True Story

South Capitol residential area of Santa Fe, New Mexico

Seven years ago, it was the romantic associations of structures like this true adobe casa that fascinated me about the capitol city in the state of New Mexico. After a few years living in that city, I packed up and moved 65 miles south to the true hub of this place many call the Land of Enchantment. New Mexico is enchanting, in spite of the extremes of poverty and prosperity that become so apparent once you live here, especially in the capitol city. I'm still trying to figure out whether I have been embraced or rejected by this land. I knew as a child in 1951, on the only real vacation our family ever took, that I wanted to embrace it. These days, I live in one-half of a 1940s duplex in an historic neighborhood near the University of New Mexico—my tiny (by just about any measurement) rented space only one-quarter the size of the home I own on family land in central Texas. I visit that home only a couple of times a year, for a few weeks each time. New Mexico proudly calls itself the Land of Enchantment. Some say, ironically, the land of entrapment. One of the "official" monikers of Santa Fe for decades has been The City Different. Many say, again ironically, the city indifferent. It's all true. Or as a friend often comments about matters of happening and history, "true story".