The work displayed in the show reflects how artists have dealt with their hidden heritage.

New Mexican folk artist Diana Bryer is descended from Eastern European Jews. Her brightly colored compositions combine both spiritual and Southwestern themes. She portrays Hispanic families and their roots in her oil paintings.

ãWhat gets to my heart is that here are people who were murdered, tortured, ostracized because of their religion, and they hung onto every shred of it for hundreds of years,ä Bryer said.

Her work The Key depicts a smiling mother and child, holding an open box with a gold-colored key inside. It uses brilliant red and green shades and has a painted border of Southwestern texture and color. The border features the Torah and the star of David and is intertwined with a desertlike landscape.

Cary Herz of Jews in the Southwest deserts contributes his photography to the exhibit.

ãThis photographic essay testifies to the resolve of some Southwestern Hispanics to cling to the vestiges of their ancestral Jewish roots, all of this after five hundred years of forced conversion from their faith,ä Herz said. ãDealing with a spiritual world, I am trying to capture the tension between the solidity of the stone and the unseen culture it represents.

ãI have tried to show the spiritual faith of people emerging from behind the shadows. My intention is to express reverence and respect for the identities of the individuals and the location of their resting places.ä

Crypto-Jewish burial sites, for example, are visual symbols of a culture that has been impenetrable for hundreds of years.

The Albuquerque artistâs black and white photos reflect this. They have a lonely, abandoned feel to them, as if they are old and have been lost in the desert, crumbling away.

But many of the images photographed are hard to identify. Only the cross and six-pointed star are clear enough to distinguish within the landscape.

Perhaps the most intricate piece is by artist Anita Rodriguez. The work, made out of polychrome wood, is box shaped like an adobe house. It is mounted on the wall, and has skeletons leading in and out of the house.

Some of the figures appear to be suffering and others comforting in its winter desert setting. When the box is opened, a skeletal family is revealed. The figures are preparing dinner, reading, looking out the window and setting the table. Rodriguez also uses bright colors in her work.