Rudolfo Anaya weaved bilingual holiday tale for children
By Morgan Lee Associated Press
An author known as the father of Chicano literature left behind a bilingual children's book after his 2020 death, telling a story about Christmas in the American Southwest.
The tale from Rudolfo Anaya, who died from natural causes at 82, is being published posthumously for the holiday season by Museum of New Mexico Press with parallel text in Spanish and English. The story extends a cycle of Anaya's illustrated children's books with a playful cast of animal characters, centered around a tiny, inquisitive owl named Ollie Tecolote.
The book was crafted by Anaya painstakingly in his waning year as an invitation to children to explore literature in English and Spanish, said Enrique Lamadrid, a publisher and retired chairman of the Spanish teaching department at the University of New Mexico. Lamadrid collaborated closely with Anaya in his final years to translate "Owl in a Straw Hat" series into Spanish.
"We crafted that really, really, really carefully so that kids would be comfortable," said Lamadrid, who first befriended Anaya in the 1970s. "You start with love. You have to fall in love with your second language in order to be any good with it at all."
Anaya achieved lasting literary fame and influence with the novel "Bless Me, Ultima" in 1972 about a boy's coming of age in post-World War II New Mexico under the guidance of a traditional spiritual healer. The book became a movie — and an opera.
Anaya wrote his "New Mexico Christmas Story" for children initially in English, sprinkling in a smattering of Spanish-language words and phrases about Hispanic holiday comfort food and traditional Christmas pranks performed by "abuelos."
Translated literally, "abuelos" means grandfathers or grandparents, while it's also used as slang for costumed family elders in northern New Mexico who traditionally go house-to-house at Christmastime to ask startled children whether they have been naughty or nice.
The book's images are from painter and pop-culture muralist Moises Salcedo — who goes by El Moisés — and provide a splashy visual tour of winter holiday traditions in northern New Mexico, from handcrafted "farolito" candle lights to steaming "pozole" stew and an adventure that touches upon the three wise men.
Michelle Garcia, a preschool teacher for the city of Albuquerque, reads an earlier Owl in a Straw Hat book to her 4- and 5-year-old students, seated in a semicircle, allowing for comments and questions.
Hispanic traditions run deep in New Mexico, where Spanish settlers arrived in the 1598. Nearly half of the state's population claims Hispanic heritage, and some students in Garcia's class — but not all — recognize the Spanish words in Anaya's book. Garcia says a short English-Spanish glossary in the book helps her answer any questions.
"There's just a such a variety of wording, they can relate, especially if they're from Chicano descent or any kind of Spanish descent," said Garcia, who traces her Hispanic roots and comfort with Spanish expressions to grandparents in northern New Mexico and southernmost Colorado.
Garcia took a day off to meet Anaya shortly before his death, knowing that he would appear at the dedication of a public library in his name.
"He said he met his wife at the library," Garcia said. "It was just this amazing story to encourage children to come to the library and to read and to open a book. It just encouraged me to tell those stories."
Archdiocese of Santa Fe's bankruptcy case plods along
By Rick Ruggles Santa Fe New Mexican
The Archdiocese of Santa Fe's Chapter 11 bankruptcy efforts have plodded along for three years with no end visible in the case involving more than 400 clergy abuse victims.
Lawyers say three years is a comparatively long time for Chapter 11 proceedings but is far from unheard of. It's in everyone's interests — the archdiocese's and the victims' — to resolve it through Chapter 11, attorneys say. Therefore, an eventual settlement is still expected.
"The alternatives are so bad that it's worth it to stay in the game," Laura Coordes, associate professor of law at Arizona State University, said of Chapter 11.
The archdiocese seeks to raise an adequate sum, through property sales, donations and insurance, to reach settlements with the victims.
In a blog this month, Archbishop John Wester wrote: "We knew when we filed for Chapter 11 that it would not be easy. We are making progress, albeit slow progress. Please pray that this arduous and drawn-out process will bring healing to the victims of sexual abuse, to their families, our parishes and this local Church."
