I traveled to Washington DC in early March, 2024 to attend the American Library Association’s “Voices for Libraries” day of advocacy, where library leaders from all over the country gathered to meet with their Congressional representatives (or their aides) to convince them of the need for library funding for fiscal year 2025. This was the second year the American Library Association’s Washington office invited me to attend, and like last year’s adventure, it was a great experience. My colleague Erin MacFarlane and I attended training on the first day, and on the second day, we met with representatives from the offices of Senator Kelly, Senator Sinema, Congressman Grijalva, Congressman Gallego and Congressman Ciscomani. We were very warmly welcomed. The aides listened intently, asked great questions and took lots of notes so they could report back to their bosses about our meetings. All agreed that libraries are important and that the funding we asked for should be supported.
This was the second time I had the opportunity to participate in advocating for American libraries. Last year’s event was called the ALA Congressional Fly-In. Erin and I both represented Arizona last year as well, and we were able to meet briefly with Congressman Grijalva. This year we had no such luck. We met with five different congressional aides, but they were very nice to us. Erin MacFarlane and I outside the US Capitol. She works for the Maricopa County Library system in the Phoenix area, and is a wonderful person.VIsiting the different congressional office buildings was very exciting. We even had lunch in one of them and saw Senator Kelly at one point walking into his office. It surprised me to learn that he’s not very tall at all! Senator Kelly and Senator SinemaCongressman Ciscomani, Congressman Gallego, and Congressman GrijalvaOur task was to convince our hosts that federal library funding was badly needed in Arizona. We received training in storytelling the day before our visits and were provided with a bunch of talking points that we could use as we described the various services federal funding helped to provide. Erin and I enjoyed ourselves as we talked our way through each session. I tried to get each assistant to write 232 billion instead of 232 million in their notes. It was fun. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. That same night, President Biden delivered the State of the Union address. It was thrilling to know that I was in a hotel room just about a mile or two away from where the President gave his speech.
I took an extra couple of days to go sightseeing and to buy souvenirs, but my plans were dampened a bit by a day full of cold, rainy weather on one of those days. Oh well. I did manage to visit a museum and to wander around some. Here are some photos I took of the places I stayed at and the buildings I saw. I had a great time.
ALA footed the bill for my stay at the Riggs Hotel, shown here. I later moved to the Hilton Motto Hotel in Chinatown. I went to a few souvenir shops and found a bunch of stuff to bring back, including a Biden for President t-shirt and a decal. Unfortunately, there was a lot more Trump memorabilia available than Biden memorabilia. I think that’s because the Trump garbage doesn’t sell.
The only museum I was able to visit on this particular trip was the National Building Museum. I’m glad I went, even though they didn’t have very many exhibits. The National Building Museum was built in the 1880s and was the former home of the US Pension Bureau. It served a variety of purposes until 1985, when it started a new life as a museum. The terra cotta frieze by sculptor Caspar Buberi in the bottom photo on the left depicts Union veterans from the Civil War, who received benefits from the US government processed by workers housed in this building
The ceramic San Xavier figurine on the right is identical to the one I have at home. It’s really a little coin bank with a slot in the back. I’ve had mine since the 80’s and was quite surprised to see one exactly like it on display in this exhibit of building miniatures from every state.
Here are some of the buildings I saw during the day. The cherry blossoms were just starting to bloom.
Included here are the Supreme Court, Cherry Blossom trees, The US Capitol and the Martin Luther King Library building.I ventured out for a walk one evening along Constitution Avenue. It was a beautiful night. The buildings in the bottom row are the National Archives and the old Post Office, which is now a hotel. The statue is of Benjamin Franklin.
I just had to include the following about the National Archives building. The article is from the March/April 2024 edition of the magazine, Archival Outlook, published by the Society of American Archivists.
The photo on the top left is of the entrance to Chinatown. I stayed at the Hilton Motto Hotel my last couple of days in Washington. The room I stayed in was very small, but the only thing it lacked was a coffee maker. Oh well. The nightly rate wasn’t bad and it was just for a couple of days.
There were other things I got to see and do, like have delicious Chinese food in Chinatown. I also bought myself a new waterproof jacket at Macy’s and took the Metro up to the Dupont Circle area to Second Story Books, where I splurged and bought a few books. I walked around the downtown area a lot too.
