Each 30h of September, the Feast of San Geronimo is celebrated by the Native Americans Tiwa in the pictoresque village of Taos Pueblo, which exists, unchanged, since over a thousand of years.
This event is open to the public, but pictures and videos are strictly forbidden.
I had planned my journey to New Mexioo in advance, arranging it exactly with the purpose to be there for that unique occasion.
And so I did: I went to Taos Pueblo on Tuesday 30th September 2025 and enjoyed the San Geronimo party among the Tiwa, their clowns and ... hundreds of strangers from all over the world.
Since during that ceremonial day no cell phones nor cameras are permitted, one must just be there and surrender to the joyous overwhelming contagious atmosphere of the Fiesta... And that's how the magic happens: even if you came as a visitor, you then become part of the celebration of the Tiwa and somehow part of their history. You end up immersing yourself in the dusty sandy sacred landscape, captured by the tradition whose heart's rentlessly beating claiming that it's still alive, and you let yourself be surrounded and enveloped by a full 360 degree effect of a powerful fascination
It was an unexpected experience!
And Taos Pueblo is such a spectacular place, characterized by its unicity, its energy and spirituality, that I couldn't help but return: two days later, on Thursday October the 2nd, I went again, this time as a photographer, in order to spend another full day there and to catch many images as possible of that village, that people, that territory and ...that vibration!
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| NORTHERN SIDE OF THE VILLAGE, WITH THE TAOS MOUNTAIN ON THE BACKGROUND |
VISIT ONE
My first visit to Taos Pueblo, on Tuesday 30th of September 2025, is documented visually only by a handful of pictures (the few I took before entering the village) but it remains imprinted in my Being as a full sensorial experience of sounds, voices, colours, smiles, smells, surprises, tastes, emotions and feelings that I've gathered and filed in my profound private personal album of memories, a forever lasting treasure precious and unique.
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| SIGN OF TAOS PUEBLO LOCATED AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE VILLAGE |
The few pictures I took, before hiding my cell phone at the bottom of my pocket, are these three:
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THE ART GALLERY OF THE PAINTER DAVID GARY SUAZO
IS LOCATED BESIDE THE ENTRANCE TO THE VILLAGE:
I WAS SNEAKING AROUND AND HE INVITED ME TO ENTER.
I ADMIRED HIS ARTCRAFT AND EXCHANGED A LITTLE CONVERSATION
WITH HIM... DELICIOUS SMELLS CAME FROM HIS KITCHEN AND
A LONG LONG TABLE WAS PREPARED TO HOST MANY GUESTS...
HE EXPLAINED ME HOW THE "SCHEDULE" OF THE FIESTA
WOULD GO (APPROXIMATELY) AND HE TOLD ME:
IF YOU'RE COMING AFTER THE SUNSET, I'LL FEED YOU! |
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| DAVID GARY SUAZO'S VISIT CARD |
And then, after placing my cell phone well hidden in the bottom of my bag, I accessed the corridor entrance leading to the center of the village... and a new magical mysterious dimension opened up for me! I must have seemed like a child entering a fairground! The Pueblo residents were wearing their finest clothes and regalia, natives and vendors from all over were selling jewels, pieces of art, handmade food and fresh beverages, tourists of the most different origins were walking, standing, visiting or sitting in camp chairs set all over the main plaza, in many circles around the big high pole which was the focal point of the event. At the top of the pole, among ropes and flags, a sheep had been hung, and everything suggested to the public that something would happen with it, before the day would come to an end...
People, I knew later on, had started to come since the early morning hours... There was a great excitement, but at the same time a calm slowing down of the collective pace: everyone was enjoying just the fact of being there... melting among the crowd, savouring the moment, wondering what to expect and when to expect it... In fact: there were no announcements, no schedules, no agenda... it simply was "Indian time" - as described in his article by the journalist John Hamilton Farr who reported of his own participation to the San Geronimo Fiesta in 2013.
here's the link to John Hamilton Farr's article:
Anyway, someone of us visitors had collected some clue, and we were comparing the different pieces of information to understand if they match... One thing we had in common: we were told that until 5 pm nothing would occur...That's why we could not contain our enthusiasm when, totally unexpectedly, out of the blue, around 1:30 pm 12 Native clowns (technically known as Heyokas or Koshares) took us off guard by coming out and showing up all at once on the top roof of the casitas of the village: they totally surprised us!!! They were addressing the public, laughing, waving, asking for attention, performing their show... they then jumped down, yelling and screaming, and went through the stands while playing, joking, introducing themselves in the most irreverent ways, demanding goods from the vendors, scaring the most shy visitors, running among the people, making fun of everybody and everything... I attempted to spot them amidst the crowd, until they came closer to where I was standing. In a mix of attraction and terror, I had the temptation to approach them... When I could see them closely, at the very beginning, I was curious but puzzling, trying to use a critical lens, maybe analysing what I was witnessing with an anthropological mindset, but at a certain point something "clicked", any formerly perceived cultural barrier dropped, and I really got into their spirit and sense of humor, I ended up following them from joke to joke (at my own risk, as I knew later on!) and I eventually burst into laughter and wasn't able to stop! I had to laugh out loud and I kept on laughing until I had tears in my eyes! I had so much fun!!!
