Watch “Fun w Pa” on YouTube

Had fun with my Pa that night!♡

Dad’s Gals

Father’s Day

Father’s Day at my dad’s in Pojoaque.

•Brotha and Sistas with Dad•

•A grippa Lujan men•

•Horsin’ Around•

inside my heart

“I may not always be with you, but when we’re far apart, remember you will be with me, right inside my heart.”

•Marc Wambolt, Poems from the Heart

mother’s day get togethers with the familia… sistas n mom… sistas and dad… brotha and mom

Thanks with the Fam

♡Sista and I♡

♡Sistaz, Godson n Nephew, Son and I♡

Blue for Valdez

Here is the tee shirt design I created for this year’s Valdez Family Reunion. The color blue has been the color worn by the members of my mom’s paternal line from Las Aguitas, New Mexico.

Lujan Brothers

I loved this photo my uncs sent out today of the jacona browns snagging sin Harry. Where u at Harry?? There is a long line of handsome Lujan men on my paternal line. 🙂

~My Uncle James, my Dad Gilbert and my Uncle Rick. "Cool Ass Selfie" by James Lujan• November 2014~

Artistically Alive

Today I had a chance to visit with my grandma. It is always fun to spend time with people who love art as much as I. I grew up making art with her. She is a Virgo like me and the characteristics of those under this sign are evident with her attention to detail in each piece.

We exchanged views of our newest works of art. She showed me many new acrylic, colored pencil, and multimedia pieces she lovingly signed~~ Emily Lujan. She has been experimenting with a high gloss, pour-on epoxy finish and she was excited to show me that. Of course I have to buy some now! The epoxy looks like glass once it dries. It is supposed to equal 60 coats of varnish in one pour!

I must say that she still does a fantastic job despite the fact that she has macular degeneration. It is sad to see a degenerative disease afflicting a woman who uses her eyes to create as if they were themselves part of the masterpiece. She was so proud of a machine my dad bought her to help her eyes see and the fact that she is teaching a weekly art class at her local senior center.

I left with one of her comments on my mind. She said “if I couldn’t make art, what good would my life be?” I feel the same. Creativity pumps through my heart with the labor of love. I find it interesting how sometimes it is indeed the arts which keep us alive.

Three Peas in a Pod

From left to right: my lil bro Thomas, my grandma Emily, and my brother Brian (retired USAF)

Today I thought about 11s since it is 11.11, but I also took time to think about our veterans. These men and women who are serving and who have served our country are special people. This weekend, my older brother is visiting from Arizona. He recently retired from the United States Air Force. Today I take the time to remember all of the veterans in my family. I also take the time to thank them for my freedom.

What’s In a Day?

*****MY HOMETOWN*****
“Pojoaque,” New Mexico by Edward Curtis (1905)
Image No. LC-USZ62-118930m
Library of Congress– Prints and Photographs Division
Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Today I spent my lunch and an afternoon break looking at the 1940 United States Census. I have been so excited to take a closer look, so I figured that today was a good day to start. I decided to take the day off from the gym. What?? Unfortunately, yesterday I lost one of my iPods. It was a particularly delightful topper on my already painful day. Since I use that iPod everyday, I turned into SuperB. I spent today detaching from my lost data and connecting with new data.

At first glance of the census data for New Mexico (Mora and Santa Fe Counties), I was a bit disappointed. I didn’t spend very long, but I didn’t see anybody I was looking for? Maybe I was not focused on the task at hand?? I will need to sit down, concentrate, make a plan. I found myself wondering why the National Archives and Records Administration archivists or technicians, or project managers, didn’t think about sorting the precincts chronologically before undertaking a costly microfilm/preservation project? I know it couldn’t have been the archival principals  of provenance and original order?? It is beyond me, but then again I am a Virgo and the first thing I would have done is sort things out!  

