Harry and Harold Salazar have strong ties to Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. The brothers were baptized and got married inside the 192-year-old Velarde church and their 95-year-old grandmother remembers replastering the adobe walls as a child.
And as Harry Salazar said about the church’s doors, they will be the “last doors I’ll pass through.”
Well he has made sure those doors were made with love and care. Harry and Harold Salazar, 47 and 45, respectively, created the wooden doors that now grant access to the church. They said the church dedicated the doors Dec. 12, a year after they made them.
“They were done in memory of our father (Levi Salazar) and grandfather (Antonio Rivera),” Harry Salazar said. “We were close to both of them.”
The brothers were chosen to do the project after they submitted their design to the church’s building committee. They used a light pine for the main part of the doors and cherry for the crosses. The job took about a month to complete.
“Everybody is very complimentary,” Harry Salazar said. “All they say is that they are gorgeous.”
The doors weren’t installed immediately because the church was being re-stuccoed.
The doors are completely handmade, including the door handles, which were done by a blacksmith in Santa Fe. The old doors had been store-bought, the brothers said.
The brothers have been doing woodworking for years. Harold Salazar got his start at Española Valley High School under the tutelage of Amos Roybal and his brother took classes at Northern New Mexico College’s El Rito campus.
Harry Salazar said woodworking relieves the stress both men experience during their day jobs in Los Alamos.
“For me it’s therapeutic,” he said.
He said he is looking forward to seeing the first painting of the church with the new doors.
“I feel privileged we were able to do that,” Harry Salazar said.