March 2014 PDF Edition

Transcription

News & Views
from the
S u s t ai n ab l e S o u t h w e s t
reclaiming
Española
Sustaining Our
Local Economies
C ultivating a F uture :
Where Do We
Go From Here?
March 2014
History of the
Northern Valley
of the Río Grande
North-central New Mexico’s Largest Circulation Newspaper
Vol. 6 No. 3
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Green Fire Times • March 2014
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Vol. 6, No. 3 •March 2014
Issue No. 59
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News & Views
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Sustainable Southwest
Winner of the Sustainable Santa Fe Award for Outstanding Educational Project
Contents
Tewa Pueblos, Spanish Villages, Official Villa and Railroad Town:
The History of the Northern Valley of the Rio Grande in New Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Reflections on the Española Plaza . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 10
Book Profiles: Española • Recognizing Heritage . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 8, 11
Honoring the Spirit of the Española Valley: A Tewa Perspective . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 13
Cultivating a Future: Where Do We Go From Here? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Tierra Sagrada . . .. . .. . .. . .. . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 14
What Does Public Health Look Like in Española? . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 17
Hispanos in the Valley of Sorrows . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 19
Reclaiming Española . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 20
Living the Dream of Cooperation and Friendship. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Love in the Valley of Infinity. . .. . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 24
The Española Hunter Arts & Agricultural Center and Community Mural Project . . .. 25
Sustaining Our Local Economies. . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 27
OP-ED: Rethinking Northern New Mexico College . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 29
Academy of Sustainability Education Planned for Santa Fe . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 33
2014 New Mexico Legislative Wrap-Up . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 35
Newsbites . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 10, 13, 25, 37
What’s Going On. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 38
Española — A Microcosm Of Our Region
E
spañola is a microcosm of the wide border region of Mexico and the United States. It is the quintessential
meeting place, albeit a chaotic and embattled one, of Latin American and Anglo civilizations. It is also the
traditional homeland of the Tewa Pueblo people and their millennial civilization, which continue to honor the
earth, its plants and animals, as well as the seen and unseen forces of the universe.
No landscape could be
more beautiful or befitting
of this epic intersection.
The valley is flanked by the
reposing blue mountains of
the Jémez and the towering
grey stone Truchas Peaks.
The Río Chama and Río
Grande come together here
to irrigate the valley and
quicken it to life.
© Alejandro López
Skip Whitson
In Española these civilizations coexist, merge or clash, and retreat. Its earth, buildings and people bear the bruises
and scars of the collision of worlds, the huge social changes and economic disparities. Not withstanding, Española’s
greatest treasure is its towa, gente, people. In a world of perpetual cycles, the seed of their future is just now beginning
to germinate, soon to flower. This is indeed cause for the continued cultivation of its soul and its soil. Alejandro López, associate editor
COVER: A
view of Española, february 2014.
photo by
Alejandro López
Green Fire Times is not to be confused with the Green Fire Report, an in-house quarterly publication of the New
Mexico Environmental Law Center. The NMELC can be accessed online at: www.nmelc.org
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Tewa Pueblos, Spanish Villages, Official Villa and Railroad Town
The History of the Northern Valley
of the Río Grande in New Mexico
Hilario Romero
N
o historian can write an accurate account of the area known today as the
“Española Valley” without including the early ancestors of the Tewa Pueblo
Indians and the centuries before their eventual migration to this lush valley in the
1200s. After all, the city of Española is located on the Pueblo Land Grants of both
Okeh’Owingue and Kha’P’oo’Owingue (San Juan and Santa Clara pueblos). Also,
the abandoned village of “La Cañada,” which was a small ranching village since the
1600s, was repopulated by the Tano people who migrated there from San Lázaro
and San Cristóbal pueblos. Fifteen years after the Great Pueblo Revolt, La Villa de
Santa Cruz de la Cañada de los Españoles Mejicanos was re-founded, in 1695, as the
seat of government for all of northern New Mexico.
And as we approach the year 1880, a railroad stop on the Denver and Río Grande
Western Railroad (D&RGW) was established after the pueblos of Okeh’ Owingue,
Kha’P’oo’Owingue and the D&RGW negotiated a right-of-way. This railroad station
would be later named after “la Española” (the Spanish lady) who opened a restaurant
next to the station. From 1880 forward, the station and the town that grew around
this right-of-way would be known by that name. It would extend, eventually, to the
old villages of La Mesilla and San Pedro to the south, Okeh’Owingue and Los Ranchos
to the north, Santa Cruz de la Cañada to the east, and La Vega de los Vigiles to the west.
Context of a Complex Community
People had been traveling through and creating communities in and around the
spacious northern Río Grande valley for many centuries prior to the arrival of the
first Spanish explorers. The first peoples were the Clovis pre-Cochise hunters and
gatherers, followed by the Cochise peoples, who domesticated the turkey and dog
and began to develop agriculture. These Pueblo ancestors fished in what we now call
the Río Grande, hunted in the bosque del río, and followed the game that lived in this
valley to the vast pastures above in all directions. The early ancestors were the first to
trade with the people of Méjico who passed through this valley. Subsequently, their
knowledge was carried on to the Anasazi, who slowly migrated into the Tsama (now
known as Chama) and Ojo Caliente valleys where they established pueblos along
the Río Tsama and Río Ojo Caliente. They came from Mesa Verde (now southwestern
Colorado) and the Azteca Pueblo northeast of Farmington. They moved onward
and settled at Tsi’Ping, Poshuwengueh and Kah’p’oo’in’ko’hu’u (Leaf Water) on the
Río Tsama and established other smaller sites that extended north to Posi’owengueh
directly above the Ojo Caliente springs. By the early 1200s, these hardy ancestors
had made their way into the valleys at Puyé, Tsánkawi, Tsewadi and eventually along
the Río del Norte, where the Tewas are located today. These early Pueblo people also
migrated into the Río del Norte valley, due to the Dineh or Apachis de Nabajú and
Yuta (Navajo and Ute) raids.
(as they were called during
this time), providing detailed
information on their agriculture,
economy and customs, from
Zacatecas north to Tuah Tah
(Taos Pueblo). Soon the valley
would accommodate a new
group of pioneers searching for
a fresh start on life, who were
willing to make many sacrifices
to survive in this special place.
In 1595, Rey Felipe II de
España (King Phillip II of
Spain) approved a request from
Antonio Mendoza, Virrey de
Nueva España (vice-king of
México) to settle La Frontera del
Norte de la Nueva España (later
to be called “Nuevo Méjico”).
The Virrey set up a bidding
process to establish a colony and to secure an “Adelantado”—a wealthy individual
with leadership skills—to organize and equip (at the Adelantado’s own expense) a
large group of soldier-colonists who agreed to undertake a long, dangerous journey
to a distant land and settle among local tribal residents. Juan de Oñate’s bid was
chosen, and he was named the Adelantado to lead the colonists north in search of
a suitable place to settle.
Oñate’s soldiers arrived in July 1598 at Okeh’Owingue and set up camp in the south
plaza. Following the harsh winter, Oñate moved the colony to the other side of the
Río del Norte at Yuqueyungue. They built a small plaza and church near the site, but
the community struggled because of Oñate’s constant absence and neglect due to
his hunger for gold, silver and other precious metals. This was demonstrated when
the colonists at Okeh’Owingue ran out of staples and were fed by the Tewas in the
fall of 1598. They ate guajolotl (domesticated turkey), camotl (sweet potato), maíz
(corn—in many forms), calabacín (squash), calabaza (pumpkin), chile and a variety
of other wild meats and vegetables. This was the first “Thanksgiving,” celebrated 22
years before the arrival of the first English immigrants at Plymouth Rock.
continued on page 8
First Contact: Pueblos and Spaniards
After the first encounter with the first Europeans to arrive in New Mexico, as early
as 1537—when Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions passed
through the southern part of New Mexico—the Pueblo people realized that they
were not alone in their world and that new peoples had arrived from distant lands.
Three years later, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado arrived with his 300 soldiers and 800
Indian allies, servants and slaves with orders to explore the Siete Ciudades de Cíbolo
to verify the tales of gold and riches, report their findings to the Spanish leadership,
and claim these lands for Spain.
During his journey, Coronado visited Yuqueyungue and Okeh’Owingue, having followed
the Río del Norte (as it was named at the time) into the valley of the Tewas. This
part of the expedition included visits to Kha’P’oo’Owingue and P’o’Woh’Ge’Owingue
(San Ildefonso Pueblo). Pedro de Castañeda, chronicler of the expedition, reported
a substantial number of Pueblo people lived in these villages. Several other Spanish
expeditions would follow 40 years later, in 1580, to report on the pueblos de indios
Historic photo of the pueblo of Ohkay Owingeh
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History
continued from page 7
Juan de Oñate was initially absent due to the Pueblo de Haak’u’s (Acoma Pueblo)
rejection of the oath of allegiance and aggression demonstrated by Juan de ZaldívarOñate, nephew of Juan de Oñate, who lost his life in a duel with the leader of the
Acomas. The subsequent war with the Pueblo of Haak’u resulted in many Acoma
lives lost at the hands of the brother of Juan de Zaldívar-Oñate, namely Vicente
de Zaldívar-Oñate, Maese de Campo of the colonizing expedition. As described
by Capitán Gaspar Pérez De Villagrá in his epic Historia de la Nueva Méjico, the
soldier-colonists were left without leadership at San Gabriel, as it was named, and
threatened mutiny as supplies dwindled. Juan de Oñate put down the mutiny and
severely punished those he was able to capture. The soldier-colonists at Okeh’Owingue
were also upset because Juan de Oñate was waging war against the pueblos, when
his orders were to set up a colony. The colonists wanted peace, as they were the
settlers. Oñate would eventually leave “Nuebo Méjico,” as they referred to it. Despite
these problems with the new colony, when the first chapel was built, a celebration
was held and the colonists reenacted the first play in North America. Los Moros y
Cristianos (The Moors and the Christians) portrayed on horseback the overcoming
of the Arab empire by the Christians of Spain.
Juan de Oñate was waging war against the
pueblos, when his orders were to set up a colony.
By 1608 Juan de Oñate was replaced as Gobernador de Nuebo Méjico by his son Cristóbal
de Oñate, who became interim governor. Juan was recalled to México to answer for
his behavior as gobernador during the 10 years he was in office. Life at San Gabriel,
the first capital of Nuebo Méjico, 1600-1607, was extremely difficult because the
settlers had to design the diversions of the Río Tsama and the Río del Norte and
dig new acequias (irrigation ditches). They then had to clean, level and plow large
agricultural fields and learn when, what and how to plant from their Tewa neighbors.
Even though the Spanish settlers had knowledge of farming, they were in a new and
unknown land and realized the help of their Pueblo neighbors was invaluable. They
also shared seeds they brought from México and Spain and fruit tree sprouts for
transplanting. The fields where they planted are still being used today for farming.
The village that emerged from that time is now called Chamita. During this same
timeframe, the Pueblos of Okeh’Owingue and Kha’P’oo’Owingue were planting crops
in the area six miles south of Okeh and two miles north of Kha’P’oo’Owingue.
Española
By Camilla Trujillo
Images of America Series - Arcadia Publishing (ISBN: 9780738579672)
After retiring from 25 years as artist-in-residence at northern New Mexico schools,
Camilla Trujillo spent a year interviewing families, collecting historical photos
and writing a series of essays. The result is a 128-page photographic journal of the
Española Valley.
“Española,” Trujillo says, “had been a complex
community of about 20 villages, three Indian pueblos
and a small city.” The scope of her book ranges from
“El Encuentro,” the first meeting between the Spanish
colonists and the Pueblo inhabitants of the upper Río
Grande—to the establishment of the first capital of
New Mexico, San Gabriel del Yungue, with its river
cobble foundations—to the American invasion in the
mid-19th century—to the Manhattan Project and its
economic interdependence with the Española Valley
one hundred years later. The book’s final chapter, “La
Cosecha” (The Harvest), focuses on historic local food
production including molinos (flour mills) that were built over acequias or creeks,
and apple and chile production, which was aided by the Chili Line railroad that
served Española from 1880 to 1941.
The book is available at Hastings in Santa Fe, the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market and the
Palace of the Governors museum bookstore. In the Española area, it may be found
at the Chimayó Trading Post, Cook’s Hardware and the Galería Santa Cruz. It may
also be ordered online: www.arcadiapublishing.com/9780738579672/Espanola
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The church at Santa Cruz de la Cañada, 1872
Tsewadi, La Cañada & La Villa de Santa Cruz de La Cañada de los
Españoles Mejicanos del Rey Nuestro Señor Don Carlos Segundo
Early Pueblo villages in the area now occupied by Santa Cruz, Cuartélez, and La
Puebla on the Río Santa Cruz were very important to the Tewas. Other important
settlements, including Tsewadi, were located in the hills above what would be later
known as La Puebla, another in Cuartélez and many other smaller remains along
the cañadas. These villages were settled in the early 1200s, and according to María
Martínez, the famous San Idelfonso potter, were connected to the sacred place up-river,
which María called “Tsi’ma’yo’po’kwi” (place of the good flaking stone near the pool).
Some settlers from San Gabriel migrated to “La Cañada” in the early 1600s and
established a series of rancherías in the valley along the Río de la Cañada, as it might
have been called. They built houses and farmed the fertile lands along the river bottom
and revived the dormant irrigation canals carved out by the early Tewas who farmed
the area before them. Life was dangerous. Hostile tribes attacked these rancherías
throughout the 1600s until 1680, when the Great Pueblo Revolt removed them from
their homes as they ran for their lives to Santa Fé. These settlers escaped south to El
Paso del Río del Norte (Ciudad Juárez), where they remained for 13 hard years trying
to farm and ranch in a very harsh environment. The Tano people of the Galisteo area
eventually migrated to “La Cañada” after the revolt, due to Apachi, Yuta and Dineh
raids, and farmed the cañada until 1695, the year when Diego de Vargas granted the
land to a mixed group of españoles-mejicanos and former La Cañada residents. The
land grant was titled: “La Villa de Santa Cruz de la Cañada de los Españoles Mejicanos
del Rey Nuestro Señor Don Carlos Segundo.” One year later, Diego de Vargas brought an
additional 21 families and moved the Tanos from their villages, relocating them at
Okeh’Owingue and other Tewa pueblos, but the majority of them left for the villages
of the Moquis (today’s Hopis). This move caused friction with the Tewas, and the
Pueblo Revolt of 1696 brought the Tewas together to fight the Spaniards led by
the Pueblo of P’o’Woh’Ge’Owingue (San Ildefonso). The Tewas were able to keep the
Spaniards from defeating them and also demanded concessions from the Spanish.
Life during the first 10 years of the Santa Cruz land grant was difficult. The new
settlers were not like the rugged pioneers who first settled the area. Diego de Vargas
concentrated his governorship on the rebuilding of Santa Fé and fighting the Tewas.
Miguel de Quintana, who came from México City at the age of 22, according to Fray
Angélico Chávez in his genealogical work, Origins of New Mexico Families, lived the
remainder of his life in Santa Cruz de la Cañada, had a large family, was a poet and
composer of “coloquias” (cultural poetic two-person dialogues) and died in April of
1748. Many current Santa Cruz residents trace their lineage to him.
La Villa de Santa Cruz de la Cañada was the second official “Villa” in La Provincia
de Nuebo Méjico, with La Villa Real de San Francisco de Asís de la Santa Fé as the first
and also the capital of the provincia. Santa Cruz de la Cañada would become the
northernmost jurisdiction for civil and military government and church affairs and
remain a center of major activity throughout the Spanish, Mexican and half of the
Territorial Period. It became the seat of government for the Alcaldía by the same
name, which covered all of northern Nuebo Méjico as far north as the San Luís Valley.
The re-colonization began on the south side of the Río Santa Cruz, where the Tano
Pueblos had relocated from their homelands in the Galisteo area during the time
the Spanish were in exile. The first group of settlers, mostly from Nuebo Méjico, who
continued on page 31
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Reflections on the Española Plaza
Story and photos by Thomas H. Guthrie
W
hen I tell people I find the
Española Plaza fascinating, I
often encounter disbelief. I hear that
the plaza is an empty wasteland, a
failed social project, or the unfortunate
result of Mayor Richard Lucero’s
grandiose dreams. I myself see the
plaza as a complicated space where
Nuevomexicanos are creatively coping
with the region’s double colonial
history and negotiating New Mexico’s
place in the United States.
Plazas were the heart of both Pueblo
and Spanish town planning. Almost
all the settlements around Española
have plazas. Española, though, was a
railroad town established in the 1880s.
As such, it had a main street—the mark
of Anglo-American enterprise—rather
than a plaza.
In 1941 the rail line that made Española
a regional center for agricultural
commerce was abandoned. Two years
later, the government established
what would become Los Alamos
National Laboratory. The Española
Valley has borne “the Lab’s” social
and environmental costs ever since.
Meanwhile, as northern New Mexico
transitioned from an agricultural to a
tourist economy, Española’s railroad
origins became a liability. Española
was less “modern” than Los Alamos
but less “traditional” than the Pueblo
and Spanish colonial settlements that
attracted tourists. The city launched the
Plaza project in the late 1980s in order
to remake its public identity.
