From Mountain To Mall (2024)

Later in the day, the celebrated American folklorist, here for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, sits atop a picnic table on the Mall. "Don't ask me how long I have been in this country because I have an accent," Vigil says, a reference to the Castilian Spanish you hear in his speech. "One hundred years before your ancestors stumbled on Plymouth Rock, my ancestors, the conquistadors, were here."

Isolated in the Sangre de Cristo mountains near the Colorado border for more than 300 years, Vigil's family clung to its language and traditions. But no longer. Vigil's three children, all college educated, do not sing alabados, the ancient Spanish religious chants, nor do they remember their grandparents' stories. That's why Vigil is in Washington, a city he hates.

"Cities are uncivilized," Vigil says, stroking the end of his white mustache that curls upward. His green eyes are effervescent. "I left my mountain because I wanted to give people here what is theirs. Somebody must pass on tradition, or all we'll have is this, this rock-and-roll."

Vigil, who was called a "national treasure" by the National Endowment for the Arts when it named him a 1984 National Heritage Fellowship winner two weeks ago, nods over to the ever-swelling crowd around the Folklife Festival's "The Grand Generation: Folklore and Aging" exhibit. Some are listening to Tommy Jarrell, 83, an Appalachian fiddler, and others to Rosina Tucker, a 102-year-old black civil rights activist. " The festival is a good idea you know," Vigil says, "but I feel like telling them that they are overdoing it. In my home I work all day, 12 to 15 hours out in the field, and I don't get tired. Here, after one hour I am ready to go home."

Vigil takes off his blue cap, revealing a widow's peak that has not yet gone gray. He wipes his wrinkled forehead, but declines to move into the air-conditioned American Museum of Natural History. "Bad for the chest," he says, taking a pack of Lucky Strikes from his vest pocket. He means the air-conditioning.

"People always ask me how I can remember all these stories," Vigil says. "I don't know. I don't know anything about books. I only went to eight grades."

Philip Hodak, who traveled from Westchester County, New York, for the festival, shouted, "Bravo, bravo," when Vigil finished a story about a rattlesnake that wanted a suntan. Hodak called Vigil "the sinew and the blood of this country. Without him, without culture, we would be protoplasms."

"It is so ironic," said James Waterman who had brought his two young children to listen to Vigil. "He probably aspires to be what we are, middle-class Americans, and yet we look at him and see how much more real, more valid he is."

Vigil heard none of this. He walked off the stage wondering if he should go home before the festival ends on Sunday. He said he missed his 50 acres in San Cristobal, N.M., and his front porch, where he is more comfortable telling stories. He also said there were times when he knew it was worth staying.

After his performance, Keith Salas, 14, from Olney, approached him.

"You remind me of my grandfather," Salas told him. "He says that his grandfather was a conquistador, too."

And Vigil smiled.

The Smithsonian's 18th annual Festival of American Folklife resumes today, with this year's themes of "Alaska," "The Grand Generation: Folklore and Aging" and "Black Urban Expressive Culture From Philadelphia."

The festival runs through Sunday. The admission-free events are scheduled from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily and will include a free concert on Friday. The festival features crafts, singing and dancing performances, speeches, workshops, food and once-daily tree-logging.

Some of today's festival highlights: 11 a.m.

-- St. Lawrence Island Yupik Eskimo dance.

-- Yupik Eskimo story and dance workshops.

-- Salmon preservation.

-- Skills and lore of bush pilots in Alaska and exhibits of their equipment, memorabilia and an Alaskan bush plane.

-- John and James Jackson (blues music).

-- Appalachian music.

-- Crafts: How-to demonstrations of split-oak baskets, pottery, nets, crab pots, hides and beads. Noon

-- Athabaskan songs.

-- Alaska native traditions.

-- Fishing boat cookery: chowders.

-- Miners' demonstrations of placer goldmining, sluice boxes, panning for gold and miner memorabilia.

-- The Popovich Brothers Tamburitza Orchestra.

-- A learning center exhibition of oral tradition: Smithsonian folklorists interview visitors for stories and memories.

-- Yupik Eskimo dances.

-- Tlingit stories and legends.

-- The Rev. Daniel Womack (Afro-American spirituals).

-- Traditional stone carvers. 1 p.m.

-- Tlingit stories and legends.

-- Eskimo stories and games.

-- Sourdough cookery (pancakes).

-- Loggers demonstrate their trade: power bucking, obstacle pole bucking, ax throwing and other activities.

-- Tommy Jarrell and Friends (Appalachian music).

-- Children's games and songs from the Sea Islands.

-- Do-wop singing.

-- Southeast Indian dances. 2 p.m.

-- Eskimo games.

-- Alaskan occupations.

-- Fishing boat cookery: work food.

-- Alaskan fishermen demonstrate their skills.

-- Hawaiian hula dancing.

-- Grandfatherly knowledge (storytelling).

-- Tap dancing.

-- Street poetry. 3 p.m.

-- Athabaskan songs.

-- Collegiate stepping.

-- Black vaudeville and minstrel shows.

-- St. Lawrence Island Yupik Eskimo dance.

-- Tlingit stories and legends.

-- Wade and Julia Mainer (old-time music).

-- Native American traditions: honoring the elders.

-- Crafts: How-to demonstrations of Alaskan crafts by Inupiaq Eskimo carvers, Athabaskan beadworkers, Yupik Eskimo parka makers, Alaskan Indianweavers and Aleut basketmakers.

-- Spoons and Washboard Slim. 4 p.m.

-- The Moving Star Hall Singers (Afro-American spirituals and shouts).

-- A Sense of Place (Chesapeake Bay watermen).

-- Grand Masters of Funk and Scanner Boys (rapping and breakdancing).

-- A cappella R&B harmonizing. 5 p.m.

-- Gajaa Heen performs Southeast Indian dances.

-- Nunamata Dancers: Yupik Eskimo stories and dances.

-- Calling the Cotton Press (work songs and stories).