News & Views from the Sustainable Southwest

reclaiming Española

Sustaining Our Local Economies

Cultivating a Future: Where Do We Go From Here? History of the Northern Valley of the Río Grande

March 2014 North-central New Mexico’s Largest Circulation Newspaper Vol. 6 No. 3 2 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 3 4 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com Vol. 6, No. 3 •March 2014 Issue No. 59 Publisher Green Fire Publishing, LLC Skip Whitson News & Views from the Sustainable Southwest Associate Publisher Winner of the Sustainable Santa Fe Award for Outstanding Educational Project Barbara E. Brown ontents Editor-in-chief C Seth Roffman Tewa Pueblos, Spanish Villages, Official Villa and Railroad Town: Associate editor Alejandro López The History of the Northern Valley of the Rio Grande in New Mexico ...... 7 Art Director Reflections on the Española Plaza...... 10 Anna C. Hansen, Dakini Design Book Profiles: Española • Recognizing Heritage ...... 8, 11 Copy Editor Stephen Klinger Honoring the Spirit of the Española Valley: A Tewa Perspective ...... 13 Webmaster: Karen Shepherd Cultivating a Future: Where Do We Go From Here?...... 14 Contributing Writers Tierra Sagrada ...... 14 Vickie Downey, Clarissa A. Durán, Thomas H. Guthrie, W. Azul La Luz, Alejandro López, What Does Public Health Look Like in Española? ...... 17 Christopher Madrid, Marlo R. Martínez, Matthew J. Martínez, Susan Meredith, Roger Hispanos in the Valley of Sorrows ...... 19 Montoya, Hilario Romero, Seth Roffman, Laura Reclaiming Española...... 20 E. Sánchez, Arturo Sandoval, Kim Shanahan, Ana Malinalli X. Gutierrez Sisneros, Renée Villarreal Living the Dream of Cooperation and Friendship...... 22 Contributing Love in the Valley of Infinity...... 24 Photographers Anna C. Hansen, Alejandro López, The Española Hunter Arts & Agricultural Center and Community Mural Project . . . 25 Seth Roffman Sustaining Our Local Economies...... 27 PUBLISHER’S ASSISTANTs OP-ED: Rethinking Northern New Mexico College...... 29 Lisa Allocco, Cisco Whitson-Brown, Susan Clair Academy of Sustainability Education Planned for Santa Fe...... 33 Office Assistants 2014 New Mexico Legislative Wrap-Up ...... 35 Camille Franchette, Claire Ayraud Newsbites...... 10, 13, 25, 37 Advertising Sales Skip Whitson 505.471.5177 What’s Going On...... 38 [email protected] Anna C. Hansen 505.982.0155 [email protected] Lloyd Santiago Covens 505.236.8348 [email protected] Distribution Española — A Microcosm Of Our Region Lisa Allocco, Barbara Brown, Susan Clair, Co-op Dist. Services, Joe Fatton, Nick García, Andy spañola is a microcosm of the wide border region of Mexico and the United States. It is the quintessential Otterstrom (Creative Couriers), Tony Rapatz, Wuilmer Rivera, Andrew Tafoya, Skip Whitson, meeting place, albeit a chaotic and embattled one, of Latin American and Anglo civilizations. It is also the John Woodie Etraditional homeland of the Tewa Pueblo people and their millennial civilization, which continue to honor the Circulation earth, its plants and animals, as well as the seen and unseen forces of the universe. 27,000 copies Printed locally with 100% soy ink on No landscape could be 100% recycled, chlorine-free paper more beautiful or befitting Green Fire Times of this epic intersection. c/o The Sun Companies The valley is flanked by the PO Box 5588 Santa Fe, NM 87502-5588 reposing blue mountains of 505.471.5177 • [email protected] the Jémez and the towering © 2014 Green Fire Publishing, LLC grey stone Truchas Peaks. Green Fire Times provides useful information The Río Chama and Río for anyone—community members, business people, Grande come together here students, visitors—interested in discovering the

to irrigate the valley and © Alejandro López wealth of opportunities and resources available in our region. Knowledgeable writers provide articles quicken it to life. on subjects ranging from green businesses, products, services, entrepreneurship, jobs, design, building, In Española these civilizations coexist, merge or clash, and retreat. Its earth, buildings and people bear the bruises energy and investing—to sustainable agriculture, and scars of the collision of worlds, the huge social changes and economic disparities. Not withstanding, Española’s arts & culture, ecotourism, education, regional food, water, the healing arts, local heroes, native greatest treasure is its towa, gente, people. In a world of perpetual cycles, the seed of their future is just now beginning perspectives and more. Sun Companies publications to germinate, soon to flower. This is indeed cause for the continued cultivation of its soul and its soil. seek to provide our readers with informative articles that support a more sustainable planet. To our lejandro ópez associate editor publisher this means maximizing personal as well as A L , environmental health by minimizing consumption of meat and alcohol. GFT is widely distributed  view of spañola february 2014 photo by lejandro ópez throughout north-central New Mexico. Feedback, COVER: A E , . A L announcements, event listings, advertising and article submissions to be considered for publication Green Fire Times is not to be confused with the Green Fire Report, an in-house quarterly publication of the New are welcome. Mexico Environmental Law Center. The NMELC can be accessed online at: www.nmelc.org . www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 5 6 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com Tewa Pueblos, Spanish Villages, Official Villa and Railroad Town The History of the Northern Valley of the Río Grande in New Mexico Hilario Romero

o historian can write an accurate account of the area known today as the (as they were called during “Española Valley” without including the early ancestors of the Tewa Pueblo this time), providing detailed NIndians and the centuries before their eventual migration to this lush valley in the information on their agriculture, 1200s. After all, the city of Española is located on the Pueblo Land Grants of both economy and customs, from Okeh’Owingue and Kha’P’oo’Owingue (San Juan and Santa Clara pueblos). Also, Zacatecas north to Tuah Tah the abandoned village of “La Cañada,” which was a small ranching village since the (Taos Pueblo). Soon the valley 1600s, was repopulated by the Tano people who migrated there from San Lázaro would accommodate a new and San Cristóbal pueblos. Fifteen years after the Great Pueblo Revolt, La Villa de group of pioneers searching for Santa Cruz de la Cañada de los Españoles Mejicanos was re-founded, in 1695, as the a fresh start on life, who were seat of government for all of northern New Mexico. willing to make many sacrifices to survive in this special place. 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, In 1595, Rey Felipe II de Kha’P’oo’Owingue and the D&RGW negotiated a right-of-way. This railroad station España (King Phillip II of would be later named after “la Española” (the Spanish lady) who opened a restaurant Spain) approved a request from next to the station. From 1880 forward, the station and the town that grew around Antonio Mendoza, Virrey de this right-of-way would be known by that name. It would extend, eventually, to the Nueva España (vice-king of old villages of La Mesilla and San Pedro to the south, Okeh’Owingue and Los Ranchos México) to settle La Frontera del to the north, Santa Cruz de la Cañada to the east, and La Vega de los Vigiles to the west. Norte de la Nueva España (later to be called “Nuevo Méjico”). Context of a Complex Community The Virrey set up a bidding People had been traveling through and creating communities in and around the process to establish a colony and to secure an “Adelantado”—a wealthy individual spacious northern Río Grande valley for many centuries prior to the arrival of the with leadership skills—to organize and equip (at the Adelantado’s own expense) a first Spanish explorers. The first peoples were the Clovis pre-Cochise hunters and large group of soldier-colonists who agreed to undertake a long, dangerous journey gatherers, followed by the Cochise peoples, who domesticated the turkey and dog to a distant land and settle among local tribal residents. Juan de Oñate’s bid was and began to develop agriculture. These Pueblo ancestors fished in what we now call chosen, and he was named the Adelantado to lead the colonists north in search of the Río Grande, hunted in the bosque del río, and followed the game that lived in this a suitable place to settle. 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 Oñate’s soldiers arrived in July 1598 at Okeh’Owingue and set up camp in the south knowledge was carried on to the Anasazi, who slowly migrated into the Tsama (now plaza. Following the harsh winter, Oñate moved the colony to the other side of the known as Chama) and Ojo Caliente valleys where they established pueblos along Río del Norte at Yuqueyungue. They built a small plaza and church near the site, but the Río Tsama and Río Ojo Caliente. They came from Mesa Verde (now southwestern the community struggled because of Oñate’s constant absence and neglect due to Colorado) and the Azteca Pueblo northeast of Farmington. They moved onward his hunger for gold, silver and other precious metals. This was demonstrated when and settled at Tsi’Ping, Poshuwengueh and Kah’p’oo’in’ko’hu’u (Leaf Water) on the the colonists at Okeh’Owingue ran out of staples and were fed by the Tewas in the Río Tsama and established other smaller sites that extended north to Posi’owengueh fall of 1598. They ate guajolotl (domesticated turkey), camotl (sweet potato), maíz directly above the Ojo Caliente springs. By the early 1200s, these hardy ancestors (corn—in many forms), calabacín (squash), calabaza (pumpkin), chile and a variety had made their way into the valleys at Puyé, Tsánkawi, Tsewadi and eventually along of other wild meats and vegetables. This was the first “Thanksgiving,” celebrated 22 the Río del Norte, where the Tewas are located today. These early Pueblo people also years before the arrival of the first English immigrants at Plymouth Rock. continued on page 8 migrated into the Río del Norte valley, due to the Dineh or Apachis de Nabajú and Yuta (Navajo and Ute) raids.

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 Historic photo of the pueblo of Ohkay Owingeh expeditions would follow 40 years later, in 1580, to report on the pueblos de indios www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 7 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 Zaldívar- Oñate, 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 The church at Santa Cruz de la Cañada, 1872 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 Tsewadi, La Cañada & La Villa de Santa Cruz de La Cañada de los was held and the colonists reenacted the first play in North America. Los Moros y Españoles Mejicanos del Rey Nuestro Señor Don Carlos Segundo Early Pueblo villages in the area now occupied by Santa Cruz, Cuartélez, and La Cristianos (The Moors and the Christians) portrayed on horseback the overcoming Puebla on the Río Santa Cruz were very important to the Tewas. Other important of the Arab empire by the Christians of Spain. 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 Juan de Oñate was waging war against the the cañadas. These villages were settled in the early 1200s, and according to María pueblos, when his orders were to set up a colony. 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). By 1608 Juan de Oñate was replaced as Gobernador de Nuebo Méjico by his son Cristóbal Some settlers from San Gabriel migrated to “La Cañada” in the early 1600s and de Oñate, who became interim governor. Juan was recalled to México to answer for established a series of rancherías in the valley along the Río de la Cañada, as it might his behavior as gobernador during the 10 years he was in office. Life at San Gabriel, have been called. They built houses and farmed the fertile lands along the river bottom the first capital of Nuebo Méjico, 1600-1607, was extremely difficult because the and revived the dormant irrigation canals carved out by the early Tewas who farmed settlers had to design the diversions of the Río Tsama and the Río del Norte and the area before them. Life was dangerous. Hostile tribes attacked these rancherías dig new acequias (irrigation ditches). They then had to clean, level and plow large throughout the 1600s until 1680, when the Great Pueblo Revolt removed them from agricultural fields and learn when, what and how to plant from their Tewa neighbors. their homes as they ran for their lives to Santa Fé. These settlers escaped south to El Even though the Spanish settlers had knowledge of farming, they were in a new and Paso del Río del Norte (Ciudad Juárez), where they remained for 13 hard years trying unknown land and realized the help of their Pueblo neighbors was invaluable. They to farm and ranch in a very harsh environment. The Tano people of the Galisteo area also shared seeds they brought from México and Spain and fruit tree sprouts for eventually migrated to “La Cañada” after the revolt, due to Apachi, Yuta and Dineh transplanting. The fields where they planted are still being used today for farming. raids, and farmed the cañada until 1695, the year when Diego de Vargas granted the The village that emerged from that time is now called Chamita. During this same land to a mixed group of españoles-mejicanos and former La Cañada residents. The timeframe, the Pueblos of Okeh’Owingue and Kha’P’oo’Owingue were planting crops land grant was titled: “La Villa de Santa Cruz de la Cañada de los Españoles Mejicanos in the area six miles south of Okeh and two miles north of Kha’P’oo’Owingue. 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 Española Okeh’Owingue and other Tewa pueblos, but the majority of them left for the villages By Camilla Trujillo of the Moquis (today’s Hopis). This move caused friction with the Tewas, and the Images of America Series - Arcadia Publishing (ISBN: 9780738579672) 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 After retiring from 25 years as artist-in-residence at northern New Mexico schools, Spaniards from defeating them and also demanded concessions from the Spanish. 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 Life during the first 10 years of the Santa Cruz land grant was difficult. The new Española Valley. settlers were not like the rugged pioneers who first settled the area. Diego de Vargas “Española,” Trujillo says, “had been a complex concentrated his governorship on the rebuilding of Santa Fé and fighting the Tewas. community of about 20 villages, three Indian pueblos Miguel de Quintana, who came from México City at the age of 22, according to Fray and a small city.” The scope of her book ranges from Angélico Chávez in his genealogical work, Origins of New Mexico Families, lived the “El Encuentro,” the first meeting between the Spanish colonists and the Pueblo inhabitants of the upper Río remainder of his life in Santa Cruz de la Cañada, had a large family, was a poet and Grande—to the establishment of the first capital of composer of “coloquias” (cultural poetic two-person dialogues) and died in April of New Mexico, San Gabriel del Yungue, with its river 1748. Many current Santa Cruz residents trace their lineage to him. cobble foundations—to the American invasion in the mid-19th century—to the Manhattan Project and its La Villa de Santa Cruz de la Cañada was the second official “Villa” in La Provincia economic interdependence with the Española Valley de Nuebo Méjico, with La Villa Real de San Francisco de Asís de la Santa Fé as the first one hundred years later. The book’s final chapter, “La and also the capital of the provincia. Santa Cruz de la Cañada would become the Cosecha” (The Harvest), focuses on historic local food northernmost jurisdiction for civil and military government and church affairs and production including molinos (flour mills) that were built over acequias or creeks, remain a center of major activity throughout the Spanish, Mexican and half of the and apple and chile production, which was aided by the Chili Line railroad that served Española from 1880 to 1941. 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 book is available at Hastings in Santa Fe, the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market and the The re-colonization began on the south side of the Río Santa Cruz, where the Tano 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 Pueblos had relocated from their homelands in the Galisteo area during the time also be ordered online: www.arcadiapublishing.com/9780738579672/Espanola the Spanish were in exile. The first group of settlers, mostly from Nuebo Méjico, who continued on page 31