Converting a mercantile district into
a Spanish-style plaza is difficult.
After half a century of automobilecentered town planning and sprawl,
it is probably inevitable that the plaza
would function more like an urban
Misión-Convento and bandstand
The Bond House
park than a traditional plaza. Two
major highways converge just east of
the site, dividing the plaza from the
rest of town. Original plaza plans
promised “gardens, flowers, trees,
lawns and greenery,” typical of public
parks in wetter parts of the country.
Maintaining even modest vegetation
on the plaza has required steady
irrigation.
People complain that the plaza
is deser ted. Yet se veral recent
developments have increased its vitality
and suggest its potential. A veterans’
memorial (completed in 2003) and
a bandstand (2008) have partially
relieved the plaza’s vast emptiness and
attracted locals. And since 2010 the
Northern NM Regional Art Center Events
The Northern New Mexico Regional Art Center, a nonprofit organization based in the
Plaza de Española, is under contract with the city of Española to provide arts education
management services to the community. NNMRAC operates the Convento Gallery,
a gift shop and visitor center on the plaza. The organization also provides after-school
art, music/chorus classes year-round, including a Summer Arts Academy.
On March 14, between 5 and 7 pm, there will be an opening reception for Río
Rancho artists Jean Kempinsky and Dick Overfield. Their exhibition ends April
11. The annual NNMRAC Santo Niño Festival of the Artists will hold its benefit
performances on April 17 and 18. Friday evening will see an opening reception in the
Convento Gallery with a free showing of a film about the arts in New Mexico in the
Misión on the plaza. On Saturday from 9 am-4 pm there will be artists’ booths, food,
dance and music on the plaza. At 2 pm is a ticketed performance of the Española
Valley High School Chorus and the NNMRAC Española Valley Children’s Choir,
under the direction of Brian Wingard, music teacher at Española High School.
There will also be a performance by local Pueblo dancers and a Hispanic children’s
dance group. Tickets for the 2 pm performance are on sale.
For information about NNMRAC, these and many more events, contact
NNMRAC’s executive director, John D. Werenko, at 505.500.7126, or email
director@nnmrac.org
10
Northern New Mexico
Regional Art Center has
operated a gift shop and
gallery in the Convento
and offered art classes
in the old post office
(which closed in 2009).
Two themes compete on the plaza:
commemorating the Spanish
colonization of New Mexico and
celebrating the valley’s “tricultural”
The plaza exhibits bold,
contradictory responses
to colonialism.
heritage. The “Arches of the Alhambra”
commemorate Spain’s defeat of the
Moors and Columbus’s voyage in
1492, two events that paved the way
for the Spanish conquest of New
Mexico. They thus symbolize European
colonial dominance and a culturally
and religiously purified Spain
in the heart of the Española
Valley. Water restrictions have
f requently left the attached
waterfall and fountain dry,
though, diminishing the
ensemble’s grandeur.
according to the Plaza Prospectus.
Ironically, brothers Frank and George
Bond, who came to Española in
the 1880s, hardly embodied the
spirit of harmonious coexistence the
plaza celebrates. They acquired large
land interests, became successful
sheep merchants, and dominated
Nuevomexicano ranchers.
The crown jewel of the plaza is the
Misión-Convento, an adobe structure
completed in 1996. The Misión is a
representation of the church Spaniards
built in 1598 at San Gabriel, the
first Spanish capital of New Mexico.
Relocating the church from its original
site at Ohkay Owingeh appropriates
some of the region’s most important
history for the city. In the 1990s the
ACLU charged that the Misión, built
on public land with public funds,
violated the constitutional separation
of church and state. The city countered
that the building was not a church but
Three buildings planned for
the plaza—a Native American
Center, S panish Cultural
Center, and Commemorative
Spanish Colonization Center—
have never been built, mostly
due to insufficient funding.
The Bond House, which
over looks the plaz a, was
supposed to serve as “a historical
museum for the preservation
of the Anglo culture and the
mercantile business system,”
“Arches of the Alhambra,” Española Plaza.
a museum. However, the installation
in 2003 of reredos inside the Misión
featuring images of New Mexico
churches only further complicates the
meaning of this intriguing building.
The plaza is a national space. It received
its first federal funding in 1989. Senator
Pete Dominici, Congressman Bill
Richardson, and other state and federal
officials participated in the plaza’s
dedication in 1990. The American flag
raised for the dedication had flown
over the US Capitol. An image of the
Misión appeared on a 1998 US postage
stamp commemorating the Spanish
colonization of New Mexico. The
Veterans’ Memorial Wall also renders
the plaza an American national space.
In 2008 presidential candidate Barack
Obama chose the plaza for a rally that
attracted almost 10,000 people. Yet
plaza ceremonies have also reasserted
Pueblo, Spanish and Mexican claims to
New Mexico. The next time you drive
by the plaza, look for the flags of Spain
and México flanking the U.S. flag.
Recognizing Heritage
The Politics of Multiculturalism in New Mexico
Thomas H. Guthrie, University of Nebraska Press, 2013, 336 pp.
In 2006 Congress established the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area to recognize the
400-year “coexistence” of Spanish and Indian peoples in New Mexico and their place in the United
States. National heritage areas enable local communities to partner with the federal government
to promote historic preservation, cultural conservation and economic development. Recognizing
Heritage explores the social, political and historical context of this and other public efforts to interpret
and preserve Native American and Hispanic heritage in northern New Mexico.
The federal government’s recognition of New Mexico’s cultural distinctiveness contrasts sharply
with its earlier efforts to wipe out Indian and Hispanic cultures. Yet even celebrations of cultural
difference can reinforce colonial hierarchies. Multiculturalism and colonialism have overlapped in
New Mexico since the 19th century, when Anglo-American colonists began promoting the region’s unique cultures
and exotic images to tourists. Thomas H. Guthrie analyzes the relationship between heritage preservation and ongoing struggles
over land, water and identity resulting from American colonization. He uses four sites within the heritage area to illustrate the
unintentional colonial effects of multiculturalism: a history and anthropology museum, an Indian art market, a “tricultural”
commemorative plaza, and a mountain village famous for its adobe architecture. Recognizing Heritage critiques the politics
of recognition and suggests steps toward a more just multiculturalism that fundamentally challenges colonial inequalities.
Far from being a meaningless void,
the Española Plaza exhibits bold,
contradictory responses to colonialism.
It advances a familiar discourse of
multicultural coexistence e ven
as it also tests the limits of Anglo
liberalism. It celebrates Spanish
colonization as a means of coping with
American colonization, a strategy that
ironically reinforces Anglo power by
perpetuating the antagonism between
Nuevomexicanos and Pueblo Indians.
It confirms that northern New Mexico
is an American region, destabilizing
Anglocentric American nationalism
and the sovereignty of the United States.
And finally, in downplaying Española’s
railroad origins, the plaza reasserts
Indian and Nuevomexicano dominance
in northern New Mexico. i
Tom Guthrie is a cultural anthropologist who
has worked in New Mexico since 2002. His
book, Recognizing Heritage: The Politics of
Multiculturalism in New Mexico, includes
a chapter on efforts to commemorate Spanish
colonization in the Española Valley. tguthrie@
guilford.edu
Advertise in
GREEN FIRE
TIMES
Call Skip: 505.471.5177
or Anna: 505.982.0155
11
12
Honoring the Spirit of the Española Valley
A Tewa Perspective
Matthew J. Martínez
grew up at Ohkay Owingeh, a place
that is situated in a vast landscape of
mountain ranges, rivers and valleys rich
in agricultural lands, and surrounded
in a history of trickster stories and
coyote voices. At the confluence of the
Río Grande and Chama River exists a
meeting ground of Tewa people who
traveled from the north, from the
earth and other emergence vessels to a
place we call home—Ohkay Owingeh—
place of the strong people. Nearby
petroglyphs date back 10,000 years.
Like a bead of knotted cords, the Río
Grande weaves ancestral homelands
of Posu Owingeh, Posi Owingeh, Puyé
and many others villages that feed our
valley’s memory and spirit.
The Río Grande
weaves ancestral
homelands that feed
our valley’s memory
and spirit.
Pueblo people have always been
writing history, and we continue to be
shaped by texts in pottery, weavings and
petroglyphs that document migration
patterns and seasonal markers. Often
not fully knowing or understanding
them entirely, we continue to call upon
them in prayer, dance and ceremony
for guidance. Our dance rhythms and
motions are stories within stories. We
are a people of stories. Through story life
is created, and it is this poeh (pathway)
we continue to follow. Remembering
and honoring place is the essence of
Pueblo people—townspeople. The
place we honor also embodies the spirit
of the greater Española Valley.
Indigenous peoples are inherently
connected to the land. We all have
creation stories that include emergence
from lakes and mountains. Everything
is connected. Nothing is separate,
meaning that rock people, cloud
people, corn people, animal people
and people people are all related. The
notions of relations and relationality
fundamentally define Pueblo people in
how we experience the world.
The Pueblos have always had a
relationship with other indigenous
© Palace of the Governors Photo Archive
I
The pueblo of Santa Clara in an early 20th-century photo by John K. Hillers
peoples. This is evident in our language
through borrowed words, food and
dress. Beyond the Southwest we traded
coral and shells, which continue to be
used in dance, as well as other items like
macaw feathers. The Southwest was a
trading hub for Mesoamericans and
Puebloans between the 11th and 14th
centuries. Mexica and other Nahuatlspeaking Mesoamerican people may
have bartered beans for gems unique
to the Southwest, such as turquoise.
Turquoise is found as far away as
Chichén Itzá, México, in a region
where it is known that no turquoise
mines existed. From a spiritual and
cultural perspective, Pueblos have
always practiced a way of life free of
geographic borders but still remain
situated within a localized homeland.
Our directions are land-based. There
is no concept of north, south, east
and west per se. For example, as Tewa
people our “east” is known as Than piye,
where the sun rises. Our mountains
define our boundaries; Tsay Shu Pin,
Tsikomu Pin, Kuuseng Pin, Oku Pin,
are all surrounding sacred mountains.
Depending on their geographic location
to mountain ranges, each pueblo has its
own unique reverence for such places.
Unlike other tribes that relocated or
more “nomadic” tribes, Pueblo people
are place-based. Just like the United
States turns to the National Archives
in D.C., or the Catholic Church to the
Vatican in Rome, our Pueblo memory
and archives are located here. Since
time immemorial, we still return for
knowledge and spiritual feedings to
these surrounding landscapes. Pin is
the Tewa word for mountain, but it also
means heart. In many respects, these
are one and the same, as the heart of
mountains is often the heart and soul
of all ecological life.
connecting our life values conducive
to our homelands. We are at a crucial
state to not only remember, but, more
importantly, to act and center our life
on core values of sigicandi—love, care,
respect. Ewanini Kuundawhoha. i
Tewa scholar Alfonso Ortiz stated,
“One is not born a Tewa, but rather one
is made a Tewa. Once made, one has
to work hard continuously throughout
one’s life to remain a Tewa.” This is
ever constant, and remaining Tewa
can be remembered and renewed in a
variety of ways. One significant step is
Matthew J. Martínez,
Ph.D., is an assistant
professor of Pueblo Indian
Studies and director of the
Northern Pueblos Institute
at Northern New Mexico
College in Española.
Northern Río Grande National Heritage
Area Management Plan Approved
Approval Brings Increased Funding to New Mexico
The Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area (NRGNHA) management
plan has been approved by the Secretary of the Department of the Interior. The
approval makes the nonprofit Heritage Area eligible to receive up to $300,000 each
year through the National Park Service. The funds will be used to help sustain the
cultural traditions, landscapes, environment, languages and architecture of the
area, which encompasses Taos, Río Arriba and Santa Fe counties.
The NRGNHA board is comprised of community members who live, work and
hold fast to the enduring cultural and heritage traditions that make the northern
Río Grande area so unique, which is why it was designated by Congress in 2006.
Extensive planning and outreach began in 2007. Founding member and former
Heritage Area Director José Villa stated, “It’s important to the Hispano and Indio
character that our kids get reacquainted with our heritage, so they understand and
take pride in who they are.” Current Executive Director Tomás Romero said, “There are 49 heritage areas
throughout the country, most of them in the East. This approval enables New Mexico
and its multicultural heritage to take a prominent place in America’s history and
story.” Board President and Taos Pueblo tribal member Vernon Luján said, “This
plan sets the course for the NRGNHA for implementing cultural preservation,
educational outreach and fundraising that will benefit our communities.”
For more information, call 505.753.0937 or 505.660.5882, or e-mail riograndenhadir@
windstream.net
13
Cultivating a Future: Where Do We Go From Here?
Comments to the Chama Peak Land Alliance, Los Ojos, NM
B
efore we discuss where we go
f rom here, it ’s important for
us to understand where we’ve been
historically and how we’ve gotten to
where we are today.
The sobering reality is that northern
New Mexico is in a deep crisis—
economically, socially, educationally
and psychologically. This current
state of affairs has been caused by
the cumulative effect of American
colonial practices; by the collapse
of traditional Hispano and Native
American cultures under the pressure
of modernity over the past 150 years;
and by a fundamental and critical lack
of visionary leadership by our Nuevo
Mexicano leaders.
The statistics and data that indicate we
are in crisis are depressing: Río Arriba
County leads the nation in per capita
deaths from both heroin and prescription
drug overdoses. Our school systems are
churning out youth unable to read, write
or do math at a college level. Our lifestyles
We need to heal
ourselves—economically,
psychologically and
educationally.
suck: we suffer from high levels of obesity,
diabetes, alcoholism, teen suicide. We are
at the bottom of the barrel in almost every
economic indicator for poverty. It’s not
just Río Arriba County—this is true of all
of the northern New Mexico counties. 1
How did we get to this point of
dysfunction and cultural disintegration?
Let’s look at two major factors.
First, America’s invasion of México in
1846-48 was intended to create colonial
riches and help US political leaders in
Tierra Sagrada
Arturo Sandoval
I was born and raised in the Española Valley, which is my homeland—my Tierra
Sagrada (sacred earth). I did not realize it then, except perhaps intuitively, but
looking back over five decades, I realize now that I was raised as much by “place”
as I was by family and by community.
Our toys were “palitos de leña” that we turned into horses that we raced across
the llano. In winter, we built our own sleds out of wood and covered the runners
with thin strips of tin before propelling ourselves down the nearby hills. More
than anything else, we used our imaginations and the place in which we lived to
entertain and educate ourselves.
My home was located a few hundred yards from the boundary with Santa Clara
Pueblo. The greatest part of neighboring pueblo land was that it was open and
undeveloped. I had a playground bigger than as far as I could walk in eight hours
or even 10 hours. This playground was filled with piñón and cedar, crisscrossed
with arroyos, singing with breezes that dried the sweat from my brow as I played
with my brothers and my friends over the hills and in the arroyos.
Every day, I saw rabbits, lizards, coyotes, rattlesnakes, owls, bluebirds, sparrows,
worms. I saw and heard birds I still don’t know the names of, but whose songs
echo in my dreams each night.
I learned to swim in the Río Grande, where we built our own crude diving board
above a quiet pool along the Río. There, we kept from drowning by dog-paddling
our way furiously from one end of the pool to the other. We played Tarzan in the
bosque, where it was eternally cool and dark throughout the hot summer days.
I was raised by my parents, by my older siblings, by my tíos y tías, by my teachers,
by my vecinos. But I was raised as well by my “place”—my Tierra Sagrada. I was
hugged each night by the huge red-faced sun—embarrassed because he tired
before I did—setting over my playground in the west. I was greeted each morning
by the cu-cu-ru-cu-coo from the gallinero. Western breezes tickled me. Birds
talked to me. Trees danced with me. Brujos prowled through my neighborhood
at night, disguised as snakes and owls. “Place” dirtied my clothes, wrung sweat
out of my boy’s body, made me late for supper, waited up all night for me, and
made me whole.
Arturo Sandoval was born in Santa Cruz de la Cañada, NM, and raised in Española,
NM. He currently lives in Albuquerque, NM.
14
the mid-19th century realize
their dream of a Manifest
Destiny. New Mexico was
not immune to this colonial
domination. Although some
of us here in the north like
to subscribe to the notion
that northern New Mexico
was a Shangri-La, a pastoral,
idealized culture isolated from
the mainstream impacts of US
colonization, the reality has
been starkly different.
By the 1880s, for example, the
Chili Line had been completed
Arturo Sandoval at Ganados del Valle in Los Ojos
f rom Antonito, Colo. to
multiple negative impacts, but most
Española. It is important to note this
noteworthy to me were that:
because it was an integral part of the
capitalist exploitation of northern New
• Nuevo Mexicanos were forced to
Mexico. Capitalists like Frank Bond
become itinerant, low-paid wage
in the Española Valley turned most
earners who worked picking crops
Mexicanos in the Río Arriba area into
in Colorado and across the West; to
sharecroppers who raised sheep. At his
work as sheepherders in Montana
high point, Bond and other outside
and Wyoming; and move away from
American capitalists were shipping up
sustainable ranching and farming;
to 500,000 sheep per season north on
the Chili Line to markets in Denver,
• Traditional cultures lost access to
Chicago and elsewhere. In that process,
and use of natural resources that
they exploited Mexicano and Native
had been degraded to the point of
American shepherds and converted
not providing a sustainable lifestyle
them into poor, underpaid laborers. So
for norteños. As a result, we have not
much so that beginning in the early
been able to successfully live off the
1910s and through the late 1920s
land for more than a century; and,
and 1930s, people in the Río Arriba
• Traditional norteño culture was
were suffering from well-documented
blamed for the degradation and loss
widespread hunger and malnutrition.
of grasslands, forests and watersheds.
