Community Collections Spotlight: Sustaining and Reclaiming Cultural Danzas: Los Matachines y Los Comanchitos and Passing Down Tradition in Small New Mexican Villages

The following is a guest post by 2024 Community Collections Grant recipient Yvette Cohn Stoor on her project, Sustaining and Reclaiming Cultural Danzas: Los Matechines Y Los Comanchitos. The American Folklife Center’s Community Collections Grant program is part of the Library’s Of the People: Widening the Path initiative, which seeks to create new opportunities to engage with the Library of Congress and enrich the Library’s collections, allowing the national library to share a more inclusive American story. This post is part of the Of the People blog series featuring the awardees of the Community Collections Grant program since 2022.

The project team documentarians sit in chairs outside with a large rainbow umbrella protecting them from the sun as they prepare for an interview. — Cole Velasquez, lead videographer, and Yvette Stoor, project manager, set up for an outdoor interview at Cañon de Carnué Land Grant, Carnuel, New Mexico, August 14, 2024. Photo credit: Alex Gutierrez and Yvette Cohn Stoor. Used with permission.

I am honored to be an American Folklife Center Community Collections Grant recipient. I was born and raised in New Mexico. My father’s side comes from Taos in northern New Mexico, where he was raised with heritage from Jewish and Irish pioneers mixed with Spanish and Native American ancestry. My mother’s side is Spanish and Native American. Our Native American lineage was discovered after DNA testing and extensive research.

I have lived in New Mexico my entire life, living for the past 34 years in the East Mountains outside of Albuquerque. My maternal lineage connects to the original Land Grant settlers in an area known as Cañon de Carnué, present day Carnuel, and along the turquoise trail that runs north to Santa Fe. My great-grandmother, Delfiña Garcia neé Nuanes / Griego / Gurulé, was born, resided most of her life, and died in her home in Carnuel, New Mexico. It was through my maternal line that I was exposed to the traditions of the Danza de Los Matachines as a young girl.

After my semi-retirement from the defense avionics industry, I pursued my passion for genealogy and New Mexico history. Like many New Mexicans, I took for granted being raised in this very rich cultural environment. As I grew older and travelled more, it became evident that New Mexico was unique. There are areas of New Mexico that appear the same as they did hundreds of years ago and within many communities, the traditions are well preserved. I utilized my genealogical experience to serve on t