In Search of Wisdom with Isabel Romero Trujillo

​We sat down with Isabel Trujillo in her cozy home on Valentine’s Day. To say that Isabel is still beautiful in her 80’s is an understatement. Isabel is radiant. Her quick smile and warm eyes immediately put you at ease. Perhaps because it was the day of love, her thoughts went to how she and her husband Henry met. She shared some memories of coming of age in Espanola.
 
When you don’t have a car and you need to get somewhere fast, you run. That’s what Ernest Victor Romero did when his wife Ernestine Montoya was is labor; He ran from Guachupangue to Espanola to get Dr. Nesbit to come and deliver little Isabel.  She grew up an only child playing happily within her large extended family.

​It was at the eighth-grade dance in the Espanola school gym, that Henry Trujillo invited Isabel to dance. Isabel had never danced before. He was a year older than Isabel and he knew the popular dance moves. Isabel loved it all, especially the jitterbug. Not long after that, Henry invited Isabel to go dancing in Abiquiu at El Pinon up in the plaza near St Thomas church. Isabel’s parents weren’t happy about her going so far out of town. Abiquiu was a long way from Espanola!

She put on her best dress with a wide skirt and high heels. Henry wore his black dancing shoes. Henry didn’t dress like the Pachucos in their baggy pants and chains. He was a “good boy.” Isabel remembers that not too many people could fit in El Pinon, but “they had a lot of fun.” It did bother her a little that Henry knew his way around the dance halls of Abiquiu and lots of other girls knew him there.
 
When Isabel wanted to learn how to roller skate, she went with her best friend, Josie Montoya to a bar in El Rancho. Her daddy took them in his red and black Ford. She “tore a lot of boys shirts that day but she learned how to skate,” she says with a twinkle. Now it was Henry’s turn to feel the burn.
 
Another time, Isabel went dancing with Henry in Ojo Caliente which she said felt so far away it was as if they went to California. California was the place everyone from Espanola went in the 1950s to make some money. She thought her parents wouldn’t approve but she told them about it anyways. To her surprise, they weren’t upset. That’s when Isabel learned that it is always important to be truthful.
 
Henry did go away to California after he graduated from Espanola High School. Isabel gave him a prayer book as a graduation gift. But he didn’t forget those nights dancing with Isabel at El Pinon in Abiquiu. She got an engagement ring in the mail and she said yes.
 
Isabel and Henry got married a year after she graduated from High School in 1957. She devoted herself to her family but also worked as a secretary for the school, the government and Los Alamos labs. She laughs when she says that when she started her career the “best part was that I got to wear high heels.”
 
Isabel continued to celebrate many of life’s joys by going dancing with Henry.
 
Isabel’s piece of wisdom is to always be honest and tell the truth. Lying never makes things better. She says that there will always be trials and difficulties, but God will use them for your benefit. Don’t twist the truth to try and make things easier. Instead, ask God and He will help you to succeed.