Whispering Waters: A Memoir

By Viola M. López-Madrid-Herrera EDD EPDA

In Whispering Waters, Dr. Viola López-Madrid-Herrera reflects on her personal life experiences and her career in educational positions, expressing her perseverance as a steady and strong river.

This memoir includes conversations with the author’s mother while offering insights into her own life. Her mother only attended second grade; she tells her daughter that formal education and experience are things no one can take from her as tangible items such as property can be taken away with a stroke of a pen. The author alludes to her life with her mother and related family members and having met her father for the first time at the age of thirty-seven. Her message to readers is for unwed mothers to tell her children who the father is and for fathers to seek his child and give him or her love and moral support as well as financial assistance. She covers events from elementary and high school and the business courses that prepared her for secretarial employment before attending New Mexico Highlands University, later used these skills while earning advanced degrees. López-Madrid-Herrera shares how her education and career experience evolved and saw her residing in seven states in federal, state, tribal, and local educational-related positions. The value of diversity played a key role in her journey and educational mission.

Throughout the trials and tribulations, she discusses how she views family as the most important asset in her life. She reminisces about her children growing up and their attendance at the New Mexico Military Institute, preparing them to become respectful and productive adults. Whispering Waters tells a powerful story of one family’s history and a childhood spent in a unique, culturally rich community.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Sep 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781532082122

Viola M. López-Madrid-Herrera EDD EPDA

Viola M. López-Madrid-Herrera, a Hispanic woman, was born in El Rito, a rural community in Northern New Mexico. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from New Mexico Highlands University. Through an Educational Professional Development Award, she completed a master’s degree in counseling and guidance and a Doctor of Education degree in educational administration from Oklahoma State University in three years while raising four children. López-Madrid-Herrera and her husband, Joseph D. Madrid, have four grown children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2019 Viola M. López-Madrid-Herrera, EDD, EPDA.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-8211-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-8213-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-8212-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019913496

iUniverse rev. date: 09/24/2019

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Turning Back the Hands of Time

The Jaramillo-López Family

The Chacon-Herrera Family

Viola’s Humble Beginnings and Conversations with Her Mother, Evangelina

La Entrada-Oh, High School Days!

After High School, What?

Administrative Assistant: Northern New Mexico Normal, El Rito

A Step in Reaching my Goals-Enrolling at New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU)

Administrative Assistant— Northern New Mexico Normal, El Rito-Second Time

Return to New Mexico Highlands University

My Life Changed by Saying Two Words, I Do

City of Angels

Raising a Family: The Most Gratifying and Challenging Part of My Life

New Mexico Technical Vocational School, El Rito

Oklahoma State University: EPDA Fellowship

Master of Science Degree

Meeting my Father for the First Time-Tears of Joy

Commendation to Acquire My Doctor of Education Degree at OSU

Beeville, Texas; Alice and Kingsville Off-Campuses

Albuquerque Career Institute

Luna Community College

New Mexico Health and Environment

The Big D

Eight Northern Indian Pueblos and Pueblo of Pojoaque

In the race as House of Representatives, Rio Arriba County, District 41.

Viola López, New Mexico Labor Commissioner

Defense Advisory Committee for Women in the Service (DACOWITS)

Pikes Peak Community College, Off-Campus Representative for Rio Rancho and Santa Fe

Portland Community College, Oregon

Kellogg Fellow, Portland Community College

Cuyahoga Community College

The Nonfunctional Grocery Cart-Setbacks to Move Me Forward

New Mexico Highlands University: Children Youth and Family Dept. Progress Program

United States Census Assistant Recruitment Manager, Santa Fe Office (2000)

At the Helm of the Mesa Vista Public School District, El Rito

and Ojo Caliente

Las Vegas Nevada

National Education Association (NEA)

Children Youth and Family Department

Semi-Retirement

Santa Fe Public School District, Santa Fe, New Mexico

New Mexico Higher Education Department (NMHED)

What are the highlights of these positions? How do they impact New Mexico citizens and our educational system?

Family

Katrina Madrid Garley, Oldest of the Four Children, Born

in Los Angeles, CA

Gabriel Anthony Madrid, Oldest of our three sons, Born in Las Vegas, NM

Joseph John Madrid, Second Oldest Son, Born in Espanola, NM

Raymond James Madrid, youngest of our three sons, Born in Stillwater, OK

Raina – Joseph’s Daughter born before we were married

New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI): A Family Tradition

After Graduation What?

Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Floods

Entriega De Los Novios

Poems from My Heart

El Corrido Del Mileňo

Appendix 1 Letter to President Barak Obama

Appendix 2 Dr. Viola M. López-Herrera’s Resume

Appendix 3 People Who Live or Have Lived in El Rito, New Mexico

Acknowledgments

Evangelina%20L%c3%b3pez.jpg

To my mother, Evangelina López, who in 1990 was elated upon receiving her Certificate of Completion of the Restorative Eating Program at age eighty-five. As this picture reflects, she smiles as she poses with her cap and gown and her oxygen tank on her side. She achieved her goal, learning how to eat again after having been in the ICU for forty-three days. This was a fight for her life.

Bonifacio%20D.%20Herrera.jpg

To my World War II father, Bonifacio D. Herrera, whom I met for the first time when I was thirty-seven. I thank him for entering into my life and allowing me to be there for him the last six years of his life. In 1996, I spent the first and last Father’s Day with him. He ensured that I carry his surname; therefore, my legal name is Viola Martina López (Madrid) Herrera. (Madrid married name)

He met all my children and one grandchild and welcomed all of us into the Herrera family. I encourage all fathers who read my book to reach out, give their sons or daughters their last names, and unite and bond with them. It meant the world to me, and I am sure children will say the same.

Padrino Vicente was like a father to me. He was the only father figure I knew. He scolded me when I did something wrong and gave me the fatherly love and guidance throughout my childhood and on to adulthood. Como has mujeres, he’d say as I went out.

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Vicente Lucero, 1959.

Gabriel%20Madrid%2c%20Viola%20L%c3%b3pez.jpg

Left to Right: Gabriel Madrid, Viola López

Madrid Herrera, Mela Madrid, Katrina Madrid

Garley, Joseph David Madrid, Raymond

Madrid, and Joseph John Madrid.

To my family, I acknowledge their support and assistance. This picture was taken in Las Vegas, New Mexico, for a Madrid reunion. Mela Madrid is Joseph D. Madrid’s mother. Joseph D. Madrid and I were married in 1965. We had one daughter, Katrina, and three sons, Gabriel, Joseph John, and Raymond. God works in mysterious ways; faith and love has bonded our family.

Introduction

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Viola M. López-Madrid-Herrera, EDD, EPDA.

This writing is a reflection on the social institutions that powerfully shaped my past in the form of family, education, and careers. This began with the thread that was the umbilical cord to my mother; my ethnic, cultural, and gender values; and the defining sanctions of marital and religious beliefs.

I was born in El Rito, a rural community in Northern New Mexico. My mother was a compassionate thirty-eight-year-old woman; my father was a World War II soldier. My mother’s advice was Your formal education and experience is something no one can take away from you. Tangible items, including property, may be gone with a strike of a pen.

I grew up in an extended family comprised of uncles, aunts, and numerous cousins. I started elementary school when I was five in a three-room rural school that housed pre-primer to eighth-grade students.

The title of this memoir reflects the person I have become, steady and strong as a river. Thus, Whispering Waters commenced with the name of our community—El Riito, the little river that flows through the El Rito community, which later shortened its name to El Rito. With whispering, I was taught to whisper. It is not proper to be loud.

As a Hispanic woman, I continue my journey and experience the deeper meaning of my life. I realized I walked in shoes too small for me: supervising more than 150 faculty and staff members, being responsible for the funding of millions of dollars, and overseeing educational facilities. Today I feel I am walking in shoes too large, as my tasks and responsibilities at work are not as challenging, although the end results are enhancing the New Mexico educational system.

The wisdom of age is experience we gain as we move in years. I am fulfilling my aspirations—a feeling of satisfaction in my life—and anticipate it will influence my readers to realize that life is a journey, not a destination. Because of my educational attainment and career, I have resided in seven different states and value diversity. I value family as the most precious and significant asset in my life. I grew up as an only child to an unwed mother. Being a wife and a mother to four now-adult children and their families, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren, fulfills my life.

We hear myths about children being disadvantaged simply because they come from one-parent homes. It may be a socioeconomic situation in some cases. When children receive love and encouragement, they will gain the intrinsic motivation to learn and to be who they want to be. I urge unwed mothers to tell their children who the fathers are and for fathers to seek their children and provide the finances and love so they will find the missing link in their lives. Meeting my father for the first time at the age of thirty-seven was an exceptional experience.

