¡Colores!; 1401; Albuquerque’s Historic Neighborhoods; Cleto Duran, Interview 2

I think about it, I mean, you know, what makes this neighborhood unique from any other neighborhood in the town? And I would say this neighborhood is so unique, you could probably say it's quite different from any neighborhood in the country, or rolling. So what makes this neighborhood unique from all of the neighborhoods in this town? If you would ask, if anyone would ask me what makes this old town unique, then any other place or any other neighborhood in Albuquerque from the south all the way up to the northern part of the city, we all have to say that it's at monument in Adobe. I call it our monument in Adobe, which is San Felipe, it's the monument in Adobe. That's what's unique about it, see, the commercialism started from there, and it expanded, it expanded, and so they're not going to take it away, it's not going to disappear. Do you have any memories from your childhood about San Felipe, and you must remember that?

Well my life was centered around San Felipe Church from childhood, I was an altar boy there, I taught the altar boys for 28 years at San Felipe, I did a lot of things at a school in San Felipe School, I taught catechism, I even sang in the choir one time until they found out I didn't have a good voice, and that was the end of my singing career, but as I've said many, many times to a lot of people that San Felipe was my life, San Felipe was a life of everybody here in Old Town, the church, the church itself, there's something in it that keeps us together, see, it's something that nobody can take away from us, and the fact that people come all the way from, I know people that have moved away that still

come, all the way from the west side of town to mass here, San Felipe, they still come here, I know that people that live way up there in Los Gregos and can they let it, they still come, because you must remember that San Felipe was church, was the mother church of all the churches in Albuquerque, because San Felipe supplied the priests for atrisco, St. Francis, Barelas, Immaculate Conception, Gregos Candelarias, and Martín Estón, all of those churches were, the original churches were built by the judges who had, were in Albuquerque for, in San Felipe, for 98 years, and that, that, you said what, unique about, unique the churches, what keeps us together, I want to say that all the time because it is.

Well, that seems like that's the truth, I mean it appears to me from what I've heard from the people, what are you, that is the case, that is what's going on, and having said that, you look at how dynamic this community was and is today, because there's a lot of things going on here, and you think about where this community is headed, where this neighborhood is headed, I think the church is always going to be there, it's going to be like the rock, you know, but, but other things are going to change, so how do you see the rest of all time, the church being the same, how do you see the rest of the, of all time changing in this into the future? I think that part of Old Town is going to see a lot of more multiple housing, like some apartments are going to be built around, because people want to say, I'm going to give, I'm one, one of the example, right in this neighborhood, a person is moving out, and this person, here in Old Town, advertised the house or sale in two days that house was grabbed, that's very unusual, that means that people still like

to come to Old Town, people are going to grab any piece of property that they can get in Old Town, if they can afford it, so one person made a comment several years ago, quite well, about six, seven, eight years ago, says, we're not taking the property away from people, they want to sell them, we have the money to buy it, which is true. Now, this, this, isn't it just happened just a few days ago that the property was put up for sale, and in two days it was grabbed, who bought it, I do not know, but they, they want to buy property in Old Town, and there's going to be, there are going to be some apartments, I believe, on the, on the west side of Old Town, multiple living. How does it make you feel, though, having been, having been born here, having grown up here, live your life in this, in this beautiful neighborhood, how does it feel to make you see this neighborhood

changing like that, where a lot of the people, most of the people who are buying these houses are from elsewhere, they're coming in from the outside. Well, I feel that change must be made, changes must be made, but not to, to destroy, make changes, but don't destroy what you have. In other words, improve your house, remodel your house, but don't change it. I should like to hang my restaurant, the chili on the outside, and not for decoration. I just want the chili to dry out there, and then I'm going to bring it in the winter time and make some nice good chili. There's nothing wrong with it, you see, because we used to buy chili for $5 a restaurant, $3 a restaurant, you can't do that anymore now, because I would say what I usually tell other people, but the people that have come in that made the price

of chili go up. Do you have any questions? Do you have anything else? Not really. I was just saying that when you were young, you used to go out there. There's a little, are you on? Here we go. I can't see. Yeah, it's good. Are you on? Yeah. Then I can say what I was going to say, because it's... Don't you shut it down? Yeah. Okay. It's not the case. No, that's very true, because you could go to San Felipe and you knew everybody there. You knew how many children they had. You knew how many were married. How many were not married. You know how many grandchildren everybody had. Nowadays, you don't know your neighbor. You've gotten to that point where we want to be alone. We don't want to be that friendly anymore, friendly. But years ago, we knew everybody. I mean, you could go into any house and ask for a glass of water. Nowadays, you don't know. They'll shut the door in your face.

