A commemorative chile postcard series is coming; find out where you can find them

As the smell of chile starts to fill the air, a new project by the New Mexico Chile Association aims to commemorate and spread the joy of the harvest season.

New Mexico Certified Chile Postcard Project worked with five New Mexico artists to produce a set of postcards that will be available free to the public at events throughout the fall.

“We wanted to promote New Mexico chile both in New Mexico, but beyond New Mexico. And we had this idea: Well, what if we can enlist the help of chile lovers in New Mexico?” said Joe Wellborn, New Mexico Chile Association board member. “We all know it. We love it. How can we get New Mexicans to be ambassadors for our chile? So we came up with this postcard idea.”

The five postcards showcase chile-centric artworks by Juan Wijngaard, Jade Leyva, Fernando Padilla, Vicente Telles and Michael Toya.

Wellborn said the organization wanted to collaborate with artists with different backgrounds and styles from around the state.

Leyva took inspiration for her piece from where she grew up. “I’m from Mexico, so chiles have always been present in my life and in my diet,” she said. She also pulled from personal experiences.

“I paint a lot of women, like women that I sort of grew up seeing in my country, Mexico. So I feel like I always try to depict, like, a lot of women and femininity,” Leyva said. “It’s not a religious image, but it was sort of meant to represent the sacredness as a chile maiden.”

Leyva likened her chile maidens to traditional corn maidens.

Padilla (San Felipe Pueblo and Navajo) calls himself an “Urban Indian” because he grew up in the city but would return to the village for feasts and ceremonies. He said he enjoys seeing how New Mexico has been influenced by Native American culture.

“I like that they didn’t exclude us from being a part of what New Mexico has become,” Padilla said. “I think a lot of people, when they think of New Mexico, they may think of Pueblo culture.”

He used this influence to help craft his postcard.

“I knew that my Pueblo heritage and culture would be the focal point,” Padilla said. “I used stylized designs that represent Pueblo drawings, paintings of fabric and pottery and baskets and murals and things like that.”

Padilla said his piece depicts cycles of life.

“In Pueblo culture, we understand that there’s a creator or supreme being that designed everything and so there’s this divine design … I mean, it’s just the lifestyle, being thankful and appreciating and trying to be good stewards,” Padilla said.

“We’re not always that great in that, but we understand we are given a stewardship over the Earth and to take care of it and replenish it and try not to waste it and overuse it and abuse it,” he said.

Wijngaard let his postcard be inspired by a line of work he created in the past.

“I had been doing a series inspired by old matchbox covers,” Wijngaard said. “So my brain was still in that mode when I was approached to come up with an idea for the chile postcard.”

Wellborn said the goal of the association’s postcard project is to showcase how important chile is to New Mexico as part of the state’s economy and culture.

All the artists acknowledged the importance of the symbol of the chile for New Mexico.

“Chile is a part of the culture, and is very, very woven into the tapestry of the culture here,” Leyva said.

Five New Mexico artists interpret chile for commemorative postcard series