Tradiciones - Unsung Heroes 2022

Lillian

HEROES START AT

For 22 years, Taos News has proudly published the stories of our commu nity’s Unsung Heroes — ordinary people doing extraordinary things that make a difference in the lives of others.

The award recipients were chosen by the Unsung Heroes Selection Committee, which nominates and then votes on its roster of nominees. Nine heroes were selected, along with the Citizen of the Year, Lillian Torrez.

The award is given to those who selflessly help others (heroes) — yet remain unrecognized for their efforts (unsung).

For instance, Lady Tigers basketball head coach Eric Mares is a licensed clinical social worker and serves as Clinical Director of Taos Behavioral Health. He’s used to dealing with substance abuse, grief and loss, family discord and trauma.

Mares coaches his team in jump shots — but also — emotional intelli gence. As one observer put it, “We can all become better humans by adopt ing Eric’s value of care and concern for others”

Leo Pacheco, no stranger to death, has seen people pass away in the

want

thank

40-plus years he’s served taking care of cemetery duties in and around Arroyo Seco.

His friend described him as “a man who does not chase after limelight, but will unhesitatingly respond to a call for his help, counsel and gifts.”

And Taos Municipal Schools District former-Superintendent Lillian Torrez — and 2022 Citizen of

the Year — faced challenges in her youth which closely resemble those of the students she has served as an educator and administrator for the last 44 years in New Mexico.

“Students mean everything to me, and that’s kind of how I’ve been my whole career,” she said. “That’s where I found my passion. I see myself in them.”

Taos is special in the way that every day Taoseños show up — and step up — to address the challenges facing our community. We applaud the work of these Unsung Heroes, and join you in celebrating their accomplishments.

the Year:

Reyes

Unsung Heroes: Shelley Bahr Paul Bernal

Beatríz Gonzáles Nancy Jenkins Ida Martinez

Celina Salazar

Larry Schreiber

Stephen Wiard

Fred Winter

2002 Citizen of the Year:

Eloy Jeantete Unsung Heroes: Paulie Burt Martha Dick Shawn Duran

Lucy Himes Palemón Martinez Theresa and Rúben Martinez

Joleen Montoya Mary Olguin

John Randall

2003 Citizens of the Year:

Nick and Bonnie Branchal

Unsung Heroes: Richard Archuleta

Elizabeth Gilmore

Bruce Gomez Jane Mingenbach

Patty Mortenson and Terry Badhand

Cynthia Rael-Vigil Guadalupe Tafoya

Bernie Torres Ted Wiard

2004 Citizen of the Year:

Tony Reyna Unsung Heroes: Charlie Anderson Connie Archuleta Stephen Cetrulo

Victor Chavez Ernestina and Francis Córdova

Clay Farrell Dee Lovato

Jeannie Masters Rosemarie Packard

2005 Citizens of the Year: Art and Susan Bachrach

Unsung Heroes: Mardoqueo Chacón Juan “Johnny” Devargas Carmen Lieurance

Ernie and Frutoso López

Roy Madrid Betsy Martínez Isabel Rendón Johnny Sisneros Dr. Bud Wilson

2006 Citizen of the Year: Jenny Vincent Unsung Heroes: Francisco Córdova Telesfor González John Holland Vishu Magee Juan Martínez Luís C. Martínez Becky Miera Gabriel Romero Snider Sloan

2007 Citizen of the Year: Jake Mossman Jr. Unsung Heroes: Chilton and Judy Anderson Cindy Cross Shirley and Jerry Lujan Albino Martínez

Max Martínez Ted Martínez

Irene Párraz Corina Santistevan Michael and Sylvia Torrez

2008 Citizens of the Year: Cid and Betty Backer Unsung Heroes: Crestina Armstrong Mario Barela

Art Coca Mike Concha Rose Cordova Jeanelle Livingston Christina Masoliver

Jake Mossman Sr. Nita Murphy

PAST HONOREES

2009 Citizen of the Year:

Rebeca Romero Rainey Unsung Heroes: Billy and Theresa Archuleta Carolina Dominguez Eddie Grant Mary Trujillo Mascareñas Connie Ochoa Marie Reyna Lawrence Vargas Frank Wells

2010

Citizen of the Year: Vishu Magee Unsung Heroes: Candido Domínguez Esther García Michael Hensley Cherry Montaño Mish Rosette Patrick Romero Charlene Tamayó Feloniz Trujillo Malinda Williams

2011

Citizen of the Year: Jim Fambro Unsung Heroes: Benjie Apodaca Patrick Delosier Cyndi Howell Alipio Mondragón Chavi Petersen Siena Sanderson Mary Alice Winter

2012 Citizens of the Year: Jim and Mary Gilroy Unsung Heroes: Marilyn Farrow Dennis Hedges Pat Heinen Judy Hofer Phyllis Nichols Loertta Ortiz y Pino Dolly Peralta Lillian Romero

2013

Citizen of the Year: Patricia Michaels Unsung Heroes: Edy Anderson Cynthia Burt John Casali

Maria Cintas Father William Hart McNichols Mark Ortega JoAnn Ortiz Effie Romero Fabi Romero

2014 Citizens of the Year: Ernie Blake Family Unsung Heroes: Valorie Archuleta Jane Compton Tina Martinez Alex Medina Jean Nichols Lisa O’Brien Louise Padilla Mary Spears

2015 Citizens of the Year: Randall Family Unsung Heroes: Walter Allen Mary Ann Boughton Carl Colonius Liz Moya Herrera Melissa Larson Addelina Lucero Bruce McIntosh Thom Wheeler

2016 Citizen of the Year: Elizabeth Crittenden Palacios

Unsung Heroes: Benton and Arabella Bond Paul Figueroa Carl Gilmore Judge Ernest Ortega Ernesto Martinez Medalia Martinez Sonny Spruce Becky Torres

2017 Citizen of the Year:

O’Neill

Heroes:

Abeyta

Cote Brian Greer

Ortega

Romero

Stadler

Torres

Tsosie-Gaussoin

2018 Citizen of the Year: Francis Córdova

Unsung Heroes: Jill Cline

Francisco Guevara Lucille and George Jaramillo Deacon Donald Martínez Jesse Martínez Andrew Montoya Polly Raye Angel Reyes Janet Webb

