By Trip Jennings
New Mexico In Depth
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​New Mexico In Depth Executive Director Trip Jennings talked with longtime Voices for Children lobbyist Bill Jordan on Sept. 3, just days after he retired Aug. 30 from more than 30 years spent lobbying New Mexico lawmakers on a variety of issues at the Roundhouse. Trip talked to Bill about his experiences over the decades and together they tried to demystify the Roundhouse for readers and viewers. Thanks for watching. This is the first in an occasional series New Mexico In Depth is doing on demystifying the statehouse and the New Mexico Legislature.
Here is a transcript of the conversation with Bill Jordan.

Trip Jennings
Hi, everyone! I’m Trip Jennings with New Mexico In Depth. I’m executive director. Thanks for watching. I am joined here with Bill Jordan who until Friday, right, was with Voices for Children. One of the organizations anyone who spends any time around the Roundhouse in Santa Fe — the State House — knows Voices for Children. They’re a very prominent organization that lobbies, as the name suggests, lobbies for children, things that make children’s lives whole and things like that. So welcome, Bill. Thanks so much for appearing with us.
Bill Jordan
Thanks. Trip. I really appreciate the chance to chat with you, share some stories, some experiences, and maybe we can demystify a few things about the Roundhouse.
Trip Jennings
I would love for us to be able to at least begin to demystify a place like the Roundhouse, because I do think that it is. It is such and, maybe use the wrong incorrect the word incorrectly, but it in some ways can be so opaque because many of the policies are arcane for folks. And really maybe I’m too much of a nerd, and maybe you are, too. But I find it just extraordinary up there. I just find it extraordinarily interesting. But anyway, thank you so much. I do have some questions I would like to start with, I mean, would you talk about your trajectory because you did not start with Voices for Children. Can you tell everybody here a little about yourself like, where’d you grow up? How’d you grow up? You know? What did you do before? Voices for Children?
Bill Jordan

