Pen La Farge

Santa Fe can feel like a beautiful postcard, but what happens when the postcard replaces the place? We sit down with writer and historian Pen La Farge to treat “legacy” the way it shows up in real life: not as a name on a building, but as the culture a community protects, forgets, or hands forward.

Penn brings a rare, layered perspective on Santa Fe history. He shares family roots that reach back centuries in New Mexico, plus the story of his father’s anthropological work documenting Navajo and Hopi language, including the creation of early tools like a Navajo dictionary and alphabet. From there, we dig into Santa Fe’s so-called golden age, when artists, writers, and longtime residents didn’t just coexist, they mixed, argued, collaborated, and built the City Different together. Penn also explains why he turned to oral history, what interviewing taught him, and how leaving for East Coast schools made Santa Fe’s uniqueness snap into focus.

Then we get honest about modern pressures: highways and airports shrinking distance, tourism becoming constant, and second homes and short-term rentals creating “holes” in neighborhoods. We talk about what gets diluted when culture becomes background scenery, and why preservation has to be a conscious practice. Penn highlights the Old Santa Fe Association and the bigger idea behind it: if we value heritage, we have to participate.

Historic images courtesy of KRQE
La Farge House - Historic Santa Fe Foundation

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