Home Care In Mesilla Park, NM

Mesilla Park Elementary School, 955 W. Union Ave., received exciting news recently: The school is the newest campus within Las Cruces Public Schools to be recognized as a community school.

According to the district’s community schools manager, the designation means a wealth of opportunities for students and their families.

“This announcement changes things considerably for our Mesilla Park community,” said Naomi Chavez Lopez, a nine-year veteran of the district who took the helm of Community Schools at LCPS in December.

Chavez Lopez said the school applied with the state for the designation last summer and is part of LCPS Superintendent Ralph Ramos’ strategic plan to eventually have all LCPS schools designated as community schools.

“It is a lengthy and intentional process,” said Chavez Lopez. “Meetings happen with school staff to assess the unique needs of Mesilla Park (Elementary), and input from families is essential to determine what specific needs will be prioritized and resourced with community partners.”

Those partners, according to Chavez Lopez, include local organizations like Families and Youth Plus (formerly FYI), the Boys and Girls Club and Casa de Peregrinos (emergency food program).

“Their focus in our community schools is to assist with general needs, like food insecurity, health care and classroom enrichment,” she added. “But Mesilla Park will decide what the custom fit is for their school community through conversations with staff and families.”

Chavez Lopez explained that one possible need in the Mesilla Park community could be groceries and “basic life needs,” since the school – located on Union Avenue between the city limits of Las Cruces and the town of Mesilla – is so rural.

“These schools truly are the hub of their communities,” said LCPS Federal Programs Executive Director Carla Ragan, who oversees Community Schools. “The possibilities Mesilla Park has to connect and sustain their families to outside resources will have a tremendous impact on students’ performance in the classroom. Studies show that kids who have all their needs met do better in school and have overall more positive outcomes.”

Ragan pointed to the success of an after-school program at Booker T. Washington Elementary which provides a hot meal and tutoring services for students. The program is made possible through grant funding and assistance from Families and Youth Plus.

Chavez Lopez said one of the biggest changes families at Mesilla Park will see is the addition of a dedicated community schools coordinator that will be working directly with families to provide assistance. It is a paradigm shift, she says, that is here to stay at LCPS.

Then National Education Association (NEA) President Lily Eskselsen Garcia was in Las Cruces Jan. 19, 2017, for the ribbon-cutting that officially recognized Lynn as Las Cruces’ first community school and an early model for the success of the program in New Mexico.

The Las Cruces Partnership for Community Schools, begun in 2016, is a collaborative effort among LCPS, the City of Las Cruces, NEA-Las Cruces, New Mexico State University and local nonprofits, businesses, faith-based organizations, students, educators and families, according to LCPS. The partnership’s goal is “transforming schools into neighborhood hubs.”

Since 2017, LCPS has added MacArthur, Doña Ana and Booker T. Washington, Alameda and now Mesilla Park elementaries as community schools.

Members of the Village of Tortugas are preparing to celebrate the annual Our Lady of Guadalupe Fiesta on Dec. 10, 11 and 12 and welcome members of the public to take part in festivities.

The Village of Tortugas and members of La Corporacio?n de Los Indi?genas de Nuestra Sen?ora de Guadalupe located south of Mesilla Park, honor Our Lady of Guadalupe each year for their patron saint’s feast day, celebrated Dec. 12.

According to a news release, this December will be the 113th year the day will be celebrated in the Village of Tortugas. Most of the events during the three-day celebration are open to the public.

The feast day honors the appearance of the Virgin Mary to Mexican man San Juan Diego in 1531.

The fiesta begins the evening of Dec. 10 with a candlelight procession to the Casa del Pueblo where a vigil will be held all night. Danzantes and the Malinches will perform throughout the vigil, according to a news release.

Early the next day, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe will be processed from La Casa del Pueblo to the Sanctuario de Nuestra Sen?ora de Guadalupe. A pilgrimage from Tortugas Pueblo to the top of Tortugas “A” Mountain will follow.

Thousands of people from New Mexico and around the world take part in this pilgrimage each year, repenting for the previous year and sharing intentions for the coming year. A mass will be held mid-morning on top of the mountain by Fr. Martin Cordero.

The corporation asks that participants not bring pets on the pilgrimage, or if they do, to keep them controlled and clean up after them.

Pilgrims are also welcome to make quiotes (walking sticks) before the descent from the mountain in the evening.