I really missed my friends Ron and Jane this time around, however. They moved to New York’s Hudson River Valley last year, so I’ll just have to go there to visit at some point. I also missed seeing my friend Elizabeth Robinson. We’ve been friends since the late 80s and met while working at the University of Michigan. I love her and Ron and Jane dearly. They are wonderful, amazing, beautiful people, and I am very lucky to know them.
Ron and Jane. I’ve known them since I was in high school.
My friend Elizabeth. She’s head of rare book cataloging at the Library Congress and has worked there for many, many years.
Oh well. Maybe next time. Overall, I had a great visit. DC is always a blast!
Ruben and I love to travel, but because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we hadn’t taken a vacation since 2019. This year, however, we decided it was time to get out of town and go somewhere, so we decided to visit Boston again. I’d been there twice in the nineties, once to give a presentation at a conference at Harvard, and another time to visit a friend. Most recently, Ruben and I spent a week there in 2018, and we both really liked it, so we decided to go back. This time we stayed for 10 whole days, and had a great time immersing ourselves in learning more about the history of Boston and its role in the colonial period in US history. It’s never really interested me much before, but this time I decided it was time to pay closer attention to such things. I’m glad I did. Boston has a fascinating history and is a city rich with architectural treasures and historic monuments.
A vintage postcard of Boston.
Boston has one of the best skylines in the country. Our point of reference whenever we got lost was the Custom House clock tower, which is front and center in this photo. It was once the tallest building in all of Boston. Things sure have changed.
There is so much to see and do in this city that it would take several weeks to do it all. We didn’t get to do everything we wanted, and I’d really like to go back again.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2022
It took all day to get from Tucson to Boston. We arrived at the Tucson International Airport at around 7:30am. Our flight was delayed by two hours so we didn’t take off until 10:45am. We had a layover in Dallas and finally got to Boston at around 10pm. It was a very long day.
NOTE: CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO SEE A LARGER VERSION OF IT.
We flew on American Airlines this time around. It isn’t our favorite. They charge for everything, it seems, and their planes are often completely booked and cramped. They don’t serve any food except for snacks, but I guess that’s pretty much the norm nowadays. They also changed our flight, with less than 24 hours notice that the flight we had originally booked had been cancelled and that we’d have to take a later one.
We stayed at the Embassy Suites in East Boston. It was just a hop skip and a jump from the airport and free shuttle service was provided from the airport and back. Unfortunately, there were very few places to eat in East Boston so late at night, and after calling around, we found nothing. We ended up walking about half a mile to a Walgreens near a very busy restaurant a few blocks away. We bought frozen pizza, snacks and water. The pizza wasn’t all that great, as we only had a microwave in which to heat it up, but it was something. Oh well. We hoped things would get better in the food department the next day, and they did. Little did we realize how expensive it would all be, however.
This was the view of the city of Boston from our hotel room. We really lucked out.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2022
We walked through East Boston Memorial Park every morning to catch the train to the downtown area. It was a short, five minute trek down a paved path that curved around the park’s soccer field. The train stopped at the Aquarium station in downtown Boston, which was an area we were already familiar with, close to Faneuil Hall and the Quincy Market. The weather was perfect the whole time we were there.
We shopped in the Quincy Market area and bought some t-shirts and postcards. We also wandered through downtown on our first day, but didn’t stray too far. We’d eventually venture out beyond the historic area to other parts of town.
I bought these unconventionally shaped postcards in one of the shops in the Quincy Market area on our first day. The round ones are about the size of coffee coasters.
We decided to splurge on lunch and had lobster rolls at a restaurant on State St. called Provisions. We had been there the last time we were in Boston and it was really good, so we tried it again. The lobster rolls, while expensive, were delicious, and were served warm on a buttery, toasted, delicious bun.
These are some of the interesting buildings we saw on our first day. We bought some souvenirs in the Old State House museum store, including the postcard below.
The Old State House building has a museum featuring life in revolutionary Boston. Ruben and I had seen it on our previous trip.
This little green space was called Post Office Square. Ruben and I stopped here for some coffee. The Fall colors were breathtaking!