Yeah. So I grew up in Kentucky right across the river from Cincinnati very close to downtown Cincinnati and was raised there, Catholic schools all the way through grade school, high school, college, and then a master’s degree in religious studies. So I was steeped in it. I moved to New Mexico about 37 years ago, and it was at that time that I started doing volunteer work for people with HIV and AIDS. That was the late 80s, early 90s. The epidemic was raging at that time and after a few years of volunteering I was asked by the Department of Health to set up a nonprofit that would get community input and help the state develop a plan for HIV prevention and treatment. And I did that for eight years, as the Executive director of the HIV Coordinating Council of New Mexico. And then, in 1998, the drugs were beginning to work really well, and the epidemic really changed, and the drugs showed a lot of promise, and the state decided that they wanted to put all of their money for HIV into making the drugs more accessible to more people.
And so we had done enough community planning, creating the state’s plan for HIV, and so the coordinating council was dissolved. Shortly after that I went to work for New Mexico Voices for Children and been there until now.
Trip Jennings
At some point during your work with the coordinating council, I believe this is right, and tell me if I’m wrong, but you were able to help lobby the Legislature to pass a law for the first needle exchange program in the state.
Bill Jordan 
Yeah, that’s right. We did that. Actually, in the last year that I was there in 1998. We were fortunate enough to get the votes to pass a syringe exchange program for IV drug users. The evidence at that time showed that we could dramatically cut the rate of transmission of both Hepatitis and HIV among drug users, if we could provide them with clean syringes. And you will remember that Gary Johnson was very interested in drug policy. He had a keen interest in that, but he was steadfastly opposed to using tax dollars to provide what was an illegal activity drug use, and he just couldn’t figure, you know, in his own mind he couldn’t get past the idea that we were using state tax dollars for an illegal activity, and he totally got the importance of the public policy in terms of trying to stem the transmission of these two terrible epidemics. So I met with him. We passed the bill through the Legislature and I met with him three times during that 20- day signing period and tried to convince him to sign the bill, and I left his office after the third time, thinking that he wasn’t going to sign it. There was 30 minutes left for him to sign or veto the bill and I got word that he had signed it.
Trip Jennings
That’s amazing. I mean, also I want to say for the listeners who don’t know if a bill passes in the last three days of a legislative session, the Governor has 20 days to sign the bill. That’s what Bill is talking about, and it’s extraordinary. If it happens before the last three days, the governor has a much shorter time period to sign the bill. You know I wasn’t here when he was governor, but I’ve met him several times, and I’ve …you know, read up, you know, on the news stories and stuff. What an interesting governor, because he was in many ways. Libertarian means something else today than it did, maybe 25 years ago, I think, to some people. But he really was in many ways a Libertarian, which meant, you know, social policy, probably a little less. He wasn’t that conservative on social policy, but on financial like fiscal stuff, very conservative, I think. Which made him. It sounds like, maybe even ripe for your lobbying. 
Bill Jordan
He saw it as a long term money saver, because we’re talking about two very costly diseases with Hepatitis and AIDS.
Trip Jennings
 Yes.
Bill Jordan
And so, you know, he got that part, but, also, I think he also saw this as an opportunity to become engaged in the public policy debate around drug use and what it meant. And it was a small thing that he could do without being, you know, too far out on a limb. After all, the Legislature passed it, which was in itself kind of a surprise. They had defeated it several years in a row, and then in 1998, they passed it.
Trip Jennings
I remember reading about him when I was in another state covering a different statehouse and obviously he ran for president, you know, on some drug legalization policies, as I recall. So, you you got to work with Gary Johnson, which is just a treat to hear stories about that cause. Those of us who have met him know, we know, that he’s a very interesting person outside of the Roundhouse — extreme athlete at some point in his life. And just a really interesting, entertaining guy. So how did you make the transition to Voices for Children? Did you see a connection between what you were doing with the coordinating council, HIV coordinating council, and children.
Bill Jordan
Certainly for me there was. I mean, after we closed the HIV coordinating council, I went to work for Voices for Children. At that time it was called New Mexico Advocates for Children and Families and then the state formed the Children, Youth and Families Department. And there was some confusion with the name, and so we changed our name from Advocates for Children and Families to Voices for Children.
Trip Jennings
I didn’t know that the CYFD had been formed that recently. So it was in the nineties. Is that right, or in the early thousands?
Bill Jordan
I don’t know the exact date.
Trip Jennings
But it was after you joined Voices for Children. I didn’t know that history, that’s really interesting.
Bill Jordan
I think so. 
Trip Jennings
Okay.
Bill Jordan
Timing wrong, at least the confusion got to the point where.
Trip Jennings
Yeah.
Bill Jordan
We changed the name, yeah. And I was originally hired to lobby on youth, gun violence, prevention. And I did that for a couple of years, and then was asked to lobby on all of our other issues at Voices for Children as well. And you know, if there’s a connection between the jobs, it was that both of them were about using public policy to help people.and both were focused on a population that needed help. In the first case it was gay men, IV drug users and others who were most at risk of HIV, and in the second case it was about children, especially those from low income families who had little access to healthcare, and some of the other social structures that are needed for families to thrive. And so I think there’s a connection. It was a matter of being in a place where I was able to help out those most in need. 
Trip Jennings
And that that makes total sense. When you frame it that way. Yeah, it’s all children, but especially children who maybe their parents may or their families lack resources. Is that correct? It sounds like that’s correct. Can you talk about some of the issue areas that you have lobbied on for Voices for Children? Because you mentioned youth gun violence, but by the time I met you when I got here in 2005, so I met you mid 2,000s, Voices for Children was lobbying on a lot of issues. At least. Can you name some of those issues that you have lobbied on over the years? Not everyone but ones that really.really you recall.
Bill Jordan
Yeah, maybe the way I would like to answer that is to talk about how some of that happened, and some of the more memorable moments because they really involve both winning and losing. And I think, as you know, it’s rare for an important piece of legislation to pass the first time it’s proposed. You know a good example of that is the proposal to use a little bit of the Land Grant Permanent Fund for early childhood. That took 12 years. That idea was born at Voices for Children, and it took 12 years before the Legislature, and the people passed it. And what a difference it’s made! I mean hundreds of millions of dollars now to build out a world class pre-K K, child care, home visiting programs that they’re going to take time to build out. But we have the money to do it because the people wanted it done, and that, I think, is, you know, just one of the one of the heartbreaks for many years, and then sort of elated when it finally passed. And now we’re really beginning to see some of those dollars flow, and the difference that it’s making in the lives of kids and their parents who need to go to work and have to have a place, a safe place for their kids while they’re working. So you know, that’s a great example of one of those that, you know year after year it was heartbreaking. And then just a phenomenal win for the people. 
Trip Jennings
I might have been at the first press conference for this proposal in 2011. I don’t know if that was the first press conference, but I seem to remember it. I tracked that like you said it was 12 years. It was like one year, there were so many votes. Another year there are maybe a few more votes, and then maybe a couple of years. I don’t even know if it got through because of, you know, the governor at the time was not necessarily so keen on it. But yeah, for all those who are watching who don’t know about state houses, even innocuous bills sometimes can take two to three years to get through. It gets kind of complicated when we talk about the Land Grant funds, and when exactly the money, it didn’t actually touch the fund, as I recall it, was going into the fund, and they would just take some of that. But it was really opposed. It was a tough battle for many folks, and it was a monumental effort over more than a decade.
Bill Jordan
Oh, yeah, monumental. It really was. It’s not unlike a lot of issues. I mean, you know that from being up there, that sometimes you need to build momentum for an issue sometimes. It’s complicated, and it takes a couple of years to get it right. And so, you know, if you’re looking for, instant gratification, the Roundhouse is probably not the place to be. If you are really interested in good public policy, and have the patience to work it and get it right, it can make a real difference.
Trip Jennings
You know, as you were speaking about that bill, it reminds me that lobbyists have to have at their command, an understanding of key issues. How did that work for you? I mean, did you have to really study these issues closely to be able to lobby effectively.
Bill Jordan
I lost you for a minute. Trip. I’m back. Are you?
Trip Jennings 
Yeah, can you hear me?
Bill Jordan
Yeah.
Trip Jennings
So I was asking, you just reminded me that lobbyists, it’s not just talking to people. You really have to have a command of the issue and / or at least be able to introduce people, lawmakers, to people who have a command of the issue. But even lobbyists. Even those who connect folks have to have a command of the issue. They have to at least be able to form a narrative. Tell a story of how this will help. I mean in some ways as a journalist, and it may be true of lobbyists, I always think covering a state house is like almost earning an additional master’s degree. Because you really learn about so much. Is that how you feel because you’re always studying right, aren’t you studying stuff, different issues?
Bill Jordan
You know, Trip, that’s especially true for me, because I’m not a policy analyst, you know. Voices has a whole team of folks who are experts at this policy. and they’re the ones who teach me about what is important at the Roundhouse. And so they know the details and they’re able to get in the weeds. But I’m much more of a generalist. And so, the worst nightmare for me is to work with a lawmaker to get them to support something or sponsor it, and then they start asking the really difficult questions that are beyond me.
Trip Jennings
Right! 
Bill Jordan
Well, folks back at the office who really do this inside now, and they will sit with you and testify with you, present the bill, be your expert witness. But yes, you’re right. Lobbying is very much about having to get in the weeds on some really complex issues.
Trip Jennings
Everything from financing and finances to, you know, how agencies interlock and work together. We at New Mexico In Depth have covered lobbyists as part of a larger project but in many ways lobbyists are our best friends at New Mexico In Depth because people like you have been up there for dozens of years. Any state house — and I would think Congress is like this as well — is a hard place to gain an understanding of and how it works. If any young journalists are watching this video, make friends with lobbyists because yes, they’ll be lobbying on this thing or that thing. But they also talk to one another, right? And they know what’s happening each day of the Legislature like something’s happening in maybe you know a committee over here. 
How are you able to stay up on everything that’s going on every day. I’m not asking you directly, but you guys really do have to keep up with what’s going on every day of a legislative session.
Bill Jordan
Yeah, we really do. I mean, you need to know what’s going on with your own legislation and with other legislation that might impact what you’re doing. So I guess what you’re saying is that both lobbyists and reporters … when you’re at the Roundhouse it’s ears open all the time. And yes, you know, a lot of what happens is based on relationships. And so you kind of need to know who’s getting along with, who who is not getting along with.
Trip Jennings
Very important, very important.
Bill Jordan
It’s very important, you know. You don’t want to ask the wrong person to help you out with an issue by helping to get someone else’s vote… If they’re not getting along that day. So you know, it’s really important to know who’s supporting, who’s opposing? Who are the swing votes, which legislators do or don’t get along with other legislators. What bills might be in that mix, you know, in terms of their relationship and support or opposition to each other. All of those personal dynamics are just really important. So that you don’t, so that your own bill, and the work that you’re doing doesn’t get caught up in something that’s unrelated to the issue that you’re working on.
Trip Jennings
Because we know that there have been bills that have been killed because they got in the middle of some kind of turf war, or some kind of personal fight going on between lawmakers. That happens. In my experience, it takes time to build those relationships and know who’s talking to whom? Is that true for lobbyists, too? You really have to build a network of relationships, right, to know who to talk to, and who might know if these two lawmakers are beefing over here, so you may want to stay away from them. That kind of thing, right? It takes time right.
Bill Jordan
Yes, it does. It takes time to build those relationships and also with other lobbyists, you know. Learning who you can trust. You know, there is often a lot of negotiation about amendments, and who’s gonna offer support for something. And it’s really important to know which lobbyists you can trust, and who is a worthy opponent. In some cases, you know, they’re they’re not hiding something that might be important to the legislation. And you know there’s a lot of lobbyists that I would never support their legislation. I mean it, you know, corporate hired guns that are there to build profits for corporations, or whatever it might be, and yet some of them are really honest brokers. I mean some of them, I trust their word at least. I may not agree with the issues that they’re working on. But as a lobbyist I might trust them. And then there are others that I wouldn’t.
