Sign up for TPR Today Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning March 31 is Cesar Chavez Day. San Antonio held an early commemoration of the civil and labor rights leader March 22 with the Cesar E. Chavez March for Justice Thousands turned out to pay tribute to Chavez’s legacy a folkloric group of musicians known as Los Inocentes was inspired to create corridos — narrative ballads — about his life Los Inocentes was formed three years before San Antonio’s first Cesar Chavez march George and Maria Zentella observed their children were losing their connection to their native Spanish language “So my husband and I decided to teach them the history and the culture,” said Maria Zentella They immediately learned to play guitars.” said she quickly became enamored of corridos The first corrido she wrote was about Esequiel Hernandez civilian killed in 1997 by a Marine in the Texas border city of Redford Hernandez carried a rifle to protect the goats he was herding “And so the way I channeled [it was through a corrido] because I was grieving for somebody I didn't know Los Inocentes became involved in musical advocacy and became involved in organizing San Antonio’s first Cesar Chavez march The group of musicians were at the front of the line Maria Zentella said the march’s organizers had one request: “So they said ‘Where's the corrido for Cesar Chavez?’ So [Los Inocentes] immediately composed the corrido … and La Temporada for the movement.” "I just loved building the lyrics telling a story because corridos are about telling a story,” she said “And so seeing what was happening in front of me [at the first Cesar Chavez march] with all these people who were so invested in their community Los Inocentes was put on pause about a decade ago while its members started families of their own 15-year-old multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Wittwer Zentella He knows the generational responsibility and cultural traditions he must carry “And as I continue forth with my musical journey and seeing them parallel with mine I was just starting to see that musical correlation as I kind of connected with my generational roots Jonathan’s entry into the family business ensures Los Inocentes continue for another generation of music and advocacy See Jonathan Wittwer Zentella and Binisa Zentella perform El Corrido de Cesar Chavez Virginia Perea Chavez 1942-2025 Virginia Perea Chavez Virginia was the daughter of the late Herman and Florencia Perea She was the loving mother of Carol Sanchez Virginia was known for her outgoing and warm personality She started a local business along with her late husband which was the very first video rental store in Valencia County in 1985 later expanding to several businesses in Valencia County and Albuquerque She was also known by her family and friends for being a gifted sewer and seamstress Virginia loved being surrounded by friends and family and most of all she loved making people laugh A funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m. at the Riverside Funeral Home in Los Lunas Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: Account processing issue - the email address may already exist it provides narrative coverage of local trends going beyond the headlines to keep you informed Stay informed with the latest top headlines from your trusted local source the Albuquerque Journal—delivered to your inbox every day Stay in the loop with the top stories of the week delivered straight to your inbox every Saturday Sign up to see what’s trending and get the latest on the stories that matter most to our readers Get breaking news and important alerts sent straight to your inbox as they happen Stay up-to-date with the latest sports headlines and highlights from the Albuquerque Journal Get the latest on local happenings delivered straight to your inbox Invalid password or account does not exist Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account one the most iconic figures in world boxing is launching  his own reality show called “Los Chávez” offering an unprecedented view of his family life presenting  on television the triumphs and controversies that characterized  his professional and personal life “Now people will be able to know what really happens in my family head of distribution and production for Disney for Latin America described the program as a combination of The Osbournes and The Kardashians interesting and extraordinary” nature of the Mexican champion’s life Los Chávez will be broadcast on the Disney+ streaming platform and the grand premiere is today We share the trailer for the series that shows Chavez with his children Julio Cesar Jr. offering a preview of personal and family moments in addition to the difficulties with Jr.’s addictions and the problems in his marriage with Frida Muñoz Privacy Policy / Cookie Policy and their children Nicole and Cristian at the presentation of the reality show Los Chávez which premieres on September 11 on Disney+ along with his wife Myriam and children Nicole and Cristian which premieres on Disney+ on September 11 the show delves into the personal and intimate life of the Mexican boxing champion The athlete walked the red carpet with his family and said that the show will showcase more than just the champion someone many people will likely relate to.” “It’s time to launch this reality show it wasn’t a priority for me because of the tough times my family was going through I was able to enjoy my time with all my children as it also talks about overcoming addiction and how I’ve helped many people I can now talk about my 15 years free from addiction and send a message to parents and young people about the future ahead of them and discipline can make things happen,” he said He emphasized that while people know him as a world boxing champion and that will also be shown in this project.” The production also features Myriam Chávez along with other sports and entertainment personalities The boxer hinted that the show will present an unfiltered Julio the reality show brought them closer as a family and helped them see a different side of their father “Our family has always been very public Chávez also noted that filming took place during a family crisis he didn’t want the show to reveal too much “We were worried about my son Julio’s life but my wife encouraged me to go through with it Los Chávez consists of six 45-minute episodes and carries the tagline: Outside the ring performed by the Mexican regional music group Banda MS was released on various music platforms in honor of Julio César the boxer and the band share special moments in the ring The audience will also witness the emotional moment when the champion hears the song for the first time de Sony Pictures Television para Latin America y US Hispanic habló sobre las claves del éxito de Yo no soy Mendoza serie que está en el top 10 global de Netflix narrada en 40 capítulos con una estructura moderna Quintanilla adelantó otras novedades de tres nuevas producciones VP sénior de Entretenimiento y Especiales de Telemundo el futuro del entretenimiento en español en EE yo creo que va a continuar evolucionando y va a continuar creciendo con muchísima fuerza porque somos una población de más de 66 millones de hispanos jóvenes que estamos viviendo y consumiendo contenido aquí en EE Amazon Prime Video está redefiniendo la experiencia del fan deportivo al integrar contenido premium tecnología interactiva y un ecosistema de servicios que abarca desde streaming y música hasta tiendas oficiales de equipos Country Manager de la plataforma en México destaca cómo estas estrategias permiten a Prime Video diferenciarse en un mercado altamente competitivo generando una conexión más profunda entre los aficionados y sus equipos favoritos al tiempo que amplifican el valor comercial del contenido deportivo 3C Films hizo su debut teatral con una producción de alto impacto: Sandro el gran show el primer musical oficial sobre la vida del ídolo argentino Estrenado el pasado jueves 10 de abril en el Teatro Coliseo de Buenos Aires el espectáculo es una coproducción de 3C Films y dirección musical de José Luis “Pepe” Pagán La empresa Tuves anunció la culminación exitosa de la migración de todos los usuarios de televisión satelital de Movistar en Venezuela al satélite con el que presta el servicio DTH a Inter desde 2013 El proceso duró dos años y marca el cierre definitivo del uso del satélite Amazonas 2 de Hispasat en ese servicio tras una transición técnica y comercial que se realizó “sin incidentes y con total transparencia para los clientes” El presidente de EE. UU., Donald Trump, anunció este domingo 4 a través de sus redes sociales Truth Social que autoriza al Departamento de Comercio y al Representante Comercial de EE a imponer un arancel del 100% a las películas producidas fuera de EE TelevisaUnivision y el canal tlnovelas anunciaron las novenas en cuanto al proceso de remasterización de contenido que arrancó en 2019 y a la fecha supera las 2 mil horas anuales y un total de 47 títulos finalizados es el más reciente producto remasterizado con ayuda de la IA Peacock anunció el lanzamiento de cuatro nuevas series originales lideradas por artistas emergentes desarrolladas y ejecutadas por creadores de la nueva generación: Charlie Curtis-Beard exitosas estrellas de las redes sociales con seguidores apasionados y negocios en crecimiento Kerrigan y Vongirdner colaboraron con NBCUniversal a través del Creator Accelerator Program una iniciativa pionera en la industria que identifica y desarrolla a la próxima generación de creadores de contenido premium Una nueva temporada de El gran chef famosos: Extremo llega a Latina Televisión de Perú y ya se dieron a conocer a los seis primeros participantes de los doce nuevos famosos que prometen darlo todo en la cocina PRODU sigue manteniendo a la industria informada con entrevistas exclusivas. Este lunes 5 llega una nueva edición de #PRODUprimetime con Ríchard Izarra desde Bogotá con Rodrigo Guerrero y Cristina Echeverri, directores de AG Studios. Los Chávez, produced by Cinemat, arrives on Disney+ on September 11 Disney Latinoamérica presentó fuerte programación unscripted con Los Chávez que se estrenará próximamente en Disney+ Usamos cookies para ofrecerte la mejor experiencia en nuestra web Puedes encontrar más información sobre qué cookies estamos usando o desactivarlas en los ajustes Esta web utiliza cookies para que podamos ofrecerte la mejor experiencia de usuario posible La información de las cookies se almacena en tu navegador y realiza funciones tales como reconocerte cuando vuelves a nuestra web o ayudar a nuestro equipo a comprender qué secciones de la web encuentras más interesantes y útiles Las cookies estrictamente necesarias tiene que activarse siempre para que podamos guardar tus preferencias de ajustes de cookies Si desactivas esta cookie no podremos guardar tus preferencias Esto significa que cada vez que visites esta web tendrás que activar o desactivar las cookies de nuevo Dan Cody is a journalist based in London. His focus is increasing the search visibility of Newsweek's reporting across all subjects. Dan joined Newsweek in 2024 from the London Evening Standard and had previously worked at The New Statesman. He is a graduate of Nottingham Trent University. You can get in touch with Dan by emailing d.cody@newsweek.com either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content commemorates the birthday and legacy of the civil rights and labor leader who championed the rights of farmworkers it is officially recognized in several states and marked with various closures and commemorations The holiday, established as a federal commemorative observance by President Barack Obama in 2014 is recognized differently across the country Some states close government offices and schools while others honor the day without official closures Most Los Angeles city and county agencies will be closed on Monday in observance of César Chávez Day Public transit via LA Metro buses and subways will operate on a regular weekday schedule library branches and animal shelters will be closed Several community centers will also shut their doors for the day All county public health clinics will be closed as well pools and administrative offices will be closed Curbside trash pickup and MTS transit services will continue as normal Denver city offices will be closed on March 31 in honor of Chávez's birthday and motor vehicle title and registration offices recycling and compost collection will proceed on the usual schedule Multiple offices and agencies in El Paso will be closed for César Chávez Day: and Sun Metro buses and BRIO services will operate on a regular schedule Dallas and Tarrant counties will close their offices on March 31 This marks the first year that Dallas County is officially observing César Chávez Day as a county holiday following a vote in August 2024 Grand Prairie has also adopted César Chávez/Dolores Huerta Day as an official city holiday "The city said at the time there will be 'commemorative festivities to celebrating their enduring legacy each March 31 beginning in 2025.'" César Estrada Chávez was born on March 31 He co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with Dolores Huerta in 1962 which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW) Chávez led national campaigns to improve working conditions for farm laborers through nonviolent means se puede," as a rallying cry during a fast conducted in 1972 it can be done" in English and became central to the commitment to nonviolent methods for achieving change César Chávez Day remains a growing symbol of labor rights and Latino civil rights across the U.S Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsweek is committed to journalism that's factual and fair Hold us accountable and submit your rating of this article on the meter. Newsletters in your inbox See all After the dirt was turned at the ground-breaking ceremony for the new Dennis Chaavez Elementary in Los Chavez those gathered joined in a spirited rendition of “Loyal and True,” the district’s official fight song told those gathered for the ground-breaking ceremony of the new elementary school in Los Chavez that will continue to bear the name of Dennis Chavez how proud she was of her grandfather’s commitment and legacy of education in New Mexico the ground-breaking ceremony for a new Dennis Chavez Elementary School in Los Chavez was successfully completed last week The row of golden shovels was first taken up by members of the Belen Board of Education administrators from Belen Consolidated Schools as well as representatives from Jaynes Corp The second group to throw dirt was arguably the most important — a flock of Roadrunners from DCE and principal Andrea Montaño donned hard hats and turned over a shovelful of sandy dirt on the now nearly empty campus on N.M The campus has been vacant since students and staff were relocated to the H.T Jaramillo Elementary campus in Belen at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year in anticipation of the rebuild beginning in the spring of 2023 Jaramillo Elementary was officially closed as a school site for BCS at the end of the 2021-22 school year after the district had to redraw attendance boundaries to account for dropping enrollment In order to continue receiving state funds to rebuild school sites the district had to “right size” its elementary campuses to make use of unused space Getting approval from the New Mexico Public Schools Finance Authority for demolition of all the buildings on the campus except for the gymnasium and plans for a new school was a long Demolition was completed in September last year leaving the DCE campus ready for a rebuild dozens gathered on the campus to celebrate the next phase in the project BCS Superintendent Lawrence Sanchez said the day was a time to pause and celebrate how far they had come and recognize they were not done yet “A theme of every thing I’ve done this week has been giving thanks,” Sanchez said Thursday “We need to stop and give thanks at this point in the project.” growth and opportunity for the children of Los Chavez and all of Valencia County I want to thank the community for its unwaivering belief and support of education,” he said Sanchez said the design for the new school created by Huitt-Zollars captures the spirit of Los Chavez and thanked the company for its willingness to listen to the community According to the time line provided by Jaynes the new school is projected to be finished by August 2026 The new school will continue to bear the name of the late U.S who represented the people of New Mexico in the United States Congress from 1931 to 1962 a man Sanchez said “dedicated his life to fairness Tristani said she was honored and excited to see the new school come to fruition remembering her grandfather’s dedication to education “He only went to school until the seventh grade but he continued educating himself by reading at the Albuquerque Public Library,” she recalled Belen Board of Education president Jim Danner said the new campus is an