The evening sky was clearer on the second night of our stay.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2022
We had complimentary breakfast in the hotel every morning. Here we are showing off our new clothes. We ended up buying lots of t-shirts and sweatshirts on this trip. Our second day in the city was about to begin. We decided to walk the entire length of the Freedom Trail.
Our first stops of the day before we hit the Freedom Trail were Commonwealth Books, City Hall and the Boston Common Visitor Center, where the Freedom Trail begins. A very nice lady helped us find our way to the Boston Common, as we were hopelessly lost. I could never figure things out in the downtown area. The streets were all crooked and curved.
I bought these two books at the Commonwealth Bookstore.
Even though we had already visited many of the monuments along the Freedom Trail, such as Faneuil Hall, we decided we would walk the whole thing after we finally we made our way to the Visitor’s Center. From there we tried our best to follow the red brick path that took us to each monument along the trail. It was a 2.5 mail trek. We had no idea it would be such a strenuous journey. It kicked our butts. We even missed visiting the Bunker HIll Monument because we were so tired.
Below are a hodgepodge of photos we took while walking the freedom trail. They are in no particular order. We did see all the buildings and monuments shown above, except the Bunker Hill Monument, but I didn’t photograph every single one, and I also photographed other stuff along the way.
We had lunch at Ye Olde Union Oyster House, the oldest restaurant in the country. We were a little bit disappointed, unfortunately. We probably would have been better off ordering something different off the menu than what we had, which I can’t even remember. We made it across the bridge to Charleston, but just barely. The walk in the North End up to the bridge was all uphill and we were dead tired by then. We saw the USS Constitution and went on board for a bit, but we didn’t make it to the Bunker Hill monument. We bought a few things in the gift shop and caught a ferry boat back to the downtown area. Thank goodness we didn’t have to walk all the way back.
Ever since childhood, I’ve had an intense fascination with sailing ships and stories about pirates. The above photo of the USS Constitution doesn’t really capture it in all its glory, so I’ve added a few images of the ship at sea. I just love these.
Looking back, it was a great experience, and we could not have wished for better weather. It was a lovely, but exhausting, day!
Once we got to our room, we crashed and didn’t go anywhere else. We wound up ordering dinner via room service. It was way too expensive, but we had no energy left. We were done for the day.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2022
The following day, we were still very tired and worn out from having walked the Freedom Trail, but we did manage to get out for a little while. This time around, we ventured into Little Italy for lunch and to look at some of the churches. Unfortunately, the one church I really wanted to visit was closed. We had a delicious lunch at a place called Limoncello and walked around some before heading back to our room. It was a short day, unlike the day before.
Vintage postcards of Little Italy at the turn of the 20th century. According to one source, “by 1920, Italian immigrants and their children made up roughly 90 percent of the North End’s population and owned more than half of its residential property. The bustling neighborhood became known as Little Italy during these years and had one of the highest population densities in the world.”
Sacred Heart Church
The church was closed when we visited. The photos of the stained glass, the saints and the altar were all found on the internet. I wish we could have seen the inside.
We ate lunch at a nice Italian restaurant called Limoncello. The food was delicious. The bread was amazing. The mural on the wall in Ristorante Limoncello was breathtaking.We saw this vintage convertible parked in front of one of the restaurants, and this lovely home with flowers everywhere in Little Italy. This guy sang quite well, and performed a couple of Paul Simon tunes when we were in the Quincy Market area. The two birds on either side were taking a break from fighting each other for the food inside the styrofoam container. They’re mean little guys.
We went back to our room and called it a day a bit earlier than we had planned. Again, the trek through Boston along the Freedom Trail wore us out. We also wanted to be well rested for our trip to Salem the following day.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2022
A map of Salem. We spent all of our time on Essex St in the tourist area.
Once we arrived, we both needed to use the restroom. The only place we could find a bathroom was at City Hall.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2022
We decided to visit Cambridge again. Below are some photos we took. Harvard yard was full of people, and it literally felt like it was raining leaves. The wind was blowing them all over the place. The leaves were gorgeous, floating in the air like feathers.
Such gorgeous scenery!