These outside American capitalists also
This blame game continues today and
degraded grasslands to a point of almost
is the basis for much of current Forest
no return. Once the rangelands became
Service policies limiting norteño
severely degraded, Bond and others
access to grazing permits on public
moved on to other areas of the West to
lands and to the limited commercial
continue the cycle of exploitation.
timbering that still occurs.
The same process of outside capitalist
Second, Mexicanos/Chicanos/norteños
investors exploiting local timber
in Río Arriba suffer from a lack of
resources also occurred during the
educated, insightful, selfless leaders.
same period. Mexicanos and Native
What our Mexicano opinion leaders
Americans of the Río Arriba became
and elected leaders offer us instead is
laborers, felling and preparing timber for
a pastoral vision to solve the difficult
use as railroad ties and other uses outside
problems caused by 100 years of complex
of New Mexico. Millions and millions
modernity and capitalism. The vision
of board feet of commercial timber were
offered by our elected Mexicano leaders
harvested from the Santa Fe and Carson
is a back-to-the-future view. They say,
National Forests, and neither forest has
“If we can only get the land grants back,
ever recovered from this exploitation. 2
if we can keep our acequias working, we
can solve all of our problems.”
The end result of these massive
American capitalist economic activities
in northern New Mexico created
© Seth Roffman
Arturo Sandoval
ESPAÑOLA ADVANCED CENTER
for
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are several critical
issues created by this pastoral
narrative for Nuevo Mexicanos
seeking a better future.
One is that to make the case for return
of Spanish and Mexican land grants,
Nuevo Mexicanos have to adopt a
narrow view of New Mexico history
and our place in it. That is, we must
hold a narrow view of ourselves that
ties us to Spanish colonial law and that
imagines us as European colonizers; that
view denies our Mestizo ancestry and,
by extension, our deep social, political
and economic interaction with the
Pueblo and Native American world.
It creates within us an identity crisis
that disorients us psychologically and
We will have to work
together to meet our
basic needs on a local
and regional basis.
alienates us from each other. It stops us
from building economic, political and
social alliances with Native America
in a geographic area in which together
we dominate demographically. It also
requires us to ignore or gloss over the
devastating impact Spanish colonial
rule had on the original inhabitants of
New Mexico and the reality that the
brutal colonial conquest was done by
our ancestors. 3
Second, while this pastoral vision
of Nuevo Mexicanos creates support
among American liberals because we are
viewed as innocent tillers of the soil and
respectful users of the forests, it limits
our ability to talk about other critical
issues like race and class. Once landgrant and acequia activists begin trying
to discuss issues of race and class, we
lose our liberal support and our chance
to talk about the real issues we face. 4
15
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16
What Does Public Health Look Like in Española?
Ana Malinalli X. Gutiérrez Sisneros
“T
he heart of northern New Mexico,
where cultures unite,” says the
website for the city of Española (http://
www.cityofespanola.org/). It is where I
have chosen to live for the last 30 years
and raise my two children, now grown.
Why did I choose it? Well, there are many
living cultures here, and languages are still
spoken that I was hearing less and less
of in Albuquerque. I am comfortable in
Española; it is like a perpetual South Valley.
It’s rural, there are still dirt roads, life is at a
slower (and lower, for the cars that make us
famous) pace, and we can have farm animals
in our yards. (I live just on the line of the
city limits, where this is true.)
I first came to Española for a nursing job
interview in 1983 at the PHS Española
Hospital. I saw there that the patients in
each room had several visitors, so I asked
the nurse giving me a tour why that was.
She replied that families are important
for creating a healing environment, so
four, five, six visitors per patient was not
unusual. I liked that and got the job at the
only hospital I have ever worked in during
my 30-year career. This is how I got to see
and know the health of the people, nuestros
prójimos, whom I have come to love deeply.
I gradually came to understand the many
issues that affect health and the health
disparities that continue today.
So, what does the health of the public look
like in Española? The Río Arriba County
(RAC) Health Profile Update (2008, RAC
Health Council and RAC Health and
Human Services Dept.) says: “We define
public health broadly to entail all aspects
of the well-being of an individual, family or
community to include body, mind and soul.”
All aspects of well-being, in the holistic
sense, would encompass chronic illnesses
such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension and
diseases of the mind, such as depression,
anxiety and trauma-related issues, often
diagnosed as PTSD. The health of the soul
is affected by culture-bound syndromes
such as susto (magical fright) and ataque de
nervios (a nerve[ous] attack), as I have come
to understand from oral healing traditions
and in the DSM-IV, TR (American
Psychiatric Association, 2000). What if a
community member, for example, uses IV
drugs to escape from incidents of incest
and sexual abuse as a child (mind aspect of
health) and contracts hepatitis C (physical
illness), lives within the cycle of addiction,
which is extremely difficult to heal from
(mind and body), to a point that he or she
is spiritually bankrupt (soul illness), only to
die from cirrhosis a few years later?
In trying to combat this issue, I learned in a
UNM Health Education class last fall that
Canada decided to improve the health of
the public that uses IV drugs by setting up a
clinic in Vancouver where people can reduce
the risk of harm (premature death from
overdose, decreased HIV and hepatitis C
rates) by having clean places where they can
go to inject their drugs. This place is called
“InSite.” It is North America’s only legal,
safe, drug-injection center. A banner outside
the clinic reads: “InSite saves lives.”There is a
2013 CNN article on this important, brave,
($3-million/year) endeavor at http://www.
cnn.com/2013/04/11/world/americas/
wus-canada-drug-safe-haven/
Education is the
answer to poverty, and
only ending poverty
will improve health.
Unfortunately, alcohol and drug abuse are
found in nearly every community in the
world, and if you look at New Mexico
health data in the excellent NMDOH State
of Health In New Mexico 2013 Report
you’ll see correlations of low socioeconomic
status and health (http://nmhealth.org/
ERD/HealthData/documents/NMDOHReport-SOHNM-2013.pdf ).
Northern New Mexico College, hoping to
increase that 16.9-percent college degree
rate in Española. Nursing is one of the most
rewarding careers on the globe. Nurses have
empathy for people, for social justice issues,
and they work to create justice, to ameliorate
the suffering of la gente.
To live well and thrive we must eat well.
How is that possible if the per capita
income is so low? Even with disappearing
public assistance and few jobs, it is possible,
with a return to farming, to growing our
own food. We were agrarian people, with
little time to be depressed, anxious, drinking
or drugging when we were busy working
the fields.“The end of that work outside was
the end of our mental health, so to speak,”
says my friend Ben Tafoya. This is why the
model of farming, the temazcal (house of
vapors), the use of curanderismo and animal
tending was born, as part of the treatment
modalities at the HOY Recovery Program
in the Lyden Valley area. This is also how
the Delancey Street Foundation in Alcalde
and the Eight Northern Indian Pueblo
Council’s New Moon Lodge in Ohkay
Owingeh operate: treatment is based on
values of traditional living, relearning that
work ethic that was once strong, now
changing in this generation. But in this
generation, too, we are beginning again to
grow our food, and we eat it fresh. Pues,
gracias a Dios.
The heart of northern New Mexico is
its people, millennia strong, resilient to
hardships, with many in good health. For
those who don’t have health, they are still
our familia, to be treated with dignity—this
is how cultures unite. Río Arriba’s health is
Río Arriba’s wealth. i
Ana Malinalli X.
Gutiérrez Sisneros,
PhD(c), ABD, MSN,
MAL AS, APRN,
PMHCNS-BC, CCM,
M.I.T., is a nursing
doctoral candidate at
NMSU. Her private
practice in Española is called MalinalCo Nursing
Consultants. She is also an adjunct faculty professor in
NNMC’s ADN and RN to BSN Nursing Programs
and the ¡EXITO! mental health counselor at NNMC.
505.690.0213, malinallix@nnmc.edu
So, what is the average per-capita income
for a person living in Española, where
10,224 people in 3,992 households reside
(2012)? It’s $19,059, and 26.3 percent of
these people live below the poverty level,
compared to the New Mexico average of
19.5 percent, or the US average, whereas,
“in 2010, 15.1 percent of all persons lived
in poverty.The poverty rate in 2010 was the
highest poverty rate since 1993”(National
Poverty Center, 2014, http://www.npc.
umich.edu/poverty/).
What is the average education level
for a person living in Española? For
persons age 25+ (2008-2012), 74.9
percent are high school graduates and
16.9 percent have a bachelor’s degree or
higher (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/
states/35/3525170.html).
To me, and to many, education is the answer
to poverty, and only ending poverty will
improve health, which is part of the reason
I am a teacher. I am a teacher of nurses, at
17
18
Hispanos in the Valley of Sorrows
Overdoses and Suicides in North Central New Mexico
W. Azul La Luz
The essence of that statement is exactly
what the “accidental drug overdose”
deaths are about. An epidemic of drug
overdose deaths has been plaguing
North Central New Mexico (the Valley)
for more than a decade now. And all the
institutions that should be looking at
the problem as a public health issue are
looking at it as only an issue of addiction
and poor self-control.
The problem is a
public health issue.
New Mexico has had the highest per
capita drug overdose death rate in the
United States, about 18 per 100,000,
for more than 10 years. The USA’s rates
for the same period are about five per
100,000. North Central New Mexico
(the Valley) has the highest per capita
“accidental drug overdose” death rate in
all of New Mexico, ranging from 42 to
72 per 100,000 over the course of the
11 years examined, from 1995 to 2006.
What are the differences and similarities
between victims of “accidental drug
overdoses” and suicide victims in the
Valley (as subjectively designated by the
Office of the Medical Investigator)?
How can we understand these high rates
of suicide among the Valley residents?
What are the race, class and gender
structures that set the backdrop for the
high rates of overdose and suicide? My
research examined the social forces that
may contribute to the overdose epidemic
among the predominantly Hispanic
population in North Central New
Mexico. My analysis of 34 interviews of
active illicit drug users and 10 interviews
of family members and professionals
in the Española Valley was anchored
in sociological analysis, concepts and
literature—Anomic Suicide (brought
about by a loss of social and personal
norms and values), post-Marxism
(unequal distribution of wealth with
a small number of people owning
most of the wealth and the means of
producing wealth), current sociological
drug-addiction theory (the belief that
addiction may be a physical illness that
may be also brought about through social
means), colonialism (colonization of a
people by another more powerful group),
historical/cultural trauma (the pain and
suffering brought about through the
destruction of cultural norms over a long
period of time), and racial and ethnic
inequality.
or combining substances when they are
older. They know better.
The research design employed both
qualitative and quantitative data,
including data from the New Mexico
Office of the Medical Investigator (19952006), historical analysis, participant
observation, in-depth interviews, and
autoethnography and positionality. This
mixed-method approach allowed for
the three-sided analysis of unlike data. I
found that there was an overlap between
the demographic—age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, etc.—profiles of suicide
and overdose victims. I argued that the
effects of colonization and “street-level
trauma” (SLT), shocks of repeated
strong emotional, psychological, physical
blows, weaken and distort a person or
even a group’s perception of the world
around them. When untreated, SLT
often leads to deathly personal action
such as “accidental drug overdoses”
and suicide. SLT leads to a condition
I call “cultural-post traumatic stress
disorder” (C-PTSD). C-PTSD may
be shaped by the loss of arable land
(despite high home ownership), loss
of traditional and cultural norms, the
whole-cloth invention of a mythological
and superficial ethnic consciousness
and loss of meaningful social bonds to
community. When C-PTSD and SLT
are coupled with a substance-abuse
career, the combination of all three
often proves lethal in Valley women and
men over the age of 35. They learned
“pharmacology” in their teens when they
first began using; those illicit substanceusers that didn’t learn quickly don’t grow
much beyond their teens. Contrary to
the prevailing wisdom, rarely do they
make an accidental mistake in dosage
policy. Public health programs must be
implemented that do more than attempt
to treat substance abuse. My findings
strongly suggest that a community-level
approach that includes an analysis of
the intersecting structural, disciplinary,
powerfully historic, and interpersonal
Further, treating drug overdose and
suicide as a “personal trouble,” an
individual-level problem in the Valley,
is a major limitation of current health
© Alejandro López (3)
P
lease picture this: you walk into a
cancer ward in a hospital; with you
is a knowledgeable oncologist. He looks
around at the terminally ill patients,
many of whom are in various stages of
dying from their respective cancers in
what would be horrific pain were it not
for the large dosages of pain medication.
The oncologist turns to you and says,
“We really need to cure these people of
their drug addiction.”
oppressions and resistance would shed
light on the social forces that shape
community health and viability. i
W. Azul La Luz Báez, PhD, MA, MA, CCHt,
is a medical sociologist, executive director
of NuevaLight Enterprises and executive
director of Silver Horizons New Mexico, Inc.,
based in Albuquerque. 505.795.5166, azul@
azullaluz.com
OP-ED:
Drug Addiction in the Española Valley
Drug addiction in the Española Valley and northern New Mexico is a real
concern. The addicts are mostly victims of heroin, cocaine, crack, alcohol abuse
and painkillers. However, meth, which has become an increasing problem in the
state, has affected many youth and people between the ages of 22 and 28. It is very
discomforting that there are large percentages of unemployed youth and also young
children that have succumbed to this.
What is particularly distressing with this epidemic is that we
have no consistent programs that have been effective to combat
this destructive way of life. Help educate our community and
volunteer your time. It’s a community issue! There are many
signs of a person falling victim to substance abuse that can
easily be identified. The fight against drug addiction needs
additional resources and out-of-the-box solutions.
Probate Judge Marlo R. Martínez is president/CEO of New Mexico
Office Products, LLC in Española.
Efficient and
resourceful.
Wayne Steen ChFC CLU, Agent
3005 S St Francis, Suite 1E
Santa Fe, NM 87505
Bus: 505-820-7926
wayne.steen.ssnr@statefarm.com
I'm eco-friendly too.
Whether it's local or global, every little bit we do makes
a difference. That's just part of being there.
Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.®
CALL ME TODAY.
statefarm.com/green
0901002.1
State Farm, Bloomington, IL
19
Reclaiming Española
Story and photos by Alejandro López
F
or the last week, I have experienced Española on foot and visited countless
sites, including Santa Cruz, McCurdy, Fairview, Riverside, Cuartélez, Arroyo
Seco, San Pedro, El Alto de Española, Corral de Piedra, El Guique, Hernández,
El Duende, Ranchitos, El Llano and Santo Niño. As it turns out, Española, a
centerless American commercial satellite, transposed to this community of old
Native American and Nuevo Mexicano villages in the late 1800s (which, over
time, it absorbed) is not one place, but many. Each has its own geography, history,
architecture (or lack of ), set of old families and new, and, of course, its own income
bracket with wild fluctuations.
In the process of this walkabout I visited many places I have known since childhood,
as well as a few corners and interstices of the valley totally unfamiliar to me. I was
profoundly moved by the exquisite silence and solitude of the 19th-century building
and grounds of the old morada of my native Santa Cruz. Here I was able to hear
the commanding voices of my parents and the old folk who are no longer with us;
those whose archaic Mexicano speech will never be heard again—for the language
and the values embedded in it, unless we have the will to act, will unfortunately
become extinguished.
I was similarly inspired by the beauty and sanctity of the massive Santa Cruz
Church, the largest adobe church in New Mexico, dating from the colonial period.
It was the seat of missionizing campaigns to the encircling native pueblos on the
part of Franciscan priests in the 18th century. Today it serves as spiritual and social
hub for a sizeable part of the Nuevo Mexicano and Mexicano communities. What
is saddening about Santa Cruz is that many of the old families that had persisted
here for hundreds of years have, in recent times, either died out or succumbed to
the idea of making money, sold, and moved away, leaving their ancestral homes in
a state of disrepair or abandonment. Other properties, especially the old orchards
and hillsides, have become featureless subdivisions that have caused the narrow,
winding roads of the community to be clogged with traffic. This fountainhead of
northern New Mexico’s Mexicano culture, the second oldest and most powerful villa
of the Spanish colonial and Mexican periods, is now one of the epicenters of drug
20
use and destitution in the valley. Santa Cruz is deserving of respect, love and attention.
It will require careful assessment and restoration if it is ever to become a healthy living
community and a symbol of regional self-sufficiency, beauty and vibrancy such as it was.