A Catholic mass starts the final day of the fiesta on Dec. 12, celebrated at Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine and Parish. An investiture of the new mayordomos will take place during the mass and dancing by four groups will take place outside the church following. Lunch will take place at at La Casa de Comida at noon and is open to the public at no charge.

A celebration and procession for the new mayordomos will round out the evening.

The fiesta’s full schedule is included:

Monday, Dec. 11

Tuesday, Dec. 12

Attendees are asked to limit photography and ensure photographs do not interfere with the traditional dancing and activities. Photography is also prohibited inside La Casa del Pueblo and La Capilla without express written consent by the corporation.

In the evening of Jan. 1, 2024, traditional dancing in front of the sanctuario, a rosary, benediction will be held followed by a procession to return the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to La Capilla.

Tortugas Pueblo is located at 3620 Casa de Pueblo St., Las Cruces. The base of Tortugas “A” Mountain is located at 4596 Dripping Springs Rd.

Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, [email protected] or @rromero_leah on X, formerly Twitter.

Photos courtesy of Mary Long, Las Cruces Public Schools

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Posted Friday, January 22, 2021 3:50 pm

Fairacres and Mesilla Park Elementary Schools' art teacher Mary Long has given students at both schools some creative art lessons to work on at home via the online teaching program, Canvas.

Her students’ creativity at each school includes, at Mesilla Park Elementary School, third grader Eve Holguin, who drew and colored a baby Yoda (“Star Wars”), and sisters Dot and Kat Mason – Dot is a second grader and Kat is a kindergarten student – who worked separately and together on clay projects.

At Fairacres Elementary School, second grader Rian Sanchez always submits his completed artwork soon after Long posts the assignment, she said. His “Masked Selfie Surprise” is based on a lesson inspired by online art teacher Cassie Stephens.

“While working away from our students and teaching online has proven to have its challenges, one group of LCPS teachers has found a great deal of rewards in the way they produce their lessons,” Long said.

The Elementary Arts Teacher Group comprises 15 teachers who “were forced to come together, to then break up into smaller teams in a ‘divide and conquer’ work model to produce grade-level art lessons to be shared among their entire teaching group.” said Long, who is one of the teachers in the group.

“To teach online requires hours and hours of training, which remains ongoing,” Long said. “To produce one lesson requires research, production and editing efforts, then more training and Zoom troubleshoot meetings to then post the lesson online. The Elementary Arts Teacher Group already had ‘team’ spirit built in from the inception of this program more than 20 years ago.”

Long said art teachers “automatically mentor one another,” including first-year teachers, because teaching art “is unlike any other teaching arrangement in our district.”

Since the onset of COVID-19, she said, art teachers are “working in a brand-new way, on a new level, requiring them to achieve the outcomes necessary to serve their students’ needs.”

But, they have had to do that without knowing what art supplies each student had access to in his or her home, she said.

Thanks to their teamwork, what art teachers have discovered and produced during the pandemic shutdown of schools “will be relevant and useful when they return to the classroom, especially if the district continues to use the same technology,” Long said.

“We are all eager to be back with our students,” she said. “We really look forward to this shelter-in-place to be finally lifted and for life to return to ‘normal.’”

Bulletin photo by Mike Cook

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Posted Thursday, February 9, 2023 10:09 am

By Mike Cook

Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park (MVBSP) is an Audubon-designated important birding area and is a stop on the state birding trail.

And, thanks to the Mesilla Valley Audubon Society (MVAS), the park is now the home of a brand-new bird blind, which was officially opened in a in a New Mexico State Parks Division (NMSP) ceremony Saturday morning, Jan. 14, at the park.

A bird blind is a windowed structure that allows people to get closer to birds for viewing and photography in their natural habitat without disturbing the birds.

“Our ability to build this ADA accessible bird blind is thanks to a National Audubon Western Waters grant and a generous anonymous donor who funded a significant portion of this project,” said MVAS Board President Elaine Stachera Simon. “Our goal with this bird blind was to create the potential to provide those of differing abilities with an opportunity to learn about the importance of avian ecology and conservation to people and animals along the major river in New Mexico.”

“MVAS has always been a valued partner for NMSP,” said NMSP Regional Manager Jared Langenegger, of Tucumcari. “They were one of the original stakeholders that pushed for the development of this park. Their work in developing the Southwest New Mexico Birding trail, providing monthly bird walks and supporting special events has enriched the lives of visitors to the parks.”

