The Santa Fe Reporter from Santa Fe, New Mexico • Page 4

COMMENTARY Open Door: Niki Sebastian Pardner, Don't Tangle With Lamy "I was at the gate, taking entrance fees for the Lamy kite contest," Mary explained, "when this man came up to rne. He looked like a young FBI agent, but he had a small dog on a leash. "He stood looking out into the field at the people flying their kites and he asked whether he had to pay to go into the field. I said yes. He asked what the money went for, and 1 explained that it was for projects of thcLamyCom-niunity Association, of which 1 was a member.

Then he really amazed me by asking, 'Is Lamy a permanent I couldn't help myself, and answered back 'What do I look like, a "So did he pay liis admission fee?" "No, he watched another few momenta, and then walked away." Mary told this story just after having been introduced as Mary Catherine Ford, a resident of Lamy and an attorney. "And president of the Lamy Community Association," Mary added immediately, 'That's the identification I am most proud of. We have a lot of important issues we're addressing, and some plans for the village. "Did you know that there's a man who is applying for permission to blast away the front of Cerro Colorado to operate a rock crusher and mine gravel? Have you heard what a rock crusher sounds like? They're likely to hear it all the way ever in Galisteo: 1 expect the first blast will level the Lamy church. The diocese's insurance inspector was out not long ago, and verified how unstable the church's structure is," Rock used to construct the face of Santa Fe Cathedral's altar originally came from Cerro Colorado, a distinctively shaped Kill that stands beside the turnoff from U.S.

Highway 285 to Lamy. In past years, the children of Lamy were made to climb Cerro Colorado as part of penance on Good Friday. Within the past two years, an eagle aerie has been located at its top, and a proud pair of goldens soar across the area, often settling on an extraordinarily tall electric pole beside the railroad tracks on the Galisteo side of 285. Girls Ranch nestles behind Cerro Colorado now, a site chosen for its rural calm. In the quiet countryside troubled girls learn to respect themselves others, and to value their environment.

Lamy has a history of being "different." It is reported to have been so rough a place that Billy the Kid chose not to enter it. He was in Las Vegas, and is reputed to have said he didn't need the kind of trouble that would surely come from the rowdy types who hung out in Lamy. The Pink Garter Saloon, a Harvey House, a Pick's store have had their periods in the community, which by the early 1970s belonged largely to the Santa Fe Railway, the Robert 0. Anderson empire and a few Spanish families dug into small holdings by the intersection of the main Amtrak rail line and the spur cutting off to Santa Fe. Ruins of houses out in the valley, ruins of on Indian pueblo also in the valley, and a canyon full of fossilized coral and cronoid stems made for interesting hiking.

The church was still in use then, though Mass was said monthly rather than weekly, with Lamy families attending church in Galisteo the rest of the time. The village essentially consisted of the Cordova and Sanchez extended families, MacGuinnis and Dukeminier, a house behind the church known as "the hippie place" for the progression of long-haired oommuners who moved through it, Willie Rodriguez the stationmaster and his wife, Frances, and four hardy Anglo couples who had risked northern New Mexico village prejudice to live in a Spanish village which disliked "outsiders." No wraiths in that group, either. Rather, a most permanent community, resistant to outsiders, resistant to change. It was a major event when a bunkhouae belonging to the railroad was sold and moved over to Galisteo, and different frame house moved into the gap left by the departed bunkhouse. Then there was a determined battle between the pur chaser of the old dance hall, located near the railroad spur line, and his Cordova neighbors.

The newcomer seemed to think he could take up title to land that had been used for generations but which, like much land in northern New Mexico, had not been cleanly transferred from parent to child across the years. Had he settled in and adapted himself to the village, he could have lived in peace. But he brought ego and outsider mentality with him, and discovered that there is a quiet but entrenched resistance in that small corner of Santa Fe County. When' the dust settled, he was lucky to retain title to the house he had bought, and all the disputed parcels were clearly titled to the families that had occupied and used them for generations. The first Lamy Kite Contest took place in that period.

