Martinez de Romero / Elaiza, Martinez / Nicolás and Martinez, José (Monte Aplanado, Las Vegas-NM), part 1
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Document Type
Audio
Publication Date
6-30-1994
Recommended Citation
Anselmo Arellano collection (MSS 1140), Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of New Mexico
COinS
Comments
[In video Collection] Describes the neighboring landscape before the start of the interview. Family Genealogy, from Monte Aplanado. Her father was Isaac Martinez and her mother Eufemia Armijo. Doña Elaiza changed her name after she got married. She comes from a large family of thirteen children, only one of her siblings is dead. The rest of her siblings live in different parts of the country. Nicolas' family; his wife was Maria Martinez. He had seven children: five girls and two boys. His grandfather was Nicolas Martinez and his grandmother was Genoveva Mestas. They were originally from Monte Aplanado. Más antes los hijos que se casaban llevaban a sus esposas a vivir con sus padres. His father was a rancher, worked in 'la Borrega', and then in el 'Cuartón' [sawmill: cutting large beams]. One of his father's hobbies was to search for precious metals in mines. He was a good father as he taught his children to be hardworking and respectful to other people. Their father, Don Isaac used to work in La Borrega in Rawlins, Wyoming. Elaiza and Nicolas used to help with the ranch work and with the steam powered sawmill. Elaiza's husband built the house where she lives at the time of this interview. Talking about her husband's family genealogy; The Romeros and the Fresquez from San Juan, but her father in law was from Mora. Nicolas talks about his wife. He got married in 1946 and moved to Wyoming where he worked in a coal mine until 1953. He and his family returned to Farmington then to Monte Aplanado. Memories of his first visit to Wyoming with his father, working in the beet fields. He recalls about an experience finding a fresh water spring in el Cañón de Murphy as he was a teenager shepherding the Fresquez's cattle. He thinks that fresh spring may have been a place of apparitions, maybe Marian appearances. Talking about changes in society: people have changed. One of their siblings was a Veteran who served in WWII. Memories of their youthhood in the ranch and how they helped with the chores, food preservation for the winter; they dried a lot of foods and meats. There was a lot of poverty when they attended school in Monte Aplanado. Recalling some of their teachers, instruction was very poor. It was their father who taught them most of their literacy in Spanish. There was no English instruction in their school. His father used to read a book of law and taught them good manners and how to be good people. Elaiza barely read or wrote, but she learned more when she got married as her husband helped her to learn to read and write better. Their mother taught them how to weave 'sarapes and garritas' [blanket, rags] with goat wool; she remembers how they used to paint the wool before using it for weaving.