The Chihuly art installation called "Tiger Lillies" at the Desert Botanical Gardens provided this intimate, romantic shot in front of a Saguaro cactus that seems to say Happy Valentine's to you and yours.
Here are some factoids about Arizona and Valentine's Day. Arizona became a state on February 14, 1912. Arizona was a territory for 49 years before being admitted into the Union as the 48th state. Arizona was the last state in the contiguous United States to be admitted.
12 comments:
That's beautiful! Can't wait for the next posts now!
Fabulous contrast! What a collection! Love them.
Looking forward to see more indian outfits :-)
By 'indian' I meant native american... you got it, right? :-)))
JM,
It is impressive that even though you live in Portugal, you express yourself in "politically correct" English in refering to Native Americans.
I should add that it is no longer correct to refer to "Indian Reservations." The preferred term is "Native Lands."
Indian is a term that is and was used for a long time and the term dates back to Columbus. Columbus was seeking a direct route to India and the purpose of his voyage was to land at India. When he arrived in the Caribbean at Hispaniola, he saw indigenous peoples and called them Indians. For some reason, the term Indian was used for hundreds of years, but obviously indigenous peoples in the US are not from India. We do have a large population in the US of people from India so it does cause confusion. The term we generally use today is Native or Native American and when we refer to land we use terms such as tribal lands or native lands. We have over 22 tribes in Arizona and we are all very proud of them, their cultures, and their historic and modern-day contributions.
The evolution of the use of correct language to refer to Native Americans is even more complex. When I moved to Arizona in 1982, the name of one of the major Native American tribes was "Pima." That has changed. The people who used to be referred to as Pima are now called by the name that they use to refer to themselves, which is the Tohono O'dom. (I may ot have spelled that correctly.)
Pima was a name given to them by the early Spanish explorers and settlers. I believe its derivation came from the fact that when the Spanish tried to speak to them, they responded with the word in their native language that meant that they did not understand, which was "pim." So the Spanish referred to them as "Pima."
Hundreds of years later, the government finally acknowledged that the official name for their community should be the name they use to refer to themselves, not the name given to them by the Spanish that has its legacy in a language barrier.
We still use the word "Pima cotton" to refer to the type of cotton that was originally grown on the lands of the Tohono O'dom.
Nicely done! This one just begs for a close up, I took almost the same shot when we went there with Sharon. I enjoyed reading the Arizona history and the comments are great too. Some of our other Native American tribes are trying to reclaim their original name also.
Beautiful post and some fantastic history both in the post and the comments.
I didn't even know that your state was the last or 48th state in the contiguous U.S. admitted to the union. I learned something today. I like your photo too.
Chihuly does it for me, as you know - hearts or no hearts - but this is lovely. Happy Valentine's Day!
What a lovely photo...and yes, I can see the love.
In portuguese we call 'índio' to a native american and 'indiano' to someone born in India, so it's perfectly clear whom we are refering to, but I know it can be quite confusing in english, that's why I posted the 2nd comment.
Your information was great as well as David's. Thank you both very much!
As to Columbus mistake, many things have been written about it based on secret documents from the 15th century. The thing is Portugal knew Spain was wrong when Columbus headed to America looking for India, but kept its mouth shut because the goal was to control Africa and Asia, so portuguese Vasco Gama discovered the sea route to India a couple of years later, while spanish were 'playing' at the Americas... This is how Portugal also managed to be the first to reach Japan and create then a vast commercial trade.
The subject is fascinating and there are great books about it. Can you imagine how secret services worked 500 years ago?! :-)))
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