Chapter 11 allows the entity in financial hardship to work with the claimants in search of a settlement.
Coordes and Albuquerque bankruptcy attorney Dave Giddens told the Santa Fe New Mexican that the alternatives to a settlement typically would be for the case to be converted to Chapter 7 bankruptcy, in which a trustee would call the shots on the sale of assets. Or the case could be dismissed, and many victims then would file lawsuits individually.
Giddens, who is not involved in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe case, called three years in Chapter 11 bankruptcy relatively lengthy.
"Most of them don't make it that long, if they're going to make it," he said.
But he added this is a big case with many "skilled pros" working on it, and it's likely they will find a way to settle. Among those involved in the case are James Stang of Los Angeles, representing some of the victims, and Idaho-based Ford Elsaesser, representing the archdiocese. Both are experienced in these kinds of cases.
Merit Bennett, a Santa Fe attorney who represents four victims, said the finish line isn't in sight.
"There are so many what-ifs that it's really impossible to predict anything," he said. "It's like anything could happen."
The archdiocese has indicated it's working to receive acceptable payouts from insurers, who are vital players in these cases. The Rev. Glennon Jones, archdiocese vicar general, wrote this fall negotiations with insurers "may take a while, but there's no way to speed it up."
Meanwhile, the archdiocese held one online auction this year to sell off small, donated properties and generated about $1.4 million. A second auction is scheduled for Jan. 31 to Feb. 7.
An infusion of $1.4 million won't change the picture, a Santa Fe attorney said.
"The answer is the insurance," said Aaron Boland, who represents one victim.
Two high-profile national Chapter 11 cases involving sexual abuse reported breakthroughs last week. The Boy Scouts of America announced insurer Chubb Ltd. agreed to pay $800 million.
And USA Gymnastics agreed to pay $380 million to more than 500 gymnasts who were sexually abused by a team doctor, Larry Nassar, and others. USA Gymnastics filed for bankruptcy protection about the time the Archdiocese of Santa Fe filed.
BishopAccountabiility.org, a website that monitors pedophile priest cases and Catholic organization bankruptcies because of abuse, lists 26 dioceses that filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy beginning in 2004. Most but not all were settled within three years.
The Diocese of Gallup settled within three years for more than $20 million for about 55 victims.
It took the Diocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis more than three years to agree in 2018 to pay $210 million to 450 victims.
The website collects statements from attorneys and dioceses and mainly media reports in its archive of cases. Seven dioceses, including those in New Orleans and Buffalo, N.Y., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020.
Some dioceses have settled for big numbers, such as $198 million in San Diego, and some for far smaller amounts, including Fairbanks' roughly $12 million. None of the 26 cases has been replaced by another means of addressing the crisis, such as Chapter 7 or individual lawsuits.
Giddens said a judge might threaten to convert the case to one of those options as a way of getting adversaries back into negotiations.
Coordes said reaching an agreement through Chapter 11 bankruptcy is the best way.
"You're pretty much putting your hopes or putting your money on this working out," she said.
The Archdiocese of Santa Fe case has been contentious at times. One mediator was replaced. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma ruled this year that victims could continue their legal claim the archdiocese had transferred property and cash to its 93 parishes in the last decade to hinder victims' access to those assets.
When Wester told his constituents in the spring that St. Pius X High School in Albuquerque would be preserved in the process, one of the attorneys for victims, Levi Monagle of Albuquerque, said not so fast.
Monagle said at the time that until the archdiocese accumulates an adequate sum, "all diocesan assets are on the table."
And Monagle's partner, Brad Hall, said of the case in July, "If it blows up, it blows up." Monagle and Hall represent about 140 victims.
Bennett said he will feel the end is near when those involved start talking about allocating money to victims.
That, too, might be a challenge. He said he didn't know if each victim would get the same amount of money or if that would be based on the number of times molested or the victim's emotional state today.