8 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 9 Reflections on the Española Plaza Story and photos by Thomas H. Guthrie

hen I tell people I find the to remake its public identity. Española Plaza fascinating, I Converting a mercantile district into oftenW encounter disbelief. I hear that a Spanish-style plaza is difficult. the plaza is an empty wasteland, a After half a century of automobile- failed social project, or the unfortunate centered town planning and sprawl, result of Mayor Richard Lucero’s it is probably inevitable that the plaza grandiose dreams. I myself see the would function more like an urban 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. Misión-Convento and bandstand Plazas were the heart of both Pueblo Northern New Mexico according to the Plaza Prospectus. and Spanish town planning. Almost Regional Art Center has Ironically, brothers Frank and George all the settlements around Española operated a gift shop and Bond, who came to Española in have plazas. Española, though, was a gallery in the Convento the 1880s, hardly embodied the railroad town established in the 1880s. and offered art classes spirit of harmonious coexistence the As such, it had a main street—the mark The Bond House in the old post office plaza celebrates. They acquired large of Anglo-American enterprise—rather (which closed in 2009). land interests, became successful than a plaza. park than a traditional plaza. Two sheep merchants, and dominated major highways converge just east of Two themes compete on the plaza: Nuevomexicano ranchers. In 1941 the rail line that made Española the site, dividing the plaza from the commemorating the Spanish a regional center for agricultural rest of town. Original plaza plans colonization of New Mexico and The crown jewel of the plaza is the commerce was abandoned. Two years promised “gardens, flowers, trees, celebrating the valley’s “tricultural” Misión-Convento, an adobe structure later, the government established lawns and greenery,” typical of public completed in 1996. The Misión is a what would become Los Alamos parks in wetter parts of the country. The plaza exhibits bold, representation of the church Spaniards National Laboratory. The Española Maintaining even modest vegetation built in 1598 at San Gabriel, the Valley has borne “the Lab’s” social on the plaza has required steady contradictory responses first Spanish capital of New Mexico. and environmental costs ever since. irrigation. Relocating the church from its original Meanwhile, as northern New Mexico to colonialism. site at Ohkay Owingeh appropriates transitioned from an agricultural to a People complain that the plaza heritage. The “Arches of the Alhambra” some of the region’s most important tourist economy, Española’s railroad is deserted. Yet several recent commemorate Spain’s defeat of the history for the city. In the 1990s the origins became a liability. Española developments have increased its vitality Moors and Columbus’s voyage in ACLU charged that the Misión, built was less “modern” than Los Alamos and suggest its potential. A veterans’ 1492, two events that paved the way on public land with public funds, but less “traditional” than the Pueblo memorial (completed in 2003) and for the Spanish conquest of New violated the constitutional separation and Spanish colonial settlements that a bandstand (2008) have partially Mexico. They thus symbolize European of church and state. The city countered attracted tourists. The city launched the relieved the plaza’s vast emptiness and colonial dominance and a culturally that the building was not a church but Plaza project in the late 1980s in order attracted locals. And since 2010 the and religiously purified Spain in the heart of the Española Northern NM Regional Art Center Events Valley. Water restrictions have The Northern New Mexico Regional Art Center, a nonprofit organization based in the frequently left the attached Plaza de Española, is under contract with the city of Española to provide arts education waterfall and fountain dry, management services to the community. NNMRAC operates the Convento Gallery, though, diminishing the a gift shop and visitor center on the plaza. The organization also provides after-school ensemble’s grandeur. art, music/chorus classes year-round, including a Summer Arts Academy. Three buildings planned for 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 the plaza—a Native American 11. The annual NNMRAC Santo Niño Festival of the Artists will hold its benefit Center, Spanish Cultural performances on April 17 and 18. Friday evening will see an opening reception in the Center, and Commemorative Convento Gallery with a free showing of a film about the arts in New Mexico in the Spanish Colonization Center— Misión on the plaza. On Saturday from 9 am-4 pm there will be artists’ booths, food, have never been built, mostly dance and music on the plaza. At 2 pm is a ticketed performance of the Española due to insufficient funding. Valley High School Chorus and the NNMRAC Española Valley Children’s Choir, under the direction of Brian Wingard, music teacher at Española High School. The Bond House, which There will also be a performance by local Pueblo dancers and a Hispanic children’s overlooks the plaza, was dance group. Tickets for the 2 pm performance are on sale. supposed to serve as “a historical For information about NNMRAC, these and many more events, contact museum for the preservation NNMRAC’s executive director, John D. Werenko, at 505.500.7126, or email of the Anglo culture and the [email protected] mercantile business system,” “Arches of the Alhambra,” Española Plaza.

10 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com Recognizing Heritage The Politics of Multiculturalism in New Mexico a museum. However, the installation Thomas H. Guthrie, University of Nebraska Press, 2013, 336 pp. in 2003 of reredos inside the Misión In 2006 Congress established the Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area to recognize the featuring images of New Mexico 400-year “coexistence” of Spanish and Indian peoples in New Mexico and their place in the United churches only further complicates the States. National heritage areas enable local communities to partner with the federal government meaning of this intriguing building. 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 The plaza is a national space. It received and preserve Native American and Hispanic heritage in northern New Mexico. its first federal funding in 1989. Senator The federal government’s recognition of New Mexico’s cultural distinctiveness contrasts sharply Pete Dominici, Congressman Bill with its earlier efforts to wipe out Indian and Hispanic cultures. Yet even celebrations of cultural Richardson, and other state and federal difference can reinforce colonial hierarchies. Multiculturalism and colonialism have overlapped in officials participated in the plaza’s New Mexico since the 19th century, when Anglo-American colonists began promoting the region’s unique cultures dedication in 1990. The American flag and exotic images to tourists. Thomas H. Guthrie analyzes the relationship between heritage preservation and ongoing struggles raised for the dedication had flown over land, water and identity resulting from American colonization. He uses four sites within the heritage area to illustrate the over the US Capitol. An image of 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 Misión appeared on a 1998 US postage of recognition and suggests steps toward a more just multiculturalism that fundamentally challenges colonial inequalities. 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.

Far from being a meaningless void, the Española Plaza exhibits bold, contradictory responses to colonialism. It advances a familiar discourse of multicultural coexistence even 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 www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 11 12 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com 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 mountainI 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 © Palace of the Governors Photo Archive © Palace of Posu Owingeh, Posi Owingeh, Puyé The pueblo of Santa Clara in an early 20th-century photo by John K. Hillers and many others villages that feed our valley’s memory and spirit. peoples. This is evident in our language these surrounding landscapes. Pin is connecting our life values conducive through borrowed words, food and the Tewa word for mountain, but it also to our homelands. We are at a crucial The Río Grande dress. Beyond the Southwest we traded means heart. In many respects, these state to not only remember, but, more weaves ancestral coral and shells, which continue to be are one and the same, as the heart of importantly, to act and center our life used in dance, as well as other items like homelands that feed mountains is often the heart and soul on core values of sigicandi—love, care, macaw feathers. The Southwest was a of all ecological life. respect. Ewanini Kuundawhoha. i our valley’s memory trading hub for Mesoamericans and Puebloans between the 11th and 14th Tewa scholar Alfonso Ortiz stated, Matthew J. Martínez, and spirit. centuries. Mexica and other Nahuatl- “One is not born a Tewa, but rather one Ph.D., is an assistant Pueblo people have always been speaking Mesoamerican people may is made a Tewa. Once made, one has professor of Pueblo Indian writing history, and we continue to be have bartered beans for gems unique to work hard continuously throughout Studies and director of the Northern Pueblos Institute shaped by texts in pottery, weavings and to the Southwest, such as turquoise. one’s life to remain a Tewa.” This is petroglyphs that document migration at Northern New Mexico Turquoise is found as far away as ever constant, and remaining Tewa College in Española. patterns and seasonal markers. Often Chichén Itzá, México, in a region can be remembered and renewed in a not fully knowing or understanding where it is known that no turquoise variety of ways. One significant step is them entirely, we continue to call upon mines existed. From a spiritual and them in prayer, dance and ceremony cultural perspective, Pueblos have Northern Río Grande National Heritage for guidance. Our dance rhythms and always practiced a way of life free of motions are stories within stories. We Area Management Plan Approved geographic borders but still remain Approval Brings Increased Funding to New Mexico are a people of stories. Through story life situated within a localized homeland. is created, and it is this poeh (pathway) The Northern Río Grande National Heritage Area (NRGNHA) management we continue to follow. Remembering Our directions are land-based. There plan has been approved by the Secretary of the Department of the Interior. The and honoring place is the essence of is no concept of north, south, east approval makes the nonprofit Heritage Area eligible to receive up to $300,000 each Pueblo people—townspeople. The and west per se. For example, as Tewa year through the National Park Service. The funds will be used to help sustain the place we honor also embodies the spirit people our “east” is known as Than piye, cultural traditions, landscapes, environment, languages and architecture of the area, which encompasses Taos, Río Arriba and Santa Fe counties. of the greater Española Valley. where the sun rises. Our mountains define our boundaries; Tsay Shu Pin, The NRGNHA board is comprised of community members who live, work and Indigenous peoples are inherently Tsikomu Pin, Kuuseng Pin, Oku Pin, hold fast to the enduring cultural and heritage traditions that make the northern connected to the land. We all have are all surrounding sacred mountains. Río Grande area so unique, which is why it was designated by Congress in 2006. creation stories that include emergence Depending on their geographic location 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 from lakes and mountains. Everything to mountain ranges, each pueblo has its is connected. Nothing is separate, character that our kids get reacquainted with our heritage, so they understand and own unique reverence for such places. take pride in who they are.” meaning that rock people, cloud Unlike other tribes that relocated or people, corn people, animal people more “nomadic” tribes, Pueblo people 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 people people are all related. The are place-based. Just like the United notions of relations and relationality and its multicultural heritage to take a prominent place in America’s history and States turns to the National Archives story.” Board President and Taos Pueblo tribal member Vernon Luján said, “This fundamentally define Pueblo people in in D.C., or the Catholic Church to the plan sets the course for the NRGNHA for implementing cultural preservation, how we experience the world. Vatican in Rome, our Pueblo memory educational outreach and fundraising that will benefit our communities.” The Pueblos have always had a and archives are located here. Since For more information, call 505.753.0937 or 505.660.5882, or e-mail riograndenhadir@ relationship with other indigenous time immemorial, we still return for windstream.net knowledge and spiritual feedings to www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 13 Cultivating a Future: Where Do We Go From Here? Comments to the Chama Peak Land Alliance, Los Ojos, NM

Arturo Sandoval efore we discuss where we go drug overdoses. Our school systems are the mid-19th century realize from here, it’s important for churning out youth unable to read, write their dream of a Manifest Bus to understand where we’ve been or do math at a college level. Our lifestyles Destiny. New Mexico was historically and how we’ve gotten to not immune to this colonial where we are today. We need to heal domination. Although some of us here in the north like The sobering reality is that northern ourselves—economically, to subscribe to the notion New Mexico is in a deep crisis— psychologically and that northern New Mexico economically, socially, educationally was a Shangri-La, a pastoral, and psychologically. This current educationally. idealized culture isolated from state of affairs has been caused by suck: we suffer from high levels of obesity, the mainstream impacts of US the cumulative effect of American diabetes, alcoholism, teen suicide. We are colonization, the reality has colonial practices; by the collapse at the bottom of the barrel in almost every been starkly different. of traditional Hispano and Native economic indicator for poverty. It’s not American cultures under the pressure By the 1880s, for example, the

just Río Arriba County—this is true of all © Seth R offman of modernity over the past 150 years; 1 Chili Line had been completed of the northern New Mexico counties. Arturo Sandoval at Ganados del Valle in Los Ojos and by a fundamental and critical lack from Antonito, Colo. to of visionary leadership by our Nuevo How did we get to this point of Española. It is important to note this multiple negative impacts, but most Mexicano leaders. dysfunction and cultural disintegration? because it was an integral part of the noteworthy to me were that: capitalist exploitation of northern New et s look at two major factors Nuevo Mexicanos were forced to The statistics and data that indicate we L ’ . Mexico. Capitalists like Frank Bond • become itinerant, low-paid wage are in crisis are depressing: Río Arriba First, America’s invasion of México in in the Española Valley turned most earners who worked picking crops County leads the nation in per capita 1846-48 was intended to create colonial Mexicanos in the Río Arriba area into in Colorado and across the West; to deaths from both heroin and prescription riches and help US political leaders in sharecroppers who raised sheep. At his work as sheepherders in Montana high point, Bond and other outside and Wyoming; and move away from Tierra Sagrada American capitalists were shipping up sustainable ranching and farming; Arturo Sandoval to 500,000 sheep per season north on the Chili Line to markets in Denver, • Traditional cultures lost access to I was born and raised in the Española Valley, which is my homeland—my Tierra Chicago and elsewhere. In that process, and use of natural resources that Sagrada (sacred earth). I did not realize it then, except perhaps intuitively, but they exploited Mexicano and Native had been degraded to the point of looking back over five decades, I realize now that I was raised as much by “place” as I was by family and by community. American shepherds and converted not providing a sustainable lifestyle them into poor, underpaid laborers. So for norteños. As a result, we have not Our toys were “palitos de leña” that we turned into horses that we raced across much so that beginning in the early been able to successfully live off the 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 1910s and through the late 1920s land for more than a century; and, than anything else, we used our imaginations and the place in which we lived to and 1930s, people in the Río Arriba Traditional norteño culture was entertain and educate ourselves. were suffering from well-documented • blamed for the degradation and loss widespread hunger and malnutrition. My home was located a few hundred yards from the boundary with Santa Clara of grasslands, forests and watersheds. Pueblo. The greatest part of neighboring pueblo land was that it was open and These outside American capitalists also This blame game continues today and undeveloped. I had a playground bigger than as far as I could walk in eight hours degraded grasslands to a point of almost is the basis for much of current Forest or even 10 hours. This playground was filled with piñón and cedar, crisscrossed no return. Once the rangelands became Service policies limiting norteño with arroyos, singing with breezes that dried the sweat from my brow as I played severely degraded, Bond and others access to grazing permits on public with my brothers and my friends over the hills and in the arroyos. moved on to other areas of the West to lands and to the limited commercial Every day, I saw rabbits, lizards, coyotes, rattlesnakes, owls, bluebirds, sparrows, continue the cycle of exploitation. worms. I saw and heard birds I still don’t know the names of, but whose songs timbering that still occurs. echo in my dreams each night. The same process of outside capitalist Second, Mexicanos/Chicanos/norteños investors exploiting local timber I learned to swim in the Río Grande, where we built our own crude diving board in Río Arriba suffer from a lack of resources also occurred during the above a quiet pool along the Río. There, we kept from drowning by dog-paddling educated, insightful, selfless leaders. same period. Mexicanos and Native our way furiously from one end of the pool to the other. We played Tarzan in the What our Mexicano opinion leaders bosque, where it was eternally cool and dark throughout the hot summer days. Americans of the Río Arriba became and elected leaders offer us instead is laborers, felling and preparing timber for I was raised by my parents, by my older siblings, by my tíos y tías, by my teachers, a pastoral vision to solve the difficult use as railroad ties and other uses outside by my vecinos. But I was raised as well by my “place”—my Tierra Sagrada. I was problems caused by 100 years of complex hugged each night by the huge red-faced sun—embarrassed because he tired of New Mexico. Millions and millions modernity and capitalism. The vision before I did—setting over my playground in the west. I was greeted each morning of board feet of commercial timber were offered by our elected Mexicano leaders by the cu-cu-ru-cu-coo from the gallinero. Western breezes tickled me. Birds harvested from the Santa Fe and Carson talked to me. Trees danced with me. Brujos prowled through my neighborhood is a back-to-the-future view. They say, National Forests, and neither forest has at night, disguised as snakes and owls. “Place” dirtied my clothes, wrung sweat “If we can only get the land grants back, ever recovered from this exploitation. 2 out of my boy’s body, made me late for supper, waited up all night for me, and if we can keep our acequias working, we made me whole. Arturo Sandoval was born in Santa Cruz de la Cañada, NM, and raised in Española, The end result of these massive can solve all of our problems.” NM. He currently lives in Albuquerque, NM. American capitalist economic activities in northern New Mexico created continued on page 15

