Regardless of how cold it is, most mornings around 6:45 a.m., Johnnie de Schweinitz walks along U.S. Route 285, near the Dreamcatcher Cinema in Española.
She takes the route so often, she sometimes walks backwards.
“I walk backwards when the sun comes up,” she said. “They (sic) used to seein’ me, seein’ the walkers. If you’re moving, you don’t get cold.”
De Schweinitz is a retired vocational rehabilitation specialist who has lived in New Mexico for the past 19 years. Her accent portrays that she is originally from Baltimore, Md., where she first trained in the field.
She worked as an employment counselor for the New Mexico Department of Labor’s unemployment office, then joined their Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, focused on helping people with disabilities find work or get their jobs back.
She has a master’s degree in vocational arehabilitation from Coppin State University, a historically black college in Baltimore.
Now retired, de Schweinitz teaches four different yoga classes in San Pedro and Abiquiú that help about 50 elderly and disabled people with physical balance and flexibility.
“You know, you have a disability, but a disability don’t have you,” she said. “It’s your health, it’s your body, you gotta be in control of it. We’re living longer, why not be healthier? The only way you can do that is to eat well, get exercise and see a doctor.”
She won’t say how old she is, but said her doctor told her, “Johnnie, you have the body of a 47-year-old.”
For people who are considering exercising more, de Schweinitz suggests they get a good pair of shoes and start walking.
Walking group
De Schweinitz ran the Española Bicycle Coalition until about three years ago, then in June, started a walking group with members of her yoga classes at the San Pedro Community Center. She has been teaching various types of yoga for about 18 years, she said.
The walking group is open to anyone willing to join. An average of six people regularly attend, and as many as 15 have attended in the past.
“You walk for you, not for anybody else,” de Schweinitz said.
People from ages 30 to 80 have walked with the group, she said.
Usually, when the sun is out, the group meets right after the yoga classes at the San Pedro Community Center, on the walking track, just outside.
At 5:30 p.m. every Wednesday, the group meets at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park on the West Side of Española, to walk together. Everyone walks at their own pace, often in pairs.
“Even the ones on oxygen, they walk,” de Schweinitz said.
While there is a fee for her yoga classes, the walking group is free. The yoga classes cost between $1 and $5, depending on which class it is, and whether there is any scholarship money available.
She has five or six diabetic people in her classes and she regularly refers them to a nutritionist.
“I found out the people in my community, they’re at a very high risk of diabetes,” de Schweinitz said. “Because, if you’re Hispanic, African-American, Native, or Asian, you’re at a higher risk.”
She points to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that says 84.1 million Americans have pre-diabetes, which, if left untreated, can lead to type 2 diabetes. Only 11.6 percent of adults with pre-diabetes know they have it, according to the report.
De Schweinitz, who has rheumatoid arthritis, walks three miles a day, six days a week.
In 2017, she walked 1,000 miles, according to the application on her phone that tracks her walking.
“I don’t do the steps, or Fitbit, not that kind of junk,” she said. “I walk miles.”
Last year, de Schweinitz walked in Española, on vacation in New York City, and in Morocco, in the cities of Fez and Casablanca.
‘We need somebody like her’
Pam Vigil, a 66-year-old retired information technology security manager for the Bureau of Land Management, met de Schweinitz when she signed up for her yin yoga classes at the San Pedro Community Center, in 2017.
Yin yoga is a slow-paced yoga style where participants hold poses for short periods of time. The exercises are focused on connective tissues between different body parts.
In June, Vigil was taking de Schweinitz’s yin yoga class when she had surgery to treat bulging discs in her spine, from lumbar spinal stenosis.
The procedure left her with nerve damage and she started taking two other yoga classes taught by de Schweinitz, called restorative and chair yoga.
Some people can’t do yoga on the floor, so they go to de Schweinitz’s chair yoga classes.
Then in December, Vigil started walking with her cane. Now, using a walker, she can walk a mile-and-a-half without stopping.
“The yoga has helped me a lot, I don’t think I would have improved as quickly without it,” Vigil said. “She’s done a lot for a lot of us. We need somebody like her to keep us going.”
“Us” means elderly people with knee problems, hip problems, shoulder problems, or arthritis, who learn from de Schweinitz and otherwise don’t know how to exercise without hurting themselves, Vigil said.
‘Share the Road’
Sometimes, de Schweinitz walks along State Road 399 in La Mesilla and State Road 581 in San Pedro, where she lives.
She said people who only get around in their cars have a negative attitude about people who walk or use bicycles. That includes not giving walkers or bicyclists enough space on the road.
“People who are out there on bicycles, or walking, they’re out there for exercise and for transportation purposes,” she said. “The people out there (in cars) should respect those people. They don’t have no money, that’s why they’re riding a bike, they can’t afford a car, they don’t have anything.”
After de Schweinitz made numerous calls to state Department of Transportation officials, workers finally installed “Share the Road” signs on at the entrance of State Road 399, and on State Road 581, where it intersects with State Road 399.
The signs warn drivers to watch out for slower forms of transportation like bicycles or farm machinery, Department District 5 Public Information Officer Rosanne Rodriguez wrote in a Feb. 1 email.
Anyone interested in joining Johnnie de Schweinitz’s walking group can call her at 505-927-2636.