One man might have been abused once but attempted suicide 30 times, Bennett said, while another might have been abused 30 times and is successfully running a company now.
Perhaps splitting it equally would be best, he said. "That way you don't have to go through the hellish process of who was injured more, and how do you put a price on that?"
Coordes said getting insurance companies to pay up puts a Chapter 11 case on much better footing. At least until then, the case putters on.
"I'm sure it is phenomenally frustrating for the victims," she said. "Really, for everyone."
State and county form a unit that specializes in MMIWR cases – Shaun Griswold, Source NM
Nearly two years after Pepita Redhair went missing, and the circumstances around her disappearance are still unclear to law enforcement.
If you talk with her family, the clues are obvious.
She was trying to leave an abusive relationship, family members said, and interactions with police were common. Her ex-boyfriend had a controlling hand on how she communicated with family until the moment in March 2020 when they stopped hearing from her, and there was suddenly silence.
Redhair’s sister Shelda Livingston recounts those key moments. She does so in part to keep focus on finding her sister. She started the timeline when Redhair’s case caught the attention of advocates who wanted to help, which led to Redhair’s case getting an investigation by the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office.
“We want to know what happened. We want her home,” Livingston said. “She came from a good family, from seven of us, and this is not like her, and that’s why it’s so upsetting.”
Now, the Bernalillo County DA’s Office and the state’s Indian Affairs Department will combine efforts as part of a sub-unit specializing in cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives.
The sub-unit was created under a memorandum of understanding between the two government agencies where their work in these types of cases often intersects, though historically they do not coordinate. The state agency oversees the New Mexico MMIWR Task Force, a volunteer group of mostly Indigenous women that has identified problems that often start the moment police are contacted, such as insubstantial law enforcement resources, poor collaboration between agencies and inadequate data collection.
Bernalillo County has the most MMIWR cases in the state with at least 37 reported in Albuquerque. That makes the county second worst in the United States, according to a 2017 report from the Urban Indian Health Institute. Overall, New Mexico has the highest number of these cases in the country.
With the coordination, the sub-unit intends to also fix flaws in the research and data, like the racial misclassification of victims, and outdated or non-uniform record-keeping protocols.
“It is clear that steps need to be taken to help bring resources to the victims, families and communities affected by this crisis,” Bernalillo District Attorney Raúl Torrez said. “Working with Native communities and law enforcement say collecting actionable data is crucial to moving these cases forward and preventing future violence.
The effort could provide clear direction with potentially accurate accounts for how many MMIWR cases exist in the state.
The agreement between the state and county DA is a major — if not obvious — step to forming a partnership between two groups doing significant work on these issues, said Indian Affairs Cabinet Secretary Lynn Trujillo.
It also should be the first of potentially other agreements between agencies across the state to further explore why MMIWR cases are prominent in New Mexico and fix the systemic issues that exacerbate the yearslong crisis.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to advise and assist the sub-unit as they start on an important endeavor that will give much-needed oversight and assistance to families who are still searching for answers,” Trujillo said.
Livingston would like to see change in how law enforcement gets information and records from family. She said her sister’s background was immediately questioned by reporting officers which she argues led to discrimination. She wants the sub-unit to address these issues.
“Just because you have a police record and you go ask for help, they’re like, ‘Oh, she’s not calling. Oh, she’s just a drug addict. Oh, they smoke meth.’ You know, it’s a stereotype,” she said. “It’s like we’re being judged, before they even get to know you or get to know that person. That’s the hard part, to say my sister is missing and hear that. People always say forget the past and move on. And that’s exactly what my sister was doing.”
$2.5B headed to tribes for long-standing water settlements - By Suman Naishadham and Felicia Fonseca Associated Press
For over a decade, residents of the rural Fort Apache Reservation in eastern Arizona have been promised miles of pipeline that would bring clean drinking water to their communities.
Now, a one-time windfall to help carry out the agreement could be on its way.
The federal infrastructure bill signed last month includes $2.5 billion for Native American water rights settlements, a tool tribe have used to define their rights to water from rivers and other sources and get federal funding to deliver it to residents.
