Anniversary art shopping in Madrid, New Mexico

On the final day of our 3-day anniversary weekend (and the day of our actual anniversary), we headed up to Madrid, New Mexico to buy ourselves an anniversary present. We hoped to buy a piece of southwest art for our house in Tucson. Madrid is a small artist’s colony located on a rural highway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

When I first moved to New Mexico, I assumed that Madrid, NM, is pronounced the same way as Madrid, Spain, with the accent on the second syllable. I was very quickly corrected by everybody I met in Albuquerque – the accent is on the first syllable.

I was informed repeatedly, it’s pronounced Mádrid, like you’re mad at somebody. Maaaadrid. Ok, fine. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, right? So I called it Madrid with the accent on the “a” for years and years, just like everyone else I knew. We all imagined that was the correct, local, “in-the-know” way of pronouncing Madrid, and the people who said “Madrid” as in Madrid, Spain, were just out-of-town tourists.

But then when I was working in Santa Fe, I consulted with a coworker who was a true local. Turns out the pronunciation of Madrid isn’t that simple. Let me back up for a moment and explain what the term “local” means in New Mexico. There’s locals, and then there’s LOCALS. Regular locals are like locals in any region – they were born in Albuquerque or maybe they moved here many years ago, they raised their kids here, they’re local.

But then there are the locals who are of Spanish decent who have been landowners in the rural areas of New Mexico for many generations. They come from a very distinct culture that you really don’t find anywhere else in the country. Adding to the confusion is the strong Native American culture in New Mexico – the original locals.

Anyway, back to the pronunciation of “Madrid.” For years and years, I did what everyone told me and awkwardly put the accent on the first syllable rather than the second. Like a sheep. Baaa – Maaaadrid. Then my local-local coworker, whose Spanish family has lived in a very rural section of northern New Mexico for many generations, and still speaks the local variety of Spanish, told me that Madrid is actually pronounced the same as Madrid, Spain. With the accent on the second syllable. What?! All these years of trying to pronounce it the special “local” way, and it turns out the true locals pronounce it the same as Madrid, Spain after all? How is that possible?

So here’s my quandary. I can pronounce Madrid weirdly, like all the other non-hispanic, transplant locals such as myself, or I can insist on pronouncing it the way I was taught by my true local-local coworker and in doing so, sound like an ignorant tourist!

I really don’t want to sound like a tourist on their first day visiting New Mexico, so I guess I’m going to continue to mispronounce Madrid, just like all the rest of the sort-of locals in Albuquerque who call New Mexico home. Regardless of what you want to call the Madrid, we were on a mission: local art.

The air quality was poor that day, so we figured it was a good day for a sedentary stroll through the small art galleries that line a block or two of the highway through Madrid. We were glad we had already done our hiking a couple of days earlier.

After glancing in a few shops, we went to our primary destination – the gallery with the bighorn sheep. We have long admired the art of Jill Shwaiko.

She is a successful artist, primarily known for her amazing bronze statues of bighorn sheep, which are well beyond our price range. Even if we could afford a statue, it really wouldn’t work in our average suburban backyard. I imagine her statues residing in park-like grounds with expansive vistas. But we were hoping to pick out a print of one of her paintings.

We walked in and the woman at the front desk asked us what she could do for us. We explained that we have long admired this particular artist. Then she told us that she was Jill Shwaiko herself! She explained that sometimes she drops by her gallery on Sundays. It was really great to get to meet her in person!

John liked this painting the best, of two bighorn sheep staring out of the canyon at the moon:

Whereas I liked this one, a bit more abstract, and in my mind more triumphant, with the sheep on top of the mesa:

We couldn’t decide! I also liked this third one with a group of sheep; it seemed less lonely than just the two sheep by themselves.

In the end we took a deep breath and bought all three. Even though they are just prints, not originals, they were expensive because they are high-quality prints on canvas and she is a well-known artist.

We had a great time in Madrid. And we were not yet done with our anniversary celebrating!

Next stop, dinner at El Pinto.

The menu at El Pinto is only okay; standard New Mexican food. But there are a couple of items that we do like, and we don’t go very often so we don’t have a chance to get tired of ordering the same two things on the rare occasion that we do go there.

The main reason we sometimes go to El Pinto is for the ambiance. They have the largest outdoor patio I have ever seen, and it’s very well shaded and beautiful. (Only a tiny fraction of the patio is open during shoulder seasons, so if you go late in the fall or early in the spring, and you’re unimpressed with their modest little side patio and are wondering what the heck I was talking about, well, it’s a summer-only phenomena).

I didn’t take any pictures of the patio itself, but here’s John and I trying to nail an anniversary selfie.

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