Furniture crafted with Hispanic pride

By Emiliana Sandoval

Miguel Chavez isn't out to make a quick buck. The Santa Fe carpenter handcrafts his furniture with pride and the hope of passing on a piece of his Hispanic heritage to future generations.

Born in Las Cruces where his father was attending college, Chavez has lived in Santa Fe for most of his life. He left high school early to start working.

Chavez uses the old techniques for new furniture

"I started working construction out of high school and picked up woodworking that way," he said. "It was an ongoing learning process."

Chavez did antique refinishing, cabinet making and remodeling before easing into furniture construction.

"I've been able to pull from all those resources," he said. "Doing all those other things primed me for the furniture."

Chavez is the owner of Chavez Woodworks at 1536 Cerillos Road . Although he's been making his living as a carpenter for 12 years, Chavez considers himself an artist instead of a businessman.

"I'm kind of going against the grain of what business is supposed to be about. I don't have employees and no real schedule. I don't have a phone here," he said. "I treat furniture as an art form. It's an extension of myself."

This is the first year Chavez will participate in the 39 th annual Spanish Market, which will be help on the Plaza Saturday and Sunday.

But he said he isn't doing it for the furniture he can sell or the public exposure. He wants to represent his Hispanic culture.

Miguel Chavez polishing a roped chair

"We have to represent ourselves. No one will do it for us," he said. "That's my driving force for doing the Spanish Market this year. I'm doing it so we have strength in numbers."

The Spanish Market is divided into two categories, one for contemporary artists and one for traditional artists. Chavez is in the Contemporary section.

"The way I see it, what they consider traditional is the way things were done in the 1800's. I could have made some changes so that I could be traditional, but the I wouldn't be myself," he said. "I would rather be living in the 1800's, but I'm not. We're all contemporaries."

Chavez hopes the market won't be divided in the future. He feels the market is a time to share his heritage with others.

"I think one thing that will come out of the market is it will bring people together," he said. "I hope the younger generation of New Mexicans will go to the market. Maybe it'll open up a new world."

Chavez makes chairs, chests, cabinets, doors, tables, and trasteros using old Spanish Colonial styles as models.

"They're Colonial in inspiration but the pieces are timeless," he said. "A trastero, for instance, was used for storing clothes. Now people are using them for storing their entertainment centers."

Chavez makes and finishes all of his pieces by hand.

"The handwork and the hand detail has taken over the machine work. Machine work is a very small part of the overall project," Chavez said. "In a big shop that's mass producing furniture it's the opposite."

Most of his furniture is made of pine, although he has worked with oak, alder, and walnut.

"Pine has really taken over because it's native to this area," he said. "Historically and aesthetically pine is the wood for this area."

The carved detailing is also done by hand. Chavez embellishes his pieces with carved rosettes, pomegranates, and scallops. All hardware on the furniture is locally made and had wrought.

Chavez designs the furniture himself with input from his clients.

"If they're in the position to have something custom-made, the should also be in the position to have some input as to exactly what they want," he said.

Most of his clients come from out-of-state. He's done work for people in California , Connecticut and Illinois . He's even made furniture for a Southwest-style dental office in Berwyn , Illinois .

Chavez feels the increasing popularity of Santa Fe style has helped him to find work.

"Ten of 12 years ago there weren't as many people coming from out-of-state," he said. "There wasn't the national or international recognition of this type of furniture."

He makes it clear that his furniture is New Mexican, not Southwestern.

"Now that New Mexico is better known, people will come in and ask if I do Southwestern furniture. I tell them no, I do New Mexican furniture," he said.

"We are and always have been New Mexico , and now we're part of the Southwest. Southwest is too generic, too Americanized. There was a lot happening before it was part of the Southwest. People are just now finding this out."

Chavez takes pride in making each piece by hand, slowly and carefully, instead of mass producing furniture of lesser quality.

"Even though there's a lot of mass-produced furniture out there, people are still looking for one-man shops," he said. "They want that one-on-one contact with whoever is building their furniture."

When Chavez gives a customer a price, he sticks to it no matter how long it takes him to make the piece.

"The first thing I have to tell people is that I am not a business," he said. "I tell people I can guarantee two things: price and quality. Time is something I cannot guarantee."

Most of his work is done in three or four months depending on the detail and complexity demanded. Chavez works on more than one piece at a time to get the most out of his workday, but each piece is one-of-a-kind.

"I don't have any furniture in any of the galleries downtown," he said. "It's a very limited production. There aren't a lot of my pieces out there."

Chavez is one of a few carpenters in Santa Fe still making furniture by hand. He feels his work is close to that of his Hispanic ancestors.

"If we look back on what our ancestors did an appreciate it, then we go on from there," he said. "The elements are all based on the old pieces."

Chavez hopes someday someone will look at his pieces the same way.

"The sense of pride that what you're making today hopefully will be the heirlooms, the New Mexico classical pieces, is a big plus," he said. "There aren't may people doing it on a small scale."

Instead of spending money on advertising and publicity, Chavez relies on word of mouth and tourist traffic to sell his furniture.

"I don't push my work," he said. "I'm not into marketing or any of that business part of the craft. I hope my work will sell itself."

The increase in mass-produced Southwestern-style furniture has made a difference in the amount of furniture available to buyers, but Chavez is doing well own his own.

"It does put a strain on you because as much as I don't want to be a business I still have to look and marketing and pricing," he said. "As time goes on I'm seeing that my quality is better but I can't charge that much more."

Chavez is one of a small corps of native Hispanics doing things the traditional way, by hand.

"The group of native New Mexicans doing artwork, tinwork, woodwork, we're pretty few," he said. "That's one big reason I've stuck through the lean times. There aren't enough of our people doing this work. We've traded what we have for state jobs and hourly wages."

The father of two daughters, Chavez hopes to pass on his woodworking knowledge and his Hispanic heritage.

"That's part of the reason I'm trying to hold on a little bit tighter to our heritage," he said. "If I can in my own small way preserve part of that heritage, hopefully my kids will grasp onto it and continue it."

Chavez will be back at work as soon as the market is over.

"I hope that what I'm doing is not just a flash in the pan," he said. "I'm not chasing a dollar. I work because I enjoy my work, because I want to work."