This memoir is written to include information about my mother and father, their parents, and their brothers and sisters. The next section begins with conversations with my mother and my growing up through elementary and high school. Highlighted in this memoir are my experiences growing up in El Rito and attending the New Mexico Normal School in El Rito, working as administrative assistant to the high school principal, and returning after obtaining my Bachelor or Education Degree in business education and administration to teach there as a business occupation instructor. I hold El Rito and this school "dear to my heart." Therefore, I highlight the twelve years as a student, an employee as administrative assistant and later a business education instructor. Important in my life is the college education I obtained, beginning with a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Science and Doctor of Education Degrees. I contribute my educational attainment in obtaining the different administrative positions in higher education, public education, and tribal and New Mexico government positions, and these are detailed in this writing in great length. I highlight my experiences in several positions as the first or only Hispanic woman in an organization. The Hispanic culture of the Southwest is important and should be preserved: the Spanish language, its food, music and traditions which are eminent values.

Throughout my educational endeavors, I got married, and we had four children who are now adults. I alluded to the times during my life when they were born and where we were residing at the time. The deaths of my mother and father, as well as those of my father-in-law and mother-in-law, had an emotional impact on my life, and these are included.

The military experience as a member of Defense Advisory Committee for Women in the Service (DACOWITS) gave me that military experience and extended when my four young children attended the New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI) in Roswell, New Mexico. One of my sons served in the US Army. Included is a photo of and information on each of my four children.

Another section addresses natural disasters we experienced throughout our lives. These include earthquakes in California and Oregon, tornadoes in Oklahoma, hurricanes in Texas, and floods and forest fires in New Mexico.

I love to write; therefore, included are several poems, as well as other documents, such as the letter I wrote to President Barack Obama (appendix 1) and the photo First Lady Michelle Obama sent me. Included is my vitae (appendix 2) as it will summarize my educational attainment and my professional experiences. Appendix 3 of this memoir lists the people who lived or reside in the small community of El Rito, New Mexico.

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A new year, a new life, a new beginning. Evangelina López, 1940.

Turning Back the Hands of Time

A thirty-eight-year-old woman stood on the porch of the López homestead in El Rito. She looked at the snow-covered fields where the reflection of the stars and full moon on that clear winter night sparkled like diamonds. She saw acres and acres of diamonds in the fields she and her father had cleared several years ago and harvested abundant crops for their family.

She closed her eyes and opened them again. Those diamonds appeared even more brilliant. What she was admiring tonight was snow that had accumulated for the past eight days since the day before Crismes (Christmas Day). She was also hearing coyotes ayullando a la luna llena (the coyotes howling at the full moon).

Women had been busy baking biscochitos. Spanish American women in Northern New Mexico are noted for these cookies. One takes a bite, tastes the anise and cinnamon, and wants to eat two or three, as they melt in your mouth. Today the biscochito is the State of New Mexico’s cookie.

They also cooked posole (hominy) and menudo (tripe) with pork and red chili. They baked the most delicious bread in the horno (outside adobe oven).

El Día de Año Nuevo (New Year’s Day) is a joyful day, she thought, but most importantly a new beginning for me.

Posole con menudo (posole) is treated corn so it pops when cooked, and with menudo, it was the best food to cure la cruda for those who had been celebrating and drinking all day and night. Thus, in the wee hours of the morning, as they stopped at friends’ houses with their guitars y versos, they were greeted with not only more liquor but menudo para el greñudo.

Aquí caigo, aquí levanto,

con la nieve a la rodia,

he venido a darte los buenos días,

señorita, con tu niñita que entre días nacerá.

I stumble. I get up in the knee-deep snow as I come to bring you and your baby most happiness for this New Year.

The children went out into the community for El Día de Crismes (Christmas Day) and El Día del Año Nuevo (New Year’s Day). As they approached the front door, they shouted, "Mis Crismes!" and Mis Años Nuevos!

Women and children invited them in and filled their bags with hard candy, peanuts, oranges, and biscochitos. This was the Christmas and New Year’s holiday tradition in Northern New Mexico. It was similar to the trick-or-treat event during Halloween today.

Bonifacio—or Bon, for short—the love of Evangelina’s life, was a World War II Army soldier. The man who had become her soul mate would not be by her side whenever the labor pains begin, the time to give birth to their baby. Bon came home on furlough, and a life had been conceived. Evangelina kept his Army picture under her pillow and prayed he would return from serving his country and have the opportunity to see his baby. He returned to war.

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Bonifacio Donicio Herrera, 1940.

Will I ever see him again? she prayed. "Me sentía como una pluma en el aire."

Una Pluma en el Aire

"I felt so alone, like a feather floating in the air in whichever direction the