We got to experience Fall in Boston!
We had lunch at a place called Bartleys. It was pretty good. I had clam chowder.
When we got back to Boston, we stopped at Macy’s where Ruben bought a new jacket. We also bought dessert and took it back to our hotel room where we gorged out on it.
I have been a member of the Arizona Library Association for over 30 years, and in that time, have held numerous offices in the association. Most recently, in 2020, I was elected to the Executive Board as the southern region representative, (and was just re-elected this October to another 2 year term).
These past few years have been very challenging for AZLA. The pandemic has been largely responsible for us not having an in-person conference in over two years. That, combined with a few other major challenges, held us back significantly, causing us to lose membership and go into debt. Things began to change however, in early 2022, when a new slate of officers was elected to manage the association. The new president, Lisa Lewis, brought all the current officers and members of the State Library together at a planning retreat held in May in Chandler. We renewed our commitment to keep the association alive and growing. We also let go of our office manager and took control of the association’s website and other management functions. Our top priority was to plan our upcoming conference and to get our finances in order. The board and the conference planning committee were very eager to see to it that this conference was successful.
In the end, the 2022 conference, was in my opinion, one of the best we’ve ever put together. While we didn’t get huge attendance numbers, we had some excellent programs and all of our keynote speakers were top-notch. I cannot take any credit at all for the conference’s success. That needs to go to our conference planning committee and our president, president-elect, and treasurer, who met frequently to sort out all the issues, select the programs and keynote speakers, and pay all the bills that come with putting on a big three day event like this. It turned out to be one of the best conferences I’ve ever attended.
The conference was held in Prescott, Az, on October 27 and 28, 2022. I left Tucson at 9am on the 27th, and made a pit stop in Phoenix where I bought a few things at Bookmans on Northern Ave, including a couple of Benny Goodman albums and a book on jazz before heading up to Prescott.
More Benny Goodman albums for my growing collection.
I found this too. It’s a heavy mutha.
I arrived at the hotel in Prescott some time in the afternoon. I’d never been to Prescott before, and was pleasantly surprised at what I found. The elevation of the town is over 5,000 feet, and there are hills and mountains all around. It was gorgeous. The weather was cool and the skies were nice and clear the whole time. I spent most of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at the conference, but did manage to go shopping at a few thrift stores and visit the downtown area on Friday morning. I regret not being able to spend more time exploring, and would like to go back one day to do that. Jerome and Camp Verde are in the vicinity and it would have been great to visit these places and to visit friends who live in the area.
I bought this postcard in the downtown area. It’s one of many that I found while there.
The drive to Prescott from Tucson took more than 4 hours. I stopped in Phoenix and visited Bookmans on the way up and also encountered some slow traffic along the way.
“It’s a New Day” was our conference theme. Lisa Lewis, our new president came up with it. It was perfect.
AZLA President Lisa Lewis and President-elect, Casey Van Haren at our registration table. Lisa is a very no-nonsense, but inspiring leader, and Casey is a hoot. What a great team!
Our conference was held at the Prescott Resort and Casino. My room was spacious, but the bed wasn’t very firm, and the carpeting was lumpy. Oh well. At least there was a great view.
The first photo was taken from my room window, and the one on the right was taken during our opening reception.
I ran into my friend and colleague, Jean McClelland. She photobombed my shot of the sunset.
Jamie LaRue is a longtime librarian who has spoken several times at our conferences. He was just great. He spoke about the idea of “intentional transformation” and how libraries can change lives. It was a very profound talk and I enjoyed it immensely.
My good friend Jose’ Aguinaga is now a library science professor at San Jose’ State University. He made it to the conference on the first day, and we had coffee and lunch together. I always enjoy meeting up with him. He’s a great friend and colleague.
This was a very informative program.
Some of the women featured in this book were present and spoke during the luncheon on Thursday. They were amazing. I introduced the speaker for this program. The young woman who did the presentation shared a lot of interesting information and ideas.
I also introduced my colleague Robin Huff-Eibl, who spoke about the University of Arizona Library’s technology lending program and its impact on our student population, particularly students of color. It was a very informative presentation.
I don’t know why I’m including this place, but I had dinner here. It was not great and way too expensive, but convenient, as it was just down the street from my hotel.
