¡Colores!; 1105; Santa Fe: New Mexico's Places of the Heart, Part 1 of 2

You You You You

Santa Fe of the Past does not look very different than it looks today But there are many favorite places that are gone During the next hour we're going to remember these places that we have loved The places of Santa Fe's heart There are places of the heart Places so unique and singular that they stand out in our collective memories

And have earned a special place in our hearts Santa Fe is one of those places a place with a long and diverse history a place where the old world and new world meet It is first and foremost a town of faith and compassion A town where people live and work A town that celebrates its places of the heart Places where many lives have been lived in this different city Or as it is commonly known the city different Some of Santa Fe's places of the heart have a history that goes back long before New Mexico was a state Places that go back before the founding of this country There's a saying in Santa Fe that all roads lead to the plaza

The plaza is a square as specified in plans by King Philip II of Spain in 1610 As the center of the city the plaza has seen the tiny village of Santa Fe Where from a small Spanish colonial outpost to a popular destination for tourists And though seeking the beauty and tranquility that Santa Fe abounds with 80 years ago, ladies would meet downtown to visit and shop Today mostly tourists come downtown in search of the uniqueness and charm of the plaza Santa Fe also loved its parades and celebrations Today the plaza remains one of the best people watching spots around

I can remember Santa Fe when the heart of the city was the plaza That was the core of the city at that time And of course there were stores that would service you for almost all of your needs at that time They had grocery stores, we had clothing stores for both men and women Who specialized in those type of things, we had flower shops, we had restaurants We had hotels in the general vicinity And we had most things that a person that was either living here or traveling

Could accommodate themselves to the point where their needs were met right here in the core of the city During colonial times, the palace of the governors was the seat of power for the Confederacy And finally, the United States For a time, it was even occupied by Pueblo Indians One of the most historic buildings in America, in 1909 the Palace of the Governors became a museum Today, it is the oldest continuously occupied public building in the United States One of the more recent traditions of the palace is the Native American vendors selling their beautiful jewelry, pottery and crabs

After the long, stately portan One of the most popular landmarks on the plaza was Woolworth Which until 1997 occupied the site of today's five and nine Well, Woolworth was a very local place and everybody felt like it was the last thing on the plaza that was really old Santa Fe And it was the last bastion of the old Santa Fe stores And of course, the Prito Pie was the main attraction, everybody that was sort of you'd say Woolworth and they'd say Prito Pie Everyone was very disappointed to see Woolworth's leave because they always felt like that was the last anchor of the old guard on the plaza However, some people got together and opened another little store that caught the five and nine

And they still sell Prito pies, but it isn't exactly the same as Woolworth's The plaza has stayed the same over the years, but the fashions have changed considerably If you wanted to update your look, a good place to go was the guarantee But the guarantee was a place that I know for many, many years, if I had to buy a birthday present for my wife or Christmas present, if her were shoes or clothing, that's where I would go because of the people that worked there You know, in a very friendly place, I had an account there and they were very accommodating to you And they supported their local very well and supported the community, you know In the fifties, one of the first big department stores came to Santa Fe, Sears and Roebuck Yeah, I do remember Sears on Lincoln Avenue I remember it in particular because to my recollection, it was the only place in town that was like a two-story store

Soon after my first child was born, I realized I needed a washer desperately Sears had a big come-on sale and they said that they had their washers pretty reasonable And you could have all the soap tied soap that you could carry out on your person So I went down there and I took my brother-in-law with me, stuck my arms out like this And he stacked forty-four boxes and guided me to the door. I had enough soap for two years The pharmacies in Santa Fe in the fifties were more than a place to have a prescription filled They were a place to meet your buddies after school or to have a suite with your suite Well, the pharmacies in Santa Fe, that was something else because they all had fountains And I don't know what it was about fountains, but all the girls hung out at the fountains And in Santa Fe, if you went to Santa Fe High School, your hangout was a capital pharmacy

If you went to St. Michael's High School, your hangout was butts central pharmacy A lot of people went to Xerx Capital pharmacy in Xerx Farms, they were a big part of my social life growing up Because we went to the high school, which was downtown where the city hall is now So after school, we always went to one of the two of those pharmacies for Cherry Coke or whatever We were drinking at the time Although it has been known by different names over the years, a hotel is stood in the southeast corner of the Santa Fe Plaza Since the mid-17th century, it has had a remarkable history The hotel was the headquarters of the Confederacy in 1862, and other famous and notorious guests

Or Ulysses Esperant, General William T. Sherman, Rutherford B. Hayes, and John of Kennedy Early in his career, Billy the Kid worked as a dishwasher here Later this century, the great promoter of Southwest tourism, Fred Harvey operated the La Fonda Guess were treated to entertainment by big bands in the ballroom, and Indian dancers in the lobby It has been said that the Harvey Girls tamed the West Tony Pacheco, who worked as a Harvey Girl many years ago at the La Fonda, still works there as a hostess today When I first started working here, it was Fred Harvey Hotel And I was very young at the time, it was in the late 50s It was very interesting, I really liked it They were very strict, the rules that they had here in the hotel was that you had to be very clean