In nearby McCurdy, I was pleasantly surprised by the sudden appearance of an old East
Coast prep school-looking, two-story red brick building now serving as the McCurdy
Charter School. It was built by Methodist missionaries early last century. In this and in the
adjoining area of Fairview, there are a profusion of Protestant churches established soon
before and after the Second World War. Their mission was to convert to their particular
denomination, the already-Catholic populations of the region, as well as to serve the people
who were moving here from other parts of the country. The Anglo populations responsible
for building these churches also brought with them businesses, health clinics, doctors, and
eventually they built what is now the Presbyterian Española Hospital to provide modern
medical services to the area population. Unfortunately, the breakup of the community into
myriad Protestant sects was one of the first processes of atomization to be experienced by the
local native communities, as indeed was their relegation to the lowest rungs of the economic
ladder through the substitution of an agrarian barter economy for a wage-earning one.
This population, together with many communities of Catholic nuns from the Midwest
who taught in the area Catholic schools, served as the model for la gente’s acquisition of
the prevailing English-speaking cultural, linguistic and economic mores. The people of
the Española valley learned them so well, that, for a least a century now, the valley has
been exporting many of its most talented and prepared individuals to urban centers of
the country where they exercise positions of leadership.
The residential sections of this area of Española are among the most prosperous and
kempt of any in the Española Valley, although numerous other attractive middle-class
subdivisions abound in nearly every sector of the community. This notwithstanding, both
the city and the valley are witnessing a virtual tsunami of closed and abandoned businesses,
homes and properties that constitute both an eyesore and a source of demoralization.
Addressing this issue certainly ought to be one of the principal challenges that the mayoral
candidates and citizenry of the valley should concern themselves with at this time.
As I approached Riverside Drive, the principal artery of the city, leading from one end of
town to the other, I was taken aback by the deafening roar of traffic and, in the eveningtime, the display of so much neon and so many traffic lights that I have dubbed it “The
Tokyo of Española.” It is a blinding and dizzying nightly spectacle. In this sector (near
Allsups), with its string of locally owned businesses, national corporate franchises reign
supreme. Running north all the way to Walmart in Ranchitos, you can find any kind of
fast food, liquor, pharmaceuticals, car washes, auto parts, mechanic services, etc., but nary
a clothing or furniture store. For pricier items, residents tend to make the trip either to
Santa Fe or Albuquerque. As a result, the city loses out on tremendous tax revenues, and
a once almost self-sufficient people similar to the Amish now supply almost nothing for
themselves. The few food stores that exist on this route still do not keep Española and
indeed all of Río Arriba County from having the official designation of a “food desert.”
A locally based community food co-op on Mainstreet (Paseo de Oñate) and a seasonal
farmers’ market on Railroad Avenue are helping to ameliorate this situation, together
with a slow but steady movement in reviving local agriculture.
What in the world could have happened
to create such surreal juxtapositions?
Other places of immense interest in the Española Valley are the Camino de Paz
Montessori School in Cuartélez, where I witnessed 15-year-old youths plowing fields
with gentle but powerful Belgian horses. In fact, of anything that I experienced during
the week, it was this school and its activities of animal husbandry, growing and producing
food and taking it to market, coupled with meaningful and related academic challenges,
that signaled the most hope for Española.
But with a 64 percent graduation rate for females and 45 percent for males throughout
Río Arriba County, it appears that mainstream schools in the area need to radically
reinvent themselves and provide some kind of land-based learning and experiences for
youth from land-based cultures. The alternative to this is the far costlier permanent
rooting of drug use, burglaries and criminality among the growing sector of youth
with dead-end lives. The rampant incidence of teen-age pregnancies signals that
yet another generation is likely to suffer the same kind of unnatural, constrictive
and pointless institutionalization that has so frustrated those who have gone before
them. The transformation of the Española Valley from a “Valley of Sorrows” will
require the multiplication of “Camino de Paz Montessori School” kinds of grassroots
holistic initiatives.
On the other side of town, Mainstreet, the Bond House Museum and El Convento
were all very interesting, but for reasons other than those usually cited. On Mainstreet
I met the courageous young Victor Villalpando, who, while rapping and dancing hip
hop, filled the deserted street with his voice, passion and aspiration for a glorious
existence for everyone. At the museum I ran into an old colleague, Senaida Hall, who
was only too happy to show me a 19th-century exhibit of elegant vintage women’s
clothing, when style and pizzazz were everything! From the Convento I was able
to observe the restoration of the old Río Grande Café that, like so many other
buildings in the city, had remained empty for a long time but is now experiencing
the promise of a new life.
A stop at the nearby Northern New Mexico College brought me into contact with
a wonderful student and professor, who turned out to be, like myself, descendants
of the Vigil clan from the cliffside village of Cundiyó, deep in the Sangre de Cristo
Mountains. When the three of us found ourselves quite naturally speaking in
Spanish, we stopped and asked ourselves, “What keeps us ordinarily from speaking
our native language?” That engendered a lengthy discussion, which we vowed to
continue each week. A generation or two ago, conversation and dialogue were a
part of everyday life in this valley, but now, finding ourselves encapsulated in our
fast-moving cars and tethered to our jobs when not to our computers, cell phones
and flat-screen televisions, we infrequently pursue this social art, which keeps us
connected, thinking and above all, sane.
21
Reclaiming Española continued from page 21
So shocking are the present changes
in the landscape and way of life of the
people that one must out of necessity
ask, “What in the world could have
happened in this valley to have created
Alejandro López with Tewa Translation
by Vickie Downey (Tesuque Pueblo)
such distortive and surreal juxtapositions
that cannot but remind you of the end
of the world?” I believe that the answer
lies not so much in this land and its
people as in the national psyche and
capitalist economy, whose tendencies are
to level cultures and peoples it does not
understand, sympathize with or whom it
merely wishes to exploit. In this regard,
the Española Valley and most of northern
New Mexico is not much different from
the Navajo or Sioux reservations that have
undergone similar kinds of prolonged and
profoundly painful disruptive processes.
Quite often the poor resident of Española
feels himself to be but a cog in a coercive,
highly bureaucratic, mega-complicated,
expensive, impersonal, stressful and highpaced apparatus that generates material
glut when successful and when not,
just emptiness. It is no wonder that the
breakdown in the Española Valley is rife
and on so many levels, for it is systemic.
This place of brokenness begs yet
another question, one which of necessity
must be answered within the proximity
of our own hearts and hearths: “What
can we do as a community to plot the
course of our future along healthier
lines and not have to wait for solutions
to drop down from the sky?” I believe
that walking as much as we can through
our communities, taking stock of
the state of affairs, enjoining others
in conversation and dialogue, and
pinpointing jobs that need to be done
for the enhancement of la comunidad en
general is a good place to start. But, the
real satisfaction of authoring a different
story for our children and their children
will occur only when we join hands
and do that which we have pledged
ourselves to do. i
Alejandro López, a native of the Española
Valley, is a writer and photographer as well
as leader of service
learning projects
such as murals and
other forms of public
art.
22
Living the Dream of Cooperation
and Friendship (In Tewa, Spanish and English)
Wi thaaa, thayan day t´ oe maa ihaydi, navi pon don ku? i taa idi hedi oe yoekan
heda oe aa kudi. Oe aa k´oe in ayyaa oe Kapo win heda in ayaa oe Santa Cruz win
da nä’ i sawodi nan di da thaa hedi k’ema in di muu hedi dän pava wiyeh heda kuu a
oe k’o togi, i panteh wingindi dan kú i. Dän man ya’a, pin da heda änshaa, i nan da
i p’oe adi day tay paa’ i i nap´orkhuu I nap’oekhuu oe sogeh di, wina tayaa i khage’
nan di, i napoekhuu na pee i. way sebo.Hediho, wen kha haa shadeh wa, na bowa
di. Hedi oe phategi, heda na k’oeyeh ihaydi na uu p’pe ihaydi, i khuu e heda i pava
a di oe k’o toni. Hedi in shanki-i puwi, k’ema inadi.
Un día tras muchas horas de
trabajo, me eché en el pasto, me
dormí y soné. Soñé que los niños
del Pueblo de Santa Clara y de
Santa Cruz que comparten esta
hermosa tierra pudieran también
compartir una gran amistad
mediante el compartimiento de
una comida basada en pan y maíz
asados en el fuego de un horno
común construido por ambos. Al
unir nuestras manos mentes y corazones, hasta la tierra y el agua se convertirían en
ladrillos. Con cada uno de los adobes que se colocara con un sentido de interdependencia
y cooperación, el horno llegaría a nuevas alturas. Y como un poema o baile, a poco rato, se
terminaría. Luego, dentro del horno, se prendería un fuego. Apagándose las brasas, el
maíz y el pan se pondrían a asar hasta convertirse en el manjar de una fiesta entre amigos.
One day after hours of work, I lay
down on the grass, fell asleep and
dreamt. I dreamt that the children
of Khapo and Santa Cruz who
share this beautiful land could
also share a great friendship based
on a shared meal of bread and
corn baked in the fires of an horno
built by both. By joining hands,
hearts and minds even the earth
and water could become building blocks. With every adobe set into place in a spirit
of interdependence and cooperation, the walls of the hearth would quickly go up.
And soon, like a poem or a dance, it would be finished. A fire would be lit and after
the embers cooled, the gifts of corn and bread would bake in the common hearth
to slowly turn into the mainstay for a feast among friends.
Reclaiming Española Photo Captions
Page 20 (l-r): Victor Villalpando rapping on Mainstreet; corn and chile ristras; descanso;
builder Lorenzo Galván; wood carver Manuel López of Chilí; Española Valley Jr. High
School; traffic on Riverside Drive; youth learning to plow at Camino de Paz Montessori
School; Isaiah Valdez weaving at the Española Fiber Arts Center; old Arrow Motel sign;
newspaper seller Patsy Garcia; Santa Cruz Catholic church
Page 21 (l-r): Española Farmer’s Market; Riverside Drive at night; view of the Santa
Cruz Valley; carved wooden doors, Española Fiber Arts Center; Elder gentleman from
El Duende; Diego López, filmmaker; service station; La Tierra Montessori School
(Alcalde); descanso; trailer park; Aura from Colombia, S.A. and Martina Ellington from
the Española valley, Lucía Sánchez at her place of work on Riverside Drive
Page 22: Descanso close to the plaza near Santa Cruz church
Up the road in El Guique, I
stopped to pay my respects at
a descanso along the road, one
of hundreds erected across the
valley where people have met their
untimely deaths, mainly through
auto accidents. Most have been
precipitated by alcohol, a substance
imported into the area by the
truckload that we have come to
accept as a necessary evil. Further north
still, I took a secondary road that led me
to the San José Church in Hernández,
memorialized as it was by Ansel Adams’
most famous photograph, Moonrise
Over Hernández in 1941, just before Los
Alamos was established and its effects
in the region felt. Were he alive still,
Adams would be incredulous over the
piles of modern debris that have covered
up the once breathtaking site and made
it totally unremarkable, were it not for
the architectural power and simplicity of
the now mostly forgotten church.
23
Love in the Valley of Infinity
“We are now living for the promise of infinity”—Luís Peña
Clarissa A. Durán
W
e are coming into a time of love and balance. We are being reborn spiritually
via the Energy of the Divine Feminine. No, this isn’t a woo-woo piece on
spirituality. This is a story of the heart of Española. We are a people of complex
cosmology made of our European ancestors who came to México, created life with our
Aztec grandmothers, whose progeny came to El Norte and created life with our Tewa
ancestors. We are Yo Soy Joaquín[’s] everything and nothing. We are La Raza Cósmica.
The greatest part of our cosmology is only now being born within us, through our work,
into our community. The Española Valley and surrounding areas are experiencing a
great coming together of organizations and individuals working to create community
life balance through their actions filled with love and compassion. We are returning
to the ways of our ancestors using new technology.
Below are a few important examples of the reaffirmation of northern New Mexico
culture taking place in Española. We gain resiliency to the mainstream modern economy
by revitalizing our part in the Earth’s ecology. This includes the Earth’s economy. We
are not consumers. We are creators, lovers and children of Cosmic Life. We don’t have a
dependency on the world’s cash economy. We have a problem with that economy that
began nearly 80 years ago with the influx of New Deal cash that Gov. Clyde Tingley
brought to New Mexico in 1935. Prior to that influx, northern New Mexico’s economy
was based on subsistence living and barter. Nearly everyone in our communities was
land-rich and cash-poor. Moving away from that traditional economy and into the
cash economy has created cultural conflict as depicted in the sidebar. i
Clarissa Durán was raised and has raised two children in the agrarian San Pedro neighborhood
of Española. She holds a degree in social work and is a community organizer and community
systems engineer. She directs the nonprofit organization ¡El Tiempo! Nuevo México.
WWWWW
Siete del Norte is creating a food hub for northern New Mexico through
a $750,000 federal grant. Río Arriba County has partnered with Siete del Norte
in seeking another $300,000 from the New Mexico Legislature. With over $1
million, Siete del Norte plans to revamp the old Hunter Ford buildings and create
a commercial kitchen, outdoor farmers’ market, provide space for the Española
Community Market (co-op), and Moving Arts Española. The food hub will
aggregate local products and develop relationships with markets in order to sell
the aggregated products. The next action directly related to the food hub creation
is the Río Arriba County Annual Growers and Sellers Conference. It will take
place on March 15 at the San Pedro Community Center in Española.
Tewa Women United’s Yiya Vi Kagingdi (YVK), Community Doula
Program: Engaging a doula or midwife and receiving the support of this program is
an essential piece of regaining the status of giving birth/life back to the community.
Full support of the pre-natal and post-natal mother, child and family is re-honored
through this movement. 505.747.3259, www.tewawomenunited.org
Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)
Programs at Northern New Mexico College give our community the opportunity
to rediscover the prehistoric magic of engineering, biology, conceptual and
theoretical math. Technology such as coding is a reminder of ancient codices. We
create communication pathways for the seen and unseen worlds through code.
STEM continues to explore the unseen and unknown often using “conventional”
methods. A degree in STEM opens opportunities to not only work for a
government agency, but to open a local business and hire local people in this mix
of ancient art and modern science. 505.747.2100, www.nnmc.edu
Española’s MainStreet Theater is open and across the street from
the old Hunter Ford building. Classes are in process, plays and staged readings are
being planned, and events are being held. Co-owners Rosalia Triana and Wendy
Hassamer have created a space for our gifted youth and adults to strengthen our
tradition of storytelling, through theater. They’ve also created a gathering space
for our community. Last month, 1 Billion Rising for Justice Española held its day
of events at the theater. 505.753.0877, mstheatre@windstream.net
¡El Tiempo! Nuevo México’s Chile Fest—held in conjunction with
the Española Farmers’ Market, offers an opportunity to purchase local northern
New Mexico chile that has been grown in the valley for hundreds of years. The
event, which is held on Labor Day, includes free chile roasting and the new
crop’s cook-off, followed by a community meal and music. 505.231.1433, www.
eltiemponm.org
Statistics Evidencing Española Valley’s
Problem with a Cash Economy
(US Census Data 2008-2012)
EspañolaNew Mexico
Persons below poverty level
26.3%
19.5%
Bachelor’s degree or higher, age 25+
16.9%
25.6%
High school graduate or higher, age 25+
74.9%
83.40%
Per capita money income in past 12 months $19,059
$23,749 (2012 dollars)
Earned Income Tax Information for Río Arriba County
Brookings Institute, 2007:
(www.brookings.edu/research/interactives/2014/county-eitc-map)
Average EITC amount: $1,902
Rank: 1,417
Share of taxpayers with EITC:
22.2%
Rank: 667
Health Statistics from New Mexico’s Indicator Based Information System
(https://ibis.health/nm.us/):
Teen Birthrate (Girls 15-17)—7th highest in NM—per 1,000 girls
Río Arriba County: 39.4%
New Mexico: 29.5%
US: 17.3%
Alcohol-Related Deaths per 100,000 population:
(Rates are age-adjusted to the 2000 US standard population.)
Río Arriba: 116 (Highest in NM)
NM: 52.3
US: Data not available
measure description for alcohol: alcohol-related death:
Definition: Alcohol-related death is defined as the total number of deaths attributed to alcohol per
100,000 population. The alcohol-related death rates reported here are based on definitions and alcoholattributable fractions from the CDC’s Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) website (http://apps.
nccd.cdc.gov/ardi/Homepage.aspx).
Numerator: Number of alcohol-related deaths in New Mexico
Denominator: New Mexico Population
Data Sources: New Mexico Death Data: Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS),
New Mexico Department of Health. Population Data Source: Geospatial and Population Studies
Program, University of New Mexico. http://bber.unm.edu/bber_research_demPop.html. U.S. Data
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. http://
www.cdc.gov/nchs/
24
The Española Hunter Arts & Agricultural Center
and Community Mural Project
Roger Montoya, Alejandro López and Renée Villarreal
I
n 2013, the New Mexico Community
Fo u n d a t i o n’s C o l l a b o r a t i v e
Leadership Program, in association
with international community activist
Lily Yeh, launched an arts and culture
initiative fueled by highly participatory
community building and intercultural
collaborations. Ms. Yeh worked with
community and NMCF partner
organizations from various parts of the
state during a series of workshops. Her
approach is one of careful, deliberate and
joyous application of paint, tile, wood
and stone, often through the hands
of children, in spaces that were once
uncared for and unloved. She awakens
the power of youth to reimagine and
reshape their immediate environment to
dramatically enhance the health, beauty
and productivity of their communities,
homeland, and ultimately, themselves.
