Albuquerque for a few days visit. I liked it, but nothing I couldn’t live without. I was jet-lagged anyway. Two years later, I saw one more episode. Friends we were visiting in Pochetello, Idaho had TiVoed it—something else that was new phenomenon in the U.S. cultural scene.

Five years after that, there I was last night with two of my women friends at the opening night Sex and the City event at Drexel East, one of the independent movie theaters in Columbus, Ohio. One friend was wearing a black dress. Since living overseas has made me totally out of tune with what to wear on many occasions, and I don’t travel in glamorous circles very often, I wasn’t paying attention to my attire. Plus, this was a back to back event–the first event was the end-of -the-year potluck at my son’s elementary school. With ten minutes in between the two, I had on a very nice T-shirt, black jeans and a pair of new shoes that fit into casual nice. Ooops.

I was all caught up with the Sex and the City storyline, however, thanks to videos and cable television. It used to be that living overseas meant huge chunks of popular culture were totally gone. It wasn’t a terrible loss, but there were movies I hadn’t seen, or events that happened in celebrity-ville that I wasn’t privy too. There were some conversations at parties I couldn’t join in. No loss really, but it was clear who had been living a life out of the American mainstream.

These days, it is not hard to stay caught up, or to catch up, even though people started miles before. When we lived in New Delhi, we rented Season 1, 2 and 3 of The Sopranos, and with each new season rented those too. Although, we weren’t where everyone else was who saw the series as it was unfolding, with the speed of being able to watch back to back episodes in a row at one sitting, it didn’t take long for us to be in the know of the latest whack job.

It is true that watching the TBS rerun version of Sex in the City is not the same as the HBO version, and at times it’s hard to keep the episodes in order as to what events happened first when one doesn’t start watching at the beginning, but last night I was caught up. It has taken five years, but I do know when it comes to Sex and the City what everyone is talking about, and I finally found out what a Cosmos is. As part of the event you could buy one.

Because I lived overseas during the Cosmos craze, I had a beer instead. It’s summer and I was hot. And, yes, I did like the movie. I think Manohla Dargis’s review in the New York Times is off the mark, although, I usually agree with this particular film critic.

Black velvet painting museum

by Jamie Rhein on

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, it’s not uncommon to see people selling velvet paintings from a parking lot stand. Whenever I passed by these makeshift displays, I always wondered who might buy such paintings. I have an answer. There is one couple in Portland, Oregon who has bought more than 1,000 over the past ten years.

Collecting velvet paintings is an endeavor they take seriously and have a museum to prove it. At the Velveteria Museum, they showcase 300 pieces from their collection that run the scope of velvet painting “art,” Subjects and style vary. From jungle cats to women who smoke, they have it all.

Now that I’ve found out about this place, I do have a heightened curiosity about velvet painting traditions and what are the most popular. I read a review in Portland Picks,( #6 on the list), and Velveteria gets a plug for a fun place to brush up on kitsch. According to the description, paintings have been purchased from as far away as Peru.

It’s amazing to me the various items people collect. If there’s the space to display the goods, there you have it–a museum. Consider the Captain Beany, the guy in Wales who has a museum to honor baked beans. See what I mean?

Lady of Guadalupe Feast Day: Celebration Worthy of Note

by Jamie Rhein on

Here’s a heads up for next year since the day has passed. Still, since this is a month of holidays, I didn’t want this one to go unmentioned. December 12th is one of the most important holy days in Mexico and much of Latin America. The Lady of Guadalupe Feast Day is when people honor Mexico’s patron saint, the Lady of Guadalupe. She appeared in the 16th century to Juan Diego, a poor farmer in Mexico, and is thought to have been the Virgin Mary. His apron with her image on it remains.

Along with many church celebrations, processionals and ceremonies in Mexico and the U.S., December 12th is when hundreds of people make a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, thought to be on the site when Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared. Inside the church, the tilma (apron) that belonged to Juan Diego is on display. Several million come here every year for mass and to see the icon. By the looks of the crowds in this YouTube video, it’s quite the place to visit.

Here is another video from a church in New Jersey that begins to celebrate the feast day the Sunday before the 12th. There is an interview with the priest about the celebration’s significance and footage of the happenings. And, here is an article from today’s Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky that also provides an overview about how this celebration is important to people who have immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico and those with Mexican heritage.

The photo was taken by Chantel Foster during the Our Lady of Guadalupe Feast Day procession in Albuquerque, New Mexico and posted on Flickr.

Tour the U.S. on horse and feel better about the world

by Jamie Rhein on

The story about Bill Inman, a rancher who is traveling across the U.S. on his faithful steed, Blackie, caught my attention. Inman’s stated purposeof this journey is to find out the good things about the America amid the bad news. The war in Iraq, the housing market bubble burst, the gas prices, etc., etc., etc. All of this what’s wrong news can make people feel downright crabby. Anyway, Inman thinks what we hear or read is too gloomy and wants to discover the sunnier side of life through his plodding travels. He travels about 25 miles a day. (photo by Charlie Riedel, AP)

So far, wherever he has stopped, he’s found people friendly. Although, one might say, people are friendly because of his horse. Maybe that’s true but I found a similar situation after I got back from the Peace Corps and I wasn’t traveling with a horse or even a small dog, a kid or a hamster. I was traveling with my close friend, a fellow RPCV (returned volunteer) whose mission was the same as mine. Let’s avoid getting real jobs for awhile and see the U.S. as a good reason for not earning a paycheck. Without a horse or a car, we relied on Greyhound (or Trailways) and in two cases Green Tortoise. Twice we found plane tickets cheaper than bus tickets.

We started our bus journey in Kentucky (we had car rides from New York (me) and Massachusetts (her) and zagging across the U.S., stopping to stay a night or two with relatives, relatives of relatives, friends, friends of friends, parents of friends and people we didn’t even know. We didn’t know anyone at the center for wayward women in Des Moines, Iowa. We weren’t even wayward women, but they let us stay. (Maybe we were wayward women but we didn’t know it.)

The point of this story is, we did not have one bad experience. Not one. We found people to be helpful, kind, and interested in us. People gave us rides to the bus station if we needed it. Offered us food and company and even a police whistle when we asked if the bus station in Denver was in a bad part of town. Perhaps, it helped that we told people that we had just finished serving in Africa for two years in the Peace Corps and that we were traveling across the U.S. to learn more about the wonders in our own country. (Okay, perhaps a bit thick, but it worked.) So, I found the U.S. to be a marvelous place–even Texas which was the place I expected not to like for some reason. I loved Austin and San Antonio. Still, I’ve found every country I’ve been to (and it’s a boat load) mostly marvelous. It helps to go into a place thinking you’ll find no different. At least, that has been my experience.

I hope Bill Inman keeps finding the same pleasant experiences that he has so far. I wonder how he’s getting home. He lives in Oregon. I flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico from Las Vegas, the last stop of my three month trip. I finally needed to get a job and Albuquerque seemed like a good place to land for awhile.

Oh, if you ever do make your own lengthy journey across the U.S., here’s a tidbit of advice. Go easy on the margaritas and ice-cream. It doesn’t take long to develop a paunch.