My Grants High 11th grade Language Arts class studied New Mexican author Rudolfo Anaya over the first couple of weeks of the new school year. Anaya, who died in 2020 at age 83 in Albuquerque, was a renowned Mexican-American writer over the course of his adult life.
He had a love for our state of New Mexico and called the `Land of Enchantment’ home his entire life. Anaya was born in Pastura, NM, raised in the Santa Rosa area, and spent his later years in Albuquerque.
We studied a wonderful essay Anaya once wrote called, `A Celebration of Grandfathers,’ in which he fondly remembered spending numerous summers with his grandfather who, as a farmer and pillar of his small valley village community, Puerto de Luna, on the Pecos River, taught his grandson the values of respect for others and a hard work ethic.
Anaya, in his essay penned many years after he had become a literary, worldwide giant, recalled those wondrous summers as a lad with his grandfather. He was taught to treat the older people of his grandfather’s village – as well as all people – with respect and politeness. In the essay, Anaya recalled life lessons he learned from his grandfather, a quiet man of few words who was always willing to help anyone in need.
Rudolfo learned from his grandfather how to deal with death after a tragic, horrific and accidental loss of a friend. He recalled his grandfather’s advice after Rudolfo was stung and bitten by a swarm of ants. `Know where you stand,’ his grandfather told him, the message being to know your surroundings. And he taught Anaya that whether or not the crop season was good or bad – depending on the rain season – to always be grateful for what they had. Rudolfo recalled, during those summers, how people treated one another, with dignity, and were always there to give a helping hand.
A transition occurs in Rudolfo’s essay when he drifts from the reverie of those fine days to the current time and age of the writing (1983, when he was approaching middle-age at 46). He was truly concerned whether current teenagers and youngsters held the same values and respect towards elders he had learned.
“But today the sons and daughters are breaking with the past, putting aside los abuelitos.’ The old values are threatened, and threatened most where it comes to these relationships with the old people. If we don’t take the time to watch and feel the years of their final transformation, a part of our humanity will be lessened.”
He was voicing his concern that the current generation of youth would not realize the importance of loving, visiting, and respecting older citizens.
Ironically, Rudolfo, during his growing up years, was being groomed to become a farmer as many generations of Anaya’s had been – including his grandfather. But Rudolfo’s path, instead, would lead to writing stardom, particularly after his best seller, `Bless Me, Ultima,’ was put into print.
“I was to become a farmer, and I became a writer,” Anaya, who earned his undergrad and Masters at the University of New Mexico and was later a professor there as well, wrote in his essay. “As I plow and plant my words, do I nurture as my grandfather did in his fields and orchards? The answers are not simple. `They don’t make men like that anymore,’ is a phrase we hear when one does honor to a man. I am glad I knew my grandfather. I am glad there are still times when I can see him in my dreams, hear him in my reverie. Sometimes I think I catch a whiff of that earthy aroma that was his smell. Then I smile. How strong these people were to leave such a lasting impression. So, as I would greet my abuelo long ago, it would help us all to greet the old ones we know with this kind and respectful greeting: “Buenos dias le de Dios.” (God, give you a good day, grandfather).
Teaching this lesson, I could see by the looks of my students they were understanding Rudolfo’s meaning in his writing – that family and friends are everything, and treating people with love is a true blessing and makes our world better.
I challenged my students to reach out to their older loved ones who might not be as long on this earth as we might hope or imagine.
As a pre-teen, I once cussed out my loving mother for no good reason. That evening, at a youth football practice, I tackled a running back and was shocked to see I had hyperextended his right arm – it had bent backwards as a result of my clean but devastating tackle.
I told my father of the incident later that night. I did not realize my brokenhearted mother had told him how I had verbally disrespected her earlier that day. `Rich, you hurt a football player today, but you didn’t mean to,” he said to me. “It was not your fault. But you also hurt someone else today, and that was much worse. You hurt your mother much deeper.”
I will never forget that lesson. I had disrespected the person who brought me into this world. A few years later she died at Fairfax Hospital in Northern Virginia following a five-week bout with leukemia. I am grateful I told her how much I loved her before she died.
Anaya wanted younger people to understand the elderly are the ones we can thank for teaching us the wisdom of living a good life.
Funny, many people approach me and assume students at Grants High School have been behaving worse in recent years. I, respectively, let them know most of the students are outstanding individuals and respectful to their peers, elders, teachers, and administrators. I am proud of them. And Rudolfo Anaya would be proud as well.