Inspired by Yeh, the NMCF grantees
and community partners decided to
form a Cultura Cura/Culture Cures
Collaborative to carry out an ambitious
project. After much dialogue and
planning, they chose to go to work
in the heart of the Española Valley,
an area characterized by a mix of
ancient Native, Indo-Hispano and
other cultures. The Valley was known
historically as The Breadbasket of El
Norte. Due to an intersection of complex
economic, political, social and cultural
forces, the area currently finds itself
in a deep economic and social crisis
characterized by disproportionate levels
of poverty, unemployment, addiction,
substandard housing, poor health,
generally low educational attainment
and environmental degradation. Yet, in
addition to its spectacular natural beauty,
the valley possesses immense cultural
and historical continuity. Its cultures are
known for their industriousness, strong
sense of family and spiritual values.
A community arts
& cultural center
plus a “food hub”
Cultura Cura’s community servicelearning project has taken root at the
emerging Hunter Arts and Agricultural
Center on Española’s Mainstreet. The
complex, a former Ford auto center, is
owned by the city, but Siete del Norte,
a northern New Mexico communitydevelopment nonprofit, will soon manage
it as it is transformed into a community
arts and cultural center with classroom,
workshop and studio spaces for music,
dance, theater and fine arts. It will also
provide venues for public exhibitions,
performances and gatherings. In a
separate, adjoining space, plans are being
developed for a food hub, equipped
to receive, process, and make marketready locally grown produce. This
may include a community kitchen,
bakery and café, where people will
partake in the foodstuffs that the
facility produces.
Members of the Cultura Cura/Culture Cures Collaborative
The mural will highlight the traditional
aspects of the Valley as the center of a rich
agricultural region, and the responsible
stewardship of the Earth (Nan in Tewa,
Tierra in Spanish). The collaborative
hopes that this project will benefit
young people from local communities
through related hands-on projects in
which youth concurrently grow the food
crops inscribed on the building’s walls
(corn, squash, beans, chile and melons,
etc.) at their schools, homes and other
locations. The collaborative is motivated
by its understanding that inspiring young
people to tend plants and process their
yields would not only add to the local
pool of biodiversity and food and seed
supplies available to the community; it
would also facilitate physical exercise and
engender a richness of mental, emotional
and sensory stimuli. As a component
of bolstering academic achievement,
the project’s service-learning elements
involving youth and children will include
journeys into the natural environment
to collect materials for the mural. The
group also hopes to inspire essays, poems,
posters, videos, songs and plays.
There has already been a groundswell of
interest in the mural project among many
local artists, and educational groups
such as Ohkay Owingeh Community
School and Khapo Kidz of Santa Clara
Pueblo. The project’s design, although
primarily focused at the Hunter Arts and
Agricultural Center, makes provisions
for creation of low-cost, modest-scale
satellite projects at approximately eight
local Española Valley school sites and
other locations. i
For more information on the Hunter Arts and
Agricultural Center and Community Mural
Project, contact Todd López: 505.579.4217,
Todd.Lopez@nmfirm.com
Roger Montoya is a community arts-andeducation activist and co-founder/director
of La Tierra Montessori Charter School.
Alejandro López was a student of Lily Yeh’s
for several years, a worker in her inner-city
projects and an organizer of her New Mexico
workshop. Renée Villarreal is NMCF’s
Director of Community Outreach.
Río Arriba County Food & Agri Council
Conference • March 15
The imagination, energy and sheer
determination to get the project
moving has been led by La Tierra
Montessori School of Alcalde
and Moving Arts Española. Once
dialogue between various potential
stakeholders began to take place, it
did not take long for NMCF, the
city of Española, Siete del Norte, and
the Northern Río Grande National
Heritage Area to add their support.
The 3rd annual conference on Increasing New Mexico’s Small Farm Production
and Food Hub Aggregation for Local Markets will take place on March 15 at the
newly remodeled San Pedro Community Center in Española. Registration, along
with coffee, atole and traditional pastellitos, starts at 7:30 am. The keynote by Aaron
Parry, founder/CEO of Source Local Foods of Boulder, Colo., will be at 8:45 am.
His talk is entitled, “Successful Transitions to Wholesale Markets.” Parry says that
current supplies are meeting only 3 percent of the demand for locally grown foods.
The Cultura Cura Collaborative’s
role is to facilitate creation of a largescale mixed-media mural along the
lengthy west-facing exterior wall
of the compound’s main building.
The conference is sponsored by Río Arriba County, the NM Acequia Association,
Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, NMSU Extension Service, Siete del Norte
Economic Development Corp, and the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute. There is
no charge for attendance. Lunch will be provided. For a map to the conference site
and more information, email foodcouncil@lifeboatfoods.com or call 541.337.8595.
A panel of commercial and institutional buyers of locally grown, fresh produce
will follow the keynote. There will also be a buyers’ panel for ranch, dairy and other
livestock products, and a panel that will discuss the current development of the
Española Food Hub project. In addition, the conference will feature a farm and
crop planning session for fruit and vegetable farmers, as well as a tour and workshop
featuring a high-production winter greenhouse operation in Sombrillo, NM.
25
26
Sustaining Our Local Economies
Christopher Madrid
e all want our local economies to
thrive. We want a place where
our youth can choose to live where they
were raised because they can secure an
acceptable standard of living worthy
of their talents. We want fulfilling job
opportunities for our citizens… we
want the American dream to continue
in our rural communities.
Unfortunately, the recent economic
trends remain unacceptable, which
begs the question, “ What do we
do about it?” In large part, we tend
to place the responsibility for the
economy on government and other
non-government organizations, but in
fact we have had remarkable consensus
for some time now that entrepreneurs
and small businesses actually drive our
economy—not government. Hence,
this allows us to further narrow
the question to, “How do we best
support our existing businesses and
promote entrepreneurship in our rural
communities?”
A systems approach
coupled with strategic
networking
A Google search of related topics
will offer tens of millions of hits
indicating that we actually have the
answers we need and, therefore, we
need only to get on to implementation.
Simply, choose the methodology that
seems to make sense and get started!
Unfortunately, many of the proposed
solutions tend to resemble fad diets
that sound good, offer great hope,
offer inspiring anecdotes, make the
promoters money, but in the end rarely
live up to expectations.
In truth, we do have a lot of clear
empirical evidence on how to best
support entrepreneurs. In fact, a
Kellogg survey taken of successful
businesses reveals that consultants get
surprisingly low marks by the very
recipients of their services.
So enough about what remains
uncertain. What do we know, and
what can we do now? The same
Kellogg survey indicates that successful
businesses valued “access to capital”
the most but also placed significant
weight on peer-to-peer networking.
Other empirical studies reveal that an
entrepreneur’s propensity to network
correlates as one of the highest
indicators of success. Finally, one can
make the case that effective networking
also leads to greater access to capital.
We all understand and participate
in networking in a variety of ways.
Typically, each individual or business
employs a variety of networking
techniques, often through various
entities such as chambers of commerce
and civic organizations that provide
critical venues.
In addition to networking, the
research also indicates successful rural
economies require a “systems” approach
to properly align the “plethora of
training, technical assistance, and
financing programs to meet the variety
of needs of entrepreneurs….” (See
Energizing Entrepreneurs, Buttress and
Macke).
Hence, a systems approach coupled
with strategic networking provides us
with a starting point to more effectively
support local entrepreneurs and thereby
improve our local economy—in short,
an effort to improve distribution in a
manner that helps the entrepreneur
more efficaciously get to the right
resource at the right time.
Importantly, the program respects
that they are the entrepreneurs, and as
such they are ultimately responsible for
their own destiny. Hence, the program’s
facilitator or volunteer representatives
do not ever tell them “what to do” or
“how to do it.” The program simply
employs best practices to leverage the
combined social capital of its volunteers
(our networks) to connect them to the
optimal resource(s) at the right time.
There are many resources available to
our local businesses and entrepreneurs,
but if they don’t know about them
then they essentially do not exist. The
Network Facilitation Program acts as
the hub that can direct the entrepreneur
to such resources, including access
to capital. Thus, the program also
promotes an overall systems approach,
with the facilitator acting in the
capacity of an “honest resource broker,”
also offering strategic, peer-to-peer
networking services, highly valued
by the most successful businesses
surveyed.
So if you are in business and could
use additional support or thinking
about starting a business, you can
call the Española Valley Chamber of
Commerce and receive the service
offered by this program f ree of
charge. Also, be looking for a monthly
networking event to take place on
the first Thursday of each month in
Española. The communities of Taos,
Mora, Las Vegas and Alamosa, Colo.
also have sister programs established in
service to their local entrepreneurs. i
© Anna C. Hansen
W
Christopher Madrid is the director of Río
Arriba County Economic Development.
575.753.2992, clmadrid@rio-arriba.org
Here is the good news: this is not
a theoretical program in search of
funding and eventual proof of concept.
We have in fact been developing
this program and accumulating best
practices in northern New Mexico for
going on 10 years. For now we call it
Network Facilitation, and the Greater
Española Chamber of Commerce has
seen fit to implement this program
in support of local businesses with
funding from LANL (through the
Regional Development Corporation)
and the Greater Española Valley CDC.
In short, it begins with the outreach
component, where volunteers are
trained to seize opportunities to
engage local small business owners or
prospective entrepreneurs and assess
their needs. It’s actually a bit more
involved, but ultimately we are simply
asking them, “What do you need?”
27
The pastoral narrative also shows an
almost complete lack of critical thinking
among Chicano/Mexicano leaders about
how we dig ourselves out of the pit in
which we find ourselves.
Given the complex problems we face,
where do we go from here?
Before I share with you what we are
doing, let me place what the Cooperative
Development Center (CODECE) and
the Center of Southwest Culture are
doing in a larger global context.
If what we are doing really is going to be
sustainable over the long term, we believe
it is important to consider two global
economic themes currently emerging.
We consider these themes as important
touchstones for all of our work.
The first major global theme is what
author James Howard Kunstler calls “The
Long Emergency.” Basically, he argues
that world oil production is peaking and
that the remaining oil left to be exploited
is geometrically more difficult to find
and extract. He argues that this long
emergency into an oil-depleted economy
will change forever everything about how
we live. This post-modernity period, he
believes, may occur as soon as 75 or 100
years from now.
What that means is that we will have to find
and fill our basic needs much closer to home;
and we will have to work hard together to
meet our basic needs on a local and regional,
not national or international basis.
The second major global theme we
are tracking is emerging economies in
Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC),
who as a group are showing consistent
growth at a time when most nations
have encountered recessions and deep
uncertainty about future growth.
Despite being in the wealthiest nation
in the world, New Mexico can be
characterized as a place that looks, acts
and thinks like those economies that are
poised to dominate within the global
economy by the end of the 21st-century.
It is in a unique position to leverage its
current status in the world economy with
its deep historical, cultural and political
similarity to those nations that have
grown significantly in the past decade.
What that means is we have a chance to
create sustainable 21st-century incomes
for ourselves if we model our economic
development efforts to mimic what is
occurring in the BRIC economies. 5
28
So, with those two larger global frames in
mind, we began developing CODECE
about five years ago and went into the
field in early 2011. CODECE creates
and supports sustainable lifestyles for
Nuevo Mexicanos through three major
economic lenses—organic agricultural
co-ops, heritage and cultural tourism coops, and value-added housing initiatives.
The cooperative model we use for all
of our economic development work in
Indio-Hispano communities assumes
that integrating organic agriculture,
cultural tourism and value-added housing
into a comprehensive regional plan is a
strong approach in trying to keep rural
Nuevo Mexicanos in place but earning a
21st-century income.
Investing in our
children’s education
and paying for a
family health plan are
better steps on the
path to justice.
CODECE’s economic development
model is based on several factors:
• Using existing land and water resources
but applying them in new ways
• Avoiding the need for major capital
investment for success
• Tying economic development efforts
to those of the emerging global
economies of the 21st century (Brazil,
Russia, India and China)
•R
elying on collective groups of people
instead of an individual entrepreneur
to create sustainable businesses
First, let’s talk about our organic
agriculture cooperative model and what
we’ve achieved to date.
Most of the arable land still owned by
traditional northern New Mexico IndioHispano communities—nearly 46,000
acres in Río Arriba County alone—is
either lying uncultivated or planted with
hay or alfalfa. Most Indio-Hispanos own
small arable plots—between five acres and
perhaps as many as 20 acres per farmer,
tops.
An acre of alfalfa produces about 50 bales;
in northern New Mexico you can get
from 3-5 cuts of hay or alfalfa per season.
Alfalfa is selling for about $15 per bale. So,
if you plant hay or alfalfa, you can expect
to generate between $2,200 and $3,800
per acre. Out of this gross amount, you
have to pay the baler, who charges about
$2 or $3 per bale. So, for a 3-acre alfalfa
© Seth Roffman
cultivating a future
Moving People Española youth group performance
crop, a farmer can expect to generate a
gross income of about $6,600 per season.
In contrast, an acre of organic fruit or
vegetables in northern New Mexico is
currently generating between $20,000 and
$45,000 per acre.So,for a three-acre organic
crop, a farmer can expect to gross between
$60,000 and $135,000 per season.
You can see from this comparison that smallscale organic farming can provide a farmer
with a fully livable 21st-century income.
Small-scale alfalfa or hay growing cannot.
To date, we have already incorporated four
fully functional organic farmers’co-ops. We
expect to collectively generate $40,000$75,000 in income from co-op farming
efforts this year. Our co-ops have almost no
investment debt because federally funded
programs underwrite most of the start-up
costs per acre. Our goal is to create between
25 and 35 organic farming co-ops in
northern New Mexico communities within
the next five to seven years.
In our ecotourism program, we have
incorporated two co-ops to date and
are forming two others. Here again,
these co-ops need very little capital
investment to successfully become fully
operational. Why? Because they are using
millions of acres of public lands to roll
out their camping, snowshoeing, hiking,
horseback-riding, fishing, guiding and
other lucrative outdoor activities.
Again, we have merely changed the
perception of Indo-Hispano villagers
from seeing these public lands as obstacles
to economic development, especially
private sector development, and providing
them a model that utilizes these public
lands as a source of sustainable income
for co-op members.
Our third economic development
program is value-added housing. Too
many of our people live in mobile homes
and other substandard housing. We
expect to build multi-family housing units
that mimic the ancient plaza model—
families living in clustered housing
around a central small plaza. This model,
we believe, will use the built environment
to create the social behaviors we want
our villagers to express—cooperation,
collaboration, mutual aid.
Even though we have been in the field
for only a short period, several trends have
emerged that make us believe we are on
a good path.
First, the concept of building businesses
through co-ops instead of individual
owners has resonated at a deep level
among community members.
Second, we have been incredibly humbled
to find out that there is such a deep
talent pool in the Indo-Hispano villages
in which we are working. Our coop members have, in every instance,
improved upon our ideas, implemented
efficiencies of scale, and sought and found
their own resources at an incredible level.
They are thoughtful, hopeful, disciplined
and hard working.
Our small successes have not come
without much difficulty. So far, we have
lost co-op members to murder, suicide,
alcohol addiction, mental health issues
and other dysfunctions. Still, the model
is proving to be resilient and adaptive.
Besides creating these economic
opportunities through our co-ops, our
center is also committed to providing
informal educational opportunities to
traditional land-based communities
here in the north. Through our la Carpa
model, we expect to help people learn
the things they need to learn to improve
their lives immediately—whether it is
OP-ED:
Rethinking Northern New Mexico College
W
ere it not for the fact that
Northern New Mexico College
in Española has been the recipient of
enormous sums of money from the
state over its nearly 45 years of existence,
and that few other institutions in the
Valley can serve as a potent catalyst for
positive community development in an
otherwise impoverished region, its poor
performance record could be overlooked.
In just the last two years, Northern’s
enrollment has plummeted, as students
are voting with their feet by taking their
tuition dollars to other institutions.
Student migration has been prompted,
in part, by a recent dramatic hike in
tuition from $36 per credit hour to
$114.50, with additional mandatory fees
of $500-$600 slapped on top of this. The
college could be justified in assessing
such onerous increases if it were indeed
offering an improved product. Instead
there has been a wholesale elimination
of programs and personnel and little or
no improvement in course offerings or
services that directly benefit students.
Not surprisingly, NNMC was recently
singled out as the state’s higher learning
institution receiving the largest number
of complaints.
It appears that the heart of the problem
today is the lack of community concern
amongst its current leaders. There is no
evidence of an ethic of service-minded
leadership, nor is there a palpable love
and excitement for learning and the
furthering of human potential among
them. It also appears that there is
resistance by the college leadership
to engage the community at large in
genuine ways to create a vision and
implement a plan for the college that
meets the needs and aspirations of the
area’s people.
After 45 years in operation, the
college is known more for its fiscal
difficulties than for the strength of
its academic programs. Its buildings
and grounds exude an air of sterility
and vacuity. Northern’s president and
Board of Regents have taken the
approach of eliminating longstanding
programs, staff and faculty as quickly
and ruthlessly as possible, while at the
same time promising miracle cures that
would come by building dormitories
and by merely naming themselves
“university” rather than “college.”
