Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Local columnist Two of my favorite writers of all time, Rudolfo Anaya and Luis Valdez, were among three Hispanic writers awarded National Medals of Arts/Humanities by President Obama at The White House last week. A third writer, Sandra Cisneros, was also honored. I’ve shared many times how influential Rudolfo Anaya, author of “Bless Me, Ultima,” has been to me. However, when I saw a news story last week about these three writers, I realized it was Luis Valdez who had actually been my first inspiration to write. Many peopl...
Two of my favorite writers of all time, Rudolfo Anaya and Luis Valdez, were among three Hispanic writers awarded National Medals of Arts/Humanities by President Obama at The White House last week. A third writer, Sandra Cisneros, was also honored. I’ve shared many times how influential Rudolfo Anaya, author of “Bless Me, Ultima,” has been to me. However, when I saw a news story last week about these three writers, I realized it was Luis Valdez who had actually been my first...
Religion columnist I’m not fluent in Spanish. I speak Spanglish, a mix of Spanish and English, but I conveniently understand bad words and when someone offers me food. Someone once asked me if I make tamales. No, I don’t, unless you count the once a year I help out at my church. With that said, I do have aspirations of hosting my own tamale cook-off in my home, like maybe this Christmas season. Sometimes you just have to sink your manos into the masa, a la Nike, and just do it! I remember watching my parents and tios and tia...
I’m not fluent in Spanish. I speak Spanglish, a mix of Spanish and English, but I conveniently understand bad words and when someone offers me food. Someone once asked me if I make tamales. No, I don’t, unless you count the once a year I help out at my church. With that said, I do have aspirations of hosting my own tamale cook-off in my home, like maybe this Christmas season. Sometimes you just have to sink your manos into the masa, a la Nike, and just do it! I remember wat...
Religion columnist I’m Helena Rodriguez and I’m a coffee drinker. As I confessed last week, I’m also an aspiring “early bird.” One age-ism which I can’t seem to embrace just yet, though, as my countdown to the half century mark begins, is talking about surgeries and illnesses. That’s going to take some reconstructive brain work on my part as I turn 49 in two months and still have a whole year to hit the half century mark and AARP’s mailing list. If possible, I will run and hide. I may further protest and return to drink...
I’m Helena Rodriguez and I’m a coffee drinker. As I confessed last week, I’m also an aspiring “early bird.” One age-ism which I can’t seem to embrace just yet, though, as my countdown to the half century mark begins, is talking about surgeries and illnesses. That’s going to take some reconstructive brain work on my part as I turn 49 in two months and still have a whole year to hit the half century mark and AARP’s mailing list. If possible, I will run and hide. I may further p...
I was sitting on the couch with Mom when the late night breaking news of Princess Diana’s death broke in 1997. This past weekend, Mom and I watched round-the-clock coverage of another iconic death, that of Juan Gabriel. And we also watched the canonization of the iconic Mother Teresa. Mom and I have shared many of these tragic moments in television history, and also, with the latter, some blessed moments. Mother Teresa is now officially a saint. And the late Mexican Elvis P...
Ten years ago, when I was thirty-something, it took practice, but I finally learned how to become a coffee drinker. Now that I’m forty something, I’m trying to master another ritual of gracefully growing a bit older and wiser — getting up early. Getting up early is for the birds, be us spring chickens or retiring roosters. I feel like the former, a spring chicken afraid to spread its wings and fly too early in the morning. I practiced this summer, trying to beat the sun at daw...
Life is not always an “either” or an “or” situation. Sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too. Sometimes unexpected curves come as bundles, and these bundles, instead of weighing down your dream, give you resilience to reach them. Earlier this month, Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings made a bold statement when she said, “I was born to have babies and play volleyball.” This stirred up the either/or camps who need no introduction. She said that before she had her...
Religion columnist Life is not always an “either” or an “or” situation. Sometimes you can have your cake and eat, it too. Sometimes unexpected curves come as bundles, and these bundles, instead of weighing down your dream, give you resilience to reach them. Earlier this month, Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings made a bold statement when she said, “I was born to have babies and play volleyball.” This stirred up the either/or camps who need no introduction. She said that before she had her three children, her life lack...
Religion columnist Almost every child knows the jingly “Alphabet Song” even before they start school. My two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter, Genavecia, already knows that song. Kids know their ABCs. As I recently discovered, though, they also know their logos, sometimes even better than their ABCs. When my hijada (Goddaughter), Stephanie, was a pre-schooler learning her ABCs, when she saw the letter “M,” she excitedly exclaimed, “McDonald’s!” That was a classic moment in my memory. Fast forward about 15 years to now....
Almost every child knows the jingly "Alphabet Song" even before they start school. My two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter, Genavecia, already knows that song. Kids know their ABCs. As I recently discovered, though, they also know their logos, sometimes even better than their ABCs. When my hijada (Goddaughter), Stephanie, was a pre-schooler learning her ABCs, when she saw the letter "M," she excitedly exclaimed, "McDonald's!" That was a classic moment in my memory. Fast...
