Pablo Agustin Trujillo (1916–1997) [English version]
On a warm day in the middle of June 1990, in Taos, New Mexico, Pablo Agustin Trujillo stands proud and smiling dressed in his Fiestas costume and tuning his guitar. He is in the studio of Ed Sandoval, a painter who is little known outside of this town1. Sandoval studied art in college and later earned a masters degree in psychology. He reveals his comprehension of what it means to be human in his paintings. He begins every painting by covering the canvas in a red hued varnish. In this way, when he paints the skin you can sense the blood, the soul of the person. About this painting he says, “This painting is going to be moving. A lot of life to it, a lot of movement. That’s what I’m trying to illustrate here. Happiness, gaiety. And you can see it in his face—he’s very proud. You can feel that right away.” The painting captured the essence of Pablo towards the end of his life, seven years before he passed away.
Pablo Agustin Trujillo was born in Ranchitos de Taos in 1916 and never left except for a few years when he was a soldier during World War II. His parents, Juan Bautista Trujillo and Luisita Maestas (also from Taos) had eight children. Pablo had four older brothers, one younger brother, and two older sisters. The family lived on a small ranch where, as a boy, Pablo sold firewood and delivered it by horse cart to various places throughout Taos County.
Life on the tiny ranch was hard but there was always music. His father played the fiddle and his brothers all played various instruments as well. Pablo could already play the guitar at age 14, in 1930. One Saturday there was a sudden rain storm and he took a break from selling firewood and went inside a pharmacy on the Taos Plaza. Inside was his friend, Fred Martinez, who also played guitar. Fred told Pablo that a man named Pascual Pérez was putting together a new band to play típica music, a style of popular folk music in New Mexico. He invited Pablo to his house out in La Loma (a neighborhood or barrio in Taos) later that same day. When Pablo arrived the other musicians were already playing, along with Professor Pérez.
Pablo sat on a sofa, listening to the other musicians. He spotted a mandolin and picked it up. He had never played this instrument nor did he even know what it was called. He supposed that one would play it the same way as a guitar and he just started strumming away. The professor noticed him.
“Stop right there!”, said Pérez.
The young Pablo thought he had done something wrong and that he was in trouble.
“Where did you learn to play the mandolin like that?”, Pérez asked him.
Pablo explained to the Professor that he and his brothers and his father all played various stringed instruments at home and at family fiestas. Professor Pérez invited him at that very moment to join the new group, La Típica de Taos. And so at the age of 14 began the musical career of Pablo Agustin Trujillo from Taos.
La Típica de Taos lasted for several years. They travelled all over the region, not only in New Mexico but also to points further north like Colorado.
During this period, Pablo traveled to a small store in Cimarron, in neighboring Colfax County. There at the same time was a girl, Susana Gonzales, with her father. She caught the young Pablo’s eyes and the two of them began writing letters back and forth. A courtship followed and Susan and her mother finally moved to Taos, where Pablo and Susana were married in July 1935. They lost no time in starting a family. The first four of their children were born before the start of the Second World War.
Pablo served in the infantry during the war while Susana remained at home, raising the kids. They survived on only $21 a month, his salary as a private in the army. During the war, Pablo met with other musicians and played with them in officers clubs for the entertainment of the troops.
After the war Pablo returned to Taos and held various jobs, including cutting and selling firewood. With $900 in US war bonds he and Susana bought a 14-acre ranch of their own, with animals and crops. He also continued playing music with a friend, Felix López. They played on weekend evenings in front of the old Taos Courthouse. The also played in various fiestas (saints’ days) in towns throughout northern New Mexico2.
One day Margaret Gusdorf, the owner of a club called The Green Door, approached them while they were playing. After listening to them for a spell she hired them to play in her club. It was then that Pablo formed the first band of several he would create during his life. The first was The Four Aces, and then The Syncopation, two jazz groups, and finally the band for which he was most famous, Los Alegres de Taos, formed at the beginning of the 1970s. This last group was rooted in the Spanish folk music for which New Mexico is well known.
Pablo The Bootlegger
As was said above, Pablo held many jobs after the war to provide for his family. He continued his firewood business and he made a little money with his music, but he also become known as a local moonshiner. In the years after the war he made illegal booze with yet another friend, one Flavio Cruz3. These two distilled and distributed bootleg liquor all over the northern New Mexico and parts of Colorado. One time Pablo was arrested and spent a day or two in jail, but he eventually beat the charges. However, he was then known by the authorities who continued to watch him and look for his secret still but were unable to find it. One day, his son Pablo Jr. was arrested over a matter completely unrelated to the bootlegging operation. Pablo Jr. was looking at real jail time so the police made a deal with Pablo Sr. Either he shut down his bootleg enterprise or his son would go to prison. From that day onward he never made nor distributed another drop of liquor. To this day, none of his family knows where it was he and Flavio kept their still and made all that booze.
