Event: Grand Opening and Family Day for the Exhibit The Threads of Memory

Museums & Cultural Affairs Department

MEDIA ADVISORY

El Paso Museum of History Presents Grand Opening and Family Day for the Exhibit The Threads of Memory: Spain and the United States (El Hilo de la Memoria: España y los Estados Unidos)

Sunday, January 23rd, 2011

2:00 to 4:00 PM

ALL ACTIVITIES FREE



Experience the excitement as the El Paso Museum of History celebrates the grand opening of this once in a lifetime exhibit, The Threads of Memory: Spain and the United States (El Hilo de la Memoria: España y los Estados Unidos) at this free Family event. Activities will include period sword fighting demonstrations by the Society for Creative Anachronism, calligraphy or writing with a quill pen, doing straw art, making an old globe miniature to take home plus more. Children and adults can try on reproduction period clothing and armor such as the early settlers would have worn plus handle reproduction 17th century weapons such as muskets and swords. There will be re-enactors wearing costumes of the period and a possible special appearance by early explorer Cortes.

At 3:00 PM there will be a special bilingual performance by Teatro Paraguas of “The Peralta Proclamation.” This is not a play but a dramatic costumed reading of one of the documents that will be on display in the exhibit where Pedro de Peralta receives his orders to take over Juan de Oñate’s failed efforts to colonize New Mexico. This company performed for the Prince and Princess of Spain during the 300th Anniversary celebration of the founding of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

On this day only, visitors will have the opportunity to enjoy a special tour of the exhibit by Falia González, Chief of the Conservation Department of the Archivo General de Indias and visiting curator.

All activities will be free and open to all.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Fundación Rafael del Pino and is co-organized by the Archivo General de Indias (General Archive of the Indies) and the State Corporation for the Spanish Cultural Action Abroad (Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior, or SEACEX), in collaboration with Spain’s Ministries for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and Culture.

Images courtesy of Crawford MacCallum, Teatro Paraguas and the Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain

The El Paso Museum of History exists for the educational benefit of the community and visitors. It promotes the understanding and significance of the rich multicultural and multinational history of the border region known as the Pass of the North

For more information, contact Sue Taylor at (915) 351-3588 or taylorsl@elpasotexas.gov.