I checked the 1940 census for: my paternal line (Nambe for the Ortiz and Garduno families, Pojoaque and San Ildefonso Pueblo for the Lujan and Roybal families; and then my maternal line (Mora for the Valdez and Brazil families, and La Cueva for the Garcia family). I quickly realized that I need to formulate a better plan before I jump in next time. I will make an organizational chart. The chart will have the family names, the lines, and where they should have been in 1940 (which precinct and maybe ages). 

I did see some interesting things that I wasn’t looking for. Maria and Julian Martinez, the famous San Ildefonso potters were captured. I saw other family members (not the ones I was looking for). There were several people listing their jobs as “common.” How sad is that? What I found most interesting is that people were still calling humans “servants?” I did note that every entry I came across listing a servant was not someone from New Mexico. Almost every person keeping a servant was from the East Coast.  

Anyhow— maybe another day will be better, and I will find more? I know I probably will not find my beloved iPod, but I don’t want to think about it because I will just cry!

My Ancient Celtic Tongue

The Celtic Torc

On Friday, June 15, I attended a lecture to learn more about the Celt-Iberians and my yDNA (paternal). The lecture was in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and was held in conjunction with the 2012 Genealogical Society of Hispanic America Conference. I was thankful to Kathy Archuleta for allowing me to attend, and I will need to remember to call her and thank her personally.

The presenter started off by playing Spanish Celtic music which featured a Spanish bagpipe or Gaita. The artist was José Ángel Hevia Velasco, known professionally as Hevia. The majority of the presentation focused on a documentary about the Celts in Europe. The Celtic tribes were called “a great civilization” and the documentary featured ancient “galleries of rock art” which were used for rituals. The rock art depicted dwellings, hunting scenes, and tribal warriors with “exaggerated phallic displays.” An interesting archaeological excavation uncovered over 150 iron swords, spearheads, and daggers from the Lake Neuchatel site (La Tene, Switzerland).

Other archaeological discoveries included: royal tombs; Celtic art such as beautiful and intricate gold jewelry; plates with swirling patters and motifs; head dresses; gold vases; mirrors; bronze shields; and imagery of part animal/part human creatures. Some of the art work was called “nightmarish,” and was just my style. I am apparently a Spanish Celt at heart!! 🙂 The artworks featured monsters, and there was one piece with a human head in a monster’s mouth. The commentator of this documentary said that this was “the art of the elite,” and that it “expresses authority.”

We learned about how the Celtic tribes plundered the Greeks, and the Gods were said to have intervened at the sacred site of Delphi. That is why I wrote about the Oracle last night. I learned that the Iberian Peninsula has been a problem for scholars for several reasons. Some of the ancient structures built by the Celts included: pit traps; defensive towers; circular dwellings; and hill forts for protection (many of which go back to the Bronze Age). We learned some about migration from the documentary, though there is apparently no evidence of mass immigration. I saw the first written record of land ownership carved in stone.

I love that warfare was an intrinsic part of Celtic life. I may write at some point about the carnyx, which was made of bronze, and was the Celtic “instrument of war.” The instrument made an eerie sound, known by all as a warning. One scholar interviewed in the documentary said that the Celts “made great slaughter and decapitated enemies.” They had “the ability to kill and kill and great numbers,” and were “a powerful and organized society.” I would also like to learn more about the torc, as a symbol of authority. This was an open-ended ring of metal worn around the neck.

A couple of interesting thoughts I came away with…

I must get some traits from my ancient forefathers. I was glad to learn that art and music were very important to the ancient Celtic tribes. I had never thought about this until Friday, but for years people from outside of New Mexico have asked if I was from Europe. Many people have asked if I was Scottish or Irish. Yeah I know— New Mexicans– strange ha? I have always thought it was funny, but as it turns out, maybe my tongue actually makes sounds indicative of an ancient Celtic nation? Apparently, “during the 1st millennium BC,” Celtic languages “were spoken across Europe,” and “in the Iberian Peninsula.” Hum? Another thought was how very appropriate it was that I was learning about my yDNA just a couple of days before Father’s Day!

