Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Religion columnist I had a dream not long ago. I was an old lady climbing a flight of stairs stretching up to the sky. As I neared the top, I was losing strength. My load was heavy. I wasn’t sure I could make it. Finally, I swung the heavy bag from across my shoulders and onto that second-to-the-last step … and then I woke up. As I woke up, I sat straight up in bed; the dream was fresh in my mind. When I wake up from a memorable dream like this one, I usually lie frozen in bed, pondering it or trying to reconstruct it. But...
I had a dream not long ago. I was an old lady climbing a flight of stairs stretching up to the sky. As I neared the top, I was losing strength. My load was heavy. I wasn’t sure I could make it. Finally, I swung the heavy bag from across my shoulders and onto that second-to-the-last step … and then I woke up. As I woke up, I sat straight up in bed; the dream was fresh in my mind. When I wake up from a memorable dream like this one, I usually lie frozen in bed, pondering it or...
Local columnist 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 us. Why did we take our car?...
I just love Texas bluebonnets, so much so that picking this official state flower of the Lone Star State in Fredericksburg almost got me in trouble with the law once. I shared this experience in an old column. The site of bluebonnets — towers of blue taking bows across the Texas Hill Country — is breathtaking. Even more fascinating to me, I recently learned about a New Mexico connection to the Texas bluebonnet and a connection to the bluebonnets and a 17th century saint, Mar...
Local columnist I just love Texas bluebonnets, so much so that picking this official state flower of the Lone Star State in Fredericksburg almost got me in trouble with the law once. I shared this experience in an old column. The site of bluebonnets — towers of blue taking bows across the Texas Hill Country — is breathtaking. Even more fascinating to me, I recently learned about a New Mexico connection to the Texas bluebonnet and a connection to the bluebonnets and a 17th century saint, Maria de Jesus de Agreda, who is bel...
“Do any Baby Boomers of Generation Xers know who Sister Mary Elephant is?” Here is a hint, “Class. Class! CLASS! SHUT UP!” “Thank you!” I just finished my second full year of teaching in the public schools, and no, I have never told my class to “Shut up!” However, I came upon this old Cheech and Chong clip as I was blissfully taking in the thought that I will be off of work for the next three months — a hard earned vacation by the way — and was searching for Tommy Chong’s s...
Fifteen years ago when Ruben Quezada started writing about “Cristiada,” the Cristero War in Mexico, a little known event which happened in the late 1920s, people said, “That would never happen in the U.S.” “Well, it is happening here,” Quezada said recently when I heard him speak at the Knights of Columbus State Convention in Hobbs. “When I first read the story of Cristeros, it was like America today.” Quezada is the author of a book-turned-movie, “For Greater Glory,” w...
This is a continuation of last weeks’ column about being raised in a mostly oral history tradition of the Hispanic culture. We didn’t have many children’s books. But the books we had … they confirmed who I was … and wanted to be. When money became tight for us in the 1980s and Dad’s stories around the campfire ended, my older sister and I watched my younger sisters while Mom and Dad worked. That is when I noticed Mom’s books, “450 Ano’s del Pueblo Chicano/450 Years...
This is a continuation of last week’s column on how, rather than my parents reading my sisters and I books as children, we listened to children’s records. However, in writing the column, I realized two things. While I grew up under a rich oral tradition of our Hispanic culture, an oral tradition which shaped my views of myself and the world, books were not completely out of the picture. Books were influential. At first, the books Mom had laying around were dangerous … until...
I'm getting to be a little more "I’m not so old" than what I thought I was. Lately, I’ve been thinking back to the good ol’ days, and then a newsflash blinks across my brain. These good ol’ days were not yesteryear. They were in a whole other decade, a whole other millennium. Yes, about one generation ago. So much has happened in a generation. I was remembering recently the Saturday mornings that I would walk across the street from our home on North Avenue B in Portales, and d...
When I was going to Portales Junior High School in the early 1980s, we had three options for lunch: Eat in the cafeteria, bring your own lunch or eat in the snack bar. When I ate in the snack bar, I was in food heaven. The snack bar was in a room in the old Home Economics building, by Mrs. Richter’s art room. This was before the old two-story junior high was knocked down. The snack bar was decorated with simple long metal tables and folding chairs. Nothing fancy. And n...
Last Thursday was the 21st anniversary of the death of Tejano music queen Selena and April 16th will be her birthday. She would have been 45 years old this year. Remembering Selena made me think of her movie, and then of the Spanish lyrics of a song in the movie which sounded silly when translated into English. In one “Selena” movie scene, her father asks young Selena to sing a Spanish song, “Reloj.” The lyrics go like this, “Reloj, no marques las horas, porque voy a enloque...
“Holiness is not for wimps and the cross is not negotiable, sweetheart. It’s a requirement.” How is that for feisty faith? For spirituality with spunk? These are the words of Mother Angelica, as she was known by millions of people across the globe, the trademark personality of EWTN, the largest religious media organization on the planet according to Raymond Arroyo, news director for EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network). I was heart-struck when I heard Mother Angelica, 92, d...
