Nosotros: A Study of Everyday Meanings in Hispano New Mexico

Acknowledgments

n xxiii Acknowledgments How does one thank all the teachers and friends one has had over a lifetime? This task would involve thanking not just those in the university setting, but also lay teachers—the ones who were interviewed in one way or another for this book. Some of these folks worked as janitors, some were in prison, others were ranchers, neighbors, students, and colleagues. One colleague that deserves mention is Gabino Rendón from the Department of Behavioral Science, New Mexico Highlands University. It is important to recognize that he was instrumental in the development of the School of Social Work at New Mexico Highlands University. He was always committed to principles. Good listeners and excellent colleagues were David Engstrom and Katie McDonough. Robert C. Warren helped by opening possibilities for research. Others contributed to this book by being co-interviewers. I thank especially Hilbert Navarro for that. Former students took an interest in the project. Jake Lucero asked me many times, “¿Cuando vas acabar ese libro?” (When are you going to finish the book?) My reply was, “Ya mero, ya mero” (I’m almost done). That question, too, was an inspiration to continue. Some read the chapters and made comments. I thank my wife, Marie, who accompanied me and saw me through various graduate schools over the years. Thanks should be extended to former xxiv n Acknowledgments students Connie Buck, Sandra Yudilevich, Brian Kimber, Father José R. Vigil, Cecile J. Zeigler, Judge Matthew J. Sandoval, Patsy Andrada, and the social gerontologists who made life in the university bearable. At the University of Denver David Franks in the Department of Sociology opened the doors to phenomenology, symbolic interaction, ethnomethodology, and the works of Ernest Becker, R. D. Laing, and Peter Marris. Others like Annie Barva and David Estrin helped in immeasurable ways to get the text into shape. Anselmo Arellano, Julian J. Vigil, and Tomás Atencio were pioneers in the study of everyday life and an inspiration. Linda Gegick, administrator at the City Museum in Las Vegas, deserves special recognition for helping with the organization and presentation of the drawings and some translations by Sara Harris and Jorge Thomas. I also should thank the reviewers selected by Michigan State University Press, who provided valued comments. Special thanks should go to Rubén Martinez from the Julian Samora Research Center, Michigan State University, who provided valued guidance. Clark Knowlton was a professor at New Mexico Highlands University teaching sociology in my undergraduate days. In those years this enlightened man was teaching us about “our people,” which was indeed rare anywhere in the University in the mid-1960s. He had a passion for Hispano people and the land grant issue! Over the years, I learned to appreciate his vast store of knowledge. His letters always explored new ideas and offered support and assistance. We once had a conversation at the Western Social Science Conference in which I asked him if what I was writing at the time might be developed into a full-fledged book. He was more than encouraging, but it was only after retirement that a project of this sort was possible. It is to his memory and friendship that I dedicate this book. • • • An earlier version of chapter 3 was previously published in Our Kingdom Stands on Brittle Glass, edited by Guadalupe Gibson (National Association of Social Workers, 1983). Chapter 8 was previously published in Expressing New Mexico: Nuevomexicano Creativity, Ritual, and Memory, edited by Phillip B. Gonzales (University of Arizona Press, 2007) © 2007 The Arizona Board of Regents. Reprinted by Permission of the University of Arizona Press. Portions of chapter 9 appear in “Despedidas as Reflections of Death in Hispanic New Mexico,” in La Familia: Traditions and Realities , edited by Marta Sotomayor and Alejandro García (National Hispanic Council on Aging, 1999). This chapter was also previously published in Omega: Journal of Death and Dying 32 (1996): 245–68. ...