Summoning my Inner Intellectual Warrior

*****Celt-Iberian Mercenary*****
The “S” is for “SUPER” Hahahahaha!

I am looking forward to attending a special lecture in conjunction with the Genealogical Society of Hispanic America Annual Meeting & Conference. This year the conference is titled Santa Fe –Where Trails and Cultures Meet, and Angel Cervantes will be presenting his research on the Celt-Iberians tomorrow. Angel is the administrator of the New Mexico DNA Project, and he has a research group for the Iberian Peninsula. My familial Y-DNA was connected to Haplogroup R1b1a2 in 2011. I am excited to see what Angel has learned since then. DNA has established that my ancient forefather was a Celt-Iberian. These Celtic people were living in the Iberian Peninsula in what is now north central Spain. It makes some sense that I would be connected to the Celt-Iberians, as I do hope my ancient forefather fought for what he believed in. I am a fighter— and I continuously summon my inner intellectual warrior. The article I included below was written a few days ago by the Senior Editor of Big News and Live Events for the Huffington Post. Craig Kanalle is apparently my contemporary, ancient cousin! 🙂

___________________________________________________

What a DNA Test Revealed About My Family History

by Craig Kanalle, Senior Editor, Big News & Live Events, The Huffington Post

Posted: 06/11/2012 5:31 pm

I’ve been researching my family tree since 1998, and I’ve long been curious about DNA as a way to learn more about your roots. The technology has come a long way in the last decade, and it’s become more affordable too. Finally, I went ahead and ordered a Y-DNA test (for my paternal line).

On Friday night, at 1:30 a.m., the results popped in my email inbox from the FamilyTreeDNA lab in Houston, Texas!

When I logged in to see the results, 29 “matches” popped up — these are living people today with whom I share a common direct male ancestor with in about the last 1,000 years. (To be clear, the Y-DNA only passes father to son, so this traces my father’s father’s father, etc., and same for them.) These matches live in Ireland, England, Scotland, South Africa, the United States and presumably elsewhere (some don’t list a location).

2 CLOSE MATCHES!

Of course, for any matches to come up, I need to have living blood relatives through the male line who took DNA tests themselves. And I’m so grateful and excited that two people I’m about to address did…

I had two close matches, genealogically-speaking, and the rest were more distant. The surnames to those closest matches? A Kennelly and a MacNeely, variations of my own last name. They both live in Ireland!

My relationship to the MacNeely, who I learned is about 28 years old today and lives in County Mayo, Ireland, goes back to a common male ancestor with the surname Kennelly (sometimes Mac an Fhaili in Ireland), MacNally, or McAnally who lived around the 1600s.

My relationship to the Kennelly is closer. He lives in Ireland today in County Cork near the border with County Limerick (where my great-great-great-grandfather Thomas Kennelly was born — he immigrated to Canada during the Potato Famine). We seem to both descend of a Kennelly born in the 1700s.

What makes the connection to these two men so interesting is that most Irish genealogical records burned in fires in Dublin and don’t exist today. Without them, it’s hard to trace Irish roots any further back than the 1800s. But nonetheless I’ve made links with long lost cousins, prior to that time so many Irish researchers hit a brick wall.

I’ve written emails to both of them and hope to hear back!

MORE LINKS + THE ‘ADAMS’ FAMILY

The rest of the matches are more distant, though interestingly I found both a McKee and a McGee, with whom I have a common male ancestor in Ireland who lived around the 1400s or earlier. Also a McSorley, a Koster, a Walker, a Crauford and a Hannon who all share common male ancestors with me back around the same period.

But what I found most interesting of the distant matches — the ADAMS connection. Three of my matches were males with the last name ADAMS. There was also one female whose maiden name was ADAMS (likely submitting a male relative’s DNA) and one Smith who says he traces back (father’s father’s father, etc.) to a male Adams. There was a second Smith who I suspect could also go back to an Adams.