2019 Citizen of the Year: Art Abreu Jr.

Unsung Heroes: Dave Córdova Virginia Couse Leavitt Russ Driskell Mary Alice Martínez

Julianna Matz Sharon Nicholson Rob Nightingale Bennie and Edna Romero

2020 Citizen of the Year: Ted Wiard

Unsung Heroes: Kathleen Branchal Garcia David Maes David Mapes Gayle and Peter Martínez Florence Miera Mary Romero Luzita Trujillo

2021 Citizen of the Year: David Elliot Unsung Heroes: Lisa Abeyta-Valerio Anita Bringas Benito Concha Roels ‘Roy’ Cunnyngham Valdemar DeHerrera Kathryn Herman Pauline Mondragon Bette Myerson Judy Weinrobe Malaquias Rael

Michael Tashji, Magazine Editor

2022 UNSUNG HEROES SELECTION COMMITTEE

Unsung Heroes Selection Committee, which nominated this year’s Unsung Heroes and Citizen of the Year. The

Ernestine Cordova, Ernie Ortega, Kathleen Michaels, Marilyn Farrow, Elizabeth Crittenden Palacios, Stella Mares-McGinnis, Joseph Quintana, David Elliot, Sonya Struck and David Mapes.

on being namedCitizen of the Year!

Lillian Torrez

mean everything to me.’

DR. LILLIAN TORREZ HONORED AFTER 44 YEARS OF SERVICE IN EDUCATION

By John Miller

When Lillian Torrez was six years old, she couldn’t speak English, and neither could her grandparents, so she asked her aunt and uncle to teach her how. In the third grade, tired of having holes in her shoes and being unable to afford lunch, she started saving quarters until she had enough money to buy food from the cafeteria and a new pair. As a teenager, before graduating from Valley High School in Albuquerque, she decided she wanted to go to college, so she got her ROTC sergeant to approve the financial aid applications she knew her father wouldn’t have agreed to sign.

While some people still don’t know that one of Taos Municipal Schools’ longest-serving superintendents isn’t from Northern New Mexico, probably even fewer are aware that the challenges Torrez faced in her youth closely resemble those of the students she has served as an educa tor and administrator for the last 44 years.

“Students mean everything to me, and that’s kind of how I’ve been my whole career,” she said, speaking last month in her office on Camino de La Placita in Taos. “That’s where I found my passion. I see myself in them.”

Transforming a district

Dr. Torrez, 67, retired at the end of August after eight years as superin tendent for Taos Municipal Schools, which includes Taos High School,

Taos Middle School, Enos Garcia Elementary, Ranchos Elementary School, Arroyos del Norte Elemen tary, Taos Cyber Magnet School and the Taos Tiger Connect K-12 Online Academy. The district also authorizes Taos Charter School and Taos Acad emy.

Taos Municipal Schools serves more than 2,000 students every year, and like Torrez was, many of them are being raised by their grand parents — including as many as 50 percent of students at Enos Garcia Elementary, Torrez estimates.

Today, Taos Municipal Schools maintains its budget, keeps an ample cash reserve and has access to several million dollars from more

than 50 grants. The district is in good standing with the New Mexico Public Education Department, has a high percentage of National Board Certifi cation teachers, and maintains close relationships with local nonprofits like LOR Foundation, J3 assets and was rife with problems — $400,000 in debt to the New Mexico Public Educa tion Department for food service costs, numerous staff complaints and several pending lawsuits. The situation became so dire, Torrez said, that PED sent a compliance officer to investigate Taos Municipal Schools, one of the first signs that the state is preparing to take over a fail ing district.

“We had no money. This district was completely broke,” Torrez said.

“I had to, by attrition, let 38 people go. There were so many things to be fixed, but the directors that I hired were very hardworking — committed. The principals that we had, everybody was so supportive and would just ask what was needed.”

At Torrez’s urging, top-level staff with the district pulled many late nights after she came onboard to strategize how to stabilize the district.

“Sometimes I would say, ‘We’re not going anywhere. We’re having pizzas ordered in for the next two weeks. Every night. You’re going to be putting more hours in than you have been putting in in your entire life. Can you guys do that?’ ‘Yes.’ That’s what we had to do. We had to take it one step at a time,” Torrez said.

NATHAN

Four decades in education

Before Taos, Torrez spent 40 years working in schools with similar problems throughout the state — as a special ed teacher, counselor and assistant principal. She eventually, returned to Albuquerque in 1996 to become principal at Eugene Field Elementary, a bilingual, “high-risk,” high-poverty school.

There, Torrez worked with staff to establish programs that resemble what is now known as a “community school” model, where meeting the needs of students means ensuring they have food security, clothing and supplies — that their basic needs are met and that their families take part in the school they attend.

“The parents would go out and sell pickles,” Torrez recalls of their program at Eugene Field. “Everyone was into pickles then, and they had a pot that was helping with the school. We had a daycare, and the rule was that every parent was required to help two weeks out of the whole year. If you were a parent, you were going to have to help. Many of the parents had so many kids that they had to keep their kids in the daycare, but they had to then put in time working with teachers — being an assistant, things like that.”

Over the next seven years, the school overcame a 20-year history of poor performance records with PED, raising student academic performance from 13 percent to nearly 50 percent. Before she left in 2002, Torrez was honored as teacher of the year by the Albuquerque Public Schools district.

From there, Torrez worked at St. Pius High School as an administra tor and Cuba Independent Schools as assistant superintendent. In 2012, she took the job of superintendent at Questa Independent Schools, where she oversaw a 13 percent increase in graduation rates in Questa and helped attract new funding from the village and the state before she joined Taos Municipal Schools in 2014.

What comes next

In Taos, Torrez said her experi ences coalesced to help her lead the district out of a set of problems, which, while familiar, seemed nearly impossible to overcome when she came onboard.

