SUN Staff Report
When the late Tewa storyteller Esther Martinez was traveling from town to town, sharing stories and her love of language, she would always stop to read roadside historical markers, her daughter Mercedes Beckerhoff said.
Now she has one of her own. On Nov. 8, Beckerhoff gathered with her extended family to cut the ribbon on a new historical marker on State Road 68, in the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. The large wooden marker honors the life and cultural contributions of Martinez, better known as P’oe Tsawa.
“She would just say, ‘I can’t believe my name is on there,’” Beckerhoff said. “Her spirit lives on. We have big shoes to fill.”
Beckerhoff’s sister Marie Sanchez said her mother saw the Tewa language dying — even her grandchildren were speaking only English — and it inspired her to encourage and preserve it. Sanchez said she’s trying to continue that tradition.
“At home, I try to talk to my kids,” Sanchez said. “My mom always said, ‘When you’re young, you learn faster.’”
Martinez’s grandson Matthew Martinez said the historical marker came about because the state Historic Women’s Marker Association made a commitment to honor a woman in every county and in each of the state’s 22 Indian tribes. Esther Martinez was one of the first nominees, he said.
In 2006, Martinez was returning home from a trip to Washington D.C., where she was honored with a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, when the car she was riding in was struck by a drunk driver. She died at the scene.