Review by Kenneth Munsell
Tourism – May 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Myth of Santa Fé – Creating a Modern Regional Tradition
by Chris Wilson.
Published in 1997 by the University of New Mexico Press
ISBN 0-826-31746-4
THE STORY OF SANTA FÉ, New Mexico, in the 20th century is a fascinating one. Santa Fé is known throughout North America as a tourist Mecca where people can learn about the Native American culture and the Mexican heritage of the American Southwest. This small city has traded on that image and much of its economy today revolves around the resulting tourist trade.
Chris Wilson has done a fine job of tracing the historical roots of Santa Fé’s image. The Myth of Santa Fé is a handsome, well-illustrated volume that explores the problems and the potentials of peacemaking.
Wilson says in his introduction that, “The images and metaphors applied to New Mexico over the years have been drawn from virtually every Native American and Latin source…. The interplay of these tourist stereotypes with symbols of local ethnic identities and the less symbolically charged but no less distinctive details of contemporary life is complex and reciprocal. Not only are outside images projected onto Santa Fé, but the Museum of New Mexico and local businessmen and women have appropriated select details of Pueblo and Hispano cultures to promote tourism and foster civil identity.”
He goes on to state that, once formed, the idealized images have a life of their own — even influencing the actual identities of the diverse ethnic groups who live in Santa Fé.
Tourism as an historical phenomenon is a seldom-studied subject. Most North American sites do not have a 100-year history of tourist development and promotion, so the long-term effects of tourism can seldom be studied — only speculated upon.
However, Santa Fé is different. The community’s leaders decided as long ago as statehood in 1912 that they would make Santa Fé distinctive and develop the economy by emphasizing its heritage (real or fake). The interplay of fact and fiction is wonderfully detailed in The Myth of Santa Fé.
Wilson begins his story by taking a look at the original Spanish and Native American Santa Fé Pueblo and then shows how settlers from the United States entered what was then Mexico and began making their homes in Santa Fé, the region’s provincial capital. He then shows how, by the 20th century, the American settlers who had transformed the town watched the community sink, as Wilson says, “deeper and deeper into economic stagnation.”
In an almost desperate effort, community leaders decided to turn to tourism for salvation. Wilson writes, “once statehood was achieved and Santa Fé resolved its contending identities, the romantic image of the city became the central vehicle for economic resurgence and the blueprint for its physical transformation.”
THE NEXT STEP was to make the city look like the romantic image that business people were developing. So Wilson looks at the historic preservation movement and historic restoration efforts — that is, the effort to make as many buildings as possible fit the romantic image being promoted. The result was the creation of the distinctive Santa Fé style of architecture.
Wilson also looks at how Anglo businessmen promoted ethnic festivals — and how these affected Spanish and Native American residents. In the concluding chapter, “A Myth Worth Believing,” he argues that the myth-making has had some unfortunate consequences for Santa Fé since it simplifies its history and either stereotypes or eliminates the significant contributions of New Mexico’s various ethnic groups.
Thus Wilson argues for a new myth that is more inclusive, but one that preserves the good portions of the older tourist-oriented myth. In all, Wilson shows that there are real social consequences when artificial places are created for the benefit of tourists. For that idea, alone, Wilson has made an original and significant contribution.
The Myth of Santa Fé should be required reading for all people involved in tourism management. It shows where their decisions can lead.
–Kenneth Munsell
This review was originally published in Small Town, the bimontnly magazine of the Small Towns Institute, P.O. Box 517, Ellensburg, Washington, 98926. Individual subscriptions, which include membership, are $40 per year. The Institute is “dedicated to collecting and disseminating information on new and innovative ideas concerning the issues and problems facing small towns and non-urban areas.”
