Center for Cultural Technology

Item sets

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  Manitos Cuaderno Series

  The year 2020 was defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which decimated families and communities in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado where many heirs to the unique Indo-Hispano culture often refer to themselves as Manitos. In response, the Manitos Community Memory Project (MCMP), with support from the American Recovery Act, National Endowment for the Humanities, initiated a series of publications to help Manitos address the trauma of the pandemic through connection to their history, cultural heritage, and to each other. The format of the publications pays homage to the cuadernos, small journals or notebooks, traditionally used by Manitos to record all kinds of information. The Manitos Community Memory Project (MCMP) was initiated in January 2019 with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through a grant to the Center for Cultural Technology, a partnership between the Department of Media Arts and Technology at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, working in collaboration with the New Mexico Humanities Council and a network of Manito community partners and academic researchers. The shared vision is to protect and preserve the region's at-risk cultural heritage by creating a network of memory gathering sites located in rural libraries, schools, and non-profit organizations, and by building a sustainable digital archive by and for Manitos. The original focus of the MCMP was on healing from historical trauma, passed down from generation to generation, and recovery from the legacy of colonialism. The COVID-19 pandemic expanded the focus to address a new trauma. The Manitos Cuaderno Series was one of a number of MCMP internship projects designed to demonstrate the value of a community-directed digital cultural heritage repository. Initially envisioned as a series of downloadable digital publications, it was Ellen Dornan, former director of digital initiatives at the New Mexico Humanities Council, who had the vision that they should be printed and distributed free of charge and found the funding to make it happen. In January 2021 the printed sets of Volume I made their debut. In 2023 Volume II was published.
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  Manitos Personas Placemats

  These downloadable placemats were designed by interns from the Manitos Community Memory Project under the direction of Dr. Estevan Rael-Galvez. They were produced in conjunction with a series of posters called Manitos Personas that honor tradition bearers and others who serve the community and help to hold it together. The original idea, inspired by a project of community scholar and activist Dr. Patricia Trujillo, was to distribute the placemats to local restaurants to educate and inform children about their Manito heritage. As the placemats were in production, however, COVID-19 hit, and restaurants closed. Schools were desperate for ways to keep their students engaged while learning from home. The placemats were printed and sent home through distributions at school sites along with food and other educational materials and supplies. We also discovered that adults enjoyed the activities on placemats and so there were a number of distributions at senior centers.