The threat from within
Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission crumbling away

This circa 1880 photo of the Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe Mission church before restorations hangs in the visitor center in Zuni Saturday. Problems with the restoration work on the church have left the exterior and interior walls cracking, flaking and buckling.

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

ZUNI — Over the centuries, the old Spanish mission church in Zuni Pueblo has survived a variety of calamities — from attacks and fires to theft and neglect.

Now it’s facing two modern-day threats. According to Zuni Tourism Office officials, the mission church is in imminent threat of collapsing because of moisture trapped in its adobe walls, and much needed restoration funds are threatened by the state government’s current financial crisis. Those tourism officials are hoping the historic landmark — which attracts tourists from around the world — can be saved before its deteriorating walls completely buckle and crumble.

The church, which was originally built by Zuni labor and dedicated as Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, has its origins in the first Catholic missions established among the Zuni people in 1629. Known also by its English name, Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission, the church underwent a major restoration project in the 1960s after falling into serious disrepair. When Zuni artist Alex Seowtewa began painting large murals of Zuni religious figures around the sanctuary in the 1970s, the murals became controversial within the pueblo, but they attracted more tourists to the old mission church. In recent years, the Diocese of Gallup turned the church over to the Zuni Tribe, which placed it under the administration of the Zuni Tourism Office.

Tourism Director Tom R. Kennedy discussed the problems the mission is facing in a recent telephone interview and e-mail correspondence. “The problem involves both the manner of restoration in the late 1960s — using a cement plaster over the adobe wall — and the problems with drainage and runoff in the historic ‘Middle Village’ pueblo area,” Kennedy said. “With inevitable cracking or spalling of the plaster, moisture enters the adobe wall, which then cannot properly dry.”

According to Kennedy, the moisture has migrated up through the walls and is now a significant threat to both the building’s structure and the murals painted on the interior’s gypsum-based plaster walls.

If funds can be secured to repair and restore the church once again, Seowtewa’s murals will have to be carefully removed for the restoration process. What will happen to them at that point is a subject that is currently being debated in Zuni.

For Kennedy, saving the restoration funding is his biggest concern. According to Kennedy, he secured $34,000 in capital outlay funds in 2005 to conduct a formal and extensive conditions assessment, which was completed in 2006 by Cornerstones Community Partnerships. “The total restoration figure at that time was $800,000,” he said, “which also included preserving the murals.”

Kennedy said another $50,000 state appropriation was secured in 2006, and Congressman Steve Pearce helped secure a National Parks Service Save America’s Treasures grant of $98,000 that requires a one-to-one match. Kennedy said tourism officials were in the process of raising the additional matching funds and planning restoration work when the current budget crisis hit the state government.

The Associated Press reported Friday the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee recently released a report stating that of the $3.7 billion appropriated from 2002 to 2008, $1.7 billion targeted for more than 7,000 projects around the state hasn’t been used yet. Gov. Bill Richardson and other state officials are suggesting that some of these funds be cut to make up for state’s $454 million shortfall this year.

Because the old Zuni mission’s restoration project is still in a transitional phase, Kennedy explained, the funds have been “flagged” for de-authorization during the upcoming legislative session.

“If this happens,” Kennedy said, “the Save America’s Treasures grant too becomes in jeopardy, and given today’s severe economic situation, the whole restoration project becomes increasingly far-fetched — and literally the building is in dire threat of collapse.”

Kennedy believes the old mission church is “one of the key cultural assets” of both Zuni Pueblo and McKinley County and believes it would be “a public and historic travesty” if it is lost because of revoked state funding. Zuni Tourism’s projected plan for the restored church, he said, is to develop it into a cultural/historic site to interpret the mission’s history and the history of outsiders who have come to Zuni.

“The public needs to let our state politicians and leaders know that this cannot happen,” Kennedy said, “and to reinstate these funds to enable this project to proceed when the weather is favorable.”

Information: Zuni Tourism Office, (505) 782-7238 or www.zunitourism.com