Wanda Lucero was named Citizen of the Year and nine Unsung Heroes were honored for their contributions to the Taos County community at the 24th-annual Tradiciones event held at El Monte Sagrado on Wednesday, October 9, 2024.The nine Unsung Heroes also honored for their contributions were: Co…
Every year since 2001, the Taos News has told the stories of Northern New Mexico’s “Unsung Heroes” — stories about ordinary people who make a huge difference in all our lives. Until now, …
We want to thank our 2024 Unsung Heroes Selection Committee that nominated this year’s Unsung Heroes and Citizen of the Year (l-r): Larry Mapes, Ernestina Cordova, Ernie Ortega Kathleen Michaels, …
Everywhere you look around Northern New Mexico, Wanda Lucero is there: She’s fearless when it comes to marketing her insurance business, no doubt, but Lucero is everywhere behind the scenes as …
It’s characteristic of the profession: Every student can recall, wistfully or woefully, at least one teacher who shifted something inside — an impassioned English teacher, a wise history teacher …
The Taos Pueblo mountain is a constant benevolent presence in the hearts and minds of the Native people at its base. Its massive, pyramidal shape has been a measure by which one marks the cycles in …
One day, not long ago, a very determined man from Denver started out on a lengthy journey. With a small backpack — filled with a singular item — slung on his shoulders, the man exited his …
If a community event is happening in Talpa, there’s a good chance Tommy Tafoya is behind it, but you might never know it. And that’s just how he prefers it. Tafoya likes to say that he does his …
Libraries (and librarians) are the unsung heroes of the communities they serve. They house vast resources within their walls: not only books, but also computers, children’s programing and speaker …
Born in Las Trampas in 1936, Oralia Visarraga learned the meaning of service and selflessness as a child, helping parents Fernando and Ofelia Lopez in the family's alfalfa fields, canning fruit, and …
Todd Gravelle is a Taos icon, but he doesn't see it. His body of work parallels many Taoseños who have lived here most (if not all) their lives, have held many jobs, have pursued many career tracks …
Mark Flores is one of those people about whom others tend to ask: "Where does he find the time to do it all?" He's president of the Taos Municipal Schools District board of education and works full …
Donna Storch came to Taos during the late ’70s, and continued working here as a field biologist, her profession for 36 years. The decades studying flora and fauna in their natural habitats and …
This area is steeped in history, legend and myth and Leyendas — the first in our four-part Tradiciones publications — is our modest attempt to tell a few of these stories.
Native American tradition passes along history to younger generations by the telling of stories, but sometimes another version of the facts contradicts those ancestral accounts. One of those …
Aldo Leopold, the great American conservationist, only served with the Carson National Forest a few years. It could be argued his most important contribution during that time was his influence on …
People who either grew up in New Mexico or who picked up the 1960 comic illustrating one version of a little bear rescued from the aftermath of a New Mexico fire believe they know the story behind …
DoughBelly Price was a Taos character who lived from 1897 to 1963. He was a cowboy, chuckwagon cook, bootlegger, writer, and contemporary of Taos legend John Dunn, santero Patrociño Barela, …
Between the lines of Taos County's grand history, folks were, as Bill Bryson wrote, “quietly going about their daily business — eating, sleeping, having sex, endeavoring to be amused and … that’s really what history mostly is: masses of people doing ordinary things.”
After over 50 years of running the Rio Grande and Rio Chama, storyteller Cisco Guevara has an intimate knowledge of Northern New Mexico. He's a founding member and current board president of …
Red River old timer Tillie Simeon was well-known for saying, “Red River is OK for men and dogs but hell on women and horses.” In the case of Red River’s short-lived mining boom, it was likely …
In “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” novelist Willa Cather made Padre Antonio José Mart ínez an unsavory character. The truth, as the late journalist and author Richard Benke wrote in his …
In the story “How A Broken Wagon Wheel Changed the Course of Art History,” from Classic Chicago Magazine Lenore MacDonald describes how a broken wagon wheel in the fall of 1898 “on a deserted, spectacular stretch of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, just north of Taos” gave East Coast artists Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips their “Eureka” moment.
In a world where artificial intelligence looms like a large, plagiaristic threat, one thing is certain: Live theater is 100 percent real. It does not benefit from green screens, CGI effects or take …
Images of Millicent Rogers — lean and graceful, resplendent in velvet blouses, broomstick skirts, moccasins, concha belt, and squash blossom necklace — are familiar, even iconic, but designer …
Photographer Elijah Rael was riding high a few years back as he watched name recognition grow — due, in no small part, to a concerted effort on Facebook, Instagram and other guerilla marketing …
