Meet a GCCE Cultural Entrepreneur
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Ceci Tadfor, originally from Cameroon, Africa and now a resident of Santa Fe, NM, says she is determined to, “do things differently this time.” In 2009, Tadfor opened the doors to her new store, SpanAfric International Market and Deli, which offers African and Spanish foods and specialty items that are otherwise hard to find in Santa Fe. African spices and dried fish, Spanish paella pans and sausage are among the many item lining the shelves at SpanAfric. Tadfor realizes that the success of her store, her third and most recent entrepreneurial endeavor in Santa Fe, will require commitment and changes in business tactics which hindered the growth of her previous businesses.
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Ousmane Macina, a traditional Fulani goldsmith from Mali who currently resides in Santa Fe, NM, has not only forged traditional jewelry making with contemporary tools and methods, but also utilizes business practices learned in Mali to strengthen his entrepreneurship in America.
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Miriam Leth-Espensen, owner of the Santa Fe School of Weaving and Miriam’s Well boutique, says that as a Danish immigrant, she recognizes that there is “such a push to become part of this new culture; that sometimes first and second generations are too preoccupied with fitting into this American culture. But, I think, eventually, the old cultures resurface. There are some of us who recognize that and bring those things back into focus; the gifts that were handed down to us through generations. And that’s certainly what I’m doing here.”
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Judith Espinar, owner of the former Clay Angel and co-founder of the Santa Fe Folk Art Market, defines a cultural entrepreneur as, “somebody who looks at their ‘bottom line’ not totally in terms of making a profit, but actually creating something that might be significant for themselves…and to a larger group of people; to culture in general.”
But in all honesty, Espinar says she didn’t know there was “such a thing as a cultural entrepreneur, just like I didn’t know that there was such a thing as folk art when I started collecting folk art. I just loved the work.”
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Patricia Michaels, a clothing designer from Taos Pueblo and owner of PM Waterlily, views her profession as a contribution to raise the status of Native American people to an even greater, more viable presence in the public eye.
“Every garment that I make, the fabric and the cut of the garment tells a story. And that’s how I feel Native people can give back to the rest of the world… to share their stories with people in the outside world,” Michaels explains. “Some people do it through pottery, or painting, or jewelry. For me, I just thought, well, somebody can wear it. They can feel [these stories] on their skin.”
Michaels’ roots are admittedly tied to heritage and culture, but she is not confined to traditional materials, nor is she content to repeat what’s already been done. Even in her youth, she says, she realized she was “part of a bigger world. I don’t have to just work with leather… I don’t have to just work with wool.”
For the last year, Michaels has steered her clothing business into the emerging green industry.
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NO RESERVATIONS PRODUCTION
Jonathan Sims hasn’t followed an obvious or common path to making a living through visual media. “I have so many friends.. so many contemporaries of mine that have gone to film schools. They talk about their first films and it’s really something that’s cool and avant-garde… And my first reel that I actually produced was a training video on septic tank installation for the EPA!” But, the path that Jonathan has taken brought him to operating his own video production company, to teaching language educators to use video as a tool, and to a New Visions/New Mexico Contract Award from the New Mexico Film Office in 2006 for his documentary A Race Against Time: the Fight to Save New Mexico’s Native Languages.
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