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Santa Fe, for all of its charm, artistic leanings, and cultural diversity, feels much more like a Las Vegas synthesis than an actual place. That both upscale clothing stores and tacky strip malls are uniformly wrapped in adobe, while making the town visually distinctive, also makes it an odd pastiche -- a rather typical American city dipped in batter, lightly browned and sold on a stick. The degree to which this it true becomes clear when you learn that the buildings are adobe-clad not because the residents particularly like adobe or because it has practical or historical significance, but because it is a city ordinance that all buildings must be constructed in that style.
 Though there are undeniable historic resonances and cultural influences from both Native American and Spanish-speaking inhabitants, the majority of people on the streets of Santa Fe seem to be the usual rootless travelers who, unable to situate their own culture, try on that of others like clothing.
None of this is to say that Santa Fe is an uninteresting city or one that shouldn't be visited -- it is simply a place that deals more in illusion than reality.
Surrounding it, however, are some remarkably beautiful and varied landscapes as well as many small communities where both the people and the adobe are the real deal. |
