Sabino's Map: Life in Chimayo's Old Plaza
Sabino's Map, quite simply, is the best history yet made of a  northern New Mexico community. It is thorough, balanced, gracefully  written, and blessed with an insider's access and affection. --William de Buys, Author,River of TrapsSabino's Map: Life In Chimayo's Old Plaza recounts and celebrates the history of the Plaza del Cerro, the most fully intact colonial plaza remaining in New Mexico. With its lively oral histories and rare historical photographs, it is the first in-depth look at perhaps the best know Hispanic villages in the American West. Sabino's Map provides a thorough cultural history of Chimayo, from prehistoric settlements in the area to the current struggles of an isolated community in a modern and changing world. Yet, it does not treat Chimayo as an object of curiosity to the outside world. Rather, it is a statement about the town from within the community itself. Through historical photographs, collections of documents preserved by Don Usner's family, and from the words and memories of the people who live there, Usner evokes a poignant sense of the vision and color of people who remember and continue to make the history of the Plaza del Cerro. Sabino's Map is a minor classic, a marvelous project deserving of a wide audience and may stir some readers to consider similar projects based on their own heritages.  --Midwest Book ReviewThis most enthralling book, Sabino's Map by Don J. Usner, traces  the history of a northern New Mexico village and captures the life of  its residents across three centuries. Small, overshadowed by nearby  Santa Fe, and limited by the terrain of the foothills of the Sangre de  Cristo Mountains, Chimayo is nonetheless located near Tsi Mayoh (Tewa  for the Hill of the East), one of the four sacred Pueblo hills, and is  the site of a famous santuario (shrine) of the Black Christ of  Esquipulas, which has attracted worshipers from a wide area for over a  century. Chimayo is known for its master weavers, its lush orchards,  and its fiery chilis. . . Chapter 6, titled "A Plaza of Primos (A Town  of Cousins)," in which Usner weaves the threads of family relations,  begins the richer anthropological half of the book. The role of elders,  the relationship between men and women, the haves and haves-less,  political ties, formal and informal Catholic religious traditions and  associations, the Presbyterian mission efforts and schools, social  events, home gardens, and the economic activities of the twentieth  century -- all receive insightful narrative attention gleaned from  hundred of hours of interviews by the author. A descendent of settlers  in Chimayo and actually residing in an ancestral home, Usner, a  cultural geographer, treats his subjects reverently and at times  poetically but realistically. The book is written in easy, engaging  prose, which, along with the numerous photographs, makes the reader  feel he or she has lived there for a lifetime. --Gilberto M. Hinojosa,The Journal of American History, December 1996Using both historical data and ethnographic material, Usner has  done an excellent study of the small northern New Mexican community of  Chimayo, focusing on the Plaza del Cerro. The title of the book refers  to a map of the plaza made by one of the residents and kept by his  widow. The map shows where all the families lived in the plaza and is a  valuable research tool  because it enabled elderly informants to  remember past events. In a chapter devoted to the religious beliefs of  the Chimayosos, Usner states, "The older people in Chimayo still share  an ethic in which attention to matters of the spirit is as essential to  survival as providing the basic necessities of food and shelter." This  simple quote clearly defines the devotion of these people and the  importance of religion in their lives. A chapter on growing food is  important because it reveals how deeply the people of Chimayo are tied  to the land, if not economically at least spiritually. Illustrations  and photographs of the past and present are helpful and appropriate.  The few color plates show how really beautiful the land is. --R.S.Guerra.Choice, May 1996