Editor;
In Rummaging through my archives of precious copies of the Rio Grande Sun, I was deeply saddened when I ran across an article detailing the life and death of Dr. Sabine Reyes Ulibarri.
Clipped to the newspaper article was a letter I had prepared to mail to your periodical. I do not remember if I ever sent it to you. I believe the times make it appropriate for me to share Dr. Ulibarri’s words of wisdom with our communities.
We are experiencing a life in turmoil, which poses many questions and creates doubt in our ability to make the right decisions for oneself, our families, our country and our world.
I believe Dr. Ulibarri was the all correct prophet and his words of wisdom should be shared. Here is what I intended to share with your readers a few years ago:
As I read your newspaper recently, I was saddened to read of the passing of one of Northern New Mexico’s cultural and literary icons, Dr. Sabine Reyes Ulibarri. Born dirt poor, he became a responsible head of household when, at a young age, he lost his parents. He rose to become a WWII decorated soldier and a renowned author and University of New Mexico professor.
I had the honor of meeting Dr. Ulibarri on several occasions. During one our meetings, I expressed a concern about the rapid changes that were taking place in Northern New Mexico and I posed the question to him, “What is going to happen to our culture and traditions as we prepare to enter into the new millennium?”
Dr. Ulibarri, in his astute and mild manner responded by saying, “Look around. Look at how our culture, our traditions and our ethnicity are prospering.
“Read the writings of Rudolfo Anaya, Roberto Mondragon, and your own Embudo/Dixon authors Jose Griego and Esteban Arellano. Look at the community works of Tomas and Amos Atencio.
“Look at all the businesses around you and you will see our people doing well. Look at all the professionals that are prospering in our precious valleys. We are doing well, and our culture is alive and well, because culture, traditions, and spirituality survive from within ones person.
“If your soul is empty, you have nothing that can survive, and when you have lost your cause, most often efforts to revive it result in an empty vase.”
Today I sit and write this letter wondering whether our national economy is going to better itself, whether health care reform is going to be formulated correctly to assure benefits to the needy, the children and the elderly. Whether our unemployment rate is going to grow and whether our Home Foreclosures have peeked. As disastrous and bleak as the future looks, I need only to remind myself of Dr. Ulibarri’s optimistic philosophy of life.
Because we are a proud nation, we are a proud state, we are a proud community, we are a proud culture, we are the ever optimists, and because we persevere, we will overcome these bad times.
David G. Valdez
Dixon