Travel the Royal Road at Arizona State Museum

(University of Arizona, Tucson) The Camino Real (Royal Road) started as a fragile footpath four centuries ago. Spanish explorers etched it deeper during their expeditions northward to claim land and riches for the King of Spain. By 1598, the Camino Real extended northward from Mexico City through Zacatecas all the way to Santa Fe and beyond—a distance of over 1500 miles. Thousands of migrants, miners, missionaries, and merchants have traveled this road throughout time. The trail that began as a scratch in the earth is now a bustling highway with cars zipping by and planes flying overhead. El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro , or “the royal road to the interior lands,” is one of the oldest continuously used roads in North America.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro

a photographic exhibition by Eniac Martínez
October 5–October 28, 2007

Opening celebrations on October 5 and 6 are free and open to the public 

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro is an exhibition of 50 stunning black and white panoramic photographs by award-winning Mexican photographer Eniac Martínez. The imagery is enhanced by an integral soundscape of songs and stories produced by historian, author and radio producer Jack Loeffler. Martínez retraced the 1,500-mile route of the Spanish colonial Camino Real from Zacatecas to its northern terminus in Taos, New Mexico. His evocative photographs of people and the landscapes they live in tell a story of daily life, folk traditions such as fiestas, and the deserts and mountains which join it all together. Martínez says of his art, “It is possible to appreciate how the centuries in the same space really coexist, for that reason the photographic images show the sensation of the passage of time. What I did was to photograph throughout the route the alive part, people; how different cultures are mixed with time.” He states, “My purpose has been to make a photographic essay that shows the present conditions of the main points of the interest of the Camino Real, its inevitable transformation and those elements that have significance to its contemporary inhabitants.”

Of Martínez’ work, Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey writes, “Eniac uses the historical context of the Camino Real to give us rich imagery that digs deep into the psyche of the modern experience. [His] panoramic work sucks you into the frame and lets you move around inside. Each photograph is a little adventure.”

Jack Loeffler’s soundscape that accompanies the photographs establishes the different moods and essences of the people of the Camino. He says that you can learn about the history and soul of a place through the music, its melodies and lyrics, and the stories of the people who coexist with the environment. The soundscape was produced for the Bureau of Land Management’s Camino Real Heritage Center.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro opens Friday, October 5, 2007 at Arizona State Museum. The free opening celebration that evening at 6:30 p.m. includes an illustrated panel discussion with Martínez, Loeffler and folklorist Dr. Enrique Lamadrid about the places, people, music and cultural traditions along the Camino Real. Martínez will share additional photographs and the insights he got on his epic photographic journey. Panel presentations will be held in CESL from 6:30–7:30, followed by a reception, booksigning and exhibition viewing at ASM. The exhibition will be open for viewing at 6:00 and again after the presentations *.

The panel discussion is part of the Southwestern Roots in Central Mexico: 4000 Years of Cultural Interaction lecture series.

On Saturday, October 6, from 1:00–4:00 p.m. a free family program will again feature the three and offer more opportunities for a family audience to learn about the history and aesthetics of the Camino Real. Music, stories, and hands-on arts activities will involve all in the cultural traditions of the Camino Real *.

* Teachers can receive 1–5 hours of professional development credit for attending the opening or the Saturday program. No pre-registration necessary; just sign in and out and receive a certificate and teacher packet.

About Eniac Martínez Ulloa

Eniac Martínez Ulloa was born in Mexico City in 1959. He studied at the International Center of Photography, the National School of Plastic Arts, and the Cuban Institute of Art. Martínez has had solo exhibitions and collective exhibits around the world. He won the 1991 Mother Jones magazine documentary photography competition. His work has been published in Independent magazine, Daily Telegraph, National Geographic, México Indígena, Luna Córnea and La Jornada. In 2000, he worked with Francisco Mata Rosas on the book Litorales (Centro de la Imagen, 2000), which presented photographs of Mexican beaches from every coast taken with a plastic panoramic camera. Martínez has also documented a group of Mixteco Indians who migrated to the United States from their home state of Oaxaca in search of work. Martínez won a Fulbright award in 1989 for his work on the Mixtecos and the work was ultimately published in Mixtecos, Norte Sur (Mexico: Nuevos Códices, 1994). Martínez lives and works in Mexico City. Some of his works can be seen on his website (http://www.eniacmartinez.com/)

About Jack Loeffler

Jack Loeffler is an aural historian, writer, radio producer and sound collage artist who has made his home in northern New Mexico since 1962. He has produced nearly 300 documentary radio programs including the 13-part series entitled “the Spirit of Place,” and the 6-part series entitled “Moving Waters: The Colorado River and the West.” His most recent productions include a 3 CD sound collage entitled “Portrait in Sound of an Ancient Road: El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro,” and a 13 part documentary radio series concerning cultural elements of the American Southwest entitled “Southwest Sound Collage.” His books include “Adventures with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey,” “La Musica de los Viejitos: the Hispano Folk Music of the Rio Grande del Norte,” and “Headed Upstream: Interviews with Iconoclasts.”

About Enrique Lamadrid

Dr. Enrique Lamadrid teaches folklore, literature and cultural history in the department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of New Mexico. He is director of Chicano, Hispano, Mexicano studies at UNM. Widely known as a scholar of the corridor tradition of greater Mexico, his research interests include ethno-poetics, folklore and music, Chicano literature, and contemporary Mexican poetry. His field work center in New Mexico but ranges as far into Mexico, Spain, Colombia, Ecuador, and Puerto Rico. His research on the Indo-Hispanic traditions of New Mexico charts the influence of indigenous cultures on the Spanish language and imagination. His literary writings explore the borderlands between cultures, their natural environments, and between popular traditions and literary expression.

Other Current Exhibitions at ASM

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