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Sunday, September 19, 1999
The 1900s have seen New Mexico grow from an out-of-the-way U.S. territory to a state known for science, sports, literature and the arts as well as for its unique cultural mix and brand of politics.
While many people have contributed in these areas, some have had a larger-than-usual impact.
Some are known far and wide: Smokey Bear, Georgia O'Keeffe, the Unser family. Others might not have as high a name recognition outside New Mexico, but leave a legacy that helped define the state.
And in most cases, their influence has been felt far beyond New Mexico's borders.
Here is one of the 20 individuals or families who helped make New Mexico what it is today.
Maria Martinez -- 1887-1980
To say simply "Maria" is enough in the world of ceramics.
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Maria Martinez
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Before there were trains, automobiles, jumbo jets and international pottery markets, pueblo people molded clay, cooked it over sheep dung fires and used it until it broke. Then they threw it in the garbage heap.
Today, pueblo pottery is art and the collectors market routinely drives prices into four figures. Thank Maria Martinez for both circumstances.
The San Ildefonso Pueblo Indian whose grace with clay and shiny black-on-black design would catapult pueblo pottery from everyday dishes to museum pieces, began her young career in 1904 at the World's Fair in St. Louis. She took the train there with her new husband, performed some dances for the tourists and began demonstrating the Tewa people's pottery techniques.
Word spread. And by the 1920s, when archaeologists found black pottery shards and Maria and her husband Julian Martinez began to adopt the historical black paint and designs, collectors traveled from all over the world to the little grocery store at San Ildefonso to see and buy their pots. The way was paved for an important art form and Indian industry.
Compiled by Fritz Thompson, Leslie Linthicum, Bill Hume and Dennis Latta
2000 
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