The Jailer, Clifford Brito

pen4hire — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:00:33 +0000

Cliffor Brito and his custom painting

It was certainly an unusual friendship, the jailer and the prisoner. Or was it?!!

Quincy Tahoma seemed to make friends everywhere he went, and the Santa Fe jail was no exception. As a 1950s frequent guest due to public intoxication, the young Navajo endeared himself to the guard, Clifford Brito, who let the artist out of his cell to perform janitorial duties and to paint.

Tahoma showed his gratitude by painting a beautiful scene of a brave rounding up horses. The art work was custom designed to fit over the doorway of the jailer’s mobile home and Brito treasured that painting until his death in 2008.

You can view Clifford Brito and his painting in the slide show on the home page of the Tahoma web site. I took this picture when I interviewed him in 2004 during a research trip to New Mexico.

Do you know of other instances of jailers and prisoners becoming friends? Have you heard any other jail-time stories about Quincy Tahoma? We were told, for instance, that he was briefly incarcerated in Indiana or Illinois while on a road trip with a friend, but the details of that adventure are scant.

Personal Recollections of Tahoma

pen4hire — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:50:49 +0000

Tesuque Drive-In Theater with Mural Quincy Tahoma Painted

August 31, 2004

“History is documented with ‘personal recollections.’”

Mona Ortiz Stetina wrote that in an e-mail to Anne Cavanaugh at the Santa Fe New Mexican.

We had written an article for the New Mexican telling people a little bit about Quincy Tahoma and our project and asked for their help. Along with the article, we printed a picture loaned to us by Dan Fannell whose step father Jim Wilson was one of the many people who had befriended Tahoma. A drive-in movie had provided a giant canvas for one of Quincy’s favorite subjects—a horse being spooked by a skunk. We did not know the name of the drive-in, but had been told it stood on Cerillos Road in Santa Fe.

Anne Cavanaugh did some research and came up with Pueblo Drive-In. Well, plenty of people wrote and e-mailed the New Mexican to set us straight. The theater actually was located at Tesuque Pueblo. It was the Pueblo Drive In, but we had the wrong location. Unfortunately, this, the largest “canvas” ever painted by Tahoma eventually was torn down along with the drive-in. Later, a successor, also called Pueblo, was built on Cerillos Road. Our thanks to the many people, like Mona and Elivra Vigel Ogard and John Rodriquez and others who delved into their childhood memories to straighten us out on this bit of history. History indeed is documented with personal recollections.

Do you know someone with personal recollections of Tahoma? We would love to share that information here. And if you like reading about Quincy Tahoma and the making of his biography, please share by clicking on the social networking buttons below.

Quincy Tahoma Blog » New Mexico

The Jailer, Clifford Brito

Personal Recollections of Tahoma