Finally the weather is perfect, goals have been met, my work is done and the weekend is here!

Great timing because this Saturday is also the annual Bondy yard sale. We love this sale. The prices are fair, the goods are plentiful and very well displayed. You can count on having many categories to shop for. You can also count on this field trip taking about three times longer than you planned for, as, likely, you will run into a lot of people that you know. Catch-up chats and quick hugs with a “gotta get going to buy things I probably don’t need, see you later”!

This year was the best year yet. I always follow my same routine by starting front left and working my way clockwise until I reach the Bondys’ front porch that’s usually so crowded with used stuff and people sifting through it, that you have to squeeze in with a lot of “excuse me, I’m sorry”. I pretend to be looking at all the laid out items on tall tables, but really I’m casually strolling to the back where there are always lots of homemade treats that I hope are for the taking. Brian Bondy could always fall back on a second career of candy making with that perfect toffee he makes fresh every year. It’s sweet, but not too sweet with the exact right crunch and chewiness. The nuts compliment it perfectly and one piece is never enough! Yum! But wait, this year I see that there is a whole new section of booths behind the porch with clothes and fun art temptations. Oh dear, this is gonna be hard to resist. Thankfully, I came with my wife and two dear friends and mostly succeeded in focusing my shopping urges on clothes and essential items for them. My wife tends to get grabby at these events and, later, I discovered that she had already made several trips to our car with arms full of very important things by the time we were saying our goodbyes to drive the short distance further down the road to the second location of the sale. I’m glad that we brought our small car this year, because this next leg of the sale had some temptations that were challenging my “less is more” philosophy. I will confess that it is fully my responsibility that we came home with a giant meditation bowl for our, yet to be finished yoga/ meditation space. Ah well, it’s good to treat oneself and to splurge every now and then.

We decided to carry on splurging the next day to treat ourselves to a Mother’s Day breakfast at The Artesian Restaurant in Ojo Caliente. We love coming to this restaurant, it’s so peaceful and beautiful. The gardens were literally sparkling and shining, probably due to the 1.11” of rain torrent that we had received the night before. What a gorgeous day! The bustling dining room was not as crowded as we feared it may be considering the holiday and we were sat quickly at one of the many pleasant tables lining the walls. The menu has a nice variety of delicious sounding items to choose from. We were starving, so, started with the avocado toast as an appetizer. I ordered an omelet, choosing my own ingredients. It comes with cubed potatoes and toast. I chose house cured bacon, goat cheese and spinach. Asked for my potatoes crispy, always, and rye for my toast. My wife went for the French toast.

The avocado toast was all that it boasted to be except for a pet peeve my wife and I share, that avocado should be avocado. Not guacamole! It’s no different than assuming tomato on your BLT, but getting salsa. Come on people, know the difference! Besides that, the sourdough toast was a perfect vessel for the piled high guacamole, sautéed spinach and over medium egg drizzled with a nice zesty sesame chili oil and surrounded by flavorful cherry tomatoes. My omelet was very sizable and topped with a lot of bacon, spinach and goat cheese. At first, I was worried that that was their style, to have the ingredients on the outside of the omelet, but quickly comforted to find the fold was stuffed with much more bacon and goat cheese and spinach. Dare I say too much??! The potatoes were good but nothing spectacular and the toast was bland and room temp. I do appreciate a restaurant that still serves cute, soft butter balls in a ramekin, a rare sight since COVID and was happy to receive this and small sides of ramekin-ed ketchup, syrup and a delicious homemade strawberry jam that I wish they sold jarred and to go.

My wife’s French Toast was some of the best I’ve ever had. Texas toast soaked in a delicate egg batter and fried to a slightly crunchy golden brown, dusted with powdered sugar and surrounded by a generous portion of sliced strawberries, a velvety maple syrup and a mountain of whipped cream. We ate the French toast last thankfully and were not tempted, for a change, to order dessert.  All this, a cup of decaf and a lot left over, came to $55.

It was a truly lovely weekend. As I sit writing this article on a comfortable chair on my new screened in porch on the river, listening to the beautiful song of the Western Tanagers, I am so very thankful to be lucky enough to live in such a beautiful valley surrounded by kind and generous folk.

Now to face all the new tasks on my to-do list, I am rejuvenated and ready to go.
I think that we might make this Bondy-ing with Mother’s Day breakfast an annual tradition!

