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Proceeds From Book on N.M. Church Architecture Will Help Restore San Felipe De Neri

Posted on: Monday, 19 September 2005, 15:00 CDT

A book on the architecture of New Mexico churches is helping to restore a historic one in Old Town.

The Revs. Thomas J. Steele and Thomas L. Lucero will discuss and sign their book "Religious Architecture in Hispano New Mexico" on Sunday at San Felipe de Neri Church in Old Town.

Steele, a priest at Immaculate Conception in Albuquerque, also will sign copies of his book "The Alabados of New Mexico." That book is a beautiful collection of alabados, or hymns of praise sung by the Hispanos. Many were written in New Mexico.

Proceeds from the sale of both books will benefit the "Arise and Rebuild" fund for church maintenance and renovation.

The event celebrates the 300th anniversary of San Felipe de Neri.

"I've said Mass quite a few times at San Felipe, and Lucero grew up in that parish ... ," Steele said. "(Lucero) was in the architecture school at UNM and did measure drawings of the church, so he knows the church inside out."

Lucero's background in architecture was exactly what Steele needed to make his book idea come to fruition.

Steele had worked on a small sketch of the characteristics of New Mexico's religious architecture.

"I've been trying to work up a component that could be readily handed out to students with a few drawings attached to it that was simple," Steele said. "It had to be simple, because I don't know anything about architecture when you get right to it. As time went on, I was hoping somehow to get in touch with an architect and sure enough, there was Thomas (Lucero)."

As a professor at Regis University in Denver and the University of New Mexico, Steele thought students were an important target. He taught English in Denver and a class on the religious culture of the Hispano people at UNM.

Steele proposed the idea of the book and asked Lucero to be coauthor.

"He looked it over and made a number of fine-tunings and contributed things I never could have thought of," Steele said.

The book, which took about a year to complete, is about New Mexico churches exclusively, Steele said.

"We go back to a few 17th century things like Acoma and Quarai, but for the most part it's 18th century and 19th century buildings."

Steele and Lucero kept the book clear and concise.

"There's a list of (religious structures), something like a dozen," Steele said of the book. "There's not so many things that people are overwhelmed. We have everything in a rational order so people can work up a checklist for a given piece of architecture."

Steele also will sign "The Alabados of New Mexico" on Sunday.

"Probably about 10 to 20 percent (of the alabados) were written in New Mexico, about 10 to 20 percent in Spain and 60 to 80 percent are Mexican works," Steele said.

Steele tracked down cuadurnos, or blank books purchased by the devout to copy words of the hymns so they could sing along and know their story. "Everybody who is singing is trying to sing the same melody at the same time," Steele said. It took Steele 25 years to gather information for the book, and only one-tenth of what he collected was included.

"What I did was divide up all the different hymns that I ran into and tried to get an appropriate number of them with good text and a certain amount of variety," Steele said. "A lot of hymns are well- known."

If you go

WHAT: The Revs. Thomas J. Steele and Thomas L. Lucero will discuss and sign their book "Religious Architecture in Hispano New Mexico."

WHEN: 2 p.m. Sunday

WHERE:

San Felipe de Neri Church, 2005 N. Plaza NW in Old Town

INFO: Call 271-0727 for information. Book sale proceeds benefit the "Arise and Rebuild" fund for San Felipe de Neri.

Source: Albuquerque Journal

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