“She’s highly motivated. She’s highly dedicated. She’s always thinking about the students,” said Valerie Trujillo, who moved from assis tant superintendent into the role of interim superintendent following Torrez’s retirement. “She has a lot of enthusiasm and high energy. She

works a lot. Definitely she has been committed to the district. Tenures for superintendents are around two years, if that, and she lasted eight years here, and I think that’s commendable. She recently got the Dr. Effie H. Jones Humanitarian Award, and it was all about serving the underserved population, focus ing on poverty and so forth. She’s also an executive board [member] of the AASA (American Association of School Administrators), and with that position she mentors super intendents or aspiring superinten dents or principals across the nation.”

Trujillo says she knows that she and her staff still have a lot of work ahead of them, but they plan to tackle it following a similar model of incre mental improvement, particularly where it comes to pandemic-related learning loss, math and English learning and school safety concerns in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting this past spring.

“Most importantly, we are working

on our ready-access doors, where there is a camera, like a buzz door, so they can see who is at the front doors, those single-entry doors, which none of our campuses currently have,” Trujillo said. “We have also just hired a safety coordinator who has a law enforcement background.”

In retirement, Torrez is taking the sort of vacation she hasn’t been able to in 44 years — spending a month traveling across Europe. When she returns, she plans to focus on her family — including her two children, four grandchildren and her sister, Susan Raymond, who was recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

“It just feels like time. My family needs me,” Torrez said. “I know that it’s been rough on my two children. They say, ‘Mom, why do you keep on and on. You’re not paying attention to us, your four grandchildren.’ ‘OK, give me another year — just one more year, just one more year,’ I’d say. They don’t even believe I’m retiring. They think I’ll rescind it by next week.”

Eric

DOLORES Endres

SERVICE ABOVE SELF

By Geoffrey Plant

DR. DOLORES “DEL” ENDRES

is the definition of an unsung hero. Reeling off a list of people with whom she has collaborated to bring health care and other basic needs to under served populations in Taos County and around the world, the retired physician is reluctant to sing her own praises. She sees life and her human itarian work as a team effort.

“We’re all heroes to have survived two-and-a-half years of COVID,” said Endres, who played a pivotal role in

distributing over 3,300 vaccine doses in Taos County. “Heroes are people who are doing their jobs.”

But Endres is drawn only to jobs and volunteer work that benefit vulnerable populations, pursuing opportunities at every turn to bring medical care to people who don’t have access to basic services. She is driven to help the people who need it most. Sometimes that work is in Taos; sometimes it takes her across the globe.

The seventh of eight children,

Endres grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, where she attended medical school. Part of her education included an international medical rotation in Nicaragua in 1977. It was that experience, during the lead up to civil war, that “opened my desire to travel and do service work.”

In 1980, Endres became a commis sioned officer with the U.S. Public Health Service and went to work with the Indian Health Service. She contin ued to work internationally, too. She has made dozens of medical

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service trips to Mexico, Central America, South America, Zimba bwe, Kenya and other destinations.

During the height of the worst years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, her work in Africa taught her how severe the world’s economic disparity is.

“Seeing the disparity in develop ing countries made me realize life’s lottery system,” she said. “The ZIP code you’re born into determines so much about what you’re going to be able to do in this world. That’s part of the drive to make things a little bit better for other people I may be able to help locally or internationally.”

She was on the ground in Haiti last year shortly after the island nation was devastated by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake — considered the worst natural disaster to occur in 2021.

In 2015, Endres was wrapping up a medical service trip in Nepal when the country was struck by an 8.0 magnitude earthquake, the worst natural disaster the nation had expe rienced in 80 years.

In 1989 she landed in Taos, where she spent the next 16 years providing family medicine to the Taos Pueblo and Picuris Pueblo communities. When she retired from the Indian

Health Service in 2005, Endres prac ticed medicine for another 11 years “or so” at Schreiber Family Medicine.

Where Endres sees a need, she tries to fill it. During her stint with the Taos Milagro Rotary Club — the

motto for which is “service above self” — she worked with others to establish the For the Love of Read ing community literacy program, as well as erect 15 Little Free Librar ies in Taos County. Her more recent trips abroad have been with United by Friendship, an international humanitarian aid organization based in Española that worked to secure safe drinking water for villages and health clinics in Guate mala, and United4Change in Bolivia, where she works on education proj ects aimed at empowering women.

in Action

Community Rewards® in Action

ERIC Mares

A COACH WITH COMPASSION

By Jeans Pineda

REVITALIZING

the Lady Tigers basketball program from perennial low-rankers — the coach before him (David Sanchez) amassed a 31-76 record in his tenure — to dark horse playoff contenders in and of itself would be a feat deserving of recognition. What makes Eric Mares special is the manner in which he goes about doing that and all the commu nity work he does behind the scenes, beyond the Xs and Os.

Lady Tigers basketball head coach Mares is also a licensed clinical social worker and serves as Clinical Direc tor of Taos Behavioral Health. In that field, he is more used to dealing with the heavy matters of his clients — substance abuse, grief and loss, family discord and trauma — not the emotions that come with winning or losing a basketball game.

According to Mary McPhail Gray, who is on the chair of the Taos Behav ioral Health board, “Mares went to TBH as clinical director in 2019 after a variety of clinical and administrative positions in Northern New Mexico. A fifth-generation Taoseño, Mares has a master’s degree in social work from Highlands University and has clinical expertise in substance abuse, grief and loss, co-occurring diagnoses and trauma recovery. He is known in TBH as being compassionate and caring to both staff and clients, qualities which he shows as a coach. He commented that he emphasizes character and leadership with his players and ‘then we can just forget the game and play!’”

Mary continued, “watching his excel lent players perform, you can admire their skill, but his coaching is reflected in their excellent team play.” Mares has managed to apply his psychology back ground and his heady concepts to the hardwood. The girls on the team use words such as vulnerability, trust and emotional intelligence, when talking about basketball.

For practices, he brings Mark Pritchard for facilitating activities of mindfulness and reflectiveness, not only of oneself, but of others as well. He’s also brought out Feldenkrais prac titioner and instructor Prisca Winslow, who does mindfulness techniques of the body. According to Mares, he truly believes “that in order for girls to play basketball or for anybody to play sports efficiently, you have to know who you are and why you’re doing what you’re doing.”