Trip Jennings
You know, as you say, this is one of the great things that I think that people outside who are not really privy to of the Roundhouse, any statehouse or Congress, is that, yeah, people can disagree. But over time I’ve heard lawmakers say this over and over again to me, which is, hey, I don’t agree with this person, but you know what, they gave me their word, they’re gonna keep it, and I know what to expect. I’ll work with this person on this issue over here, not here, but over here, because they’re trustworthy. And it’s heartening for me as a reporter. Because it’s not the thing that you get during election year, where people are at each other’s throat, and they’re throwing ads at each other. It’s more like, this is governing. And it’s hard work. And relationships are built. And there are people with whom you can disagree on certain issues, but you can agree on others. Right? Same thing with lobbyists. Right?
Bill Jordan
Yeah, the relationships are really important. And you know, being able to trust one another both lawmakers and other lobbyists is really an important part of the work.
Trip Jennings
So let me ask you, that’s a segue. I mean, I could talk about that all day long, because I just find that so interesting. But what are the best parts of lobbying? And maybe the worst parts that you found over more than 30 years, you know, lobbying so many issues are, are there certain things that you really enjoyed and you thought they were really great. And others that, you know, were tough.
Bill Jordan
Yeah, since we’re talking about lobbying, let me let me say a quick word about it, because I think the word often gets a bad rap, because the image that often comes to people’s mind is some wealthy corporate hired gun that’s there to get a tax break for their corporate client. And clearly there are those. The Roundhouse is full of them. Okay, but the Roundhouse is also full of well-meaning folks — lobbyists, advocates, concerned citizens who show up to try to encourage their lawmakers to do the right thing. And there are a lot of really good lobbyists and advocates in the Roundhouse, and I’m really grateful that they’re there to improve education and
pass paid family medical leave and raise wages for workers, protect the environment, make sure we have enough clean water, good roads, and fair taxes. All of that is just really important for our communities. Our lawmakers and governor are really doing great work, and it’s been a privilege to be a small part of that.
So to answer your question. So yeah, for me, the best part of lobbying is knowing that something I’ve done is actually gonna make a difference in the lives of kids, parents, families, communities. Knowing that I played some small role in making somebody’s life a little bit better is absolutely the best. 
Trip Jennings
And you see tangible evidence of this. It’s not only the bills, but you can be walking around Albuquerque and know that a program has been funded, or there’s tangible evidence for you. As a lobbyist, you can see how this might have changed lives right, or helped alleviate some privation.
Bill Jordan 
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, you see that. And you know that the system is working as it’s intended to. Lawmakers really are there doing the work of the people and doing their best with what they’ve got to improve chances for kids and families.
Trip Jennings
You know the thing that I also want to say, Bill, and I still want you to answer about the worst part. But one thing I will say is that what’s striking to me is when you cover politics, as I have done as a reporter, kids are always, you know, in campaigns, front and center. You know, they’re always we gotta do it for the kids. We gotta do it for the kids. And when you get up to a place like a  state house or Congress, the feel good stuff is not  … I mean, it’s a hard slog. Sometimes it’s a hard slog, and that I’m not disparaging lawmakers or anything. It is just hard work to create policy that might affect the lives of many children, and you know, especially in a place like New Mexico, where there is just so much poverty and … it’s a wonderful, beautiful state. And yet it does have challenges. And so I just want to say that when people hear the campaigns, it’s always about the kids, sometimes the governing is much harder than just saying that stuff.
Bill Jordan:
Yeah. You know. And we used to say, who’s for kids and who’s just kidding during a campaign season because, you’re right, everybody campaigns on the well-being of kids. And then when it comes down to it, you know what kids need is safety, world-class education, good health care, and all those things cost money and they are pitted against other interests, usually tax cuts. And so yeah, it’s a tough slog. And, you know, a lot of lawmakers really are for kids. And then there are some that are just kidding.
Trip Jennings
Right, right? And I, you know, over the time I just want to say this as a reporter. You don’t have to respond to this, but I have found people on both sides of the aisle who are very concerned about children. It’s not Democratic or Republican. I’ve just met many genuinely concerned lawmakers up there. So what is the worst part of lobbying? Let me ask you that, let me put you on the spot. 
Bill Jordan 
The worst part is, when you lose on those same issues, you know, the disappointment can be pretty heavy. You know the questioning about what we could have done differently to get the needed votes. All of that is really heartbreaking, particularly when you know you gotta wait a year, sometimes two, to come back and try again. But I will say that having done it for that many years, that it is also often the case that that loss is temporary. And, as you know, it often takes years to pass important legislation. But if the proposal has merit, it’ll gain support, and it’ll eventually pass. That was true with syringe exchange, and it was true with the Land Grant Permanent Fund. It’s been true with all of the amazing improvements we’ve made to our tax system, improving budgets for public education and for healthcare. All of that is, you know, slow to come. And yet, I think we’re on the right track with all of them.
Trip Jennings
So I wanted to ask you because of the several hundred lobbyists at the Roundhouse you have to be in the top 10% of longevity up there easily, I would think. 
Bill Jordan
You’re not calling me old.
Trip Jennings
No, no, no, I didn’t mean that all. I’m saying you’re experienced. You’re experienced. I’m someone who believes that, that’s a good thing, you know, having experience. You know. Tom Horan used to say anybody can lobby the first 57 days of a 60-day legislative session. It’s the real lobbyist who lobby the last 3 days, you know. So I would consider you like part of that, you know, coterie of people who understand the importance of lobbying as someone who’s been up there for so long. You know there has been a movement in the last, probably decade to really introduce more disclosure around lobbyists like, how much are they paid? The expenses like for those people who don’t know there is, is, there is, there is wining and dining of lawmakers by lobbyists who are representing certain interests. And there’s been a push to, really, you know, open up how the process works. Even smaller things like, what bills are you lobbying, or what issues you’re lobbying. What’s your take on that after being up there for so long, more than 30 years, and having a sense of the place?
Bill Jordan
Yeah, well, let me say, we already have to disclose our lobbying expenses. We only have to do it three times a year, but you know, if we meet with a lawmaker over lunch and pick up the cost of that at lunch we have to report that so those expenses are reported. Campaign contributions are also reported already. You know I work for a nonprofit, so I’d be happy for the public to see how my salary compared to those of the corporate lobbyists. Yeah, I wouldn’t mind seeing that myself.
Hello!
Trip Jennings
That is, you have the contracts that that private sector employers have for lobbyists. Public sector, you can go through and request records to get, and it’s somewhat public. You still have to do the work. When I talked about the expenses, I mean the itemized expenses, I mean, there, you know someone who’s been around for a while, we know that sometimes people can say, Well, I paid only this much, we don’t have to report the itemized expenses if we don’t go above this threshold. That’s kind of what I’m talking about. Yeah, that is it. Do you have a sense of that, do you think?
Bill Jordan
Yeah, I think all of that should be disclosed. Yeah,I don’t have a problem with that. And I, you know, I think that kind of transparency is great, I mean, I think you know, it would be helpful for the public to know exactly what corporate lobbyists are doing. What’s the Chamber doing? Big tobacco, pharmaceutical companies, restaurant owners, big oil, all of them, you know. They’re up there, you know, spending a lot of money on lobbyists and on expenses and on campaign contributions ultimately to try to influence the legislation that they’re that they’re working on. And so yeah, I think it’s important to have all of that disclosed, and I think lawmakers ought to be able to see that, you know, and know exactly who is playing on what team and what they’re, you know, what they’re really doing. And to see, for example, contract lobbyists when they may have conflicts of interest.
Trip Jennings 
Tell the viewers and listeners what a contract lobbyist is.
Bill Jordan
It’s you know, maybe you’re a small company or a mid size company, you don’t have a full time lobbyist. So you hire someone who knows the process and lobbies for a living and has a lot of clients. And so you hire them on a contract to work on a particular bill and you know, or a particular issue. Trip, you’ve probably seen this where you’ve been in a committee hearing, and a lobbyist will stand up and say, I support this bill, and I’m here for Company X. And then the chair will say, is anybody in opposition to the bill, and the same lobbyist will stand up and say, I have another client who is opposed to the bill, and it’s you know I mean the whole room laughs.
Trip Jennings
It is how this works. I just wanted for people to get a sense. We have done so many stories on lobbyists, and we might have contributed to this idea that lobbyists are not great. We don’t mean to, because lobbyists were at the founding of the nation. I mean, you can look back and see that they were, you know, people lobbying in the first parts of Congress and stuff. It is not a bad thing; in fact, as I say, as a journalist, they’re some of my best friends up there, because they know stuff, and so I can go to them and say, Hey, what are you hearing? But you just kind of revealed, maybe demystified, some of this. I can’t know someone’s mind or heart. Right? But this is what happens. When you’ve got so many issues, there are people who can argue sort of like a lawyer in law school, you have to be able to argue both sides of something because you need to understand it so well. I mean, it’s extraordinary. There are those moments where the people do laugh. It’s important for the public to know that this happens. And not not that we’re pushing for contract lobbyists to lose business. It’s just that, that is the way it works. I could talk all day with you about this stuff, because I find covering or being around a place like a state house to be like the human condition on display. You’ve got every human behavior there, I think. Sometimes I mean there, there’s not violence necessarily, but there’s so much going on there. I just find it fascinating. I know some people might think it’s like paint drying, but not me.
Bill Jordan
Yeah. Yeah. I think if there’s one thing you know, when it comes to not just transparency, but the influence that lobbyists have, I would just say one other thing, and that is, there’s a lot of discussion now about a paid legislature and lawmakers getting staff. I think that is critically important. You know, if they’re gonna do the best job for the people, they should be paid something for that. And one of the things that a lobbyist does is actually almost provide staff support for lawmakers. We help them create their talking points, prep for a hearing and
that gives us an extraordinary amount of power. And that power probably ought to lie with the lawmaker and their staff and not quite so much with the lobbyists. I mean. I like to think that Voices brings a lot of expertise to the Roundhouse, and we do. But it doesn’t mean that we should, or anybody else should, have that much power to influence legislation without having lawmakers have the staff to vet what it is we all bring. I’m a big proponent of lawmakers having staff and lobbyists, having just a little less power and influence. And I’m not saying that because I’m leaving, I’m saying that because that’s my experience. And I think we want the very best in law making. And that happens when they have professional staff working with them.
Trip Jennings
I wanna say, too, to add to what you were saying, there are also not just talking points and stuff like this. But I know this because I’ve seen it. You’ve got technical lobbyists who are like experts on a particular proposal, who will actually tweak a law because they have technical understanding of the issue. Some of this stuff is really complicated. To your point, because I did cover another legislature, another state where they did have full-time staff, and they were paid. You know we’ve talked to people who study this, and when you have this situation as you do in New Mexico, lobbyists do have more power. They have power in a lot of places, don’t get me wrong, but they have more power in a place like Santa and Santa Fe because of what you just said. Again a lot of the lobbyists I personally like. It’s not that I think they’re doing a bad job or anything, but it’s to your point. That’s a lot of power.
Listen on that note. I want to thank you, Bill, for being with us. I think I went over a little time. I apologize. Cause you are so interesting. Bill Jordan has been a long-time lobbyist for Voices for Children up in Santa Fe. He retired his last day was Friday (August 30th) It’s been delightful talking to you and learning a little more about the Roundhouse.
Bill Jordan
Thanks, Trip. I enjoyed talking to you, and I wish you luck up there.
Trip Jennings 
I’m gonna need it.
Bill Jordan 
When you, when you head up for the next session.
Trip Jennings
I may hit you up for coffee or something, so we can have coffee and talk, even though you’re retired.
Bill Jordan
Anytime, I think my schedule is open.
Trip Jennings
Thank you everybody for watching and listening. I’m gonna end the recording.