What if I told you that the most powerful woman in the world is not Hillary Clinton? In a global best-seller, the most powerful woman speaks but a few words. Soldiers, artists, actors, government officials, rich and poor, even Olympic medalists, call upon her. She is the subject of a signature work by famous Italian sculptor Michelangelo. Football passes in her honor have been said to save games. She is said to have saved sailors from sea storms and inspired architecture....
“Leave the comforts of ‘sofa happiness,’ and, with Jesus’s help, put on some ‘walking shoes’ and make a mark on history.” These were the words that Pope Francis told more than a million and a half youth during last weekend’s World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland. There are good things happening in this world if you take time to leave your comfort zone, as Pope Francis suggests. Good things are happening on the other side of the world, and sometimes in our own towns. I recent...
Religion columnist “Leave the comforts of ‘sofa happiness,’ and, with Jesus’s help, put on some ‘walking shoes’ and make a mark on history.” These were the words that Pope Francis told more than a million and a half youth during last weekend’s World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland. There are good things happening in this world if you take time to leave your comfort zone, as Pope Francis suggests. Good things are happening on the other side of the world, and sometimes in our own towns. I recently met a humble yet determined man, M...
It’s been a Shakespearean summer in many ways as I brush up on classic literature for the upcoming school year. Shakespeare said, “The world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Protagonists and antagonists. As I read Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar” recently, it brought to mind the political theatrics going on in our country. I thought of Julius Caesar and his enemy, Brutus, and of Brutus and Cassius, both friends and then later enemies of Caesar, but...
My grandson Giovanni, 5, asked me the other day, in all seriousness, “Is the Daily Planet real, grandma?” “No, Giovanni,” I answered. “The Daily Planet is not real.” “But you said that the news IS real, Grandma,” Giovanni insisted. He was confused. For a moment there, he had gotten me. That kid has a super hero memory. “Yes, Gio …” I fumbled for a few seconds. “I mean … the news that we read in the newspapers and that we see on TV IS real, like I told you the other day, m...
Growing up in north Portales, as kids we called police “pigs.” If we were at Grandma Chaya’s house in Lubbock, they were “chotas,” slang for police. I’m not proud of this, but it was what I ignorantly picked up in the 1970s growing up after the civil rights movement. My mom worked for Community Action and sometimes went to court to translate for people in cases of “police brutality” against Hispanics. Who provoked the attacks? I don’t know. But these were times of lingerin...
One of my pet peeves is those Facebook postings that read, “Share this post and a blessing will come your way.” Usually, there’s a photo of a stack of folded dollar bills included. Well, sign me up. Amen! The problem, however, is that the next day, I see the same people sharing a similar posting. What, that wasn’t enough money? I like a posting that my son-in-law, Nino, shared recently which reads, “I’m still looking for the scripture that says I will get a blessing fo...
The purple dinosaur of the 1990s was right when he said “Please and thank you, they’re called the magic words.” In Psalm 50:23, God says, “Giving thanks is the sacrifice that honors me.” In texting lingo, a little “ty” goes a long way. After days of bickering and arguing recently, my daughter, Laura, gave me a tight hug and uttered the golden words, “Thank you, mom,” followed by an, “I really mean it” for added emphasis. It was the real deal, not the “Thank you for shoppi...
Religion columnist The purple dinosaur of the 1990s was right when he said “Please and thank you, they’re called the magic words.” In Psalm 50:23, God says, “Giving thanks is the sacrifice that honors me.” In texting lingo, a little “ty” goes a long way. After days of bickering and arguing recently, my daughter, Laura, gave me a tight hug and uttered the golden words, “Thank you, mom,” followed by an, “I really mean it” for added emphasis. It was the real deal, not the “Thank you for shopping with us today” or, in texting l...
When I was a child, we were constantly walking by Grandpa Madrid’s La-Z-Boy chair, which rested just a few steps from the front door, as we walked in and out of the house, especially during summer days of playing outside. That chair had the best TV-watching view in the house. If you were sitting in it and grandpa walked in, you moved. There was something else that always moved me, too, though. Just above that chair was a captivating image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with s...
Religion columnist When I was a child, we were constantly walking by Grandpa Madrid’s La-Z-Boy chair, which rested just a few steps from the front door, as we walked in and out of the house, especially during summer days of playing outside. That chair had the best TV-watching view in the house. If you were sitting in it and grandpa walked in, you moved. There was something else that always moved me, too, though. Just above that chair was a captivating image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with softly lit and yet deep eyes which...
As a child, I remember blowing up balloons and sticking pasty strips of newspaper around them. After our papier mache projects dried, we added festive paper and streamers and they became piñatas. We weaved colorful yarn around popsicle sticks to create bright, ornamental ojos de dios. We also painted murals of Emiliano Zapata, Cesar Chavez, and the Aztec eagle, as I have shared before. It was there at that summer youth program, at the North Portales Community Center at...
I called my parents on Monday asking, “Remember that summer when we drove to Albuquerque in the Monte Carlo to see Becky dance? Well .. why did all the other kids go in the bus and we took our own car?” “Uh … “ Mom, whom I asked first, couldn’t remember. She gave the phone to Dad. I refreshed Dad’s memory. “Remember when we went to Albuquerque? It was in the 1970s, and we went with the summer program at the North Portales Community Center, but everyone rode in the bus, except...
