Funding for Colores was provided in part by New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation McCune Charitable Foundation New Mexico Arts a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts and Viewers Like You Candelaria brothers in World War One Discovering his history through photographs, letters, and family stories, Andres Armijo learns about his great uncle's experiences before, during, and after World War One.

Weaving family history into her textile art, Anna Perez-McKay explores how craft can connect generations, inspire care for the earth and one another.

Honored with a 2025 New Mexico Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts.

Musician Peter “Amahl” shares a lifelong passion for jazz and a commitment to passing it on.

It's all ahead on Colores!

REMEMBERING GASPAR AND LIBERATO >> Andrés: So, this is my Great Uncle Gaspar, Tio Abuelo, Great Uncle.

This is him again.

Both of these are in World War o He wrote about how they set up their tents with wood and canvas This is Liberato, his brother, my other Great Uncle, or Tio Abuelo.

Both of these pictures are him.

And this one, I see so many family resemblances also.

[Folk music] >> Andrés: I think the absence of my father in my life -- in a way, has been a great opportunity to enrich and to augment my intellectual curiosity.

I became that much more interested in his history, in his uncles participating in World War One.

[Folk music] >> Andrés: I ask a lot of questions, not because I don't know, but because I want to know more.

My mother used to talk quite a bit about her parents.

She lost her mother when she was ten years old, and she would show me her parents wedding picture.

And what she had tell me, “wasn't my mother so beautiful, mi hijito?” And she would address it to me because she knew that I was interested and it was a conduit for me being able to ask more questions She would bring out her old family photo album that she constructed from many old photographs that her parents kept.

This is her mother.

She died when my mother was ten.

I would sit with her and she would flip through the book, or I█d flip and ask her about this picture or that picture and that person, and why does it look like this?

And who was that?

And oh, what did you do afterwards?

She had her parents picnicking in the mountains when they were young.

Something of another world experience.

Learning about these stories.

My mom telling me about the joy of her mother making the -- dresses for this whole wedding party in this colored photo.

This was a barbershop that my mom remembered the pole -- and my grandparents remodeled it -- of course, adobe.

And my grandmother Aurora, was really upset with Elias.

[speaking Spanish] The person that was plastering.

[laughs] So, a lot of funny stories came out of these -- images and propelled me to inquire further.

[Spanish guitar] I found out my dad was in the Navy during the Korean War.

He became a cook and an interpreter.

[Spanish guitar] My mother started showing me those pictures of him when he the service, and I wanted to know more about my father's background because he was absent in my life My parents were divorced, and then he passed away when I was 16.

That was very difficult.

And soon after he passed away, I asked my mother to introduce m to some of his cousins who were much older than he was, and so they knew quite a bit of the family history -- they told me about how their eldest brother, Gaspar, who they called Tata.

Tata is a word for “father.” Well, why were Tata█s siblings calling him father?

Because he was the Head of the household.

Despite his parents still being alive.

His parents depended on him quite a bit.

And this Tio Abuelo Mio, my Great Uncle Gaspar, served in World War One.

It's a remarkable that his brother was also stationed in Germany at the same time.

And his brother's name was Liberato.

So these are my dad's uncles, whom he grew up with as well, and who taught him a great deal about agricultural life and about being a leader in the community.

[Spanish guitar] >> Andrés: I listened with a great deal of care to this really valuable information that my dad█s primos hermanos were sharing with me.

The fact that they registered for World War One meant that they were men of honor and responsibility, and that they cared about their country, that they cared about their state, that they cared about Los Candelarias and Los Griegos.

and that they cared particularly for their families protection.

Their Draft Cards state their occupation that they were working in at the time.

I think Tata that was listed as a milkman and Liberato was listed as a farmer.

and this was at the time -- the Great War, the United States entered in 1917, and they were there until at least the end of 1919.

So they're answering a call, a very important call that speaks of a bigger picture of Nuevo Mexicanos within the United States military service.

[uplifting music] >> Andrés: These anecdotes and these stories, their registration cards, their enlistment papers, their service records, speak about the sacrifices that they made to leave their family, to fight for their country -- in Europe.

They went to France.

They were stationed in Germany.

They were set up at camps in Germany.