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There 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 land- grant 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 continued on page 28 www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 15 GREEN FIRE TIMES Needs a commission ad salesperson for the Albuquerque area. Please email résumé to: [email protected]

16 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com What Does Public Health Look Like in Española? Ana Malinalli X. Gutiérrez Sisneros

he heart of northern New Mexico, is spiritually bankrupt (soul illness), only to Northern New Mexico College, hoping to where cultures unite,” says the die from cirrhosis a few years later? increase that 16.9-percent college degree “websiteT for the city of Española (http:// rate in Española. Nursing is one of the most In trying to combat this issue, I learned in a www.cityofespanola.org/). It is where I rewarding careers on the globe. Nurses have UNM Health Education class last fall that have chosen to live for the last 30 years empathy for people, for social justice issues, Canada decided to improve the health of and raise my two children, now grown. and they work to create justice, to ameliorate the public that uses IV drugs by setting up a changing in this generation. But in this Why did I choose it? Well, there are many the suffering of la gente. clinic in Vancouver where people can reduce generation, too, we are beginning again to living cultures here, and languages are still the risk of harm (premature death from To live well and thrive we must eat well. grow our food, and we eat it fresh. Pues, spoken that I was hearing less and less overdose, decreased HIV and hepatitis C How is that possible if the per capita gracias a Dios. of in Albuquerque. I am comfortable in rates) by having clean places where they can income is so low? Even with disappearing Española; it is like a perpetual South Valley. The heart of northern New Mexico is go to inject their drugs. This place is called public assistance and few jobs, it is possible, It’s rural, there are still dirt roads, life is at a its people, millennia strong, resilient to “InSite.” It is North America’s only legal, with a return to farming, to growing our slower (and lower, for the cars that make us hardships, with many in good health. For safe, drug-injection center. A banner outside own food. We were agrarian people, with famous) pace, and we can have farm animals those who don’t have health, they are still the clinic reads: “InSite saves lives.” There is a little time to be depressed, anxious, drinking in our yards. (I live just on the line of the our familia, to be treated with dignity—this 2013 CNN article on this important, brave, or drugging when we were busy working city limits, where this is true.) is how cultures unite. Río Arriba’s health is ($3-million/year) endeavor at http://www. the fields. “The end of that work outside was Río Arriba’s wealth. i I first came to Española for a nursing job cnn.com/2013/04/11/world/americas/ the end of our mental health, so to speak,” interview in 1983 at the PHS Española wus-canada-drug-safe-haven/ says my friend Ben Tafoya. This is why the Ana Malinalli X. Hospital. I saw there that the patients in model of farming, the temazcal (house of Gutiérrez Sisneros, PhD(c), ABD, MSN, each room had several visitors, so I asked vapors), the use of curanderismo and animal Education is the MALAS, APRN, the nurse giving me a tour why that was. tending was born, as part of the treatment PMHCNS-BC, CCM, She replied that families are important answer to poverty, and modalities at the HOY Recovery Program M.I.T., is a nursing for creating a healing environment, so only ending poverty in the Lyden Valley area. This is also how doctoral candidate at four, five, six visitors per patient was not the Delancey Street Foundation in Alcalde NMSU. Her private unusual. I liked that and got the job at the will improve health. and the Eight Northern Indian Pueblo practice in Española is called MalinalCo Nursing Consultants. She is also an adjunct faculty professor in only hospital I have ever worked in during Council’s New Moon Lodge in Ohkay Unfortunately, alcohol and drug abuse are NNMC’s ADN and RN to BSN Nursing Programs my 30-year career. This is how I got to see Owingeh operate: treatment is based on found in nearly every community in the and the ¡EXITO! mental health counselor at NNMC. and know the health of the people, nuestros values of traditional living, relearning that 505.690.0213, [email protected] world, and if you look at New Mexico prójimos, whom I have come to love deeply. work ethic that was once strong, now health data in the excellent NMDOH State I gradually came to understand the many of Health In New Mexico 2013 Report issues that affect health and the health you’ll see correlations of low socioeconomic disparities that continue today. status and health (http://nmhealth.org/ So, what does the health of the public look ERD/HealthData/documents/NMDOH- like in Española? The Río Arriba County Report-SOHNM-2013.pdf ). (RAC) Health Profile Update (2008, RAC So, what is the average per-capita income Health Council and RAC Health and for a person living in Española, where Human Services Dept.) says: “We define 10,224 people in 3,992 households reside public health broadly to entail all aspects (2012)? It’s $19,059, and 26.3 percent of of the well-being of an individual, family or these people live below the poverty level, community to include body, mind and soul.” compared to the New Mexico average of All aspects of well-being, in the holistic 19.5 percent, or the US average, whereas, sense, would encompass chronic illnesses “in 2010, 15.1 percent of all persons lived such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension and in poverty. The poverty rate in 2010 was the diseases of the mind, such as depression, highest poverty rate since 1993”(National anxiety and trauma-related issues, often Poverty Center, 2014, http://www.npc. diagnosed as PTSD. The health of the soul umich.edu/poverty/). is affected by culture-bound syndromes such as susto (magical fright) and ataque de What is the average education level nervios (a nerve[ous] attack), as I have come for a person living in Española? For to understand from oral healing traditions persons age 25+ (2008-2012), 74.9 and in the DSM-IV, TR (American percent are high school graduates and Psychiatric Association, 2000). What if a 16.9 percent have a bachelor’s degree or community member, for example, uses IV higher (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/ drugs to escape from incidents of incest states/35/3525170.html). and sexual abuse as a child (mind aspect of health) and contracts hepatitis C (physical To me, and to many, education is the answer illness), lives within the cycle of addiction, to poverty, and only ending poverty will which is extremely difficult to heal from improve health, which is part of the reason (mind and body), to a point that he or she I am a teacher. I am a teacher of nurses, at www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 17 18 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com Hispanos in the Valley of Sorrows Overdoses and Suicides in North Central New Mexico W. Azul La Luz

lease picture this: you walk into a about by a loss of social and personal or combining substances when they are cancer ward in a hospital; with you norms and values), post-Marxism older. They know better. isP a knowledgeable oncologist. He looks (unequal distribution of wealth with Further, treating drug overdose and around at the terminally ill patients, a small number of people owning suicide as a “personal trouble,” an many of whom are in various stages of most of the wealth and the means of individual-level problem in the Valley, dying from their respective cancers in producing wealth), current sociological is a major limitation of current health what would be horrific pain were it not drug-addiction theory (the belief that for the large dosages of pain medication. addiction may be a physical illness that The oncologist turns to you and says, may be also brought about through social “We really need to cure these people of means), colonialism (colonization of a their drug addiction.” people by another more powerful group), historical/cultural trauma (the pain and The essence of that statement is exactly suffering brought about through the what the “accidental drug overdose” © Alejandro López (3) destruction of cultural norms over a long deaths are about. An epidemic of drug period of time), and racial and ethnic overdose deaths has been plaguing inequality. oppressions and resistance would shed North Central New Mexico (the Valley) light on the social forces that shape for more than a decade now. And all the The research design employed both policy. Public health programs must be community health and viability. i institutions that should be looking at qualitative and quantitative data, implemented that do more than attempt the problem as a public health issue are including data from the New Mexico to treat substance abuse. My findings W. Azul La Luz Báez, PhD, MA, MA, CCHt, is a medical sociologist, executive director looking at it as only an issue of addiction Office of the Medical Investigator (1995- strongly suggest that a community-level of NuevaLight Enterprises and executive and poor self-control. 2006), historical analysis, participant approach that includes an analysis of director of Silver Horizons New Mexico, Inc., observation, in-depth interviews, and the intersecting structural, disciplinary, based in Albuquerque. 505.795.5166, azul@ The problem is a autoethnography and positionality. This powerfully historic, and interpersonal azullaluz.com mixed-method approach allowed for public health issue. the three-sided analysis of unlike data. I OP-ED: found that there was an overlap between New Mexico has had the highest per Drug Addiction in the Española Valley the demographic—age, sex, race, socio- capita drug overdose death rate in the Drug addiction in the Española Valley and northern New Mexico is a real economic status, etc.—profiles of suicide United States, about 18 per 100,000, concern. The addicts are mostly victims of heroin, cocaine, crack, alcohol abuse and overdose victims. I argued that the and painkillers. However, meth, which has become an increasing problem in the for more than 10 years. The USA’s rates effects of colonization and “street-level state, has affected many youth and people between the ages of 22 and 28. It is very for the same period are about five per trauma” (SLT), shocks of repeated discomforting that there are large percentages of unemployed youth and also young 100,000. North Central New Mexico strong emotional, psychological, physical children that have succumbed to this. (the Valley) has the highest per capita blows, weaken and distort a person or What is particularly distressing with this epidemic is that we “accidental drug overdose” death rate in even a group’s perception of the world have no consistent programs that have been effective to combat all of New Mexico, ranging from 42 to around them. When untreated, SLT this destructive way of life. Help educate our community and 72 per 100,000 over the course of the volunteer your time. It’s a community issue! There are many often leads to deathly personal action 11 years examined, from 1995 to 2006. signs of a person falling victim to substance abuse that can such as “accidental drug overdoses” easily be identified. The fight against drug addiction needs What are the differences and similarities and suicide. SLT leads to a condition additional resources and out-of-the-box solutions. between victims of “accidental drug I call “cultural-post traumatic stress Probate Judge Marlo R. Martínez is president/CEO of New Mexico overdoses” and suicide victims in the disorder” (C-PTSD). C-PTSD may Office Products, LLC in Española. Valley (as subjectively designated by the be shaped by the loss of arable land Office of the Medical Investigator)? (despite high home ownership), loss How can we understand these high rates of traditional and cultural norms, the of suicide among the Valley residents? whole-cloth invention of a mythological What are the race, class and gender and superficial ethnic consciousness Efficient and structures that set the backdrop for the and loss of meaningful social bonds to high rates of overdose and suicide? My community. When C-PTSD and SLT resourceful. research examined the social forces that are coupled with a substance-abuse may contribute to the overdose epidemic career, the combination of all three often proves lethal in Valley women and Wayne Steen ChFC CLU, Agent among the predominantly Hispanic 3005 S St Francis, Suite 1E I'm eco-friendly too. population in North Central New men over the age of 35. They learned Santa Fe, NM 87505 Whether it's local or global, every little bit we do makes Mexico. My analysis of 34 interviews of “pharmacology” in their teens when they Bus: 505-820-7926 [email protected] a difference. That's just part of being there. active illicit drug users and 10 interviews first began using; those illicit substance- Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.® of family members and professionals users that didn’t learn quickly don’t grow CALL ME TODAY. in the Española Valley was anchored much beyond their teens. Contrary to in sociological analysis, concepts and the prevailing wisdom, rarely do they statefarm.com/green literature—Anomic Suicide (brought make an accidental mistake in dosage 0901002.1 State Farm, Bloomington, IL www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 19 Reclaiming Española Story and photos by Alejandro López

or the last week, I have experienced Española on foot and visited countless use and destitution in the valley. Santa Cruz is deserving of respect, love and attention. sites, including Santa Cruz, McCurdy, Fairview, Riverside, Cuartélez, Arroyo It will require careful assessment and restoration if it is ever to become a healthy living FSeco, San Pedro, El Alto de Española, Corral de Piedra, El Guique, Hernández, community and a symbol of regional self-sufficiency, beauty and vibrancy such as it was. El Duende, Ranchitos, El Llano and Santo Niño. As it turns out, Española, a In nearby McCurdy, I was pleasantly surprised by the sudden appearance of an old East centerless American commercial satellite, transposed to this community of old Coast prep school-looking, two-story red brick building now serving as the McCurdy Native American and Nuevo Mexicano villages in the late 1800s (which, over Charter School. It was built by Methodist missionaries early last century. In this and in the time, it absorbed) is not one place, but many. Each has its own geography, history, adjoining area of Fairview, there are a profusion of Protestant churches established soon architecture (or lack of ), set of old families and new, and, of course, its own income before and after the Second World War. Their mission was to convert to their particular bracket with wild fluctuations. denomination, the already-Catholic populations of the region, as well as to serve the people In the process of this walkabout I visited many places I have known since childhood, who were moving here from other parts of the country. The Anglo populations responsible as well as a few corners and interstices of the valley totally unfamiliar to me. I was for building these churches also brought with them businesses, health clinics, doctors, and profoundly moved by the exquisite silence and solitude of the 19th-century building eventually they built what is now the Presbyterian Española Hospital to provide modern and grounds of the old morada of my native Santa Cruz. Here I was able to hear medical services to the area population. Unfortunately, the breakup of the community into the commanding voices of my parents and the old folk who are no longer with us; myriad Protestant sects was one of the first processes of atomization to be experienced by the those whose archaic Mexicano speech will never be heard again—for the language local native communities, as indeed was their relegation to the lowest rungs of the economic and the values embedded in it, unless we have the will to act, will unfortunately ladder through the substitution of an agrarian barter economy for a wage-earning one. become extinguished. This population, together with many communities of Catholic nuns from the Midwest I was similarly inspired by the beauty and sanctity of the massive Santa Cruz who taught in the area Catholic schools, served as the model for la gente’s acquisition of Church, the largest adobe church in New Mexico, dating from the colonial period. the prevailing English-speaking cultural, linguistic and economic mores. The people of It was the seat of missionizing campaigns to the encircling native pueblos on the the Española valley learned them so well, that, for a least a century now, the valley has part of Franciscan priests in the 18th century. Today it serves as spiritual and social been exporting many of its most talented and prepared individuals to urban centers of hub for a sizeable part of the Nuevo Mexicano and Mexicano communities. What the country where they exercise positions of leadership. is saddening about Santa Cruz is that many of the old families that had persisted The residential sections of this area of Española are among the most prosperous and here for hundreds of years have, in recent times, either died out or succumbed to kempt of any in the Española Valley, although numerous other attractive middle-class the idea of making money, sold, and moved away, leaving their ancestral homes in subdivisions abound in nearly every sector of the community. This notwithstanding, both a state of disrepair or abandonment. Other properties, especially the old orchards the city and the valley are witnessing a virtual tsunami of closed and abandoned businesses, and hillsides, have become featureless subdivisions that have caused the narrow, homes and properties that constitute both an eyesore and a source of demoralization. winding roads of the community to be clogged with traffic. This fountainhead of Addressing this issue certainly ought to be one of the principal challenges that the mayoral northern New Mexico’s Mexicano culture, the second oldest and most powerful villa candidates and citizenry of the valley should concern themselves with at this time. of the Spanish colonial and Mexican periods, is now one of the epicenters of drug

