Post by Okwes on Dec 2, 2006 10:53:58 GMT -5
Storyteller uses flute, guitar to breathe life into history
www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1326503
<http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1326503> If you don't know
the significance of Mochi, Mary Walker or Joyce Kilmer, 60-year-old
Patrick Mendoza can tell you.
But he doesn't rush. He weaves his tales with intriguing details,
haunting tones from a Native American flute, strums from his guitar and
phrases in the language of the Cheyenne.
Mendoza is a storyteller who's appeared throughout the United
States, the United Kingdom, in the Fiji Islands and elsewhere, singing,
playing instruments and telling a really good story.
He's reached millions with appearances on the British Broadcasting
Corp. and National Public Radio.
Sunday, his audience
<http://oascentral.gazette.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.gazette.co\
m/Headlines/1598032672/Position2/COSprings/heuberger300x250instory/heube\
rger300x250novPassat.jpg/33653036386230623435353834386530?> consisted
of 20 people at Pikes Peak Library District's East Library, where he
presented a 90-minute program focused on military service, from Indian
wars to Vietnam.
He told of Mochi, a Cheyenne who watched her husband, father and
grandfather slaughtered at the Sand Creek Massacre in southeast Colorado
on Nov. 29, 1864. There, 167 people, mostly women and children, were
killed by Army Col. John Chivington's troops.
"She vowed to become a warrior," Mendoza said. And she did.
After fighting the white man for 11 years, she was considered so
dangerous she was exiled to a Florida prison, where she died of
tuberculosis at 41.
Mary Walker, among the first American women surgeons, volunteered for
the Army during the Civil War. Because she was a woman, she was
relegated to driving an ambulance. But she treated the wounded in the
field, creating the forerunner of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.
She later was named her unit's head surgeon and became the first
female commissioned Army officer.
In 1865, Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor, the only woman to
receive such recognition.
"She also believed women had a right to vote," Mendoza said,
telling of her tireless fight for women's suffrage that resulted in
Congress removing her from the Medal of Honor list in 1917. It
wasn't until 1979 that President Carter reinstated her award.
As for Mendoza's story, the Colorado native served four years in the
Navy, including time in Vietnam, before starting a martial arts school
on the East Coast. He's been an open water diver, police officer,
weight lifter and competitive swimmer.
"I was a singer/bouncer in a redneck bar in South Carolina," he
said of his start as a performer. He built a full-time career as a
storyteller, musician and author with "just a line of B.S. I'd
talk when I was performing."
Since then, he's become recognized by arts councils in 14 states and
frequently performs at storytelling festivals.
Meticulously researching the stories he tells, the Denver resident
visits story sites and interviews witnesses or their descendants. He
occasionally tells a story about himself, like the one involving Joyce
Kilmer.
While serving in Vietnam, service members didn't have DVDs or iPods.
"I read everything I could," he said, including the book
"101 Famous Poems" his dad sent.
He noticed the book contained the poem "Trees," which he
remembered from his childhood. He'd always envisioned the poet as a
prim elderly lady.
Imagine his surprise when he saw the poet's photo.
"Joyce Kilmer was a guy," he said and quickly shared his
discovery with his fellow warweary sailors.
There Kilmer was, wearing a World War I Army sergeant's uniform,
"and next to his name," Mendoza said, "were the words
`killed in action.'"
www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1326503
<http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1326503> If you don't know
the significance of Mochi, Mary Walker or Joyce Kilmer, 60-year-old
Patrick Mendoza can tell you.
But he doesn't rush. He weaves his tales with intriguing details,
haunting tones from a Native American flute, strums from his guitar and
phrases in the language of the Cheyenne.
Mendoza is a storyteller who's appeared throughout the United
States, the United Kingdom, in the Fiji Islands and elsewhere, singing,
playing instruments and telling a really good story.
He's reached millions with appearances on the British Broadcasting
Corp. and National Public Radio.
Sunday, his audience
<http://oascentral.gazette.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.gazette.co\
m/Headlines/1598032672/Position2/COSprings/heuberger300x250instory/heube\
rger300x250novPassat.jpg/33653036386230623435353834386530?> consisted
of 20 people at Pikes Peak Library District's East Library, where he
presented a 90-minute program focused on military service, from Indian
wars to Vietnam.
He told of Mochi, a Cheyenne who watched her husband, father and
grandfather slaughtered at the Sand Creek Massacre in southeast Colorado
on Nov. 29, 1864. There, 167 people, mostly women and children, were
killed by Army Col. John Chivington's troops.
"She vowed to become a warrior," Mendoza said. And she did.
After fighting the white man for 11 years, she was considered so
dangerous she was exiled to a Florida prison, where she died of
tuberculosis at 41.
Mary Walker, among the first American women surgeons, volunteered for
the Army during the Civil War. Because she was a woman, she was
relegated to driving an ambulance. But she treated the wounded in the
field, creating the forerunner of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.
She later was named her unit's head surgeon and became the first
female commissioned Army officer.
In 1865, Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor, the only woman to
receive such recognition.
"She also believed women had a right to vote," Mendoza said,
telling of her tireless fight for women's suffrage that resulted in
Congress removing her from the Medal of Honor list in 1917. It
wasn't until 1979 that President Carter reinstated her award.
As for Mendoza's story, the Colorado native served four years in the
Navy, including time in Vietnam, before starting a martial arts school
on the East Coast. He's been an open water diver, police officer,
weight lifter and competitive swimmer.
"I was a singer/bouncer in a redneck bar in South Carolina," he
said of his start as a performer. He built a full-time career as a
storyteller, musician and author with "just a line of B.S. I'd
talk when I was performing."
Since then, he's become recognized by arts councils in 14 states and
frequently performs at storytelling festivals.
Meticulously researching the stories he tells, the Denver resident
visits story sites and interviews witnesses or their descendants. He
occasionally tells a story about himself, like the one involving Joyce
Kilmer.
While serving in Vietnam, service members didn't have DVDs or iPods.
"I read everything I could," he said, including the book
"101 Famous Poems" his dad sent.
He noticed the book contained the poem "Trees," which he
remembered from his childhood. He'd always envisioned the poet as a
prim elderly lady.
Imagine his surprise when he saw the poet's photo.
"Joyce Kilmer was a guy," he said and quickly shared his
discovery with his fellow warweary sailors.
There Kilmer was, wearing a World War I Army sergeant's uniform,
"and next to his name," Mendoza said, "were the words
`killed in action.'"