Eppie Archuleta

Epifania "Eppie" Archuleta (January 6, 1922 – April 11, 2014) was an American award-winning master weaver and longtime textile artisan at the annual Spanish Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico. While the more traditional Chimayo and Rio Grande tapestries used diamonds and stripes in their designs, Archuleta specialized in more contemporary woven designs. Examples of her work, including a tapestry depicting a wounded soldier during the Vietnam War, are on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. Archuleta was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1985.

Biography

Eppie Archuleta was born to Agueda Salazar Martinez and Eusebio Martinez, in Santa Cruz, New Mexico, on January 6, 1922. Archuleta, who was raised in Española and Medanales, New Mexico, was the fifth generation of master weavers in her family. In October 1940, she married her husband, Francisco Archuleta. The couple moved to the San Luis Valley of New Mexico in 1951, where he husband worked as a farmer and rancher. Eppie Archuleta had ten children, eight of whom lived to adulthood, while simultaneously perfecting her weaving skills. The Archuletas later moved to a ranch in Capulin, Colorado, where she built a small home next to a wool mill. She also resided in La Jara, Colorado.

Archuleta purchased a wool mill in 1989, which she opened as the San Luis Valley Wool Mill. She produced wool yarn, which she sold to weavers throughout the United States.

Eppie Archuleta was profiled in a January 1991 article in National Geographic magazine. She was awarded the master’s award for lifetime achievement from Spanish Market of Santa Fe in 2001. (Her sister, Cordelia Coronado, was also a recipient of the Spanish Market's lifetime award that same year). She was also a guest at the 1993 inauguration of U.S. President Bill Clinton and was honored at the White House. In 1995, Archuleta received an honorary Doctorate of Arts from Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado. She was also the subject of the 2004 book, "Eppie Archuleta and the Tale of Jaun De La Burra."

Eppie Archuleta died on April 11, 2014, at Espanola Hospital in Española, New Mexico, at the age of 92. By 2001, she had thirty-six grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren. Her survivors included her daughter, Norma Medina, who is also a master weaver. Her husband, Frank Archuleta, died in January 2000.