NNMC is embedded in a distinctive
geographic landscape. The population
it serves is one of multiple cultural
identities, each of which has distinct
and specific needs. The college would
do well to reflect on each of the realities
that comprise our world and tailor its
approach to provide meaningful and
creative learning approaches in order
to reach all of its students.
NNMC could become
the community beacon
it was meant to be.
There are many in this community
who believe in Northern as a precious
resource that deserves to be salvaged.
It is unfortunate that members of
the current administration have
proved themselves either unwilling
or incapable of guiding the college
and making it a productive resource
for our state. There are numerous
talented and deserving individuals in
this area, young and older, who look
to the college to provide them with
the education and skills they need to
be more productive and better serve
their community. There are an equal
number of committed citizens who
would love to serve their community
by participating in the mission of
making the college a welcoming and
enlightened space for students, citizens
and employees alike.
Despite all of the above, the community
is not completely without hope. Recently,
the governor appointed and the Senate
unanimously approved two new members
to Northern’s Board of Regents. The air
is now one of anxious anticipation that
a changing of the guard in the board
composition will inspire a change of
focus from status quo to that of open and
compassionate management.
Now is the time for Northern to
fling wide open its doors to listen to
community voices and make use of its
collective knowledge in deciding how
to provide excellent-quality training
and leadership in the study of and
creative interaction with ecosystems,
land grants, traditional communities
in transition, forests, alternative energy,
green building, permaculture, agriculture,
food production and preparation. A
strong sustainable agricultural initiative
could greatly assist in protecting the
area’s population as we face the reality
of resource scarcity. With the help of a
committed and compassionate college,
this area could explore alternatives to
“job creation” that have consumerism
as the foundation and, instead, look at
developing and sustaining the resources
that are here. That means honoring
traditional ways of knowledge and
improving education in new sustainable
practices.
One such initiative could be the
development of a progressive and
dynamic business school with a mission
to inspire students to take on the
challenge of understanding the city
and region’s elusive business climate
and help them participate in the
rebuilding of the economy. By engaging
students in conducting incisive studies,
interviews and dialogue, businessincubation models and decisive
community service-learning projects,
the college could inject vitality back
into the community. Considering the
age in which we live, the college must
also choose to facilitate students’ entry
into the global arena by weaving the
strands of global cultures, languages,
diplomacy, international politics and
social work into its curriculum.
Given that Northern was originally
founded more than 100 years ago
with the mission of training teachers
to serve the region’s Spanish-speaking
population, we must not overlook
the possibility of founding a Spanish
language center of national importance,
along with working museums that
reflect the many important aspects of
northern New Mexico cultures. In this
same vein, a vital and dynamic fine arts
center that recognizes and promotes
the traditional arts of northern New
Mexico must be created for the benefit
of the local communities. Instead of
shuttering programs such as Spanish
Colonial Furniture Making and Río
Grande Weaving, the college needs to
make space on its current campus for
© Anna C. Hansen
Susan Meredith
them, so they are more accessible to a
greater number of people.
We must identify and define what the
new technical trades and vocations
might be for this area and in this age
and offer them with inspired and
competent personnel. Such an initiative
could go far in reviving the school’s
community mission of providing viable
trades to members of the northern New
Mexico community.
But whatever it does, it is incumbent
upon the leaders of the college to
forge a collective will to care for, even
love, serve and benefit the people and
land of northern New Mexico. We
must insist that they create a deeply
meaningful and vital learning process
in which the area’s greatest challenges
are addressed and its greatest strengths
and resources employed. Such a process
might yet succeed in establishing a
learning-centered climate that benefits
the community instead of one in which
individual egos and the bureaucratic
machinery drive the majority of
its functions eclipsing the best of
what students, teachers, community
have to offer. Poor, battered, glorious
NNMC deserves respect, care, love
and attention from us and from the
community leaders amongst us if it is
to survive the current challenges and
re-make itself into the community
beacon it was meant to be. To fail to
do so is unconscionable. i
Susan Meredith is a longtime resident of
New Mexico and the former chief of staff at
Northern New Mexico College. She is a writer,
an editor and a fiber artist. She resides on her
two-and-a-half acre farm in Española.
29
Supporting Local Business in Southern New Mexico 221 N. Main Street, Las Cruces. 575-‐323-‐1575 Advertise in
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Call Skip: 505.471.5177
or Anna: 505.982.0155
30
History
By the end of the 18th century, Santa Cruz de la Cañada, as the seat of government
for the Alcaldía de Santa Cruz de la Cañada, was the most populous area in all of La
Provincia de Nuebo Méjico with a total recorded population of 8,859 according to
the 1790 census, which did not include most of the pueblos and isolated villages of
the Alcaldía. Santa Cruz de la Cañada at this time became the breadbasket of the
northern provincia with many fields under cultivation and large orchards along both
the Río Grande and the Río Santa Cruz. Between 1705 and 1770, groups of settlers
from Santa Cruz de la Cañada migrated in all directions, as the population along
the Río Santa Cruz increased and fertile land was less available. They went upriver
to Cuartélez, Chimayó, Pueblo Quemado, Truchas and Las Trampas, west up the Río
Tsama and north to Ojo Caliente, Embudo and Taos.
The church at Santa Cruz de la Cañada was built during this period starting in 1733,
with one steeple that remained until the arrival of Jean Bautiste Lamy, who replaced
Bishop Zurbiría of Durango, Méjico, in 1854. Lamy added another steeple to the
church on the left side, which has fallen three times. (This church is currently on the
state and national registers of historic places and is a wonderful example of a Spanish
colonial church.) A visitation was made in 1760 by Bishop Tamarón of Durango,
Méjico. He remarked that the church was rather large but had little adornment. This
encouraged the local santeros to begin carving reredos, bultos and retablos (altar screens,
statues, and paintings on wood). It was in this Villa de Santa Cruz de la Cañada that
the santero tradition emerged and prospered in northern Nuevo México.
The name “la Española” was chosen, referring
to a Spanish woman who started a
restaurant next to the railroad station.
The Revolt of 1837 broke out during the Mexican Period (1821-1846) when México
declared its independence from Spain. The residents of Santa Cruz de la Cañada heard
that the new governor, Albino Pérez, was appointed by Presidente-General Antonio
López de Santa Anna, who had a plan to organize Nuevo México into a department
instead of a territory, as it had been since 1821. It would be decentralized, and the
wealthy Governor Pérez would appoint prefects in different regions to govern and
report directly to him. He also proposed to set up a system for taxation in order to
strengthen the military, provide for roads and other necessary improvements. A plan
was developed by the leaders of the rebellion, centered in Santa Cruz de la Cañada
and Chimayó to counter Santa Anna’s plan, and it was signed in Santa Cruz de la
Cañada. The battle took place near the Pueblo de San Ildefonso (as it was referred to
at that time). The Cañaderos y Chimayoses and some Pueblo warriors defeated the
governor and his troops and chased them back to Santa Fé. Governor Pérez tried
to escape during the night and was intercepted by a group from Santo Domingo
Pueblo near the village of Agua Fría on the Camino Real.
A priest from Tomé encouraged the residents surrounding Albuquerque to launch a
plan, march to Santa Fé and remove the rebels. They were led by former governorgeneral of Nuevo México, Manuel Armijo. This army of 1,000 men marched north
on September 10, 1837, and arrived in Santa Fé without a fight. The leader of the
rebels, José “el genízaro” González, was in Taos visiting his family. Pablo Montoya led
an equally large force of men to Santa Fé but realized that Armijo and his troops
were better armed than his army, and a peace treaty was negotiated.
Upon the arrival of the Army of United States of North America, the people of
northern Nuevo México organized an army to fight Gen. Kearny and his forces, who
San Gabriel Historical Society
escaped to El Paso del Río del Norte after the Great Pueblo Revolt, had some of the
pioneer spirit and wasted no time in rebuilding the town at the same site where the
Tanos had lived. The Tanos left a small chapel and a few houses in poor condition.
However, a few years after the second group of 21 families from Méjico arrived in
1696, a flood would change the location to where it is today. Santa Cruz de la Cañada
was abandoned for several short periods of time in its early history due to raids by
the Yutas and Dineh (Utes and Navajos) and little support from the leadership in La
Villa de San Francisco de Asís de la Santa Fé.
Española in the 1940s
arrived in Las Vegas in July of 1846. The Nuevo Mexicanos were unable to organize
a fully equipped army to fight this large force. They waited a few months and on
Jan. 19, 1847, in Taos, they captured and assassinated newly appointed Gov. Charles
Bent and organized an army composed of men from the pueblos, Ranchos de Taos,
Santa Cruz de la Cañada, Chimayó and other villages. They met the enemy at Santa
Cruz de la Cañada (where the Sombrillo road meets the road to Chimayó).
For the next 30 years, Santa Cruz de la Cañada would remain the seat of government
for the newly organized county of Río Arriba, until it lost that status in 1880 to
Tierra Amarilla due to politics. Support from the territorial government waned and
left the Santa Cruzeños to organize and stabilize their economy through farming and
ranching. Santa Cruz de la Cañada has been bypassed by population growth in the
west by Española—first by the railroad, then by Española’s incorporation as a town.
Finally, Santa Cruz has been swallowed up by Española’s limits, and the future will
determine if it can continue as a parish or redevelop into an independent village.
The Denver and Río Grande Western Railroad
and the Establishment of a Railroad Station
In 1880, the Denver and Río Grande Western Railroad decided to build a line
south from their Conejos, Colorado Antonito Station to the northern Río Grande
Valley of New Mexico. They completed it and then negotiated with the Atchison
Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad to run their narrow gauge south to Tres Piedras,
then to Embudo and south along the Río Grande to the pueblos of Okeh’Owingue
and Kha’P’oo’Owingue. The most difficult negotiations for the railroad right-ofway commenced at those pueblos. The D&RGW representative’s decorum was
demanding, patronistic and unbending. However, the railroad representatives
changed their attitudes and convinced the pueblos that their lease was fair and
comparable with other leases they had negotiated.
In 1880 they broke ground at their Antonito station and started preparing the ground
for laying track. The route ran directly south to Pamilia, Volcano, No Agua (isolated
stops), and onward to Tres Piedras, Servilleta, Ojo Caliente, Barranca, Embudo, Alcalde
and into Okeh’Owingue and Kha’P’oo’Owingue, with the track on the west side of
31
History
Farmers and ranchers from the surrounding communities of Chamita, Hernández,
Corral de la Piedra, San Pedro, La Mesilla, Santa Cruz de la Cañada, the pueblos of
Kha’P’oo’Owingue and Okeh’Owingue, Alcalde, Los Luceros and Velarde began to bring
their produce, livestock and other trade items to the station and sell them. A Spanish
woman from the area started a restaurant next to the station. When a call was made
to name the station, many locals mentioned that they referred to the restaurant as that
of “la Española” and the name was chosen. The railroad line running from Antonito
to Española would be known as the “chili line.” With the advent of the railroad and
the wool industry, the population of Española grew from 150 in 1881 to 1,500 by
1900 (on the right-of-way pueblo land).
In 1883, two brothers who
emigrated f rom Canada
arrived in Española with
the profit they made from
selling their wool-processing
plant in Pueblo, Colorado,
and opened another wool
business in Española. George
W. Bond and his brother
Frank set up the little known
Partido Partidario, a system
to provide land for their
Española’s first adobe post office, on Oñate Street
sheep to graze. Landowners in
northern New Mexico would use their common or land grant pasture to graze the
Bond brothers’ sheep and supposedly receive a percentage of the wool profits. This
resulted in overgrazing the valley and surrounding meadows and the brothers on
occasion not keeping their end of the bargain. When overgrazing was prohibited,
the brothers speculated on land grants like the Luís María Cabeza de Baca location
(Valles Caldera in the Jémez Mountains). They grazed thousands of sheep in this
large mountain valley with an abundance of pasture and made a fortune. They
headquartered in Española and expanded their business interests all over New Mexico.
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San Gabriel Historical Society (2)
the Río Grande. Initially, the train was accepted as progress. However, those that
were near the line complained of noise and squatters. Eventually it would become
a boon for the surrounding communities. Shortly after the tracks were laid at the
end of the line, the D&RGW built a railroad station. The right-of-way was about
a quarter of a mile wide, and people began to squat on both sides of the track. This
caused problems with the two pueblos that had leased the right-of-way. Eventually
agreements were made and squatters were thrown off the land. However, they would
be replaced by others seeking free land to build on.
A trestle bridge was swept downstream when the Río Grande flooded in 1922.
The Town of Española
By 1915, road transportation began to compete with the railroad and the boon began
to dissipate. A slow exodus of people from Española occurred for the following 10
years. In 1922, the Río Grande at Española flooded, taking everything in its path.
Bridges were destroyed and the bosque del río was left covered in silt. Three years
later, Española, for a second time, applied for incorporation and became a town. The
first high school in the valley was Santa Cruz Parochial in Santa Cruz de la Cañada
in 1908. Española High School followed 12 years later in 1920. The major wars
(WWI and WWII) attracted large numbers of men from the valley, and there were
many who did not return.
In the 1980s many of the historic buildings were torn down for an urban renewal
project. However, in 1995 a move was made by the mayor and council to redevelop
the downtown area, create a replica of a plaza, and bring the Mainstreet Program
to Española. In 1998, the 400th anniversary of the founding of San Gabriel (eight
miles north of Española) was celebrated as the first permanent European colony
in North America. Actually, the village of Chamita is what replaced San Gabriel as
a permanent colony. The Bond house, which was beginning to fall into ruin, was
restored in 2000. In September of 2008, Barrack Obama came
to Española, campaigning for the presidency of the United
States. The valley and its residents have endured a long varied
history. This general view with some detail is but a sprinkling
of the important events and personalities that were recorded in
documents, history books and oral history. i
Hilario Romero, a New Mexican Mestizo (Spanish/Basque/Jicarilla
Apache/Ute), is a former New Mexico state historian. He has spent the
past 40 years in higher education, as professor of History, Spanish and
Education, including at UNM and Northern New Mexico College.
Ask us about Zirconium Implants for people with metal allergies!
Please support our
work for a more
sustainable world.
Call Skip Whitson at
505.471.5177
or Anna Hansen at
505.982.0155
32
Academy of Sustainability Education Planned
for Santa Fe
Kim Shanahan
R
eal sustainability can only be achieved if the social fabric of a local
community is sustained. In one as fascinating, complex and beautiful
as Santa Fe, that is not easy. The proposed reconfiguration of the South
Campus of Santa Fe High around a concept to be called The Academy of
Sustainability Education will engage Santa Fe’s diverse youth with rigorous,
relevant, hands-on, project-based learning. It will weave sustainability into
the fabric of their lives.
Santa Feans who experienced Santa Fe High School more than 15 years
ago, either as parents, as students or both, have clear memories of education
on the South Campus. It was the site of a thriving and educationally diverse
Vo-Tech program. It was a place where kids could go to learn specific stuff
that often started them on their successful career paths.
It was also often the place where kids who couldn’t read well or had
“attitudes” could be around similar kids motivated by similar career goals
and ambitions.Today we recognize some of those children may have one of
20 forms of dyslexia, or maybe ADHD, functional autism, or even PTSD
from traumatic childhood experiences, especially poverty and hunger.
So, these days, we can label and name the things that challenge learning, but careerbased education has been largely abandoned by America’s public schools, including
(with a few notable exceptions) all secondary education in Santa Fe. And then we
actually wonder why we suffer a near 50 percent dropout rate? Do we not recognize
the obvious cause and effect?
The Academy of Sustainability Education will bring back relevant education delivered
in a radically different (but maybe not new) form called “project-based learning.”What
is new, however, will be the pathways of study. There will be five, but they can and will
overlap under the broad umbrella of sustainability:
• Green Building, Architecture and Planning
• Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Systems
• Natural Resource Management and Agriculture
• Automotive and Transportation
• Public Policy and Education
The South Campus represents millions of tax dollars invested and abandoned, but
that could be resurrected in a true lesson of hands-on learning to sustain existing local
resources. There are tens of thousands of square footage under roof and under-used.
There are over 20 acres of wasteland, asphalt and scoured arroyos that can be made to
bloom and feed with water harvested on the campus.
The most exciting thing about the new academy versus what the old Vo-Tech devolved
into being before it was finally abandoned—a dumping ground of abused and neglected
children— is that the academy will also most certainly appeal to our kids who believe
it’s their life mission to do everything in their power to save the world.
Even “greening-up”professions like homebuilding and automotive will give a kid a belief
that what they do and how they do it can have a positive effect on their community
and the planet. That is a powerful message and a real incentive to stay in school, learn
what interests them
and graduate on time.
And not just with a
diploma but maybe
even a degree or a
certificate or college
credits from Santa Fe
Community College.
