Mary Mora, at age 95 from my trip to New Mexico

Chriscrawfordphoto

Chriscrawfordphoto

Real Men Shoot Film.
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During the trip to New Mexico my son and I just got home from, we went down to Cerrillos to see if Mary Mora was still behind the counter of her bar in the former mining town south of Santa Fe.

She was still there, at age 95, but no longer working. Her daughter runs the bar for her, while she sits at the table and does word-find puzzles and plays with her five cats. Mary's health has declined a lot since I last saw her nearly four years before. She can't walk without holding on to furniture, and her memory is going.

Mary remembered me and my son when we walked in, and asked if I was still seeing Ann, the woman I dated in Santa Fe years earlier. Though her long-term memories are still sharp, she couldn't remember things from just a few minutes earlier. She asked my son what grade he was in several times, and repeated several stories to us a few minutes after the last retelling. It was sad to see her like that, but few of us get to live to 95, or even to age 92, her age when I had last seen her before I moved back to Indiana.

You can see more about Mary on my website
 
A lovely portrait. Which is what happens when you have a intense relationship with your subject.
robert
PS I'll go trough your website tonight, too hot now to sit in front of a computer!
 
Nice photos and story. Thanks. I enjoyed them. Obviously she is quite the landmark and source of a lot of pleasant memories for you.
 
Thanks for this Chris, well done. I have many good memories of New Mexico like this. It's a wonderful area and the people are all very kind and hospitable.
 
Chris, expecting nothing less from you;
but that portrait of Mary solving the puzzle in your gallery is just stunning!
 
Thanks everyone. She is one of the most interesting people I have met. She was 92 the last time i had met her, so I was afraid she might not be there when I went back, but she was and she remembered me after all those years, which was really cool.
 
Great photo, Chris!
I met Mary years ago when my girlfriend and I would go hang out in Madrid then drive up to Cerrillos and walk around, take photos, eat.

I love those little towns; all with their characters who are an integral part of what makes the place a truly special one.

Again, it's a wonderful image.

Phil Forrest
 
Great photos! What is really a shame was I drove down that way in 2004, but I had to get to the ABQ airport, so I didn't have time to stop in all those cool towns, I just has enough time to drive slow as I went through them.

In any event, I'm glad you did manage to get back and see her again. It would have been a shame to have stayed away too long, if you get my drift...
 
Al Patterson said:
Great photos! What is really a shame was I drove down that way in 2004, but I had to get to the ABQ airport, so I didn't have time to stop in all those cool towns, I just has enough time to drive slow as I went through them.

In any event, I'm glad you did manage to get back and see her again. It would have been a shame to have stayed away too long, if you get my drift...
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It is too bad. The people in out of the way parts of New Mexico are the true New Mexico, not Santa Fe. Santa is full of trustfund Anglos who have pushed out the real New Mexican people by driving up real-estate prices and setting up the city as a giant tourist site. Same with Taos (the white town, not the Indian pueblo). Blech!

Albuquerque is more like a normal American city. Not authentically Nuevo Mexicano, but not a silly tourist fabrication either. The small towns like Cerrillos and Tecolote are the real Hispano towns.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
It is too bad. The people in out of the way parts of New Mexico are the true New Mexico, not Santa Fe. Santa is full of trustfund Anglos who have pushed out the real New Mexican people by driving up real-estate prices and setting up the city as a giant tourist site. Same with Taos (the white town, not the Indian pueblo). Blech!

Albuquerque is more like a normal American city. Not authentically Nuevo Mexicano, but not a silly tourist fabrication either. The small towns like Cerrillos and Tecolote are the real Hispano towns.
Click to expand...

I was up in Chama at the Cumbres & Toltec for a rail charter that year. Chama is also a non-Anglo town that get invaded by Anglos riding the railroad. I do like Albuquerque, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of jobs there. ABQ seems more real than Santa Fe, but as you were doing the Fine Art Photo thing when you lived in NM, Santa Fe seems to be a better place to be as an artist.

I hated Taos when I was there. "Yuppie Hell-hole" was my opinion. Kind of like Sedona. Both towns might have been great before the were "Californicated"...
 
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