In all, that’s five Adams descendants, possibly six, in my 29 matches. And sure enough, I learned the DNA subgroup / family group of former U.S. presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams matches my own.

John Adams and John Quincy Adams trace their Adams roots back to southwestern England, right across the water from southern Ireland, where my Kennelly roots lie.

My matches showed that my genealogical relationship to the Adams family lies in a common male ancestor way back, around the 1100s or 1200s. It’s my best guess that an Adams, or a member of the same family in which male relatives took Adams as a surname, migrated from southwestern England to Ireland around that time period or shortly after, and that my Kennellys descend from this family.

It’s also possible, however, that the connection goes back to before surnames were used at all, as they were just sprouting up around that time.

Either way, there is no doubt that I am blood related to the Adams family if you trace back through Y-DNA (my father’s father’s father, etc., and theirs). Eventually, we hit a single male figure who we both come from. And that’s pretty cool.

ANCIENT HISTORY

I did some more research on my Y-DNA haplogroup, R1b1a2, and if you keep going back (through my father’s father’s father, etc.), my direct male ancestors were Celtics. They seem to have lived in Western Europe at the time of Jesus Christ and the Ancient Romans and Ancient Greeks likely saw them as uncivilized barbarians. They were likely tribal people in B.C. times, nomadic herders, moving around as famines and droughts hit.

Migration patterns show that my DNA group likely originated in western Asia, in the Middle East or Black Sea region (modern day Turkey), living there 20,000 and 30,000 years ago. There are relatives with similar DNA going thousands of years back in what is now Iran, India, Syria, Israel and Turkey. This family group also branched off into Africa, where the Y-DNA is alive and well in Central Africa. One branch ended up in Egypt specifically, and the Egyptian Pharaoh King Tut belongs to the same haplogroup as I.

After the Ice Age around 10,000 B.C., the larger haplogroup I come from R1b is believed to have brought agriculture to Europe from western Asia. It ended up becoming one of the most popular family groups in Europe, with some 50% of Western Europeans and Americans tracing back to them and 90% of those in Ireland.

My more specific subgroup R1b1a2a1a1b4 seems to have lived in southern Ireland, northern Ireland, and southwestern England in the last 1,000 years or so.

WHAT’S NEXT?

I was so excited by these results that I upgraded my account to trace my maternal line too. I also put in a “Family Finder” request so it gives me a rough overall breakdown of my genealogical DNA (what percentage I am Western European, what percentage other origins, etc.).

My DNA is already at the lab, so now I just have to wait another month or so, and I’m sure to find more interesting things.

Until then, I hope to hear back from my Kennelly and McNeely cousins overseas, who I emailed as I said earlier. I may contact some of these more distant relatives as well.

And later on, in November, I’m going to Ireland for the first time ever. I hope to track down Mr. Kennelly, Mr. MacNeely or at least more of my roots based on the new evidence I’ve uncovered. The power of DNA… it’s really something.

A Cowboy and Cowgirls: The Lujan Home Movies

This weekend I decided it was time to pull out a very special, old collection of family records. The records are motion picture films (moving images). The films are those which survived, and they were filmed by my parents using an 8mm camera. I started wondering what happened to the actual camera, but sometime back my dad did pass over the projector and seven films to me. I remember feeling so happy when he gave them to me. On Saturday night I watched a few of them. After pulling out the old 8mm reels and the projector (which my dad also passed along years ago), I realized that it would be the first time Daryn would see footage of me as a child.

Movie still from the Lujan Home Movies of the twinz (Thomas and Laura) and Felicia dressed up in western attire.

