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Audio Recording Interview with Joe Cordova and Alisandra Cordova about life in Mosquero Canyon, Mosquero, New Mexico, part 1

Interview with Joe Cordova and Alisandra Cordova about life in Mosquero Canyon, Mosquero, New Mexico, part 1

About this Item

Title

  • Interview with Joe Cordova and Alisandra Cordova about life in Mosquero Canyon, Mosquero, New Mexico, part 1

Names

  • Fleischhauer, Carl (Recordist)
  • Kalb, Laurie Beth (Research team member)
  • Pratt, Boyd C. (Research team member)
  • Cordova, Joe (Interviewee)
  • Cordova, Alisandra (Interviewee)

Created / Published

  • Mosquero, New Mexico, August 29, 1985

Headings

  • -  Folklore--New Mexico
  • -  Field recordings
  • -  Interviews
  • -  Sound recording
  • -  United States -- New Mexico -- Mosquero

Genre

  • Field recordings
  • Interviews
  • Sound recording

Notes

  • -  Index data: Part 1 of a 3-part interview with Joe Cordova and Alisandra Cordova, Mosquero NM: Joe Cordova and fieldworker Boyd Pratt discuss the construction details of the Cordova's jacal on the family's ranch-homestead in the Mosquero Canyon (where homesteads were established in the period circa 1890-1918), this modest building is described as functionally analogous to modern-day mobile homes; about the jacal's foundation, a trench where axe-pointed posts support beams, next red cedar was split into roughly uniform widths and placed between the timbers, tar paper used to seal cracks or, if not available, mud was used, rock helped hold the tar paper down, tar and gravel helped protect the structure from hail, construction required only a pick, shovel, and axe (normally 4-pound); the only stone structure Cordova built at the ranch was a chicken house; the size of a house depended on funds and family size; over time, Cordova added to the house his father and brother had built, newlyweds require less space; about homesteading, at first people lived wherever they found running water, his father first homesteaded 160 acres at the mouth of the canyon, the initial limit, later raised to 320 acres, and then to an entire section; at first, the family lived in a dugout; about a big cattle and sheep ranch nearby, with 90 employees and their own store, paying employees $15 per month or $17 if they traded at the store, the owners would give a person 5-10 sheep, a milk cow, pay a fee for the land, and then tell the person he now worked for them, after a year, the person would get a deed for the place, but the big landowners would then tell him that they'd paid the fee and provided livestock, asserting that now the land and livestock were theirs, unfair tactics that let the big owners accumulate 70,000 acres; about other buildings on Cordova's homestead, three jacals, a small rock house, a cemetery, two stone outer buildings, one a basement for groceries brought by wagon, the other for saddles, chicken houses, barn for the tractor; Cordova liked living in the stone house in the canyon, they were the last ones there, but they moved to town to get their daughter to school, thinking they'd return to the ranch but "we didn't realize we'd get old"; he had bought the house in town before he inherited the ranch, he doesn't feel as comfortable in town as in at the ranch, where he's really at home.

Medium

  • audiotape reel, 7 in.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • MBRS Shelflist: RXA 7244
  • Field project identifier: NM-85-LK-R3
  • Call number: AFC 1991/032: SR03

Source Collection

  • New Mexico Folklife Project collection (AFC 1991/032)

Repository

  • American Folklife Center

Digital Id

Online Format

  • audio

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that some of the materials in this collection are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions, and are therefore free to use or reuse. For example, the fieldwork in this collection is in the public domain in the United States.

However, the Library has obtained permission for the use of other materials, and presents additional materials for educational and research purposes in accordance with fair use under United States copyright law. For example, some of the recordings contain copyrighted music, and not all of the performers and other individuals who were recorded signed releases for public use of their work.

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Credit line: New Mexico Folklife Project collection (AFC 1991/032), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Fleischhauer, Carl, Laurie Beth Kalb, Boyd C Pratt, Joe Cordova, and Alisandra Cordova. Interview with Joe Cordova and Alisandra Cordova about life in Mosquero Canyon, Mosquero, New Mexico, part 1. Mosquero, New Mexico, 1985. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1991032_sr03/.

APA citation style:

Fleischhauer, C., Kalb, L. B., Pratt, B. C., Cordova, J. & Cordova, A. (1985) Interview with Joe Cordova and Alisandra Cordova about life in Mosquero Canyon, Mosquero, New Mexico, part 1. Mosquero, New Mexico. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1991032_sr03/.

MLA citation style:

Fleischhauer, Carl, et al. Interview with Joe Cordova and Alisandra Cordova about life in Mosquero Canyon, Mosquero, New Mexico, part 1. Mosquero, New Mexico, 1985. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afc1991032_sr03/>.