The Koshares / Heyokas are entirely painted from head to toe with black and white horizontal stripes and they're almost completely naked: they're just wearing glossy shiny loincloths, of different patterns and colours, and bushy headdresses made of straw. Their make-up includes their eyes, surrounded by big black circles, making their gaze profound and threatening. If one gets up close to them, well... they command respect, to say the least.
My joy culminated when I realized I could establish such a profound and tangible connection with this intriguing aspect of the Native American culture I had always respected, but at the same time I had mostly considered an ungraspable mystery... Now, I had been initiated into that mystery: it was not longer a secret for me. I left Taos Pueblo in the peak of that rejoicing, I was complete. I didn't need to wait for the climbing of the pole which would happen around the Sunset, or the rest of the ceremony. I was feeling so grateful and I was revelling in an ecstatic sense of expansion, attunement and pure happiness. The flavour of the hilarious spirit of the Koshares / Heyokas stayed with me for awhile. Their captivating irony, their childlike willingness to make noise and to disrupt the habitual thinking, their simplicity even, their capacity to invite everyone present to stay... truly present in the moment, and their ability to raise smiles all over the place. They definitively conquered me!
In the following days, and for the rest of my journey in New Mexico, I stay "tuned to the frequency" of the Native clowns, and stumbled across some image, statue or painting depicting them:
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"KOSHARES" PAINTING BY THE NAVAJO ARTIST ALLEN BAHE
(CURRENTLY AT BRADFORD'S AUCTION GALLERY, SUN CITY AZ)
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LITTLE STATUE REPRESENTING
A HEJOKA OR KOSHARE SEEN AT THE
WIND RIVER TRADING COMPANY
IN SANTA FE |
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ANOTHER LITTLE STATUE DEPICTING A
KOSHARE OR HEJOKA, SPOTTED IN AN ADVERTISEMENT
PUBLISHED BY THE MAGAZINES
"NATIVE AMERICAN ART" AND "INDIAN MARKET" |
° ° °
VISIT TWO
I returned to Taos Pueblo on Thursday 2nd of October 2025 ... I repeated almost the same steps: I woke up early in Taos, I took the 340 Chile Line Bus for free, and 1 mile later I arrived in Taos Pueblo. That day the sky was completely cloudless, the sun was shining even brighter and I was feeling even more gitty.
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| THE 340 CHILE LINE BUS CONNECTS TAOS TO TAOS PUEBLO DAILY FOR FREE |
Before he left, I asked the bus driver if he would be at the bus stop later on, as scheduled: I wanted to be reassured about it, because the day of the Fiesta, even if the morning buses to go to Taos Pueblo were on time, no buses appeared in the afternoon for whoever wished to go back to Taos! Again, Indian time...!
[A little note: mostly of the visitors that day had come with their own car and a huge parking lot had been set up for that purpose on a field outside the village.. When I decided to leave, new visitors were still arriving, few others were leaving... it was a never ending flow of people in party mood, coming and going, and I was amused by all that movement ...still in party mood myself! So, I reached the bus stop and prepared myself to be waiting there, standing in the baking sun, which was shortly to make my face turning red, when I had the luck to meet a Canadian screenwriter who happened to be there waiting for the bus like me... only, she had already been waiting for three hours! When we realized that probably - for some unknown reason- no outbound buses were about to show up, we started to walk towards the parking lot, together with the visitors headed to their cars... we thought we could maybe ask someone for a ride to Taos or hitchhiking alltogether. Meanwhile, my new adventure companion had the idea to phone a friend, who coincidentally was driving around for errands not so far from there: she accepted to rescue us, so in a very short time she came with her car till the parking lot entrance point, where we had agreed to meet, picked us up and brought us to Taos. And that's how I met Maka of White Buffalo Calf Productions and her friend Christine!]
Anyway, this day was a regular day: no surprises on the horizon, no clowns, no missing buses: the driver answered me "YES, MADAM".
All right, I was ready to enter Taos Pueblo again, and to explore even more deeply that fascinating piece of America.
