"The Pueblo people orchestrated the unthinkable"

March 14, 2015 3:22 AM

Frontera! Revolt and Rebellion on the Rio Grande (20:06; 2014) is an experimental animated documentary that briefly describes the Narváez, de Niza, Coronado, and Oñate expeditions en route to an account of Po'pay and the Pueblo Revolt. It features music by Greg Landau ("Women of the City" with Omar Sosa) with lyrics and vocals by Deuce Eclipse (SoundCloud; "Que Pasa" with J-Boogie).
posted by Monsieur Caution (3 comments total)

how this is "experimental"

Oh, that's a good point. This documentary was presented in association with a Q&A session on "experimental ethnographic filmmaking" as part of the Society for Visual Anthropology media festival at the most recent AAA meetings. I wasn't there, so I don't know how strongly the connection was made, but in my experience, what counts as experimental ethnography can be pretty tame stuff--almost anything that doesn't follow very old-fashioned conventions of ethnographic texts or films. But that's a microscopically narrow usage and possibly out-dated even in that context, so I could have chosen a better word.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 4:07 AM on March 14, 2015

Forgive me for posting before having watched the video, but I used to live in Santa Fe and the Pueblo Revolt is one of my favorite stories. They managed to drive the Spaniards out for 12 years, a phenomenal act of Native resistance. Santa Fe still celebrates the other end of this event, the "peaceful reconquest". With a parade and pageant of conquistadors. It's both a lovely local tradition and a hideous whitewashing of a terrible history.
posted by Nelson at 7:35 AM on March 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

In 1998, a statue of Juan de Oñate was made for the Oñate Monument Visitors Center, North of Española. A short time later the right foot was cut off (referring to the fate of the survivors of the Acoma Massacre) and a note was left saying "Fair is fair".
posted by jabo at 11:05 AM on March 14, 2015 [2 favorites]