The merging of philosophy and sports leadership are nothing new but it’s always impressive when you see people buy in. Taos Tigers basketball coach and athletic director Hernandez “Nando” Chavez often attends the Lady Tigers basketball games with some of his players and has seen Mares’ trans formative work firsthand.

According to Nando, “Coach Mares has been such a blessing to the Taos High School Athletic Department. He is a tireless worker who is dedicated to the youth of our community. A true man of integrity, he is a great coach and CEO but an even better father and husband. I’ll be forever grateful for his friendship.”

According to TBH-licensed profes sional clinical counselor Amanda Gallego, “Eric’s ability to heal is truly authentic and unparalleled. He brings hope to others like a freshly-dug well. In personal moments of imperfection, Eric did not express judgment — he asked if I was okay and, in a time of crisis, he literally gave me a set of keys. He has the ability to uplift others, even in their most vulnerable state. I’ve seen Eric eat with us, pray with us, cry with us, laugh with us and, more impor tantly, solve problems with us. He’s shown up tired, late, hungry and over whelmed, but he always, always shows. Eric does not say no when it comes to helping others. If there is a need, he fills it. Where there is fear, he reduces it.” Gallego continued, “we can all become better humans by adopting Eric’s value of care and concern for others. Eric Mares is not only a hero, his compassion is a legacy.”

STELLA Mares-McGinnis

A LOVE OF DANCE

By Will Hooper

IN 1984, Stella Mares-MgGinnis’ mother Lucy Mares was named state volunteer by then-governor Toney Anaya. After speaking with MaresMcGinnis for just an hour, it’s obvious the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, though Mares-McGinnis certainly downplays her role in the community when comparing it to her mother’s.

“I guess I followed in her footsteps,” she said, denying she was anywhere near the volunteer her mother was. Still, Mares-McGinnis, 79, has made a

name for herself in Taos as a woman who can be counted on by friends, family and community.

For years, Mares-McGinnis has volunteered in various positions in organizations and community groups throughout Taos. Born into a multi-generational New Mexican household, Mares-McGinnis grew up watching her parents’ love of dance — particularly during the Fiestas de Taos. The tradition and knowledge of dance was passed on, and she has been dancing during the event (and

beyond) ever since. This past year, she served as the Fiestas’ grand marshal.

“I’m still active in it,” she explained.

“Thank God I can still dance! Oh, I love to dance.”

Following in her parent’s footsteps, Mares-McGinnis brought her love of dance to the younger generations, teaching dancing at Taos High School.

“I didn’t ask for pay. I did it because I wanted the kids to know what the culture was,” she said. Throughout the years, Mares-McGinnis and her dance partner Tim Romero have

AguaVidaes

‘Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow men.’

performed throughout the state and the country.

Apart from dancing, Mares-McGin nis spent even more of her free time helping her community through other organizations. She has been president of the Women’s Division of the local Chamber of Commerce, a 24-yearlong member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles — volunteering most of her time in the kitchen — and has spent almost 15 years on the Unsung Heroes nominating committee.

Alongside all of her volunteer work, she has spent 54-and-a-half years working as a hairdresser, cutting hair for numerous salons over the years, eventually retiring from It’s A Small World Salon & Boutique after working in a number of shops in Taos through the years — with Helen Anderson, Martha Shuetz and Valorie Archuleta.

Through it all, Mares-McGinnis said her family has been her rock for her nearly-eight decades of life in Taos. Her father and mother passed prior to the turn of the century, and her only sibling — her brother Filipe Mares — lives in Corrales. “I come from a very small family. But we’re all very united, even though we’re so few,” she said, noting her niece, nephew, and grand niece. “I love my family. I’ll do anything for my family.”

Mares-McGinnis does not have chil dren of her own, but spent a happy 27 years married to the late Joseph McGinnis, who was a prominent speech and debate coach at Taos High School. She said they met on a blind date many years before their marriage, “but we never stopped talk ing to each other… Then we rekindled some years later. He was a good man. Very honest.”

When the couple married, MaresMcGinnis was 42. “I was too old to start having a family, but I have my niece and my nephew,” she said. Joseph McGinnis passed away in 2011.

These days, she said she spends her time in the Upper Ranchitos house her parents left to her. The old adobe building holds a lifetime of memories. Mares-McGinnis’ Roman Catholic upbringing is also on display at the home.

In her elder years, she has enjoyed traveling, particularly to Italy,

where she met Pope John Paul II. In November, she has planned a trip to the “Holy Land,” when she will spend time in Jerusalem and other spiritual Christian sites in the Middle East.

No matter how far she travels, she never forgets her Taos roots. “I love everything about Taos. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else,” she said. In fact, she said she plans to be buried next to her mother in the

Sierra Vista Cemetery. “I was born here and I want to be buried here,” she said firmly, also denouncing the idea of cremation.

“I hope Joe doesn’t get too upset,” she joked of not being buried next to her husband. “But that’s okay, I’d rather be next to my mother.”

While she accepts the idea of death, she said she still has more to give.

This year, in an acknowledge

ment of Mares-McGinnis’ long-term service to her community, she was nominated for the award by the Unsung Heroes Selection Commit tee before she arrived at the group's annual gathering.

She said she felt humbled by the nomination. “I’m just here to go help people because that’s what life is all about: helping people. I love people. Especially here in Taos, I had the chance to do that.” ��

NATHAN

‘I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.’

– MAYA ANGELOU

are always our Hero!

Leo

TOBY Martinez

PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF

By Will Hooper

NATURE HAS NEVER BEEN far from Toby Martinez’s mind. As he waited for rain just before the monsoon season began, the 77-yearold Taoseño remembered growing up helping his family herd 800 sheep from the mesa up into the canyons near Ranchos de Taos.

“At a very young age, my brothers and I were the primary help for our parents,” he said of his sheep-herding childhood.

After graduating from Taos High

School, it seemed only natural that Martinez would go on to get a degree in range management from New Mexico State University. Since graduating in 1969, he has spent the majority of his life working in vari ous forestry and community service positions.

With a degree in hand, Martinez interviewed and got a job with the U.S. Forest Service, starting out at the El Rito Ranger District of the Carson National Forest. After moving to the area with his wife and two-year-old

daughter, he was suddenly asked to change his post. “When they called me about transferring to Arizona, I basically said, ‘You know, I hardly haven’t even unpacked some of my stuff and I’m not ready to move.’”

