My aunt passed away today. She was my one and only aunt. I loved going to her house on Christmas. She had the most amazing, largest and fullest Christmas tree you could ever imagine. We came from a large family. My father is one of seven children, and so was my mother, leaving us with cousins galore. Regardless how many of us there were, my Aunt Julia always managed to find a gift for every soul that crossed her home’s threshold. “Mí Javi” she would say. Never was there a brighter glow on a more beautiful person than when she said my name. To me. With those enormous and glorious beams of light.
Personal losses cause moments of reflection. Life is tough and often unfair. My mind naturally wanders to the world of politics, having lived and breathed it for so long, and it seems that in the civic world we are just as stagnant as a death itself. I ask why our political brethren simply cannot lead us to a world of light and life? Stop killing our dreams by perpetuating corruption, the mijito mentality and patron-style government where who you know and getting votes for someone gets you privilege and access.
We do not live in a monarchy or totalitarian state. We have a mayor and councilors, county commissioners, and school boards and their respective chairmen. Leaders are supposed to create balance through reasonable debate and dissent. Too often, dictators push through hasty budgets without council approval or people get hired to do jobs because of who they know. Worse yet, power- hungry aspirants make calculated decisions to increase their strength—regardless of there moral implications. They-all of them- are failing us as a body politic.
This season of bad policy feels just like an unbearable heatwave. It leaves us feeling betrayed by our own incompetence. Is this all we get from this oppressive heat-such as the one we had this summer? Just weeks ago, drenched in sweat, we asked for salvation. Will it ever end? We started to lose our minds and our memory. We think this is how it has always been. Hasn’t it? Are we always going to be so beaten down? This heat keeps us from the change we desire.
Or is it really the heat? Isn’t it our own elected officials keeping us down? Does our thinking play a role? What is required of us to change our perspective? Our futures? The thought that things will never change because this heat will stay with us forever and the idea that we can’t elect better officials must be extinguished.
Our future depends on it. Every penny of my past, present and future depends on the success of this valley. Every dollar earned depends on each other, the cleanliness of our community and the health of our inhabitants and economy. My retirement depends on it. And so does yours. We need every dollar and a strong roadmap to forge an abundant future. Even if it takes five years or 50 years to change, it remains imperative that we start somewhere.
Instead, the State of New Mexico’s department of finance blasted the annual budget that the City of Española recently submitted. The state strongly advocates cutting expenditures and not filling any vacant positions among other harsh recommendations. Try telling that to a police department filled with vacancies and in desperate need of officers. They are necessary to create a safer path toward a better future. Plus we have five departments operating financially in the negative to the tune of $3.5 million? “You can NOT operate with a negative cash balance” the report says. We’ve all heard excuses and accusations about how it is the fault of former employees recently placed on suspension. Or how it was “unfair” that the nearly $1 million the City received from the opioid settlement came with strings attached. God forbid we be held accountable for spending money. Responsibility requires leadership; not finger-pointing and schoolyard shouting about how the world is unfair.
The world is unfair. It was unfair my aunt lost her husband too early in their marriage and his life. But you pick up the pieces with strength and conviction. I can still remember looking forward to her Christmas tree. It was abundant. It reminds me of our Valley. There was always enough for everyone. Like changes in every season, the summer heat and the death of my aunt have exhausted their time with us. The monsoon rains come and bring a fresh start. There is hope in change. We hope for improved leadership and new ways of thinking. There is hope that the memory of my aunt will spark the gift of caring and the feeling that everyone matters. Our future depends on the hope that we can be as giving and thoughtful and courageous and unchanging as the love from a favorite aunt.
Javier Sánchez is the former mayor of the City of Española, NM, and the co-owner of La Cocina New Mexican Restaurant.