But when we were growing up, we trusted her. We never locked our doors in old town. Never. Locked our doors. If you go to the backyard today, you have to lock your doors. It's an era that we live in right now that we don't trust anybody anymore. Is that what destroying our neighborhoods, is that what is making our neighborhoods, not as neighborly as they used to be? I think so. I think so. Yeah, I mean, it's sad, isn't it? It is sad. It is very sad, but I'm going to say something that I say, but the church of San Felipe de Neri is going to keep us together till the day we die. It's going to keep us together. It is my church. It is your church. It is everybody's church. And it is a mother church of all of Albuquerque.

And it's going to be there for another hundred and some years. I'm not going to be around to see it, but that church is still going to be standing there while I'm a hundred years under the ground. Collector, that church is going to be there for 200 years. I'd say that church is going to be there for the 500 years. I'll say that church will be here right where it is until this city isn't here at all, until we're all gone, until there's dust. Undoubtedly, the church will be there. And it is the one that holds us together. Like I say, my monument in Adobe, you know, Albuquerque is monument in Adobe. Fantastic. Well, this thing's making some noise here, isn't it? I can't really hear it here. Okay. So we're good. Okay. I mean, I just want to get, we're going to cover your

paintings. Great. So I'm going to cover this to you. No, wait a minute. There we go. It's a nice addition. I think that that canes were, I hope you, you must like that because that's very nice to have. You had to came when we walked. Yeah. Absolutely. Also, if you see a dog or someone that you don't like, give them a little bit. No, I use my cane to balance myself because I have a hip problem. I do, when I, when I use my oxygen, I do not use the cane because my oxygen card keeps me balanced, but I use one of the other. How

often do you have to use the oxygen? Every night and every time I go out, when I go to church, I use my oxygen. You take it with? Yeah. You take it with you? How were you able to walk its neighborhood without the oxygen? With us, for us. Well, like, I can be without it for at a certain time. But when I come back and I do a lot of walking, I have to go put on my oxygen. Wow. That's great. That's a great shot. I mean, it's fun. Okay. Very nice. I don't have anything else to ask. Do you have anything you'd like to add? Nothing. Nothing. The only thing I would like to say is, let's all be friends. Let's all be neighbors, good neighbors, regardless of political affiliations that you have, which is affiliation that you have, we're all one person under God and nothing more. We all have to be friendly with each other. We all have to be loving to each other. Whether

you have a million dollars or you have five dollars, you're no better than I am. I'm no better than you are. We're all equal. But what you're saying, you're saying something. We're all neighbors because we all live here. It doesn't matter what neighbor. It says, is that what you tell me that? Tell me that or tell me what you're saying. I'm saying that if I go to the heights, I go to the west side, I go to Taylor Ranch, I go to Lala or I go to Fort Hills Country Club, I go to Tanoam area. I'm the same human being that they are. We're all the same. We all have on different economic situations. Some of us may have more men than the others, but when it comes right down to it, we're all going into the same place because I haven't seen the U-Haul following the Hurst and the Cemetery

yet. I haven't seen that yet. So, are we all neighbors? It doesn't matter where you're from in this city. We should be. Tell me about that. In fact, we are all neighbors. We are all neighbors in the fact that we are all human beings. We all come from the same creator. We have to be that way. Now, I may not speak to my neighbor too often, but I still like him. I may not be in his back door or in his house all the time, but he's still my neighbor, he's still my friend. The neighbor on the other side may not like me, but I like him. So, it doesn't matter where you're from. The heights west side, we're all, really, basically, as residents of Albuquerque, we're all neighbors. Right. We're all neighbors, everybody's neighbors. That's what the world needs. Love, love, love that neighbor

as I sell, as the prayer says. Love that neighbor as I sell. So, it just kicked on. Yeah, I think we're fine now. I think we'll be okay. I think you got it without that very last bite. That's the last one, the last one. Second one, yes. Yeah, that was beautiful. What is it? I almost, really. I taught him beautiful folk dancing. Folk dancing. So, where did you teach dancing? I taught at a Christmas school. I taught at a physical school for 19 years. And, that's some beautiful, beautiful students there. The dean of La La School at the University of New Mexico used to be my student. And the sixth grade is brothers and the attorney. And some beautiful children came out of that school. Beautiful, smart children came out of the school. When they say that the southwest schools are bad, I don't believe it. I taught there 19 years. I know better. You're not good. No, no, we're good. I think we're good though.