But the decision wasn’t up to Marti nez, as his boss made clear. For the next four years, he and his family lived in Globe, Ariz., before he was transferred yet again — this time to the Santa Fe National Forest. He went on to become District Ranger for the Las Vegas Ranger District before

The Pride of Taos County

Thank you to this year’s Citizen of the Year and all of the Unsung Heroes for your selfless dedication to our community.

Dee Dee Miller Double D Ranch

he was eventually transferred to Peñasco, very close to the areas in which he spent time herding sheep as a kid.

“Sheepherders had this thing about writing your names on aspen trees, and so I had a lot of interesting reminders of my youth and what I used to write on aspen trees,” he said of his return to his hometown.

“Sometimes I’d write more than my name, maybe the name of a girl friend or something was on the tree!” he joked.

But the job kept him moving — onto Silver City, where he spent four years, then to Richfield, Utah, where he worked for another four years. He eventually landed back in Santa Fe, where he was appointed by thenGovernor Gary Johnson to be the New Mexico State Forester.

During his time in the Johnson administration, Martinez worked to create a number of beneficial state programs, including an inmate work camp out of Los Lunas that utilized minimum-security prisoners to work on federal land projects, as well as one in Grants that did the same for women inmates.

Martinez also lobbied for a total of $5 million, “where a lot of the thin ning, and the logging and the open ing up of the forest can be done

through the creation of industries that could utilize that material,” in particular for small diameter trees, he said.

He described his experience asking a senate staffer why they decided to fund the project: “I asked him, ‘How is it that you folks finally, finally, finally decided to fund this project?’ And he said, ‘Well, Toby, you just wouldn’t go away!’”

Persistence has continued to pay off for Martinez since his return to Taos in 2004. Settling back into his hometown, he became instrumen tal in many areas of nature conser vancy and sustainability — serving as a board member on the Taos Valley Acequia Association; chairing the Ranchos de Taos Neighborhood Association; serving as mayordomo of the Acequia Madre del Rio Grande Ditch and chairman of the Acequia Jarosa; and volunteering with Taos Land Trust.

He pursued funding for acequia fixes, utilizing connections he made at the legislative level to help replace pipelines and diversion dams. “I had built good relationships with the legislator and was success ful in getting funding for both the Acequia Madre del Rio Grande and the Acequia Jarosa,” he said. “Legis lators and senators get so much

money that they can allocate… and I was very successful in getting money because of those relationships and building trust.”

Martinez is also a founding member of Alianza-Agricultura, which he started with now-county commissioner Darlene Vigil. Initially

begun with the intention of bringing attention to increased taxation on rangeland, the group of people from Taos Land Trust, Taos Soil & Water Conservation District and other organizations eventually became Alanzia-Agricultura. He originally served as chairman, and remains a board member.

“I’ve also been kind of working on some other things that are really affecting our agricultural base, such as the noxious weeds and species,” he said. “That’s an uphill battle.”

Martinez said receiving the Unsung Heroes award is humbling and surprising. “I was reluctant to accept it because I don’t want to bring credit to myself. I don’t do it for that reason,” he said. Ultimately, he was encouraged by former Unsung Heroes like David Maes.

“In our culture they say people that get awards like that are ‘lambes’ (or brown-nosers). I’m not trying to downplay the award. I’m very appre ciative, I just don’t like to be in the limelight — although I find myself in the limelight all the time,” he laughed.

“If you’re leading things, you have to be up front and get people to come along and work with you on things.”

Toby

NATHAN BURTON/TAOS

LEOPacheco

A MAN OF LIGHT

By Jeans Pineda

Pacheco

AT 87 YEARS OF AGE,

Leo Pacheco is no stranger to death. He has seen people pass away in the 40-plus years he’s served taking care of cemetery duties in the Arroyo Seco area: The Arroyo Seco Morada Ceme tery, the Frank Waters Cemetery, the Torres Family Cemetery and La Santisma Trinidad Church and Campo Santo. He’s more than ready to meet the day he crosses over into the great divide.

Earlier in his life, he opted for money and sustenance over an education. “I’m not a smart man, porque no fui a la escuela. I graduated from eighth grade from Arroyo Seco school, went over to Taos Junior High, y luego me sali y me fui pa trabajar, because I was more interested in money.”

He found work in Pot Creek in a lumberyard. Then, he had to find work out-of-state in Wyoming and in the mines of Leadville and Climax, in Colo rado. He would end up at the molybde num mine in Questa through a friend’s strong referral. Pacheco worked those mines for over 25 years.

Pacheco says he’s lived a good life thus far, with only one great loss — that of his late wife, Rose Pacheco, with whom he lived with for sixty years. “La unica tristeza fue cuando perdi mi esposa.”

Granddaughter Jenny Pacheco mentioned, “He’s ready. He’s got his box. He wants to be cremated. He has everything ready.” She also mentioned the box was made by his grandson.

Before retiring from his role, he would go to the cemetery and mark the headstones. He would handle the checks and receipts for the cemetery dues. He would say prayers for the deceased and sometimes travel as far as Mora to deliver prayers. He did this all for free for those forty-plus years.

Jenny Pacheco mentioned her grandfather would get called at all hours of the night from people saying someone just died.

Pacheco was one of the main members of the Arroyo Seco Mutual Domestic Water Association along with the late Abel Garcia, before they could no longer do it. It was a position that was unpaid and, much like his cemetery duties, it was another situa tion where he was thrust into a role he wasn’t necessarily looking for.

He recalled how it all started with, “My father taught me how to ring the bell.”

“Everybody that died. The first one that knew who died was me. Because they call me, ‘Leo. My mom died. Do you want to go and ring the bell?’ ‘Sure. Why Not?’ So, I hear — I go and ring the bell.”

“Then, dijo, ‘we want to have some body pray the rosary for my mom that died. Do you want to pray the rosary?’ Sure, why not. So I prayed for almost everybody that died. I ring the bell.”

“Then a young girl died — the father came up here and said, ‘I want you to give the eulogy on the funeral.’”