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~Jessica Rath

​​After an extraordinary long winter which started with freezing temperatures in the first days of November and lasted all the way through April, spring has finally arrived. And, even faster than in other years, spring is almost gone! Just in time for summer, for swimming and kayaking, Abiquiú Lake has nicely filled up with plenty of water. Something that most of us have sorely missed for the last few seasons.
 
Before I moved to New Mexico in 2000, I lived in Berkeley/California. When I told people of my plans, the common reaction was: What?! You’re moving to the desert?! Well, I had visited friends who lived in Santa Fe, and they had taken me to Taos and other gorgeous places in the north, so I knew that I wasn't going to live in a dry, sand-blown desert. But I certainly didn’t expect that I’d end up close to a splendid lake. It didn’t bother me that it is an artificial lake, with a dam to store the Rio Chama water. It was just perfect for swimming, other people were kayaking, sometimes there was even a sailboat. The speed boats – well, one just had to ignore them.
 
But for the last few years, the water level steadily sank until it was too low for the boat ramps. Swimming became dangerous because of blue-green algae. What was going on? I looked at the history of the lake to find out more.

​The work on Abiquiu Dam started in 1958. It was created to control the amount of water which would flow from the Rio Chama into the Rio Grande in Espanola. When it was finished, it was considered to be the fourth-largest earth filled dam in the world: 325 (now 340, raised 15 feet in the 80s) feet high, 1,450 (1800 now) feet across from one edge of the canyon to the other, and 2,770 feet from the upstream to the downstream edge.   A mile-long conveyor belt had to be installed to bring fill dirt from the borrow areas to near the dam, from where it was transported via dump trucks to wherever it was needed.
 
The dam was completed in 1962, but – surprise! – there  wasn’t a lake at all! The dam was used strictly as a flood barrier. Apparently, in the 1970s there were conflicting attitudes about the development of a recreational lake which would flood the area on the north side of the dam. Much of the land was private, and there was concern that the dam wouldn’t be strong enough to hold so much  water. On the other hand, the Espanola Chamber of Commerce petitioned for the construction of recreational facilities because of the obvious benefits for local businesses. I don’t know how it happened, but I’m glad they won!
 
With the higher water levels, this summer looks promising as far as swimming and other water activities are concerned. But what about the coming years?  Will the water stay high? I wanted to find out and made an appointment with John Mueller, Operations Manager at the Abiquiu Dam (which is part of the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers), who kindly agreed to answer my questions. 

First of all, I wanted to know why the water was so  low for the last two years – was it just the drought or were there other reasons?

John explained that it was usage, primarily. The purpose of the reservoir was to control flooding from the dam down to Espanola, where the Chama meets the Rio Grande. Initially, there wasn’t  much water stored – not enough for  swimming etc., it was just a puddle at the bottom. In the spring there was more water, but it was slowed down for flood control, the water was released at a controlled rate.

But, in the mid-70s the San Juan Diversion Project changed things. (He shows me on the map). The headwater of the native Chama River is southeast of Pagosa Springs, it flows along the Colorado border, and then into Rio Grande. The Bureau of Reclamation Tunnel is 26 miles long, it collects water from the headwaters of the San Juan River, flows through a tunnel underneath the Continental Divide,  and comes out east. It is placed in Heron Reservoir where it connects with the  native Chama River. The water is purchased by contractors, municipalities, and  water authorities including  the City of Albuquerque. They can store it in Heron Lake, and they can store it in El Vado Lake including native (natural Chama, not San Juan-Chama) water. They use it for irrigation and drinking, mainly. In the 70s the water was stored year round for the contractors. They can ask for it whenever they want or need it.
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“We can’t STORE native water like El Vado does. We can only hold it, slow it down, and eventually release it. The only water that is stored is the San Juan-Chama water, for these contractors, to be sent down when they request it. In the 80s and 90s and early 2000s they were not calling for it, but then when they did ask for it, our water level kept dropping. This is partly related to the drought, and also, Albuquerque is growing and needs more water. For the last 10 years the water level has been reduced.” There is currently legislation and a process that is being developed for Abiquiu Lake to have the ability to store native water in addition to San Juan Chama imported water up to an elevation of 6230 feet, although it is uncertain when this may be implemented.
 

​I asked about the blue-green algae. It’s actually NOT an algae John corrected, but a bacteria. It grows in warm, stagnant water with high nutrients such as nitrates, sulfates, etc. from agricultural run-off.  Less water, higher temperatures, more nutrients: the perfect growing conditions for algae.

