Glimpse of the Past Oct 20

Date: October 6, 2011
Contact: Valerie Duran, 505-425-8025

Glimpses of the Past October 20, 2011 "Quest for Quivera"

 Las Vegas, NM: Fort Union National Monument announces its monthly Glimpses of the Past presentation, "Quest for Quivira." The program will be held at the CCHP/Santa Fe Trail Interpretive Center, 116 Bridge Street, in Las Vegas, Thursday, October 20, 2001, at 7:00PM. In 1540, Vasquez De Coronado began exploring the area that is now regarded as New Mexico. For almost three hundred years afterwards, Spanish explorers and traders traveled throughout the Great Plains before William Becknell "blazed" the Santa Fe Trail in 1821. Join historian and author Dr. Thomas E. Chavez on an in-depth look at the bold pioneering Spaniards that explored, traded, and traveled throughout the Southwest and how their actions would help to forge the distinctive culture and vibrant communities of New Mexico.

Thomas E. Chavez is a historian with a Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico. In December of 2004, he retired as the Executive Director of the National Hispanic Culture Center in Albuquerque. Before that he was director of the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, New Mexico for twenty-one years. He has published numerous book reviews, articles, seven books, and wrote a monthly Sunday article for The Santa Fe New Mexican. He recently helped the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art begin an endowment and consulted for the University of New Mexico Press and the New Mexico Women's Forum.

The "Glimpses of the Past series are free in partnership with the Citizens Committee for Historic Preservation. For more information, contact Fort Union National Monument at [phone], or visit www.nps.gov/foun.