“I never done anything like that and I don’t have words to go up in front of people like that now, but he wanted me.

I kind-of backed out pretty hard. But he said ‘no, you’re going to do it.’ And he was my good friend so I could’t … I said ‘okay I’ll give it a try.’”

“I don’t know if I’ve done a good job or not. But from there on, everybody that died, ‘do you want to give the eulogy?’”

In addition to this grim service, Pacheco has several spiritual contri butions to the Arroyo Seco community and throughout New Mexico. With out formal training as a carpenter, he designed the Stations of the Cross — a series of 14 pictures or carvings that commemorate the last days of Jesus Christ on earth as a man — for a Morada in Arroyo Seco.

While Pacheco describes his service to the community in a matter-of-fact manner, David Fernandez has more to say about Pacheco.

“He is extremely intelligent and aware, and gifted in many ways: As an artist and sculptor; as a singer and cantor of the songs and prayer chants and Alabados of El Norté; as a very eloquent speaker and story-teller, especially in the Spanish language and in a way that commands the listener’s attention whether speaking to one person or very many at a time; as a man who does not chase after lime light but will unhesitatingly respond to a call for his help, counsel and gifts; as a man who has acquired deep wisdom, wide knowledge and broad experi ence through his life of hard work, his marriage and family life and history; as a man of profound religious and spiri tual faith.”

Fernandez continued, “Leo Pacheco is known throughout the territory of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and surrounding regions as a Maestro and counselor, as an edifying, instructive and illuminating speaker, and has been referred to as an Hombre de Luz (Man of Light), and as an Hermano de Luz (Brother of Light), especially when he speaks about the doctrines and catechesis and aspects of his deep faith and beliefs. It is accepted that just about anybody who has achieved and attained such gifts through a hard and sometimes challenging life, is a rare and special person. There are but a few like him in, and he is of course unique, but he and they represent our strong, faith-filled and enduring centuriesold populace in El Norté; a special and gifted ‘breed’ of our singular history and spiritual culture.”

LINDSEY

Pfaff-Bain

MANIFESTING A COMMUNITY

By Lynne Robinson

LINDSEY PFAFF-BAIN grew up in Northern New Mexico as the only child of a single mother.

She remembers tagging along with her mother to art openings, dairy farms, UNICEF and recycling programs and more.

“I felt like a 40-year-old, when I was 10 years of age,” she notes, “my mother always wanted to live in Taos, where she was a docent at an art museum, and I feel very grateful and honored to be able to raise my

children (Maddie and Logan Rowli son Elliott) here.”

Coming from a blended family, besides her mother, she also had her father, stepmother and three steps iblings.

“My dad and bonus-mom have been married over 25 years,” she says.

Pfaff-Bain graduated from Los Alamos High School in 99, where she ran cross-country and track, and was the vice president of the student body.

She was awarded a running schol arship to ENMU, where she was the president of her dorm, and on the student senate as a freshman. Soon after she started college, her mother became ill, so she moved back to Los Alamos to help take care of her place.

That May, due to the Cerro Grande Fire, Los Alamos was evacuated and they lost their home in the fire.

“That August, my mother passed away,” Pfaff-Bain recalls, “someone told me at her funeral that people in families pass away in sets of three.

“Within a year, my mother, my uncle, and my grandfather passed away.”

After losing her mother, PfaffBain earned her college degree at NMSU in Communications, before moving to Phoenix to be closer to her mother’s mother and extended family.

While working in corporate Amer ica, she says she felt like “A number making really good numbers — I was good at it — but wasn’t fulfilled.”

What she really missed was being part of a community and giving back, so after their daughter was born, she and the father of her child moved to Albuquerque before relocating to Taos.

“When I moved to Taos, I lived offgrid for about six months,” she says, “I immediately felt I had found my community — it was the first place I felt at home and at peace; the soul of the southwest.”

She got a job at CID’s Food Market in the HABA department, but after their son was born, she decided to take a break and stay home for a while.

“Christy Olsen recruited me to apply for the membership rep posi tion in April 2012,” she says about first becoming involved with the Taos County Chamber of Commerce.

“When I first worked for the Taos County Chamber of Commerce part time as the chamber membership rep, I worked for Community Against Violence with their Radiothon, for Holy Cross Hospital with their “For the Health of It” Race, and also was a spin teacher at North Side Gym.

“I’ve been working with the Taos County Chamber of Commerce for over 10 years now.”

Of all the things Pfaff-Bain has been involved with at the Chamber, it is Taos Plaza Live she is now known for. It is her “baby.”

“People say “it takes a village to raise a child,” she says, “but it also takes a village to put on an event.

“Taos County Chamber of Commerce staff, local musicians, volunteers, TCCC board members, nonprofits, media partners, spon sors, SoundWorks/AV locals, visi tors, security, TPL partners and people showing up every week to dance and hang out!”

The Taos Business Alliance started Taos Plaza Live in 2000 to bring locals and visitors downtown to the heart of the plaza for shopping, dining, commerce, connecting, community and local live music.

Despite persistent rumors involv ing the plaza lately, Pfaff-Bain assures us that Taos Plaza Live will stay on the historic plaza — for now. In fact, not even a big monsoon season will put a stop to the party.

“The show must go on,” exclaims Pfaff-Bain, “Taos Plaza Live concert plays during the monsoon season — we wait out the weather if need be, to make sure it is safe to play.

“Taos Plaza Live has only been canceled once in the last 10 years due to floods and lightning”

People still can enjoy Taos Plaza Live under the plaza portals, and dancing in the rain as long as there’s no electric storm in sight.

Moving forward, she’s currently getting ready to conduct a survey asking TCCC members what they would like the Taos County Chamber of Commerce to do and advocate for.

As for the work she’s done, there are — besides TPL — “a few deliver ables that I am very proud of.”

A list too long to mention here,

suffice it to say, from organizing mix and meets, job fairs, networking events and expos, to overseeing the Lilac Festival, Pfaff-Bain’s early long ing for a community she could be a part of and give back to has more than manifested here in Taos.

Taos MainStreet would like to extend a very heartfelt thank you to all those who work tirelessly to make our community a better place.