I was telling two of my students recently that we have Good Friday off from school. One of them asked, “What is Good Friday?' I shook my head in disbelief. I know she attends church regularly. “What do you think Good Friday is?” I redirected the question to them. After thinking a moment, one asks, “Is it when they have sales?” I shook my head, again in disbelief. “No, that is Black Friday,” I corrected. “Good Friday is the day that Jesus was crucified on the cross, three da...
I love to watch the motion of water, whether I'm at a pond, lake, river or by the ocean. It makes time stand still. But when I look long enough, I can feel myself moving with the waves, sometimes being swept up by them. Everything is dynamic; always moving and changing. There is a time and a season for everything under the sun (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Spring is almost upon us, meaning longer days and shorter nights. I hate losing an hour of sleep as we spring forward on Saturday...
I'm thinking about papas, not papas O'chile con eggs, which I love, but about papas O'Brien, and things Irish, but with a Hispanic twist. Shamrocks have me thinking of cilantro. They've both got green leaves. And St. Patrick's Day makes me think about Cinco de Mayo. I will explain. I've always worn green on St. Patrick's Day, which is next Thursday. But other than that, I've never felt very Irish. Instead of putting O's in front of our words, we Hispanics but them at the end o...
I'm thinking about papas, not papas O'chile con eggs, which I love, but about papas O'Brien, and things Irish, but with a Hispanic twist. Shamrocks have me thinking of cilantro. They've both got green leaves. And St. Patrick's Day makes me think about Cinco de Mayo. I will explain. I've always worn green on St. Patrick's Day, which is next Thursday. But other than that, I've never felt very Irish. Instead of putting O's in front of our words, we Hispanics put them at the end o...
Local columnist I was trying to remember recently what it was like during my childhood days without cell phones and cordless phones. I remember Portales High School had two phone booths in the hallway. Super Man wasn’t the only one to use phone booths. Back then, you didn’t call people during dinner time. Besides, it was hard to move one of those bulky rotary phones to the table with its twisted spiral cord that often didn’t reach. Or even worse, it was a wall mounted phone. Also, back then, people did strange things like...
I was trying to remember recently what it was like during my childhood days without cell phones and cordless phones. I remember Portales High School had two phone booths in the hallway. Super Man wasn’t the only one to use phone booths. Back then, you didn’t call people during dinner time. Besides, it was hard to move one of those bulky rotary phones to the table with its twisted spiral cord that often didn’t reach. Or even worse, it was a wall mounted phone. Also, back then,...
I can be a people person at times, but sometimes people are overrated. I’m not being anti-social, but rather, anti-over-eulogizing. I watched the funeral Mass on TV last weekend for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. It was a relief to see that there was no formal eulogy. In keeping with the justice’s philosophy that “Funerals should not be dominated by effusive praise,” his son, the presiding priest, refrained from that. I have nothing against saying nice things about p...
Local columnist I spotted the yellow sticky note on my laptop. In pencil was scribbled, “It’s all right!” I looked up. There was Roy nodding his head. That was his hip way of telling me everything was all right. I smiled. In fact, I told him to remind me to smile often. I wrote a mental note to myself to post a giant smiley face on the front wall of my classroom. I was having a frustrating day and Roy, that student who likes to ask me a thousand questions, was well aware. He started to ask a thousand and one questions, but l...
Opinion I spotted the yellow sticky note on my laptop. In pencil was scribbled, “It’s all ight!” I looked up. There was Roy nodding his head. That was his hip way of telling me everything was all right. Helena Rodriguez I smiled. In fact, I told him to remind me to smile often. I wrote a mental note to myself to post a giant smiley face on the front wall of my classroom. I was having a frustrating day and Roy, that student who likes to ask me a thousand questions, was well...
Local columnist Mondays are Manic or Miracle Mondays. Tuesdays are Taco Tuesday, or Tejano Tuesday, as I call them. Today, Wednesday, is Hump Day. I hate that term. Thursday is Throwback Thursday and Friday is … well … what more need I say? As for today though, today is the day after Fat Tuesday, also known as Mardi Gras. And so it’s that solemn time of year again which always follows the huge New Orleans style last-party-before-Lent-begins. Today is Ash Wednesday. If you happen to see me walking around with a huge black...
Mondays are Manic or Miracle Mondays. Tuesdays are Taco Tuesday, or Tejano Tuesday, as I call them. Today, Wednesday, is Hump Day. I hate that term. Thursday is Throwback Thursday and Friday is … well … what more need I say? As for today though, today is the day after Fat Tuesday, also known as Mardi Gras. And so it's that solemn time of year again which always follows the huge New Orleans style last-party-before-Lent-begins. Today is Ash Wednesday. If you happen to see me...
Local columnist I don’t believe in spooks, at least not in the way ghosts are shown in movies as evil, supernatural beings out to get you. Maybe they just want us to know we’re not alone, or to not forget them. Unexplainable things happen and, sometimes, that just may include unexplainable encounters with the unknown. I was getting ready for work recently. I was the only one awake at the time, lost in my thoughts, thinking about the day ahead, when I was startled by a noise above. It was a clinking and banging on the cei...