Los Alegres de Taos
Pablo Trujillo formed the group Los Alegres de Taos in 1972. Because Pablo and the other members were already well-known musicians, the group rapidly became one of the most popular bands playing traditional Spanish folk music in northern New Mexico. Among the talented musicians who played in the group during its first twenty years were Julia Jaramillo, Ernesto Montoya, Mary Martinez, Tranquilino Tafoya, and Jenny Vincent, and many more. All giants of norteño music.
The group became famous outside of New Mexico as well. They played during the inauguration of the International Museum of Folk Art in El Paso, Texas, and they were invited twice to play a series of concerts at the Museum of Folklore and Culture, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.4
The Film Star
The Milagro Beanfield War is a book by the writer John Nichols, published in 1974. The book is well known and well loved in the region. It was written in the style of magical-realism and it takes place in the 1970s in the fictional town of Milagro, New Mexico. In 1985, the famous actor and director Robert Redford decided to make a film based on the book. Furthermore, he decided to shoot the film in New Mexico, in the very towns and regions described in the story. Redford wanted to hire locals to be background actors in order to maintain the authenticity of the film as much as possible. They put out casting calls in newspapers in Taos, Questa, Truchas, and other small towns in the region, as well as on the radio. Many people turned up for these auditions, but not Pablo.
Probably because Pablo was already a famous folk musician, the casting director called to ask him if he was interested in doing a screen test. Pablo was working, transporting gravel, and was found in his truck outside of his house when the call arrived. His wife, Susana, screamed at him to stop working and that he had to come inside.
“They told me that my name was in the archives. I don’t know what archives they had.” Pablo said in 1986. It was likely something from the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings at the time 5.
The following morning Pablo and Susana got up at 4 a.m. to get ready and drive to the movie set to meet with Robert Redford for the first time.
There was only one problem. Pablo had never seen Robert Redford and did not know what he looked like. Pablo was not a film goer. Fortunately Susana was a fan. Once on the set she whispered into his ear, “Pablo, él es Robert Redford!”
After a few minutes speaking with Bob (friends called him “Bob”), Redford asked him, “Pablo, do you want to be an actor.” Pablo responded jokingly, “Yes, if the money is good.” The director laughed and sent Pablo of to wardrobe. He also arranged for Pablo to get his Screen Actors Guild card since the part he offered him required speaking as well as singing. Pablo played the role of Ray Gusdorf, a member of the Senile Brigade in the book who comes to the aid of the hero, Joe Mondragón, owner of the beanfield.
Pablo and his family really enjoyed the making of the film. Susana and the children visited the set and met some of the famous actors such as Carlos Riquelme, Sonia Braga, Tony Genero, and Chick Venerra, and the famous Panamanian musician/actor Ruben Blades.
Pablo appears in several scenes of the film. One of the more funny ones was a bar scene along with the rest of the Senile Brigade.
[Click here to watch this scene.]
And the other notable scene was the final scene into the end credits, where Los Alegres de Taos was the band playing during the celebration out in the fields.
[Click here to watch this scene.]
Curtain Call
After the excitement of the film had passed, Pablo returned to playing music with his band. During an interview in 1986 he was asked how long he thought he would keep playing. He responded, “As long as the good Lord wants me to.”
In March 1997, Pablo arranged for a concert with his band at the historic Mabel Dodge Lujan House in Taos, for a group of students from Golden, Colorado. He passed away in April, before the concert. His son, Michael Trujillo, knowing that it was so important for his father to honor a promise, joined the band to perform the show. Michael was also a talented musician who trained under his father.
Today, Pablos’s ashes rest among the tombs of his children, and his wife Susana (who passed away in 2008), in Taos, New Mexico.
Notas
- Today Ed Sandoval is well known throughout New Mexico and the rest of the United States. His paintings can be found in various galleries and museums. He still lives and works in Taos. https://www.edsandovalgallery.com/ ↩
- When the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, they dedicated a specific Saint to every town they settled. Each year, the towns celebrate their saint during fiestas. ↩
- It just so happens that Flavio Cruz is another of Sonya’s great-grandfathers. He is the father of her paternal grandmother, whereas Pablo is the father of her maternal grandfather. ↩
- There are recordings of these concerts in the Smithsonian archives but I will have to make an appointment and travel to Washington D.C. just to have a chance to view them. As far as I have been able to discover, they have not yet been released publicly. ↩
- https://folkways.si.edu/music-of-new-mexico-hispanic-traditions/american-folk-gospel-latin/album/smithsonian ↩
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