“Last year we had more water because the El Vado Dam is being worked on. To do the maintenance, they had to drain their reservoir and we took that water. Also, the snow melt is a contributing factor for the high levels. We have to hold off releasing the water like we normally would at this time of the year, because there are other tributaries like the Ojo River. We have to reduce our release because at the Chamita Gate down there, at the Chevron Station where the Ojo comes in, there would be too much water otherwise. We’re only releasing about half of what comes in. But we’re going to release that water eventually, for agricultural purposes etc.”

​And good news for this summer: “On July 1st whatever we’ll have over will be locked into storage until the end of the season, that’s going to help us keep the water up here. Because of El Vado and the snowpack we have a higher storage through November. Potentially also next year, depending on when they complete the maintenance at El Vado. Right now, it’s a foot and ½ going up every day. We’re at the level of 2013 I think. We're probably gonna come up another 6 feet. However, it will not last. This year and next year, we’ll have a lot of water! Definitely this year, and it’s looking pretty good for next year.”

​I thanked John for his time and the interesting information and went to the overlook and then to the main boat ramp to take some pictures. There were already some picnickers, some kayakers, and one speed boat. It’s still too cold for swimming, but we can look forward to a glorious summer! 

Read More
Taos News 4/28/1960
Albuquerque Journal 7/22/61

Reies Lopez Tijerina – even today opinions are divided. Was he a communist agitator or a selfless proponent of the poor and underprivileged? Let’s start at the beginning and explore.

​Tierra Amarilla, just a few miles north of Abiquiú on Hwy 84, is a sleepy little town. It almost looks like a ghost town with a number of closed business buildings and abandoned houses. It is somewhat surprising that it has been the Rio Arriba county seat since 1880 when the town got its current name (“Yellow Earth”; before that, it was called “Las Nutrias”). When the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad constructed lines that connected Chama to their vast network, the area around T.A. must have experienced a cultural and economic expansion that just as quickly ended when the railroads stopped running.
 
The current courthouse was built in 1917. I have visited it a few times; once because I was called for jury duty, another time to attend a meeting of the County Commissioners; always totally uneventful trips. I was therefore utterly perplexed when I learned that there had been a raid on the courthouse in 1967, the National Guard was called in, and one person got shot!

About 20 members of a group which was founded in 1963 by Reies Tijerina and which called itself La Alianza Federal de Mercedes (Federal Alliance of Land Grants) assembled at the courthouse on June 5, 1967, in order to place the district attorney Alfonso G. Sanchez under citizen’s arrest. They also wanted to free a few members of the group who had been arrested a day or two earlier. The Alianza had planned a meeting in Coyote, and Sanchez used police force to break up the gathering, and several members were taken into custody. However, the county judge had already freed the imprisoned people, and Sanchez wasn’t in T.A. at all but in Santa Fe mobilizing police forces. When they couldn’t find Sanchez, the Alianza group took a sheriff and a reporter hostage; they also shot and wounded a prison guard and a police officer. The event caused national attention; Governor David Cargo called in the National Guard which descended with tanks and helicopters, state police, and local sheriffs for what probably was the biggest manhunt in New Mexico history. The Alianza members and their leader, Reies Tijerina, fled to the near-by mountains where sympathetic ranchers protected them. Only after Tijerina’s wife (who was pregnant) had been arrested, did they surrender to authorities in Albuquerque. 

​By now, you’re probably curious what this was all about: WHAT did the Alianza want to accomplish? WHY was the district attorney so set to arrest its members?
 
The name of the group gives a clue: it was all about land grants. An issue that even today can cause heated debates. It goes back to the time when the land here was a colony of Spain. The governors who were accountable to the King of Spain granted the land to people here. A person would petition with the governor or his representative; when the petition was granted, the person would receive a document which would guarantee that the person could occupy and use the land. Actually, that was a condition: the person HAD to occupy and use the land. Something like developers was not allowed. Communities could apply for land grants as well, in order to establish settlements.
 
When Mexico gained independence from Spain, they continued with the customary land grant system. An essential part of this system was the fact that the people didn’t really OWN the land – it was theirs to use and to live on, but if somebody would find gold or some other valuable substance, this would belong to the King. (I learned this from a video produced by New Mexico State Historian Rob Martínez; if you want to learn more, here is the link). 

