Eppie archuleta biography examples

Bio

Eppie Archuleta was born January 6, 1922, in Santa Cruz, New Mexico. She was raised in Medanales, New Mexico, where her mother's family had lived for more than four generations. Her mother, Agueda Martínez, was a weaver, practicing the traditional craft she had learned from her own mother. Archuleta's father was a schoolteacher before he became the postmaster in Medenales. He also was a weaver. After Agueda married, her husband taught her some of his native Chimayó styles and techniques.

As a child, Eppie worked alongside her parents and siblings, making rugs and blankets to sell. She recalled that everyone in her family took part in the weaving process. "We used to have to work for the family," she said, "and we made our living by weaving, so we all have to do it. As soon as we reached the loom, we started weaving because we were a big family. We were ten of us. We had to help our daddy. So we all had to weave. Some of them get the wool ready, and the bigger ones, we had to weave."

Although she didn't want to weave at first, she grew fond of it. Archuleta remembered, "We had to. They made me do it. I didn't do it because I want to. But it looks like it printed on my head pretty good. I love it now. I love weaving now." Eppie and her siblings also worked on the family farm. "We raised everything from our farm," she said. "We didn't have to go buy things from the store except our shoes."

Growing up, Archuleta also learned about collecting various plants and using them to dye wool, a skill she has continued to practice over the years. She explained, "I gather all the plants, mostly in New Mexico, because the plants have better colors, I think because of the hot place there. I don't know why."

In the late 1940s, Eppie moved with her husband, Frank Archuleta, and their eight children to the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. There, they worked in the potato and lettuce fields and raised sheep. When the children were not in school, they joined their parent

Archuleta was a fourth-generation master weaver and textile artisan, who carried on a tradition that dates to the mid-1600s. She described weaving as a part of her soul that must be passed on to future generations. She taught all of her children, her grandchildren, her great-grandchildren, and many others the skill of weaving. After World War II, Archuleta and her husband Frank moved from New Mexico to the San Luis Valley. They raised 10 children (eight of whom lived to adulthood), while she worked the fields by day and weaved at night.

In 1989, Archuleta purchased a wool mill in La Jara, which she opened as the San Luis Valley Wool Mill. She worked to make her mill a fully operational employer and contributor to the San Luis Valley’s struggling economy. She also created a school to teach children and adults how to produce rare folk art.

During her lifetime, Archuleta received many awards and honors. Her work earned a prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1985—the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. Archuleta was profiled in a January 1991 article in National Geographic. One of her tapestries was installed at the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1993, and the Spanish Market of Santa Fe honored her with the master’s award for lifetime achievement in 2001. Archuleta’s works are exhibited throughout the world.

Books about or authored by Eppie Archuleta

Eppie Archuleta and the Tale of Juan De La Burra
Chispas! Cultural Warrio

To hear Ruben Archuleta tell it, all his life’s adventures — a stint as a sailor during the Vietnam War, nearly 30 years as a Pueblo policeman and a blossoming career as a self-taught woodcarver, historian and author — are a simple result of chance.

“My whole life has been by accident or fate, whatever you want to call it,” Archuleta said recently as he prepared for a trip to South Dakota, his wife Joan’s home state.

Each episode set the stage for future events.

Take his military career, for example.

“I tried to join the Army in 1962 at age 17, but my father refused to give his permission. He did let me join the Navy,” where Archuleta served four years just as the Vietnam War rapidly escalated.

His service time was served at sea but he attributes recent health problems to his wartime exposure to Agent Orange, a potent herbicide used to defoliate Vietnam’s jungles.

“I was contacted by the executive officer of my ship who said nine out of 200-plus crew members had died of prostate cancer,” which Archuleta attributes to Agent Orange exposure.

“I was diagnosed with prostate cancer five years ago but it is in remission,” he said.

He has had two surgeries to his lower back and will have another one, he said, another malady he traces to Agent Orange.

Despite all that, “Thank God I have my health,” the 65-year-old Archuleta said.

Back in Pueblo in 1968, Archuleta's life again was changed by happenstance.

“A friend said I should call two girls we met from South Dakota to see if they wanted to go out on a date,” he recalls. “I called and the woman who answered the phone would become my wife in 1969.”

His 39-year marriage to the former Joan Stuedeman has been blessed with three children and six grandchildren.

“She is my right hand; she understands proper Spanish much better than I do,” Archuleta said, quite a talent when the two are exploring old documents written in Spanish.

That same year, another friend saw a newspaper ad for openings in