“I Love This Bar”

​​​Interview with Los Caminos owner Geraldine Martinez
​By Jessica Rath

Unknown artist. Image credit: Los Caminos.

My memories of bars are vague because I don’t like alcohol very much. I picture smoke-filled, dark rooms where the smell of stale beer lingers perpetually. That’s why I never stopped at Los Caminos on the corner of Hwy 84 and the El Rito Road, although I must have passed it thousands of times on the way to Espanola or Santa Fe.
 
When I moved to Abiquiú in 2000, there were three bars: the Blue Spruce right next to Los Caminos, and one bar up in the village. That one closed first, around 20 years ago I think. The Blue Spruce was next; it’s been a number of years as well. Los Caminos, on the other hand, was always busy, judging by the cars in the parking lot. What’s it like to visit a bar in Abiquiú? I wanted to find out and contacted owner Geraldine Martinez who kindly agreed to answer some questions. What a lovely time I had listening to Geri, as her friends call her. Her bar is a place where the community can gather for all sorts of pursuits, not just to drink beer.
 
Geri grew up in El Rito where her mother owned a store, located right across from the school there. Her parents sold it when she was in college, around 1971.

Image credit: Annie Taylor

“My mother was very business minded”, Geri remembered. “She was a teacher, plus she owned the store –  she had it built and ran it. Later on  she purchased the bar here, Los Caminos.” That was in 1964, and because Geri’s father was a rancher who had a busy workload himself and could only help out when it was needed, her mother ran the bar entirely by herself. Geri assisted her mother after she got back from college and pitched in  at the bar on holidays and weekends. She had been working at the store from the time she was 14.

“My mother  was a very driven woman who worked hard and believed that everyone should work hard. She instilled in me the importance of taking pride in what I did”, Geri told me. “Later on she became very ill, and I took over the bar. That was in 1994, and two months after that she passed away. I've been running the bar since 1994.”

“All that I do at Los Caminos  is in loving memory of my mother Lola, my husband Richard, and my dear friend Glen,” she added.
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I  asked Geri about her major, and where she went for college. What she told me totally surprised me – what an independent and courageous spirit she has!

Image Credit Grand Hacienda

“It was in education,  we are three generations of teachers in my family. I graduated from high school in Santa Fe at Loretto Academy. At that time, it was a girls’ school, where the Loretto Inn is right right now.  I graduated in May of 1967 when I was 17,  and then I left for Mexico in August the same year,  to study at an American university. It was called Universidad de las Americas.”
Geri continued: “I taught in Santa Fe for a semester, and then I left for Caracas for a year. I had signed a contract to stay longer, but my Mom became ill, and so I came back. Most of the students I taught there were embassy children of people that worked for the embassy. Wherever I taught, I loved my students. I always felt I had the best students.” I bet this was because she was a great teacher; the students felt her enthusiasm and dedication, so they were doing their best in return.

Geri and Glenn playing rummy Image credit: Jan Bachman

​“I truly fell in love with Mexico,” she told me,  “and at one point I even wanted to live in Mexico, but my dad kept telling me I was crazy, that it was easier for me to be an American going into Mexico for an extended period of time than to be Mexican and try to come over here. So I came back, but I love Mexico. Venezuela was a very interesting experience. I enjoyed it, but it’s not a place where I would ever want to live.”

Kentucky Derby Day? Image credit: Annie Taylor

Geri went on: “When I came back, my mother encouraged me to get a job closer to home. We drove  to Gallina where I had never been, which was amazing, because I was from El Rito, and how far is Gallina? We drove to the school, and it was a beautiful campus.  My mother suggested, ‘You should go to their administration office and ask them if they have any openings.’ I thought, ‘my goodness, way out here in the middle of nowhere!’, but I walked in, and fortunately, the state had taken over the district. So I met someone assigned there by the state, I believe his name was Dr Ellis, and the first thing he asked was, I hope you're not another geography teacher.’  I said, ‘no, I'm an elementary teacher’, and he said, ‘good, now we can talk.’  And that's how I got the job in Gallina. I taught for the Jemez Mountain District, which is Gallina  and Coyote. I was there from 1973 till I retired in 2000”.

“The families were wonderful, I had such an excellent teaching experience there. The students were good, eager to learn and inquisitive. The parents were so supportive. My husband worked for the Forest Service, for the Santa Fe National Forest, so we lived at the Coyote Ranger Station. We never had to lock a door. It was a delightful life there.”

Mixing a tasty Tequila. Image credit: Annie Taylor

Geri had told me earlier that she took over the bar in 1994, when her mother first got ill and then passed away. For six years she was teaching for the Jemez Mountain District AND taking care of the bar, at the same time.  She hired  people who were working for her at the bar, but that didn't turn out so  well.  Her bookkeeper told her, “you either sell it, lease it, or run it yourself.” That's why she retired from teaching in 2000 and took over the bar.
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“People often ask me, do you miss teaching? I do;  well, I did. Now I'm so involved in my bar that I don't have time to miss it. But in the beginning, when I had to take over the bar because I was losing so much otherwise, I very much missed teaching. But I kept thinking to myself, well, my bar is sort of a classroom, I have to tell them, watch the language, put your quarters on the pool table. You need to take turns. It's not your turn yet. Ask politely. And so my bar even became my classroom at the beginning.” What a great attitude, to find the positive in a situation that doesn’t look so great at first.

