I’m a lucky guy. For many reasons, I hasten to add. Those who know me I’m sure often wonder why I haven’t been killed by an angry husband or a band of hungry demons or by a pack of wild dogs. Not bragging. Just stating how my life has gone so far. Everything is still on the table and that is why I’m not bragging.
Today’s stroke of luck involved my preparation for moving to Rowe, New Mexico. I made a list of items that need to be completed or items to be gathered before I crawl into Rocinante for the drive across country. One item is to inform specific entities of my change of address. While I was talking to the agent for Navy Federal Credit Union he wanted to know what kind of work I was going to be doing in Rowe. I informed him it was volunteer type work in Las Vegas and Montezuma. He became more animated in his end of the conversation. He informed me that he was born and raised primarily in Raton. Raton is at the end of I 25 before it crosses into Colorado.
Well, as you can guess, I joined him in this new friendship. We had a great chat regarding this place and that place and the background of the area. He is very familiar with the state and many of the towns he mentioned I’d not heard of until now. I shared with him my admiration of Rudolfo Anaya who wrote “Bless Me Ultima”. He’d not heard of him nor the book. I informed my new friend that Anaya had been born and raised in the exact area he was describing to me; the region around Pecos just south of I 25. In fact the book “Bless Me Ultima” takes place there. He took note of the author and the book.
One entertaining part of his end of the conversation was that there is a very tiny town on NM 518 just north of Cleveland (New Mexico) by the name of Holman. Not all maps show it but it is there. It is right where County Highway 24 T’s into NM 518. He told me that Holman was a name change from “Cebolla Vieja”. I don’t know why the town would change a name; just part of the progression of humans I guess. It could have been that enough gringos had moved into the neighborhood and didn’t like Cebolla Vieja. In English it translates to Old Onion. Could be that was why.
There are other words in Spanish that sound better than the English version. Gaviota is one I can think of off the top of my head. Gaviota means Seagull. I know someone who named their boat “Gaviota”. It sounds pretty that way. His wife is Mexican and she can’t stand the name though. Makes sense either way, eh?
At any rate, there you go. I hope your day is as pretty as the one here in Boothbay. I need to mow the lawn. The rain this past week has been a luxury because it’s been quite dry. I notice that there is a difference between my watering with a hose and the watering that comes from the rain. Things grow better with the rain.
Oh, by the way. There is a Cebolla, New Mexico just to the west and a little north of the former “Old Cebolla”. In case you see it it’s not the same one.
Peace out,
G. M. Goodwin
24 September 2016
Playing Fair and Being Kind 