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2026 underwriting recipient
Mónica Sánchez
May 2026

MÓNICA SÁNCHEZ is a professional theatre artist. Over the past 40 years, she has honed the craft of professional actor; written plays and devised work for the stage; directed productions small and large; enjoyed a myriad of assignments as a teaching artist; and has facilitated numerous community engagements.She holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the University of New Mexico and is a retired Professor of Playwriting and Performance at Colorado College, in Colorado Springs.

She began her theatre journey in her native New Mexico with La Compañía de Teatro de Alburquerque, before a 23-year residency in California where she would collaborate with El Teatro Campesino, Octavio Solís, Luís Alfaro, Culture Clash, the Latino Theatre Lab, South Coast Repertory, San Diego Repertory, Erik Ehn, Cornerstone Theatre, Shirley Jo Finney, Playwright's Arena, and Diane Rodriguez, among others. Television and Film credits include the roles of Dolores Huerta in The Glorias, House of Cards, and Primo, among others.

Her plays aspire to unveil the varied and underrepresented experiences of Latinidad in the U.S., particularly the complex and unique philosophical, cultural and historical milieu of the Southwest; not only ripe for dramatic exploration but also sorely missing from the canon of the American theatre. 

She currently resides in Albuquerque, NM where she continues her work in independent, professional, and community projects and is always keen to entertain collaborations near and far.

About "THE RIVER IS A SCAR THAT SOMETIMES BLEEDS WATER"

THE RIVER IS A SCAR THAT SOMETIMES BLEEDS WATER is the psycho-spiritual journey of "Negra", a Mestiz-Genizara-Chicana 21st Century war veteran returned to her ancestral homeland in the Southwest. Psychotropic plant medicine launches her odyssey through a ceremonial and multi-generational labyrinth where she must confront ancestral trauma and original wounds, making way for the ultimate transformation: her desire to live. Quintessential New Mexican topography, histories and rituals illuminate universal echoes of colonization, war, and climate crisis. This play is Negra’s “trip”.

The Robb Trust is providing funding for a workshop production of THE RIVER IS A SCAR THAT SOMETIMES BLEEDS WATER. A first staged reading of the play was recently conducted at the Albuquerque Museum to a standing room only audience. There was much interest in the performance. The general consensus was that the story spoke to the New Mexican experience, was of great significance, and needed to be told.

The workshop production is a step towards developing the play for a future, fully produced theatre event. The play encompasses a broad reach of New Mexican histories, customs, characters, and rituals. Traditional music and specific songs from the Robb collection are a vital element to completing the storytelling of this play’s narrative.

Sánchez's script has previously been supported by the Jackson Fellowship from Hulbert Center for Southwest Studies at Colorado College (2021), a micro-commission from The Alcove New Play Development at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in NYC (2023), and most recently from the City of Albuquerque’s Urban Enhancement Trust Fund’s (UETF) Resiliency Residency, in addition to production support from the Museum of Albuquerque for the Staged Reading that took place on 29 March 2026, in conjunction with the Delilah Montoya Retrospective: Activating Chicana Resistance.

Learn more about our annual underwriting.

Javier Marín-López (Úbeda, Spain) is Professor of Musicology at the Universidad de Jaén, where he specializes in Latin American, Spanish, and U.S. Southwest musical cultures from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. His research focuses on the dynamics of transatlantic exchange, exploring how music circulated across the Ibero-American world and beyond, and has been recognized with awards such as the Samuel Claro Valdés Prize (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) and an Honorable Mention in the Otto Mayer-Serra Award (University of California, Riverside). He holds a Ph.D. in Musicology (with distinction) from the Universidad de Granada and has authored or edited over twenty-five volumes, including critical studies and editions such as Los libros de polifonía de la Catedral de México (2 vols., 2012) and Ignacio Jerusalem: Obras selectas-Selected Works, a landmark bilingual series published with Drew Edward Davies by Dairea Ediciones. His scholarship contributes to redefining the contours of global music history through an emphasis on connected musicologies, colonial soundscapes, and archival recovery. Notable among his editorial work are Músicas coloniales a debate: procesos de intercambio euroamericanos (Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales, 2018), De Nueva España a México: el universo musical mexicanos entre centenarios (1517-1917) (Universidad Internacional de Andalucía, 2020), and Músicas iberoamericanas interconectadas: caminos, circuitos y redes (Iberoamericana/Vervuert, 2023), collectives volume examining musical exchange through the lens of network theory.

Since 2007, he has served as Artistic Director of the Festival de Música Antigua de Úbeda y Baeza, an internationally recognized event that promotes historical performance and the rediscovery of Iberian and Latin American repertoire. His leadership has steered the festival into a dynamic platform for research-based programming and innovative outreach projects. He has also co-produced landmark albums and co-curated the XXV Aniversario live recordings, which document the festival’s legacy.

His international collaborations include research projects, editions, and performances with institutions such as the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales, and the University of New Mexico, where he was named a Richard E. Greenleaf Visiting Library Scholar in 2024 by the Latin American & Iberian Institute. He is also a frequent contributor to leading journals, including Early Music, Latin American Music Review, and Revista de Musicología.