When we played the footage of my brother and sister (the twins) and I dressed up in western attire, it was so funny. I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t stop. I immediately decided that I had to capture the footage (in a very unsophisticated way- right off the wall using my iPod) and email it to my sister. My mom just happened to be with her, and they were also laughing when they watched it. My mom told my sister that my brother Thomas loved rocking as a baby, thus the “going to town” on his horse in this clip! I obviously was a little old for that small plastic, rolling horse, but insisted on getting in on the action. When my sister and I caught up on the phone, we laughed our ashes off (yes – I said ashes). It was straight comedy! She said “what the heck was I doing the tin man or what?” She was working a bit of leg action in her baby march! She has always been a cowgirl, and I always tell her that. What fun it was to take a peek back at us living in the moment! Since I wanted to share the clip, I posted it to YouTube. Take a look if you get a chance! It is really funny and not the best reproduction of course (since I recorded it off my wall)… You can watch the short clip titled On the Ranch_Lujans_4.14.2012 at the following link: http://youtu.be/DFh0eJUFYss.

I really need to start doing more to preserve these films. Sometimes I hate being an archivist, and maybe I hate that I care. The loss of this footage would be tragic for me. There are so many things on there I would not want to part with. The footage includes people who are no longer with us like my Grandma Corine, my Grandpa Gilbert, and my Uncle Donald. I really thank both of my parents for taking the time to capture these memories! I am so proud that they took the time to do that… They will be valued by me forever. There are still two films I have not seen because I need to track down a 200 foot take up reel. I would also like to purchase some archival quality preservation supplies for the collection at some point, and fully describe the contents of each reel. The footage is important to my family history. The reels I have seen thus far have: footage of my parents building our house in Pojoaque; my uncle and my mom playing basketball, my dad and my uncles hunting and by the campfire; my maternal grandma, and my paternal grandparents; and lots of images of me, my siblings, and my cousins growing up.

Print screens from the Home Movie Day Web Site of the Lujan Home Movies. Includes some of the clips selected by Living Room Cinema for a DVD and preservation by the Center for Home Movies in Los Angeles, California. There is footage of me and my cousin fighting for a baseball, and of me picking flowers in the mountains.

Several years ago, I did have the opportunity to preserve some of the footage as it was included in a preservation project with the Center for Home Movies in Los Angeles, California. A staff member with the Academy Film Archive accepted three of the 8mm reels from my family collection in 2004. The reels they accepted included: footage of my dad picking a flower for my mom; footage of my parents building our house in Pojoaque; and footage of a trip my parents took to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1981 with friends. One of the Home Movie Day participants called home movies the “original reality television.” That is so true! I guess I just have to keep taking baby steps toward preserving family history.

YouTube Video- On the Ranch_Lujans_4.14.2012
http://youtu.be/DFh0eJUFYss

Living Room Cinema- Center for Home Movies
Lujan Home Movies included on DVD
http://www.homemovieday.com/livingroomcinema/lujan.html

Footage from the Home Movie Day Trailer
Media Page>Video>Trailer>”Scenes from Home Movie Day”
http://www.homemovieday.com/livingroomcinema/media.html

Good Friday: The Penance of Imperfect Creatures

~~~~~…..~~~~~…..~~~~~…..~~~~~…..~~~~~…..~~~~~…..~~~~~

“As machines become more and more efficient and perfect,

so it will become clear that imperfection is the greatness of man.”

*****Ernst Fischer

~~~~~…..~~~~~…..~~~~~…..~~~~~…..~~~~~…..~~~~~…..~~~~~

“Sometimes we strive so hard for perfection

that we forget that imperfection is happiness.”

