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Sunday, June 14, 2009
World of Library Magic Coming to Anton Chico
By Leslie Linthicum
Journal Staff Writer
ANTON CHICO — The villages that make up the greater Anton Chico "metroplex" are strung along a 10-mile loop of two-lane road that follows the bends of the Pecos River: Dilia, Upper Dilia, Llano del Medio, Llano Viejo, Anton Chico, Upper Anton Chico and Tecolotito.
Total population: About 1,200.
Amenities: Five churches, one store, one bar, a fire station, a post office and a senior center.
Distance from the nearest city: Las Vegas, 34 miles. Santa Rosa, about the same.
"It's like a time capsule here," says Breezy Gutierrez, Anton Chico born and raised. "If you look back at pictures from 100 years ago, not much has changed."
She speaks the truth. If you stand in the middle of Anton Chico and turn in a full circle, you'll hear some dogs barking, and you'll see a spiffy K-8 school and the standard-issue modular post office, a symptom of the epidemic of rural postal modernization of the 1990s. But aside from those modern buildings, it will become apparent that the newest structure in "downtown" Anton Chico is probably Abercrombie's general store. And it was built in 1879.
What has changed in the valley, once part of the million acre Anton Chico Land Grant, is the way people live and the expectations they have for their kids.
Subsistence farming and ranching have given way to commutes to jobs in Las Vegas, Santa Rosa or even Santa Fe. Parents want even more for their children: rich lives that include all the opportunities available to kids who live in bigger towns.
"They need access to the outside world," says Gutierrez, who teaches science and math to the valley's 38 middle school students.
The bookmobile rolls into town once a month, and, a few years ago, Gutierrez decided that wasn't good enough. She started talking about getting a library built in town, an idea that was met with the predictable response: Why do a bunch of little towns with only a thousand people need their own library?
Gutierrez, now 29, was born on a windy day, which is how she was named Breezy. She is naturally cheerful. But just like the wind that blows along the Pecos, she is persistent.
She told the naysayers, "A little town is where we need it especially."
Anton Chico has some claims to historical fame, from Pat Garrett's wedding in the San Jose Church to one of its boys, Roberto Mondragón, growing up to become the state's lieutenant governor.
Mondragón stepped into the library discussions and called David Cargo, a former governor who has spent much of his retirement helping little towns get libraries. Cargo called the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and asked, "You wouldn't happen to have any land in Anton Chico, would you?"
And this is where the ball of string leads us back to downtown Anton Chico.
Actually, the archbishop said, we do.
It turns out the Catholic Church had a nice plot of land smack dab in the middle of town that was supposed to be used for a cemetery 100 or more years ago. The graveyard went elsewhere, and the land sat vacant until now. So the church gave it back to the land grant, the land grant dedicated it to the library and library-devotee Cargo got busy raising money.
Cargo's mother read to him when he was a little boy, and the love of books stuck. "I do a lot of reading, always have," Cargo says. "Normally, I read a book every day."
He's got about a dozen rural libraries in the works. And he finds the magic of a library lies in just being surrounded by words on a printed page.
"You create a library and you attract all these kids because you have computers," Cargo says. "And once they get there, they start reading books."
So, now comes the new library in Anton Chico, with 3,125 square feet and a big parking lot. When it opens soon, it will have an adult section and a children's reading room. There will be eight computers with Internet access and a conference room that people in town are excited to fill.
Joyce Lucero, who works at the post office and devours mysteries, is hoping a monthly book club can form and meet there. Gutierrez has volunteered to teach GED classes. Storekeeper MaryLillian Sanchez is looking forward to giving her kids access to everything they'll need to complete their school reports without driving into Las Vegas. And her husband, Leonard, a reader of anything and everything, is excited about making his way through the stacks.
The library will house about 18,000 books — books that are currently jammed into a vacant trailer and in the back room at Abercrombie's. Maybe he won't get through them all, Leonard says, but he can try.
A big dedication is planned for the grand opening, with music and food and a blessing. In the meantime, the new library is doing its best to fit in. Designed in the manner of an old U-shaped adobe farmhouse, it has a pitched metal roof and a coat of stucco. Give it 100 years, and it will blend in just fine.
UpFront is a daily front-page opinion column. You can reach Leslie at 823-3914 or llinthicum@abqjournal.com.
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