Visitors to the southwestern states are often surprised by the Spanish or, more recently, Mexican presence. In posh neighborhoods of 1910 or 1940 vintage, houses stagger under red tile roofs and squint from iron-grilled windows. Church facades have accumulations of twisted columns, multiple cornices, and bracketed niches. Tacos are served from arcaded, stone portals, with a mission bell nearby. On the air, a brass combo slips in a little "salza," or even a paso doble. Reality outdoes Hollywood. Some visitors revel in it; others reject it as phony. Is there a significant Spanish presence in this land, or rather, where is it?

Beneath the surface glitter of any packaged cultural object are sustaining, complex patterns of behavior and values. Promoters of cultural, preferably "folk," arts and crafts must, if only at the outset, rely on something real, something from the past that whispers in the present. Often the light that sparkles on the surface of craft objects comes from an inner source, a sense of "group" or cultural origin.