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| HERE I WAS AGAIN, AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE PUEBLO OF TAOS. |
Situated in Northern New Mexico at 2.170 meters (= 7.120 feet) above sea level, the settlement of Taos Pueblo has been designated both as World Heritage Site by UNESCO and as Historical Landmark.
Taos Pueblo is a member of the Eight Northern Pueblos, the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States. A Tribal Land of 95,000 acres (38,000 ha) is attached to the pueblo of Taos, and about 4,500 people live in this area. As of 2010 about 150 people live in the historical pueblo full-time.
Taos Pueblo's most prominent architectural feature is a multi-storied residential complex of reddish-brown adobe, built on either side of the Rio Pueblo de Taos, also called Rio Pueblo and Red Willow Creek, a small stream that flows through the middle of the pueblo compound. Its headwaters come from Blue Lake, or Ba Whyea, which the people of the Pueblo consider sacred, in the nearby mountains, the Taos Mountain of the Sangre de Cristo Range.
The north-side Pueblo is said to be one of the most photographed and painted buildings in North America. It is the largest multistoried Pueblo structure still existing. It is made of adobe walls that are often several feet thick. Its primary purpose was for defense. Up to as late as 1900, access to the rooms on lower floors was by ladders on the outside to the roof, and then down an inside ladder. In case of an attack, outside ladders could easily be pulled up. [Source: Wikipedia]
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| THE EMBLEMATIC BIG HIGH POLE AT THE CENTER OF THE MAIN PLAZA, TWO DAYS AFTER THE FIESTA WAS BARE AND UNADORNED, BUT STILL IMPRESSIVE IN ITS MAJESTIC SIZE |
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SOME OF THE HOMES, SHOPS AND GALLERIES OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
DURING THE SAN GERONIMO DAY, ARE OPEN IN REGULAR DAYS TOO |
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THE MISSION CHURCH DEDICATED TO SAN GERONIMO,
THE SAINT WHOM THE FIESTA IS DEDICATED TO, IS SOMEHOW A
CONTROVERSIALLY EMBLEMATIC OF TAOS PUEBLO.
I FOUND IT VERY BEAUTIFUL.
I WAS NOT ALLOWED TO TAKE PICTURES OF THE INSIDE. |
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Around 1620, Spanish Jesuits oversaw construction of the first Catholic Church in the pueblo, the mission of San Geronimo de Taos. Reports from the period indicate that the native people of Taos resisted the building of the church and forceful imposition of the Catholic religion. Throughout the 1600s, cultural tensions grew between the native populations of the Southwest and the increasing Spanish colonial presence. Taos Pueblo was no exception. By 1660, the native people killed the resident priest and destroyed the church. The Spanish replied brutally. Several years after it was rebuilt, the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 began.
The Catholic church in Taos Pueblo still stands today
SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA |
The village was so empty and quiet, in comparison with two days before...
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| A LOCAL GUIDE TALKING TO AGROUP OF VISITORS: ON A REGULAR DAY, VISITORS CAN ENTER THE PUEBLO BY PAYING A FEE OF 25, GROUPS CAN BOOK A GUIDED TOUR TO THE VILLAGE OR TO THE LOCAL SACRED SITES. |
See an interesting video by clicking here:
MORE ABOUT VISITING TAOS PUEBLO
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LOOKING TOWARDS THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE VILLAGE:
TREES GROW ALONG THE COURSE OF THE RED WILLOW CREEK. |
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A NATIVE GIRL IS WALKING ACROSS THE VILLAGE ON A REGULAR DAY.
SHE IS GOING TO WELCOME A GROUP OF TOURISTS AND BE THEIR GUIDE FOR THE DAY. |
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| ENTRANCE TO THE SHOP AND GALLERY OF THE ARTIST JERALYN LUJAN LUCERO. |
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| ARTIST AND PAINTER BY JERALYN LUJAN LUCERO., AFTER LIVING FOR A WHILE IN LOS ANGELES, SHE RETURNED BACK TO HER ORIGINAL VILLAGE: TAOS PUEBLO, WHERE SHE HAS HER GALLERY AND SHOP. |
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POSTCARD REPLICA OF THE PAINTING "EAGLE WARRIOR",
BY JERALYN LUJAN LUCERO.
