"One of the Least known, but most colourful ritual traditions shared by Pueblo and Hispano groups of the Southwest, is the celebration of Los Comanches. This festival complex includes ceremonial dance, allegorical nativity plays, and a folk drama on horseback which portrays the 1779 defeat of famed war chief Cuerno Verde." "In a mixture of defiance and emulation, these celebrations honor the historic relations of war and peace with the Comanches, the feared and admired warriors and traders of the south plains who once held the fate of all New Mexico in their hands." "Enrique Lamadrid and Miguel Gandert provide historic, poetic, and photographic documentation of one of the richest legacies of the upper Rio Grande, a cultural crossroads known for its mestizo traditions and transcultural exchanges. A seventy-minute CD anthology of "Comanche" music accompanies a selection of Gandert's photographs."--BOOK JACKET.