20 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com As I approached Riverside Drive, the principal artery of the city, leading from one end of rooting of drug use, burglaries and criminality among the growing sector of youth town to the other, I was taken aback by the deafening roar of traffic and, in the evening- with dead-end lives. The rampant incidence of teen-age pregnancies signals that time, the display of so much neon and so many traffic lights that I have dubbed it “The yet another generation is likely to suffer the same kind of unnatural, constrictive Tokyo of Española.” It is a blinding and dizzying nightly spectacle. In this sector (near and pointless institutionalization that has so frustrated those who have gone before Allsups), with its string of locally owned businesses, national corporate franchises reign them. The transformation of the Española Valley from a “Valley of Sorrows” will supreme. Running north all the way to Walmart in Ranchitos, you can find any kind of require the multiplication of “Camino de Paz Montessori School” kinds of grassroots fast food, liquor, pharmaceuticals, car washes, auto parts, mechanic services, etc., but nary holistic initiatives. a clothing or furniture store. For pricier items, residents tend to make the trip either to On the other side of town, Mainstreet, the Bond House Museum and El Convento Santa Fe or Albuquerque. As a result, the city loses out on tremendous tax revenues, and were all very interesting, but for reasons other than those usually cited. On Mainstreet a once almost self-sufficient people similar to the Amish now supply almost nothing for I met the courageous young Victor Villalpando, who, while rapping and dancing hip themselves. The few food stores that exist on this route still do not keep Española and hop, filled the deserted street with his voice, passion and aspiration for a glorious indeed all of Río Arriba County from having the official designation of a “food desert.” existence for everyone. At the museum I ran into an old colleague, Senaida Hall, who A locally based community food co-op on Mainstreet (Paseo de Oñate) and a seasonal was only too happy to show me a 19th-century exhibit of elegant vintage women’s farmers’ market on Railroad Avenue are helping to ameliorate this situation, together clothing, when style and pizzazz were everything! From the Convento I was able with a slow but steady movement in reviving local agriculture. 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 What in the world could have happened the promise of a new life. to create such surreal juxtapositions? 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 Other places of immense interest in the Española Valley are the Camino de Paz Mountains. When the three of us found ourselves quite naturally speaking in Montessori School in Cuartélez, where I witnessed 15-year-old youths plowing fields Spanish, we stopped and asked ourselves, “What keeps us ordinarily from speaking with gentle but powerful Belgian horses. In fact, of anything that I experienced during our native language?” That engendered a lengthy discussion, which we vowed to the week, it was this school and its activities of animal husbandry, growing and producing continue each week. A generation or two ago, conversation and dialogue were a food and taking it to market, coupled with meaningful and related academic challenges, part of everyday life in this valley, but now, finding ourselves encapsulated in our that signaled the most hope for Española. fast-moving cars and tethered to our jobs when not to our computers, cell phones But with a 64 percent graduation rate for females and 45 percent for males throughout and flat-screen televisions, we infrequently pursue this social art, which keeps us Río Arriba County, it appears that mainstream schools in the area need to radically connected, thinking and above all, sane. reinvent themselves and provide some kind of land-based learning and experiences for continued on page 22 youth from land-based cultures. The alternative to this is the far costlier permanent

www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 21 Reclaiming Española continued from page 21 Living the Dream of Cooperation Up the road in El Guique, I and Friendship (In Tewa, Spanish and English) stopped to pay my respects at a descanso along the road, one Alejandro López with Tewa Translation of hundreds erected across the by Vickie Downey (Tesuque Pueblo) valley where people have met their Wi thaaa, thayan day t´ oe maa ihaydi, navi pon don ku? i taa idi hedi oe yoekan untimely deaths, mainly through heda oe aa kudi. Oe aa k´oe in ayyaa oe Kapo win heda in ayaa oe Santa Cruz win auto accidents. Most have been da nä’ i sawodi nan di da thaa hedi k’ema in di muu hedi dän pava wiyeh heda kuu a precipitated by alcohol, a substance oe k’o togi, i panteh wingindi dan kú i. Dän man ya’a, pin da heda änshaa, i nan da imported into the area by the i p’oe adi day tay paa’ i i nap´orkhuu I nap’oekhuu oe sogeh di, wina tayaa i khage’ truckload that we have come to nan di, i napoekhuu na pee i. way sebo.Hediho, wen kha haa shadeh wa, na bowa accept as a necessary evil. Further north such distortive and surreal juxtapositions di. Hedi oe phategi, heda na k’oeyeh ihaydi na uu p’pe ihaydi, i khuu e heda i pava still, I took a secondary road that led me that cannot but remind you of the end a di oe k’o toni. Hedi in shanki-i puwi, k’ema inadi. to the San José Church in Hernández, of the world?” I believe that the answer memorialized as it was by Ansel Adams’ lies not so much in this land and its Un día tras muchas horas de most famous photograph, Moonrise people as in the national psyche and trabajo, me eché en el pasto, me Over Hernández in 1941, just before Los capitalist economy, whose tendencies are dormí y soné. Soñé que los niños Alamos was established and its effects to level cultures and peoples it does not del Pueblo de Santa Clara y de in the region felt. Were he alive still, understand, sympathize with or whom it Santa Cruz que comparten esta Adams would be incredulous over the merely wishes to exploit. In this regard, hermosa tierra pudieran también piles of modern debris that have covered the Española Valley and most of northern compartir una gran amistad up the once breathtaking site and made New Mexico is not much different from mediante el compartimiento de it totally unremarkable, were it not for the Navajo or Sioux reservations that have una comida basada en pan y maíz the architectural power and simplicity of undergone similar kinds of prolonged and asados en el fuego de un horno the now mostly forgotten church. profoundly painful disruptive processes. común construido por ambos. Al Quite often the poor resident of Española unir nuestras manos mentes y corazones, hasta la tierra y el agua se convertirían en So shocking are the present changes feels himself to be but a cog in a coercive, ladrillos. Con cada uno de los adobes que se colocara con un sentido de interdependencia in the landscape and way of life of the highly bureaucratic, mega-complicated, y cooperación, el horno llegaría a nuevas alturas. Y como un poema o baile, a poco rato, se people that one must out of necessity expensive, impersonal, stressful and high- terminaría. Luego, dentro del horno, se prendería un fuego. Apagándose las brasas, el ask, “What in the world could have paced apparatus that generates material maíz y el pan se pondrían a asar hasta convertirse en el manjar de una fiesta entre amigos. happened in this valley to have created glut when successful and when not, just emptiness. It is no wonder that the breakdown in the Española Valley is rife One day after hours of work, I lay and on so many levels, for it is systemic. down on the grass, fell asleep and dreamt. I dreamt that the children This place of brokenness begs yet of Khapo and Santa Cruz who another question, one which of necessity share this beautiful land could must be answered within the proximity also share a great friendship based of our own hearts and hearths: “What on a shared meal of bread and can we do as a community to plot the corn baked in the fires of an horno

course of our future along healthier built by both. By joining hands, © Alejandro López (2) lines and not have to wait for solutions hearts and minds even the earth to drop down from the sky?” I believe and water could become building blocks. With every adobe set into place in a spirit that walking as much as we can through of interdependence and cooperation, the walls of the hearth would quickly go up. our communities, taking stock of And soon, like a poem or a dance, it would be finished. A fire would be lit and after the state of affairs, enjoining others the embers cooled, the gifts of corn and bread would bake in the common hearth in conversation and dialogue, and to slowly turn into the mainstay for a feast among friends. 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 Reclaiming Española Photo Captions and do that which we have pledged Page 20 (l-r): Victor Villalpando rapping on Mainstreet; corn and chile ristras; descanso; ourselves to do. i builder Lorenzo Galván; wood carver Manuel López of Chilí; Española Valley Jr. High School; traffic onR iverside Drive; youth learning to plow at Camino de Paz Montessori Alejandro López, a native of the Española School; Isaiah Valdez weaving at the Española Fiber Arts Center; old Arrow Motel sign; Valley, is a writer and photographer as well newspaper seller Patsy Garcia; Santa Cruz Catholic church as leader of service Page 21 (l-r): Española Farmer’s Market; Riverside Drive at night; view of the Santa learning projects Cruz Valley; carved wooden doors, Española Fiber Arts Center; Elder gentleman from such as murals and El Duende; Diego López, filmmaker; service station; La Tierra Montessori School other forms of public (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 art. Page 22: Descanso close to the plaza near Santa Cruz church

22 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 23 Love in the Valley of Infinity “We are now living for the promise of infinity”—Luís Peña Clarissa A. Durán

e are coming into a time of love and balance. We are being reborn spiritually Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) via the Energy of the Divine Feminine. No, this isn’t a woo-woo piece on Programs at Northern New Mexico College give our community the opportunity spirituality.W This is a story of the heart of Española. We are a people of complex to rediscover the prehistoric magic of engineering, biology, conceptual and cosmology made of our European ancestors who came to México, created life with our theoretical math. Technology such as coding is a reminder of ancient codices. We Aztec grandmothers, whose progeny came to El Norte and created life with our Tewa create communication pathways for the seen and unseen worlds through code. ancestors. We are Yo Soy Joaquín[’s] everything and nothing. We are La Raza Cósmica. STEM continues to explore the unseen and unknown often using “conventional” methods. A degree in STEM opens opportunities to not only work for a The greatest part of our cosmology is only now being born within us, through our work, government agency, but to open a local business and hire local people in this mix into our community. The Española Valley and surrounding areas are experiencing a of ancient art and modern science. 505.747.2100, www.nnmc.edu great coming together of organizations and individuals working to create community life balance through their actions filled with love and compassion. We are returning Española’s MainStreet Theater is open and across the street from to the ways of our ancestors using new technology. 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 Below are a few important examples of the reaffirmation of northern New Mexico Hassamer have created a space for our gifted youth and adults to strengthen our culture taking place in Española. We gain resiliency to the mainstream modern economy tradition of storytelling, through theater. They’ve also created a gathering space by revitalizing our part in the Earth’s ecology. This includes the Earth’s economy. We for our community. Last month, 1 Billion Rising for Justice Española held its day are not consumers. We are creators, lovers and children of Cosmic Life. We don’t have a of events at the theater. 505.753.0877, [email protected] 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 ¡El Tiempo! Nuevo México’s Chile Fest—held in conjunction with brought to New Mexico in 1935. Prior to that influx, northern New Mexico’s economy the Española Farmers’ Market, offers an opportunity to purchase local northern was based on subsistence living and barter. Nearly everyone in our communities was New Mexico chile that has been grown in the valley for hundreds of years. The land-rich and cash-poor. Moving away from that traditional economy and into the event, which is held on Labor Day, includes free chile roasting and the new cash economy has created cultural conflict as depicted in the sidebar. i crop’s cook-off, followed by a community meal and music. 505.231.1433, www. eltiemponm.org 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. Statistics Evidencing Española Valley’s WWWWW Problem with a Cash Economy Siete del Norte is creating a food hub for northern New Mexico through (US Census Data 2008-2012) a $750,000 federal grant. Río Arriba County has partnered with Siete del Norte Española new Mexico Persons below poverty level 26.3% 19.5% in seeking another $300,000 from the New Mexico Legislature. With over $1 Bachelor’s degree or higher, age 25+ 16.9% 25.6% million, Siete del Norte plans to revamp the old Hunter Ford buildings and create High school graduate or higher, age 25+ 74.9% 83.40% a commercial kitchen, outdoor farmers’ market, provide space for the Española Per capita money income in past 12 months $19,059 $23,749 (2012 dollars) Community Market (co-op), and Moving Arts Española. The food hub will Earned Income Tax Information for Río Arriba County aggregate local products and develop relationships with markets in order to sell Brookings Institute, 2007: the aggregated products. The next action directly related to the food hub creation (www.brookings.edu/research/interactives/2014/county-eitc-map) Average EITC amount: $1,902 is the Río Arriba County Annual Growers and Sellers Conference. It will take Rank: 1,417 place on March 15 at the San Pedro Community Center in Española. Share of taxpayers with EITC: 22.2% Rank: 667 Tewa Women United’s Yiya Vi Kagingdi (YVK), Community Doula Program: Engaging a doula or midwife and receiving the support of this program is Health Statistics from New Mexico’s Indicator Based Information System an essential piece of regaining the status of giving birth/life back to the community. (https://ibis.health/nm.us/): Teen Birthrate (Girls 15-17)—7th highest in NM—per 1,000 girls Full support of the pre-natal and post-natal mother, child and family is re-honored río Arriba County: 39.4% through this movement. 505.747.3259, www.tewawomenunited.org 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 alcohol- attributable 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 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com The Española Hunter Arts & Agricultural Center and Community Mural Project