By Jessica Rath

Did you know that there are hundreds of different varieties of garlic? I didn’t, and I had no idea that there are two subspecies of Allium sativum, the relative of onions, leeks, chives etc., distinctive because of its pungent odor and taste. It took a visit with La Madera garlic farmer Bill Page and his wife Claudia to divest me of my ignorance. And as it so often happens with these interviews, it was a delight to meet my hosts and experience where they live. The scenery around La Madera is absolutely stunning.

Bill grew up in Denver, Colorado, together with his younger sister and brother. They were raised mainly by his mother, an unconventional and sophisticated individual who  took her children to Europe for several years, so they could be exposed to different cultures and learn foreign languages. After more than two years at Swiss boarding schools where he learnt fluent French, Bill returned temporarily to the U.S. and got a Bachelor’s degree from Claremont McKenna College in California. He got married and went back to Europe for a year, but it ended in divorce in the late 70s, after 16 years.

In October 1985, Bill married again, and  when Claudia, his current wife, closed up her business in 1994, they moved from Denver to La Madera.  They bought into a family compound of 30 riverfront acres with a brother of Claudia’s, Nick, her sister Leza, and Leza’s husband Daryl.  In March 1995 they had finished building their house and moved in.
​
Do you remember the showing of the documentary Navalny in El Rito, a while ago? Part of the work actually happened at Claudia and Bill’s house. The film’s editor, Langdon Page who secured an Oscar for his team, is Bill’s son. His other son, David, is Executive Director of the non-profit national advocacy organization Winter Wildlands Alliance.
 
Right from Day One Claudia and Bill got involved with the Acequia Association.  There was an irrigation ditch, but it was dry. They had to  resurrect the ditch, and with the help of a neighbor they got the water flowing again.

“At various times I've been the Secretary, Treasurer, or the Mayordomo, or the President, or whatever, on and off for all those 30 years, and so has Claudia, and so has Daryl”, Bill told me.  “People at the bottom of the ditch have to take more responsibility than the people at the top of the ditch if they want the water. That means, if nobody wants to be President or Secretary or  Treasurer, or whatever, we are the ones that have to do it”.

I was curious – how does one become a garlic farmer, I wondered.
​
“Well, after my father saw this place, he said, ‘Bill, I think you ought to grow garlic’. I had no experience with garlic, but I was inclined towards agriculture, so I thought – , why not give it a try? I bought 20 different kinds of seed garlic and tried them out in little patches until I narrowed them down to three varieties which were doing well in this area. The three I ended up with all grow nice, big bulbs and they are all pungent and spicy. The Hispanic community loves to use them in their salsas. As soon as I started growing them out, I got carried away, and at one point, we had over 10,000 head in single planting”.

Twenty different kinds? I thought there was only garlic. One kind. All the same.
​
Bill had a lot of explaining to do. “No, there are a lot of different kinds of garlic. Add the fact that people like big bulbs, so they buy something that's not even garlic. They buy elephant garlic, which is technically a leek. But all the rest of the garlic is divided into softneck garlic and hardneck garlic. They're two separate genetic strains of garlic. I eliminated the soft necks, because their main advantage is for people who want to make garlic braids, because their necks are soft”.
 
“I have three varieties. One is called Red Rezan, another one is Romanian Red, and then there  is a German Brown”, Bill continued. “But there are hundreds of different varieties with lots of different tastes; some are mild, some are bland, some are big, some are small”. 

Hardneck garlic works well for smaller restaurants, Bill explained. They’re much easier to peel and each head has only three to six bigger cloves, compared to a head of softneck which can have up to 20 cloves.

“When you want to sell garlic to restaurants, it's very nice to offer them hardneck garlic, like the kind that I grow”.

Bill’s mentor was Stanley Crawford, the well-known garlic farmer and author who lived in Dixon. He died last year, which was a great loss to the garlic community, Bill said. But there was a big difference between the two: Stanley didn’t grow garlic for its culinary value but used it as a decorative item.

“He would harvest lots of softneck garlic and hire  people from Dixon or Embudo to help him dry it and braid it, and then he would put a ceramic medallion on each braid. He could get way more money for his garlic than I could, selling them at the Santa Fe Farmers Market, because people like the chile ristras, and they like to hang a garlic braid next to their ristras. He was able to sell them for what amounted to at least $5 a head. But I wanted to grow garlic that was culinarily interesting”.
​
And then Bill told me about the legal battle which took Stanley Crawford to China, New York, and Washington. Most of the garlic sold in this country, about 85% of it, comes from China. As long as the buyer knows this and can decide which one to buy, that’s fine. But Stanley found out that some of the garlic which is sold by Christopher Ranch, a garlic supplier from Gilroy, California (known as the Garlic Capital of the World) originates from China but is sold under the Christopher Ranch label. 

“So Gilroy gets to import Chinese garlic under the Christopher Ranch name, and they never pay tariffs. Nobody can investigate them for dumping garlic when China has too big a harvest  and  they're drowning in garlic. They can sell it for 10 cents a head here, and make a lot of money”, Bill told me. I was shocked to learn this, of course.

There is also a Netflix documentary, Garlic Breath – Episode Three of the Series Rotten, which shows how Chinese laborers work under deplorable conditions, that the Chinese companies manage to avoid paying import tariffs, and that the cheap garlic then is sold under the California company’s label. Christopher Ranch, of course, denies everything. I tried to find out whether this legal dispute has been resolved, without success.
​
“These days I grow the same three varieties, but I only plant 700 cloves”, Bill continued.  “Last year, it might have been 800 or 1000,  but basically, I have no energy left for sitting at a Farmers Market selling garlic. I could probably sell it in bulk, but I don't have the people to do the harvesting. It takes quite a few people to harvest and hand-cure it so that it lasts a long time”.
 
