Features

Theres something about thunder that excites me. It reminds me of when I was little and I used to scream at every loud boom and hide under the table. Or of when my family would be driving somewhere and I would count the seconds between each flash of lightning, to figure out how close it was.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary bursts into leaping orange flame next to the sword-pierced heart of her resurrected Son. A twisted ring of thorns presses into Mary’s flesh, transmitting the pain a Mother breathes for her child. Jesus’ heart stands behind His mother, a silent sentry promising rest.

Theresa Jaramillo and Thomas Martinez are brother and sister, who, after years of working together at local eateries, decided to take a leap of faith; in November 2007, together with Theresa’s husband, Earnest, they took over D’Vino’s restaurant at El Fidel Hotel.

“It comes naturally to us” said Thomas. “We grew up around the stove, where someone was always cooking. Theresa learned to make rice when she was 5.”

“We learned from dad and mom, and grandma Tere,” Theresa said.

The smell of roasted corn and the vivid music of a mariachi band fill the hot July air. Friends and families are talking and laughing throughout the park. It seems you have found your way to the plaza, where the annual Fourth of July Fiestas are in full swing. Sound interesting?

Sometimes archaeological treasures turn up in unexpected places. Such is the case with items from a traveling exhibit titled “Outhouse Archaeology” that is displayed at the Las Vegas City Museum this summer.

The exhibit’s contents come from a historic outhouse located on New Mexico Highlands University’s campus. Expansion of the Donnelly Library in 1995 led to the discovery of a house foundation and outhouse. Highland’s Anthropology Laboratory, under direction of Robert Mishler, excavated the site.

The parking lot at University Avenue and Sixth Street bursts with flavor each Wednesday and Saturday now that summer is upon us.

Farmers drive from the outskirts of town, sometimes from Texas and Oklahoma, to share round lemon cucumbers, deep purple grapes, brown paper bags filled with spinach leaves. June at the Las Vegas Farmers’ Market means the first tender greens, means succulent organic strawberries, means baskets of elongated lime-green pods filled with delectable sweet peas.

The black locomotives of the first trains in New Mexico territory belched hot white steam into the tree-lined skies. The Mexican-American war had ended, had left deep distrust in the hearts of the territory citizens, many of whom had lost entire families in the bloody dispute. The largest city in the territory those days was Las Vegas, N.M., a bustling destination with a new depot on the railroad.

The Tri-County Farmers’ Market opens for the season on Saturday, June 21. Many of the old faces will be there, with some new ones as well. Daniel Hern, president of the Farmers’ Market, said that several new farmers are participating, and that the Market is looking to expand its venue to include craftspeople and also bakers and others who will be selling processed food items.

An deliberately uneven row of paintings hangs against a colorful marbleized wall; traditional representations of Native American women and children in ochre and green, fantastic pointillist pieces in shades of the rainbow, mixed media depictions of moving dancers, of ristras swinging from adobe porches.

Neita Fran Ward stands in the doorway of her WarDancer Gallery’s door, eyeing the carefully chosen collection.