The school year of 1971-1972 was one of the most positive pivotal points in my life. I was 16 years old. I had lived on Magnolia Street in Amarillo my whole life. It was the perfect neighborhood for kids to go up in. I knew someone on almost every block. I spent my summers at Thompson Park swimming at the pool all day and hanging out at Wonderland at night. Weekends we would often visit the zoo. I had gone to school with the same kids since elementary school.
My life drastically changed the last week of my freshman year at Horace Mann Junior High. I had the measles and will very ill for 2 weeks. When I returned to school, I was sitting Science class and had a seizure. Years later, I was told by a doctor that sometimes those who contract measles develop brain inflammation, which frequently leads to seizures and other serious neurological symptoms.There was nothing worse than a seizure to transform a social butterfly to a misunderstood teenager who sits in her room, listening to Bob Dylan records. I struggled through my sophomore year, going to school half a day and working half day. In the fall of 1971, I was not looking forward to go to my junior year at Palo Duro High. To make it even more stressful, the city of Amarillo closed the only all black high school in the Texas Panhandle and bused the students to the other schools. Desegregation was turbulent shift for most of the United States and Amarillo made it even more awkward by just closing the black school leaving them no gathering place in their part of town, just so that white kids didn't have to be bused. Students were acting out and rightfully so. My friend Regina's parents sent her to Alamo, the private Catholic high school. That would have been my preference so I started skipping school and going to school with her. Monsignor Matthiesen was the principal at Alamo High. He knew my family well because he was the founding pastor of St. Laurence Cathedral where we attended church and my dad was an active member of the Knights of Columbus. He was more than happy to have me in photography class. But instead of enrolling me at Alamo, my parents decided to take me to Puerto de Luna, New Mexico to live with my 88 year old blind, Spanish speaking grandmother, Rosita Valdez Padilla. She lived on the family farm with her 2 bachelor sons, Uncle Jose and Uncle Mac, who were both characters. Sounds like aa disaster waiting to happen doesn't it? My parents wanted to show me how difficult life really could be. Much to my their surprise, after 2 weeks, they drove 170 miles to bring me back to Texas. But I didn't budge. I'd become the social butterfly again and made life long friends. My teachers loved me and I loved the farm life in my parent's little home town. My Uncle Gilbert and Aunt Rita lived next door with their 8 lively children and life was a new adventure. I can honestly say it was one of the best years of my life.
 |
| Christina in Distributive Education Class Santa Rosa High School 1972 |
Santa Rosa High was a beautiful 12 mile drive down a winding road along the Pecos River in a school bus picking up kids who I now know to be cousins. The first day I went to the cafeteria for lunch, I was served pinto beans, potatoes, green chile and a tortilla. It was the first time in my life I had eaten a traditional New Mexican meal in public. My thought was "I Am Finally Home!" If I had only known then what I know now! It wasn't until about 2010 that I started doing ancestry research and discovered that many of my new friends were related to me, sometimes on both sides of the family because our ancestors had lived in that small community for many, many years. In fact I just discovered last year that my grandfather, Ascension Padilla had given land on either side of my grandparents farm to his female first cousins so they too could have farms in West Puerto de Luna. My mother really didn't like the idea of me living there because she was afraid I would unknowingly marry a cousin. HaHa and I would have! Yet, she never told me who my cousins were and how we were related.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, that same year of 1972, Rudolfo Anaya published his landmark debut novel, Bless Me, Ultima. Rudy was 34 and had been born in Pastura, NM just about 20 miles from Puerto de Luna as the crow flies. It's widely regarded as the most widely read and critically acclaimed novel in the New Mexican Literature Canon. The cornerstone of contemporary New Mexican literature was a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story written about Puerto de Luna, Santa Rosa and Pastura, New Mexico during WWII in the 1940s. I didn't read the book until after I saw the movie. The story is semi-autobiographical told from the point of view of 6 year old Antonio Márez y Luna as he navigates cultural, religious, and moral challenges with the mentorship of an old revered curandera (traditional spiritual healer) who comes to live with his family. She was known as Ultima.
Rudolfo was a huge inspiration to me. He passed away 6 years ago today on June 28, 2020 and I am so happy that he didn't leave this world with his stories still inside of him. I saw myself in his stories and it gave me permission to tell my story. I went to see him once at a bookstore in Austin having a book signing. I was to shy to tell him that my parents were from Puerto de Luna.
 |
| My Mom and Grandma Agnes Padilla Fajardo and Rosita Valdez Padilla |
Ultima, AKA Anastacia Lucero Bonney died August 15, 1954, 9 months before I was born. Frida Kahlo was died on July 13, 1954, 10 months before I was born. I find it very interesting that two of the women who had huge influences on me died the year before I was born. I don't believe energy dies and I have read that when someone who profoundly influenced you died the year before you were born, often symbolizes a spiritual, symbolic passing of the torch. My grandma Rosita died a year before Adriane was born so I named her Adriane Rose for the same reason.
----> Click here to watch a really good YouTube video called "Meet Rudolfo Anaya"
My mother told me years ago that we were related to Rudolfo Anaya on my dad's side of the family. She made sure I knew it was on Daddy's side because she didn't like that Rudy wrote about his pagan beliefs. As it turns out, he is my 6th cousin 2x removed on his dad's side of the family and and he is the stepson of my second cousin 2x removed on his mom's side of the family. Both of those connections are through my dad's side of the family.