I sat at the same table with these volunteers from the Scottsdale Public Library. The lady pictured on the far left won this year’s volunteer of the year award. Adiba Nelson closed the conference with a wonderful talk about her life and its challenges. She made us all laugh so many times it was just wild. Loved her. On Friday morning, I hit the thrift and antique stores, as well as the Sharlot Hall Museum. The Governor’s mansion houses the little gift shop there, and these photos were taken inside it.
I found these while in the antique stores. The Dee Dee Sharp picture sleeve didn’t come with the actual record, but I already had it at home.
Treasures from the St. Vincent DePaul thrift store.
I found all of these cds for 50 cents to a dollar at the St. Vincent De Paul and Disabled American Veterans thrift stores. CDs are not as popular as they once were, and one can easily find lots of great recordings at these places, but it sometimes takes patience and time to wade through a lot of “junk” before you find the good ones. I found a lot of great ones! It was my lucky day.
More postcards that I found along the way. I was able to make a quick stop into one of the stores along Whiskey Row. The photo on the left is of the kiosk on the grounds of the old State Capitol, I think.
My last activity while in Prescott was having dinner with Lisa Lewis and other folks involved with the conference. We had a lovely time. I got up bright and early the following day and headed back home to Tucson to prepare for my Boston vacation with Ruben.
In this post, I will share some of the memories I have of visiting Las Cruces and La Mesilla, New Mexico in 2005, when I attended the Border Book Festival in Mesilla for the first and only time. Before I begin, here are some brief overviews of each community:
Click anywhere on the text above to see a larger shot of the above entry.
A map of Las Cruces and La Mesila. There are approximately 100,000 people who live here. It kind of reminds me of Tucson back in the 60s.
An aerial view of La Mesilla’s historic district.
From a mid 20th century brochure about the Mesilla Valley region of southern New Mexico. Click on the text above to see a larger version of it.
A more recent description of the small community.
I had never knew much about Mesilla before, and attending a literary festival like this was quite out of the ordinary for me at the time, as my focus at work was primarily on music and the performing arts. Even so, I’ve always enjoyed Chicano literature and have been reading material in this genre since high school. I’m so glad I did attend, as I met Denise Chavez, whose novel, “Loving Pedro Infante” remains one of my very favorites, and I also got to visit La Mesilla and Las Cruces, two very interesting, historic communities just a mere four hours away from Tucson.
This is the hotel where I stayed.
An ad from the Albuquerque Journal and my registration receipt for the festival.
The festival program was filled with information about all the activities that were slated to take place. Organizing a festival like this must’ve taken many, many months and a great deal of patience!
From the program above.
Border Book Festival History
March 24 2005
History and Scope of the Border Book Festival by Denise Chavez. (From a now-defunct website on the Border Book Festival that I found on the Wayback Machine).
The Border Book Foundation (BBF) is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization founded in 1995 by a group of writers, artists and community people committed to celebrating literature and the art of story in the southern United States–Northern México border region.
Based in Las Cruces and Mesilla, New Mexico, the Border Book Foundation believes that literature and the arts can bridge the many boundaries–racial, ethnic, generational, cultural, socio-economic, and gender-based–that divide our community. Ours is a grass roots organization that impacts its community by offering programs that are blueprints of positive communication, interaction and connection between people in our borderland region.
The Border Book Festival is a catalyst between many different groups and organizations including city, state and governmental agencies, schools, businesses and community centers. We are a bridge builder and model for positive exchange between diverse people in the borderland region.
Our annual book festival takes in April each year and features many activities for audiences of all ages including: Libros Y Más/Books And More, a Trade Show featuring national, regional and local presses and writers, a series of readings, workshops and panels, a school outreach program, as well as family storytelling events throughout the festival weekend.
The Premio Fronterizo honors a major American writer for their life long contribution to literature that transcends borders, real and imagined, and whose body of work has done much to add to the southwestern literary canon. Past winners of the Premio Fronterizo have included: Rudolfo Anaya, Sabine Ulibarrí, Tony Hillerman, Byrd Baylor, Leslie Marmon Silko, Barbara Kingsolver, Gary Soto, Sandra Cisneros, Luis Rodríguez, N. Scott Momaday, Luis Urrea and Ofelia Zepeda.