“Currently I grow just for friends and family, to give away, and to keep my strains. I tell people, I would rather have them buy for planting than for eating.  I'll go ahead and give you ten heads if you promise me to plant six of them and just eat four. The problem always is that people buy ten heads and they end up eating it! Which is too bad, because everybody ought to be growing good garlic. It's easy to grow, one of the simplest crops there is, really. You plant it in October and you harvest it in July. It doesn't take much water. You water it once when you plant it, and you don't have to water it all winter, and you start again watering it in the spring”.
​
We went outside and Bill showed me his garlic field.  I noticed all these curly things – what are those? 

“That's what we call the scapes. They’re part of the  hardneck garlic.  You want to pick these when they're young and small, and you can just chop them up and mix them with vegetables and eggs and salads. It's pungent and spicy. The plant gets more energy into the bulb and will be bigger  if you cut this off”.

Are you growing any other crops, I asked Bill.
​
“I’ve always grown a lot of  rye, and  quite a bit of wheat. And I grow vetch because it puts nitrogen back into the soil and reproduces lightly. We're getting into what's called no till planting, where you don't worry too much about weeds or anything else. You just plant right into a pasture or a meadow every year, and then arrange to harvest it. It's a sloppy, messy way of planting, but it's much better for the soil”.

“There's a big machine that you can borrow from the Farm Service Agency or from what's called the East Rio Arriba Soil and Water Conservation District, a big machine that is called a No-till Seeder. So it's built to plant your seeds, vetch or carrots, anything you want. It's got about ten to fifteen seed compartments, one right beside another, and the seed goes down through the cutter knives and gets planted. And you can vary the depth of each seed”.
That sounds very impressive, so much easier for the farmer!

 “It took a day and a half to plant all of our land. The whole place is 30 acres, but the plantable area is about ten and a half acres. And with the no-till planter I could plant it all in a day and a half”. Without this machine it must have taken two or three times as long, I bet…

“We also grow other vegetables, because Claudia has wanted to. This year, she planted some potatoes. And she planted some beans. Your biggest problem is that elk or deer come to your garden and eat it all! Claudia planted a row of beans, 300 feet long on some of these terraces, and it takes a small herd of deer or small herd of elk two or three nights to eat them after they get to a certain size. And then it's all dead. It's very discouraging”.
​
There’s no way to keep  them out, but at least they can’t get at the potatoes.

What a lovely and informative afternoon this was. My embarrassing ignorance about garlic has finally been fixed. It is such an essential ingredient of cooking all over the world that it deserves more attention than I gave it. Thank you, Bill, for taking the time to show me around.
​
And if you want to grow your own garlic – I’m sure Bill will help you. I went home with a head which I will plant this coming October.

When Cillian Murphy and Matt Damon crossed the New Mexico desert in Oppenheimer, they did it by Dragon.  That’s the nickname of a locomotive — part of the Sky Railway co-owned by Game of Thrones mastermind George R.R. Martin and New Mexico entrepreneur Bill Banowsky — that thrust Murphy’s Robert J. Oppenheimer and Damon’s Colonel Leslie Groves to their destinies and became one of the key Oppenheimer locations.
​
It was one of countless resources that Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-magnet origin story of the atomic bomb found on location in New Mexico, dubbed the Land of Enchantment. Enchanting is exactly what the state proved to be for a production that took advantage of its sweep and history, giving the historical biopic the immediacy of a speeding train. 

“We’re blessed out here these days. Production after production after production — it’s a great place to be,” says David Manzanares, who helped find key locations for Oppenheimer. He spoke to us phone by phone recently from another New Mexico set, for a project he couldn’t disclose just yet. 

Oppenheimer is largely the story of how Groves and Oppenheimer developed the A-bomb in total secrecy. But these days, New Mexico is where filmmakers go to build hit movies and shows — with at least a little secrecy. A wide array of locations are at their disposal, from twinned natural wonders to anonymous offices to trains named for mythical beasts. 
​
Our own research bears out filmmakers’ sense of awe: On our latest list of the Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker, Santa Fe is at the top of smaller cities, and Albuquerque is second among big cities.

Manzanares remembers the day in 2021 when his friend Todd Christensen, the former head of the New Mexico Film Office, first reached out to him about a 1940s-set New Mexico project. Christensen couldn’t reveal much more than that — “we respect each other’s NDAs,” jokes Manzanares — but he soon thought of a perfect place. 

It turned out to be one of the most stunning Oppenheimer locations.

New Mexico, Manzanares explains, is in his blood. Growing up, he always thought of himself as simply Spanish. But when his son Maximiño came home from college, asking about his background, they began to investigate their Indigenous roots, and found that their connection to the land was “as old as the dust.”

“This is where they’ll bury me,” says Manzanares, who has also worked on New Mexico locations for films including Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Magnificent Seven, and Hostiles. “It’s a really cool feeling to have — a sense of connection.”

One crucial section of Oppenheimer required an empty, panoramic shot of the future site of Los Alamos, where the physicist and his team would build the bomb. But on the same day, Manzanares recalls, the filmmakers also needed to film the completed town, against a nearly identical backdrop.

Manzanares suggested locations in Ghost Ranch, near Abiquiu, where he grew up, about an hour away from Santa Fe. He is the field producer for Ghost Ranch, which until Oppenheimer was perhaps best known as the home and frequent subject of painter Georgia O’Keeffe. 

Ghost Ranch features breathtaking vistas, streams, plains, and monolithic cliffs, with nearby mesas, red rocks and Abiquiu Lake.The film took advantage of the area’s natural beauty for scenes of horseback-riding and camping — as well as its Los Alamos set. 

Buildings that appear in the film are now available for other productions, and can be toured, by appointment, by the general public.

For the scenes where Oppenheimer is grilled in a small, shabby office of the Atomic Energy Commission, the film needed the opposite of wide-open spaces. The production found a nice, crowded office in downtown Santa Fe’s PERA Building — named for the Public Employee Retirement Association. 

In the film, the drab office masks the ruthless trap set by Oppenheimer’s jealous nemesis, Lewis Strauss — played by Robert Downey Jr. But in reality, the walls of the PERA Building hid from the general public a soon-to-be Best Picture winner populated by Nolan and some of the most famous actors in the world.

Soon, the trucks and trailers in a nearby parking lot drew the attention of people who inundated Santa Fe Film Commissioner Jennifer LaBar-Tapia with questions. 

When MovieMaker first named Santa Fe as the No. 1 small town on our list of the Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker — a position it has held for two years running — we called LaBar-Tapia “part sheriff, part cheer captain, and all rock star.” 

She’s also a pretty good detective, it turns out, when it comes to sussing out imposters.
“I was starting to get calls from people that claimed they were from our local newspaper,” she says. “And of course, I can’t say what’s happening.” 
She knew they weren’t really reporters, she says, because they were calling her office line — and real local reporters have her cell number. 

​She’s also a pretty good detective, it turns out, when it comes to sussing out imposters.
“I was starting to get calls from people that claimed they were from our local newspaper,” she says. “And of course, I can’t say what’s happening.” 
​
She knew they weren’t really reporters, she says, because they were calling her office line — and real local reporters have her cell number. 

When it comes time for a project to announce its presence in New Mexico, it’s up to the state film office — aka Film New Mexico — to handle the formal announcements. There have been a lot in the last 15 years — from Breaking Bad to Better Call Saul to the Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs to the Tom Hanks Western News of the World.

Boldfaced names don’t just visit — several live in Santa Fe, where they appreciate the scenery, the 300 days of sunshine each year, the thriving art scene, and the distance from Hollywood. It is a refuge for many, including Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, and George R.R. Martin.
​
But only one of the three bought a train.

For years, the Santa Fe Southern Railway, which runs 18 miles from Lamy to Santa Fe, had up-and-down financial fortunes. But some of its greatest moments were captured on film. 

It was featured in the 2008 Ed Harris Western Appaloosa, as well as one of the most impressive episodes of Breaking Bad, “Dead Freight,” which features a train heist of methylamine.  
In 2019, Bill Banowsky and Martin joined together with other investors to purchase the train line. They had become friends because Banowsky owns businesses in the Santa Fe Railyard, including an 11-screen movie theater, while Martin owns a single-screen theater in the rail yard.

