http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=10124 FEATURE ARTICLE, December 4, 2000
Road Block by Greg Hanscom
A pack of steps into the path of New Mexico's sprawl machine
TOME N.M. - It's late October, and the forest that lines the Rio Grande is lit up like a river of gold. Huddled next to the river is Tome, a haphazard village full of clutter and contradiction. Aging adobe houses and double-wide trailers are scattered along dirt lanes. Dogs sleep in the streets. Grand old cottonwood trees line irrigation ditches and alfalfa fields.
The unincorporated town's 1,500 mostly Hispanic residents, like the trees, are rooted and headstrong. They cuss like sailors. They go to church every Sunday. They grouse about neighbors and nurse family grudges for generations. And they're damn proud of their town and its history. In their own words
Each spring, people come from all over - some walking 30 miles from Albuquerque - to gather on Good Friday atop Tome Hill, which rises above the town. In September, folks flock to the plaza for the Fiesta of Tome, where there is dancing, vendors sell roasted chilies, and the Knights of Columbus grill hamburgers. The fiesta, and the adobe chapel that stands next to the plaza, date back to the days of the conquistadores, who in the 16th and 17th centuries followed the Camino Real north along the Rio Grande from Mexico and claimed this land for Spain.
"The old Catholic Church is still the heart of this community," says Ray Garcia, the mustachioed president of the Historic Tome Adelino Neighborhood Association, as he wheels his old Ford farm truck along a dusty ditch road. "This place is different. It's special," he says. "There's still a community here."