Roger Montoya, Alejandro López and Renée Villarreal

n 2013, the New Mexico Community forces, the area currently finds itself Foundation’s Collaborative in a deep economic and social crisis LeadershipI Program, in association characterized by disproportionate levels with international community activist of poverty, unemployment, addiction, Lily Yeh, launched an arts and culture substandard housing, poor health, initiative fueled by highly participatory generally low educational attainment community building and intercultural and environmental degradation. Yet, in collaborations. Ms. Yeh worked with addition to its spectacular natural beauty, community and NMCF partner the valley possesses immense cultural organizations from various parts of the and historical continuity. Its cultures are Members of the Cultura Cura/Culture Cures Collaborative state during a series of workshops. Her known for their industriousness, strong approach is one of careful, deliberate and sense of family and spiritual values. The mural will highlight the traditional group also hopes to inspire essays, poems, joyous application of paint, tile, wood aspects of the Valley as the center of a rich posters, videos, songs and plays. and stone, often through the hands A community arts agricultural region, and the responsible There has already been a groundswell of of children, in spaces that were once stewardship of the Earth (Nan in Tewa, interest in the mural project among many uncared for and unloved. She awakens & cultural center Tierra in Spanish). The collaborative local artists, and educational groups the power of youth to reimagine and hopes that this project will benefit plus a “food hub” such as Ohkay Owingeh Community reshape their immediate environment to young people from local communities Cultura Cura’s community service- School and Khapo Kidz of Santa Clara dramatically enhance the health, beauty through related hands-on projects in learning project has taken root at the Pueblo. The project’s design, although and productivity of their communities, which youth concurrently grow the food emerging Hunter Arts and Agricultural primarily focused at the Hunter Arts and homeland, and ultimately, themselves. crops inscribed on the building’s walls Center on Española’s Mainstreet. The Agricultural Center, makes provisions (corn, squash, beans, chile and melons, Inspired by Yeh, the NMCF grantees complex, a former Ford auto center, is for creation of low-cost, modest-scale etc.) at their schools, homes and other and community partners decided to owned by the city, but Siete del Norte, satellite projects at approximately eight locations. The collaborative is motivated form a Cultura Cura/Culture Cures a northern New Mexico community- local Española Valley school sites and by its understanding that inspiring young Collaborative to carry out an ambitious development nonprofit, will soon manage other locations. i people to tend plants and process their project. After much dialogue and it as it is transformed into a community yields would not only add to the local For more information on the Hunter Arts and planning, they chose to go to work arts and cultural center with classroom, pool of biodiversity and food and seed Agricultural Center and Community Mural in the heart of the Española Valley, workshop and studio spaces for music, supplies available to the community; it Project, contact Todd López: 505.579.4217, an area characterized by a mix of dance, theater and fine arts. It will also [email protected] would also facilitate physical exercise and ancient Native, Indo-Hispano and provide venues for public exhibitions, engender a richness of mental, emotional Roger Montoya is a community arts-and- other cultures. The Valley was known performances and gatherings. In a and sensory stimuli. As a component education activist and co-founder/director historically as The Breadbasket of El separate, adjoining space, plans are being of La Tierra Montessori Charter School. of bolstering academic achievement, Norte. Due to an intersection of complex developed for a food hub, equipped Alejandro López was a student of Lily Yeh’s the project’s service-learning elements economic, political, social and cultural to receive, process, and make market- for several years, a worker in her inner-city involving youth and children will include projects and an organizer of her New Mexico ready locally grown produce. This journeys into the natural environment workshop. Renée Villarreal is NMCF’s may include a community kitchen, to collect materials for the mural. The Director of Community Outreach. bakery and café, where people will partake in the foodstuffs that the Río Arriba County Food & Agri Council facility produces. Conference • March 15 rd The imagination, energy and sheer The 3 annual conference on Increasing New Mexico’s Small Farm Production determination to get the project 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 moving has been led by La Tierra with coffee, atole and traditional pastellitos, starts at 7:30 am. The keynote by Aaron Montessori School of Alcalde Parry, founder/CEO of Source Local Foods of Boulder, Colo., will be at 8:45 am. and Moving Arts Española. Once His talk is entitled, “Successful Transitions to Wholesale Markets.” Parry says that dialogue between various potential current supplies are meeting only 3 percent of the demand for locally grown foods. stakeholders began to take place, it A panel of commercial and institutional buyers of locally grown, fresh produce did not take long for NMCF, the will follow the keynote. There will also be a buyers’ panel for ranch, dairy and other city of Española, Siete del Norte, and livestock products, and a panel that will discuss the current development of the the Northern Río Grande National Española Food Hub project. In addition, the conference will feature a farm and Heritage Area to add their support. 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. The Cultura Cura Collaborative’s The conference is sponsored by Río Arriba County, the NM Acequia Association, role is to facilitate creation of a large- Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, NMSU Extension Service, Siete del Norte scale mixed-media mural along the Economic Development Corp, and the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute. There is lengthy west-facing exterior wall no charge for attendance. Lunch will be provided. For a map to the conference site © Alejandro López (2) of the compound’s main building. and more information, email [email protected] or call 541.337.8595.

www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 25 26 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com Sustaining Our Local Economies Christopher Madrid

e all want our local economies to the most but also placed significant Importantly, the program respects So if you are in business and could thrive. We want a place where weight on peer-to-peer networking. that they are the entrepreneurs, and as use additional support or thinking ourW youth can choose to live where they Other empirical studies reveal that an such they are ultimately responsible for about starting a business, you can were raised because they can secure an entrepreneur’s propensity to network their own destiny. Hence, the program’s call the Española Valley Chamber of acceptable standard of living worthy correlates as one of the highest facilitator or volunteer representatives Commerce and receive the service of their talents. We want fulfilling job indicators of success. Finally, one can do not ever tell them “what to do” or offered by this program free of opportunities for our citizens… we make the case that effective networking “how to do it.” The program simply charge. Also, be looking for a monthly want the American dream to continue also leads to greater access to capital. employs best practices to leverage the networking event to take place on in our rural communities. combined social capital of its volunteers the first Thursday of each month in We all understand and participate (our networks) to connect them to the Española. The communities of Taos, Unfortunately, the recent economic in networking in a variety of ways. optimal resource(s) at the right time. Mora, Las Vegas and Alamosa, Colo. trends remain unacceptable, which Typically, each individual or business also have sister programs established in begs the question, “What do we employs a variety of networking There are many resources available to service to their local entrepreneurs. i do about it?” In large part, we tend techniques, often through various our local businesses and entrepreneurs, to place the responsibility for the entities such as chambers of commerce but if they don’t know about them economy on government and other and civic organizations that provide then they essentially do not exist. The non-government organizations, but in critical venues. Network Facilitation Program acts as fact we have had remarkable consensus the hub that can direct the entrepreneur In addition to networking, the for some time now that entrepreneurs to such resources, including access research also indicates successful rural and small businesses actually drive our to capital. Thus, the program also economies require a “systems” approach economy—not government. Hence, promotes an overall systems approach, to properly align the “plethora of this allows us to further narrow with the facilitator acting in the training, technical assistance, and © Anna C. H ansen the question to, “How do we best capacity of an “honest resource broker,” financing programs to meet the variety support our existing businesses and also offering strategic, peer-to-peer of needs of entrepreneurs….” (See Christopher Madrid is the director of Río promote entrepreneurship in our rural networking services, highly valued Arriba County Economic Development. Energizing Entrepreneurs, Buttress and communities?” by the most successful businesses 575.753.2992, [email protected] Macke). surveyed. A systems approach Hence, a systems approach coupled with strategic networking provides us coupled with strategic with a starting point to more effectively support local entrepreneurs and thereby networking improve our local economy—in short, an effort to improve distribution in a A Google search of related topics manner that helps the entrepreneur will offer tens of millions of hits more efficaciously get to the right indicating that we actually have the resource at the right time. answers we need and, therefore, we need only to get on to implementation. Here is the good news: this is not Simply, choose the methodology that a theoretical program in search of seems to make sense and get started! funding and eventual proof of concept. Unfortunately, many of the proposed We have in fact been developing solutions tend to resemble fad diets this program and accumulating best that sound good, offer great hope, practices in northern New Mexico for offer inspiring anecdotes, make the going on 10 years. For now we call it promoters money, but in the end rarely Network Facilitation, and the Greater live up to expectations. Española Chamber of Commerce has seen fit to implement this program In truth, we do have a lot of clear in support of local businesses with empirical evidence on how to best funding from LANL (through the support entrepreneurs. In fact, a Regional Development Corporation) Kellogg survey taken of successful and the Greater Española Valley CDC. businesses reveals that consultants get surprisingly low marks by the very In short, it begins with the outreach recipients of their services. component, where volunteers are trained to seize opportunities to So enough about what remains engage local small business owners or uncertain. What do we know, and prospective entrepreneurs and assess what can we do now? The same their needs. It’s actually a bit more Kellogg survey indicates that successful involved, but ultimately we are simply businesses valued “access to capital” asking them, “What do you need?” www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 27 cultivating a future continued from page 15 The pastoral narrative also shows an So, with those two larger global frames in almost complete lack of critical thinking mind, we began developing CODECE among Chicano/Mexicano leaders about about five years ago and went into the how we dig ourselves out of the pit in field in early 2011. CODECE creates which we find ourselves. and supports sustainable lifestyles for Nuevo Mexicanos through three major Given the complex problems we face, economic lenses—organic agricultural where do we go from here? co-ops, heritage and cultural tourism co- Before I share with you what we are ops, and value-added housing initiatives. doing, let me place what the Cooperative The cooperative model we use for all Development Center (CODECE) and of our economic development work in the Center of Southwest Culture are Indio-Hispano communities assumes doing in a larger global context. that integrating organic agriculture, cultural tourism and value-added housing © Seth R offman If what we are doing really is going to be into a comprehensive regional plan is a Moving People Española youth group performance sustainable over the long term, we believe strong approach in trying to keep rural crop, a farmer can expect to generate a many of our people live in mobile homes it is important to consider two global Nuevo Mexicanos in place but earning a gross income of about $6,600 per season. and other substandard housing. We economic themes currently emerging. 21st-century income. expect to build multi-family housing units We consider these themes as important In contrast, an acre of organic fruit or that mimic the ancient plaza model— touchstones for all of our work. Investing in our vegetables in northern New Mexico is families living in clustered housing currently generating between $20,000 and The first major global theme is what children’s education around a central small plaza. This model, $45,000 per acre. So, for a three-acre organic author James Howard Kunstler calls “The and paying for a we believe, will use the built environment crop, a farmer can expect to gross between Long Emergency.” Basically, he argues to create the social behaviors we want family health plan are $60,000 and $135,000 per season. that world oil production is peaking and our villagers to express—cooperation, that the remaining oil left to be exploited better steps on the You can see from this comparison that small- collaboration, mutual aid. is geometrically more difficult to find scale organic farming can provide a farmer path to justice. Even though we have been in the field and extract. He argues that this long with a fully livable 21st-century income. emergency into an oil-depleted economy CODECE’s economic development for only a short period, several trends have model is based on several factors: Small-scale alfalfa or hay growing cannot. will change forever everything about how emerged that make us believe we are on • Using existing land and water resources we live. This post-modernity period, he To date, we have already incorporated four a good path. but applying them in new ways believes, may occur as soon as 75 or 100 fully functional organic farmers’ co-ops. We • Avoiding the need for major capital First, the concept of building businesses years from now. expect to collectively generate $40,000- investment for success through co-ops instead of individual $75,000 in income from co-op farming • Tying economic development efforts owners has resonated at a deep level What that means is that we will have to find efforts this year. Our co-ops have almost no to those of the emerging global among community members. and fill our basic needs much closer to home; investment debt because federally funded economies of the 21st century (Brazil, and we will have to work hard together to programs underwrite most of the start-up Second, we have been incredibly humbled Russia, India and China) meet our basic needs on a local and regional, costs per acre. Our goal is to create between to find out that there is such a deep • Relying on collective groups of people not national or international basis. 25 and 35 organic farming co-ops in talent pool in the Indo-Hispano villages instead of an individual entrepreneur northern New Mexico communities within in which we are working. Our co- The second major global theme we to create sustainable businesses are tracking is emerging economies in the next five to seven years. op members have, in every instance, First, let’s talk about our organic improved upon our ideas, implemented Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC), In our ecotourism program, we have agriculture cooperative model and what efficiencies of scale, and sought and found who as a group are showing consistent incorporated two co-ops to date and we’ve achieved to date. their own resources at an incredible level. growth at a time when most nations are forming two others. Here again, They are thoughtful, hopeful, disciplined have encountered recessions and deep Most of the arable land still owned by these co-ops need very little capital and hard working. uncertainty about future growth. traditional northern New Mexico Indio- investment to successfully become fully Despite being in the wealthiest nation Hispano communities—nearly 46,000 operational. Why? Because they are using Our small successes have not come in the world, New Mexico can be acres in Río Arriba County alone—is millions of acres of public lands to roll without much difficulty. So far, we have characterized as a place that looks, acts either lying uncultivated or planted with out their camping, snowshoeing, hiking, lost co-op members to murder, suicide, and thinks like those economies that are hay or alfalfa. Most Indio-Hispanos own horseback-riding, fishing, guiding and alcohol addiction, mental health issues poised to dominate within the global small arable plots—between five acres and other lucrative outdoor activities. and other dysfunctions. Still, the model perhaps as many as 20 acres per farmer, is proving to be resilient and adaptive. economy by the end of the 21st-century. Again, we have merely changed the tops. It is in a unique position to leverage its perception of Indo-Hispano villagers Besides creating these economic current status in the world economy with An acre of alfalfa produces about 50 bales; from seeing these public lands as obstacles opportunities through our co-ops, our its deep historical, cultural and political in northern New Mexico you can get to economic development, especially center is also committed to providing similarity to those nations that have from 3-5 cuts of hay or alfalfa per season. private sector development, and providing informal educational opportunities to grown significantly in the past decade. Alfalfa is selling for about $15 per bale. So, them a model that utilizes these public traditional land-based communities What that means is we have a chance to if you plant hay or alfalfa, you can expect lands as a source of sustainable income here in the north. Through our la Carpa create sustainable 21st-century incomes to generate between $2,200 and $3,800 for co-op members. model, we expect to help people learn for ourselves if we model our economic per acre. Out of this gross amount, you the things they need to learn to improve Our third economic development development efforts to mimic what is have to pay the baler, who charges about their lives immediately—whether it is 5 program is value-added housing. Too continued on page 37 occurring in the BRIC economies. $2 or $3 per bale. So, for a 3-acre alfalfa

28 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com OP-ED: Rethinking Northern New Mexico College Susan Meredith

ere it not for the fact that and by merely naming themselves creative interaction with ecosystems, Northern New Mexico College “university” rather than “college.” land grants, traditional communities inW Española has been the recipient of in transition, forests, alternative energy, NNMC is embedded in a distinctive enormous sums of money from the green building, permaculture, agriculture, geographic landscape. The population state over its nearly 45 years of existence, food production and preparation. A it serves is one of multiple cultural and that few other institutions in the strong sustainable agricultural initiative identities, each of which has distinct Valley can serve as a potent catalyst for could greatly assist in protecting the and specific needs. The college would positive community development in an area’s population as we face the reality do well to reflect on each of the realities otherwise impoverished region, its poor of resource scarcity. With the help of a that comprise our world and tailor its performance record could be overlooked. committed and compassionate college, approach to provide meaningful and this area could explore alternatives to In just the last two years, Northern’s creative learning approaches in order “job creation” that have consumerism enrollment has plummeted, as students to reach all of its students. as the foundation and, instead, look at are voting with their feet by taking their developing and sustaining the resources tuition dollars to other institutions.