Los Caminos Horse. Image credit: Jan Bachman

Geri continued: “I have two grandchildren. I have a lovely granddaughter named Michaela and a very handsome grandson named Matteo. When they were small and I was taking care of them, they would help me. They had  their first math classes with me, learning how to count coins and wrap them in wrappers, and help me with my deposit. We did a lot of math activities.”

Los Caminos is  open seven days a week, Geri told me. The only day they’re closed is Christmas Day. Tuesday through Saturday they open at 10am, Sunday and Monday at 12 noon.  Closing time depends  on the number of customers – when it’s  slow, they'll close early. On weekends, actually Thursday, Friday and  Saturday, they’re open at least till 10pm.

How can you handle such a heavy schedule, I wanted to  know.

“It is tiresome, but I love my bar," Geri explained. “I have such good help. And just like  the song by Toby Keith, I Love This Bar, I love spending time in my bar. I meet so many people from so many places. I have many loyal locals that do business with me, and we're just one big, happy Los Caminos family. We love our customers, and they become friends, and of course, they become part of our family.”

Derby Day at Los Caminos Image credit: Jan Bachman.

This made me  curious – is there anybody who helps Geri, or does she  have to manage it all by herself?

“I am very fortunate to have my goddaughter, Teresa, who helps  manage my bar. She is not only my goddaughter but very much a part of my family. Along with my son Jonathan and my daughter Justina, they help me with advice on repairs, maintenance, and whatever I have to do.  When I have to host a wedding or anniversary, they come and help me. They have very busy lives, but they always make time to come and help me when I really need them.”

Geri went on:  “People always ask me, ‘Do you have a  Happy Hour? When is your Happy Hour?’  And I tell them, we're always happy here at Los Caminos. We have a group of friends that are our  loyal customers, and we have  a Ladies’ Day. We try to have a Ladies' Day at least once a week. They like to come around noon, and we'll have a potluck. Everybody will bring something and we share it with anybody that comes in. We just love it. We always have news or stories to tell, or jokes,  or even time to play cards. So this is not only my business, but this is my social life.”

Behind the bar. Image credit: Annie Taylor

“ We carry a good variety of package liquor and wines and imported beer,  and a variety of domestic beers. We do weddings as well. We've hosted events at the Abiquiú Gym or at Ghost Ranch for example, and we host bars for weddings, college graduations, retirements and anniversaries. When that happens, Theresa will keep the bar going, and then my kids and I will go and host the bar for different events.”

 “Sometimes  a small group of say, 25 people will ask us if they can have a Christmas gathering  or a birthday party at our bar. Then  we'll shut off an area and they bring whatever they want, their cakes, or food, whatever. We provide liquor. The  theme for our bar is: ‘The coldest beer in town where good friends are found’.”

I had no idea that a bar could be a community center for friends and people to hang out together!

“One year we celebrated the Kentucky Derby. We all came dressed wearing fancy hats, I made mojitos for the customers, and we watched the Kentucky Derby. It was a lot of fun. I carry a good variety of tequilas, and I make a very tasty Margarita.
And yesterday [Sunday], for example, we had a group here who all wanted to watch the football games.”
 
All of this sounds so lovely, but I was curious: are there ever people who drink too much and become rowdy? What happens then?

Geri explained: “Bars were rough at the time that my mother took over. There were rivalries from different communities. But all that has changed and it’s rare. I rely on Teresa, she's a very strong person, she worked at the prison in Compton. She will not tolerate any misbehavior. She'll settle it right away, and she does not hesitate. She won't put up with it. I can't say we never had a fight, because we've had problems, and we try to get them outside, out of the bar, away from our customers. But it's very rare these days.”

If you notice that somebody is drinking too much, would you ask them to give you their car keys?

“Yes, we have taken away the keys. If they don't bring a designated driver, we tell them, give us your keys and we'll give them back to you if we see you're alright. Also,  we give out wooden nickels. When somebody will come in and say, ‘give them a round on me’, we tell the customer who already had too much, ‘ we can't serve you anymore because we feel you've had your limit’. But  we give them a wooden nickel and they can bring it back, it’s  good for a drink or a beer.”

​Geri continues: “We do have a variety of customers. We have a lot of cowboys, we have a lot of bikers. We have tourists, of course, and our faithful locals,  friends that moved here from out of state, or are visiting from out of state. So  we have a good variety of customers. We also host bike runs. When they have a bike run, they call them poker runs, and there's a group of bikers who drive all around 64 and stop at different bars for a poker run.  That's another thing that we provide for and that brings quite a number of customers. Everybody's in shock when they see all these bikes in front of the bar, and wonder what's going on, but it's usually a poker run, and nobody can pull in because there's so many bikes.”

“They're nice people who come from all over. I have a group that comes  from Edgewood, New Mexico.”

​There’s a big sign in the bar that says ‘I love this bar’, just like Toby Keith’s song that Geri likes. That is what holds this community together like a glue: Geri’s big heart, full of laughter and love. I had no idea that a bar could be a place where one can feel safe and sheltered. And I bet one can’t find this easily somewhere else. No wonder Los Caminos has so many steady customers who return year after year: Geri draws them back. I want to thank Geri for this enjoyable interview.