They were fighting in battles.

They were writing back to their parents about the conditions, about their injuries, and a lot of times downplaying these injuries as to not worry their parents.

[uplifting music] >> Andrés: Tata and Liberato, were not stationed together.

They were in different parts of Germany.

They went to different boot camps, but they did meet each other on a train.

And that was so tantalizing to me to see your own brother thousands of miles away in the Great War, World War One, Germany, I think one was getting off the or getting on the train.

And so Tata commented to his parents that he had seen his brother Liberato and that he had gotten a little bit chubby.

These are postcards that my Great Uncle, Tio Abuelo Liberato sent to my grandmother.

[reading in Spanish] And so -- this is my Great Uncle telling my grandmother, apply yourself in school so that no one will ever have anything over you.

These men knew the racism and the challenges that their parents went through and that they went through, and he didn't want his little sister, my grandmother, to have to go through that.

[Spanish guitar] My tio Gaspar, Tata, he was very loving and warm man.

But as I understand it, he didn't talk too much about his experiences.

What we know about his experiences are first hand accounts -- from his letters that he wrote to his siblings and his parents, describing the conditions, the muddy conditions, the rainy conditions.

And when his father wrote to him asking him about his condition, Gaspar downplayed his condition of being injured.

But he was wounded at least on two occasions.

In some battles in Germany while fighting.

[Spanish guitar continued] >> Andrés: Once Gaspar and Liberato we█re back from World War One, the Great War, they started participating in the Sociédades That supported community mutual protection, and they became leaders in the community, particularly Tata.

[Folk music] >> Andrés: Today, you can look at pictures of parades of soldiers on Central Avenue and you wonder, “well, where's Tata, where's Liberato?

Where are the other Nuevo Mexicanos in this?” [Folk music continues] I don't think people want to be forgotten, and I don't want them to be forgotten.

And I write so as to give people something personal, to be able to relate to.

And for them to be able to convert it for something meaningful for them and see how they can make sense out of their own personal histories.

EXPIERENCES TRANSFORMED >> Perez-McKay: I'm Anna Perez-McKay We're at the Depot Gallery, which is managed by Sierra Arts, and my show is called, Uncharted and it's a series of 18 pieces done with printmaking and paint, quilting and crochet, reflecting on truth and source a with the ways that things can get misconstrued and flattened and oversimplified.

The crochet pieces that are seen in the work are made out of fibers that are mostly embroidery floss that I found in my grandparent█s house I spent a year in Ireland and my family is from there, and I was able to find some materials that had belonged to women in my family And then the patchwork is done with different sources.

Some of them were from my own collection and other projects in the past from thrift stores, and some of them were really old from Milan Fabrics here in Reno.

The wood that I used was willow from the Truckee River My girlfriend actually went and foraged a bunch of these willow sticks for me I really like displaying these pieces kind of as tapestries on the wall and the best way to do that is with some kind of dowel.

Getting local sticks from near the river is so much better than buying a dowel that's gone through a factory and then resold back to me.

It's kind of a really simple reason for using that wood also, it really ties in with the rest of the show as well.

>> Perez-McKay: I was thinking a lot about the literal truth and meaning in objects and in cultures and experiences that can be transformed when they're duplicated and regurgitated and changed, and how culture treats people and society is able to support and degrade different groups.

And Sierra Arts put out a call for artists.

I put together a proposal that kind of brought what I had been working and thinking about together.

They encouraged artists to propose a couple of community engagement events.

What I came up with was Amending Circle, that would take place in the gallary It would just be open to the public and encouraging people to come and have a space that's like calm and peaceful to kind of all work on mending stuff together to share skills.

Also, when I was in Ireland, I went to a couple of knitting circles.

Everyone was working on their own little project.

I hadn't met anyone before, but just such a lovely, warm environment, I really feel like connecting over craft is a really lovely way to connect people and to celebrate handicrafts and things that we love to do.

And then I also hosted a workshop at like a press and pressure printing which is the technique that I used in this show, it█s a technique that I chose because it let me print directly from these lace objects that I had been making without putting ink or shellac or anything on the lace itself.