example of what the board has been moving toward — student outcome focused governance nurturing learning environment,” Danner said While the student’s and staff of DCE have been temporarily uprooted and housed in the old HTJ campus Montaño said the Roadrunners continue to succeed according to the state’s school performance reporting system attitude and school culture,” Montaño said academics succeeds,’ truly honors the ideals of Dennis Chavez.” Dendinger can be reached directly by calling 505-823-7803 Email notifications are only sent once a day LOS LUNAS — A proposed shopping center could bring some big changes and big names to Los Lunas west of Interstate 25 — if developers and the village are able to come to an agreement (Editor’s Note: The following agendas should be considered draft agendas until 72 hours prior to the meetings.) LOS LUNAS — The Los Lunas Library is cooking up an exciting community initiative aiming to celebrate and connect the community through the rich culinary traditions of Valencia County the most iconic superstar announced the launch of his own reality show that will be called “Los Chávez” offering an unprecedented view of his family life exposing on television the triumphs and controversies that marked his professional and personal life The greatest Mexican champion announced on his social networks that he decided to share with his followers the life of his family something he had not contemplated until now “Now people will be able to know what really happens in my family and many other things,” Julio commented head of distribution and production for Disney in Latin America described the show as a combination of The Osbournes and The Kardashians interesting and extraordinary” nature of the Mexican champion’s life Los Chávez will air on the Disney+ streaming platform We share the trailer for the series that shows Chávez with his children Julio César Jr. — World Boxing Council en Español (@wbcboxeo) August 14, 2024 LOS CHAVEZ — An alleged road rage incident has led to a Los Chavez man being drug to death beneath a car reporting someone had been run over by a black car near the intersection of Seabell and Peyton roads When deputies from the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office arrived they found the body of Masimiano Jaramillo Swarthout is charged with an open count of murder in the first degree He was booked into the Valencia County Detention Center and released to pretrial services on Thursday “a streak of blood going (in) a half circle was observed in the intersection.” A witness who lives near the intersection said he saw both vehicles stopped in the intersection approached the Hyundai and put his hands on the hood of the car “Then the black vehicle (the Elantra driven by Swarthout) ‘floored it’ forward hitting Jaramillo,” the witness told officers he observed the vehicle driving in circles dragging the male underneath the vehicle ...” The man called 911 “Multiple witnesses state that it appeared Bryan had intentionally ran over Masimiano,” the report reads Jaramillo’s two young daughters were in the Yukon at the time of the incident consistent with a vehicle making ‘donut’ style turns that appeared to come from the Hyundai .. there was a circular pattern of what appeared to be blood tracing from the tires of the Hyundai and the decedent ...” who arrived at the scene just after the incident occurred later identified as one of Jaramillo’s daughters under the black car trying to pull her father out The witness said Swarthout told him he was driving west on Peyton and the Yukon Swarthout allegedly told the witness he flipped off the driver of the Yukon then made a U-turn and followed the SUV to take a picture of the license plate When the two vehicles got to the intersection Jaramillo got out of his vehicle and Swarthout hit him while he was trying to go around him The witness said Swarthout told him he only made one circle and then stopped During an interview with VCSO detective Rashad Pearson Swarthout said he was driving westbound on Peyton but made a U-turn to go back east to the Dollar General on N.M A white Yukon was traveling fast behind him He said Jaramillo yelled at him as he was passing Swarthout stopped the Yukon at the intersection to avoid hitting someone on a four-wheeler then Jaramillo approached the front of his vehicle ‘You’re going to have to hit me,’” according to the criminal complaint Swarthout told the detective he “just drove forward trying to turn out of the way,” hitting Jaramillo and said “it happened so fast.” Pearson told Swarthout it appeared there were multiple turns in the roadway and then Swarthout “remembered taking multiple turns.” The first turn to try to avoid Jaramillo Pearson notes Swarthout said he was trying to go home it appears (Swarthout) could have reversed to try and avoid (Jaramillo) The criminal complaint stated the length of the blood trail — about 51-feet long — indicated Swarthout did not make an immediate stop after hitting Jaramillo Dendinger can be reached directly by calling or texting 505-823-7803 Updated 2/27/25 to reflect new information LOS LUNAS — The Los Lunas Schools Board of Education announced at the Feb 18 board meeting that Acting Superintendent Susan Chavez has been selected to lead the district as its new “I am very honored and blessed to serve our district in this capacity,” Chavez wrote in an emailed statement “We have an incredible district with first class staff and extraordinary students Thank you to our school board for having faith in me to lead our district.” The board began a brief search for a new superintendent in early February with the application window lasting 10 days — from Feb The board voted at a special meeting on Feb would conduct the search and vet the candidates They also voted during that meeting to form a superintendent search advisory committee to help form the basis of interview questions for selected finalists The BOE and committee were scheduled to meet Feb but that has since been canceled as no finalists were identified at the Feb the board reviewed the applications in a closed executive session lasting about half an hour the board unanimously voted in approval of offering the position to Chavez effective July 1 They also voted in approval of scheduling an executive session at a later date to discuss contract details “I’m very shocked and I’m very honored,” said Chavez following the vote “I love Los Lunas Schools; it’s a huge part of who I am.” “We are going to put a lot of faith in you,” responded Board President Michelle Osowski has spent her entire career working at Los Lunas Schools she has served in a variety of capacities throughout the district as a general and special education teacher inclusion support coach and educational diagnostician she was named the director of special services overseeing the special education department she also served as assistant superintendent “I am a product of this school district and it is my moral imperative to serve our community,” wrote Chavez in her letter of interest submitted to the board our future demands that we do the best for our children I am committed to perpetuating the educational opportunities for our students and to do the work necessary to ensure positive outcomes so that our students will be able to be successful in their choice of future endeavors.” Chavez has a bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education and a master’s degree in language she also noted she is currently pursuing a PhD in special education “I am well versed on current and seminal research which I will incorporate into practice in this district,” she wrote which is a major reason why I chose to pursue a Doctorate I am a lifelong learner and strive to improve myself each day.” “Chavez plans to prioritize enhancing curriculum and to continue building on the district’s commitment to excellence.” “I am a team player and believe that teamwork is a cornerstone of our district,” Chavez wrote “My varied positions in the district provided me the opportunity to build relationships and earn the respect of many employees across the district I believe this is a strong foundation to support my role as the superintendent I will continue to bring stability to our district to catapult Los Lunas Schools to the next level.” Osowski said in an email that the board received eight applications but only two submitted completed employment applications only one submitted a completed and notarized criminal history affidavit as required per the application instructions According to information received from Osowski through an Inspection of Public Records Act request teacher/ principal at Haaku Community Academy in San Fidel assistant superintendent of human resources at Hazelwood School District in Saint Louis chief academic and federal programs officer in Truth or Consequences Municipal School District founder/consultant of Focus Educational Consultants based in Houston ninth-12th grade founding principal at Duval MYcroSchool Charter High School in Jacksonville who most recently worked with the New Mexico National Guard in recruitment and retention a foundations project lead in the drilling industry Link to press materials: https://disney-comm.cimediacloud.com/r/CLSb0Pz5IwIl the new Disney+ in Latin America will provide its subscribers with an expanded array of relevant and quality content for all audiences On a single platform and through simplified access subscribers will be able to enjoy the depth and breadth of series and live entertainment from Star and ESPN sports expanding the content offering that already included stories from Disney’s beloved brands The new Disney+ will feature major premieres and new seasons of beloved series for Latin American audiences including: ESPN’s wide sports offer will be available for Disney+ subscribers who will be able to enjoy all the cricket’s attraction all the courts of the major tennis tournaments Together with leading production companies from the region new Latin American productions of various genres and starred by recognized talents will soon make their debut on the platform the continuation of the iconic Colombian series; on July 19 the third season of the successful Argentine series The Boss; and on July 24 the acclaimed Brazilian drama series (these last two from the production label Star Original Productions) projects such as the second season of the docureality The Montaners; Checo Pérez: ¡No te rindas a new docuseries about the renown Mexican F1 racing driver; the documentary DANNA: Tenemos que hablar – Un filme de Childstar which follows the personal and professional transformation of the artist; the dramedy The King of the Machos starring Luis Tirado Morales and Christian Chávez; the reality Los Chávez featuring Mexican boxing legend Julio César Chávez and his family; the new comedy series Mamá Cake starring Susana Alexander and María Antonieta de las Nieves; The Absent Voice based on the best-selling novel by Gabriel Rolón starring Benjamín Vicuña and Gimena Accardi; and the dramedy series The Best Heart Attack of My Life based on the famous namesake story by Hernán Casciari The deep and broad integrated content offering of the new Disney+ is formed by thousands of hours of quality entertainment from all genres and for all audiences The Company’s general entertainment offering will be grouped into a new Star section (including Searchlight Pictures original productions created entirely in Latin America the most renowned and respected brand for sports fans in the region under the new ESPN section; in addition to the series Disney+ parental control feature* will ensure that the platform remains a suitable streaming experience for all family members Subscribers will be able to create profiles protected by a PIN and establish subscribers will be provided with new plan offerings that cater to different preferences and needs of consumers the new Disney+ will be available through three subscription plans**: Subscribers who already have a direct subscription to Disney+ or Combo+ will start to enjoy the Disney+ Premium plan as of June 26 For more information please visit, help.disneyplus.com INFORMATION VALID FOR CARIBBEAN ISLANDS ONLY Disney+ has parental controls that subscribers can configure to ensure that each profile has an appropriate experience according to content ratings in each territory Content with a higher rating than that of the selected profile will not be shown when browsing or searching for content the standard content classification for new subscribers will be 18+ Those who already have profiles created simply need to verify that their setting is adapted to the content they wish to enjoy Disney+ Premium will be the only package available from June 26th ***The audio and video quality will vary according to the subscription package internet’s downloading speed and content viewed in the moment E-mail: [email protected] twitter.com/DisneyPrensaMx The great Mexican champion remembered a sad passage of his life Julio Cesar Chavez is one of the greatest sportsmen in Mexico's history and one of the most beloved celebrities by the general public for his frank personality which has left him with followers beyond boxing the sport in which he shone in the 80s and 90s he lost everything he earned due to his addictions and the bad company he surrounded himself with the boxing legend acknowledged that a complaint from Julio Cesar Chavez Jr "I didn't want to get into that subject because (voice breaks) When you have children you will understand me you are more interested in drugs and alcohol than me'" but the proposal of the Los Chavez series helped to heal the problems and brought them back together He was the one who took me to a clinic for the first time and then I had to admit him They say that God's timing is perfect and my children are doing very well today it was so many years with Julio and Omar's pill addiction "God gave me another chance at life and I have taken advantage of it that championship of helping people against addictions is worth more than any boxing championship.. the Los Chavez series that I am doing today has reunited me with my children but doing it reunited us," said the analyst on TV Azteca © Unidad Editorial Información Deportiva Dr. Mark Chavez is among three defendants who signed a plea deal and are facing lesser charges in Perry’s death, which federal prosecutors chalked up to a conspiracy by multiple individuals to provide the actor with the drug. The two other defendants who have entered into plea agreements are Perry’s live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, and alleged drug dealer Erik Fleming. Two other defendants are not cooperating with prosecutors and face far more serious conspiracy charges. California Federal authorities have filed drug charges against five individuals in connection with the death of ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry aka the “Ketamine Queen,” presented herself as “a celebrity drug dealer with high quality goods,” according to court documents She’s accused of supplying Perry’s assistant with ketamine P,” allegedly injected the actor with the drug at his Pacific Palisades home Both have pleaded not guilty and are set to be tried in March During a brief appearance in federal court in Los Angeles on Wednesday Chavez was asked how he pleaded and replied your honor.” He is due back for sentencing in April and could face up to 10 years in federal prison Chavez agreed to surrender his medical license Perry, 54, was found dead in the hot tub of his Pacific Palisades home on Oct. 28. He died from “acute effects of ketamine,” according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office His death triggered a multiple-agency federal investigation Prosecutors last month revealed charges against what U.S Atty Martin Estrada dubbed a “broad underground criminal network” that supplied the actor In late September, about a month before Perry’s death, prosecutors allege, Plasencia learned the actor was interested in obtaining ketamine, a legal medication commonly used as an anesthetic, according to charging documents in the case. In announcing arrests in the death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry, authorities unveiled a disturbing narrative of the weeks leading up to his final day. Perry had taken the drug through his regular physician in an off-label treatment for depression. But abusers of the drug use it recreationally, drawn to its dissociative effects. After learning of Perry’s interest, Plasencia contacted Chavez, who previously operated a ketamine clinic, to obtain the drug to sell to the actor, authorities said. In text messages to Chavez, Plasencia discussed how much to charge Perry for the ketamine, stating, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Let’s find out,” according to court records. The doctors charged Perry $2,000 for a dose that cost Chavez $12, prosecutors allege. Chavez, as part of the plea agreement, admitted to diverting ketamine from his San Diego clinic to sell to Plasencia. Chavez