“Definitely, it’s a partnership,” said Mesilla Mayor Nora Barraza. “It’s all working together; it’s collaborating.”

The 305-acre MVBSP is located along the Rio Grande, about two miles southwest of Mesilla Plaza.

A bosque, Spanish for woodlands, is essentially a riverside forest.

The Jan. 14 event also included a live raptors presentation by New Mexico Raptors Director Laura McCann, a performance by the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo Cultural Center dance group and a silent auction.

New Mexico is home to more than 550 bird species.

Visit www.emnrd.nm.gov, click on “STATE PARKS,” “Find a Park” and “Mesilla Valley Bosque.” Also visit

www.mvasaudubon.org and https://nm.audubon.org/birds/birding-trails-new-mexico.

Gustav Klimt once declared, “All art is erotic.” People have been pondering the meaning of that brief statement for over a century. The discussion over what defines erotica has been going on for much longer, with varying degrees of acceptability. Is it pornography, or is it something more? The one thing we can all agree on, is that the word erotica is subjective. No matter what your reasoning, you either like it, or you don’t.

Merriam-Webster defines erotica as literary or artistic works that deal with subject matter that is stimulating or arousing, but it doesn’t just have to be about the libido or the genitals. Like all art, erotica is meant to simulate the brain and to make us see things from a different perspective. It is a depiction of humanity at its most sublime. It is a release of inhibition.

The one thing erotica has always been about is sensuality. Good erotic art will relay some sort of message about the human condition. It will use sometimes shocking imagery to convey such complex human emotions as abandon, subjugation, loneliness, freedom, acceptance and vulnerability. It is, in a sense, a casting-off of the shackles imposed upon us by morality and social shame, to reveal the true self. How you deal with those revelations may have more to do with you than it does with the art in question.

To get a better understanding of the place erotic art occupies in southern New Mexico, it’s best to go to a local expert on the subject. Dennis Lujan is that expert. A lifelong artist whose work – both traditional and erotic – can be seen in galleries and private collections across the country, he has also been the curator of the annual Erotica show since 2015. The former owner of the In Effect Gallery in the Mesquite neighborhood of Las Cruces, he now opens up his home in Mesilla Park twice a year for the Erotica Show in February, and a more traditional art show in May.

“The criteria for this show has always been sensual,” Lujan says. “I wanted to take For (the) Love of Art month to a new level, because there’s a side of Love that is overlooked. I wanted to show what could be done with that concept of Love. I was so surprised to find that many of the prominent artists here had done stuff on the side that they couldn’t exhibit in local galleries. I wanted to provide a space where they could show that stuff. Nobody else does that here.”

Attracting artists from all across the region, including Truth or Consequences, Socorro, El Paso, Hillsboro and Caballo, Lujan takes a hands-off approach to selection. When asked what he looks for, he says, “I have an open-door policy. Some artists do ceramics, some papier-mâché, oils, acrylics, watercolors, mixed media, jewelry. It’s always fresh. It’s always new. I cannot be a judge or a juror. I’m always excited to see what comes in, as long as there is no degradation or pornography. If an artist walks through my doors with work, they’re in the show, so long as their work follows the rules.”

What, then, does Dennis consider sensual?

“Sensuality is really indefinable,” he admits, but it’s clear he’s had this conversation before. “Photography can be sensual. Collages can be sensual. Watercolors can be sensual. Good erotica provokes thought and discussion. What is it? It’s intimate and it’s edgy. What does it mean to you? It’s personal and it’s primal. How do you react? It could be gritty, it could be sexy, it could be pretty, it could be subtle, the viewer might not even get it, but if it makes them think, and argue, it’s doing its job.”

It's that love of provocative, sensual art that propels Lujan to create the event of the season.

“There’s nothing else like it,” he says. “Everybody talks about it long after the show closes. Is it just because of the subject matter? I don’t know, but I don’t think so. This show only comes around once a year, and we get a lot of people through the door.”

Erotica, it seems, will always have an audience. It’s something that needs to be experienced to be understood. Discussions are optional, but highly recommended.

The Erotica 2024 opening reception takes place Friday, Feb. 9, 2024, from 6 – 10 p.m., at 3390 Apple Cross Place in Mesilla Park. Additional showings are Saturday and Sunday, February 10, and 11, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and by appointment through the end of the month.