Columns

By 1801, the population in San Miguel had reached 182, including 85 men and boys, and 97 women and girls, exceeding the 123 residents at the Pecos Pueblo. Soon after, the original and newly arriving settlers  established San José, as already mentioned, and  continued to settle other communities along the Pecos River, including La Cuesta, later named Villanueva, and Las Mulas, Entrañosa, Puertocito, Guzano, Bernal and El Pueblo. These and other communities flourished, and by the early 1830s their combined population exceeded 2,000 people.

By Art Trujillo

An exchange, ongoing for years, has caused me to run for the dictionaries, all because of a single word: assassinate.

Bruce Wertz, a clerk for the Las Vegas City Schools, has assured me he’s still alive by giving me an unusual answer as to his health. I’ll ask, “How you doing, Bruce?”

Invariably, he replies, “I’m OK. I haven’t been assassinated this week.” Then he tacks this on: “And if I had been, I wouldn’t be telling you about it now.” Really?

Thomas Jefferson once proffered that if he had to choose between an elected congress and a free media to ensure the preservation of democracy, he would roll the presses, every time. The present ballyhoo created by WikiLeaks supports Tom’s thinking and reminds us, once again, just how hard our government works to ensure that we, the citizens, don’t really know what’s happening to our national treasure and our aspirations to become an altruistic, even-handed, fair-thinking member of the global community.

Ramon “Swoops” Montaño called last week, relaying a concern he heard about the upcoming school board candidate forums. He wondered if the east-side forum might be skewed in favor of two candidates in particular — Felix Alderete and Ricky Serna — since they are members of the Community Committee for Better Schools.

That committee is co-sponsoring both forums — for West’s candidates on Jan. 18 and for East’s on Jan. 20 — along with the Optic.