admitted he lied to a drug distributor and submitted a prescription under the name of a former patient without their consent. Chavez transferred 22 vials of ketamine and nine ketamine lozenges, which were fraudulently obtained, to Plasencia for sale to Perry. Chavez “was fully aware that selling vials of ketamine to a patient for self-administration was illegal,” according to the plea agreement. Plasencia, although forbidden by the Drug Enforcement Administration from prescribing controlled substances, continues to practice medicine but must inform patients about the ongoing criminal case. Plasencia is facing one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, seven counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts of altering and falsifying documents or records related to the federal investigation. If convicted, he faces 10 years for each ketamine-related charge and 20 years for each falsification charge. Richard Winton is an investigative crime writer for the Los Angeles Times and part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2011. Known as @lacrimes on Twitter, during almost 30 years at The Times he also has been part of the breaking news staff that won Pulitzers in 1998, 2004 and 2016. Entertainment & Arts Sports Television Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map LOS CHAVEZ — A Valencia County man is facing child abuse charges after his one-month-old son was admitted to a local hospitals with multiple injuries. Anthony Griego, 21, has been charged with abuse of a child resulting in great bodily harm and intimidation of a witness. Griego was arrested on Thursday, Aug. 22, and booked […] LOS CHAVEZ — A Valencia County man is facing child abuse charges after his one-month-old son was admitted to a local hospitals with multiple injuries. Anthony Griego, 21, has been charged with abuse of a child resulting in great bodily harm and intimidation of a witness. Griego was arrested on Thursday, Aug. 22, and booked into the Valencia County Detention Center on a no-bond hold. He was released on Aug. 29 and ordered to report to pre-trial services by Los Lunas Magistrate Tina Garcia. According to the criminal complaint, Valencia County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to a home on Miller Road in Los Chavez on Friday, Aug. 2, in regards to an injured child having medical issues. When deputies arrived they saw bruising on the infant, and the child was taken by ambulance to the pediatric ER unit at University of New Mexico Hospital. Griego and the child’s mother went with him to the hospital. A UNMH social worker notified deputies there was bruising over the child’s entire body, including on his face and groin. A further examination found injuries that were described as “severe” by hospital personnel, including fractures to the skull and ribs, some of which were healing, as well as fractures to the arms. Doctors at UNMH told VCSO detectives the couple said their one-year-old son had been “jumping” on the infant and caused the injuries, however physicians said the injuries were inconsistent with that statement. The infant’s mother said she woke up about 11:30 a.m. on Aug. 2 and the baby was fine at that time. When she changed his diaper, he slumped over and went limp, she told deputies, which prompted the family to call 911. She said the bruising on his face could have come from how the child was burped and the ones on his head could have been caused from the one-year-old biting him. When interviewed, Griego gave the same explanations for the bruising, saying another child had jumped on and bitten the infant. Statements from a Child Abuse Response Team Report were included in the criminal complaint, which detailed the injuries to the infant, noting that none of the injuries were consistent with trauma inflicted by a one-year-old child. During the initial weeks of the investigation, statements given to law enforcement by Griego and the child’s mother were the same. In the middle of the month the woman contacted a VCSO detective and spoke to him without Griego. During the interview she said Griego threatened to kill her and then himself if she said anything different than what he told her to about the child’s injuries. She said she was sleeping when the baby began to cry and Griego went to check on him. When she asked him what happened the next morning, Griego wouldn’t talk about it. The mother said she and Griego were the only ones with access to the baby on the night of the incident and the next morning. Five other children — ages 17, 11, 7, 5 and 3 — were living in the home on Miller and were removed by the state Children Youth and Families Department. LOS LUNAS — A proposed shopping center could bring some big changes and big names to Los Lunas, west of Interstate 25 — if developers and the village are able to come to an agreement. LOS LUNAS — The Los Lunas Library is cooking up an exciting community initiative aiming to celebrate and connect the community through the rich culinary traditions of Valencia County. Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in. Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password. An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account. Gabriel Zendejas Chavez, who was indicted in 2018 in an investigation of the Mexican Mafia’s rackets in L.A. County jails, told U.S. District Judge George Wu he was guilty of a rarely filed charge of “misprision of a felony.” Chavez, 47, admitted that during a meeting with an inmate at a county jail, he became aware that a felony was being committed, did not report the crime to authorities and attempted to cover it up. Federal prosecutors have agreed to resolve Chavez’s case without prison time, a fine or any period of court-supervised release. Wu scheduled a sentencing hearing for Nov. 4. Ralph Rocha was a suspect in the death of Lucio Rodarte, whose body was found in an alley, blindfolded, gagged and handcuffed. Then Rocha became an informant for the ATF. Chavez’s lawyer, Meghan Blanco, said the guilty plea would probably result in the revocation of his law license. Chavez declined to comment after the hearing. Chavez went to trial on racketeering charges in 2022. Testifying in his own defense, he described going from being a high school English teacher studying law at night to becoming a criminal defense attorney representing some of the most feared inmates in California’s prisons. Chavez told the jury — at times through tears — that he got in over his head with clients who threatened him into going along with their rackets. Wu declared a mistrial after the jury failed to reach a verdict. Prosecutors struck a plea deal with Chavez after his lawyer accused them of withholding evidence during his 2022 trial — hundreds of thousands of pages of records from the prison files of the men with whom he was accused of conspiring. With a new trial scheduled to begin Oct. 1, Chavez signed his plea agreement last week. The conduct he admitted to in that agreement was a far cry from the charges that prosecutors leveled in a superseding indictment filed in February. According to the indictment, Chavez passed a message during an unmonitored legal visit that Frank “Little Man” Munoz, a Mexican Mafia member who’d fallen out of favor with the organization, was marked for death. Munoz was gunned down in Hawaiian Gardens in 2016. Ralph Rocha infiltrated negotiations between the Mexican Mafia and a cartel for the ATF. His handlers didn’t know he made secret tapes that would jeopardize the case. Prosecutors also implicated Chavez in a far-reaching plot to unseat Arthur “Turi” Estrada, a reputed Mexican Mafia member from Rancho Cucamonga. From his prison cell at Corcoran, witnesses testified at Chavez’s trial, Estrada controlled a network of underlings who collected money and sold drugs in nearly every prison yard in California. Some Mexican Mafia members held at the maximum-security prison at Pelican Bay accused Estrada of being greedy, witnesses said. Prosecutors asserted that Chavez met with Mexican Mafia members at Pelican Bay and San Quentin under the guise of legitimate legal visits to gather support for a move against Estrada. In a two-month span in 2014, Estrada’s right-hand man, David “Radio” Cortez, was killed in Tijuana and Estrada’s brother, George “Domingo” Estrada, was shot to death in Ontario. Both homicides remain unsolved. On the witness stand, Chavez denied taking part in the campaign against Estrada. His attorney asked what would have happened if he’d been caught in the middle of the two factions. “You’re done,” Chavez testified. “You’re dead. And if you’re lucky it’s just you, not anyone around you.” There is no mention of power struggles, shootings or even the Mexican Mafia in his plea agreement. All Chavez admitted was that he visited a man at the Los Angeles County jail whom he knew was engaged in racketeering and that he failed to alert the authorities. He acknowledged that he concealed the inmate’s crimes by using “hand gestures” and “coded language” and by writing down “names of members of the criminal enterprise.” It is a clear reference to a tape played at Chavez’s trial of a legal visit with Luis “Hefty” Garcia, a client of Chavez’s who wore a wire at the behest of the FBI. In the 52-minute recording, Garcia discussed with Chavez a plan to extort a $100,000 payment from the Mongols motorcycle club in exchange for the Mexican Mafia’s protection behind bars. Chavez admitted talking with Garcia about “a lot of illegal things” but insisted he had no intention of following through. He testified he agreed to go along with those schemes in the taped meeting only because Garcia had threatened to hurt his young daughter. Matthew Ormseth is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Before joining The Times in 2018, he covered city news and state politics at the Hartford Courant. World & Nation Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application She was surrounded by her loving family at the moment of her passing She was also preceded in death by her parents and husband Barbara married the late Gene Myers December 27th She was in the Order of the Eastern Star and also a member of a bowling league Barbara loved to spend time with her family and friends and talk on the phone for hours Family was at the center of Barbara’s life and she cherished every moment spent with her grandchildren and she took great pleasure in cooking meals that brought people together She is survived by her daughter Katherine Myers Barbara was a very loving and caring person who will be dearly missed A memorial service to celebrate Barbara’s life will be held on Tuesday July 2nd 2024 at First Baptist Church in Los Chavez followed by interment at Terrace Grove Cemetery in Belen Barbara Ann Myers will be remembered for her kindness and the enduring legacy of love she leaves behind knowing she made a profound impact on all who had the privilege of knowing her.  Enter your phone number above to have directions sent via text This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors Print Larry Herrera-Cabrera’s email to me in May was as polite as it was challenging He reached out shortly after The Times editorial board wrote about proposed state legislation that would attempt to right the wrong of Chavez Ravine Sponsored by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo the bill would require the city of Los Angeles to erect a monument to the families who were pushed out in the 1950s to make way for Dodger Stadium The city would also have to create a task force to study reparations for the “large long-lasting disparities” faced by those families and their descendants among others — to sing about the sordid saga from beginning to end That’s why I found Herrera-Cabrera’s email so fascinating “My wife and I are both descendants of three families that lived in Chavez Ravine up to 1950,” he began “Despite the legislative findings in [Carrillo’s bill] A community was uprooted for the land that became home to Dodger Stadium The city of Los Angeles should make amends to the displaced families of Chavez Ravine He went on to offer an alternative narrative I had never considered — one where Chavez Ravine families took the money the city gave them bought homes elsewhere and went on with their lives Where descendants feel insulted at the insinuation in Carrillo’s bill that they need help Herrera-Cabrera’s note added nuance to a tale long considered an open-and-shut professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o studies at Loyola Marymount University has spoken with Herrera-Cabrera as part of “Chavez Ravine: An Unfinished Story,” a multidisciplinary project she’s leading with former resident Carol Jacques that includes hundreds of photos and dozens of oral histories but especially with [the Chavez Ravine] population because the displacement was so egregious,” Leiva said The public long ago stopped paying attention to “what happened before and what happened after,” she noted which means “a lot of people don’t want to recognize or acknowledge any nuance.” I visited Herrera-Cabrera and his wife, Katherine, at their spacious San Juan Capistrano home earlier this month. It’s nestled on a hill resembling the neighborhoods where their parents grew up, except this is upper-middle-class suburbia instead of the “poor man’s Shangri-La,” as a photographer famously described Chavez Ravine and as Cooder titled a song Schaben / Los Angeles Times) In Herrera-Cabrera’s study a Biden-Harris sticker was wedged above a photo of his late mother Sally alongside photos of his biological father and maternal uncles in their World War II uniforms He described his decades in city and county government as a “progressive bureaucrat,” proudly remembering how he stood up to racist politicos in Santa Barbara County in the 1980s and officiated same-sex marriages as Long Beach city clerk after the Supreme Court legalized them in 2013 “Having that connection to [helping] the community was really important to me,” he said as we stood over a kitchen table to look at family photos shot around Chavez Ravine in the 1940s Three of his maternal uncles in Army uniforms around their mother at a park wearing sunglasses and bobby soxer skirts and sweaters “Our family’s history gave us strength,” the 71-year-old continued with bright eyes that make his glasses shine even more From the Archives: 1959 evictions from Chavez Ravine Most residents of Chavez Ravine had been relocated in the early 1950s but a proposed public housing project was scrapped you could sit on a hill and watch the games for free,” Herrera-Cabrera said but he preferred playing with cousins outside the house of a family friend while their elders listened to the game on the radio and reminisced about Chavez Ravine He can’t remember when he learned of the prevailing narrative casting the Chavez Ravine families as pitiable but he “didn’t care for it.” Nor did Katherine “Who wants to admit that they’re downtrodden?” she said before referencing the Arechiga family one of the last holdouts in Chavez Ravine before L.A County sheriff’s deputies forcibly evicted them They had lived at their condemned home without paying property taxes for years according to newspaper accounts at the time “Now they come back saying they want reparations?” she said “[Chavez Ravine] is more than just the photos of people being dragged out,” Larry Herrera-Cabrera added, referring to the infamous 1959 photo of four L.A. County sheriff’s deputies dragging a member of the Arechiga clan from her home Aurora Vargas is carried by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in 1959 after her family refused to leave their house in Chavez Ravine (Hugh Arnott / Los Angeles Times Archive/UCLA) His perspective about what Chavez Ravine should mean changed in 2019 after a trip to the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium to fulfill a promise to his mother There lies the grave of his maternal uncle an Army private who died in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest at 19 Larry and Katherine have at least a dozen relatives who served in World War II “To think they thought that fascism was worse than what they faced at home was telling,” she said “And then they returned and became successful,” Larry added and my Uncle Joe worked in the post office My Uncle Ted — Teodoro — he started a men’s fashion line.” Last year for the first time, the couple attended an annual reunion of Chavez Ravine families who call themselves Los Desterrados (The Uprooted) Larry displayed poster boards of his uncles’ World War II service I’d tell her those stories,” he proclaimed He sent a letter to the state Senate opposing Carrillo’s bill which is being considered by a Senate appropriations committee describing it as “hypothetical” and bad policy “The bill says people were left destitute,” Katherine said about the Latino families uprooted to build Dodger Stadium But even many Latino fans just aren’t interested Vincent Montalvo is a co-founder of Buried Under the Blue, a nonprofit that has long pushed for an apology from the Dodgers and reparations from L.A. County and city while urging people not to use the term “Chavez Ravine” for the neighborhoods of Bishop, La Loma and Palo Verde that were bulldozed to make way for Dodger Stadium. But they had nothing to do with Carrillo’s bill, which he said he “85% agrees with.” His group also wants three community centers to be built and named after Bishop, La Loma and Palo Verde. The land should be given back to the Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians, Kizh Nation, and all the parties involved in the displacement should issue a public apology, according to Buried Under the Blue. Montalvo, who grew up in Echo Park and whose grandparents owned a home in Palo Verde, said former residents have accused him “of wanting a handout.” “These things hurt,” he said. “But the older generation couldn’t even talk about what happened for forever. But I’ve told them, ‘With respect, you guys do what you’re going to do, and we’re going to do what we’re going to do. And some of you are going to jump back on the wagon, and that’s OK.’ ” Carrillo, whose district includes Dodger Stadium, told me, “I’ve learned that when advancing policy ideas, some will say it goes too far, while others may say it doesn’t go far enough. But ultimately, we move the needle toward justice, and we try to do as much good for as many people as possible.” On the criticism that her bill casts Chavez Ravine families as perpetual victims, the Assembly member was more straightforward: “There are no victims, but there are survivors.” Larry agrees with her and Montalvo on one thing: a monument. But he wants it to focus on the good of his elders, as much as the bad that happened to them. “My family wasn’t dragged out of Chavez Ravine. Most families weren’t. Like my Uncle Joe would say, let it go like water off a duck’s back.” “If there were reparations, well, bring them back,” he said, referring to his uncles. “Bring back their stories. I didn’t suffer. It should be about what they did. That is Chavez Ravine’s legacy.” The Dennis Chavez Elementary campus has been empty since beginning of the 2022-23 school year The original goal for a ground breaking was June of this year and the superintendent remains hopeful the project will kick off close to that “… we should be able to break ground over the summer,” he said “The proposed completion date is December 2025 into January 2026…” LOS CHAVEZ — A Belen elementary school has sat empty for almost two years now as the Belen Consolidated Schools district and state work through the details of demolition and eventual rebuild of the campus BCS Superintendent Lawrence Sanchez said getting to the rebuild of Dennis Chavez Elementary in Los Chavez has been a long process with challenges along the way “I’d say those have to do with the fact that we are co-owners of the property with the state,” Sanchez said “This is not only a big investment for the district but for the state The goal is to have buildings constructed that will last 30 or 40 years DCE’s students and staff were relocated to the H.T Jaramillo was officially closed as a school site for BCS at the end of the 2021-22 school year after the district had to redraw attendance boundaries to account for dropping enrollment The superintendent said the last utility line on the DCE campus — a data line that serves Logsdon Hall an administrative building just north of the campus — was located and moved earlier this month and this has been my experience in Belen Schools is that they were built in phases and there aren’t always good plans indicating where the utilities are especially if they’re underground,” he said “We had to do further surveys to find all of them”  Now the district is working with the New Mexico Public Schools Finance Authority to identify the contractors for the demolition Sanchez said the district has received quotes for the demolition which will be brought to the Belen Board of Education at its April 23 meeting for consideration. the district and PSFA went through three iterations of the architectural contract before the agency approved an agreement with Albuquerque-based architectural firm Huit-Zollars as well as other state public education departments reviews all the documents and plans associated with the project “with a fine-tooth comb,” Sanchez said “They don’t want to waste taxpayer’s money and neither do we If I was personally custom building a house there are adequacy standards we have to meet The superintendent said he has heard the criticism that the district should have left students at DCE until it was time to start demolition we would have had to maintain Jaramillo while we were waiting for the move using tax dollars to keep a facility up-to-date for future occupation,” he said The initial plans for the rebuild of the Dennis Chavez campus included keeping the gymnasium as well as the north wing which was going to be remodeled “to adequacy,” the superintendent said it was found the roof trusses ran north to south along the long axis of the building “With that situation the cost to remodel was almost as great as it was to rebuild” the superintendent said “The cut-off point (for PSFA) is about 70 percent (of the rebuild cost) work has continued on architectural plans and the design of the new campus “We have been working with the architect and the planning committee Everything has to be vetted before it can be finalized,” Sanchez said “If there is going to be a mistake or something needs to change We don’t want to be building and have to make changes Taking our time during the planning stage is going to be a good use of taxpayer dollars.”  “The proposed completion date is December 2025 into January 2026 We want to be (in the new school) by August 2026 The district will be responsible for 48 percent of the total cost of the rebuild of the campus NMPED has not yet finalized the total cost The superintendent did say the original cost of the project was estimated to be about $35 million but he now expects it to be higher due to rising construction prices LOS CHAVEZ — Even though students at Dennis Chavez Elementary have spent the first half of this year at the old H.T the existing DCE campus in Los Chavez on N.M “It’s basically hurry up and wait,” said Belen Consolidated Schools Superintendent Lawrence […] “It’s basically hurry up and wait,” said Belen Consolidated Schools Superintendent Lawrence Sanchez the state is our partner in this and they have a big say They finally approved the architectural contract.” The decision to rebuild about half of the DCE campus was due to the overall under use of space across the district While Jaramillo Elementary was in line for a complete rebuild 5 by the New Mexico Public Schools Finance Authority is overbuilt — having more than 117,000 square feet of unused space among its elementary campuses — the state would most likely turn down the district’s request for money to rebuild the school The initial plan for a new Jaramillo school was for 350 students the board of education approved attendance boundaries that eliminated HTJ as a school site and pushed those students onto other campuses its kindergarten through third-grade population will shift to Rio Grande Elementary Rio Grande will transition to a K-3 campus and fourth- through sixth-graders will go to Central Elementary in a sister-school relationship such as the current one between Jaramillo and Central at a cost which has ballooned to $25 to $30 million that the district would be expected to pay for fully bond funds and system improvement grants were able to shift to a partial rebuild of the Dennis Chavez Elementary campus the superintendant said there would be a kickoff meeting held now that the New Mexico Public Schools Finance Authority has signed off on the architectural contract “We went through three iterations before the contract met the requirements of PFSA,” he said “Once we are able to meet with the architects The hope is to begin with asbestos clean up inside the building you get a lot of floor tile and ceiling tiles that turn to dust “That would be the first piece of activity the public will see then once that’s done The asbestos clean-up time line is somewhat fluid since the amount of asbestos in the buildings coming down is unknown The plan is to take down the 100 and 200 buildings “We want to make sure everyone is on the same page and that takes some time,” Sanchez said “This is an expensive project and we all want to be careful how the money is spent and make sure it’s discussed in the contract so there are no hidden surprises.” Construction of the new buildings at the DCE campus is slated for the spring of 2023 Gas line work continues at Belen High School Repairs of underground gas leaks at Belen High School that started in November are still ongoing Sanchez said after several attempts to repair the old lines the decision was made to run new lines throughout campus “The first phase was running new lines to the majority of the buildings Work has been ongoing to get the cafeteria back the auditorium and other classrooms,” he said it has to be inspected to make sure everything is safe and then they move on to the next section.” BHS students were moved to remote learning briefly but brought back to campus the week before Thanksgiving Sanchez said there was concern about bringing students back on campus but the repair company TLC has assured the district there’s no danger the state doesn’t allow us to say ‘we’re going remote.’ Once we got gas back to the main building the reason to not have kids in class was removed That’s one of the reasons we went back before (Thanksgiving) break.” New Mexico Public Secretary of Education Kurt Steinhaus let districts statewide know they needed a “good reason” to go full remote otherwise students would have to make up the remote days “With the help of TLC and hard work by our maintenance department Construction areas are blocked off and we are working around what we need to do,” he said the Valencia County Fire Department posted an update on Facebook indicating the fire LOS CHAVEZ — Multiple county fire districts as well as local and state agencies responded to a late night bosque fire in Los Chavez on […] as well as local and state agencies responded to a late night bosque fire in Los Chavez on Monday Valencia County Fire Chief Brian Culp said crews were called out to the fire at about 10 p.m. we found the fire was within the bosque,” Culp said “It ended up burning less than five acres; no structures were involved.” The fire was in the area of Camino de Los Chavez and Banco Road The fire did not jump to the east side of the river “Winds were fairly calm but there were some gusts that threw it into areas with structures off of Banco We had crews patrolling the area to check for spot fires,” Culp said The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District assisted by bringing in a bulldozer to cut fire lines on the north and south ends of the fire We’re bringing in a state forestry investigator to try to determine the cause.” management of the scene had been turned over to state forestry the city of Santa Fe assisted by sending a hand crew to the fire “Valencia County crews stayed throughout the night until daylight,” the chief said “We couldn’t enter the area because of the cottonwood trees burning The fire wasn’t freely burning as of Tuesday morning and state forestry crews were checking for and putting out hot spots “They have to do work on taking care of what’s called the aerial so fire can travel up through them and starts coming out,” he said it will do what they call ‘crown’ all the way to the top.” The chief reminded residents of Valencia County that conditions were extremely dry at this time and open burning isn’t allowed in most of the county and its municipalities “Just a reminder that when state forestry put out the burn ban on May 13 Print Before Chavez Ravine became the sun-dappled baseball field of the Los Angeles Dodgers it was a different field of dreams for the homeowners who made a community there In the hills north of downtown Los Angeles mostly lower-income Mexican Americans as well as a number of other nonwhite and immigrant families bought homes in the neighborhoods of La Loma Barred by racial covenants and other discriminatory practices from living and buying elsewhere in the city they turned the 315 acres of Chavez Ravine into a thriving the neighborhoods looked poor and blighted (It would have helped if the city had provided better services.) Los Angeles Housing Authority official Frank Wilkinson came up with the idea to turn the area into a shimmering new public housing project that would be called Elysian Park Heights decade-long process to get people out of their homes by offering what were considered below-market cash offers or by taking properties through eminent-domain proceedings The reparations task force has been working for two years on a plan to readdress the generational effects of racism and slavery on Black Californians Even before the last residents were forced out the city agreed to trade the Chavez Ravine land to Walter O’Malley for a minor-league baseball field he owned in L.A The destruction of the community and the unjust treatment of its residents is a blight on L.A.’s history far worse than the condition of the neighborhoods torn down Now, a state bill would give the city a chance to address what it did to Chavez Ravine residents. Assembly Bill 1950 authored by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) would give descendants of the affected families — and any surviving residents — what she says is “fair and equitable compensation.” The bill is part of a growing movement for reparations for people whose property was unjustly taken over the decades “Communities have been robbed of generational wealth” by the taking of their homes Liberal and conservative justices seemed to grasp the cruelty and futility of fining or jailing people simply for sleeping outdoors when there aren’t enough shelters The bill would require the creation of a task force to figure out how many descendants are due compensation what is fair compensation for each depending on what they received at the time how they should be compensated now and what the city could afford to pay in reparations But it isn’t clear exactly how many people this will affect or how much it would cost the city All we can do is tackle these situations on a case-by-case basis Governments should be held accountable for their past misdeeds and redress them with more than apologies on the freeway system feeds into a pot of racism and segregation that’s been stewing for nearly a century The Chavez Ravine families are believed to have received mostly below-market cash offers for their homes. Kamren Curiel the granddaughter of Palo Verde landowners wrote in a 2021 article for LAist that her family was offered $6,450 — for two houses they owned She calculated that would be $63,398 in 2021 dollars and today the houses would be worth a million dollars forcing the family to sell robbed them of the ability to hold onto and build wealth from the property “It was totally unjust,” she told an editorial writer “They were all totally taken advantage of because they were Mexican I don’t think they felt empowered or educated enough to speak up for themselves.” Some had to accept what was given to them through the eminent-domain process which allows the city to take property for public use as long as the owners are fairly compensated Some refused to leave their homes until authorities literally carried them out All had been told they would get first dibs on returning to the newly created housing One reason that the compensation seemed low was that it was possibly only for temporary relocation since everyone had been promised a return to the new housing development in exchange for giving up their houses professor of history and Chicano studies at UCLA but a right to housing should be essential in Los Angeles the bill calls for the city to create a permanent memorial and a database of displaced residents along with government notices and documentation of payments that people received The bill specifies several ways to compensate people: offering city land or money to descendants of former homeowners healthcare benefits or compensation to residents who were not property owners Carrillo says it will be up to the city and task force to figure out what reparations are possible white neighborhoods successfully fought such projects What made this case particularly egregious is that the “public good” was never built a community was uprooted for land that went to a private baseball stadium Carrillo points out that the displacement was the city’s doing And Dodgers officials certainly knew about the displacement in Chavez Ravine The city should shoulder the responsibility for amends But the Dodgers should find a way to give back to the families who sacrificed the land that became the Dodgers’ home The Los Angeles Times’ editorial board determines the positions of The Times as an institution. It operates