A prominent advocate for historical musicology and digital humanities, Marín-López is involved in platforms such as Books of Hispanic Polyphony IMF-CSIC (BHP) and has curated scholarly events and open-access resources to broaden the accessibility of Hispanic musical heritage. He regularly serves on editorial boards and international committees, and has co-directed projects on music and conflict, music and migration, and the role of music in shaping political memory.

More information, including links to publications, recordings, and projects, is available at his Linktree page.

Here are Javier's mid-term and final reports.

Below Dr. Marín-López examines the discographic reception of Latin American colonial music by analyzing samples from different genres, mostly of sacred music, with diverse vocal and instrumental configurations. His talk considers the role recordings have had in the creation of communities and imagined identities by modern audiences.

Independent scholar, Dr. Theresa J. Córdova earned a Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of New Mexico in 2012. She serves as the founder, director and curator of Las Pistoleras Instituto Cultural de Arte in El Prado, New Mexico. Las Pistoleras Instituto Cultural de Arte opened its doors in 2013 as a communal space where cultura, activism and the arts are at the forefront of community identity.

Dr. Córdova also remains active in the continual mission of Sangre de Cristo Liturgies, an organization founded by her father, the late Arsenio Córdova in 1981. Sangre de Cristo Liturgies is devoted to the preservation and recovery of the history, traditions and culture of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Sangre de Cristo Liturgies fosters its mission through the use of theatre, music and lectures. Arsenio Córdova’s family and cast continue his work and his vision. For the past 42 years, Sangre de Cristo Liturgies has presented the play “Los Pastores” in various Catholic churches, universities and theaters throughout northern New Mexico, southern Colorado and in Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua. Despite the passing of Arsenio in 2019, the cast of Los Pastores continues their presentations through the direction and active participation of the Arsenio Córdova family.

Currently, Dr. Córdova also follows her lifelong passion of cultural preservation by connecting her Chican@ community in Taos county and throughout New Mexico to various digital humanities projects that include the honorable and privileged role of digitization and collection of contemporary oral histories that will ensure a continued presence of our rich cultural and political histories over time and space.

Los Pastores Teatro Camp

Los Pastores Teatro Camp includes six sessions of education, acting, and cultural knowledge, in preparation for the 43rd Annual traditional presentation of Los Pastores. The camp will culminate with public performances, free of charge to the audience, during the month of December, at San Ignacio Church in Martinez Town, Albuquerque, San Juan Church at Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Taos (dates and times tba). Each performance will include a meal, as an act of celebration and an opportunity for audience members to visit with the performers.

Los Pastores

Los Pastores is a traditional folk play about the shepherds’ search for the newborn Christ Child during the Christmas season. The drama dates back to the Middle Ages as part of a sequence of plays called autosacramentales or Acts of Faith. Twelve days comprise the complete spiritual cycle. Franciscan priests and Spanish and Mexican settlers brought the plays to New Mexico during Spanish and Mexican colonial times. The three autosacramentales plays illustrated lessons of faith and remained an important vehicle for sharing, because few people in the area could read at the time. Plays consisted of the following types: Mystery plays (about the life of Christ); Miracle plays (about wondrous signs and events); and Morality plays (about the battle of good and evil). Los Pastores, the most musical of the autosacramentales, represents the battle of good and evil during the shepherds’ search. At the end of the play, the entire entourage receives its reward- interaction with the Holy Family, especially Baby Jesus. Despite some occurrences along the way, good wins over evil in the end.

Sangre de Cristo Liturgies

Founded in 1981 by the late Arsenio Córdova, Theresa Córdova’s father, Sangre de Cristo Liturgies (SdCL) is program host of Los Pastores Teatro Camp and performances. SdCL is devoted to the preservation and recovery of the history, traditions and culture of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. SdCL fosters its mission through the use of theatre, music and lectures. Arsenio Córdova’s family and cast continue his work and his vision. For the past 42 years, SdCL has presented the play “Los Pastores” in various Catholic churches, universities, and theaters throughout northern New Mexico, southern Colorado, and in Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua. Despite the passing of Arsenio in 2019, the cast of Los Pastores continues their presentations through the direction and active participation of the Arsenio Córdova family.

Below is Grupo Sangre de Cristo's 2021 pastorela, directed by Dr. Theresa Córdova, filmed and produced by Dr. Beverly R. Singer (Santa Clara Pueblo).

Wednesday 25 September 7:30pm
WORLD PREMIERE
...Contempla, alma, y considera
double concerto for oboe and viola
by Sérgio Azevedo (b. 1968)
Kevin Vigneau, oboe
Kimberly Fredenburgh, viola
Sebastián Serrano-Ayala, conductor
UNM Symphony Orchestra

Other works on the program:

• Bolero Maurice Ravel
• Capriccio español Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
• Huapango José Pablo Moncayo

Popejoy Hall
$15 adults, $10 seniors, $5 UNM students
general admission
purchase tickets

All pieces on the program are tied by the utilization of folk and popular materials from the regions of Iberia to Nuevo México​.

