Los Luceros Sheep Shearing Day highlights heritage, fiber arts festival

Kerry Mower crouched beside a ring of Navajo-Churro sheep and, with double-bow shears in hand, sheared fleece into long, unbroken blankets during Sheep Shearing Day at Los Luceros Historic Site. The hands-on demonstration ran from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 12, 2026, as part of the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area’s Cultures & Creators Visual Arts Festival, which staged programming at Los Luceros from April 11 through April 19 under the exhibition theme Interwoven.

Los Luceros sits on a 148-acre property north of Española along the Rio Grande, with a core adobe hacienda that dates to 1705 and a second-story expansion added in the mid-1800s. Organizers used the farmyard at 253 County Road 41, Alcalde, NM 87511 to show the full wool harvest process: shearing by Kerry Mower, skirting to remove debris and vegetation, and packaging fleece into bags that were available for a small donation. Food trucks and vendor booths clustered near the capilla and Victorian cottage so visitors could pair demonstrations with local crafts and purchases.

The Navajo-Churro breed was central to the day’s narrative: historically descended from sheep brought by Spanish colonists before 1600, the Churro is described by organizers and breed-conservation groups as a heritage breed that nearly vanished before a revival effort beginning in the 1970s. Demonstrations emphasized the sheep’s role in Diné weaving traditions and the contemporary work of the Navajo-Churro Sheep Association and the Navajo Sheep Project to sustain flocks for textile production and cultural continuity.

Sheep Shearing Day positioned itself as a living supply-chain event for the region’s fiber economy. Local fiber artists and vendors bought and sold raw fleece, spinners and weavers led short demonstrations in spinning, weaving and dyeing, and site staff arranged volunteer skirting and fleece packaging for donation or sale. New Mexico Historic Sites promoted the Los Luceros event alongside a similar sheep-shearing program scheduled May 2 at Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner Historic Site, reflecting a statewide pattern of interpretive programming that links livestock care, craft production and heritage tourism.

What you’ll see and learn in 60 minutes: start at the shearing ring to watch Kerry Mower use double-bow shears for a live six- to eight-minute clip per animal, spend 10 to 20 minutes at the skirting table learning how to remove grease and vegetation and how fleece is graded for spinning, move to a nearby spinning or dyeing demo for 15 minutes to see raw fiber turned into yarn, then spend the remaining time browsing vendor booths where bags of fleece were offered for a small donation and local makers sold finished textiles. Admission at New Mexico Historic Sites events is often free for New Mexico residents and modest for non-residents, and arriving early gives the best access to hands-on tasks.

Sheep Shearing Day at Los Luceros folded centuries-old animal husbandry into today’s small-business ecosystem for Northern New Mexico, linking a 1705 hacienda and endangered breed revival to contemporary fiber artists, tourism dollars and regional cultural networks.