separately from the newsroom. You can read more about the board’s mission at About The Times Editorial Board The charges against Gallegos were amended on Tuesday after the Office of the Medical Investigator informed Belen police Detective Joe Rodriguez the manner of Fertic’s death was ruled a homicide 13th Judicial District Court Judge James Lawrence Sanchez filed an order for Gallegos to be held without bond After a pre-trial detention hearing on Aug the judge determined “no reasonable means of release could ensure the safety of the community …” BELEN — A Los Chavez man is facing an open count of murder after a man he allegedly stabbed in late July died from his injuries was originally charged with aggravated battery after allegedly stabbing Belen resident Les Fertic Belen Police Chief James Harris said Fertic died in an Albuquerque hospital on Saturday He had been on life support at the University of New Mexico Hospital since he was transported there the day he was stabbed Gallegos is now charged with an open count of murder When officers arrived at a home in the 500 block of N Fertic was sitting in a chair in the yard while emergency medical personnel with the Belen Fire Department applied pressure to the wound on his neck there was a pool of blood in the dirt beneath the chair As he was being transported to the hospital medical personnel informed BPD officers the injuries on Fertic resembled stab wounds looking for any blood between the son’s home on First Street and Fertic’s apartment on Second Street at La Hacienda Apartments No blood was found and multiple witnesses at the First Street home denied knowing what happened to Fertic after viewing video surveillance footage from the apartment complex officers saw Gallegos walking around the neighborhood followed by Fertic walking to the First Street home from the back (east) side of the apartments “Moments later you can hear a loud ‘bang’ and you can see Les (Fertic) and Andrew Gallegos AKA ‘Smiley’ having a physical altercation,” the criminal complaint reads The complaint also reports people in the area during the altercation between the two men can be heard on the video shouting “stop it,” “help him” and “enough.” Fertic made his way to the First Street home where he was found by EMS personnel and BPD officers Gallegos is seen leaving the property on the south side The 13th Judicial District Attorney’s Office filed a motion for pretrial detention on Aug arguing Gallegos should remain in custody until his case goes to trial due to his criminal history Gallegos is in custody at the Valencia County Detention Center Gallegos has a criminal history dating back to 1995 when he was convicted of criminal sexual penetration and sentenced to nine years in prison Gallegos faced charges such as aggravated burglary attempted possession of a firearm by a felon and negligent use of a deadly weapon were arrested and charged in the murder of Adrian Burns shot twice in the head and set on fire in a remote area near Bernardo The charges against both men were dismissed due to lack of probable cause but they were included in an indictment that charged dozens of alleged members of the Syndicato Nuevo Mexico prison gang According to Santa Fe New Mexican reporter Phaedra Haywood Gallegos’ 2019 conviction and life sentence for the Burns murder was overturned by a federal appeals court His and his brother’s prosecutions hinged on the killing being related to the gang under the federal Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering law While there is evidence Andrew “Smiley” Gallegos and his brother might have participated in the 2012 killing of Burns judges for the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in their April 17 opinion there was no evidence the crime was related to the gang A hearing on the DA’s motion and a preliminary hearing for Gallegos was set for 10 a.m. before 13th Judicial District Court Judge James Lawrence Sanchez The hearing took place after News-Bulletin press time and the outcome is unknown at the time of this writing “Everyone is OK,” Tina said Tuesday morning [et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ theme_builder_area=”post_content” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” type=”4_4″ theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″] LOS CHAVEZ — The Abeyta family is salvaging what they can after a fire destroyed their house and business but Tina Abeyta is definitely finding things to be grateful for in the aftermath Fire crews from Valencia County and nearby municipalities responded to the blaze at Shades of Tint in the 4900 block of N.M Valencia County Fire Chief Matt Propp said no one was injured in the blaze The exact cause of the fire is still pending but early indicators point to an accidental fire “The owner and his family are well known in the community He actually just did some work for us at our offices.” A fire destroyed a Los Chavez family’s home and business last week fire crews from several agencies responded to a structure fire at Shades of Tint [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″] The home and business were attached to one another and the entire structure will have to be demolished some of the stuff on the bottom we’re able to salvage,” she said “There are a lot of clothes and pictures even a kindergarten teacher with Belen Consolidated Schools was at work when she got a call from her husband’s employee “I could tell right away something was wrong Joe Ray and their three children were initially staying with her mother-in-law “We were staying at her place until we found a place And we’ve found a place already,” she said “They were already moving out this last weekend and we’re already moving in He is putting it on people’s hearts to help A GoFundMe campaign has been set up for the family had already raised $19,356 of the campaign’s $100,000 goal Go to gofundme.com and search for “Joe Ray Abeyta Family,” to find the correct campaign [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section] celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on May 28 Bill retired as superintendent of Mountain States Road Construction and enjoys breeding quarter horses for racing Pinky is retired as owner of The Germanwurst food vending They also have six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren The Meiers celebrated their golden wedding anniversary with a barbecue and dancing with close family and friends FC Juárez forward Diego "El Puma" Chávez died in a car crash, the soccer club confirmed on Facebook. where Chávez was trapped inside his red Volkswagen Beetle car after losing control and crashing into a sign in the median "With deep sadness we inform the entire JC Juárez community that our player Diego "El Puma" Chávez died early this morning on Feb 14 in a car accident," FC Juárez's post began in Spanish as well as his spirit of dedication and love for our colors." The 28-year-old made 15 appearances in two seasons with FC Juárez His Liga MX career began in 2015 and included a loan to Juárez in 2016-17 Juárez was scheduled to host Puebla Saturday evening at the Estadio Benito Juárez. No word has been released on the status of that match. FC Juárez is set to play the El Paso Locomotive in a friendly on March 20 at Southwest University Park. Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter. LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio, a member-supported public media network. Before Dodger Stadium was a legendary baseball venue, it was known as Chavez Ravine. The area was home to generations of families, most of them Mexican American. After the Dodgers made the deal to ditch Brooklyn, Los Angeles officials used eminent domain and other political machinations to wrest that land away from its owners. It was ugly. It was violent. It remains the sort of living history that Los Angeles residents don't like to remember. Chavez Ravine was named after Julian Chavez, a rancher who served as assistant mayor, city councilman and, eventually, as one of L.A. County's first supervisors. In 1844, he started buying up land in what was known as the Stone Quarry Hills, an area with several separate ravines. Chavez died of a heart attack in 1879, at the age of 69. By the early 1900s, semi-rural communities had sprung up on the steep terrain, mostly on the ridges between the neighboring Sulfur and Cemetery ravines. What eventually came to be called Chavez Ravine encompassed about 315 acres and had three main neighborhoods — Palo Verde, La Loma and Bishop. It had a grocery store, a church and an elementary school. Many residents grew their own food and raised animals such as pigs, goats and turkeys. Many Mexican American families, red-lined and prevented from moving into other neighborhoods, established themselves in Chavez Ravine. Residents of the tight-knit community often left their doors unlocked. Outsiders often saw the neighborhood as a slum. City officials decided that Chavez Ravine was ripe for redevelopment, kicking off a decade-long battle over the land. They labeled it "blighted" and came up with a plan for a massive public housing project, known as Elysian Park Heights. Designed by architects Robert E. Alexander and Richard Neutra and funded in part by federal money, the project was supposed to include more than 1,000 units — two dozen 13-story buildings and 160 two-story townhouses — as well as several new schools and playgrounds. In the early 1950s, the city began trying to convince Chavez Ravine homeowners to sell. Despite intense pressure, many residents resisted. Developers offered immediate cash payments to residents for their property. They offered remaining homeowners less money so residents feared that if they held out, they wouldn't get a fair price. In other cases, officials used the power of eminent domain to acquire plots of land and force residents out of their homes. When they did, they typically lowballed homeowners, offering them far less money than their land was worth. Chavez Ravine residents were also told that the land would be used for public housing and those who were displaced could return to live in the housing projects. One way or another, by choice or by force, most residents of the three neighborhoods had left Chavez Ravine by 1953, when the Elysian Park Heights project fell apart. Norris Poulson, the new mayor of Los Angeles, opposed public housing as "un-American," as did many business leaders who wanted the land for private development. The city bought back the land, at a much lower price, from the Federal Housing Authority — with the agreement that the city would use it for a public purpose. By 1957, the area had become a ghost town. Only 20 families, holdouts who had fought the city's offers to buy their land, were still living in Chavez Ravine. In June of 1958, voters approved (by a slim, 3% margin) a referendum to trade 352 acres of land at Chavez Ravine to the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Walter O'Malley. The following year, the city began clearing the land for the stadium. On Friday, May 9, 1959, bulldozers and sheriff's deputies showed up to forcibly evict the last few families in Chavez Ravine. Residents of the area called it Black Friday. Sheriff's deputies kicked down the door of the Arechiga family's home. Movers hauled out the family's furniture. The residents were forcibly escorted out. Aurora Vargas, 36, was carried, kicking and screaming, from her home at 1771 Malvina Ave. by four deputies. Minutes later, her home was bulldozed. Crews eventually knocked down the ridge separating the Sulfur and Cemetery ravines and filled them in, burying Palo Verde Elementary School in the process. The Arechiga family, led by 66-year-old matriarch Avrana Arechiga, camped amid the rubble for the next week before finally giving up. Crews broke ground for Dodger Stadium four months later, on September 17, 1959. While it was being built, the Dodgers played games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The 56,000-seat Dodger Stadium opened on April 10, 1962, on a site that thousands of people had once called home. It is currently the third oldest major league ballpark still in use, after Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. This story tells a little about some of the people who lived in Valencia County and whose obituary appeared in the News-Bulletin in late 2022 and 2023. Victoriana “Vicky” Carlton, of Los Lunas, retired after putting in 35 long years with the Los Lunas Hospital and Training School. She died Nov. 14, 2022.   Beltran “Bert” Chavez, of Belen, worked in the engineering department for the Gas Co. of New Mexico, which eventually became PNM, where he retired after 42 years of service. He died Dec. 14, 2022.  ♦Phil H. Martinez Jr., USN (Retired), aka Marty, of Los Lunas, was the proud owner of Marty’s Muffler Shop. He faithfully served in the U.S. Navy for 22 years, serving in Vietnam. Phil was actively involved in the community, working with the Rio Communities Optimist Club and Belen Christian Church. He died Dec. 27, 2022. Jackson “Jack” Cornelius, of Belen, spent 44 years enjoying his time working for the railroad before retiring in December 1990. He died Dec. 28, 2022.  Philip “Bull” Garcia, of Los Lunas, was a volunteer firefighter, YAFL assistant football coach, and worked for Los Lunas Schools for 19 years. He died Jan. 8.   Albert “Alberto” Chavez, of Veguita, had a 29-year career with the University of New Mexico, and also owned and operated Chavez’s Water Wells and was co-owner of United Septic Pumping. He died Jan. 18.  ♦Dennis Allen Raven, of Belen, was a U.S. Navy veteran, a cabinet maker and a licensed minister. He died Jan. 18. ♦Fiorello Casale, age 92, of Rio Communities, was drafted during the Korean conflict and served honorably in the United States Army from August 1951-1953. Fiorello and his wife, Arlene, settled in Rio Communities in 1981, and operated Fiorello’s Restaurant on East River Road for 30 years. He died Jan. 22. Gerald Lee Cox was a farrier, dairy farmer, logger, bull fighter, guide and outfitter, ranch hand, cattle buyer, bus driver for firefighters and water tanker driver for wildfires. He died Jan. 22.  Albert A. Tapia, of Belen, contributed to numerous charitable animal and preservation organizations in his time. He died Jan. 24.  Carolina B. Cogswell, of Los Lunas, was employed by and retired from Southwestern Bell Telephone after 21 years of service. At the 1960 National Drag Races in Kansas City, Mo., Carolina won her E class race driving a 1952 Studebaker convertible, and is credited with being the first woman to win a nationally-sanctioned drag racing event. She died Jan. 25.  Doris Dolores Martinez, of Belen, was a third-grade teacher for Los Lunas Public Schools since 2006. She died Jan. 26.   Elizabeth Jean Scalf, of Belen, was a member of the VFW Ladies Auxiliary and the Women of the Moose. She was also a member of the Belen Christian Church. She died Jan. 26.  Sylvia Lantz, of Bosque Farms, was a member of the Women’s Professional Bowlers Association, participating in several U.S. Opens and tournaments across the United States. She taught Sunday School, Royal Rangers, was active in Bus Ministry, Prison Ministry and hosted Intercessory Prayer. She died Feb. 5.  ♦Jimmy Sanchez, of Rio Communities, was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, serving in Vietnam. He was a successful businessman in Belen, specializing in accounting and taxes. He served his community on the Belen City Council, Our Lady of Belen Parish Council, along with other civic organizations. He was a member of the La Merced Moose Lodge 2550, where he was proud to receive the Moose Fellowship Degree of Honor in October 2021. He died Feb. 5.  Miguel Herculano Hidalgo, of Los Chavez, worked on anything with a motor and his latest passion of raising longhorn cattle. He died Feb. 6.   Lily Mudge, of Canyon, Texas, and formerly of Belen, was a devoted employee of the show “TEXAS” for more than 35 years. She died Feb. 8.  ♦Richard Curtis Clark, of Belen, served in the U.S. Army and worked for the ATSF railroad for 42 years, retiring in 1995. He died Feb. 9. Joshua Martinez was an HVAC journeyman, a member of Sheet Metal Local 49. He died Feb. 16.   Jeffrey “Jeff” Eckroth, of Los Lunas, was a machinist and retired from General Electric in 2005. He died Feb. 17.   Beverly Conner, of Rio Communities, was a Rainbow Girl, a member of Debettes and cheer leading in high school, as well as playing the marimba in band. She was a Cub Scout troop leader, and a 30-plus years member of Sewing Club. She died Feb. 19.   Bobbie Ann Sullivan Salaz, of Los Lunas, spent more than 30 years of her life as an educator, first teaching in Cuba, N.M., then in Los Lunas. She retired from the school system after 30 years, but she was always a teacher. She died Feb. 19.   Ruben Jaramillo, of Belen, was a successful business owner of Ruben Jaramillo Plumbing & Heating, serving Valencia County and the surrounding area. Ruben was a member of Our Lady of Belen Catholic Church. He died Feb. 22.   