I designed this Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo 2023 Year-End Report for the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (YDSP), a federally recognized Native American tribe in El Paso, Texas. The people are called Tigua, and their native language is Southern Tiwa. YDSP is the oldest community in Texas and the longest-running government in the state since the tribe’s establishment in 1683.
The 2023 Year-End Report is a tribute to Quarai Pueblo, located in the Salinas Valley of Torrance County, New Mexico. The YDSP ancestors lived at Quarai for centuries before their resettlement in the El Paso area. Quarai is a significantly important and cultural place for Tigua members. In May 2023, tribal leadership, members, and employees visited the site to honor, respect, and pay reverence to the ancestral grandfathers and grandmothers. Quarai is a sacred space with the power of Tigua spirituality and devotion.
The colors, incredible red sandstone masonry, fascinating architecture, and most of all, the Pueblo people who skillfully began to build the Quarai over 700 years ago, all inspired the design of this report. You can learn more about this amazing structure on its National Park Service site:
"Quarai is tucked at the base of the Manzano mountains. A natural spring attracted people to the area for centuries and attracted the ancestral Pueblo people to settle for longer periods of time and introduce agriculture to the area. With the earliest masonry pueblos being at Quarai around 1300 century, people connected with the land, utilized what it offered, and impacted the culture of central New Mexico.
Consistent with most Pueblo groups around the region, the Tiwa speakers at Quarai were primarily farmers. They traded throughout the greater region, constructed hardy tools and weapons, elaborately weaved and made superb pieces of pottery. They cultivated, collected, and purposed every opportunity nature granted.
The Tiwa speakers of Quarai occupied the land alone until 1626 with the establishment of the Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Quarai. Today, you will see the tall, impactful ruins of the church that illuminate to an unforgettable fiery red in the sunshine. Featuring the locally quarried red sandstone, the church is an architectural marvel even by today's standards. Quarai was an active mission and pueblo until all people migrated north in 1677."
It was my honor and privilege to design this report and learn about Quarai. It is clear that the industriousness, perseverance, and ingenuity that allowed its construction centuries ago lives on in the tribal members of today. The 2023 report documents this in the tribe's annual achievements. Most notably, the grand opening on July 15, 2023 of the tribe's new health clinic. A quest that began in 1989, when the Pueblo first received federal funds for health services after gaining federal recognition, is now a gleaming 78,000 square-foot facility.
The colors, incredible red sandstone masonry, fascinating architecture, and most of all, the Pueblo people who skillfully began to build the Quarai over 700 years ago, all inspired the design of this report. You can learn more about this amazing structure on its National Park Service site:
"Quarai is tucked at the base of the Manzano mountains. A natural spring attracted people to the area for centuries and attracted the ancestral Pueblo people to settle for longer periods of time and introduce agriculture to the area. With the earliest masonry pueblos being at Quarai around 1300 century, people connected with the land, utilized what it offered, and impacted the culture of central New Mexico.
Consistent with most Pueblo groups around the region, the Tiwa speakers at Quarai were primarily farmers. They traded throughout the greater region, constructed hardy tools and weapons, elaborately weaved and made superb pieces of pottery. They cultivated, collected, and purposed every opportunity nature granted.
The Tiwa speakers of Quarai occupied the land alone until 1626 with the establishment of the Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Quarai. Today, you will see the tall, impactful ruins of the church that illuminate to an unforgettable fiery red in the sunshine. Featuring the locally quarried red sandstone, the church is an architectural marvel even by today's standards. Quarai was an active mission and pueblo until all people migrated north in 1677."
It was my honor and privilege to design this report and learn about Quarai. It is clear that the industriousness, perseverance, and ingenuity that allowed its construction centuries ago lives on in the tribal members of today. The 2023 report documents this in the tribe's annual achievements. Most notably, the grand opening on July 15, 2023 of the tribe's new health clinic. A quest that began in 1989, when the Pueblo first received federal funds for health services after gaining federal recognition, is now a gleaming 78,000 square-foot facility.
Thanks once again to Helix Solutions with whom it is always a pleasure to work; Christ Chavez whose gorgeous photos introduce each section of the report; and to Tovar Printing of El Paso, Texas for their expert execution. This is especially notable in the die cuts of the window revealing the title and on the front and back covers that trace the architecture's silhouette, framing the breathtaking New Mexico skies Quarai has basked under for almost a millennium.