The federal government has not disclosed how the money will be divvied up. But tribes involved in more than 30 settlements — many in the U.S. West, including the White Mountain Apache of the Fort Apache Reservation — are eligible and eagerly awaiting specifics.
"These are longstanding lapses in the building out of infrastructure ... to make sure that people in Indian Country are not left behind," said Heather Whiteman Runs Him, who is from the Crow Nation of Montana and directs the University of Arizona's Tribal Justice Clinic.
Access to reliable, clean water and basic sanitation facilities on tribal lands remains a challenge for hundreds of thousands of people. The funding for settlements is part of about $11 billion from the infrastructure law headed to Indian Country to expand broadband coverage, fix roads and provide basic needs like running water.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1908 that tribes have rights to as much water as they need to establish a permanent homeland, and those rights stretch back at least as long as any given reservation has existed. As a result, tribal water rights often are more senior to others in the West, where competition over the scarce resource is often fierce.
Litigation can be expensive and drawn-out, which is why many tribes have turned to settlements. The negotiations generally involve tribes, states, cities, private water users, local water districts and others and can take years if not decades to hash out.
"What makes them a complicated and often very slow-moving process is there are huge potential ramifications for how a tribal water right gets quantified and developed," said Richard "Jim" Palmer, the White Mountain Apache Tribe's attorney general from 2010 to 2018.
Nearly 40 water rights settlements have been reached with tribes, some of which include more than one tribe. The Interior Department said 31 of the settlements are eligible for funds from the infrastructure bill.
"This money will really help us to fulfill our end of the deal," said Elizabeth Klein, senior counselor to the Interior secretary.
Congress approved the White Mountain Apache settlement in 2010. The tribe received more than one-third of the water it claimed it was entitled to from two rivers that flow on the mountainous reservation in exchange for the promise of federal money to deliver the water to tribal communities.
The tribe has said it needs federal funding for water storage, surface water treatment facilities and miles of pipeline so residents can have a reliable and clean source of drinking water.
The projects stalled, however, because of cost overruns and technical issues that took years to resolve and even more negotiations to secure additional funding, Palmer said. He added that's typical of many tribal water rights settlements.
"It's a situation of having a lot of money on paper but it being very, very difficult to access and implement ... without a staggering amount of red tape getting in the way," said Palmer, who is White Mountain Apache.
As a result, residents of the reservation still rely on over-pumped wells or consume water that's potentially contaminated with heavy metals, Palmer said.
Congress' piecemeal approach to funding tribal water rights settlements is what makes the $2.5 billion in the infrastructure deal important, said Jay Weiner, an attorney and Native American water law expert.
"It kind of clears the decks on these annual funding cycles so you have less competition for ... limited dollars," he said.
The Navajo Nation — the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. — said it expects to receive funding from the infrastructure law for a 2020 settlement it reached with Utah for water in the upper Colorado River basin.
Congress authorized $210 million for water delivery infrastructure and agricultural conservation projects to help bring running water to the Utah side of the reservation, but lawmakers did not provide full funding.
Meanwhile, residents and public health experts are concerned about groundwater contamination from uranium and arsenic. On the Utah portion of the Navajo Nation, the tribe has said hundreds of households — or roughly 40% of the residents — lack running water or proper sanitation facilities.
The 27,000-square-mile reservation is larger than West Virginia and also stretches into Arizona and New Mexico. Homes are scattered on the landscape, adding to the difficulties in transporting water.
Tribes say the faster they get the funding, the sooner they can start long-anticipated projects to make use of water deemed theirs on paper.
"Ultimately, it really is about allowing and facilitating tribes to be able to put their water to use, which is the point of the whole exercise," Weiner said.
New Mexico governor signs legislation on medical malpractice -Associated Press
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed emergency legislation to tweak New Mexico's new law on medical malpractice to head off a possible loss of insurance coverage for some health care providers.