In addition, we present the Sunshine Community Service Award to a local business, organization or person who works to promote literature and the art of story at a grass roots level as well as the Cauthon Volunteer Service award to hardworking festival volunteers.
The cornerstone program of the Border Book Festival is the Emerging Voices Program, a series of hands-on writing workshops held throughout the year at various venues throughout the area.
The Border Book Foundation is committed to bringing audiences to writers and writers and book artists to audiences. Our programming is innovative, challenging, and transformative.
The BBF has had considerable impact in the Southern New Mexico border corridor as well as throughout the region. We have been touted in the New York Times as a “place where books matter,” and featured in Publisher’s Weekly as one of the top regional book festivals in the U.S.
The 11th annual Festival, Re-Inventing the Americas, will take place April 15-17, 2005 in Mesilla, New Mexico.
Our Commitment to the Community November 8 2005 (from a website on the Border Book Festival that no longer exists, found using the Wayback Machine)
The Border Book Foundation, with its annual Border Book Festival and expanding Cultural Center, will continue to bring the best of literature, literacy and storytelling to our multi-cultural, multi-generational audiences.
The Cultural Center of Mesilla/El Centro Cultural de Mesilla “C.C.M.” has filled a powerful need in our regional community. Not only do we offer a place for people to buy new, used and out-of-print multi-cultural books, bilingual books for children and adults and books in Spanish and English, we offer a haven and home to those who want to connect with border culture in a deep and meaningful way.
Located one block from the Mesilla Plaza, the Cultural Center was once home to a Mexican garrison building and later, the well-known and loved D.C. Frietze grocery store, run by Mesilla’s former mayor and our present landlord, Roberto Frietze.
The historic building is one of Mesilla’s oldest adobes and is permeated with sense of history and story that is the heart of our southwestern landscape. We offer a hot cup of coffee or tea and the opportunity to view the Lannan series of writer’s videos as well as previous festival documentaries including work by Lourdes Portillo on the disappeared women in Juárez or films by border filmmakers Paul Espinosa, Ray Santiestaban and Lisa Garibay.
Our book signings have reached hundreds of people who have never come out before to support literature. We have reached rural communities in Mesilla, Vado, Chamberino, La Union, Anthony, Derry and elsewhere. The Rudolfo Anaya book signing on December 10, 2004 brought over 400+ people to our Center who waited for hours to have Mr. Anaya sign their books. We had scheduled a reading but it was not possible because the line went down the street and past the acequia!
Book signings and readings for Benjamin Alire Sáenz and Denise and Susan Gonzales Abraham had over 100+ people each and many books were sold and new contacts made. The Gonzales Abraham book, Cecilia’s Year, written about the small farming community of Derry, New Mexico inculcated a new-found pride in “lo nuestro,” stories from our own backyard in southern New Mexico.
The Cultural Center’s workshop series has introduced the Art of Nopales (cactus) to many who only thought nopales was only the name of a Las Cruces restaurant. (“Nopalitos? You mean it means something?” someone said with wonder.) It is this lack of understanding about the basics of cultural life that have prompted us to address and educate and empower our audiences through our work at the Cultural Center of Mesilla and our on-going workshops and literary and arts events programming.
Our workshops have been myriad, challenging, informative and fun. They have included: Paper making with Martha Durán, The Care and Evaluation of Out-of-Print Books, with out-of-print book dealer, John Randall, Sacred Beads and Knots: The Significance of World Prayer Traditions Across the World, A Poetry Intensive with Miriam Sagan, ¡Familia! A family story writing workshop series with Denise Chávez, A writing workshop with Camino de Vida, an AIDS outreach organization, A Kid’s Art Day for 7-12 year-old with breakout sessions that included creative writing, dance, photography, drama and painting.
Upcoming workshops include: A Women’s Healing, Renewal and Transformation Retreat for women in the Gila Mountains, Vatos, a writing workshop for men, Senior to Senior, a poetry workshop for senior writers and writers in high school, mentoring and learning from each other, as well as a Feng Shui workshop.