Several of us had gotten together for dinner, and found ourselves reflecting on the fact that we had lost our sense of play, becoming too immersed in jobs and the chores of living. We decided we needed to do something that would be fun. Georgia Acker, as she was then, the owner of Tomasita's, rounded up prize donations from Santa Fe merchants, Teri and Hal Roberts did publicity, Steve Stone and being the Lamy residents, enlisted our neighbors' support and also obtained permission from the people of El Dorado to use their big field by the tracks, and Gary and Sandra Haug obtained trash containers and organized the cleanup. We chose a day shortly after Easter, and we had a great time. People' came from the surrounding villages and from Santa Fe, and some' of those arriving by train that day joined the fun as well.

Several hundred children and grown-up children competed for highest-flying kite, best fighting kite, most original homemade kite, and best controlled kite. Grand prize was a dinner for two at the Legal Tender. Lamy was known in that period as the place where the train came in, and the site of the Legal Tender restaurant. There were no comparable restaurants yet in Santa Fe, and people drove up from Albuquerque too, to dine in the elegant turn-of-the-cen fury -3ty led branch of the Tinnie Mercantile enterprise. The village made one attempt to become a community, undertaking to join Galisteo to create a volunteer fire department.

We obtained two trucks, underwent training at the fire marshal's school in Las Cruces, did village surveys (Lamy had 57 residents, Galisteo a little over 100) fought a coupio of brush fires and went under. Not enough sense of community, too many old feuds between the two villages, not enough trained participants, and too much area to cover. But Santa Fe was growing, and Lamy inevitably grew. The valley began to be repopulated, and some of the small hills facing Cerro Colorado were purchased, plats cut off from large ranch holdings. The railroad divested itself of holdings, and people who for years had owned their houses and paid ground rent, were able to purchase the land under their dwellings.

Still it was a village of individualists, symbolized by their personally constructed homes, their gardens and livestock, and their solar and wind generators. The definition of outsider shifted from "anyone new" to "those who try to force themselves or their views pn their neighbors." Do your own thing, don't tread on your neighbors' lifestyles, fit yourself into the Lamy ethos, and you do fine, as I had done, living there for more than six years. In 1978, before the first new houses in the valley were built, I bought' land a mile north of Galisteo, and kept a watch on both Then with the move into the present decade, the railroad decided it wanted to divest itself of its ancient and faulty water system. Lamy had a reason to organize, to acquire control of the water. The village resurrected the kite contest, this time as a money-making scheme, created a Water Users Association, and purchased the water system.

Subsequently a Lamy Community Association was also formed, to address issues beyond water problems, and to include residents with their own wells. The Association has been through the stresses of most such entities. It still does not encompass all residents of the village, but it has representatives from all groups and has become the means for residents to have a voice in changes that outsiders once again seem bent on imposing on the community. "This year is the hundredth anniversary of Bishop Lamy's death," Mary explained. "I think we should commemorate that in Lamy, and perhaps have a blessing of the animals at the church, maybe in the fall on St.

Francis' day. We're talking to the diocese about the condition of the church, which has been decommissioned. Maybe we can acquire it, and restore it. "We care about our village, and aren't ready to let it be run over by rock crushers and nuclear waste trucks. Some of us have not lived here very long, but wg came for what was here and don't want people who don't live here to force change on us.

In that sense we belong to the tradition of resistance to outsiders, and we'll fight to keep things as we want them. "We moved to Lamy because it was a place for individualists, where you don't have to be part of 'progress' and can do things your own way. That has made it hard to organize the community, because by nature many of our people don't like to participate in groups. But threaten us with the sort of nuclear disaster almost inevitable, given the inadequacy of the road and bridge on our doorstep, or threaten our solitude with the rattle of a rock crusher and the destruction of our beloved Cerro Colorado, and I promise we'll be as rough on our foes as Billy the Kid anticipated when he chose not to tangle with Lamy. "We have filed petitions signed by people all up and down the 28S corridor, demanding that the Environmental Improvement Board hold hearings on the designation of 285 as the preferred WIPP route.

They try to say that federal authority overrides the state, but there are legal cases that go the other way, and we want to be heard. We're angry too that County Commissioner Ortega denied us a hearing on the nuclear-free zone that Commissioner Larragoite had proposed. "Did you know that the number of accidents on the stretch of 285 right near Lamy has more than doubled between 1986 and 1987, just because of the increased number of people living along the highway? Now they want to put all these nuclear waste trucks and gravel trucks on the road while they pretend there will be no adverse effect on safety. We may be slow to organize, but threaten us like this, and Billy the Kid, beware." The writer is a resident of Galisteo..