Harold W. Cox III, of Belen, devoted more than 39 years to Burlington Northern Railroad as a locomotive engineer, but most recently he began to enjoy his retirement. He died Feb. 25.   Manforita (Peralta) Gallegos, of Belen, was a member of Our Lady of Belen Catholic Church, and was proud to be a member of the Catholic Daughters of America for more than 45 years. She died Feb. 25.   Mary Edith Romero, of Los Chavez, along with her late husband, Frank, owned and operated Frank’s Septic and Pumping business for many years. She was a devoted member of Our Lady of Belen Catholic Church, the Catholic Daughters of America, and enjoyed being part of the Widow Mights. She died Feb. 25.   Dean J. Sanchez, of Belen, worked as a computer engineer for more than 25 years. He died Feb. 27.  Harold Dean Polf, of Los Lunas, was an active member of the Bosque Farms Church of Christ. He died March 8.  Glenda Sue Bussey, of Belen, was employed at Huning LLC and Belen Consolidated School. She died March 9.  ♦Albert Leroy “Jake” Jacobs was a tool and die maker for 32 years. He spent almost four years in the military with the U.S. Army as a paratrooper and radio communications chief from 1955-1958. He was a member of Calvary Chapel New Harvest in Los Lunas. He died March 10.  June Henderson-Evanoff, of Peralta, was a member of Rio Grande Valley Church of Christ, in Belen. She died March 12.  Johnny Rumigio Gonzales, of Bosque Farms, retired from JW Jones Construction as a project superintendent. He died March 14.  Salomon “Salo” Moya, of Peralta, retired from Sandia Labs, where he worked as a millwright and, after retirement, helped establish and volunteered for the St. Vincent de Paul Society for 10 years. Salo also helped establish and run the Valencia El Cerro Volunteer Fire Department in the 1970s. He died March 14.   Eligio J. Aragon, of Los Lunas, was an excellent mechanic, and had been flown out to Egypt for a dig and been written up in Archaeology Magazine. He died March 17.   Danny Max Thompson, of Los Lunas, who retired from the real estate industry, was active in the Christian Fellowship Church of Los Lunas. He died March 20.   ♦Robert Baca, of Belen, served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He retired from AT&SF Railroad in Belen after 40 years of employment. He was an usher at Our Lady of Belen Catholic Church, a member of the Knights of Columbus, and served on the supervisory committee for the Belen Railway Credit Union for 20-plus years. He died March 21.  Rita Roberta Garcia, of Peralta, taught students in many different Los Lunas Schools in Valencia County, and was co-founder and chief financial advisor of CG’s Concrete, which opened their doors in 2000. She died March 23.  Wanda Louise Truman, of Los Lunas, was big in the rodeo community and enjoyed showing her animals and being part of the Bosque Farms Rodeo queen contest and the Roadrunner’s riding club. She died March 23.  Angela “Angie” Granger, of Peralta, belonged to the Servite Order (Order of Servants of Mary). She spent countless hours volunteering and attending services at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Peralta. She died March 24.  Frank Lopez Jr., of Belen, was a member of Our Lady of Belen Catholic Church, and worked for Belen Consolidated Schools. Frank’s favorite job was working at Frank Lopez Trucking. He died March 24.  ♦James “Jim” Nield Chapman, of Los Lunas, was a U.S. Army veteran, started his own business, “B’s Honey Farm” along with his brother, Jerry, supplying New Mexico with natural raw honey. He died March 26. Theodoro Saavedra Otero Sr. had a 43-year distinguished career with the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. He died March 28.  Magdalena Maria Rundles, of Belen, served as head nurse of the surgical floor of Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, and donated to the care of stray dogs. She died April 2.  Carol Mioduszewski, of Rio Communities, worked as a bookkeeper and IT manager at Gesu Catholic Church and School in Detroit, Mich., where she was an active member of the Gesu parish. She died April 6.   Ida Sanchez Rios, of Belen, retired as bursar from the University of New Mexico-Valencia campus, where she was employed for more than 30 years. She died April 11.   Jason James Ulibarri, a Belen native, worked as an EMT. He died April 16.  Diana Virginia Martinez Coplen, of Los Lunas, served as the elected Valencia County treasurer. She died April 17.  Curtis Bernard Sanchez, of Los Lunas, was employed by Indian Health Service as a young man and was then transferred to Rockville, MD. After his departure from IHS, he was employed by the Smithsonian Institution. His last position was associate director for Policies and Resources, Office of Contracting and Personal Property Management. He retired in August 2022. He died April 19.  Candelaria “Kandy” Sanchez Cordova, of Rio Communities, served as the Catholic Daughters of America’s state grand regent, president of the Rotary Club and the Greater Belen Chamber of Commerce, served as the Valencia County clerk from 1988 to 2000, New Mexico State representative District 7 from 2001 to 2007, and on boards of several nonprofit organizations. She died April 21.   ♦Francis “Frank” Louis Sherman, of Los Lunas, served in the United States Army. He worked for the New York State Department of Corrections for 10 years before he moved to New Mexico in 1970, where he obtained his building contractor’s license. After retiring, Frank was a bus driver for Los Lunas Schools. He died April 21.  Richard “Dickie” Baldonado, of Belen, worked as a corrections officer for several years in the 1980s in Los Lunas and, in 1994, he started his career with the city of Belen and began working as the parks and recreation supervisor and the community services director. He died April 27.  Helen T. Goodson, of Belen, worked side by side with her husband, Ray, farming and later owning a ditch-lining business until his death in 1991. She went on to be a pilot car driver. She died May 3.   Brian Joseph Jiron worked at Isleta Casino as a table games dealer. He would then become an officer for both the Bosque Farms and Isleta police departments, where he served for several years. After serving the community, he moved on to the car business and retired after 20 plus years. He died May 3.   Mary A. Roebuck, of Las Nutrias, was a cheerleader and student body president of La Joya High School and graduated with honors. Mary then received a degree from Sacred Heart University and began her career as an executive administrator and spent most of her career working for the federal government. She died May 4.  Duane Wright, of Los Lunas, moved to this area to be the administrator of the nursing home in Belen. He died May 5.   ♦Gene Mutchie, a U.S. Navy veteran, worked at the Sandia National Laboratories until he retired from his job after 28 years of service as a specialist in the machinist department. He died May 6.  Hugh Everett Coleman, of Bosque Farms, worked many years in his older brother’s jewelry business in Albuquerque, and then was employed by the United States Postal Service, where he retired. He died May 9.  James “Jimmy” Dean Trujillo, a native of Los Lunas, retired from REDW, LLC, after 39 years. Jimmy was a CPA on the board of directors, and lead of the tax department. He served in leadership in many organizations, including NM Society of CPAs, Delta Dental, NM Amigos, Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce, Robert O. Anderson Foundation, UNM Alumni Association, Leadership NM, NAIOP and UNM Lobo Club. He died May 14.   Frank Olguin, of Jarales, worked for the New Mexico Highway Department and retired from the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District. He died May 24.   ♦Nicholas “Big Jim” Goodreau, of Los Lunas, was of Lakota Sioux, Hidatsa decent. He served in the U.S. Army, playing on many Army basketball teams. He was a talented artist with many of his paintings hanging in various tribal offices. He died May 25. Benjamin Thomas Lujan, of Tomé, retired after a 37-year career with the New Mexico Department of Corrections. He died May 30. Benny T. Jaramillo, of El Cerro, was a pharmacist for more than 45 years, having worked at Joe’s, Guggino’s and Walmart. He was a long-time youth soccer coach, winning the Soccer State Cup. He was a life-long member of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Peralta, and he and his wife, Bernadette, served as mayordomos and padrinos of the infant baby Jesus He was a member of the Legion of Mary and the Knights of Columbus and  served on the cemetery committee. He died on June 3.  Paul Edward “Eddie” Montoya, of Peralta, was employed with Sisneros Bros. Manufacturing in Belen for 26 years. He died June 5.  LaRee Baca, of Belen, was co-owner of the Donut King, along with her mother, Diana Cole, and other family businesses. She was active with her family doing rodeo, karate, soccer, archery tournaments and hunting. LaRee was the assistant coordinator for the Valencia County Rodeo Queen Competition and on the committee for the New Mexico Rodeo Queen Competition. She died June 7.  ♦Manuel B. Perea, of Belen, was a U.S. Navy veteran, and was awarded the Nations Service Medal; National Defense Service Medal and Good Conduct Medal (1st Award). He worked for the state of New Mexico for 25 years as a social worker and supervisor in Valencia County, retiring in 1985. He died June 7. Grace Katherine Sanchez, of Bosque Farms, was active in running her father’s insurance agency — Culver Agency — in Belen. She continued in the insurance business with her daughter in running their own agency, Rio Grande Financial Network, in Los Lunas for more than 23 years. Grace was a member of Valley Lutheran Church; she had been treasurer for more than 40 years and just loved her church family. She died June 9.  Andy V. Ortega, of Belen, retired from Belen Schools after 25 years, and was a member of Our Lady of Belen Catholic Church for 51 years. He died June 16.   Carolyn Elizabeth Fernandez, of Belen, worked at the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District for several years, and volunteered with Meals on Wheels. She died June 17.   Clemente Artiaga, of Los Lunas, was a member of San Clemente Catholic Church. “Clem” was a plumber for 35 years at the Los Lunas Hospital and Training School. He died June 21.   Joyce A. Thomas, of Belen, worked as a zookeeper at the Albuquerque Zoo. She found a long career as an office manager working at Wells Fargo Bank and multiple dairies. She died June 21.   Peter “Pete” William Boccuzzi, formerly of Rio Communities, where he volunteered with the Telephone Pioneers, he worked with a group of fellow techies fixing talking books and building beep-balls (baseball for the blind and visually impaired). He was an active and faithful member of the United Methodist Church, serving as a trustee chairman while they built a new church in Belen. He died June 28.   ♦Dylan Keith Arroyo, of Belen, was a United States Marine Corps veteran, and served from 2011 to 2016, earning many decorations and medals, including a National Defense Medal and a Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal. He died June 29.  Lala Garcia Gabaldon (Garcia), of Belen, was a member of the Catholic Daughters, volunteered more than 20 years of service to the Belen St. Vincent de Paul Society, and actively supported the National Alliance on Mental Illness, died June 30.  ♦Jerry Don Smith, of Peralta, served his country during the Vietnam War and, upon returning, had a 30-plus year career at Sandia National Laboratories. He died July 1.  ♦Reuben J. Chavez, of Peralta, served in the U.S. Marine Corp., volunteered at the Los Lunas Fire Department for 17 years, and worked at the Los Lunas Youth Center for several years. He died July 2. Robert Sullivan, of Los Lunas, worked for First National Bank in Albuquerque, and later for Weststar Mortgage Corporation. He died July 2.   Deacon Michael Alexander Montoya, of Belen, was a deacon at Our Lady of Belen Catholic Church and served his community faithfully for 12 years. He was also employed at New Mexico Orthopedics. He died July 11.  ♦Isaac A. Bernal, originally of Belen, was a veteran of the U.S. Army, and retired from the VA Medical Center. He died July 12. Herbert W. McCants, of Rio Communities, worked as a carpet installer for many years at Carpet Warehouse. He died July 12.   Patricia “Patti” Harris Thompson moved the family to Los Lunas in 1990, when she began serving the community as a home health care nurse for pediatrics and NICU graduates for the next 30 years. She fostered more than 100 children. She died July 12.   Lillian Baca, of Peralta, was a long-time member of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, where she served in the Altar Society for more than 50 years, and was president of her ministry for many of those years. She was also a long time First Holy Communion faith formation teacher. She died July 19.  ♦Edward “Bub” LeClair Jr. was a decorated veteran who served in the Vietnam war as a U.S. Navy Seabee. He died July 20.  ♦Rene Leorase Scott, of Los Lunas, was a military policeman in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany and Hawaii. He died July 21.  ♦Bruce Wayne Botkin, of Los Lunas, served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1969 to 1970. He died July 28. Pamela “Pam” Kirkpatrick, of Rio Communities, was a member of The Body of Jesus Christ, a Prayer Warrior, Oasis Family Church and Living Water Fellowship Church. Pam was a founding member of “CMA” Christian Motorcycle Association Victory Rides of Valencia County. She died July 28.  Courtney “Flash” Hines, of Los Lunas, was an ASE master technician, who built the largest automotive repair facility in Albuquerque. He died Aug. 4.   Mary Lou Chavez, formerly of Belen, was the executive director of the Greater Belen Chamber of Commerce and helped lead the effort to bring the Farmers Market to Belen. She died Aug. 3.   Frances Sanchez dedicated more than 10 years of service as a bus driver for Belen Consolidated Schools. She died Aug. 6.   ♦CMS Basil Edward Lybrand was a U.S. Air Force veteran, was awarded the National Defense Service Medal with one Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, AF Commendation Medal, AF Outstanding Unit Award, AF Good Conduct Medal and Vietnam Service Medal. After retiring from the Air Force, he worked 12 years as a case manager with the New Mexico Department of Corrections. He died Aug. 8. ♦Francisco “Frank” Benigno Baca, of Los Chavez, was a navigator in the U.S. Air Force, educator and farmer. He died Aug. 12.  Katie Bell Mauldin, of Los Chavez, worked in the Bosque Farms Church of Christ food ministries. She died Aug. 13.   ♦Reynaldo G. Paez, of Abeytas, was a member of the United States Air Force, Disabled American Veterans Charity, Our Lady of Sorrows and Our Lady of Belen. He died Aug. 16.   Manuel Esquibel, a native of Belen, worked as an engineer at Allied Signal in Phoenix, Ariz., for 25 years before retiring. He died Aug. 21.   ♦Lawrence C. Hardy, of Los Lunas, was a veteran of the United States Air Force and a skilled aircraft mechanic. He died Aug. 22. Jerry L. Garcia, of Los Lunas, owned Jerry’s Barber Shop for more than 50 years in Farmington. He died Aug. 25.  Christopher John Knecht, originally of Belen, was a program manager for Providence Health and Services in Seattle. He died Aug. 25.  Vitalia Chavez worked as a beautician, and helped with the P&M Farm business until she and her husband opened the Pizza Express restaurant, then subsequently Little Anita’s  and Route 66 Grill and Gifts restaurants. She died Aug. 28.  Jerred Zamora, of Adelino, was a long-tenured employee for the BNSF Railway and farmer. He died Aug. 29.    ♦Rudolf Cavalier, a Belen native, was a disabled veteran of the Vietnam war, having served in the U.S. Air Force, and was a sculptor. He died Aug. 31. Josephine Chavez-Harris, of Peralta, worked as an assistant bookkeeper for Los Lunas Schools while still in high school, and at Sandia National Laboratories for more than 10 years. She died Sept. 3.   Enedina M. Rael, of Bosque Farms, owned and operated Rael’s Grocery and Meat Market in Peralta with her husband, Ramon. She later worked for the New Mexico Department of Human Services, where she retired from. She died Sept. 5.   Orlando Gallegos, of Belen, was known in Belen as a master mechanic and worked at many auto shops. He died Sept. 8.   ♦Felix Trujillo, of Belen, was known as “The Million Dollar Man,” served in World War II. He went on to retire from his career as an electrical engineer for PNM. He died Sept. 8. Ruth Marie Gettings, of Belen, as a member of Women of the Moose. She worked at TG&Y and Blake’s Lotaburger during the day and bartended at night. Ruth then worked at IGA in Belen as the deli manager until she retired. She died Sept. 12.   Delicia “Delly” Sanchez, of Peralta, worked for and retired from Los Lunas Schools. She died Sept. 12.  Cruzanne Dziuk, of Belen, taught at Daniel Fernandez Intermediate until she retired. She died Sept. 22.   