Santa Fe Living Treasures writes: "Dona Jesusita Aragon, healer and midwife of northern New Mexico, in her seven decades of on the job delivered more than twelve thousand babies--the population of a good sized New Mexican town.
"Born on a ranch in Sapello, known as El Rancho Trujillo in 1908, she delivered her first baby when she was only thirteen years old. "My grandmother, Dolores Gallegos, a midwife, taught me," Jesusita recalled. "She wasn't there that day because she went to deliver another baby. One of my aunts had a baby, so I had to help her. But I knew everything."
Her Tia Valentina, the curandera in the family, taught her the use of traditional healing herbs. Jesusita became interested in healing as well as delivering babies.
"I wanted to go to school to be a nurse," said Jesusita. "But years ago, they didn't believe in education. I only went to the eighth grade, and it was all in Spanish. It's a miracle that I can talk a little English. I learned reading the papers.
As a single mother with a son and daughter, she was sole provider for her family. She cut wood and carried it to build her own house as well as the furnishings. She cared for her family by gardening and raising animals. In 1942 she moved to Las Vegas, where she supported her children by washing clothes, cleaning houses, making tortillas, and delivering babies.
The birthing room she set up in the front of her house held ten beds. "I used to deliver nine or ten a night," she recalled charging $10 a birth. "I used to deliver 200 to 215 a year." Among her deliveries were twenty-seven sets of twins and two sets of triplets."

"Medicas y Medicos-A Healing Tradition in the SW" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFrBCacJghc

‎Lisa Law sent this original photo to post on Voces de Santa Fe. It was taken at her house on Ninita St., Santa Fe. The photo has been used in various print. When asked about the photo, this is what she said: "I think it was July, 2010. Dennis came over to visit me as he was on my board of directors for the Lisa Law Museum of the Sixties. I had the gun he had given me in 1969 to protect myself in Truchas. I asked him if he would hold it for me so I could prove it was he who had given me the gun. In the museum I could display the photo and gun together. He obliged."

His son, Stephen Earnest, was asked to give a summary of his father’s most remarkable life:

“My dad, Elbert Edgar Earnest, was born February 23, 1914 in his grandmother’s farm house just outside Mena, Arkansas.  He lived his first twelve years on the family farm in Arkansas then in Oklahoma.   Due to his mother’s poor health, the family moved to the Estancia Valley in New Mexico, where he continued to be a hardworking farm kid.

“Dad graduated from Estancia High School then went on to UNM where he paid his way as a janitor, worked at the library, ran the school post office, and had other odd jobs.  He married my mom, Atha Love Wright, in 1935 at the little one room church in McIntosh.

“My parents moved to Hot Springs where my dad taught Spanish at the junior and high school.  He also worked at Carrie Tingley Hospital for two summers.  At the start of WWII, they moved to California where he worked for Lockheed building airplanes during the war.

“They moved to Espanola in 1945 where my dad taught at Espanola High School and had a farm to meet the family’s needs. He built two houses for the family, which are still standing today.  Active and concerned about local issues, he dedicated himself to help establish the Espanola Hospital.

“In 1954 our family moved from Espanola to Santa Fe where my dad started his own insurance business.  For many years he had his office above Zook’s Pharmacy overlooking the plaza.  In 1985 he retired and sold his business to Mark Muth.

“As he was his entire life, my ninety-nine year old dad is devoutly but quietly religious and goes to chapel every Sunday.  He is a political observer, keeping up with local, national and international news.  He was one of the founders of Common Cause New Mexico and is an anti-nuclear activist, a pacifist, and an insatiable reader, loves old time hymns, classical music, Roy Orbison, New Mexico’s tri-cultures and sopaipillas!

“My dad has written two memoirs, one of his personal life and one of his political activist life.   At ninety-nine he has a wealth of memories still there for instant recall at any time.  I can spend hours listening to him tell stories of his life.  I love my old man.”

as told to Maria Montez-Skolnik

Atha Love Wright Earnest, born December 30, 1910, wrote an account of her life, From The Prairie To The Mountain, where she imparts her fascinating life journey, from her childhood in Oklahoma, in the early part of the last century, to her later life as a clothing maker in Santa Fe. 

Born in the prairie of Oklahoma, Atha describes her brave and solo move from her family home on the prairie to the Estancia Valley in New Mexico.   Working to support herself, she graduated from high school in Vaughn and soon  after married Edgar Elbert Earnest in 1935 in McIntosh, NM.  Before long, they created a life in Española, he as a high school teacher, she as a mother and homemaker. 

In the late 1950s, Atha and Edgar moved to Santa Fe where they would leave their mark on the community.  Atha opened her Birdwatcher boutique in 1970.  Located on Canyon Road, the shop carried her popular creations of velvet as well as ribbon shirts for men, and also fashionable broomstick skirts.   With a love of people and a fondness for creating, Atha was at home with her great array of customers, from locals wanting the perfect fashion to wear for the Santa Fe Fiestas, to the famous, such as Robert Redford, Bill Mauldin and Amado Peña, to name a few, who frequented her shop.  

Sensitive to the representation of the heritages she saw around her, it would be fair to say that Atha was one of the original forces behind Santa Fe style. 

by Maria Montez-Skolnik

Go to the following link:

http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d7a55304e4445304e5468384d5441794f444d794f54453d0d0a&sb=1

Ramon Montes from Santa Fe and Emma Jaramillo from Chimayo were married on May 9, 1947 at the St. Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe.

So we will always remember

¨    

• Honoring our ancestors and our senior community
•  Archiving our family stories

Discover the personal stories of our community and to add your stories to the dialogue.

http://www.historicsantafe.org/Bulletins/2001HarryHowardDormanHouse.pdf