History can provide valuable lessons and insights about sustainable efforts and how past civilizations have created opportunities to build community. By studying the successes and failures of previous societies, we can learn about more sustainable community-building practices that can impact our efforts to create a better world today. Last summer I wrote a series of four articles about the Spanish settlement and colonization patterns in New Mexico, focusing on their interaction with and impact on the native Puebloan peoples of the American Southwest. By exploring both the Spanish and Puebloan values, beliefs, and translations of these onto the built environment, the reader can gain a deeper appreciation for the diversity of perspectives needed to create sustainable communities and the ways in which these perspectives shape our relationship with others and the natural world.

 

Santa Fe and the Spanish City System | SAH ARCHIPEDIA (sah-archipedia.org) 

Barrio de San Miguel Analco | SAH ARCHIPEDIA (sah-archipedia.org)

Pecos Mission | SAH ARCHIPEDIA (sah-archipedia.org)

Arroyo Hondo Pueblo | SAH ARCHIPEDIA (sah-archipedia.org)