Gran Quivira

Franciscan priest Fray Diego de Santander began building the mission church of San Buenaventura soon after his 1659 arrival at Gran Quivira; it was, however, never completed as the pueblo was abandoned by 1672. The smaller Chapel of San Isidro continued to serve the pueblo as it had since the the early 1630s. Unlike the sandstone pueblos and churches at Abo and Quarai, the pueblo and mission buildings at Gran Quivira were limestone constructions. Where Abo and Quarai were situated in valleys coming off of the Manzano Mountains, Gran Quivira sat atop a mesa considerably to the south. Members of the three pueblos gathered salt from the salt flats in the Estancia Basin to the east, thus the Spanish name of Salinas for the province and its communities.

The history of the 17th century missions, just one element of the Spanish incursion into the southwest, is a fascinating one and the Catholic Church has continued to play an integral role in the development of New Mexico's contemporary culture. The missions themselves are iconic structures that draw people from all over the world and are the subject of many, many paintings - including my own. In my upcoming trip to NM I plan to visit both my favorite missions and some with which I am less familiar in order to create more paintings in the near future.