Hoe, Heaven, and Hell

Book excerpt: Nasario García grew up in Ojo del Padre, a village in the Río Puerco Valley northwest of Albuquerque, the way rural New Mexicans had for generations. His parents built their own adobe house, raised their own food, hauled their water, and brought up their children to respect the old ways. When he was young, García's mother taught him to mend his clothes and enlisted his aid in slaughtering chickens. Here he offers detailed accounts of these and other mundane tasks, explaining that doing laundry in tin tubs with a washboard represented progress for people accustomed to washing their clothes in the Río Puerco and scrubbing them with stones. Life is an adventure, from hauling wood down from the mountains to getting a haircut to family dinners and celebration. Story after story, with details such as the P & G soap that his mother used, the menu at his uncle's wedding, the use of both Spanish and English when he started school, tell the story of a vanished way of life.