The University of New Mexico Symphony Orchestra commissioned Dr. Sérgio Azevedo, a leading contemporary Português composer, to write a concerto for oboe, viola, and orchestra. The concerto utilizes materials from the collected folk and indigenous music found in the John Donald Robb Archives at the University Libraries Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections. The work will have a programmatic element related to the story of an Iberian immigrant's journey to Nuevo México​.

Below is an example of Sérgio Azevedo's compositional oeuvre: "O vento sopra onde quer..." (The wind blows where it wants) Concerto para Orquestra de Sopros (2020) performed by BSP, directed by Francisco Ferreira, 30 October 2021. Dr. Azevedo served as "BSP Composer in Residence" in 2020.

Learn more about Robb Trust underwriting.

The UNM John Donald Robb Musical Trust is actively involved in supporting the community by providing underwriting to organizations, ad hoc projects, educational outreach, programming, concerts, and events. Below is a list of the Trust's recent endeavors.

Adobe Saxophone Quartet

Part of the Robb Trust's mission is to promote the compositions of John Donald Robb. To that end, the Trust commissioned the Adobe Saxophone Quartet to perform a new arrangement of Robb's String Quartet No. 2, created by the Trust's graduate assistant Chris Orphal. The arrangement received its world premiere in March 2023 at the Robb Concert, the headliner event of the annual John Donald Robb Composers' Symposium. The Adobe Quartet subsequently recorded the Robb String Quartet No. 2 arrangement in May of 2023.

The Trust underwrote the studio recording, which involved hiring an artistic director to oversee the recording session, a recording engineer, the musicians, and an audio/visual editor to mix and edit the audio and create an official music video.

National Hispanic Cultural Center

The Robb Trust underwrites annual community programming produced by the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Most recently was Día de Familia y Comunidad: Fiesta de Barelas March 22, 2023. Visitors had a chance to make paper architecture, maracas, and weavings, and learn from Barelas community organizations. Vicente Griego and Chuy Martinez who presented sing-along performances featuring music from the John Donald Robb Archives at the UNM Center of Southwest Research and Special Collections.

The free community event was supported by Bank of Albuquerque and musical performances were sponsored by the Robb Trust.

PBS Learning Project

Folk Music of New Mexico: The John Donald Robb Collection is an educational initiative produced by New Mexico PBS and the University of New Mexico John Donald Robb Musical Trust with support from the University of New Mexico Libraries' Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections, The Mr. and Mrs. Sanford N. McDonnell Foundation, The Brabson Library and Educational Foundation, and Albuquerque Public Schools. The collection contains video, audio, Spanish transcriptions, English translations, and sheet music for the traditional songs. Support materials include lesson plans (coming soon), student handouts, and video descriptions of the song forms. Supplemental reading material and a documentary film by NM PBS, The Musical Adventures of John Donald Robb in New Mexico, are also available.

The Robb Trust provides underwriting and extensive, detailed content. Trust Board members Rosalia Pacheco and Nancy Harbert, and Honorary Board member Enrique Lamadrid, are working closely with NMPBS to bring this project to a completion.

Universidad de Nuevo México Mariachi

The Trust pays salary and benefits for two adjunct faculty teaching with the UNM Mariachi Program. Currently, those faculty are Monica E. Trujillo and José Carrillo.

Approximately 25 years ago the UNM Fine Arts Library discarded about 1,500 reel-to-reel audio tapes of events presented by the UNM Music Department. The library no longer had the technology to play these tapes. The tapes represent a historic treasure trove with  recordings of faculty, student, and guest performances dating from the 1950s – 1990s.

They were given to the Music Department which placed them in the basement of Hokona Hall where they sat deteriorating and unavailable for decades. In the summer of 2022, the tapes were “rescued” and subsequently cleaned, labeled, and catalogued. They now reside back in the Music Department. The next goal of the project is to get the tapes digitized so the recordings are once again playable on modern equipment.


The UNM Robb Trust and its Archives/Underwriting Committee initiated support for the process.

Lone Piñon is the 2022 recipient of a Robb Trust underwriting grant, for their project “Musica de los Manitos”. They recently delivered an invitational workshop with dancers from bailefolklorico and flamenco backgrounds, in which elders Reyes and Cordelia García (Pecos) and Lucy Salazar (Cañoncito) led participants through the entire repertoire of Northern New Mexico figure dances, with a focus on two endangered forms (el taleán and las cuadrillas). Attached is a video excerpt from the dance workshop. Upcoming events in the series will serve evacuees from communities affected by the Calf Canyon / Hermits Peak fire.

For more information about Robb Trust underwriting, visit: robbtrust.org/underwriting.html

Below: Elders Lucy Salazar, Reyes Garcia, and Cordelia Garcia lead young dancers from El Ballet Folklorico Santa Fe in "La Cuna," a traditional figure dance of Northern New Mexican bailes and fandangos. Lone Piñon performs a cuna from the repertoire of Mariano Romero and Los Villeros Alegres de Santa Fe.

Join us on the NHCC YouTube channel for this special online event.

FEBRUARY 14, 2018