This year marks the centennial of Route 66, the “Mother Road” from Chicago to Los Angeles. Although celebrated in story and song– symbolize the freedom, optimism, and prosperity of the postwar United States–the chrome and neon of the Route 66 legend doesn’t even come close to telling the story of the path from the High Plains to the Sandias and then on to Navajo Country.
The communities along the way have their own distinct histories older than the federal highway. The Albuquerque Museum gives voice to local lives in a current exhibition, “The Other Route 66: 100 Years of People, Identity and Place in Albuquerque.” Combining visual art with historical artifacts, it’s an eclectic and complex experience that covers as much ground as the road itself.
At the beginning of the exhibition, a colorful painting called “Cruising Route 66, Burque ‘64” presents a windshield-level view of rolling into downtown Albuquerque from the east along Route 66 (Central Avenue) as it appeared six decades ago.
“This is an incredible piece by Santa Fe artist Luis Tapia, formerly working as a santero in that tradition of New Mexican devotional art,” said Albuquerque Museum head curator Alicia Romero. “So, what we're seeing right now is a scene from, kind of from his memory, also using some postcard inspiration of what downtown used to look like for him when he was a teenager coming to Albuquerque in the 1960s to visit his family.”
Among the distinctly New Mexican details in the work are two saints on the dashboard, the Virgen de Guadalupe and St. Francis who takes the place of the usual travel patron St. Christopher.
“St. Francis is such an important saint for New Mexico, for a lot of the formerly Mexican far north here in this part of the world,” Romero said.
The attention to authenticity characterizes both the creative works and historical artifacts on display. Overall, the exhibition is composed of seven sections, presenting stories of tourism, danger along the highway, cultural encounters, Central Avenue commerce, changing neighborhoods, contrasting communities, and lowrider culture. In a stylish coda, the experience concludes with a gleaming lowrider car.
“At the Albuquerque Museum, we're really lucky to be able to do both art and history exhibitions, and sometimes those worlds collide,” Romero said. “So when I was planning this exhibition, I knew I wanted it to be a different kind of look at Route 66 history, and I wanted to make it feel accessible to people who wouldn't normally think that history is for them . . . this is a very sociocultural examination of Route 66, where I'd rather talk about the people.”
The exhibit closes on January 3, 2027.