So this process happens when you put down a layer of ink just flat on a flat surface, then put your paper on top of that and then the lace on top of that and run the whole thing through a press so that the lace presses into the paper, presses into the ink and that picks up an impression of the lace on the paper My grandma did a lot of knitting and she showed me a little bit how to do that when I was younger, I fell in love with crochet a little more, and it was just a hobby that I picked up and really did a lot of when I was in like elementary school.

With sewing, I also learned to do that when I pretty young, from like my mom and my aunt.

I was a very quiet and reserved kid and I liked my quiet hobbies.

And then I didn't do it so much for quite a few years.

And then I really kind of rediscovered my love for it, more recently.

Being able to make my own design and pull together these materials that kind of have sentimental value and have this history that I'm really thinking about.

I started doing this work when I Ireland, did the dice piece there, but I was kind of reminiscing about Reno and wanting to make something kind of playful.

And then I was designing more floral based charts when I came back to Reno, reminicing on a natural beauty that I saw in Ireland, and I had a lot of time to work on those charts and to do some stitching when I was volunteering at the Warming Center here in Reno.

Woman and people with kids can come in sleep in a safe, warm place for the night, just to get them off the streets for a little bit of time.

[tranquil music] >> Perez-McKay: Being an artist in Reno is really interesting and has inspired in me a lot of reflection on my role as an artist, and as someone who in a gallery, especially in contrast with a lot of the living conditions that a lot of my neighbors are being subjected to at this time, especially with homelessness and with various threats to people's way of life.

As people who love art, it would make more sense and be more of a true approach to wanting to see more art in the world to do what we can to make life easier for people in our community, so that as many people as possible are able to make art and to love art.

Even though I'm being represented in a gallery and I have a degree in art, anyone can do craft and do art and have it be really special and meaningful It's been really nice to talk to people about using textiles and reusing fabrics, I'm really hoping to inspire just a reflection on the ways that we think about the world, like caring for the earth and caring for each other, preservation of natural resources That's really important to me.

PASSING ON THE RHYTHM [Jazz musica] >> Peter: My father, he migrated from the Azores and he sang and wrote poetry and he was one of the founders of Portuguese marching band.

And everyone in my family had to take an instrument and I had to be a member of that band, [laughs] and I had to share a bedroom with an older brother, and he was into jazz.

So I'd be listening to the Clifford Brown, and wanted to hear -- Amos ‘n█ Andy.

But, somehow, it got through to me and on the other side of it, and as far as playing goes, I was already playing bars at 15 years old.

I was playing four nights a week I was making $12.50 a night, and I think that's where it all started for me.

[Jazz music] >> Peter: What had influenced me in life was the Newport Jazz Festival.

I was 16 because it was 1958 and I caught Ray Charles from that moment on, I loved Jazz and Blues -- and, you know, Soul Jazz, what they were calling the gospel, and all that interfades, I really did.

And that turned my life around right there.

[Jazz music] What makes a jazz musician, in my mind, is what makes any good music, good is authenticity, being honest, and then the rest of it is having passion, you know?

The New Mexico Jazz Workshop at the ballpark was I think, one of the proudest things that I participated in my life really my thing was to get people exposed to this music because Newport, it opened me up I wanted a place where families could come with a picnic basket, and that was Madrid at the old ballpark, and it gave local players a lot of exposure, and it went on for many years.

It's very traditional for old school drummers, particularly, you know, jazz drumming and the connection to New Orleans to pass it on.

And that's where I am right now.

I play when I can and what I can but more so, to pass it on.

[Jazz music] An instrument, any instrument that you play, this becomes a part of you and this becomes your voice.

Jazz is art.

When you play it beautifully, it is beautiful.

It's beautiful.

[Jazz music] Yeah.

[Jazz music continues] >> Peter: I'm truly grateful for all those that have made it possible and for the Governor having bestowed this award on me.

So thank you.

[Jazz music continues] The award Winning Arts & Culture series Colores, is now available on the PBS App YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and at NMPBS.org From classic episodes to brand new shows Colores is everywhere!

Watch now on your favorite NMPBS platforms.

Funding for Colores was provided in part by New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E Walker Fund for KNME TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation McCune Charitable Foundation New Mexico Arts a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts and Viewers Like You