NNMC could become that are here. That means honoring © Anna C. H ansen Student migration has been prompted, traditional ways of knowledge and in part, by a recent dramatic hike in the community beacon improving education in new sustainable tuition from $36 per credit hour to them, so they are more accessible to a practices. $114.50, with additional mandatory fees it was meant to be. greater number of people. of $500-$600 slapped on top of this. The One such initiative could be the There are many in this community We must identify and define what the college could be justified in assessing development of a progressive and who believe in Northern as a precious new technical trades and vocations such onerous increases if it were indeed dynamic business school with a mission resource that deserves to be salvaged. might be for this area and in this age offering an improved product. Instead to inspire students to take on the It is unfortunate that members of and offer them with inspired and there has been a wholesale elimination challenge of understanding the city the current administration have competent personnel. Such an initiative of programs and personnel and little or and region’s elusive business climate proved themselves either unwilling could go far in reviving the school’s no improvement in course offerings or and help them participate in the or incapable of guiding the college community mission of providing viable services that directly benefit students. rebuilding of the economy. By engaging and making it a productive resource trades to members of the northern New Not surprisingly, NNMC was recently students in conducting incisive studies, for our state. There are numerous Mexico community. singled out as the state’s higher learning interviews and dialogue, business- talented and deserving individuals in institution receiving the largest number incubation models and decisive But whatever it does, it is incumbent this area, young and older, who look of complaints. community service-learning projects, upon the leaders of the college to to the college to provide them with the college could inject vitality back forge a collective will to care for, even It appears that the heart of the problem the education and skills they need to into the community. Considering the love, serve and benefit the people and today is the lack of community concern be more productive and better serve age in which we live, the college must land of northern New Mexico. We amongst its current leaders. There is no their community. There are an equal also choose to facilitate students’ entry must insist that they create a deeply evidence of an ethic of service-minded number of committed citizens who into the global arena by weaving the meaningful and vital learning process leadership, nor is there a palpable love would love to serve their community strands of global cultures, languages, in which the area’s greatest challenges and excitement for learning and the by participating in the mission of diplomacy, international politics and are addressed and its greatest strengths furthering of human potential among making the college a welcoming and social work into its curriculum. and resources employed. Such a process them. It also appears that there is enlightened space for students, citizens might yet succeed in establishing a resistance by the college leadership and employees alike. Given that Northern was originally learning-centered climate that benefits to engage the community at large in founded more than 100 years ago Despite all of the above, the community the community instead of one in which genuine ways to create a vision and with the mission of training teachers is not completely without hope. Recently, individual egos and the bureaucratic implement a plan for the college that to serve the region’s Spanish-speaking the governor appointed and the Senate machinery drive the majority of meets the needs and aspirations of the population, we must not overlook unanimously approved two new members its functions eclipsing the best of area’s people. the possibility of founding a Spanish to Northern’s Board of Regents. The air what students, teachers, community language center of national importance, After 45 years in operation, the is now one of anxious anticipation that have to offer. Poor, battered, glorious along with working museums that college is known more for its fiscal a changing of the guard in the board NNMC deserves respect, care, love reflect the many important aspects of difficulties than for the strength of composition will inspire a change of and attention from us and from the northern New Mexico cultures. In this its academic programs. Its buildings focus from status quo to that of open and community leaders amongst us if it is same vein, a vital and dynamic fine arts and grounds exude an air of sterility compassionate management. to survive the current challenges and center that recognizes and promotes and vacuity. Northern’s president and re-make itself into the community Now is the time for Northern to the traditional arts of northern New Board of Regents have taken the beacon it was meant to be. To fail to fling wide open its doors to listen to Mexico must be created for the benefit approach of eliminating longstanding do so is unconscionable. i community voices and make use of its of the local communities. Instead of programs, staff and faculty as quickly Susan Meredith is a longtime resident of collective knowledge in deciding how shuttering programs such as Spanish and ruthlessly as possible, while at the New Mexico and the former chief of staff at to provide excellent-quality training Colonial Furniture Making and Río same time promising miracle cures that Northern New Mexico College. She is a writer, and leadership in the study of and Grande Weaving, the college needs to would come by building dormitories an editor and a fiber artist. She resides on her make space on its current campus for two-and-a-half acre farm in Española. www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 29

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30 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com History continued from page 8 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.

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 San Gabriel H istorical Society from Santa Cruz de la Cañada migrated in all directions, as the population along Española in the 1940s 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 arrived in Las Vegas in July of 1846. The Nuevo Mexicanos were unable to organize Tsama and north to Ojo Caliente, Embudo and Taos. a fully equipped army to fight this large force. They waited a few months and on The church at Santa Cruz de la Cañada was built during this period starting in 1733, Jan. 19, 1847, in Taos, they captured and assassinated newly appointed Gov. Charles with one steeple that remained until the arrival of Jean Bautiste Lamy, who replaced Bent and organized an army composed of men from the pueblos, Ranchos de Taos, Bishop Zurbiría of Durango, Méjico, in 1854. Lamy added another steeple to the Santa Cruz de la Cañada, Chimayó and other villages. They met the enemy at Santa church on the left side, which has fallen three times. (This church is currently on the Cruz de la Cañada (where the Sombrillo road meets the road to Chimayó). state and national registers of historic places and is a wonderful example of a Spanish For the next 30 years, Santa Cruz de la Cañada would remain the seat of government colonial church.) A visitation was made in 1760 by Bishop Tamarón of Durango, for the newly organized county of Río Arriba, until it lost that status in 1880 to Méjico. He remarked that the church was rather large but had little adornment. This Tierra Amarilla due to politics. Support from the territorial government waned and encouraged the local santeros to begin carving reredos, bultos and retablos (altar screens, left the Santa Cruzeños to organize and stabilize their economy through farming and statues, and paintings on wood). It was in this Villa de Santa Cruz de la Cañada that ranching. Santa Cruz de la Cañada has been bypassed by population growth in the the santero tradition emerged and prospered in northern Nuevo México. 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 The name “la Española” was chosen, referring determine if it can continue as a parish or redevelop into an independent village. 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 The Denver and Río Grande Western Railroad and Chimayó to counter Santa Anna’s plan, and it was signed in Santa Cruz de la and the Establishment of a Railroad Station Cañada. The battle took place near the Pueblo de San Ildefonso (as it was referred to In 1880, the Denver and Río Grande Western Railroad decided to build a line at that time). The Cañaderos y Chimayoses and some Pueblo warriors defeated the south from their Conejos, Colorado Antonito Station to the northern Río Grande governor and his troops and chased them back to Santa Fé. Governor Pérez tried Valley of New Mexico. They completed it and then negotiated with the Atchison to escape during the night and was intercepted by a group from Santo Domingo Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad to run their narrow gauge south to Tres Piedras, Pueblo near the village of Agua Fría on the Camino Real. then to Embudo and south along the Río Grande to the pueblos of Okeh’Owingue A priest from Tomé encouraged the residents surrounding Albuquerque to launch a and Kha’P’oo’Owingue. The most difficult negotiations for the railroad right-of- plan, march to Santa Fé and remove the rebels. They were led by former governor- way commenced at those pueblos. The D&RGW representative’s decorum was general of Nuevo México, Manuel Armijo. This army of 1,000 men marched north demanding, patronistic and unbending. However, the railroad representatives on September 10, 1837, and arrived in Santa Fé without a fight. The leader of the changed their attitudes and convinced the pueblos that their lease was fair and rebels, José “el genízaro” González, was in Taos visiting his family. Pablo Montoya led comparable with other leases they had negotiated. an equally large force of men to Santa Fé but realized that Armijo and his troops In 1880 they broke ground at their Antonito station and started preparing the ground were better armed than his army, and a peace treaty was negotiated. for laying track. The route ran directly south to Pamilia, Volcano, No Agua (isolated Upon the arrival of the Army of United States of North America, the people of 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 northern Nuevo México organized an army to fight Gen. Kearny and his forces, who continued on page 32 www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 31 History continued from page 31 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.

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 San Gabriel H istorical Society (2) Kha’P’oo’Owingue and Okeh’Owingue, Alcalde, Los Luceros and Velarde began to bring A trestle bridge was swept downstream when the Río Grande flooded in 1922. 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 The Town of Española to name the station, many locals mentioned that they referred to the restaurant as that By 1915, road transportation began to compete with the railroad and the boon began of “la Española” and the name was chosen. The railroad line running from Antonito to dissipate. A slow exodus of people from Española occurred for the following 10 to Española would be known as the “chili line.” With the advent of the railroad and years. In 1922, the Río Grande at Española flooded, taking everything in its path. the wool industry, the population of Española grew from 150 in 1881 to 1,500 by Bridges were destroyed and the bosque del río was left covered in silt. Three years 1900 (on the right-of-way pueblo land). 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 1883, two brothers who in 1908. Española High School followed 12 years later in 1920. The major wars emigrated from Canada (WWI and WWII) attracted large numbers of men from the valley, and there were arrived in Española with many who did not return. the profit they made from selling their wool-processing In the 1980s many of the historic buildings were torn down for an urban renewal plant in Pueblo, Colorado, project. However, in 1995 a move was made by the mayor and council to redevelop and opened another wool the downtown area, create a replica of a plaza, and bring the Mainstreet Program business in Española. George to Española. In 1998, the 400th anniversary of the founding of San Gabriel (eight W. Bond and his brother miles north of Española) was celebrated as the first permanent European colony Frank set up the little known in North America. Actually, the village of Chamita is what replaced San Gabriel as Partido Partidario, a system a permanent colony. The Bond house, which was beginning to fall into ruin, was Española’s first adobe post office, on Oñate Street to provide land for their restored in 2000. In September of 2008, Barrack Obama came sheep to graze. Landowners in to Española, campaigning for the presidency of the United northern New Mexico would use their common or land grant pasture to graze the States. The valley and its residents have endured a long varied Bond brothers’ sheep and supposedly receive a percentage of the wool profits. This history. This general view with some detail is but a sprinkling resulted in overgrazing the valley and surrounding meadows and the brothers on of the important events and personalities that were recorded in occasion not keeping their end of the bargain. When overgrazing was prohibited, documents, history books and oral history. i 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 Hilario Romero, a New Mexican Mestizo (Spanish/Basque/Jicarilla large mountain valley with an abundance of pasture and made a fortune. They Apache/Ute), is a former New Mexico state historian. He has spent the headquartered in Española and expanded their business interests all over New Mexico. past 40 years in higher education, as professor of History, Spanish and Education, including at UNM and Northern New Mexico College.

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32 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com Academy of Sustainability Education Planned for Santa Fe Kim Shanahan

eal sustainability can only be achieved if the social fabric of a local community is sustained. In one as fascinating, complex and beautiful asR 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 career- There is no question that under the leadership of Acting President Randy Grissom, based education has been largely abandoned by America’s public schools, including SFCC will fully engage with the academy. Indeed, it is seen as the place that will feed (with a few notable exceptions) all secondary education in Santa Fe. And then we those students who will populate the college’s world-class technical career paths in actually wonder why we suffer a near 50 percent dropout rate? Do we not recognize Green Building, Bio-Fuels, Solar Thermal and Photovoltaics. SFCC’s Advanced Trades the obvious cause and effect? 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 of Sustainability Education will bring back relevant education delivered in a radically different (but maybe not new) form called “project-based learning.” What The academy is an ambitious plan on an even more ambitious schedule, if it hopes is new, however, will be the pathways of study. There will be five, but they can and will to open doors in August 2014, serving 250 students. It will take years before South overlap under the broad umbrella of sustainability: 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 • Green Building, Architecture and Planning attention, the school board has determined to make it happen. • Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Systems • Natural Resource Management and Agriculture At a Feb. 10th study session of the School Board, a group that has been meeting regularly • Automotive and Transportation for the past six months to develop the concept and detailed plans for the academy made • Public Policy and Education a presentation. Over 20 people spoke out in strong support, including teachers, students, business owners and concerned citizens. 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 Five key people were responsible for the presentation. They have worked to hammer resources. There are tens of thousands of square footage under roof and under-used. out the details with a much broader coalition of community members behind them, There are over 20 acres of wasteland, asphalt and scoured arroyos that can be made to none more important than the Santa Fe High School teachers who have dreamed for bloom and feed with water harvested on the campus. years about a project-based learning environment centered on sustainability education.

