Acoma’s Enchantment
She’s growing up fast, and the time is approaching when she will decide to marry or leave the village to become a young professional in a world far away from the peaceful serenity of Acoma’s enchanting seclusion. So she wraps up in her blanket on this cool spring evening and heads to her favorite quiet spot to look out at the familiar scenery but also trying to look out into the unknown future.
All her life she has helped her mother and grandmother making preparations for family meals of flour tortillas, red chili stew with meat & potatoes, and some sweet wild tea. She loves the smell of their home when the wood stove is aflame, especially in the morning when grandma makes coffee, fried eggs and bacon, don’t forget the fresh roasted green chili. Wrapping it up together, with leftover potatoes, into a tortilla, where else could you find a breakfast like that?
Remembering the last Feast Day brings fond images to her minds eye. Her relatives dressed up and dancing in the plaza, the aroma of oven bread and delicious Pueblo foods being carried on the breezes. The men & women singers harmonize to the thundering drum beats, rows of people shield their eyes from the dazzling sun and occasional dust swirls due to a sudden gust of wind. Sneaking a peek at the handsome young men who are lost in the throes of dancing their hearts out to the music makes her smile. All these she treasures in her heart.
Other thoughts now fill her mind as she contemplates what to do for college education, and where? What will she do for income away from working with mom and grandma as they created the amazing pottery now famous the world over?
But she admits it’s pretty exciting to think about the numerous possibilities not available to their village except in Albuquerque or Santa Fe. Some of her friends have done it, and they seem to be fine going away and then coming back for the Feasts and “Doings”, in fact she admires their confident graceful demeanor. They keep asking when is she going with them, suggesting she go to school, learn a profession that could benefit the village then come back to share it with others. She loves that idea because she doesn’t want to lose all those things she has come to cherish so much…but can she really do it?
She looks out again at the flowing waters and birds flying below her place of solitude…and she knows.
Written by Fernando Padilla, Jr. © 1991 Padilla of San Felipe.
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