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Columns

  • Our Watershed - It’s all interconnected

    Editor’s note: This is the first in a series to run over several consecutive Fridays. It is written by members of the Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance, which seeks to foster land stewardship in the Gallinas, Sapello and Tecolote watersheds.

    Water connects us all. It moves through the earth and our atmosphere in the water cycle, passing through many of us along the way.

    We are only one of the beneficiaries of this amazing substance. Almost everything we do and use and everything on this planet has or did have water as part of it.

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  • Nuestra Historia - El Partido wins; Pablo Herrera has tragic fate

    With lightning speed, in the same year he founded La Voz del Pueblo, Felix Martinez dedicated his newspaper to fighting both the entrenched political system, run by the wealthy and powerful Hispanic dons, and the increasing land grant acquisition by Anglo land speculators.

    By the summer of 1890, La Voz had coalesced three disparate groups to form a new political party, El Partido del Pueblo Unido (United People’s Party) — and the new populist party spread like wildfire throughout Las Vegas and the county.

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  • Another Perspective - Capital outlay

    As the 2013 legislative session moves forward, I want to take a moment to discuss some of the capital outlay project requests that involve northeastern New Mexico.

    First, I want to remind everyone that capital outlay helps pay for bricks-and-mortar projects all over the state.

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  • Work of Art - ‘Everyone on your list’

    “If you’re against child abuse, forward this message to everyone on your email list.”

    All right. Done!

    Actually not. I needed to think about the message, which appeared on my Facebook page, and presumably on the page of all my Facebook “friends.”

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  • Editor's Note - Name dropping, Part 1

    One of the responsibilities I’ll miss most upon leaving the Optic is handling the letters to the editor. I’ve been doing it since I arrived here in October 2004.

    All that’s going to change soon, as I move on to new adventures and Martín Salazar starts doing double-duty as both interim general manager and managing editor.

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  • Felix, La Voz, Las Gorras and Don Lorenzo

    As we continue our current series devoted to the history of Las Vegas newspapers, we hope it is apparent to the reader that it is through the prism of La Voz del Pueblo, that we recount a momentous epoch in the tale of two cities.

    Through the eyes of La Voz founder Felix Martinez and his associates Ezequiel C de Baca and Antonio Lucero, we continue to impart the social and political upheaval which occurred here as the 20th century dawned.

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  • Work of Art - ‘Psilence’ is golden

    To use the students’ expression, they were “freaked out” at hearing the way I pronounced “knight.”

    Well now everyone knows the word belongs to that group of English words that’s fraught with silent letters. There are only three sounds in the word: n, a long i, and a t.

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  • Editor's Note - Great presidents

    Really, President’s Day is a second-tier holiday — most of us don’t even get to take off work for this national holiday.

    Still, I’ve decided to use the day as fodder for today’s column, beginning with a single question: Who was the greatest U.S. president of all time?

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  • Nuestra Historia - La Voz embraced Gorras Blancas crusade

    As noted in our last column, when Felix Martinez established La Voz del Pueblo in Las Vegas in 1890, a growing tempest was forming along the Gallinas and throughout San Miguel County — and La Voz would soon be at the head of the storm.

    Smoldering for decades, discontent among the Hispanic population came to a climax when Judge Elisha Long made his momentous 1889 decision in the Millheiser case, ruling that the common lands of the Las Vegas Land Grant could be lawfully fenced and claimed privately.

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  • Work of Art - Why not just converse?

    The guy is either contemplating his navel (isn’t that the expression people used decades ago, for doing something pointless?) or he’s texting while driving. His head bobs to check the color of the traffic light, and sometimes he relies on a honk from the car behind him to decide when to proceed.

    That’s become a common occurrence. Some state organizations have even created a public service ad that urges people to sign a pledge in which they promise to W8-2text.

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