The Blind History Lady Presents: Albert Gonzales; New Mexico's Blind Man of Firsts

By Peggy Chong

Albert Gonzales came from a family that touched much of the New Mexico History from the 1850's on up through today. Albert, a blind attorney, judge, real estate investor, community leader and much, much more left his mark in New Mexico history with some of his legal cases involving Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and Reies Tijerina. Learn why other attorney's in the Santa Fe area disapproved of Albert's fees for service. After Albert was blinded in an accident, he quickly discovered that any help or support for him as a newly blinded man was almost non-existent in the state of New Mexico. Wanting to continue his life, Albert set out to get an education and build a career to support himself. In doing so, he effected long-lasting changes in the education and rehabilitation of the blind in New Mexico, mostly by his actions to create paths to success for himself and as a result other blind New Mexican's to follow.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peggy Chong
• Release date: May 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310427008

Peggy Chong

Peggy Chong is a long-time researcher and Historical author of many articles on the blind in the United States. She has written for publications that include The Braille Monitor, Dialogue Magazine, Future Reflections, The Minnesota Bulletin and the Iowa History Journal. In her growing series, The Blind Lady Presents, she introduces to sighted and blind alike, the many average blind persons in the United States who had to overcome not-so-average barriers to lead a normal life, support their families and succeed. She recounts all they had to do to become chemists, newspaper editors, plumbers, barbers, piano tuners, boat builders, teachers, lawyers, politicians and so much more.

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The Blind History Lady Presents;

Albert Gonzales; New Mexico's Blind Man of Firsts

By Peggy Chong

Distributed by Smashwords

Copyright 2016

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Gonzales Family History

Chapter 2Albert's Early Years

Chapter 3 Blinded

Chapter 4 Politics and the Law

Chapter 5 Albert Builds A Family

Chapter 6 His Blind Brothers and Sisters

Chapter 7 And There Was Much More To Albert

End Notes

Gonzales Family History

Albert Torres Gonzales was born on August 5, 1912 in Roswell, New Mexico, the eleventh of twelve children in the Gonzales family. Sadly, at least five of their children died in infancy, not uncommon for the times they lived in. Albert was the son of Santiago, Jim and Jesusita Torres-Gonzales, a rancher and prominent businessman near Hondo, in Lincoln County, and later, Las Cruces New Mexico. The Gonzales family from Albert's grandparents through his own life is a walk through the colorful New Mexico history.

Albert's grandfather Jose Catalino Santiago Gonzales grew up on a ranch near the Socorro, Valencia County area where his parents, Manual and Teresa Montoya-Gonzales had lush lowland acreage. Santiago, as family called him, married Antonia Torres, just barely 14 and they had their first son, Jose in 1857, when she was only 15. Antonia was a striking woman with bright red hair, an indication that somewhere in her family tree there was a relative from Ireland where the Spanish had been trading an settling since the late 1500's.

In 1862, the United States Civil War found its way into the New Mexico Territory. Battels were waging just a day's horseback ride away from their home. So, The Gonzales's and 60 other families loaded up their wagons and all they could carry, leaving for homes away from the fighting. Had Santiago known that the Civil War Battles in New Mexico would be short-lived, one wonders if he would have stayed behind and protected is land or just waited to see if the Southern soldiers would bypass their farm.

Less than 25 miles from their homes, Soldiers were fighting over the territory of the Rio Grande valley as this was the pathway to the gold fields of California and Colorado that Confederate President Jefferson Davis wanted badly to control. Union soldiers met the Confederate army near Valverde Ford on the Valverde creek, about 3,000 of them, many of whom were volunteers of Spanish/New Mexican descendants, were led by Kit Carson who was stationed at Fort Craig, met the Southern soldiers for a day-long battle on February 21, along the sandy river banks of the Rio Grande. Word quickly reached the inhabitants of the valley that more than 100 men had lost their lives that day, panicking the families who had lived there in peace for many decades. Fearing that the Southern soldiers from Texas would advance further, they quickly decided to remove their families from harm's way.

An interesting historical note to the Valverde battle. It was the only battle fought with lances during the Civil War. Southern soldiers tried to advance with their lances while on horseback. But the pistols of the Union army could reach much further. 20 of the Lancers were quickly killed or wounded and many of their horses as well. Early on, orders were given to retreat the horseback soldiers and a change in the battle plans for the day were ordered by the Confederate officers. The Confederates barely won the days battle, but win it they did. This caused great concern among the citizens of the area.

As it turned out, the last Civil War battle in New Mexico took place just a little over a month later. It was the battle of the Glorieta Pass that was fought on March 26-28, where the Confederate soldiers took heavy losses with their supplies and horses and were beaten back down the Rio Grande River valley, back to Texas and Arizona, and out of the territory for the rest of the war.

The wagon train of the 60 Spanish families tried to head for what is now Artesia, but word came that more Confederate Soldiers from Texas had also taken that area. The families now turned to the small town of Mesure, near Roswell, a town along the Hondo River.

It was here in Mesure they stayed for a few years until a severe drought caused the lands to be unable to support their crops and livestock. The Hondo River at Mesure had dried up to a small trickle.

From there, Santiago Gonzales moved his family down to the town of Hondo in Lincoln County were the Ruidoso and Rio Bonita Rivers come together. With the moisture in the soil from the rivers and the mountains around the town, it was a lovely place to grow up.

Hondo was part of the wild west in all that the imagination conjures up at the sound of that phrase. It was a desert terrain. The United States Military fort, Fort Stanton was located nearby with its Calvary soldiers. Skirmishes with the Mexican bandits and soldiers took place from time to time. Range wars over who had the rights to land and water broke out between towns people, ranchers and farmers. And then there were the fights with the Apache Indians.

It was the wildness of this community that would change the Gonzales family dramatically once again. About 1870 or 1871, braves from the nearby Apache tribe came and stole several of Santiago's horses from his ranch. Santiago felt he could get them back by himself and rode out to follow the Indian braves. He found his horses and although his horses were accompanied with several Indians, he was able to lie in wait and when the opportunity arose, he took back his horses and started for home.

Along the trail on his way back home, he saw another Indian behind a bush and while still on his horse, bent down to grab the Indian by the hair. At the same time, the Indian shot an arrow at Santiago that lodged in his abdomen. Seriously wounded, Santiago stayed in his saddle and kept control of his horses all the way home.

Antonita helped her husband into the house and summoned the neighbors for help. There was no doctor nearby for the town. Hondo relied on each other to care for