'Chicanos, Marines and hippies' together at last!!

[Lisa & Ian Murray]

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."