Española: A Day in the Life
diamonds in the rough
Welcome to Postcards from New Mexico!
Two Sundays a month, I share beauty, stories, and culture from this region that has been my home since 2008.
Today’s Postcard is a bit different. I posted this as a Note on Substack a few days ago and it seemed to touch a lot of hearts, so I’m including it here where you can find it ‘forever,’ whatever that means in internet terms!
I’d like to tell you about my day.
First you need to know that my town has a lot of rough edges. Española is located about half an hour north of the fabled Santa Fe (which has its own troubles though they are perhaps less obvious). There are folks in Santa Fe who refuse to come here because they’re afraid it’s too dangerous.
To be real, Española is not always an easy place to be. Eighteen percent of our residents live below the poverty line. There are burned-out houses and buildings strewn around town because the city doesn’t have the resources to get them cleared out. We’re rather infamous in the state of New Mexico for the level of corruption and nepotism here. If you know us at all, it might be from watching the very bizarre series The Curse a couple of years ago
When my dog and I take a walk on our road, we have to take care not to step on broken glass and hypodermic needles. Break-ins are common. Lots of struggling folks wander up and down Riverside Drive, the main road that runs through the town, many of them from the local shelter for the un-housed which is closed during daylight hours. We’re not on any tourist’s “must see” lists.
And yet…
This morning, I went to Northern New Mexico College because the cafe there, The Lazy Buffalo, is run by two wonderful young women of Colombian ethnicity. They make the best coffee. Their grandfather in Colombia (who recently passed away) supplied them with the beans. I ordered an egg and cheese biscuit for breakfast along with my latte. When Melissa, the older sister, brought it out, she was delighted to see me. I’ve been patronizing The Lazy Buffalo for the past year when they started out as a food truck parked on alternating days at the college and the local hospital. They’ve been stationed at the college for a month now, a more permanent arrangement that everyone is thrilled with. Melissa refused to charge me for breakfast and coffee and said, “Every time I see you come here, my heart feels so full. You’re one of the people who helped us get to this point that we have our own business inside here. Please, this is my gift to you!”
Later in the day I stopped at the Santa Cruz post office to mail something. It was quiet — a rarity — so I went to the counter to buy some stamps. The postal workers really enjoyed telling me about all the stamps they had available: hummingbirds! snakes for Chinese new year! even Betty White! We started talking about old stamps and who still collects them. One of the guys behind the counter said he does. I told him about some stamps that I still had from my parents’ belongings, stamps from the 70s with flowers. He said he’d love to look at them, maybe even buy them from me next time I come in. It was such a warm and fun encounter.
Finally at the end of the day, I was tired and didn’t feel like cooking. I ordered a brisket sandwich from Smoky Shack BBQ, the local barbecue joint. When I got there, the sign said “closed.” But the door opened. The young man who runs the place and who is the master barbecuer smiled when he recognized me. “Maia! We’re closed because I ran out of nearly all my food after a big catering gig. But I had enough to make your sandwich, and I threw in some potato salad and a peach cobbler.”
Even in the roughest of places, people can be so kind, so generous, so thoughtful. There are diamonds everywhere. Keep your heart and eyes open.
There’s of course a lot more to be said about my town, I’ll save that for future Postcards. Thank you for taking time to read! Please do “like” (click the heart icon at the top or bottom of this Post) and share if you enjoyed this piece.
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Love the pics, Maia; so colorful. This is such an uplifting and hopeful postcard!
One of my strongest memories of Espanola (I used to pass through periodically on my trips between Taos and Santa Fe) is of an old Volkswagen Bug sitting in a used car lot. I wanted that car so bad!
I got tears in my eye, when I read your conclusion. Thank you for this important reminder.