Friends of the Coronado Historic site

03/20/2026

03/20/2026

Music Lovers! Join the Friends for our APRIL lecture: Alabados, Alabanzas, Inditas and Corridos: New Mexico’s Hispanio Music

WHO: Robert Martinez, New Mexico state historian
WHEN: Sunday, April 26, 2026
WHERE: Martha Liebert Public Library, Bernalillo
TIME: 2 PM (MST)

Are Alabanzas, Alabados, Inditas and Corridos words you’ve never heard before? If so, this presentation of traditional New Mexican Hispano music is the presentation you’ve been waiting
to hear. With guitar in hand, Rob Martinez will blend history, culture and a musical context to learn about the rich Hispano music traditions in the enchanted land of New Mexico.

Rob Martinez, a native New Mexican, has been the state’s historian since 2019. He received his B.B.A.in International Business Management and M.A. in Latin American history from the University of New Mexico. As a research historian for the Sephardic Legacy Project, he scoured civil and church archives in New Mexico, Mexico, Spain, France, Italy, Cuba and Puerto Rico for 14 years. That research resulted in a published paper about the Crypto-Jewish phenomenon in New Mexico.

Masks are discretionary, refreshments will be served and
there is an elevator to the event meeting room located on
the 2 nd floor.

03/08/2026

Join the Friends for our March Lecture:
Tribes, Pueblos, and Federal Control - What You Need To Know

Ed McCool
Tribal Attorney
Sunday - March 22 - 2:00pm

Do you know what plenary power over Tribal recognition means? It’s part of our history and certainly impacts our Puebloan, Navajo and Apache neighbors. Legal constructs such as Independent Sovereign Nations, Blood Quantum and jurisdiction over criminal acts all have a historical and legal basis. And, how do Native American casinos factor into this legal scenario? This talk will explain, in a guilt-free overview, some of the Federal laws governing our Native American neighbors.

​Ed McCool, a retired attorney, served as a tribal attorney for the Navajo Nation Council for ten years. He holds a Master of law (LL.M) in Indigenous Law and Policy from the University of Arizona Rogers School of Law and a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) in law and Masters in Political Science from Temple University. He was the director and chief lobbyist for New Jersey Common Cause in addition to being an attorney for Community Legal Services.

02/17/2026

Please join the Friends for the February Lecture on
Sunday, Feb 22, at 2pm at the Bernalillo Public Library.

Cultural & Natural History Stories from the Southern Jemez Plateau

Tom Swetnam, Ph.D.

The Jemez Mountains, a quintessential New Mexico landscape, tell many stories. Pueblo, Spanish and Anglo cultures have mixed and melded here across the mesas and in the canons below the Valles Caldera, the crater of a giant, slumbering volcano. The landscape tells tales of eruptions, lava flows, droughts, floods, forest fires, and hot springs. People tell stories of battles for land and water between conquistadores, pueblos and priests while farming and sheep herder have tales of disruptions by raiders and rustlers. This talk will summarize these stories with photographs, maps and voices from the past.

Dr. Swetnam, a resident of Jemez Springs, is Regents Professor and Director Emeritus at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. He has studied human land-uses, climate history and forest fire ecology around the world and testified to the U.S. Congress on multiple occasions. He was appointed to the first Board of Trustees of the Valles Caldera National Preserve. A recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tree-Ring Society and the Association for Fire Ecology, he is the author of The Jemez Mountains, A Cultural and Natural History.

The meeting room is on the 2nd floor, there is an elevator. Refreshments will be served after the lecture. Masks are optional.

01/04/2026

The Friends are hosting the first of 11 lectures on Sunday January 25th, at 2:00, Bernalillo Library. This lecture will follow the Friends' Annual Meeting at 1:00, with refreshments served between the 2 events. We hope to see you at one or both!

The Lecture will be given by Oliver Horn:
Spain’s Mesoamerican Allies: The Hidden Story of the Tlaxcalans.

If you’ve taken a tour at the Coronado Historic Site you probably heard the term “Indios amigos” or “friendly Indians.” The Mesoamerican Indians that helped Cortez defeat the Aztecs, accompanied the Spanish expansion into central Mexico, Central America and ultimately the American Southwest with Coronado in 1540 and later with Onate in 1598 were the Tlaxcalans. They were among the first indigenous peoples converted to Christianity and continued to rule themselves until the early 1600s. This lecture will reveal their often-overlooked role in the establishment of New Spain.

Oliver Horn, a native of Albuquerque, earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in U.S. International History from Georgetown University. He taught Latin American History and International Affairs at Western Caroline University before returning to New Mexico in 2020. Founding Sunmount Consulting in Santa Fe, he made significant contributions to New Mexico’s approach to historic preservation and co-authored the “New Mexico Preservation Plan 2022 – 2031.” Horn has been the manager of Lincoln Historic Site and Fort Stanton Historic Site since 2023.

12/06/2025

This event is sold out, but if you'd like to volunteer you will get to see it for free. Go to https://www.coronadojemezfriends.org/volunteer-fiesta and sign up to volunteer! Easy jobs: lighting candles, directing cars to the right lot, keeping candles lit during the event, helping visitors find the bathroom, etc. Free Volunteer Shirt, dinner and hot drinks provided. Jemez Springs NM.

10/30/2025

Join us for the NOV lecture!

Join us for our November lecture on HORSES! Dr. Emily Jones will present:

Horses, People & Landscapes in Central NM, 1540 to Present

Hernan de Alvarado, a member of Coronado’s expedition, arrived in central New Mexico in August 1540 astride an animal new to the region – the horse. The spread of horses in this part of the world was but one part of the Columbian Exchange, the exchange of animals, plants and pathogens between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas that followed 1492. This talk will present the current research on horses and their part in the Columbian Exchange to the role of equines in New Mexico today.

Dr. Emily Lena Jones, a professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, earned her degrees from Vassar College and the University of Washington. She has published widely from professional books and articles about everything from Iberian rabbits (she received a Fulbright Award to Spain) to a young-adult novel set in archaeological time. In addition, she has taught at Utah State University, and Dine College, University of Arizona. Her hundreds of speaking engagements range from conferences throughout the United States to Paris.

10/30/2025

Join us for our November lecture on HORSES! Dr. Emily Jones will present:

Horses, People & Landscapes in Central NM, 1540 to Present

Hernan de Alvarado, a member of Coronado’s expedition, arrived in central New Mexico in August 1540 astride an animal new to the region – the horse. The spread of horses in this part of the world was but one part of the Columbian Exchange, the exchange of animals, plants and pathogens between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas that followed 1492. This talk will present the current research on horses and their part in the Columbian Exchange to the role of equines in New Mexico today.

Dr. Emily Lena Jones, a professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, earned her degrees from Vassar College and the University of Washington. She has published widely from professional books and articles about everything from Iberian rabbits (she received a Fulbright Award to Spain) to a young-adult novel set in archaeological time. In addition, she has taught at Utah State University, and Dine College, University of Arizona. Her hundreds of speaking engagements range from conferences throughout the United States to Paris.

10/15/2025

Star Party at Jemez Historic Site, this coming Saturday evening, Oct 18th. The weather looks like it'll be perfect for this event!

10/15/2025

This Saturday, Oct 18th, at the Jemez Site, a class will be taught on night photography in preparation for the following evening Star Party. The weather should be just perfect for both events.