Today is Cinco de Mayo. Watch Big Jim Griffith's Arizona Illustrated segment explaining the southern Arizona tradition with Cinco de Mayo [MP4 video] About two minutes into the video, Jim explains the corrido about the defeat of Maximilian and his empress, Carlota. Jim tells us how Carlota stayed in Europe and went mad. Another part of the story with a southern Arizona tradition - and a Learning Technologies tradition - is this. Carlota was traveling around Europe trying to raise money in support of Maximilian. The story goes that when she appeared before Pope Pius IX, instead of giving her funds the Pope gave her an ivory crucifix.
Guess where that crucifix is today. It is in the Baptistry at St. Philip's In The Hills church and our website featuring the church's extraordinary art collection. See Carlota's Cross. [only accessible through WebAuth. ]
What a perfect post for today and very appropriate as I will be working with a predominantly Mexican-American population. I have saved the video to my library to show next year. Now I plan to go see the cross at the church. Jay