In that spirit, if you are interested in working with an organization helping to revitalize Historic Downtown Taos please visit taosmainstreet.com and get involved.

Merril

CAMILLE

SUPPORTING OUR STUDENTS

By Jeans Pineda

UNSUNG HERO CAMILLE

Rivera is a BOC-certified and statelicensed athletic trainer for Taos High School, where she also runs the GRADS program and day care for the school.

According to Rivera she was “inspired to become a certified and licensed athletic trainer because it provides me with the opportunity to work with athletes of all ages. Whether you are an athlete or you just love the game, you can pursue

your passion of sports and a reward ing career.”

“I love being able to help people, and it’s extremely rewarding when I can get an athlete back on the play ing field or court after they have sustained an injury,” Rivera said. “I was born and raised in Taos, so being able to give back to my community and help the school that I graduated from has been a pleasure.”

The NM GRADS program is a multi-generational case manage ment model which helps expect

ing students achieve a high school education, gain employable skills and develop positive parenting and healthy relationship skills for them selves and their families.

According to NM GRADS Jeanne Johnston, “Camille is an outstand ing GRADS teacher in Taos. In 2019, Camille was awarded the NM GRADS New Teacher Award.”

Rivera won the award based on these accomplishments via the docu ment: for collaborating “with the child care director and staff, school

social worker and many commu nity partners to ensure all expect ant and parenting mothers’ and fathers’ needs are being met”; for developing “community connections & strategies exceeding the GRADS teaching requirements and expecta tions to support young parents. Her student’s notebooks are evidence of the impeccable work exhibited within this program”; and for being a “dynamic presenter at fall, spring & new teacher trainings as well as Town Hall events on securing & maintaining critical community relationships and organizing class room resources.”

Rivera said “being able to help teenage parents navigate their way through high school is something that I love to do. Both my children have attended the childcare center on campus. Being able to have an onsite daycare is so fortunate for our staff and students. Seeking funding to better our childcare is something that I love to do because I love making sure our children and staff are well-taken care of and have everything they need to succeed.”

Rivera has received high praise from both the Taos Tigers Principal CJ Grace and Community Officer of the LOR Foundation, Sonya Struck.

According to Grace, “Camille

graduated in 2011 and earned both her Bachelor’s of Science in Athletic Training and her Master’s of Health Administration from UNM. She earned her teachers license through Santa Fe Community College and is working on her Administrator’s license now. Rivera came back to THS as a teacher in 2015. She teaches Pre-Athletic Training/Athletic Train ing, Ladies Team Sports, Advanced Sports Medicine, is a Sophomore Class Sponsor, acts as an Athletic Trainer for the THS Athletic program and all of the visiting athletes, and directs and runs the GRADS teen parent support program and the THS GRADS Daycare program.”

Grace continued, “The GRADS program, under Camille’s direction, has been recognized by the state for the outstanding care and support provided for teen parents from the time that they find out that they are expecting through HS and into college. Camille has helped to case manage more than 35 teen parents and the program has an 80 percent high school graduation rate.”

“Last year, Camille wrote grants to improve the environment and health of staff and students at the high school with a grant to design an innovative Teacher Relaxation Room and to replace dated weight lifting equipment in one of the work out rooms,” said Grace. “Later, she helped our students to get on board with a student wellness initiative. The improvements are amazing and will help students and staff to feel more comfortable at school. Camille is tireless in her dedication to the health, safety, and well-being of our students and staff. I can’t say enough about the selfless positivity that she brings to work each day as she touches the lives of the 800-plus people she encounters daily. Camille always sees the opportunity to do something to help and does this with a smile and a laugh.”

As the Taos community officer of the LOR Foundation — the letters in LOR represent their values of liva bility, opportunity and respect — Struck has seen her fair share of acts of goodwill to the community from both individuals and organizations. In August of last year, the LOR Foun dation — which works with people in rural places to improve quality of life — assisted in connecting elderly Taos county residents with the fire wood they need for the cold winters.

Struck had this to say about Rivera: “Camille is a champion of change and a strong and empathetic advocate for our Taos youth and her colleagues. In addition to the many roles she holds at Taos High, she has gone above and beyond to improve quality-of-life for students, staff and families and has been successful in applying for and receiving grant funding for various initiatives at Taos High. Her efforts helped to secure nearly $60,000 in grant fund ing from the LOR Foundation which also leveraged district funding. Her efforts have been widely recognized and, when talking with students, she was often mentioned as a trusted and valued educator.”

NATHAN BURTON/TAOS NEWS

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Juanita Marcus Turley

MERRIL Tydings

Tydings

GRACE UNDER PRESSURE

By Geoffrey Plant

A “MERRIL TYDINGS, TAOS” Internet search won’t yield many results. But if the Taos-based critical care nurse had been chronicling her life’s adventures online, it would beg the question: When’s the Hollywood movie coming out?

The same drive that pushed her to join the ranks of wildland firefighting’s elite Hot Shot firefighters inspired Tydings to become a critical care nurse, a role that requires special skills, endurance, fast decision-making and emotional resilience while treating desperatelysick or critically-wounded patients. And, ever-driven toward the pinnacle of her profession, she combined those two skillsets to become a wilderness EMT — one who also teaches others — and a flight nurse, stabilizing car crash victims, cardiac patients and other critically-ill people via air rescue.

Tydings works internationally as well, traveling to Uganda during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to post-invasion Ukraine this past May. She thrives in difficult circumstances. She estimates that, in the remote, barebones health care center she worked at in Uganda, between 50 and 60 Ugan dans died of COVID-19 during the four weeks she was there.

“In America, you just plug a tube into the wall and there’s oxygen,” she said, while in Uganda last year, there was a severe shortage of oxygen. And the small hospital didn’t have ventila tors or a capacity to intubate patients who couldn’t breathe on their own anyway. “All we could do, really, was

help people who ran out of oxygen die comfortably.”

Why does she do it?

“I just think that there’s nothing greater than to be of service,” Tydings said. “I have my constitution about me. I have my wits. I have a skill that I can offer. I don’t do it to make myself feel better about myself. I just think — why not? It’s easier to be of service than not.”