“This was a dying railroad that was about to go out of business,” Banowsky recalls. “They approached me and they approached George about the idea of us stepping in to save the railroad.”
Banowsky was hesitant at first. But Martin, he recalls, “just lit up, like a kid — and was all about having a railroad.”
He recalls Martin saying: “This railroad that we’re buying comes with two locomotives. We’ll paint one like the head of a wolf and one like the head of a dragon. And we’ll have fire coming out of the dragon’s mouth and the wolf will howl!” 

The railroad gives even more authenticity to Oppenheimer: Lamy, a stop between Los Angeles and Chicago, was the actual arrival point for scientists coming to work at Los Alamos in the 1940s. Additionally, the sequences shot on board the train cars literally propel the dramatic exchanges between Oppenheimer and Groves.
“The trains were actually moving, and so the background that you see is the New Mexico background adjacent to our tracks,” says Banowsky. “It’s all the train moving in real time.”
And like the film’s Los Alamos set at Ghost Ranch, the trains are now open to the public. 

Banowsky and Martin rebranded their venture as the Sky Railway, refurbished the cars, hired an artist to paint them, and developed events including music performances and a Murder on the Orient Express-style experience.The once-struggling railroad has now had a financial turnaround, he happily reports. 
“It’s a live entertainment venue on rails that has become a very popular tourist stop,” Banowsky says.
Main image: 

“Dark Silhouettes” screens in statewide competition Saturday, September 14
NNMC
​ 
ESPAÑOLA, N.M. — "Dark Silhouettes,” a film produced by Northern New Mexico College (NNMC) Film & Digital Media Arts students Natalia Tealer, Lukas LeDoux and Nicholas Taylor, has been selected for the New Mexico Student Filmmakers Showcase. The showcase, which features film screenings and an awards ceremony, takes place from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, N.M. The event is free to the public.
 
The New Mexico Student Filmmakers Showcase is sponsored by the New Mexico Film Foundation, San Juan Community College and Eastern New Mexico University. “Dark Silhouettes” will be competing against films from college film programs around the state. Northern students have won awards in this competition three times in recent years.
 
"Dark Silhouettes,” comes out of film professor David Lindblom's Voice and Documentary Filmmaking class, where students closely examined three films: "italianamerican" by Martin Scorsese, "Little Boy" by Danny Lyon and "Meshes of the Afternoon” by Maya Deren." For a final project, students produced a short film using techniques, devices and production values similar to those in the films.
 
The New Mexico Student Filmmakers Showcase is a statewide film screening event that celebrates and showcases the amazing talents of New Mexico's college and university film programs. Submissions from around the state are judged over the summer. The showcase is a festival, networking event and awards celebration all in one. The event is free to the public, but RSVPs are recommended.
 
###
 
Cutline:
 
From left: Lukas LeDoux, Nicholas Taylor and Natalia Tealer produced "Dark Silhouettes,” which has been selected for the New Mexico Student Filmmakers Showcase.
 
About Northern:
 
Northern New Mexico College has served the rural communities of Northern New Mexico for over a century. Since opening in 1909 as the Spanish American Normal School in El Rito, NM, the College has provided affordable access to quality academic programs that meet the changing educational, economic and cultural needs of the region.
 
Northern is an open-admissions institution offering the most affordable bachelor’s programs in the Southwest. Now one of the state’s four regional comprehensive institutions, with its main campus in Española, Northern offers more than 50 bachelor’s, associate, and certificate programs in arts & human sciences, film & digital media, STEM programs, business, education, liberal arts, and nursing. The College has reintroduced technical trades in partnership with two local unions and five public school districts through its new co-located Branch Community College, the first of its kind in the state’s history.  Northern is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and has earned prestigious program specific accreditations for its engineering, nursing, education, and business programs. Learn more at https://nnmc.edu/.
 _______________
 
Arin McKenna, M.F.A.
Staff Writer/Reporter
Communications & Marketing
AD 128
505.747.2193
[email protected] 

Northern New Mexico College
921 Paseo de Oñate
Española, NM 87532
www.nnmc.edu
​

By Zach Hively

Long may they stand.
​
Piñon trees are more patient than I am. Famously, they produce cones and nuts in cycles—every three to seven years, the internet tells me, which tracks with my undoubtedly flawed observations on my near-daily walks.

So, my delight simmered over when, earlier, this summer, I saw the cones starting to form in the ’hood.

I waited. I knew the birds would get theirs. I knew the ground needed its share. But I wanted some too.

I finally, finally, let my fingers dive in. They got sticky with pine sap that I couldn’t wipe on my clothes, could only rub in sand. I plucked a half dozen nuts from one young tree, just to taste, just to delight.

Imagine the feeling of cracking open your first wild-plucked piñon nut in years, and biting into the nothing inside.

What could I do but laugh? You can’t reasonably expect anything from a piñon tree except that it keep on standing longer than any human ever has—and even this, painfully, isn’t certain anymore.

In honor of the piñon shells, here’s a poem from the vault for the trees. (This poem is untitled, as are all the poems in Owl Poems [2022, Casa Urraca Press]).​

I might outlive the piñon forests
in these mountains, in my desert.
We are not meant to live longer
than whole swaths of trees.
Long enough to believe we always
have more time, enough of it to kill
some just to get through it, too much
to comprehend what it’s worth.
 
My older dog can admire a pine stick
for an hour, which I spend begging
for him to stay four, five more years.
I cannot spoon him and swoon at his sleeping
without hearing the hole, like a flooding well,
he’ll leave with me when he’s gone.
And he will be—gone.
He knows it, and he chews a branch.
 
I know it, and I distract myself
trying to get a signal. Five more years
—a miracle for him, while I might yet outlive
the piñon forests in these mountains,
in our desert. Someday, I will want
to die, to leave my own hole, to answer
the owl, earn her trust, find myself
outlived by the trees we have left.

​​By Zach Hively

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, because it spares me coming up with an original thought: I was an English major for a reason, and that reason is power tools.
​
Now don’t get me wrong—I like power tools. Largely the power part. It’s the tool part that steered me toward analyzing literature.

Without further preamble, I hereby announce my new YouTube channel: Zach Fixes Things (Specifically the Things in His Own Home).

Let’s begin with fixing my windows. Every single window in my house has come off its track to one degree or another, making them impossible to open and/or close properly, or at all. So look up here, my dearest millions of viewers, up inside the window track. The manufacturer placed these little metal clips here, that you can pop out like this in order to easily remove the window from the frame. But either these clips are junk, or the previous residents grew so frustrated with the windows coming off the tracks that they attacked these clips with the battery end of their power tools. Watch me carefully, and you’ll see my subtle solution. I roll up these towels—I do this by hand, but you are welcome to use your drill to save yourself time and splinters—and then I stuff the towels in the window … like this … to block the drafts during winter. If my house gets too hot in summer, you can probably brute-force open one or two of these windows. If you break them, you can buy me new ones. And if you actually succeed in opening a window, but the window won’t close again, you can just buy me a bigger towel for Christmas.

Now let’s turn our attention to the slow-draining shower. We here at Zach Fixes Things (Specifically Things in His Own Home) recommend against using harsh chemicals, because power tools are more fun. This slow drain could be blocked by accumulated hair, or hard-water deposits, or my dog’s missing chew toy. There is no way to know without a snake camera, and no way to get a snake camera until that YouTube ad revenue starts rolling in.

So let’s turn to the one tool every man should have in his arsenal, no matter what he majored in, or whether or not he is a man at all: a Sawzall.

Remove the drain cap and stick the longest Sawzall blade you can find down the drain and let ’er rip. As you can see, after a few moments, the water now drains effortlessly. Where is it all going? Tune in next week and we’ll find out. For now, hit that subscribe button so the algorithm will keep you coming back forever.