There is no question that under the leadership of Acting President Randy Grissom,
SFCC will fully engage with the academy. Indeed, it is seen as the place that will feed
those students who will populate the college’s world-class technical career paths in
Green Building, Bio-Fuels, Solar Thermal and Photovoltaics. SFCC’s Advanced Trades
and Technology Center is an incredible investment in our community that should be
paid back by college-bound kids set on 21st-century career paths.
The academy is an ambitious plan on an even more ambitious schedule, if it hopes
to open doors in August 2014, serving 250 students. It will take years before South
Campus can be brought back to an even greener glory than years past. But because
of a determined group of community members devoting countless hours of focus and
attention, the school board has determined to make it happen.
At a Feb. 10th study session of the School Board, a group that has been meeting regularly
for the past six months to develop the concept and detailed plans for the academy made
a presentation. Over 20 people spoke out in strong support, including teachers, students,
business owners and concerned citizens.
Five key people were responsible for the presentation. They have worked to hammer
out the details with a much broader coalition of community members behind them,
none more important than the Santa Fe High School teachers who have dreamed for
years about a project-based learning environment centered on sustainability education.
The five core community members are Paul Gibson, a recently arrived Santa Fean
with 30 years of education consultancy behind him; Dana Richards, local educator and
project-based-learning expert; Seth Biderman, native Santa Fe teacher and education
thinker at the Academy for the Love of Learning; Dr. John Graham, 40-year professor
of psychiatry at the UNM School of Medicine; and myself. Santa Fe High teacher
Tammy Harkin oversaw the group’s work through the eyes of the teachers who will
make up the school’s initial teacher corps.
None of the academy’s ambitions would ever be realized without the full support and
approval of all five school board members, as well as Superintendent Dr. Joel Boyd,
along with his staff and administration. What will ultimately guarantee the success and
sustainability of the academy will be the support of the community.
And not just the “sustainability” community, but even those in our
community who have not yet figured out how sustainability translates
into their lives. Santa Fe needs this to succeed. i
Kim Shanahan is executive officer of the Santa Fe Area Home Builders
Association.
33
* Foreclosure defense
34
2014 New Mexico Legislative Wrap-Up
Laura E. Sánchez
T
he 2014 legislative session is
history, adjourning at noon on Feb.
20. Like many previous short sessions, it
was a race to the finish on certain bills,
while others languished in committees,
held hostage by committee chairs in
some cases but, more often, falling
victim to the ticking clock.
This year was a budget session, which
means legislators were obliged to
adopt a budget for the next fiscal year,
beginning July 1. Bills introduced also
had to be germane to the budget or the
state’s financial matters. Any not related
to the budget had to receive a message
from the governor as a priority before
legislators could act on it. To add to
the challenges, two Democrats in the
House were out sick the entire session,
jeopardizing the already slim margin of
37 to 33 and leading to a 35-33 split.
With such a razor-thin margin, it was
all hands on deck for both sides of the
aisle, and already close committees
were sometimes split evenly down
party lines. This resulted in different
dynamics among the parties and very
few bills passed along party lines alone.
Sometimes it meant strange bedfellows,
but then this is New Mexico politics.
Portal; HB124 (C. Trujillo) Home
Energy and Water Efficiency; HB136
( J. Trujillo) Electric Vehicle Tax Credit,
and HB233 (Dodge) / HB304 (Brown)
/ SB191 (Griego) Renewable Energy
Production Tax Credit. Most of these
bills made it out of two committees.
Only HB136, the Electric Vehicle Tax
Credit, made it all the way through the
House, but it was not calendared in the
Senate Finance Committee. We also
supported a variety of bills that increased
support for investment in the hightech industry in New Mexico. Among
these bills were SB59 (Keller) Tech
Commercialization Gross Receipts,
SB99 (Padilla) Investment in Tech
Research Collaborative, and SB114
(Griego) Angel Investment Tax Credit.
Unfortunately, none of these bills made
it out of their first committee.
Of all the NMGCC-supported bills,
only one, Senate President Pro Tem
Papen’s SB9 One-Stop Business Portal,
made it all the way through both
houses and is waiting to be signed
by the governor. This bill directs the
Department of Information Technology
(DoIT) to develop and maintain a web
site that is free, user-friendly, searchable
and accessible to the public in
order to conduct certain business
transactions electronically. The site
is required to provide a single point
of entry that allows users to access
taxation information, make taxation
filings and payments, access workers’
compensation information and
make related payments. Business
users would also be able to complete
and submit applications for licenses,
registrations, permits and other
Members of the Las Cruces Green Chamber of
documents
issued by state agencies
Commerce speak with Rep. Bill McCamley
that are required for the transaction
Bills are typically assigned to two
of business in New Mexico. The site
committees in each house after being
could help users communicate with
first- and second-read onto their
customer service representatives during
respective chamber floors. The bills must
regular business hours and access the
pass both committees to be considered
New Mexico Sunshine Portal. The
by all the members of the house of
governor has until March 12 to sign
origination, and then be approved, in
legislation. Any not signed by this date
order for the other house to consider the
will be deemed pocket-vetoed.
bill. Only bills that make it all the way
through both House and Senate will end
One notable measure for New Mexico
up on the governor’s desk for signing.
businesses and employees from this
The New Mexico Green Chamber
session was the almost successful passing
of Commerce (NMGCC) supported
of the Minimum Wage Constitutional
several bills this session. Among them
Amendment.The measure, SJR13, passed
were SB09 (Papen) One-Stop Business
the entire Senate and also passed the
House Voters & Elections Committee,
its only assigned committee in the House.
The measure came up on the floor of
the House on Feb. 19, and after much
impassioned debate failed on a 33-29
vote. It needed a majority of the members,
or 36, to pass the House, in order to go
on to the voters in November. Another
important mention is SM36, a Senate
memorial sponsored by Sen. Michael
Padilla, regarding the Valle de Oro
National Wildlife Refuge. The memorial
asked our New Mexico congressional
delegation, the US Department of
Interior and the US Fish and Wildlife
Service to work toward restoring funding
and acquiring the remaining property
for the Valle de Oro National Wildlife
Refuge located in Bernalillo County.
While this short session was disappointing in terms of passing our proactive
bills, the good news is that we also did
not lose ground on any existing taxcredit programs that help our member
businesses. We look forward to working
on defending existing policies and
expanding others to support local
Laura E. Sánchez at the Roundhouse
business, sustainable practices, renewable
energy and the economic benefit of public
land protection in the 2015 session. i
Laura E. Sánchez is CEO of the New
Mexico Green Chamber of Commerce.
505.859.3433, info@nmgreenchamber.com,
http://nmgreenchamber.com
35
910
G.L. Runer Electric Inc.
Honest Quality Work at Competitive Prices
505-471-3626
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36
cultivating continued from page 28
NEWSBITEs
how to balance a checkbook, or apply for Social Security benefits
or help their children apply for college.
Grant Funding for Rural Business and Economic
Development • April 1 Application Deadline
Using our informal education model, we hope to implement
informal group therapy sessions that delve deeply into people’s
personal experiences to find healing and self-centeredness.
The elephant in the room for the work of building community
in the Río Arriba is the issue of poor mental health. We cannot
merely put money into people’s pockets and expect they will
then live exemplary lives. The challenge is to see if we can
convince people to make more money and not spend it on
alcohol; instead, how do we work with each other to see that
investing our incomes in our children’s education and paying
for a family health plan are better steps on the path to justice
we must have to ever achieve peace in our lives and in our
communities.
We realize that we know very little about all of these complex
issues. But we believe it is important that we be active in trying
to create hope.
Broadly, here is what we believe needs to happen to make the
Río Arriba a place that can sustain traditional peoples with a
21st-century income and an enlightened view of their role as
gente de buena raza:
• We need to nurture and recruit new leadership among our
gente, who will provide the selfless, community-based vision
we need to use existing government resources and structure to
help our communities move forward, and to not use elected
positions to enrich themselves and their families.
• We need to formalize a local and regional barter system to
help ourselves save cash for other needs.
• We need to create local, small cooperatives that use existing
resources to sustain themselves over time, without the need
for major capital investment.
• We need to heal ourselves—economically, psychologically
and educationally. It is way past time for us to sit around our
kitchen tables together and figure out how to get ourselves
out of the mess we’re in.
• We need to become critical thinkers; to learn how to
analyze the socio-economic forces we face daily, to have
an enlightened and broad view of our place in the world;
we must act in ways that force fundamental reform and
rejuvenate our political, economic and educational systems.
We must see ourselves as part of a larger regional movement
for change but remain focused on our own families, our own
work, our own communities. i
Footnotes:
1. Michael Trujillo’s The Land of Disenchantment: Latina/o Identities and Transformations.
2. A
ngela García’s Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession Along the
Río Grande.
3. J ake Kosek’s Understories: The Political Life of Forests in Northern New
Mexico.
4. F
ranz Fannon’s å. And the work of Albert Memmi, et al.
5. M
anuel Montoya, Ph.D., Rhodes Scholar and professor at the University of New Mexico at the Anderson Schools of Business. Based on his
(as yet) unpublished doctoral thesis on global economics.
Arturo Sandoval is president of the Albuquerque-based Center of
Southwest Culture. The Center works to help develop healthy Indigenous
and Latino communities through economic development initiatives,
educational and cultural work. Sandoval was born in Santa Cruz de
la Cañada and raised in Española, NM. 505.247.2729, vocesinc@aol.
com, www.centerofsouthwestculture.org, www.vocesinc.com, www.
cooperativedevelopmentcenter.org
USDA Rural Development is accepting applications for the Rural Business Enterprise Grant program.
The funds can be used to finance and facilitate the development of small, private, business enterprises—
any private business that employs 50 or fewer new employees and has less than $1 million in projected
gross revenues. The funds can also be used to pay for technical assistance for such things as feasibility
studies, business plans, business development training, or to establish revolving loan funds. This financial assistance cannot be granted directly to a private business. The funding is available to public
bodies, nonprofit organizations, public and private nonprofit institutions of higher education and Indian
tribes to facilitate and finance the development of small and emerging private business enterprises in
rural communities and cities up to 50,000 in population. Priority will be given to requests of $50,000
or less and will receive points for projects that support local food systems and value-added agriculture,
minority- and women-owned businesses, access to capital markets, bio-based products or bio-fuels.
Information can be obtained from the State Office in Albuquerque at 505.761.4953 or at: http://www.
rurdev.usda.gov/BCP_rbeg.html
International Conference on Progress and
the Indigenous Experience • March 13-15 in ABQ
The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) will host the first “Indigenous Intervention,” an
international Indigenous conference on the concept of progress, at the Nativo Lodge in Albuquerque.
The interdisciplinary conference will explore progress as it applies to art, business, culture, economics,
education, health, history, land, literature, music, philosophy, politics and social theory. In the Indigenous
world, progress has also meant assimilation, economic development, educational reform, cultural change,
artistic expression, evolution/devolution, language revitalization or preservation, according to Stephen
Wall (White Earth), conference organizer and chair of IAIA’s Indigenous Liberal Studies Department.
“The idea is simply to bring people together to talk about ideas on issues that affect Indigenous people,”
Wall said. “Both in our individual communities and worldwide the dominant society has had mass
influence. It’s really important to create a forum to share information and learn from each other that
there is a real need for intervention.”
Presenters include staff members, instructors and faculty from the Denver American Indian Commission, IAIA,
University of Arizona, Sustainable Nations, Syracuse University, University of Coimbra, UNM, and University
of Saskatchewan, among others.The keynote speaker is multimedia artist and IAIA alumna Rose B. Simpson.
One-day and full, three-day registration fees are available. A special undergraduate rate for students for the entire
conference is $50. For more information or to register: 505.424.2376, swall@iaia.edu or visit http://www.iaia.
edu/academics/degree-programs/indigenous-liberal-studies/indigenous-intervention-progress-conference
‘Climate Hub’ Will Help New Mexico’s Farmers
and Ranchers Adapt to Climate Change
President Obama has named the Jornada Experimental Range in Las Cruces, NM, the US Dept. of
Agriculture’s Southwest “climate hub.” As one of seven climate hubs across the US, it will provide
information to rural communities in New Mexico, California, Utah, Nevada and Arizona to help them
prepare for and try to mitigate the impacts of climate change. The climate hub will be a clearinghouse for
resources and technology to help farmers and ranchers manage risks such as drought and wildfire and
find the tools they need to adapt to the increasingly shifting climate. More than three dozen universities,
as well as state and federal agencies, are partnering to share information through the hub.
Climate change in the Southwest is a threat to the economy, to jobs and the way of life of families—
especially those whose livelihoods depend on the land and a limited water supply. It has meant earlier
and harsher fire seasons, warmer temperatures and less snow. More than 50 percent of the flow in the
Río Grande is from snowmelt.
Soil Solutions Lecture and Workshop • March 12-13
Imagine you could grow almost anything you wanted with the soil in your yard, using less water and
producing biomass that is virtually immune to pests and requires few costly inputs. Dr. Elaine Ingham,
Ph.D., soil biologist, will be in northern New Mexico March 12-13 to explain how to do it. Here in New
Mexico, shelter from wind and cold would be a part of the equation. It also involves understanding things
like the ratio of bacteria to fungi. Ingham will discuss the microbiology of soil, the needs of crops and
how to make composts and extracts to strengthen the soil food web. Knowing these sorts of things, we
can become soil managers and tweak these relationships with biological solutions instead of chemical
solutions to create the ideal soil composition based on what we want to grow.
Dr. Ingham will speak from 7-9 pm on March 12 at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Pavilion. Admission
is $10. On March 13 she will teach a workshop from 8:30 am to 5 pm at Northern NM College’s main
administration building in Española. The workshop is $99. For more information, call 505.819.3828, or
visit www.carboneconomyseries.com
37
What's Going On!
Events / Announcements
March 15, 10-6 pm, March 16, 10-5 pm
The ABQ Home Expo
NM State Fairgrounds
Manual Luján Complex
Seminars, exhibits. 505.796.0803, www.
abqhomeexpo.com
ALBUQUERQUE
March 5-7, 8 am-5 pm
3rd International Meeting on
Indigenous Women’s Health
Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town
Healthy Generations: Integrating Traditions
and Science to promote well-being. An opportunity for physicians, midwives, nurses, community providers and others who work with
indigenous women to share, support, network,
learn and build partnerships to improve the
health of indigenous women and their families.
505.272.3942, kbreckenridge@salud.unm.edu,
http://som.unm.edu/cme
March 5, 9:30-11 am
Home Composting Basics
North Valley Senior Center
3825 4th St. NW
Learn the science, materials and methods of
drought-proofing your garden soil in order
to grow vegetables, fruit and berries. Free.
Composting classes at other locations on
3/6, 3/8, 3/20 ($7), 3/27. register@nmcom
posters.org, nmcomposters.org
March 5, 5:30-7 pm
Green Drinks
Hotel Andaluz, 125 Second St. NW
Network and mingle with people interested in
local business, clean energy and other green
issues. Review of the 2014 Legislative Session
with Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto and Rep. Christine Trujillo. Free. Presented by the ABQ &
Río Rancho Green Chamber of Commerce. Next
Green Drinks: April 2nd.
505.244.3700,
Lindsay@
nmgreenchamber.com
March 11-13
7th Pathways into Health
National Conference
Hotel ABQ at Old Town
Cultural Attunement in Health Professions.
Education and career development. A diverse group of individuals and organizations
gather to cultivate a robust American Indian
and Alaska Native healthcare workforce.
General registration: $300; Students: $95.
Elders: $75. 3/10: Film screening and reception. PathwaysIntoHealth@gmail.com,
http://pathwaysintohealth.org/conference/
March 13-15
Indigenous Intervention
Nativo Lodge
An international indigenous conference on the
concept of progress presented by the Institute
of American Indian Arts (See newsbite, pg. 37)
Info/registration:
http://www.iaia.edu/news/
iaia-hosts-indigenous-progress-conference/
March 14, 4-9 pm
World Studio Opening
987 Cam. del Pueblo, Bernalillo, NM
New fine art gallery/healing center. Opening
features visual arts, storytelling, music. worldstudionm@gmail.com,
http://www.jamila
productions.com/worldstudioopening
38
March 19 Registration Deadline
Solitude and Solidarity
Gutiérrez Hubbell House
6029 Isleta SW
A one-day retreat on 3/28 (7:30 am-4 pm) for
women in the arts facilitated by Valerie Martínez and Shelle Sánchez. $65-100 sliding
scale. 505.980.6218
March 22, 5-9 pm
NM Scholastic Art Awards
Warehouse 508, 508 1st St. NW
Student check-in at 5:30, awards presentation at 6 pm. 505.296.2738, www.newmex
icoartawards.wordpress.com
April 3
USGBCNM 12th Anniversary Party
The US Green Building Council New Mexico supports the responsible evolution of a
sustainable environment with education,
advocacy and community engagement, and
through verifiable, documentable results.