*****Karen Nave

~~~~~…..~~~~~…..~~~~~…..~~~~~…..~~~~~…..~~~~~…..~~~~~

Being human is one of the hardest jobs that many of us have ever had. The struggle between the good and bad, the dark and the light, the positive and the negative, at times can be overwhelming. Sometimes just a reminder of inescapable imperfection is enough to comfort the weary. Like with anything else in life, we need to do our best to walk a crisp line, and be the best people we can be right? In 1973, the Journal of Religion and Health (Vol. 12, No. 1) published a paper titled Saints and Sinners by Harry C. Meserve. In the paper, Meserve was “pondering the mystery of sanctity,” and he says that “the world’s moralists have tended to divide mankind between the saints and the sinners, ourselves and the enemy, the sane and the insane, the wise and the foolish; and these distinctions, sometimes descriptive, are usually inadequate.” Meserve goes on to say that “we come into the world neither good nor evil, but with a potential for both. We end up, unless we are true saints, as some what mixed beings, with, one hopes, the weight on the side of goodness.”

My uncle Rick Lujan has always walked to El Santuario de Chimayo with his lion cane. He made the cane out of a juniper branch, and it was the first carving he ever made. Today the cane is about five inches shorter because of the walks.

This week marked the annual Holy Week pilgrimage to El Santuario de Chimayo, in Chimayo, New Mexico. People from all over the world, and from various religious backgrounds walk hundreds of miles to the sacred Catholic site to ask for forgiveness, and pray for blessings. Saints and sinners alike make the trip to pay homage, erase darkness, and inspire the light. “Three pueblos, long abandoned, have been located in the area and dated, the earliest being about 1100 A.D.” Tewa Indians recognized Chimayo “as a shrine,” and “a place of healing.” Local accounts note that “in 1706 the Chimayo Valley was a part of the San Juan Parish. Later, in 1751, it was administered by the Holy Cross Church in Santa Cruz.” The Santuario de Chimayo was built in 1816 by Don Bernardo Abeyta, but a small chapel dated back to 1810. The site was dedicated to Our Lord of Esquipulas. There have long been “stories of the miracles performed through the healing earth beneath the shrine.”

My grandma Corine loved El Santuario de Chimayo when she was alive. This was a container of the holy earth she gave to me years ago. Her favorite was the saint who “wears old, worn shoes.” His name is Santo Nino or the Holy Child. There is likely no statistics to confirm the number of “sick” people who visit that saint. He continuously wears out his brand new shoes “from nightly trips giving aid to those in need.”

In 1996, the pilgrimage was called “a sacrifice,” and that is still true today. When I was young I walked countless times to the magical place with a well containing holy earth. The well was “the site of a holy apparition in the 1800s,” and “the soil where the apparition appeared is said to be holy and the source of miraculous healings.” Sinners and the “sick” need to be healed, thus droves of imperfect humans take containers, buy containers, and fill pockets with gritty holiness to ward off unwanted pains. In Saints and Sinners, Meserve said that there is “a division between good and evil; but the division, the conflict, is within each one of us.” Can miracles, faith, and a bit of sacred earth really cure the “sick?” Well according to Meserve, “the problem of the saint and the sinner within the same person is not unlike the problem of the healthy and the sick person within the same in individual. All of us, at one time or another, are sick. Yet elements of health exist in all of us, too, even when we are at our lowest ebb.” Apparently the answer is yes!

So why do so many make the Holy Week pilgrimage to El Santuario de Chimayo? Why do they ask for forgiveness? Why do they pray for blessings? Why do they need to cure the sickness? Are they saints or are they sinners? Maybe the latter really is one in the same? The only real answer– put simply– imperfection should be accepted because unfortunately, humanness is hard.

The Saint Wears Old, Worn Shoes by Alice Bullock- Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo, December 7, 1969

Sources:

~Native Mountain Villages– Santa Fe New Mexican, July, 16, 1951

~The Saint Wears Old, Worn Shoes by Alice Bullock- Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo, December 7, 1969

~Saints and Sinners by Harry C. Meserve- Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1973

~Obscure Oratorio Predates Famed El Santuario– Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo, February 21, 1985

~Faith Keeps Them Warm by Chris Roybal- Santa Fe New Mexican, April 5, 1996

The Electrical Current of Creativity