Oh, and please, whatever you see here on Zach Fixes, do not try it at home. Come try it at my home instead.

Zach’s Substack is free. The free stuff today will remain free tomorrow. Someday, he might offer additional stuff. Zach+, as it were. You can tell Zach that you value his work by pledging a future paid subscription to additional stuff. You won't be charged unless he enables payments, and he’ll give a heads-up beforehand.

​Pledge your support

By Peter Nagle

​​As I noted last month, historically, stock markets tend to be volatile in September and October, which is to say they can be fairly negative. Then in November/ December there is often a year end rally. No idea if that will happen this year. It’s been pretty positive so far in 2024 so maybe we will defy history.  

What I do know is that, given where we were 3 years ago (the Pandemic), we have a very favorable economic climate now. For the 3 months ending on 8/31 consumer spending is up 4%, which is remarkable. Consumer Spending is 70% of our economy. Personal income statistics are also up. The jobs report comes out today, Friday, and that will have an impact, positive or negative, on markets depending on the number of jobs created. (“Notes” are written several days in advance of Jobs publication).

Inflation continues to decline. It’s at about 2.5% now, very close to the 2% Fed goal. Of course, inflation was over 9% at one point and the impact of that is still being felt. Just look at the price of pies at Bode’s - over 20 bucks! They’re hard to resist though! 

Interest rates will be lowered starting this month, and that will probably continue in Nov. and Dec. This is really great news for things like mortgage rates, which are coming down too. The so-called “soft landing” scenario of our economy is playing out very well so far. 

Then, of course, we have the Election on Nov 5th - that ought to be interesting! Personally I just hope we know who our new President will be, without question, on Nov 6th. Or shortly thereafter. Given the personalities involved, that’s not a given. 
 
What all this says is that if we do get weakness in markets in the next 2 months or so, it might be smart to buy your favorite equity investments on this weakness.


In any case, there are a lot of variables floating around out there this year, more than usual. Buckle your seat belts and come along for the ride!
 
(Peter J Nagle is a Financial Advisor with over 40 years experience. Any questions or comments can be directed to: [email protected].)

By Jessica Rath

​​These days, smartphones come with powerful cameras. The more expensive ones come with up to 50 megapixels, separate zoom, wide-angle, and main cameras, and one phone even has a Leica lens. Plus, the built-in software does a lot of adjustments on the fly, so you’ll get a decent photo quite easily. Maybe that’s why the opinion persists that it doesn’t take much to come up with a great photo – I bet, even Ansel Adams heard this.
 
Well, Greg Lewandowski, Mario Manzo, and Matt Schulze, well known to readers of the Abiquiú News, have a different story to tell. They were kind enough to talk to me, and I learned an awful lot! They will be exhibiting their work at the Abiquiú Inn, with an Opening Reception on September 7, from 4 to 6 pm. Mark your calendars.
 
Isn’t it interesting? Greg is from Detroit, Mario is from Dayton, and Matt is from Hamburg/Germany, but all three met here in northern New Mexico, became friends, and quite often join up to explore the beautiful area surrounding us.
 
Here is some interesting background about the three artists and their work. They’re listed alphabetically.

“A lot of the images I do come out as if they were black and white images, which I always liked. Sometimes there's some color in the image, and that depends a lot on what's going on with the light and the atmosphere”, Greg explained. “Depending on the time of day, you can get some color. There are some wonderful photography programs, it’s like a digital dark room, where I can make all kinds of adjustments to contrast, brightness, color adjustment, and so on. So I like doing that, it's part of the whole process”. 
​
“My camera has a 720 nanometer filter. There are three or four different infrared filters you can put on your camera, and I lean more towards one that doesn't have a lot of color but has really sparkling black and white”.
 
There are a few of Greg’s infrared photos at the exhibition, but without a more detailed explanation people might think they’re too weird, he fears.
“Once people know that this is indeed an infrared photograph, they would see it differently. Then it will look interesting.  I thought, well, I just put them up and see what happens. There are very few infrared photographers that I know, and I don't know anybody else in this area”. ​

​Mario, who is 76,  originally  came from Dayton, Ohio, and moved to New Mexico in 1997 to work at Los Alamos Labs. He retired in 2012 and currently lives near Ojo Caliente, where he built his home. His passion for photography already started during his high school years and has become an important part of his retired life. He jokes that his cameras take him for a walk and guide him to wildlife, wildflowers, birds, butterflies, and other creatures.
​
But he has another interesting hobby: he flies paragliders. Just listening to him made me dizzy!  He told me about an astounding flight last Friday, in the Taos area. He was  about 14,000 feet up in the air!  And he takes pictures while way up there.

​“The next step is to illuminate the foreground. For that I use a flashlight”, Matt continues, “The foreground needs its own exposure settings. I never shine the light onto my foreground from the same position as the camera. I walk around my subject, taking several photos of the light shining from different angles to bring out the texture in my subject. I trigger my camera with a remote. And when I put them into Photoshop, I can blend them together perfectly because the camera never moved”.

Well, I’m impressed: for one final picture, Matt can spend hours, maybe days on a location, shoot lots of pictures, and then spend a couple of hours with Photoshop to put it all together. This must take a lot of patience, I guess. The many layers definitely give a sense of luminous depth that regular photos don’t have.

Matt told me more about this process: “Often, I see things like an old dilapidated car or some old farming equipment or an old ruin somewhere, and I go in the daytime to take a scouting shot of it. Next, I photograph it at night and when I start to light it out. It takes on a whole different quality”.
​
“I do a lot of daytime pictures, but certain objects look pretty ordinary and boring in the day. But you take them at night, and you start putting lights on them, and they start looking very, very interesting”.

“Last year we saw  an old farm, we drove by there on the way from somewhere else, and there was snow on the ground. We took some scouting shots in the daytime. There was an old barn, and there was some old farm equipment.
We went back there in  June, found out who owned the property and got permission to enter. I created a few fabulous shots at that old farm. There was one shot which is my favorite, it's of an old seed spreader. It almost looks like a musical instrument, farmers tow it behind a tractor, and it rolls out seeds.  It was really old”.
Look at the gorgeous shot above!

“These night images are really about the objects in the foreground and it is my intention to convey the feeling of mystery I get at night. The stars participate to fill out the black void that would otherwise occupy the top of the image”.
 
If you want to see more of his work, please visit Matt's Flickr Photo Album: there are luminous night skies, old buildings, cars, and train stations, hoodoos at Bisti Wilderness, and other gorgeous photos.
 
Matt and Greg often go on photography trips together. They met at the Community College in Santa Fe, when they both took a class there – about photography, of course. Mario sometimes joins as well.

I was so impressed when I talked to them, each one with a unique and unusual technique. Infrared photography. Taking pictures while paragliding. Astrophotography.  Once again, Abuquiú unites stellar artists from different parts of the U,S., even from a different continent. A warm Thank You to Greg, Mario, and Matt for granting me these interesting interviews. Don’t miss your chance to meet them in person at the Abiquiú Inn on September 7!

Cultivating Growth over Expansion
My thoughts about the Tres Semillas Land Sale
By Andrew Furse

“‘To always be doing something, to move, to change—this is what enjoys prestige, as against stability, which is often synonymous with inaction.’”
Luc Boltanski and Eve Chaipello

If the land is sold without any safeguards, our new-town square would be lost. 
Any money obtained from the sale, no matter how large a sum, would be trivial. 
 
Any reinvestment with that money may draw a veil over the missing piece but a hole will have opened up and that veil won’t support us for very long.
 
Most will remember what used to be and what was lost
and any reinvestment that takes control over what has grown slowly and collectively over all these years, will be rushed.
 
Busine$$ is notorious for that. 
 
And in whatever enterprise takes over, whatever new enterprise forms…
you may find poems, but no poetry. 
 
If the land is sold and safeguards aren’t in place to curb the impulses of capital investment, never mind the spiritual vacancy caused by the sale, you can expect the worst. 
 
