Texas Tech University's Southwest Collection/Special Collections

Oral History Interview of Inez Russell Gomez Interviewed by: Andy Wilkinson March 15, 2016 Santa Fe, New Mexico Part of the: General Southwest Collection Interviews Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Oral History Program Copyright and Usage Information: An oral history release form was signed by Andy Wilkinson on March 15, 2016. This transfers all rights of this interview to the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University. This oral history transcript is protected by U.S. copyright law. By viewing this document, the researcher agrees to abide by the fair use standards of U.S. Copyright Law (1976) and its amendments. This interview may be used for educational and other non-commercial purposes only. Any reproduction or transmission of this protected item beyond fair use requires the written and explicit permission of the Southwest Collection. Please contact Southwest Collection Reference staff for further information. Preferred Citation for this Document: Gomez, Inez Russell Oral History Interview, March 15, 2016. Interview by Andy Wilkinson, Online Transcription, Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library. URL of PDF, date accessed. The Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library houses almost 6000 oral history interviews dating back to the late 1940s. The historians who conduct these interviews seek to uncover the personal narratives of individuals living on the South Plains and beyond. These interviews should be considered a primary source document that does not implicate the final verified narrative of any event. These are recollections dependent upon an individual’s memory and experiences. The views expressed in these interviews are those only of the people speaking and do not reflect the views of the Southwest Collection or Texas Tech University. 2 Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Oral History Program Technical Processing Information: The Audio/Visual Department of the Southwest Collection is the curator of this ever-growing oral history collection and is in the process of digitizing all interviews. While all of our interviews will have an abbreviated abstract available online, we are continually transcribing and adding information for each interview. Audio recordings of these interviews can be listened to in the Reading Room of the Southwest Collection. Please contact our Reference Staff for policies and procedures. Family members may request digitized copies directly from Reference Staff. Consult the Southwest Collection website for more information. http://swco.ttu.edu/Reference/policies.php Recording Notes: Original Format: Born Digital Audio Digitization Details: N/A Audio Metadata: 44.1kHz/ 16bit WAV file Further Access Restrictions: N/A Related Interviews: Transcription Notes: Interviewer: Andy Wilkinson Audio Editor: N/A Transcription: Candace Smith Editor(s): Katelin Dixon 3 Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Oral History Program Transcript Overview: This interview features Inez Russell Gomez, a Texas Tech graduate and editor at The Santa Fe New Mexican. Gomez discusses about growing up in Las Vegas, New Mexico before moving to Lubbock, her interest in writing and journalism, and her work at various newspapers across the country. Length of Interview: 02:08:46 Subject Transcript Page Time Stamp Background 5 00:00:00 Moving to Lubbock area 12 00:11:30 Developing an interest in journalism 16 01:18:00 Lubbock east side and segregation 18 00:20:38 Pursuing writing as a career and the University Daily 22 00:27:51 Standard Times and entertainment writing 24 00:32:22 San Angelo 30 00:41:04 Going to Santa Fe 32 00:45:16 Graduate school 34 00:46:56 Florida and moving back to New Mexico 36 00:48:50 Taos and Santa Fe 40 00:54:00 History of the area 48 01:02:50 Texas Tech 51 01:07:20 Music program at Tech and Lubbock music 64 01:24:38 What’s next? Prospects for local newspapers 73 01:40:09 Religion in Lubbock and conservatism 81 01:53:30 Keywords journalism, Lubbock, Texas, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Taos, New Mexico, Texas Tech University 4 Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Oral History Program Andy Wilkinson (AW): Yeah, I just—it always happens that, when we’re visiting, good things occur, so let me just say— this is the ides of March, isn’t it? It’s the fifteenth— Inez Russell Gomez (IG): Yeah. It’s the fifteenth. It is. AW: —of 2016. Andy Wilkinson with—is it proper to say Inez Russell Gomez? IG: Yep. That’s it. AW: Okay, perfect. And we’re in her office at The Santa Fe New Mexican, a newspaper that’s still in business (laughs)— IG: That’s right. Successfully. AW: —which is a really important thing. And we’ve been talking about, as people from our part of the world always do, about all the people we know, together. And it turns out it’s a whole stack of them. But you were starting to talk about your ancestors the Bacas. IG: Well, it’s—my grandmother was descended from the Thera [?] Bacas and part of the land grant was out in that area of eastern New Mexico which became ranches. AW: Yeah, and so is there any story about how it became the Bell Ranch , and—so no— IG: Robin probably knows it—the owner of our paper—because that’s her family, but we don’t. We ended up in Las Vegas and just continued on with life, kind of. AW: Pretty interesting. Well, we met in a very interesting way through an article—a review that you wrote when you were eighteen. Yeah, which is just amazing, and it’s still a wonderful piece of writing. Incidentally, Terry Allen says—passes on his regrets for today. He’s got a big project 5 Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Oral History Program that they’re—he’s trying to finish up this week. But he and Jo Harvey both really want to get to meet you. They read the article in Lubbock last month, and he says it’s the best review that anyone’s written about the album, Lubbock on Everything. IG: Oh. That’s something. I’ve loved him since I was, well, seventeen. AW: Yeah? Well, there— IG: A long, long time. AW: So tell—well, before we get to how you did that, tell me where you grew up, where you were born, and when, and all that sort of thing. And you understand archives so I don’t have to go into them. IG: No, I get it. My mother’s family is from New Mexico, and my roots are in Las Vegas, New Mexico. And through a fifth cousin that I met online, I have the fortune of having our ancestry traced back to 1609, at least, on my mother’s side. AW: And that’s the Baca. IG: Well, that’s the Gallegos, Martín, Aragon—blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It goes back. Through this particular line, it goes back to a man called Hernán Martín Serrano who was one of the people in the first families that came to Santa Fe. And he married an Inez—or lived with her. They’re not sure exactly which. She might have just been his common-law wife—and there’s about 10,000 people in New Mexico that are descended from that family, but one of the things I noticed, when we did stories in the founding families of Santa Fe at 400, was that his wife was names Inez. And we had always had a story in our family about a grandmother who was really Indian and not Spanish. And my mother had thought it was her grandmother whose name was Juana [inaudible] Martín, and when I started doing research I told her, “Well, that story’s not true because she’s just a regular Spanish girl from Wagon Mound, so she’s not Indian. She was not adopted by a Spanish family.” But when I did the research, it turned out that that story was true, it just had happened 400 years ago. And if you look at my line of ancestors, there’s always going to be an Inez. There’s a—like, my grandpa was Alfredo Inez. My aunt was Inez. Two of my 6 Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Oral History Program great-great uncles were José Inez. You know, different things like that. So the name stayed all those years. AW: And so you’ve still got it. Did it drive you crazy when you came to West Texas and we call it Inez (pronounces [I-nez])? IG: No. It was fine. It was fine. And I have—my niece is Kendra Inez and my great niece is Sierra Inez, and they both live in Texas, so it’s continuing. AW: That’s good. So were you born in Las Vegas? IG: My mother and dad were living in Albuquerque, and my dad was from Arkansas. He was from out of state. We always say he was not from here. And he was at a bar one night—and my dad was over six foot four. He was huge—and a very angry off-duty policeman tried to pick a fight with him, so my dad picked him up and stuck him on, like a hook, to make him stop. And they told him to get out of town, so he left. And my mom stayed in Albuquerque working, and one day she went to work and fainted and discovered that she was pregnant. And she called my dad and said, “Carl.” And he said, “Okay, I’ll come get you.” So they left, so I happened to be born in California.

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