David Elliot, Taos News’ Citizen of the Year last year, said Tydings helped lead Holy Cross Medical Center through the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in its fraught first year, “when infection rates were super-high and people were dying of COVID at a pretty decent rate.”

“It was really scary and there were real risks involved,” said Elliot, who nominated Tydings for an Unsung Hero award. “And she was one of the people who immediately agreed to put on the PPE and go work with patients directly. She’s selfless and she’s a leader.”

“She’s as qualified as anybody could possibly be with her skill sets and all of those different types of experience that she has,” Elliot continued. “And the fact that she picked Taos and working at Holy Cross during this crisis had an immediate effect on our community in terms of setting an example that other people could follow.”

Countless Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion lost access to prescriptions for items like asthma inhalers, insulin, pain medication and other daily healthcare items. Infected blast-injury wounds and amputations were a common ailment. Tydings knew she could help.

“They need their diabetes medica tion, their blood pressure medicine,” Tydings said, estimating she and the ad hoc medical team she formed — with the help of members of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine — saw 100 patients on most days. “Most of them couldn’t sleep and had major anxiety. They fled with absolutely nothing. There were lots of tears, hugging and just talking. And the most remarkable thing is, they were like, ‘Why? Whey aren’t you mending soldiers?’”

Tydings told her refugee patients what she tells all her patients in words or by deed: “You’re just as important.”

NATHAN BURTON/TAOS

JUANITA Marcus Turley

DANCING AS A WAY OF LIFE

By Will Hooper

JUANITA MARCUS TURLEY has experienced nearly nine decades of Taos’ history. She has been danc ing in traditional ceremonies at Taos Pueblo and other pow-wows across the county since she was a young child, following in the footsteps of her father, Ben Marcus, who also danced throughout the county.

“They were always the family on call for dancing,” explained Juanita’s daughter, Kathleen Michaels. “When ever there was somebody coming to

the Pueblo, like a dignitary, they stop there and celebrate and dance, like when the [Rio Grande] Gorge Bridge opened. They were like the christening group of every new business in town.”

It was her father’s love of danc ing that took Marcus-Turley and her siblings across the state and the country, performing at the Gallup Ceremonials and the Gathering of Nations, among others.

Michaels said Marcus-Turley then passed the tradition on to her and her sisters. “We all went across the

country in my mom’s station wagon, loaded with our regalia and our elders and our tipi on the top of the station wagon. It was quite a sight,” she said.

Marcus-Turley said she grew up with her parents always welcoming visitors to the Pueblo. “They had so many other outside people come to visit, we learned how to talk to visi tors,” she said. This led to her begin ning to guide tours at the Pueblo at the age of 14.

The money raised by her and her

Randall

Rio Grande

Sabroso Restaurant

Salon Marjorie

Northern New Mexico Center

St. James Episcopal Church Wanda Lucero,

Taos Behavioral Health

Taos Community Foundation

Taos County Chamber of Commerce

Taos County

Taos County Senior Program

Taos Elders and Neighbors Together

Taos Feeds Taos

Taos Healthcare

Taos Mainstreet

Taos Milagro Rotary Club

Taos Mountain Casino

Taos Municipal Schools

Taos Retirement Village

Taos Tennis

Town of Taos

Twirl

UNM-Taos

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siblings went to support the family.

“Part of it went to my mother just to help her out. My dad had a good job but, still, we were taught how to share,” she said.

Marcus-Turley’s father perhaps had one of the more modern jobs at the time, serving as a model for famous photographers. He was even featured in a Kodak billboard on the former World Trade Center, outfitted in full Taos Pueblo dance garb. “He was a very handsome man,” added Michaels.

Marcus-Turley would eventu ally follow in her father’s footsteps, modeling for photographers like John Candelario, as well as learning how to operate behind the lens.

St. Catherine’s Indian School in Albuquerque served as the next chapter of Marcus-Turley’s life, where she said she enjoyed her time. “It was good — very good, because the nuns were very patient,” she said.

“Of course we had to do our home work. [But] at least we were able to

do a lot of things.”

The nuns asked Marcus-Turley to consider a move to Pennsylvania to attend a convent, but after speaking with her parents, she declined the offer. “I did ask my mom and dad, but they said ‘No, it is not our way. Other girls can go, but we’re not letting you go,’” she said.

She then decided to go to secre tarial school at Santa Fe Business College, and eventually got involved in politics, working for Gov. David Cargo as a secretary.

Marcus-Turley was also pres ent during the return of Blue Lake to Taos Pueblo, and got to speak to President Nixon, telling him “We’re fighting for our Blue Lake, don’t forget.”

After her divorce from her first husband, Marcus-Turley met and married Frank Turley, a blacksmith from California who had settled in Santa Fe. The couple spent a happy 39 years together before Turley died of COVID-19 in 2020 while at the Taos

Living Center.

The pandemic changed a lot of things in Marcus-Turley’s life, including her ability to dance. Taos Pueblo has been closed to the public and they have not hosted a pow-wow since just before COVID-19 swept through the country.

Marcus-Turley and Frank Turley used to head up the children’s powwow at the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe, but that has also since come to a halt.

“Before all this COVID took over, I used to go out and watch the danc ing,” she said. “Also, if somebody needed help with their costumes, I would also help them out. Part of our life is that we support people that are doing as much as they can for our people.”

As the world begins to reopen, Marcus-Turley said she is consider ing dancing at Indian Day at the State Fair. “No one’s going to stop me if I start,” she said with a smile. ��

Congratulations Eric Mares Thank you, Eric for all the years of commitment and service to the Community, as well Taos Behavioral Health Staff and Clients. GOLDEN WILLOW RETREAT congratulates each Hero for contributing to our community.

“When the foundation of your reality is shattered, there is loss. You must then move through the emotional healing of that reality, and with grace and acceptance, proceed into your new life.”

To visit Taos Pueblo is to walk in a sacred place where life continues from the earliest of human existence.

Taos Mountain Casino is proud to honor those who both exemplify the best of the past and who help us weave it into the future. These people are our own links in what continues to be an unbroken circle of tradition at Taos Pueblo.

2022 Taos Pueblo War Chief Fred L. Romero