by Daniel B. Flores (Author)
M s Cuentos del Anton Chico is being written as a follow up to Cuentos del Anton Chico. It includes more cuentos, stories or vignettes, about the rich and colorful past of the Anton Chico area. Many of the vignettes include old articles taken from early New Mexico newspapers. At one time there were many Spanish language news papers in the Las Vegas and Santa Fe areas. The style and they used were a lot different, certainly more colorful and descriptive than the language used today. Many of the words and idiomatic experessions used have long since fallen out of use in everyday Spanish. I have decided to incorporate some of those articles in their entirety as they would have lost much of their original local color if they had been translated into English. Bilingualism was and continues to be important. M s Cuentos includes a section on military heroes from Anton Chico. That section includes stories about three soldiers who made the Supreme sacrifice for their country and never returned home. One of them is buried in the Anton Chico cemetery, one in the Santa Fe National Cemetery and the last one was lost at sea when his ship, a Japanese "Hell Ship," was sunk by friendly fire. Photographs of the heroes' mothers, Gold Star mothers, are included. There is also a section on Anton Chico Civil War veterans and a WWI section. The Civil War section includes a table with the names of Anton Chico area veterans from an 1890 special census. The WWI section includes photos of five of the veterans and biographical information about them. There are also an additional five that have biographical information, but no photos. There is also a section on enlaces, weddings, of couples from the Anton Chico area and a defunciones, deaths. The defunciones consists of obituaries that were published in newspapers. There are several biographical sketches of Anton Chico area personages from the last half of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20trh century. Included are two Catholic priests, John H. Mink, Anders Nelson, Eduardo Martinez, and several others.
Author Biography
Daniel B. Flores was born in Puerto de Luna, New Mexico in 1946, in the home of his paternal grandfather, Cipriano Flores. That is the same house where Billy the Kid ate his last Christmas dinner in 1880. In 1880 the house belonged to his maternal great-grandfather, Alexander Grzelachowski. Grzelachowski built the house in 1870. Grzelachowski's estate served as a combination residence and mercantile store. A large warehouse was also connected to the rear of the store, complete with a cellar. He is the oldest of thirteen children. The Flores family lived in Puerto de Luna until they moved to Santa Rosa in October 1959. Flores attended public schools in Puerto de Luna and Santa Rosa. After graduating from Santa Rosa High School in 1964, he enrolled at the University of New Mexico. He received a BA degree from the University of New Mexico in 1969 and an MA degree in Educational Administration from New Mexico Highlands University in 1984. He returned to Santa Rosa after graduating from UNM in 1969 and was employed by the Santa Rosa Consolidated Schools for over forty years. After working as a teacher for fifteen years, he spent the last twenty-five years of his educational career as an administrator. He served as middle school principal for two years and then was high school principal for seven years. He retired from the school system in July 2009 after working his last sixteen years as the school district's superintendent. He was inducted into the New Mexico Activities Association Hall of Fame in 2002. He was named the New Mexico School Superintendent of the Year in 2007 by the New Mexico School Superintendent's Association. He married his wife, the former Lupita Campos, in 1966. He credits her for helping him complete his college education. They are the parents of Daniel, Jr., Steve and Stephanie. Daniel and Lupita are also the proud grandparents of Marcus and Hannah, the children of Steve and his wife, Tina. The Flores family also welcomed a new grandchild in November 2013, Henry Augustus Flores Boyd, the son of daughter, Stephanie, and Alex Boyd.