The most exciting thing about the new academy versus what the old Vo-Tech devolved The five core community members are Paul Gibson, a recently arrived Santa Fean into being before it was finally abandoned—a dumping ground of abused and neglected with 30 years of education consultancy behind him; Dana Richards, local educator and children— is that the academy will also most certainly appeal to our kids who believe project-based-learning expert; Seth Biderman, native Santa Fe teacher and education it’s their life mission to do everything in their power to save the world. 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 Even “greening-up” professions like homebuilding and automotive will give a kid a belief Tammy Harkin oversaw the group’s work through the eyes of the teachers who will that what they do and how they do it can have a positive effect on their community make up the school’s initial teacher corps. and the planet. That is a powerful message and a real incentive to stay in school, learn what interests them None of the academy’s ambitions would ever be realized without the full support and and graduate on time. approval of all five school board members, as well as Superintendent Dr. Joel Boyd, And not just with a along with his staff and administration. What will ultimately guarantee the success and diploma but maybe sustainability of the academy will be the support of the community. even a degree or a And not just the “sustainability” community, but even those in our certificate or college community who have not yet figured out how sustainability translates credits from Santa Fe into their lives. Santa Fe needs this to succeed. i Community College. Kim Shanahan is executive officer of the Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association. www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 33 * Foreclosure defense

34 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com 2014 New Mexico Legislative Wrap-Up Laura E. Sánchez

he 2014 legislative session is Portal; HB124 (C. Trujillo) Home House Voters & Elections Committee, history, adjourning at noon on Feb. Energy and Water Efficiency; HB136 its only assigned committee in the House. T20. Like many previous short sessions, it ( J. Trujillo) Electric Vehicle Tax Credit, The measure came up on the floor of was a race to the finish on certain bills, and HB233 (Dodge) / HB304 (Brown) the House on Feb. 19, and after much while others languished in committees, / SB191 (Griego) Renewable Energy impassioned debate failed on a 33-29 held hostage by committee chairs in Production Tax Credit. Most of these vote. It needed a majority of the members, some cases but, more often, falling bills made it out of two committees. or 36, to pass the House, in order to go victim to the ticking clock. Only HB136, the Electric Vehicle Tax on to the voters in November. Another Credit, made it all the way through the important mention is SM36, a Senate This year was a budget session, which House, but it was not calendared in the memorial sponsored by Sen. Michael means legislators were obliged to Senate Finance Committee. We also Padilla, regarding the Valle de Oro adopt a budget for the next fiscal year, supported a variety of bills that increased National Wildlife Refuge. The memorial beginning July 1. Bills introduced also support for investment in the high- asked our New Mexico congressional had to be germane to the budget or the tech industry in New Mexico. Among delegation, the US Department of state’s financial matters. Any not related these bills were SB59 (Keller) Tech Interior and the US Fish and Wildlife to the budget had to receive a message Commercialization Gross Receipts, Service to work toward restoring funding from the governor as a priority before SB99 (Padilla) Investment in Tech and acquiring the remaining property legislators could act on it. To add to Research Collaborative, and SB114 for the Valle de Oro National Wildlife the challenges, two Democrats in the Laura E. Sánchez at the Roundhouse (Griego) Angel Investment Tax Credit. Refuge located in Bernalillo County. House were out sick the entire session, Unfortunately, none of these bills made jeopardizing the already slim margin of While this short session was disap- business, sustainable practices, renewable it out of their first committee. 37 to 33 and leading to a 35-33 split. pointing in terms of passing our proactive energy and the economic benefit of public With such a razor-thin margin, it was Of all the NMGCC-supported bills, bills, the good news is that we also did land protection in the 2015 session. i not lose ground on any existing tax- all hands on deck for both sides of the only one, Senate President Pro Tem Laura E. Sánchez is CEO of the New aisle, and already close committees Papen’s SB9 One-Stop Business Portal, credit programs that help our member Mexico Green Chamber of Commerce. were sometimes split evenly down made it all the way through both businesses. We look forward to working 505.859.3433, [email protected], party lines. This resulted in different houses and is waiting to be signed on defending existing policies and http://nmgreenchamber.com dynamics among the parties and very by the governor. This bill directs the expanding others to support local few bills passed along party lines alone. Department of Information Technology Sometimes it meant strange bedfellows, (DoIT) to develop and maintain a web but then this is New Mexico politics. 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, Members of the Las Cruces Green Chamber of registrations, permits and other Commerce speak with Rep. Bill McCamley documents issued by state agencies 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 www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 35 910

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36 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com cultivating continued from page 28 NEWSBITEs how to balance a checkbook, or apply for Social Security benefits Grant Funding for Rural Business and Economic or help their children apply for college. Development • April 1 Application Deadline USDA Rural Development is accepting applications for the Rural Business Enterprise Grant program. Using our informal education model, we hope to implement The funds can be used to finance and facilitate the development of small, private, business enterprises— informal group therapy sessions that delve deeply into people’s any private business that employs 50 or fewer new employees and has less than $1 million in projected personal experiences to find healing and self-centeredness. 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. The elephant in the room for the work of building community in the Río Arriba is the issue of poor mental health. We cannot This financial assistance cannot be granted directly to a private business. The funding is available to public merely put money into people’s pockets and expect they will bodies, nonprofit organizations, public and private nonprofit institutions of higher education and Indian then live exemplary lives. The challenge is to see if we can 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 convince people to make more money and not spend it on or less and will receive points for projects that support local food systems and value-added agriculture, alcohol; instead, how do we work with each other to see that minority- and women-owned businesses, access to capital markets, bio-based products or bio-fuels. investing our incomes in our children’s education and paying for a family health plan are better steps on the path to justice Information can be obtained from the State Office inA lbuquerque at 505.761.4953 or at: http://www. we must have to ever achieve peace in our lives and in our rurdev.usda.gov/BCP_rbeg.html communities. International Conference on Progress and We realize that we know very little about all of these complex the Indigenous Experience • March 13-15 in ABQ issues. But we believe it is important that we be active in trying The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) will host the first “Indigenous Intervention,” an to create hope. 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, Broadly, here is what we believe needs to happen to make the education, health, history, land, literature, music, philosophy, politics and social theory. In the Indigenous Río Arriba a place that can sustain traditional peoples with a world, progress has also meant assimilation, economic development, educational reform, cultural change, 21st-century income and an enlightened view of their role as artistic expression, evolution/devolution, language revitalization or preservation, according to Stephen gente de buena raza: Wall (White Earth), conference organizer and chair of IAIA’s Indigenous Liberal Studies Department. • We need to nurture and recruit new leadership among our “The idea is simply to bring people together to talk about ideas on issues that affect Indigenous people,” gente, who will provide the selfless, community-based vision Wall said. “Both in our individual communities and worldwide the dominant society has had mass we need to use existing government resources and structure to influence. It’s really important to create a forum to share information and learn from each other that help our communities move forward, and to not use elected there is a real need for intervention.” positions to enrich themselves and their families. Presenters include staff members, instructors and faculty from the Denver American Indian Commission, IAIA, • We need to formalize a local and regional barter system to University of Arizona, Sustainable Nations, Syracuse University, University of Coimbra, UNM, and University help ourselves save cash for other needs. of Saskatchewan, among others. The keynote speaker is multimedia artist and IAIA alumna Rose B. Simpson. • We need to create local, small cooperatives that use existing One-day and full, three-day registration fees are available. A special undergraduate rate for students for the entire resources to sustain themselves over time, without the need conference is $50. For more information or to register: 505.424.2376, [email protected] or visit http://www.iaia. for major capital investment. edu/academics/degree-programs/indigenous-liberal-studies/indigenous-intervention-progress-conference • We need to heal ourselves—economically, psychologically ‘Climate Hub’ Will Help New Mexico’s Farmers and educationally. It is way past time for us to sit around our kitchen tables together and figure out how to get ourselves and Ranchers Adapt to Climate Change out of the mess we’re in. 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 • We need to become critical thinkers; to learn how to information to rural communities in New Mexico, California, Utah, Nevada and Arizona to help them analyze the socio-economic forces we face daily, to have prepare for and try to mitigate the impacts of climate change. The climate hub will be a clearinghouse for an enlightened and broad view of our place in the world; resources and technology to help farmers and ranchers manage risks such as drought and wildfire and we must act in ways that force fundamental reform and find the tools they need to adapt to the increasingly shifting climate. More than three dozen universities, rejuvenate our political, economic and educational systems. as well as state and federal agencies, are partnering to share information through the hub. We must see ourselves as part of a larger regional movement for change but remain focused on our own families, our own 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 work, our own communities. i and harsher fire seasons, warmer temperatures and less snow. More than 50 percent of the flow in the Footnotes: Río Grande is from snowmelt. 1. Michael Trujillo’s The Land of Disenchantment: Latina/o Identities and Transfor- mations. 2. Angela García’s Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession Along the Soil Solutions Lecture and Workshop • March 12-13 Río Grande. 3. Jake Kosek’s Understories: The Political Life of Forests in Northern New Imagine you could grow almost anything you wanted with the soil in your yard, using less water and Mexico. producing biomass that is virtually immune to pests and requires few costly inputs. Dr. Elaine Ingham, 4. Franz Fannon’s å. And the work of Albert Memmi, et al. Ph.D., soil biologist, will be in northern New Mexico March 12-13 to explain how to do it. Here in New 5. Manuel Montoya, Ph.D., Rhodes Scholar and professor at the Univer- sity of New Mexico at the Anderson Schools of Business. Based on his Mexico, shelter from wind and cold would be a part of the equation. It also involves understanding things (as yet) unpublished doctoral thesis on global economics. 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 Arturo Sandoval is president of the Albuquerque-based Center of can become soil managers and tweak these relationships with biological solutions instead of chemical Southwest Culture. The Center works to help develop healthy Indigenous solutions to create the ideal soil composition based on what we want to grow. and Latino communities through economic development initiatives, educational and cultural work. Sandoval was born in Santa Cruz de Dr. Ingham will speak from 7-9 pm on March 12 at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Pavilion. Admission la Cañada and raised in Española, NM. 505.247.2729, vocesinc@aol. is $10. On March 13 she will teach a workshop from 8:30 am to 5 pm at Northern NM College’s main com, www.centerofsouthwestculture.org, www.vocesinc.com, www. administration building in Española. The workshop is $99. For more information, call 505.819.3828, or cooperativedevelopmentcenter.org visit www.carboneconomyseries.com www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 37 What's Going On! Events / Announcements

March 15, 10-6 pm, March 16, 10-5 pm veals current and predicted impacts on humans, QualifiedW ater Efficient Landscaper train- The ABQ Home Expo landscapes and ecosystems. Tickets: $7, $6, $4. ing/certification. Learn “smart” irrigation NM State Fairgrounds Info: 505.841.2800, www.nmnaturalhistory.org technology and local soil and weather condi- tions. Training geared toward licensed pro- Manual Luján Complex Seminars, exhibits. 505.796.0803, www. SANTA FE fessionals with experience. $75. Class dates: abqhomeexpo.com Through April 1, 10 am-5 pm 3/18, 19, 25, 26. Exam on 3/27. 505.955.4223, Heartbeat – Music Application: http://www.santafenm.gov/ March 19 Registration Deadline of the Southwest educational_programs Solitude and Solidarity Museum of Indian Arts and Culture March 11, 4-6 pm ALBUQUERQUE Gutiérrez Hubbell House A celebration of sight, sound and activity for visi- Eldorado/285 Recycles March 5-7, 8 am-5 pm sleta tors of all ages. Over 100 objects relating to South- 6029 I SW onference oom 3rd International Meeting on A one-day retreat on 3/28 (7:30 am-4 pm) for western Native music and dance are featured. ECIA C R Eldorado area recycling advocacy group women in the arts facilitated by Valerie Mar- 505.476.1250, http://indianartsandculture.org/ Indigenous Women’s Health monthly meeting. All welcome. Next meet- tínez and Shelle Sánchez. $65-100 sliding otel lbuquerque at ld own ing: 4/8. 505.466.9797, eldorado285recy H A O T scale. 505.980.6218 March 3-April 2 (M,W, 5:30-8 pm) Healthy Generations: Integrating Traditions Climate Masters Classes [email protected], eldorado285recycles.org and Science to promote well-being. An oppor- March 22, 5-9 pm tunity for physicians, midwives, nurses, com- 3/3: Climate Change Communication with March 12, 4-6 pm NM Scholastic Art Awards Eileen Everett, Ed. Dir., SF Watershed munity providers and others who work with st Seed Exchange arehouse t Assn; 3/5: Local Food & Agriculture with indigenous women to share, support, network, W 508, 508 1 S . NW renchy s arn Student check-in at 5:30, awards presenta- Tom Telehanty of Pollo Real, Dave Frésquez, F ’ B learn and build partnerships to improve the Presented by Homegrown NM. tion at 6 pm. 505.296.2738, www.newmex a farmer in Española, or Don Bustos; health of indigenous women and their families. 505.955.2106, [email protected] 505.272.3942, [email protected], icoartawards.wordpress.com 3/10: Renewable Energy Panel with Craig O’Hare, energy program specialist with SF http://som.unm.edu/cme April 3 March 12, 7-9 pm County, Mariel Nanasi, Exec. Dir.,New En- Lecture on the Soil Food Web March 5, 9:30-11 am USGBCNM 12th Anniversary Party ergy Economy, Janet McVickar of Got Sol; armers arket avilion Home Composting Basics The US Green Building Council New Mex- 3/12: Science with Dr. Craig Allen, research SF F ’ M P , 1607 ecologist, Jémez Mtn. Field Station, USGS; Paseo de Peralta North Valley Senior Center ico supports the responsible evolution of a th 3/17: Water Ethics with Dave Groenfeldt, Presentation by Dr. Elaine Ingham. (See 3825 4 St. NW sustainable environment with education, advocacy and community engagement, and Water Culture Institute; 3/19: Biomimicry newsbite, page 37) $10. 505.819, 3828, www. Learn the science, materials and methods of and communication through the arts with carboneconomyseries.com drought-proofing your garden soil in order through verifiable, documentable results. 505.203.2323, usgbcnm.org Noel Chilton and Karen Temple Beamish to grow vegetables, fruit and berries. Free. of ABQ Academy; 3/24: Consumption and March 13, 6 pm Composting classes at other locations on April 7-9 Waste with Jessi Just, NM Recycling Coali- Food & Film Evening 3/6, 3/8, 3/20 ($7), 3/27. register@nmcom 10th International Conference tion; 3/26: Permaculture with Reese Baker ean octeau inema posters.org, nmcomposters.org J C C on Concentrator Photovoltaic of The Raincatcher; 3/31: Green Architec- Screening of the award-winning Like Water March 5, 5:30-7 pm Systems ture/Business with Amanda Hatherly, Dir., for Chocolate. Local food prepared by Chef SFCC Energy Smart Program and Kim Sha- Patrick Gharrity of La Casa Sena. Tick- Green Drinks yatt egency lbuquerque H R A nahan, Exec. Officer, SF Area Homebuilders ets: $25 benefits Farm to Table’s Farm to Hotel Andaluz, 125 Second St. NW An opportunity for suppliers of components Assn; 4/2: Transportation with Esha Chi- Restaurant Program. 505.310.7405, nina@ Network and mingle with people interested in and services to the PV and CPV industry to occhio, Dan Baker and others. Presented farmtotablenm.org local business, clean energy and other green connect with experts and potential customers by the SF Watershed Assn: 505.820.1696, issues. Review of the 2014 Legislative Session from all over the world; 400 people from more www.santafewatershed.org March 14 Application Deadline with Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto and Rep. Chris- than 25 countries, including many corporate “End of Days” Fashion Exhibit tine Trujillo. Free. Presented by the ABQ & executives from global companies are expected March 5, 5:30-7 pm Nov. 2014-Feb. 2015 Río Rancho Green Cham- to participate. Host committee: CFV Solar Test A Talk about the ber of Commerce. Next Laboratory, Fraunhofer USA, Sandia National Academy of Sustainability City of Santa Fe Community Gallery Green Drinks: April 2nd. Laboratories. www.cpv-10.org NM Artists and Fashion Designers will explore omasitas 505.244.3700, Lindsay@ T what fashion will look like at the end of the Paul Gibson and Dana Richards will explain the nmgreenchamber.com April 9-10 world brought about by nuclear war, pandemic, Shared Knowledge Conference proposed academy, green jobs and businesses. water scarcity, supervolcanoes, bee colony col- March 11-13 rd lapse, or…? 505.955.6705, rdlambert@santa UNM Student Union Building, 3 Floor March 6 7th Pathways into Health fenm.gov, www.SantaFe ArtsCommission.org Regional event planned and hosted by stu- SFPS Science Expo National Conference dents and partners of UNM. Presentations onzales ommunity chool ym March 14, 7-9 pm otel at ld own on a range of topics. Students from a variety G C S G , H ABQ O T lameda Amy Goodman Cultural Attunement in Health Professions. of academic institutions and disciplines will 851 W. A 9:30-11:30 am: Judging by students and judges; 5-6 he ensic an rancisco t Education and career development. A di- share their scholarship, gain access to new T L , 211 W. S F S . pm: Family Science Expo Night; 6 pm: Award pre- An evening with the host/producer of verse group of individuals and organizations ideas and develop professional leadership sentations. 505.467.2515, [email protected] Democracy Now. $15. Book signing. A gather to cultivate a robust American Indian skills. Free. [email protected] benefit for KNME, KUNM and KSFR. and Alaska Native healthcare workforce. April 15-16, 8:30 am-5 pm March 8 505.988.1234, TicketsSantaFe.org General registration: $300; Students: $95. Town Hall on Water Planning, Watershed Restoration Project Elders: $75. 3/10: Film screening and re- March 16, 2-4:30 pm Development and Use Ampersand Sustainable Learning ception. [email protected], Geology Hike http://pathwaysintohealth.org/conference/ Marriott Pyramid North Center, Madrid, NM mpersand ustainable earning 5151 San Francisco Rd. NE Lend a hand and learn about erosion-control A S L March 13-15 Help people from around NM create a con- structures made with rock. Music/potluck Center, Madrid, NM Indigenous Intervention crete, actionable platform of water policy rec- gathering from 2-5 pm after work. RSVP: Hike around Ampersand’s 38 acres with local ge- 505.780.0535, ampersandproject@yahoo. ologists Mary Morton and Scott Renbarger. $10 Nativo Lodge ommendations. Key issues include: Mean- com, www.ampersandproject.org An international indigenous conference on the ingful long-range and crisis water planning, suggested donation. www.ampersandproject.org concept of progress presented by the Institute NM’s aging water infrastructure, Conserva- March 10, 6 pm March 20 of American Indian Arts (See newsbite, pg. 37) tion and reuse, Water development includ- Living Life to the Fullest La Bajada Mining Issue Info/registration: http://www.iaia.edu/news/ ing desalination. Convened by NM First, a with Native Humor iaia-hosts-indigenous-progress-conference/ nonprofit, nonpartisan policy organization. SF County Commission, 102 Grant Ave. $100/limited scholarships. NMfirst.org Hotel Santa Fe Discussion of the proposed mining project. March 14, 4-9 pm SW Seminars lecture by artist, humorist, Send comments to [email protected]. World Studio Opening Daily filmmaker Ricardo Cate (Pueblo of Kewa). nm.us, www.SaveLaBajada.com Degrees of Change: $12. 505.466.2775, southwestseminars@aol. 987 Cam. del Pueblo, Bernalillo, NM NM’s Climate Forecast com, SouthwestSeminars.org March 21-23 New fine art gallery/healing center. Opening Faith & Environment features visual arts, storytelling, music. world- NM Museum of Natural History & March 11 Registration Deadline [email protected], http://www.jamila Science, 1801 Mountain Rd. NW Professional Landscaper United Church of Santa Fe, rroyo hamiso productions.com/worldstudioopening With a focus on NM and the SW, this exhibit re- Training 1804 A C

