A Sandia Park resident has received a prestigious grant from the Library of Congress to document traditional New Mexican dances and cultural practices, many of which she recorded in the East Mountains area.
Yvette Cohn Stoor was awarded a Community Collections Grant for her project “Sustaining and Reclaiming Cultural Danzas: Los Matechines Y Los Comanchitos,” according to a Library of Congress blog post. The grant 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 its collections.
Stoor, who has lived in the East Mountains for 34 years, submitted more than 250 items to the Library of Congress collection, including interviews, documents, photos and songs documenting traditional fiestas and dances in small New Mexican villages.
“I have always felt it very important to preserve the details of our traditions, as we have seen so many be forgotten,” Stoor said.
The project focuses on two traditional dances: the Danza de Los Matachines, performed at patron saint celebrations at mission churches, and the reclaimed Danza de Los Comanchitos, which acknowledges the heritage of Genízaro descendants — New Mexicans whose ancestors were Native American captives who were integrated into Spanish colonial communities.
Stoor will present her project at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 25 as part of the Community Collections Grant symposium.
Stoor’s maternal lineage connects to original Land Grant settlers in Cañon de Carnué, present-day Carnuel. She serves as the Land Grant Genealogist for the Cañon de Carnué (present-day Carnuel) Land Grant and previously worked in the defense avionics industry before pursuing genealogy and New Mexico history.
The project documented fiestas at mission churches in the mountains east of Albuquerque, focusing on the roles, traditional dress and community importance of the dances. Stoor noted that recent history has shown dwindling participation has caused the demise of some dances at certain locations.
Stoor is completing a documentary to be shared with area schools and will speak at the New Mexico Genealogical Society’s annual conference Oct. 17-18 in Albuquerque. Her presentation is titled “La Sangre Llama (The Blood Calls).”