You had to change your uniform for breakfast lunch or dinner And you had to have your shoes chined, your nails clean And you had to stand in line, so they could see you They think that you, there's something wrong, you know That you were too clean or whatever, they let you go that day Come back the following day, the way they wanted you to be dressed or be clean The restaurant, that's called La Pacheco and now it used to be an open patio And they used to have parties there, cocktail parties going on And with music, mariachi, people having fun, having their cocktails We used to have some conventions that used to have those kind of parties

Also for fiestas, the local used to come up there and have a good time When I think that La Pacheco and La Pacheco and La Pacheco Well, I think that La Pacheco and La Pacheco, as far as Santa Fe, played a very, very big part Because it was close to the center of town, you couldn't get any closer to the plaza And as I recall, locals are always, you know, this is their place They stayed here or not, you know, if they frequented the bar or the restaurant I think a lot of people, not only just ordinary people, came here Because of the ambience that La Pacheco and they were always welcome in La Pacheco The ambience and history of the La Pacheco continues today, as tourists come and go

And locals frequent the watering hall as they have for hundreds of years The cast of characters change, but the La Pacheco continues to be the hostess of Santa Fe The fiesta de Santa Fe is the oldest community celebration in America Every September, the fiesta celebrates the 1693 reconquests of Santa Fe from the Pueblo Indians by Spanish General Don Villaguedevaras Today, tens of thousands of revelers take part in the three days of festivities They were costume and pet rays, fireworks and pajamas This was one of the fiestas' favorite attractions, or perhaps curiosities, the deal-vivo

The fiesta is also a religious affair Each year, the sacred statue of the Neuestra Senora de la pass is read out of her chapel at St. Francis Cathedral to lead a procession in honor of the help she lent the vargas in the reconquests of Santa Fe One of the great and unique spectacles at the Santa Fe estas is the burning of a 40-foot-tall paper-mache puppet, Sosovita, or Old Man Gloom

Sosovita has sported many different looks over the years A little Schuster, one of the artists who started the Santa Fe art colony designed Sosovita in 1926 Today, on a stage in Fort Marcy Park, dancers spin and fireworks illuminate the crowd Sosovita goes up in flames, burning away the year's troubles so that the fiestas can begin I have really fond memories of Sosovita, which was a very different event when I was growing up than it is today

When I was growing up, you could still drive your car into Fort Marcy Park or the event was held Everybody would get Kentucky Fried Chicken or some kind of picnic and have tailgate parties, basically and it was just a very safe, warm, easy-going event and soon as it started to approach dark, my dad would pull out a big stash of candy bars that he brings her for dessert and he'd lift us up on top of the car to the roof of the car and then the lights would go down and the whole ceremony would start

And then the energy of the crowd was so intense and the fireworks going off and it's just one of my fondest memories Oh, the burning is as over when I was a child with a wonderful event The feeling there, a youngster if you knew you could go and you didn't have to worry about having someone pick a fight with you or getting into trouble or being afraid to be down there because of the size of the crowd You go down there now and you're on that field and as you go in you sort of claim your area by maybe spreading out a blanket that you were going to pick a nick on and I could guarantee you by the end of that night you might be standing on your blanket but there's going to be about 400 other people standing

and you're just jammed together like that. Like people say, well, fiesta isn't like it used to be and I'll have to be one of the first that admits, but what is? Santa Fe isn't the way it used to be there. One of the charming events that happens during the fiesta is the pepperade. The pepperade is something always been very special to me as a part of the fiesta and my children participated in the pepperade quite a few years that they were here and the pepperade is always been really something special to go down early Saturday morning and watch these kids do their thing and then watch what they do to some of their pets. I can remember one time we're talking about the pepperade and my brother, he had a little tractor

and so what he did, he built a shoe for all the neighborhood kids to package his shoes and we had all the neighbors' kids. It was my three and then one on the Myers girls and then four of the Lopez girls, so there was about eight kids riding inside this shoe and it had, of course, it was a high-top shoe and it had windows cut into it and the front end lifted up like an old shoe might get on someone from the front. It was quite a sight and they won a prize that year for their entry. And also the hysterical and historical parade for fiesta used to be a big deal and everybody loved it. A group of our friends got together and went out to the opera and would use costumes from one of the operas and get on the back of a flatbed truck

and we had a fabulous time. It was great. A lot of times I'll run into one of these little neighbor kids and they'll say, Mr. Gonzalez, do you remember when we built this float for this or that and it brings back real fun memories and I think, wow, you know, God, this is 35, 40 years ago. But, you know, it's the community, it's part of what we need to do to have a good place to live in a place for our children to remember and so we've got to be involved and that's the bottom line. Thank you.