505.203.2323, usgbcnm.org
April 7-9
10th International Conference
on Concentrator Photovoltaic
Systems
Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
An opportunity for suppliers of components
and services to the PV and CPV industry to
connect with experts and potential customers
from all over the world; 400 people from more
than 25 countries, including many corporate
executives from global companies are expected
to participate. Host committee: CFV Solar Test
Laboratory, Fraunhofer USA, Sandia National
Laboratories. www.cpv-10.org
April 9-10
Shared Knowledge Conference
UNM Student Union Building, 3rd Floor
Regional event planned and hosted by students and partners of UNM. Presentations
on a range of topics. Students from a variety
of academic institutions and disciplines will
share their scholarship, gain access to new
ideas and develop professional leadership
skills. Free. nuntuket@unm.edu
April 15-16, 8:30 am-5 pm
Town Hall on Water Planning,
Development and Use
Marriott Pyramid North
5151 San Francisco Rd. NE
Help people from around NM create a concrete, actionable platform of water policy recommendations. Key issues include: Meaningful long-range and crisis water planning,
NM’s aging water infrastructure, Conservation and reuse, Water development including desalination. Convened by NM First, a
nonprofit, nonpartisan policy organization.
$100/limited scholarships. NMfirst.org
Daily
Degrees of Change:
NM’s Climate Forecast
NM Museum of Natural History &
Science, 1801 Mountain Rd. NW
With a focus on NM and the SW, this exhibit re-
veals current and predicted impacts on humans,
landscapes and ecosystems. Tickets: $7, $6, $4.
Info: 505.841.2800, www.nmnaturalhistory.org
SANTA FE
Through April 1, 10 am-5 pm
Heartbeat – Music
of the Southwest
Museum of Indian Arts and Culture
A celebration of sight, sound and activity for visitors of all ages. Over 100 objects relating to Southwestern Native music and dance are featured.
505.476.1250, http://indianartsandculture.org/
March 3-April 2 (M,W, 5:30-8 pm)
Climate Masters Classes
3/3: Climate Change Communication with
Eileen Everett, Ed. Dir., SF Watershed
Assn; 3/5: Local Food & Agriculture with
Tom Telehanty of Pollo Real, Dave Frésquez,
a farmer in Española, or Don Bustos;
3/10: Renewable Energy Panel with Craig
O’Hare, energy program specialist with SF
County, Mariel Nanasi, Exec. Dir.,New Energy Economy, Janet McVickar of Got Sol;
3/12: Science with Dr. Craig Allen, research
ecologist, Jémez Mtn. Field Station, USGS;
3/17: Water Ethics with Dave Groenfeldt,
Water Culture Institute; 3/19: Biomimicry
and communication through the arts with
Noel Chilton and Karen Temple Beamish
of ABQ Academy; 3/24: Consumption and
Waste with Jessi Just, NM Recycling Coalition; 3/26: Permaculture with Reese Baker
of The Raincatcher; 3/31: Green Architecture/Business with Amanda Hatherly, Dir.,
SFCC Energy Smart Program and Kim Shanahan, Exec. Officer, SF Area Homebuilders
Assn; 4/2: Transportation with Esha Chiocchio, Dan Baker and others. Presented
by the SF Watershed Assn: 505.820.1696,
www.santafewatershed.org
March 5, 5:30-7 pm
A Talk about the
Academy of Sustainability
Tomasitas
Paul Gibson and Dana Richards will explain the
proposed academy, green jobs and businesses.
March 6
SFPS Science Expo
Gonzales Community School Gym,
851 W. Alameda
9:30-11:30 am: Judging by students and judges; 5-6
pm: Family Science Expo Night; 6 pm: Award presentations.505.467.2515, kdillingham@sfps.info
March 8
Watershed Restoration Project
Ampersand Sustainable Learning
Center, Madrid, NM
Lend a hand and learn about erosion-control
structures made with rock. Music/potluck
gathering from 2-5 pm after work. RSVP:
505.780.0535,
ampersandproject@yahoo.
com, www.ampersandproject.org
March 10, 6 pm
Living Life to the Fullest
with Native Humor
Hotel Santa Fe
SW Seminars lecture by artist, humorist,
filmmaker Ricardo Cate (Pueblo of Kewa).
$12. 505.466.2775, southwestseminars@aol.
com, SouthwestSeminars.org
March 11 Registration Deadline
Professional Landscaper
Training
Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper training/certification. Learn “smart” irrigation
technology and local soil and weather conditions. Training geared toward licensed professionals with experience. $75. Class dates:
3/18, 19, 25, 26. Exam on 3/27. 505.955.4223,
Application:
http://www.santafenm.gov/
educational_programs
March 11, 4-6 pm
Eldorado/285 Recycles
ECIA Conference Room
Eldorado area recycling advocacy group
monthly meeting. All welcome. Next meeting: 4/8. 505.466.9797, eldorado285recy
cles@mail.com, eldorado285recycles.org
March 12, 4-6 pm
Seed Exchange
Frenchy’s Barn
Presented
by
Homegrown
NM.
505.955.2106, jbesparza@santafenm.gov
March 12, 7-9 pm
Lecture on the Soil Food Web
SF Farmers’ Market Pavilion, 1607
Paseo de Peralta
Presentation by Dr. Elaine Ingham. (See
newsbite, page 37) $10. 505.819, 3828, www.
carboneconomyseries.com
March 13, 6 pm
Food & Film Evening
Jean Cocteau Cinema
Screening of the award-winning Like Water
for Chocolate. Local food prepared by Chef
Patrick Gharrity of La Casa Sena. Tickets: $25 benefits Farm to Table’s Farm to
Restaurant Program. 505.310.7405, nina@
farmtotablenm.org
March 14 Application Deadline
“End of Days” Fashion Exhibit
Nov. 2014-Feb. 2015
City of Santa Fe Community Gallery
NM Artists and Fashion Designers will explore
what fashion will look like at the end of the
world brought about by nuclear war, pandemic,
water scarcity, supervolcanoes, bee colony collapse, or…? 505.955.6705, rdlambert@santa
fenm.gov, www.SantaFe ArtsCommission.org
March 14, 7-9 pm
Amy Goodman
The Lensic, 211 W. San Francisco St.
An evening with the host/producer of
Democracy Now. $15. Book signing. A
benefit for KNME, KUNM and KSFR.
505.988.1234, TicketsSantaFe.org
March 16, 2-4:30 pm
Geology Hike
Ampersand Sustainable Learning
Center, Madrid, NM
Hike around Ampersand’s 38 acres with local geologists Mary Morton and Scott Renbarger. $10
suggested donation. www.ampersandproject.org
March 20
La Bajada Mining Issue
SF County Commission, 102 Grant Ave.
Discussion of the proposed mining project.
Send comments to joselarra@co.santa-fe.
nm.us, www.SaveLaBajada.com
March 21-23
Faith & Environment
United Church of Santa Fe,
1804 Arroyo Chamiso
3/21, 5:30 pm: All-age celebration (supper provided); 3/22, 8:30 am-12 pm: How
to Sing, Pray and Act for the Earth. Keynote and children’s program, noon picnic
& park cleanup; 3/23, 8:30-11 am: Worship
for the Earth, 9:45 am: Earth care forum,
childcare/children’s programs all morning.
505.988.3295, unitedchurchofsantafe.org
March 22, 12:45-3pm
A Walk on the Santa Fe River
Conversation, art and reflection with Bobbe
Besold, Valerie Martínez and Dominique
Mazeaud. Free. Meet at the end of Constellation Dr. (off Airport Rd.) Bring snacks and
water. bobbebird@gmail.com
March 26, 7 pm
“Trashed” Film Screening
SF Farmers’ Market Pavilion
Documentary follows Jeremy Irons’ expedition to
destinations around the world tainted by billions of
tons of unaccounted-for waste. $12/$10/students
under 18 free. www.farmersmarketinstitute.org
March 27-28, 8 am-5 pm
SW Jémez Mountain
Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project
Santa Fe Community College
Jémez Rooms
3/27: All-Hands Monitoring Presentations
will showcase results from 2013 activities. 3/28:
Implementation Workshop will use information from monitoring to develop implementation strategies in the project area for 2015. Info:
505.438.5431, pashmead@fs.fed.us
April 1 Program Begins
Herbal Medicine Intensive
Milagro School of Herbal Medicine
250-hour program. Registration: 505.820
.6321, info@milagroherbs.com
April 2, 5:30-7 pm
Sustainable Santa Fe Awards
Eldorado Hotel
Presented by the SF Green Chamber of Commerce and the Sustainable SF Commission. Free.
April 2, 6-8:30, Weds. Through May 21
Business Development Series
Large-scale collaboration of local groups involved in education, conservation, multi-arts,
environmental and social justice, and creative
community engagement. Procession, music,
poetry, visual arts, storytelling, performances,
community participation. earthdaysantafe.info
First Saturday of Each Month,
10 am-12 pm
SF Citizens’ Climate Lobby
Natural Grocers, Community Room,
3328 Cerrillos Road
“Creating political will for a livable world.”
maria@myearthprints.com
Santa Fe Recycling
Make 2014 the year to reduce, reuse and recycle
as much as you can. City residential curbside
customers can recycle at no additional cost and
drop by 1142 Siler Road, Building A to pick up
free recycling bins. At least 50 percent of curbside residential customers recycle now. Let’s
take that number to 100 percent. For more information, visit http://www.santafenm.gov/
trash_and_recycling or call 505.955.2200 (city);
505.992.3010 (county); 505.424.1850 (SF Solid
Waste Management Agency).
Española
March 13, 8:30 am-5 pm
Workshop: Soil Food Web and
Compost Tea Technology
NNMC Main Administration Building
921 Paseo de Oñate
Presentation by Dr. Elaine Ingham. (See
newsbite, page 37) $99. 505.819, 3828, www.
carboneconomyseries.com
March 14, 5-7 pm
Opening Reception
Northern NM Regional Art Center,
Española Plaza
Exhibit by Río Rancho artists Jean Kempinsky and Dick Overfield. Through 4/11.
March 15
3rd Annual Conf.: Increasing
NM Small Farm Production,
and Food Crop Aggregation
for Local Markets
San Pedro Community Center
Thinking of starting a business? Learn business basics to avoid costly time and money
mistakes. Ongoing bonus sessions offered
upon course completion. $159. Presented by
WESST. 505.474.6556, rperea@wesst.ofg
Presented by the Río Arriba County Food &
Agriculture Council and co-sponsors. (See
newsbite, pg. 25)
April 4-5, 10-am-5 pm
The Santa Fe Home Show
SF Convention Center
Sponsored by the Española Fiesta Council
and the Crisis Center of Northern NM.
Innovative solutions for better living. Remodelers’ showcase, SFCC Design Competition. Tickets: $5. 505.982.1774, santafehomeshow.com
April 10, 10 am-4 pm
11th Annual Business Expo
and Job Fair
DeVargas Mall, 500 N. Guadalupe
Showcasing the region’s business. Presented by the SF Chamber of Commerce.
505.988.3279, bridget@santafechamber.com,
www.santafechamber.com
April 20-May 18 (Sundays)
Beginning Beekeeping
Plants of the Southwest
5-week course taught by Melanie Kirby and
Mark Spitzig of Zia Queenbees. Over 20 hours
of class and field instruction. $450 includes
starter bee colony. www.ziaqueenbees.com/zia
April 26, 12-4 pm
Earth Day at the Railyard
Railyard Park
March 22
Walk Against Bullying
March 30
Dinner with the Chef
Camino de Paz Montessori School
Santa Cruz, NM
Acclaimed chef of Arroyo Vino restaurant in Las
Campanas Mark Connell and his team will create
an elegant 3-course meal with ingredients from the
farm. A benefit for the students’ trip to NYC.Tickets: $69/person, $124/couple, $248 table of four.
daisy@caminodepaz.net
April 5
Walk Against Drugs
Sponsored by the Española Fiesta Council
and the Crisis Center of Northern NM.
April 18-19
Santo Nino Festival of the Artists
Northern NM Regional Art Center,
Española Plaza
Benefit performances. 4/18: Opening reception in the Convento Gallery with a free
showing of a film about the arts to follow in
the Misión. 4/19: artists’ booths, food, dance
and music on the Plaza. 2 pm ticketed perfor-
mance of Española High School Children’s
Choir. 505.500.7126, director@nnmrac.org
Veterans Green Jobs Academy
Northern NM College, Española
Workforce training and specific degree programs to support military veterans in fully
accredited academic certificate and degree
programs in areas of environmental science
related to renewable energy, hazardous materials response, forestry, sustainable agriculture, wildland fire science, construction
trades and others. A partnership with the
NM Dept. of Veterans Services. For more
info, call Dr. Biggs at 505.747.5453 or visit
www.nnmc.edu/vetacademy.htm.
taos
Through March 28, M-F, 9 am-5 pm
Contemporary Handwoven
Art Exhibition
Taos Town Hall
400 Camino de la Placita
Taos Arts Council and Weaving Southwest present a weaving and tapestry exhibition featuring
more than 18 northern NM fiber artists. The
show is funded in part by NM Arts, a division
of the Dept. of Cultural Affairs and the NEA.
575.779.8579, pcf1947@yahoo.com, http://taos
artscouncil.org/weaving-southwest-at-taostown-hall/, www.weavingsouthwest.com
March 7-9
Taos Pueblo Artist Winter
Showcase
Millicent Rogers Museum
Special exhibition/sale features 14 artists. Opening reception 3/7, 5-7 pm. Free.
575.758.2462, www.millicentrogers.org
March 7, 7 pm
A Fierce Green Fire (Film)
Harwood Museum, 238 Ledoux St.
The Battle for a Living Planet. Exploration
of the environmental movement – grassroots
and global activism spanning 50 years. $8/$6.
April 25-27
Health & Wellness Retreat
El Monte Sagrado Resort/Spa
Author/surgeon/speaker Dr. Christine
Horner is featured as part of this retreat to
revitalize the body, mind and spirit. $1,295.
850.668.2222, adellinger@zimmerman.com,
www.elmontesagrado.com
May 10 Start (Saturdays)
Charm School for Beekeepers
El Prado, north side of Taos
Workshops for enhancing one’s apiary management. www.ziaqueenbees.com/zia
HERE & THERE
March 3-7
Stop Violence Against
Native Women
Hyatt Regency Tamaya,
Santa Ana Pueblo, NM
March 13-16
Permaculture Voices Conf.
Temécula, California
Permaculture experts from around the world will
discuss the potential of permaculture to transform
food systems. www.permaculturevoices.com
March 26, 10 am-3:30 pm
Ghost Ranch Open House
Ghost Ranch Education & Retreat
Center, 1708 Highway 84, Abiquiú, NM
Sample tours, meet the new museum curator,
learn about the new “Day at the Ranch Pass”
and have lunch in the dining hall. A full-day
of activities planned. info@ghostranch.org
March 26-28
GLOBE 2014
Vancouver, BC, Canada
13th biennial conference and trade fair on business and sustainability. Speakers include Amory
Lovins, chief scientist, Rocky Mountain Institute;
Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of the board,
Nestlè; Hans Engel, CFO, BASF. 400 exhibitors
from North America, Latin America, Europe,
the Middle East and Asia. 604.637.6649, www.
GLOBESeries.com
March 29, 10:30 am
Earthquakes in Our Backyard
Pajarito Environmental Education Center
3540 Orange St., Los Alamos, NM
Class for kids and adults to learn how, where
and when earthquakes occur around Los Alamos. Advance registration required. $10/$8.
505.662.0460, Programs@PajaritoEEC.org,
www.PajaritoEEE.org
April 4-6
Earth Day Symposium
Ghost Ranch Education &
Retreat Center, Abiquiú, NM
The Gathering of Waters. A deep examination of our relationship to water. Ritual &
ceremony will engage body, mind and spirit.
505.685.1000, GhostRanch.org
April 14-17
2nd Annual Native Food
Sovereignty Summit
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Collaboration for sustainability. Presented by the
Oneida Nation, First Nations Development Institute, Intertribal Agriculture Council and Northeast
Wisconsin Technical College. www.firstnations.org/
conferences/2014/food/summit.html
April 15-18
7th National Farm to Cafeteria
Conference
Austin, Texas
“Powering Up” Three days of inspiring field
trips, workshops, speakers and networking.
Farmtocafetereiaconference.org
May 6
Give Grande New Mexico
40-hour advocacy training. The Coalition
to Stop Violence Against Native Women:
505.243.9199, www.csvan.org
March 5, 7 pm
Celebration of Albuquerque’s
Wildlife Federation’s Centennial
Pajarito Environmental Education
Center, Los Alamos, NM
Kristina Fisher and Phil Carter of AWF will
talk about the group’s history, show photos
and documents, and provide information
about current ecological restoration across
NM. 505.662.0460, Programs@Pajarito
EEC.org, www.PajaritoEEE.org
A 24-hour effort led by a coalition of community foundations to raise money for
nonprofits across the state. To sign up your
nonprofit or get information, email info@
givegrandenm.org or visit www.givegrande
nm.org
Tree Seedlings Available
The NM State Forestry Division is selling sixty species of tree and shrub seedlings as part
of the division’s Spring Conservation Seedling Program to promote healthy forests and
watersheds around the state. The seedlings
are available to landowners who own at least
one acre in NM and agree to use the seedlings
for conservation purposes such as erosion
control or riparian restoration. 505.476.3325,
www.emnrd.state.nm.us/SFD/treepublic/
ConservationSeedlings.html
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