At the root of all our work is the core belief that literature and the arts can empower and change lives.
The Cultural Center has hosted visits and receptions for many organizations and non-profits including the National PEN Women, the Executive committee of the American Library Association, The Association of University Women, The National Hispanic Cultural Center, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, human rights activist, among others.
You can expect the Border Book Foundation to initiate events for all ages that will reflect the best of our cultural history, legacy and strength of spirit. We see ourselves as a resource center and clearing house for the arts, as well as a place where community can find a way to understand itself through culture.
Future events will include workshops, panels, readings and book signings in English and Spanish, oral history gatherings, storytelling for children and families and any number of creative offerings that fit in with our mission to offer programs that are blueprints for positive communication, interaction, connection and healing between people in the borderland corridor.
We believe that literature and the arts can transcend the many perceived borders-racial, ethnic, generational, cultural, socio-economic, and gender-based-that divide our community.
==========================================
The following video was produced in 2014, several years after I attended the Border Book Festival. The Festival closed down for good just a year later, in 2015. I feel very lucky to have been to at least one of these momentous events.
Below are some of the monuments, shops and restaurants I visited in La Mesilla and Las Cruces in 2005. I was bummed that there were few, if any antique stores open at the time in Mesilla, but I did enjoy the two bookstores that were there, and the restaurants were really good too. I found another bookstore in downtown Las Cruces that was well-stocked with books and cds. If I recall correctly, I even found a Joy Harjo recording there. I also found a couple of antique stores out on Picacho Rd. and bought some records. I didn’t partake much of the night life, except once when I went to a nightclub in one of the local hotels. It was okay. Overall, I enjoyed the trip, even though it lasted just a few days. I knew I would go back again, but it would be over a decade before I made it back
The Basilica of San Albino and the kiosk in the main plaza are the most recognizable landmarks in Mesilla, smack dab in the center of town.
The altar of the Basilica.
I vaguely remember going inside this store, which was once the courthouse where Billy the Kid was sentenced to be hanged. I bought apple butter and chili powder. What a strange combination! From “Fodor’s New Mexico”, 5th edition, pp.194-195. Click on the text to see a larger version of the story. This restaurant has since moved from La Mesilla to Las Cruces.
I bought a bag of these for my dad. He got a big kick out of it.
During this trip, I also explored Las Cruces, and found a couple of antique stores and a bookstore. I kept the following receipts and found business cards in an antiques directory for each store that I visited. These places are likely no longer in business.
Another little historical marker noting the significance of La Mesilla’s role in the history of the Southwest.
A few books about Mesilla, New Mexico
Mesilla Comes Alive: A History of Mesilla and its Valley, by C.W. Ritter and Craig Holden. Las Cruces: Ritter Publications, 2014.
The Mesilla Valley, An Oasis in the Desert, by Jon Hunner and Peter Dean. Santa Fe: Sunstone Press, 2008.
Pioneers of the Mesilla Valley, 1823-1912. By P. Paxton.
A Place As Wild As The West Ever Was: Mesilla, New Mexico, 1848-1872, by Mary D. Taylor Las Cruces: New Mexico State University Museum, 2004.
La Posta: From the Founding of Mesilla to Corn Exchange Hotel to Billy the Kid Museum to Famous Landmark, by David Thomas. Las Cruces: Doc45 Publishing, 2013.
Turmoil on The Rio Grande: History of the Mesilla Valley, 1846-1865, by William S. Kiser. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2011.
A few books about Las Cruces, New Mexico
Celebrating 150 Years of Las Cruces History. Las Cruces: Las Cruces Sun-News, 1999.
Las Cruces, by John Hunner. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2003.
Las Cruces: A Photographic Journey (New Mexico Centennial), 1912-2012, by New Mexico State University. Las Cruces: FIG Publications, 2011.
Las Cruces: An Illustrated History, by Linda G. Harris. Las Cruces: Arroyo Press, 1993.
Las Cruces New Mexico 1849-1999: A Multicultural Crossroads, by Gordon Owen. Las Cruces: Red Sky Pub, 1999.
Legendary Locals of Las Cruces, New Mexico, by Charlotte Tallman. Charlotte, SC: Legendary Locals, 2014.
