Researchers

I work for the National Park Service in the fields of historic preservation and interpretation. I am currently at Pecos National Historical Park in New Mexico but will be working at Tumacacori National Historical Park, in between Tubac and Nogales, Arizona. There, I will be working on the preservation crew charged with conserving the ruins of 3 Jesuit (later Franciscan) missions with the use of traditional building techniques and materials such as adobe and lime. I am fascinated by the cultural ecology of the fused Hispanic-Indian cultures in the arid northern Mexico/greater southwest landscapes. I’m interested in what cultural adaptations (particularly agriculture related) and trappings the Spanish brought along with them from their southern Spain/Andalusian dry lands and which they adopted from the locals. After the recent disaster of the mining spill to the Río Sonora watershed, a friend of mine really hit the nail on the head when he described this region as truly representing the last vestiges of traditional agrarian and Hispanic life in the greater southwest. It would be a true privilege to be able to experience, document and further research these people, their institutions/culture and the lands before they’re any more altered.