Willie Brewster, of Belen, owned a mechanic shop in Albuquerque and assisted many in the community with their vehicles. He was a member of First United Methodist Church of Belen. He died Sept. 23.  Elreena Angela Montoya Gallegos, of Los Lunas, worked as a teacher’s aide in elementary schools and as a child care specialist for the state of New Mexico. She continued her career as a child care specialist in Albuquerque until she retired in 2003. She died Sept. 26.   Priscilla V. Silva, of Tomé-Adelino, was a member of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Tomé. She died Sept. 26.  Jack Williams, of Las Maravillas, retired from the New Mexico Department of Corrections, where, for several years, he served with honor and distinction, making a significant impact as the armory sergeant and being a part of the CERT team. He died Sept. 26.  ♦Johnny Sanchez, of Jarales, was a member of Our Lady of Belen Catholic Church and the New Mexico National Guard in Belen for 23 years. He died Sept. 30. ♦Francisco R. “Frankie” Esquibel, of Belen, was a member of Our Lady of Belen Catholic Church. Francisco proudly served in the United States Army. He died Oct. 2.  Charlie Myers, of Belen, was recruited to manage the Belen Sale Barn in 1973, and for the last 50 years, was the face of Cattlemen’s Livestock in Los Chavez. Charlie owned two other livestock auctions, a rodeo company (A Rocker Rodeos) and a trucking company. He was an avid supporter of the Valencia County Fair youth. He died Oct. 3.   Shawn Patrick “Shawngo” Ammons, of Rio Communities, was passionate about being involved with the youth in the Belen Parks and Recreation community. He died Oct. 6.  William “Bill” Crow, of Belen, was a member of Bethlehem Lodge 56, Jessamine Chapter #45, the Order of the Eastern Star, was Master of the Masonic Lodge and a past member of the Elks and Sunset Club of New Mexico. He worked with AT&T for 30 years. He died Oct. 6.   Floy Kathy Justus, of Los Lunas, worked at GE Aircraft Engines and retired after 25 years. She died Oct. 9.  Kenneth L. Trujillo, of Belen, worked for the railroad and was active in Our Lady of Belen Catholic Church. He died Oct. 10.   ♦Jerry Lee Trout, of Rio Communities, taught mathematics at Tatum High School and Aztec High School while serving in the New Mexico National Guard. He was awarded “Teacher of the Year” during his tenure at Aztec High, and was also awarded the Army Commendation Medal for his exceptional service as plans officer for the 111th Air Defense Artillery Brigade of the New Mexico Army National Guard. He died Oct. 12. ♦Don Yates, of Bosque Farms, was a U.S. Army veteran who served during the Korean war. He was an all-around cowboy and retired from the Farm Bureau Insurance Co. after 35 years. He died Oct. 13.  ♦Roland Bazen served four years in the U.S. Navy. He died Oct. 15. Rosemary Agorichas a member of the First Baptist Church of Los Chavez, was a volunteer at the Belen Area Food Pantry and area nursing homes. She died Oct. 16.  Angie Cano, of Belen, retired after a 17-year career as a corrections officer from the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas, where she and her late husband, Aveleno, formed support groups for the inmates. She was also a beloved Brownie leader. She died Oct. 16.  ♦Herminio P. Molina, of Jarales, worked at Sandia Labs as a millwright for 35 years, worked at the Santa Fe Railroad, and also served in the National Guard for a short time. He died Oct. 18. Nancy Romero, of Los Lunas, was a member of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. She died Oct. 22.  Salvador Navarrette, of Belen, lived most his life as a farmer, a dairy farmer and worked at SEC Corporation. He died Oct. 24.   ♦Fabian Daniel Paul Armijo, of Sabinal, N.M., retired from Social Security Administration after 40 years. Fabian also served in the National Guard. He died Nov. 1.  Ana “Anita” Peralta, of Los Lunas, retired from Los Lunas Schools after 30 years. She died Nov. 1.   Celedon Aragón, a native of Valencia, was a physicist, rocket and nuclear scientist and a civil-rights leader advocating for the advancement of Hispanos in New Mexico. He died Nov. 2.   Chris F. Lopez, of Los Lunas, spent most of his life working as a gardener and landscaper, owning and operating a small business, Triple L Landscaping & Maintenance. He died Nov. 2.   ♦Gene Marquez, of Belen, served in the Army National Guard, as a police officer for Albuquerque Police Department until retirement in 1984, and then worked for Sandia Labs, where he was a general contractor and then continued with Social Security Administration as a security officer. He died Nov. 2.  Beulah Mae (McDaniel) Wilson, of Belen, was a member of the Belen Coffee Club. She died Nov. 4.   ♦Carl Rae Allen, of Bosque Farms, was a U.S. Navy veteran who served during World War II, worked in the insurance field, served as Bernalillo County manager and was mayor in Bosque Farms from 1984-2000. He died Nov. 8.  Albert Romero, of Belen, was a department manager at Walmart for 32 years. He died Nov. 9.   Martin Trujillo, of Los Lunas, was a member of Our Lady of Belen Catholic Church as well as the Elks Lodge, where he was the proud recipient of a Commendation Award for his work with the drug awareness program. He retired from Los Lunas Hospital and Training School after 25 years of service. He died Nov. 9.   ♦Jacobo Reynaldo “Jake” Garcia, of Belen, was U.S. Army veteran, having served a total of six years on active duty and in the reserves, both stateside and overseas. He worked in construction, and other jobs, from fixing a car to paving a driveway, before getting permanent employment as a maintenance worker with Computer Sciences Corp, where he retired. He died Nov. 12.  Eduardo “Eddie/Ed” Apodaca Patricio Garley, who owned a jewelry store in Old Town and farmed alfalfa in Abeytas, died Nov. 18.   ♦William “Bill” Sullivan, of Belen, enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, where he spent four years as a radar operator. He was employed by Sandia Corporation, and received the Karl Heinz Gyr and Heinrich Landis Commemorative Prize in 1971 by the British Institute Electrical Engineers. He retired from Sandia in 1994. He was a member of the British Car Club of America and in various antique cars with the VMCCA Touring Club. He died Nov. 22.  Patsy Ruth (Bell) Rich, of Bosque Farms, worked for the Los Lunas Schools for many years. She died Nov. 23.   Bernice Faye McNabb, of Belen, worked for Mountain Bell Telephone Company in Albuquerque as a switchboard operator and then ended her career retiring from Los Lunas Hospital and Training School. She died Nov. 26.  Mirella Degano Burke, of Los Lunas, was an Italian immigrant, and taught herself English and quickly assimilated into her new culture. She worked different jobs in the service sector until asked to provide childcare full-time for a family. She died Nov. 27.   ♦Ramon Baca, of Belen, was a veteran of the New Mexico Air National Guard. Ramon was a highly-respected farmer in Valencia County, growing mostly alfalfa for hay and corn for silage. He died Nov. 29. ♦Tony G. Baca, of Belen, enlisted in the United States Army at age 17 in 1946. He served in the Army until 1951, and received the Overseas Service Ribbon, the National Defense Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, the Army of Occupation Medal-Germany, the World War II Victory Medal and the Army Good Conduct Medal. He taught his children to play and dance and formed The Baca Family Band — Valencia County’s version of “The Partridge Family.” He died Dec. 5. ♦Vincent J. Lardner Jr., of Los Lunas, served two years in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He started Rocky Mountain Stone in 1963, while concurrently running a commercial masonry contracting business, Lardner Masonry. In 1983, he closed down the masonry business to pursue a new venture with New Mexico Travertine, a state-of-the-art natural stone processing facility in Belen. He died Dec. 7. Sandra Louise Armijo, of Belen, was a member of Our Lady of Belen Catholic Church, where she was a former finance volunteer. After a successful career as a full-time mom, she returned to the workforce in the early 1980s in the banking industry. She had a successful career at Ranchers State Bank and eventually retired from Wells Fargo in 2007. She died Dec. 8.   Brian C. Alexander, of Los Chavez, worked for State Farm Insurance Co. as a claims adjuster for several years before becoming a State Farm insurance agent in Los Lunas. He died Dec. 9.   ♦Harold “Tiny” Potter Sr., of Veguita, was a U.S. Army veteran. He retired as an operator from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the local 77 out of Seattle, Wash. He died Dec. 9. Randall Dale Krause, of Belen, was a mechanic, a farmer, a Greyhound bus driver and a truck driver. He died Dec. 12.   Guillermo “Anthony” Baca, of Belen, owned and operated Matador Construction Co. and built and remodeled many residential homes up and down the Rio Grande Valley. He also served one year as an interim pastor for the Cornerstone Church, and was employed by RAKS Building Supply, where he served as an assistant manager. He died Dec. 13.   ♦Melvin Boyd Smith, of Los Chavez, was a U.S. Army veteran and joined the service between the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. After the service, he worked for the Santa Fe Railroad, which later became the Burlington Northern Santa Fe for more than 40 years as a car inspector. He died Dec. 17. Celina G. Archuleta, of Belen, was a long-time educator for Los Lunas area schools, teaching children of all ages and served as the curriculum coordinator for Los Lunas Schools. She died Dec. 19. But beneath the sprawling grasslands and charming hiking trails, decomposing waste continues to generate methane gas. That’s why the city of Berkeley operates an underground system that collects this flammable gas and torches it at a large mechanical flare near the center of the park. Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change In recent years, environmental regulators have grown increasingly concerned that this equipment has fallen into disrepair and released landfill gases. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has fined Berkeley after finding explosive levels of methane leaking from at least two cracked gas collection wells in the park As the landfill has experienced power outages and equipment breakdowns the air district also suspects methane is migrating underground toward another bustling area The agency warns that ignitable levels of methane have been observed in shallow soil surrounding a nearby hotel and the Berkeley Marina “Methane there could explode under the right conditions such as a passerby dropping a lit cigarette on a still day,” air district attorney Joel Freid said at a public meeting in February Yet there have been no evacuations or closures in that time, as local officials have insisted there is no public safety risk. Berkeley officials and city contractor SCS Engineers also contend that the landfill is not the source of the high methane concentrations near the hotel In the last year Berkeley officials and the air district have sparred over whether the landfill-turned-park should upgrade its pollution controls as state and local regulators have recently called on Berkeley to investigate the source of the methane and take steps to thoroughly inspect its pollution control system for leaks “We are working closely with regulators to ensure that any errors in operations do not occur again,” said Matthai Chakko sampling and stringent safety protocols to ensure the system’s integrity kite fliers and those bringing family for walks.” Across California, aging landfills have presented communities with myriad problems, as these sites have struggled to control flammable methane emissions and toxic air pollution highlights the long-lasting health and safety risks associated with landfills especially as communities have sought to reuse this land to build schools and parkland founder of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University of Albany questions why public officials would convert former landfills into public spaces at all “It’s outrageous. It’s like Love Canal all over again,” said Carpenter, referring to the industrial dump in Niagra Falls, N.Y., that was disastrously turned into a neighborhood in the late 1970s. “It’s land that nobody else wants. And it gets used for public purposes, like parks and schools.” About 1.5 million tons of waste, including industrial debris from a steel mill, were dumped over the years into the now-decommissioned Berkeley Landfill. Like other municipal dumps, it generally consists of layers of compacted waste and soil that eventually was sealed with a layer of clay. Similar to oil and gas companies, landfill operators drill and construct a network of deep wells that extract gases produced by decomposing organic waste, such as food scraps. These wells must operate long after a site is closed to prevent gases from migrating to unwanted areas. Climate & Environment Calls are growing for the closure of Chiquita Canyon Landfill yet experts say that shutting the facility down won’t solve the problem the air district has become concerned with the condition of the Berkeley landfill’s equipment and maintenance It issued at least 14 air quality violations in 2023 air district inspectors smelled a “rotten egg” odor emanating from a gas well As they opened the well and attempted to gauge methane concentrations their monitoring device “flamed out,” indicating explosive levels of methane according to Bay Area AQMD air quality specialist Grace Leung Ore.-based landfill manager for SCS Engineers But the leaky well was not repaired for a week Air district inspectors also found that duct tape and foil had been used to regulate airflow on the landfill flare And Harquail couldn’t find five of the landfill’s 42 wells which may have been buried by construction or groundskeeping He told the inspectors he has occasionally used a pickax to try to unearth them “He told me it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Leung said at an air district meeting in February Harquail did not respond to requests for comment flare system and gas wells have gone off-line for periods of hours to several days soil probes around the nearby DoubleTree hotel have regularly detected methane above 5% At least two readings have been higher than 80% A spokesperson for the hotel could not be reached Commercial natural gas for heating and cooking is typically 85% to 95% methane gas “That is a significant concern from a safety perspective,” said Seth Shonkoff, director of the Oakland-based nonprofit research group PSE Healthy Energy “Unless there’s some sort of subsurface migration of methane to the surface you should not see that level of that magnitude is often commingled with other toxic air contaminants for which there is no safe level of exposure “The science on landfill gas composition is relatively young meaning that a variety of chemicals can be intermixed and be dissolved into it.” Martin Nicolaus can still remember how bleak Berkeley’s shoreline looked when a human-made peninsula jutting into San Francisco Bay served as the city’s municipal dump was stunned by the bottleneck of truck traffic the expansive field of rancid garbage and the multitude of pests it attracted “There were just mobs of rats and gulls shrieking overhead, grabbing whatever it might be edible there,” said Nicolaus, who is now president of the Chavez Park Conservancy But shortly after the city-owned landfill was ultimately closed in 1990 the grounds underwent a dramatic transformation Berkeley officials embarked on an ambitious plan to convert the former waste site into the present-day park The 90 acres of open space evolved into a popular destination, known for hiking trails and scenic views. It is home to an assortment of community events, including guided walks and an Easter egg hunt Ground squirrel burrows dot the park grounds as seen in this photo from a Cal Recycle report denoting one near the flare station fence (CIWMB / Cal Recycle) One creature that may be making matters worse They have been burrowing warrens underground across the park’s peninsula heightening concerns about potential gas leaks and spills of contaminated liquids But the city met stiff opposition to trapping or exterminating the rodents Nicolaus said the air district statements are alarmist He has expressed concerns over how extensive repairs might disrupt the decades of habitat restoration work “Ground squirrel burrows are all over the park,” Nicolaus said “You couldn’t probably find a square 10-yard area in the parkway that doesn’t have a ground squirrel burrow in it But are they going to chew through a plastic pipe The city has contended that the landfill is producing significantly less methane since its closure They say it’s not enough gas to continuously operate the gas collection system and flare argues that leaky equipment is releasing