Santa Fe’s own Maria Benitez passed away in her sleep on Tuesday, September 3rd. Maria Benitez was born in Taos, N.M in 1950 . She spent several decades performing flamenco around the world. In 2006, she received Spain’s most prestigious award, La Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Catolica, for her successful efforts at introducing the masses to the art of Spanish Dance. Maria was the founder and director of the Institute of Spanish Arts in Santa Fe.
Marriage of Love & Creativity
For more than half a century Santa Fe Maria and her husband Cecilio Benitez fostered Spanish culture and European art in the community. Cecilio Benitez was born in Barcelona. When he was 14 he began his career in the theater as a set designer and director. He later went on to manage the international Spanish Dance career of his wife. Maria Benitez who was born in Taos, N.M. She spent several decades performing flamenco around the world. The couple’s only son Francisco Benitez was born in Santa Fe in 1967.
Francisco Benitez
As a young boy, Francisco travelled extensively with his parents while his mother performed around the world. As a teenager he came to appreciate the roots of flamenco music combined with the backdrop of the theater and that’s when his own aspirations as an artist began to take root. Inspired by Michelangelo Mersi da Caravaggio, of the 17th-century school of baroque, Francisco Benitez approaches contemporary art with classical realism. He has a successful career specializing in Renaissance art and divides his time between Santa Fe and Europe.