The Northern Youth Project, Abiquiu Farmers Market, and the Frosty Cow have been on this land for years, chosen because they align with the mission of Tres Semillas. Which is to provide economic opportunity in the Abiquiu, New Mexico area.

• Tres Semillas have relied on NYP and the Farmers Market to qualify as a tax-exempt entity and claim a property tax exemption.
• Tres Semillas have relied on the Farmers Market and NYP to tend the land and maintain or improve its market value. 
• Tres Semillas have relied on these organizations to raise their own funds and create a successful charitable profile.

 
The Northern Youth Project and the Farmers Market have legitimized this organization, maintained their water rights, cleaned the acequia, policed their parking lot for the post office, pruned trees and mowed the lawn to provide a space that is welcoming and safe for all. 
 
They have relied on these entities to create the fiction that Tres Semillas is a functioning charity.
 
”Over time we realized that we were running a public park or an industrial park without the money or staff to do that.  And we had taken our eye off the ball.  It was time to reboot….” 
 
-Bernadette Gallegos. 
 
Since the creation of Tres Semillas Foundation seventeen years ago, Bernadette and Steve Gallegos have been in leadership positions on the board the entire time. 
 
Should they continue to serve on the board?
And what new direction will Tres Semillas “reboot” toward?

“Those who have written letters want us to give away our primary asset which we would otherwise use to pursue Tres Semillas’s goals.  We see no reason to give away a corporate asset.”   
 
-Peter Solmssen, Tres Semillas director

Peter has described the land as a “primary asset,” “a corporate asset.” Peter sees this as a corporate matter. The land is a pot of money for Tres Semillas.
 
The Tres Semillas Foundation has had seventeen years to pursue their charter.  That's seventeen years of reports, minutes and meetings, elections, project proposals, reports and experiments. Seventeen years in which they took their “eye off the ball” according to Bernadette Gallegos.  & four years in which they raised zero dollars.   ZERO.
 
And if the land is sold, what will they use that money for?
Something they have not yet decided or disclosed.
 
If after 17 years and in light of their recent admission that “eyes had been taken off of the ball”, what qualifies ANY of these individuals to continue with Tres Semillas?

“I’m not sure what adding new directors would accomplish.  Richard and Joseph resigned, leaving the four of us directors, which is plenty of directors for this tiny corporation.” 
-Peter Solmssen
 
Why should Tres Semillas elect more board members?

One reason would be to diversify perspectives which will help steer the organization away from making bad decisions.

Another reason to elect more board members would be to annul the optics of the current membership of Tres Semillas. 
 
It's well known that the board is made up of 2 married couples.  4 director’s in total.

To some, this is concerning.
 
But this isn’t against any law, and this information is disclosed on the registration statement filed with the attorney general.  But to always talk of, "what's in the best interest of Tres Semillas" or "we need to do what's in the best interest of Tres Semillas" makes some think that a genuine attempt at that is being made. 
 
Yearly elections, and minutes made available for the public encourages transparency and disclosure.  Elections are to be had yearly at the annual meeting “held the first Saturday of December.”
 
Diversify your board, stop the sale and if you don’t have the energy to continue, transfer the land to an organization that can.
 
Since moving toward this sale a crisis has been created, but in that wake is opportunity.   We have people from the pueblo that want to join the board.  People that have led organizations in fundraising that want to join the board.  We have people with imagination and vision and a stake in "the best interest of Tres Semillas" that want to join the board.

Dear Peter, Sarah, Berna and Steve:
 
We come together as a community to address you in your capacity as members of the board of Tres Semillas. We write to express our thoughts about the impact of your decisions on the Abiquiú community. We call upon you to reverse the sale of 4 County Road 187, to appoint new board members to Tres Semillas and to step down as board members.

• The current occupants of this land play a key role in the life of our community. The Farmer’s Market is our place to get local fruits and veggies, our de facto supermarket that lets us stay local and shop local. The Market provides access to healthy and fresh nutrition for economically marginalized members of the community by participating in the USDA SNAP Program, formally known as Food Stamps. The Market is also the central marketplace that supports local growers on their journey toward economic development. It is an incubator of innovation, a place that launches small business market vendors, a place for people to try their hand in local market economics. Market vendors see what works by engaging with a dynamic public. The vendor community gets and gives mentoring for members, as seasoned vendors that provide guidance to young vendors just starting out. The Market also serves as the central square of the town, creating a very important sense of community, a gathering place for neighbors and fellow community members to meet in a central place and connect as a collective group.

• The Northern Youth Project has provided economic development and leadership opportunities to young people in Abiquiu for 15 years! For many teens, NYP is their first job application, first interview, and first stepping stone to future jobs or college opportunities. NYP offers paid internships to teens to learn more about art and agriculture as potential career options. NYP is a truly grassroots organization, relying on the support of hundreds of volunteers, including Karl Bode, the original owner of this land. NYP teens have improved the land to benefit Tres Semillas and boost the value of the land–they have participated in the annual limpia, cleaning the Acequia del Pueblo de Abiquiu with other parciantes. They have installed irrigation systems, and planted seeds and trees. Like the Farmers Market, they have also created a sense of community, a sanctuary space for youth to learn and thrive in a safe environment.

• The Frosty Cow is a long-standing tradition, an institution in our community that sits at the center of Abiquiú. Like NYP, this business promotes the economic development of our young people, paying for their training to get a food handler’s permit and showing them how to run a business. Like the Farmer’s Market, the Frosty Cow is part of the town square, serving as the place that refreshes us and keeps us cool.

• The land at 4 County Road 187 is uniquely well-situated for the Northern Youth Project and Farmer’s Market. NYP needs irrigated land and land that gives teens and their families easy access. The Farmer’s Market needs enough space for vendors to show their produce and adequate parking for a significant fraction of the community to be able to attend. While these non-profit organizations and the Frosty Cow have succeeded and are part of the heart of our community, neither are in a position to purchase the land at a cost of $610,000. These organizations will not be able to replicate their role as part of the beating heart of the community in other less central and less ideal locations.

• Tres Semillas’ chief legacy has been to be a key player in the emergence of these organizations as part of Tres Semillas' economic development mission. In this regard, Tres Semillas has succeeded at the mission that it set for itself in its application to the IRS: supporting economic development by developing markets, supplying skills training and creating the “cohesion” that will “entice others to become part of the communal process.” Although Tres Semillas has considered or tried many different other types of programming relating to economic development, none of those have succeeded as well as the activities that Tres Semillas has undertaken to support the organizations that are currently on the land.

• The community stands ready to take the reins of this community legacy to usher the land into its next chapter. We are thankful to you, the current board, even as your connection to the community has changed. Two of you are cherished former neighbors who have recently moved away from our community. The remaining board members are in the process of leaving the community. For all four members, your connection to the long-term future of the community, to its youth and  its sense of community, to its long-term economic well-being, is not as strong as it once was. The time has come to pass the reins of the organization to others who remain invested in the community’s long-term future. As recent events on the national stage have made clear, sometimes the most important decision leaders can make is knowing when the time has come to step down.

• Acknowledging the important legacy of Tres Semillas activities to date, and with deepest respect and gratitude for the role that current board members have played, in strongest terms, we call on Tres Semillas to allow current members of the community who are deeply invested in the area’s future to take the reins from here, to decide the future of 4 County Road 187.  We call on Tres Semillas to reverse the decision to sell and to appoint all new board members for the Tres Semillas board.

• Alternatively, we call on Tres Semillas to transfer the land to Luciente with guidance to Luciente about the precise nature of the economic development objectives that the board wishes to pursue. At the very least, we call on Tres Semillas to add new board members from existing members of the community, enabling them to participate in decisions that will affect the community long after you are gone.

Show your support for stopping the sale and keeping the land for the community by clicking the button below to sign the online petition.  

Note: If you signed the petition at the 08/27/24 farmers market, please do not sign the online petition.  Join the 98 others that have signed.
Thank You