SHE ACCEPTED MY REQUEST TO TAKE A PICTURE OF HER,
AND SHE OFFERED TO SIGN ALL THE POSTCARDS I BOUGHT IN HER SHOP. |
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| ARTIST, STORYTELLER AND CARVER REDSUNRISE LUHAN, BELONGING TO THE CLAN OF THE LUHAN (FAMOUS FOR TONY LUHAN, WHO IN 1923 MARRIED THE WHITE WRTTER AND ARTIST PATRON MABLE DODGE LUHAN) |
THE TIWA TRANSMITTED THEIR LEGENDS FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION THROUGH THE ORAL TRADITION OR THROUGH PIECES OF ART. WATCH THIS SHORT CLIP AND YOU WILL LISTEN TO THE ARTIST, STORYTELLER AND CARVER REDSUNRISE LUHAN, WHILE HE DESCRIBES THE ELEMENTS HE ASSEMBLED TOGETHER IN ORDER TO TELL A STORY OF HIS VILLAGE. TO REPRESENT THE STORY, HE DECORATED WITH TURQUOISE GEMS:A PIECE OF WOOD FROM A RED MAPLE TREE:
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| A WOMAN WAS SELLING HER JEWELRY ON ONE OF THE MAIN "STREETS" OF TAOS PUEBLO. SHE SAW ME FROM A DISTANCE AND CALLED ME, ASKING ME TO COME CLOSER TO HER: SHE WANTED TO ASK ME ABOUT MY BOOTS...! SHE WAS SURPRISED WHEN I TOLD HER THAT THOSE WERE ITALIAN BOOTS. SHE TOOK NOTE OF THE BRAND AND THE PRODUCER'S ADDRESS. SHE TOLD ME THAT THE TIWA NEEDED PRECISELY THOSE BOOTS!!! IT WAS VERY AMUSING IN FACT, MY BELOVED BOOTS, BY THE ITALIAN STYLIST HECTOR RICCIONE, ARE VERY SIMILAR TO SOME OF THE TRADITIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN BOOTS I MYSELF HAD SEEN WORN BY THE GIRLS FROM THE PUEBLO DURING THE FIESTA 2 DAYS BEFORE!... SO I EXPLAINED TO THAT WOMAN THAT THE ITALIAN ARTIST WHO DESIGNED THEM IS FASCINATED BY INDIAN NATIVE FOOTWEAR AND INSPIRED TO CREATE SHOES AND BOOTS RESEMBLING THEIR MOCASSINS. |
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| STANDING DANCING ROCK INHABITS ONE OF THE 'CASITAS' OF THE VILLAGE WHOSE ROOFS WERE USED FOR THE SHOW OF THE KOSHARE., THIS ELDER WELCOMES TOURISTS AND PRESENTS THEM HIS COLLECTIONS OF "TIWA CREATIONS". HE'S ALSO THE FATHER OF ONE OF THE KOSHARES |
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| THE ADOBE ARCHITECTURE AND ONE OF THE OVENS |
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| DETAIL OF THE OVEN |
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| A DOG SITTING IN SHADE BY THE OVENS |
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| AT A CERTAIN POINT, I COULDN'T HELP BUT MERGING WITH THE LANDSCAPE |
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| ME WHILE WALKING IN TAOS PUEBLO |
Click here to watch a little clip of me walking in Taos Pueblo:
Walking in the sandy, dusty, monochromatic, almost desert village of Taos Pueblo during my second visit, I immersed myself totally in that scenario with all my senses, I was touched by the sun burning on my skin, I perceived the breeze whispering softly among my hair and I listened to the silence containing the echoes of all the joyful voices I had heard just two days before, at the Fiesta... At a certain point I was remembering not only the sounds or words or the laughs still replaying in my ears, but I was re-viewing scenes that I had seen, the friendly faces of the elders, the excited smiles of the teenagers, the curious looks of the children... Yes the children! And, while I was day dreaming like that, trying to re-attune to that vibe, to make that glorious experience alive in me once again, out of the blue I spotted something on the ground... I instantly stopped and picked it up! It was a toy, a native handmade toy, a little crochet ball, containing seeds, like the instruments called shakers... fascinating! I took a look more closely: it was displaying three colours, red, black and white, and was decorated with symbols, I guessed it had been manufactured most likely by a lovely mother for her baby... ..I could easily imagine a little baby hand holding that toy and shaking it, to make it play... I smiled at the symbolism of what I had found: that object reminded me more concretely than anything else the atmosphere of the celebration of San Geronimo! Moreover, that toy condensed in itself the playfulness, the childlike wonder, the spirit and colours of the Sacred Clowns, the willingness to enjoy, to have fun, to commune with others, to be open to the presents ... in the present! I took it as if it was for me and I brought it home as one of the most precious souvenirs I have ever collected from my pilgrimages in the Native sites. I am sincerely thankful for this gift and I can feel it allows me to stay connected with the Tewa, their Koshares, their children, their people.
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| THE TOY I FOUND IN TAOS PUEBLO |