Lujan Grisham's office said she signed the legislation Wednesday and appreciated that the Legislature acted on the issue during a recent special session on redistricting and pandemic relief.
Officials said the new medical malpractice law, which takes effect Jan. 1, needed to be changed so that numerous physician-owned small businesses could keep their insurance coverage and stay open.
A coalition of plaintiffs' lawyers, hospital officials, physicians and patient advocates supported the special session legislation to eliminate questions about legal liability of independent doctors, including surgeons who practice at various hospitals.
The new law taking effect Jan. 1 adjusts New Mexico's caps for legal damages available to people harmed by medical wrongdoing or negligence.
Forecasters: New Mexico should brace for worsening drought - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
The last three months have been very dry in New Mexico and it's only going to get worse.
That's the word from forecasters with the National Weather Service and other climate experts in the state. They said during a meeting this week that New Mexico reservoirs continue to be far below historical averages and that ranchers are bracing for a winter with little moisture out on the range.
Some snow is expected in the higher elevation on Christmas Eve, but it will be less than the precipitation that has helped to ease drought conditions elsewhere in the West in recent weeks. Parts of California are in line for even more snow, but the latest drought map shows nearly half of the western region is still dealing with the most severe categories of drought.
Andrew Mangham, a senior hydrologist with the weather service in Albuquerque, shared a series of maps that showed chances are good for above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation for the next two weeks, the next month and into April.
"Really the story is we had a dry year that is getting worse and worse as we move through this second La Niña," he said.
The benefits of a decent monsoon over the summer have all but evaporated and most of New Mexico missed out on any meaningful moisture in the fall, Mangham said. The far northern reaches of the state saw some snow earlier this month, but he said New Mexico would need a lot more of that to get snowpack levels closer to normal for this time of year.
Stream flows? Soil moisture levels? Mangham said it's the same story and it doesn't look good heading into the next year.
"Everything is just getting drier," he repeated.
Ranchers say they are feeling the pinch, and farmers who rely on traditional irrigation systems called acequias say they're worried about having water for crops next spring.
Bone dry with winds that make it even drier is how Paula Garcia described the conditions. As head of the New Mexico Acequia Association, she hears firsthand about the challenges from family farms and individual growers.
"Last year, we had some snow in late 2020 and we had a very dry spring with little or no runoff. This year, the past few months are worse. If this continues, we wonder if there will be any snowmelt in the spring," she said.
The association is planning a series of meetings among acequia leaders to talk about the year ahead in terms of sharing observations about the drought, dealing with scarcity and conflicts, and addressing the need for more water-sharing agreements for those areas that will need it most.
In Nara Visa, a small village near the New Mexico-Texas state line, rancher Cliff Copeland talks about the dust and its effects on his cattle. He and other ranchers already had cut back their herds last year due to dry conditions then. Summer rains helped the grasslands recover somewhat so that in combination with smaller herds will help heading into the winter but growing feed costs are worrisome, he said.
"It's very seldom you go and hardly get any measurable precipitation this time of year so it's very concerning," he said. "It's possibly devastating and it sure has everyone's attention."
For Copeland, who serves as a regional vice president with the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, doing more with less is a key part of the equation that has helped to keep the family ranch humming for four generations.
"It's part of the evolution," he said. "... So being able to pass this along to the children and grandchildren and sustain our operation as we've done for so long is extremely important to us."
2 sought in carjacking, fatal shooting of victim's brother - Albuquerque Journal, Associated Press
Albuquerque authorities are searching for two teenagers who are accused in a February carjacking that police said started with an online sting and that led to a fatal shooting.
According to police, 24-year-old Elias Otero was killed in a confrontation with robbers who wanted a $1,000 ransom after his younger brother was lured into meeting a woman he'd met over Snapchat.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that arrest warrants seek 18-year-old Anna Bella Dukes and a 17-year-old boy on suspicion of murder, kidnapping and other crimes, and police said they're trying to identify two other people.
As a general rule, the Associated Press does not identify juveniles who are crime suspects.