38 Green Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com 3/21, 5:30 pm: All-age celebration (sup- Large-scale collaboration of local groups in- mance of Española High School Children’s March 13-16 per provided); 3/22, 8:30 am-12 pm: How volved in education, conservation, multi-arts, Choir. 505.500.7126, [email protected] Permaculture Voices Conf. to Sing, Pray and Act for the Earth. Key- environmental and social justice, and creative Temécula, California note and children’s program, noon picnic community engagement. Procession, music, Veterans Green Jobs Academy Permaculture experts from around the world will & park cleanup; 3/23, 8:30-11 am: Worship poetry, visual arts, storytelling, performances, Northern NM College, Española discuss the potential of permaculture to transform for the Earth, 9:45 am: Earth care forum, community participation. earthdaysantafe.info Workforce training and specific degree pro- food systems. www.permaculturevoices.com childcare/children’s programs all morning. grams to support military veterans in fully 505.988.3295, unitedchurchofsantafe.org First Saturday of Each Month, accredited academic certificate and degree March 26, 10 am-3:30 pm 10 am-12 pm Ghost Ranch Open House March 22, 12:45-3pm programs in areas of environmental science SF Citizens’ Climate Lobby related to renewable energy, hazardous ma- A Walk on the Santa Fe River Ghost Ranch Education & Retreat Natural Grocers, Community Room, terials response, forestry, sustainable agri- Center, 1708 Highway 84, Abiquiú, NM Conversation, art and reflection with Bobbe 3328 Cerrillos Road culture, wildland fire science, construction Sample tours, meet the new museum curator, Besold, Valerie Martínez and Dominique “Creating political will for a livable world.” trades and others. A partnership with the learn about the new “Day at the Ranch Pass” Mazeaud. Free. Meet at the end of Constel- [email protected] NM Dept. of Veterans Services. For more and have lunch in the dining hall. A full-day lation Dr. (off Airport Rd.) Bring snacks and info, call Dr. Biggs at 505.747.5453 or visit of activities planned. [email protected] water. [email protected] Santa Fe Recycling www.nnmc.edu/vetacademy.htm. March 26-28 March 26, 7 pm Make 2014 the year to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as you can. City residential curbside taos GLOBE 2014 “Trashed” Film Screening Through March 28, M-F, 9 am-5 pm customers can recycle at no additional cost and Vancouver, BC, Canada SF Farmers’ Market Pavilion drop by 1142 Siler Road, Building A to pick up Contemporary Handwoven 13th biennial conference and trade fair on busi- Documentary follows Jeremy Irons’ expedition to free recycling bins. At least 50 percent of curb- Art Exhibition ness and sustainability. Speakers include Amory destinations around the world tainted by billions of side residential customers recycle now. Let’s Taos Town Hall Lovins, chief scientist, Rocky Mountain Institute; tons of unaccounted-for waste. $12/$10/students take that number to 100 percent. For more in- amino de la lacita Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of the board, under 18 free. www.farmersmarketinstitute.org formation, visit http://www.santafenm.gov/ 400 C P Taos Arts Council and Weaving Southwest pres- Nestlè; Hans Engel, CFO, BASF. 400 exhibitors trash_and_recycling or call 505.955.2200 (city); ent a weaving and tapestry exhibition featuring from North America, Latin America, Europe, March 27-28, 8 am-5 pm 505.992.3010 (county); 505.424.1850 (SF Solid SW Jémez Mountain more than 18 northern NM fiber artists. The the Middle East and Asia. 604.637.6649, www. Waste Management Agency). GLOBESeries.com Collaborative Forest Land- show is funded in part by NM Arts, a division scape Restoration Project of the Dept. of Cultural Affairs and the NEA. March 29, 10:30 am Española 575.779.8579, [email protected], http://taos Santa Fe Community College March 13, 8:30 am-5 pm artscouncil.org/weaving-southwest-at-taos- Earthquakes in Our Backyard Jémez Rooms Workshop: Soil Food Web and town-hall/, www.weavingsouthwest.com Pajarito Environmental Education Center 3/27: All-Hands Monitoring Presentations Compost Tea Technology 3540 Orange St., Los Alamos, NM March 7-9 will showcase results from 2013 activities. 3/28: NNMC Main Administration Building Class for kids and adults to learn how, where Implementation Workshop will use informa- Taos Pueblo Artist Winter 921 Paseo de Oñate and when earthquakes occur around Los Al- tion from monitoring to develop implementa- Presentation by Dr. Elaine Ingham. (See Showcase amos. Advance registration required. $10/$8. tion strategies in the project area for 2015. Info: newsbite, page 37) $99. 505.819, 3828, www. Millicent Rogers Museum 505.662.0460, [email protected], 505.438.5431, [email protected] carboneconomyseries.com Special exhibition/sale features 14 art- www.PajaritoEEE.org April 1 Program Begins ists. Opening reception 3/7, 5-7 pm. Free. April 4-6 March 14, 5-7 pm 575.758.2462, www.millicentrogers.org Herbal Medicine Intensive Opening Reception Earth Day Symposium ilagro chool of erbal edicine March 7, 7 pm M S H M Northern NM Regional Art Center, Ghost Ranch Education & 250-hour program. Registration: 505.820 A Fierce Green Fire (Film) Española Plaza Retreat Center, Abiquiú, NM .6321, [email protected] Exhibit by Río Rancho artists Jean Kempin- Harwood Museum, 238 Ledoux St. The Gathering ofW aters. A deep examina- April 2, 5:30-7 pm sky and Dick Overfield. Through 4/11. The Battle for a Living Planet. Exploration tion of our relationship to water. Ritual & ceremony will engage body, mind and spirit. Sustainable Santa Fe Awards of the environmental movement – grassroots March 15 and global activism spanning 50 years. $8/$6. 505.685.1000, GhostRanch.org Eldorado Hotel 3rd Annual Conf.: Increasing Presented by the SF Green Chamber of Com- NM Small Farm Production, April 25-27 April 14-17 merce and the Sustainable SF Commission. Free. and Food Crop Aggregation Health & Wellness Retreat 2nd Annual Native Food Sovereignty Summit April 2, 6-8:30, Weds. Through May 21 for Local Markets El Monte Sagrado Resort/Spa Green Bay, Wisconsin Business Development Series San Pedro Community Center Author/surgeon/speaker Dr. Christine Presented by the Río Arriba County Food & Horner is featured as part of this retreat to Collaboration for sustainability. Presented by the Thinking of starting a business? Learn busi- revitalize the body, mind and spirit. $1,295. Oneida Nation, First Nations Development Insti- ness basics to avoid costly time and money Agriculture Council and co-sponsors. (See newsbite, pg. 25) 850.668.2222, [email protected], tute, Intertribal Agriculture Council and Northeast mistakes. Ongoing bonus sessions offered www.elmontesagrado.com Wisconsin Technical College. www.firstnations.org/ upon course completion. $159. Presented by March 22 conferences/2014/food/summit.html WESST. 505.474.6556, [email protected] Walk Against Bullying May 10 Start (Saturdays) Charm School for Beekeepers April 15-18 April 4-5, 10-am-5 pm Sponsored by the Española Fiesta Council 7th National Farm to Cafeteria The Santa Fe Home Show and the Crisis Center of Northern NM. El Prado, north side of Taos Workshops for enhancing one’s apiary man- Conference SF Convention Center March 30 agement. www.ziaqueenbees.com/zia Austin, Texas Innovative solutions for better living. Remodel- Dinner with the Chef “Powering Up” Three days of inspiring field ers’ showcase, SFCC Design Competition. Tick- trips, workshops, speakers and networking. amino de az ontessori chool HERE & THERE ets: $5. 505.982.1774, santafehomeshow.com C P M S Farmtocafetereiaconference.org Santa Cruz, NM March 3-7 April 10, 10 am-4 pm Acclaimed chef of Arroyo Vino restaurant in Las Stop Violence Against May 6 11th Annual Business Expo Campanas Mark Connell and his team will create Native Women Give Grande New Mexico and Job Fair an elegant 3-course meal with ingredients from the Hyatt Regency Tamaya, farm. A benefit for the students’ trip to NYC. Tick- A 24-hour effort led by a coalition of com- DeVargas Mall, 500 N. Guadalupe Santa Ana Pueblo, NM munity foundations to raise money for ets: $69/person, $124/couple, $248 table of four. 40-hour advocacy training. The Coalition Showcasing the region’s business. Pre- [email protected] nonprofits across the state.T o sign up your sented by the SF Chamber of Commerce. to Stop Violence Against Native Women: nonprofit or get information, email info@ 505.988.3279, [email protected], April 5 505.243.9199, www.csvan.org givegrandenm.org or visit www.givegrande www.santafechamber.com Walk Against Drugs March 5, 7 pm nm.org April 20-May 18 (Sundays) Sponsored by the Española Fiesta Council Celebration of Albuquerque’s Tree Seedlings Available and the Crisis Center of Northern NM. Beginning Beekeeping Wildlife Federation’s Centennial The NM State Forestry Division is selling six- Plants of the Southwest April 18-19 Pajarito Environmental Education ty species of tree and shrub seedlings as part 5-week course taught by Melanie Kirby and Santo Nino Festival of the Artists Center, Los Alamos, NM of the division’s Spring Conservation Seed- Mark Spitzig of Zia Queenbees. Over 20 hours Kristina Fisher and Phil Carter of AWF will ling Program to promote healthy forests and of class and field instruction. $450 includes Northern NM Regional Art Center, talk about the group’s history, show photos watersheds around the state. The seedlings starter bee colony. www.ziaqueenbees.com/zia Española Plaza and documents, and provide information are available to landowners who own at least Benefit performances. 4/18: Opening re- about current ecological restoration across one acre in NM and agree to use the seedlings April 26, 12-4 pm ception in the Convento Gallery with a free NM. 505.662.0460, Programs@Pajarito for conservation purposes such as erosion Earth Day at the Railyard showing of a film about the arts to follow in EEC.org, www.PajaritoEEE.org control or riparian restoration. 505.476.3325, the Misión. 4/19: artists’ booths, food, dance Railyard Park www.emnrd.state.nm.us/SFD/treepublic/ and music on the Plaza. 2 pm ticketed perfor- ConservationSeedlings.html www.GreenFireTimes.com Green Fire Times • March 2014 39 Green40 Fire Times • March 2014 www.GreenFireTimes.com