​Things changed when New Mexico became part of the United States at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848. Although the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo confirmed the legitimacy of land grants under Mexican law, in practice many people lost their rights. Americans had a different understanding of land ownership, and communally held ownership was a foreign concept – Ejidos (Community-owned land) were not recognized under U.S. law and fell into private hands. Much of it became National Forest or was assigned to the Bureau of Land Management. People didn’t have their original copies any more, and lost their land. They were not prepared to deal with a complicated legal system and especially with unscrupulous speculators. The Santa Fe Ring, a powerful group of corrupt lawyers, businessmen, and politicians, swindled land grant holders into selling their land. One of them, Thomas B. Catron who became a U.S. Senator, managed to acquire 3,000,000 acres of land. Compared to these individuals who often hired assassins to eliminate their opponents,  Reies Tijerina looks almost like a choir boy.
 
Well, not really. Reies Tijeria was no angel, he wasn’t perfect. Born in 1926 in Fall City, Texas, he experienced from a young age the discriminating treatment of poor, migrant families with Hispanic/Mexican origin. After he became an ordained pentecostal minister, he founded a little community of some 20 families in the southern Arizona desert, The Valley of Peace, in 1955. He moved with his family and a few of his followers to New Mexico in 1957. That’s where he learned about the land grants and the injustice he perceived when he learned about the many families who had been dispossessed of their lands. This became his new passion: to bring justice to people who had lost their land, and to highlight the unequal working conditions that so many Native Americans and Hispanios had to endure.
 
This led to conflicts with lawmakers and the police who branded him as a communist agitator, and eventually to the Tierra Amarilla Courthouse raid.
 
After being convicted of charges related to the raid in 1970, the federal government sent Tijerina to a prison for the mentally deranged where he was forced to take psychotropic drugs. When he was paroled two years later, he was something of a broken man. He died in 2015 in El Paso, Texas.

Here is a corrido about these events performed by Roberto Martínez and his group  Los Reyes de Albuquerque who was a friend of Tijerina. It was played on all the local radio stations and was featured in the Smithsonian touring exhibition Corridos sin Fronteras / Ballads Without Borders. 

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​A quick mention has to be made of Tijerina’s involvement in the larger Civil Rights Movement: in March 1968, he was elected to be the leader of the Chicano contingent of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and worked  with Dr. Martin Luther King to organize the Poor People’s March on Washington. After Dr. King’s assassination in April, Tijerina continued his work under the leadership of Ralph Abernathy.
 
When you decide whether Tijerina was a good guy or a bad guy, keep in mind that to stand up for minorities’ rights in the late Sixties meant to put one’s life in jeopardy. Justice seemed to be reserved for the privileged, and the punishment for acts of violence were hugely disproportionate, depending on who was the perpetrator. Maybe Tijerina was sort of in the middle, like most of us.

I wrote about the origin of cats last week, so how about dogs? Well, to me, dogs seem way more varied than cats, both in size and disposition. I’ve seen dogs that barely look like dogs anymore they’ve been bred so much. Again, there’s a discussion in there I’m not willing to touch, at least not today.
 
We have 3 dogs. I love having dogs and wouldn’t want to live without them. They are all mutts, and strays. They all 3 showed up and adopted us, on different occasions of course. They all 3 have very different personalities, and ways to be annoying. Generally, I think of dogs coming from wolves, originally. Healers were bred from the Australian Dingo, BTW. Just a fun fact.
 
The New York Times had an article describing domesticated dog fossils found in Europe from over 15,000 years ago. There is also speculation that dogs were getting domesticated at roughly the same time, in Asia, and in Europe and the Middle East. There may be DNA evidence supporting that theory.
 
For fairly obvious reasons, at least if you have a dog or are a dog fan, they can be quite useful. They can be trained quite readily, some say, I wouldn’t know, and they can then be helpful in hunting, fighting, and protection. That all makes sense for early mankind.
 
I think they make a fairly good friend and companion, if not a bit needy sometimes. It is speculated that all dogs descend from the Gray Wolf, though likely from two time periods. It is also suggested that it would take 130,000 years for the wolf to be bred into the modern dog, which implies that wolves were cohabitating or at least inter mingling with humans well before they were being directly selectively bred.
 
The genetics of dogs is far less mixed up than you might imagine though. Particularly with Pure Bred species. A great article to look at, if you are interested, is from the PBS, which you can find by clicking here.