Members of the 1969 “Rock and Roll Band of Pojoaque”

Electrical Sub Panel wired by Gilbert Lujan Jr.

Electrical Sub Panel wired by Gilbert Lujan Jr.

Electrical Sub Panel wired by Gilbert Lujan Jr.

Fence and Wall made by Gilbert Lujan Jr.

Gate Made by Gilbert Lujan Jr.

Wood Floor Installed by Gilbert Lujan Jr.

My Dad and I

Gilbert Lujan Jr.

 

The continuation of my research into the origins of creativity leads to my father. Creativity has roots in our predecessors. I have been interested in proving that creativity comes in all forms, and can be seen in all types of people. What is different with regard to creativity from one person to the next is simply the approach. I am always amazed to learn something new about someone I thought I knew rather well. Today I learned something about my dad that I had never known. There are many ways in which my dad applies his creative side, and some of those include: his electrical expertise; his home and yard; and his organizational skills. He is also a Virgo, and I am the third Virgo that I am aware of on my paternal line. My dad’s name is Gilbert Lujan. He was the second Gilbert Lujan to grace my paternal line, therefore, he is a junior.

Creativity moves through my father just as electrical current runs through a conductor. Since the 1970s he has been doing electrical work, and he has been a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for over 30 years. One of the last major projects he worked on was a million dollar installation of an emergency lighting system for the lab. For many years, he was a general foreman in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He retired from being strictly an electrical foreman after close to 40 years of service. His current position involves the project management of about 90% electrical work in addition to other trades. As a Virgo, I am sure that his projects are planned with every T crossed. An inside look at his personal projects confirms that he is creative and organized.

He built his first adobe home in Pojoaque, New Mexico. The home is still hanging tough and beautiful, so apparently he and my mother did a good job. He also uses his creative talent on his yard, and his current home. If I took a tape measure, I would bet my life that his trees are planted precisely the same width away from each other, and that they have each been squared accordingly. I took the time to photograph his sub electrical box (which connects to the main electrical box). He thought I was crazy for wanting to take pictures of that, but I think that his creative and uniform interlacing of wires further supports my research. They are pretty pictures- not a wire out of place. His most recent home improvement project (because he doesn’t stop) was the installation of close to 900 square feet of engineered wood flooring. Yes- he did it all himself. His brother Rick told me something like “you know your dad- he knew exactly how much it would cost, and exactly how much he would need.”

Looking back to my youth, there are two things that stand out about my father creatively. The first instance of creativity helped me score a huge blue 1^st place ribbon in the Pojoaque Elementary science fair. We must have been on a trip to Carlsbad Caverns that summer, because he had the idea to replicate the caves in a box. The box was about a cubic foot, and we must have used clay and string from top to bottom to form the stalagmites and stalactites. What put my project into the first prize realm, was his addition of a lighting system. He rigged up a little button on the outside that the viewer could push to light up the dark cave. It was a big hit! I remember feeling really proud of that project, and of my dad. The other was when I was in high school. I briefly mentioned that project in a earlier post. But in the State Competition for our drill team- The Divas, he spiced up our alien spacecraft with a light show. We didn’t take first- it was probably stinkin’ St. Pius, but to me and my friends he was a creative genius!

Lastly, what I found out about my dad today was really a shocker! I knew that his maternal great grandfather Cesario Ortiz, and his maternal grandfather Eliu Ortiz could both sing. Of course I also know that his mother, my grandma Emily sings. I sing, and my youngest sister Katelin sings today. He was the apparent missing link in the creativity of song and music until this afternoon. To his surprise, I uncovered an article in the newspaper from 1969 about his “rock band.” What the? I immediately sent him an image, knowing it was him, but still in disbelief. We had some good laughs tonight through SMS and MMS! He said he was a lead singer in the band and that he would “save me an autograph!” So you see, the creative links are there- it is just up to us to fill in the blanks and unearth history! Two cheers for the creative rock star!   😉