La lucha por la sierra: Acequiero aesthetics

Moderator's Note: This is a short excerpt from my forthcoming book, The Last Common:

Endangered Lands and Disappeared People in the Politics of Place (2012). I decided to share 

this particular excerpt because I have known Carl for a long time and I finally have some 

photos of some of his spectacular woodcarvings. If you want more information, about Carl's 

work, please contact us. Please do not copy, circulate or cite this work until the book is

published.

Con el acaquí: La Sierra and acequiero

aesthetics

Carl Jaquez is also known affectionately among his friends as “JC” and “The Guru”. The 

second nickname developed because, well, he looks the part and has the countenance of a

wise bearded Zen Master. He is a fifth generation native of La Sierra, and a direct descendant 

of sheepherders and acequia farmers who settled Cañon (as Chama Canyon is known 

locally) in the 1860s. 


Carl works as a farm and ranch hand. He also does a brisk largely money-free business fixing

and welding broke-down tractors and other ailing farm equipment and implements. He has 

rescued my hay operations from disaster several times after the old New Holland mower-

swather broke down. But Carl does a lot more with his welding skills besides dedicating these

to fixing his friends’ vintage farm machines.

Carl is an extraordinary and vastly underappreciated ‘folk’ artist. He welds metal pieces 

together to make signs and artwork, but he is also a highly talented wood carver. That is

an understatement. When I was last visiting Carl this past June 2011, I walked into his 

workshop in Cañon and saw his latest wood carving. I swear that on first glance I thought it 

was a live Bald eagle. I am a discerning collector, and I have never seen such 

a majestic and realistic wood carving of a Bald eagle.

Bald eagle carving by Carl Jaquez of Chama, Colorado.

We got around to talking about La Sierra and Carl mentioned that he was yet to receive a key 

for access to the common. We  discussed the various strategies that lawyers for the Land

Rights Council (LRC) were pursuing to make certain that the herederos from Chama, 

Vallejos, and Los Fuertes received their keys.

Carl turned our conversation back to the artwork. I asked him where he got the wood for his 

carvings: “Do you get these from La Sierra?”, I asked.

He replied: “Yes. There are different types of wood all over this area, here in the Cañon and 

other places on the mesa tops around here. In La Sierra there are some really outstanding

wood pieces, really dense, really hard. Also, any of the older snags washed smooth by river 

water and rain. Higher up, there is the Bristlecone and the Engelmann spruce. Both of those,

when they die, produce a very fine, smooth, and heavy wood.”

 
So, what is the Bald eagle carved from?”, I asked.

“That piece was carved from an old dead cottonwood”.

We walked outside because Carl wanted to show me another piece made from a different 

type  of wood. The piece was outside by one of his wood piles and it was shrouded in a

tattered old plastic tarp. He removed the tarp and slowly revealed the work-in-progress. It was 

a Native or Chicano man, holding his fist up in the air in a cry of protest.

Native protestor woodcarving by Carl Jaquez.

I asked: “And what kind of wood is this?”

Carl explained: “I am carving this out of el acaquí”.

“Al…al…no, acaquí…?” I stammered since I had never heard this word before.

He confirmed: “Yes. We call it acaquí…the bristlecone pine. It is one of the hardest woods 

around. Some people use that word to refer to any wood that is very dense, heavy, and

hardened by age. Con el acaquí…I make better pieces, with a lot more detail, because that 

'type of wood does not chip or crack very easily. But it is very hard to work with. Very slow

going”.

I asked Carl if I could see some of the furniture he has been making for some years now. I 

explained how my wife, Elaine, had seen some chairs and a sofa on a previous visit and she

was very interested in making a purchase.

We went inside Carl’s adobe home and greeted his wife. With her permission to enter,  Carl 

showed me the three pieces. The two chairs and sofa were handcrafted from native Mountain

willow harvested from the Cañon and La Sierra.

Willow sofa by Carl Jaquez.

As we discussed the techniques he uses for making the furniture, our conversation turned to 

the significance of all this handicraft production. I had so many  questions: How did he learn 

this skill? Who taught him? Could he make a living at it? How long had he been doing it?  

Did  he have his artwork on display in galleries? Who were his clients? Carl politely answered 

all these questions and more, but we ultimately came back to the issue of access to La Sierra. 

Carl helped me realize that not everyone exercising use rights to La Sierra is out to graze 

livestock, cut firewood, or gather construction materials. 

For a few “commoners” like Carl, La Sierra is the deep source of an acequiero aesthetic. The 

mountain provides the raw material for his artwork and furniture making. Yet, these rights 

are not specifically defined under the terms of the Lobato trilogy.  Like wild-crafting, the use 

of La Sierra to make art is not exactly a right that is officially granted to herederos and 

successors. Of course, as Carl observed,” “I go up and get firewood and find a piece to work 

on. How is that any different”? 

The use of La Sierra for making art is not something I had considered very seriously before 

this conversation; I don’t think any one had really given this much thought, including the 

lawyers, judges, and court recorders involved in the Lobato case. But how are we to deny Carl 

his right to find La Sierra as an inspiration and source of materials for his artisan handicrafts?