Sabino’s Map

Chimayo is renowned for its Hispano master weaving families, lowriders, and its storied church, El Santurio de Chimayo. The old Plaza del Cerro had once been the village's center place, where locals gathered to pick up mail, socialize and celebrate religious and family events. Over the years after WWII, the plaza was neglected, but the memory of the once-vibrant place remained vivid in the stories of village elders. The first edition of Sabino's Map, published in 1995, documented oral histories of these elders. It would prove to be a critical turning point for many Chimayosos. At the Chimayo book launch, Usner recalls locals embraced the book, one cousin of his even declaring, "For the first time in my life I feel like I can be proud to be from Chimayo." In the past thirty years since its publication, the community and its people have been revitalized with the help of the Chimayo Cultural Preservation Association and the establishment of a museum on the old plaza--in the home of Usner's ancestors. This landmark publication, read and passed on through generations, is considered a classic of New Mexico literature, alongside other treasured books including John Nichols's Milagro Beanfield War, Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me Ultima, and Ruben Cobos's Dictionary of New Mexico and Northern New Mexico Spanish.