landfill gases into the environment which is why there’s much less methane being collected Berkeley has been ordered to fly a drone over Chávez Park and neighboring areas to search for leaks. It has also been called on to conduct an analysis comparing the landfill gas and the underground methane near the hotel and marina to determine whether they’re from the same source. If the gas is traced back to the landfill, the city will be required upgrade its gas collection system. Replacing the entire system is expected to cost $2 million. But even if another source is responsible for the methane, the city must still find a way to abate hazardous conditions and protect people visiting the hotel and marina. “If I had the option to stay or walk somewhere else,” Shonkoff said, “I would probably exercise that option.” The end of Berkeley’s first-in-the-nation ban on gas hookups is a setback for the climate, but a small one. Electric appliances remain better and more efficient. Tony Briscoe is an environmental reporter with the Los Angeles Times. His coverage focuses on the intersection of air quality and environmental health. Prior to joining The Times, Briscoe was an investigative reporter for ProPublica in Chicago and an environmental beat reporter at the Chicago Tribune. Politics he saw some combination of three framed pictures on the wall: portraits of the Rev Martin Luther King Jr.; of Kennedy’s father who had co-founded the United Farm Workers The elder Kennedy had grown close to the labor icon in the years before the senator’s assassination in 1968 “Those three represented hope and aspirations for people and “even poor whites,” Fernando Chavez recalled in an interview the two sons’ close ties are a distant memory has used Cesar Chavez’s name and image in his independent campaign for president eliciting outrage from Chavez family members “When we saw Bobby Kennedy begin to use images of my father and then when we heard about this event in L.A. it really prompted us to stand up and to make sure that people understood that the Chavez family does not support his campaign,” Paul Chavez “We’ve never seen anybody go as far as using that image for political gain,” Andres Chavez said of Kennedy’s campaign event invitation Fernando and Paul, as well as Andres — who runs the National Chavez Center in Keene — said they are endorsing President Biden for reelection Biden keeps a bust of the labor leader in the Oval Office, and Chavez’s granddaughter Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who once organized strawberry pickers and later worked for President Obama, now serves as Biden’s campaign manager. Chavez family members were also angry when they saw, in a recent Telemundo segment, an Associated Press photo of Kennedy Jr. helping carry Cesar’s casket during his 1993 funeral procession. The judge’s recommendation to yank the Trump advisor’s license to practice law in California will go to the state Supreme Court About 30,000 people attended that event, Fernando Chavez said, and when family members grew tired of carrying the simple pine box through the streets of Delano, Calif., others stepped in. Hundreds of people helped carry the casket for parts of the miles-long procession, including Kennedy Jr. A Kennedy spokesperson said that an intermediary had reached out to a member of the Chavez family to invite them to the event but had not received a reply Kennedy has been a friend to the Chavez family since he was a boy and was asked by the family to be a pallbearer when Cesar Chavez passed away in 1993,” the spokesperson “This event is a celebration of an organizing hero Kennedy’s father until the day RFK was murdered The campaign is proud to sponsor this celebration on the weekend that honors Cesar Chavez’s birthday in California.” Both Paul and Andres Chavez said they hadn’t been invited to the event or heard from the campaign Shanahan helped produce and pay for a Super Bowl commercial that relied on imagery and music from a television spot that John F Kennedy ran while running for president in 1960 The late Democratic president was Robert Kennedy Jr.’s uncle The Super Bowl ad angered many Kennedy family members, and some have since become more outspoken about their support for Biden and their frustration with their relative’s presidential run. Relatives of Chavez said it was painful to speak out because the Kennedy and Chavez clans remain closely connected — apart from Kennedy Jr. In 1988, Kennedy Sr.’s widow, Ethel, visited Chavez during one of his roughly monthlong protest fasts Kerry Kennedy, one of the presidential candidate’s sisters, visited California in 2018 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the United Farm Workers healthcare plan “My family and I repeatedly stood with Cesar and his cause,” she wrote in a January op-ed in the New York Daily News. In March 1968, Robert F. Kennedy, wearing a UFW black Aztec eagle pin on his lapel, was by Chavez’s side as he broke a 25-day fast meant to draw attention to the farmworker movement’s focus on nonviolent protest. It had been nearly three years since Filipino and Latino farmworkers began striking over low pay and dangerous conditions. “We have come here out of respect for one of the heroic figures of our time — Cesar Chavez,” Kennedy Sr. said at the time. “I also come here to congratulate all of you, you who are locked with Cesar in the struggle for justice for the farmworker.” Chavez, who had lost 35 pounds after subsisting only on water, was too weak to speak. This moment cemented a friendship that had formed two years earlier, when Kennedy visited Delano for a Senate subcommittee field hearing and expressed shock and anger at how farmworkers were being treated. As the the state hurtles towards the 2024 Senate election many Latino voters in rural California feel overlooked — more than even those living in the Bay Area or in Los Angeles with the 2024 presidential election just months away Chavez family members said they fear that in a close contest any support for Kennedy could help Republican Donald Trump regain the White House “I’m kind of horrified and saddened about that,” said Fernando Chavez who added that he hasn’t stayed in touch with Kennedy Jr Fernando and others pointed out how badly farmworkers were hit by COVID-19, partly fueled by rampant disinformation among Latinos about the vaccine’s efficacy. The Cesar Chavez Foundation worked to vaccinate farmworkers, Andres Chavez said, and Kennedy Jr.’s views on vaccines horrified him. “When Trump and Kennedy were spreading misinformation about vaccines in the pandemic, people were dying,” Andres Chavez said. “I don’t think my grandfather would stand by anybody who would be spreading this misinformation — knowing that farmworkers and Latinos were among the most impacted.” Benjamin Oreskes is a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. He covered state and national politics, City Hall, homelessness and wrote the Essential California newsletter. Before coming to The Times in February 2017, he covered foreign policy at Politico in Washington, D.C. pleaded not guilty to the charge and agreed to enter an immediate rehabilitation program Leer en Español Chavez will be released at some point today and will spend some time at a program working through some personal issues Julio remains in good spirits and his family appreciate the outpouring of support and encouragement,” Chávez’s lawyer said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times/Los Angeles Times en Español Former world champion Julio César Chavez Jr was arrested on suspicion of illegal possession of an assault rifle last weekend in Los Angeles Police responded Sunday afternoon to a call from an unidentified person who allegedly saw the boxer with a gun and was concerned that he might pose a danger to himself or others. Chávez had no previous history of possessing firearms, according to his lawyer. The news was first reported by TMZ The 37-year-old former middleweight champion and son of legendary boxer Julio César Chávez Sr. was detained by LAPD officers after they searched his home, and Chávez Jr. was taken to the Valley Jail Section in Van Nuys. According to the TMZ report, authorities found what is called a “ghost gun” in Chávez’s house, a firearm that is impossible to trace because it has not been legally registered. “The most important thing is to know that the family is supporting you. We are all here to help Julio, the judge, the court. All the people who are in court want the best for him,” Lupe Valencia, another of Chávez’s lawyers, said Thursday. Chávez has not seen action since he won a 2021 decision over David Zegarra in Culiacán, Mexico. However, his life outside the ring, especially his battle to combat drug addiction, which he frequently shares on social media, has been heavily publicized. Oriundo de Yucatán, México, Eduard Cauich se graduó en Periodismo de CSUN. Trabajó en Univision, MLSSoccer.com Ayudó en el lanzamiento de HOY en 2004 y en 2011 volvió a HOY Paul Leroy Chavez  Died 2023  Paul Leroy Chavez He could be found around Los Lunas having coffee with his many friends and girlfriends joking nature and encouragement will be dearly missed by his closest loved ones and friends His humor and memories also live on in his many nieces A memorial breakfast will be held at a later date Print Let me tell you about an American hero whom the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education might find He opposed undocumented immigrants to the point of urging his followers to report them to la migra He accepted an all-expenses-paid trip from a repressive government and gladly received an award from its ruthless dictator despite pleas from activists not to do so Undercut his organization with an authoritarian style that pushed away dozens of talented staffers and contrasted sharply with the people-power principles he publicly espoused And left behind a conflicted legacy nowhere near pure enough for today’s woke warriors Try Cesar Chavez The United Farm Workers founder is the first person I always think about whenever there’s talk about canceling people from the past and not just because this Wednesday is his birthday The Sierra Club acknowledges the racist history of its co-founder The board’s move was rightfully met with disbelief and derision In a year when parents are clamoring for schools to reopen this is what board members spent their time on And are kids really harmed if they attend a school named after Robert Louis Stevenson or Paul Revere Joe Biden is already making a memorable mark in the White House honoring beloved Mexican American figure Cesar Chavez in the Oval Office He remains by far the most famous Latino activist in this nation’s history, a modern-day secular saint of whom former President Obama said when he dedicated the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in Kern County in 2012 “refused to scale back his dreams He just kept fasting and marching and speaking out Chavez’s main cause — bringing dignity to farmworkers — remains so radical and righteous that to criticize his personal failures is still largely verboten That’s why there was never any call by the San Francisco school board to remove Chavez’s name from an elementary school in the Mission District Or for the same fate to befall city schools named after Martin Luther King Jr even though the former once advised a teenage boy in Ebony magazine that his homosexuality was a “problem,” while the latter called white people “devils” and spoke at a rally along with the head of the American Nazi Party President Biden has placed a bust of Cesar Chavez on a table behind his desk in the Oval Office (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) History — life — is not an easy-peasy snap-judgment call To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: Every saint had a past And Chavez is perhaps as great an example of this in California history It’s a thought that took me my adult life to realize and appreciate — and accept I remember when I first heard about him: freshman year in high school, when my white teacher lectured that he was a grand warrior for Mexican Americans like me. I agreed — and then realized my teacher wasn’t talking about the legendary Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez When I asked my mom — who was picking strawberries in El Toro as a teenager when the UFW was winning national attention — if she knew who Chavez was But once I learned the basics about his life — his marches boycotts and famous hunger strikes; his embrace of social justice and an ascetic lifestyle; his use of Mexican motifs like the stylized Aztec eagle that serves as the UFW’s symbol — Chavez entered my pantheon of heroes through my college years That changed in graduate school, when I read a 1992 memoir by Philip Vera Cruz The Filipino immigrant was already a legendary labor organizer when he helped Chavez establish the UFW and stayed by his side until 1977 when he criticized Chavez for hanging out with the Philippines’ president Vera Cruz’s memoir decried the organization he helped to found as turning “very ethnocentric When [UFW Mexican members] called out ‘Viva la Raza’ or ‘Viva César Chávez,’ they didn’t realize that all these ‘Vivas’ did not include the Filipinos,” he wrote they didn’t include anyone but themselves.” I didn’t even know until reading Vera Cruz’s book that Filipinos helped to start the original grape strike that led to the UFW In the late 1970s Cesar Chavez grew intent on keeping control My immature mind decided he could be a hero to me no more The movement built by Cesar Chavez has failed to expand on its early successes organizing rural laborers. As their plight is used to attract donations that benefit others, services for those in the fi I’m friendly with Pawel, so I’d send progress reports as I went through her book. It confirmed in wrenching detail why I felt Chavez wasn’t worthy of adulation, I thought. She encouraged me to read it all the way to the end, where I’d find a “surprise.” And there it is, on Page 475: Pawel asked a former Arizona UFW leader who had parted ways with Chavez long ago whether he still thought of him as a great man. “Palms up, he held his right hand above his head and lowered his left near the floor,” Pawel wrote. “On balance, he said, the good outweighed the bad. It was not even close.” When I asked Pawel recently if problematic people like Chavez should have their names stricken from schools and other monuments, her answer was quick: “Of course not. The fact that heroes have flaws don’t make them any less heroic. We’ve gone from hagiography to tearing people down.” Books Miriam Pawel’s ‘The Crusades of Cesar Chavez’ gives the labor leader credit for his stunning accomplishments but does not shy from his failures, paranoia and dictatorial style. During her book tour, Pawel feared that audience members might take issue with all the Chavez warts her book exposed. “But the responses was, ‘Yeah, we get it, we get he was human,’” she said. “They were not surprised to hear that he was more complicated than a two-dimensional postage stamp.” And so on Cesar Chavez Day, let’s remember that the hero was a man. And that Man, invariably, is no saint. Business Print A criminal defense attorney was charged in a federal indictment unsealed last week with conspiring to murder a member of the Mexican Mafia who had fallen out of favor with the prison-based syndicate Gabriel Zendejas Chavez was first indicted in 2018, accused of using the confidentiality afforded by his bar license to relay messages between Mexican Mafia members held in far-flung prisons. Witnesses have testified that he helped the organization traffic drugs, collect extortion proceeds and unmask government informants. Federal prosecutors say Gabriel Zendejas Chavez, a criminal defense attorney who once taught English, connected the Mexican Mafia’s bases of power in prisons, jails and the streets of Southern California. Chavez, who taught English at high schools in Pomona while studying to become a lawyer at night, has maintained his innocence. At his trial in federal court in 2022, he testified that after he won a longtime Mexican Mafia member’s release from prison in 2013, other inmates sought his representation. Records showed Chavez conferred with dozens of Mexican Mafia members at the high-security state prison at Pelican Bay, the federal “supermax” facility in Florence, Colo., and other institutions designed to isolate gang leaders. Chavez testified he only pretended to help imprisoned gang members after one of them threatened his young daughter, telling the jury tearfully: “There’s no manual for this situation.” Until his murder in prison two weeks ago, Michael Torres ran one of the most intricate and lucrative black market businesses in L.A. County: the jails. After the panel failed to reach a verdict on racketeering and drug distribution charges, the judge declared a mistrial. Prosecutors vowed to retry Chavez. In the superseding indictment returned last week, prosecutors implicated Chavez in the homicide of DMM-6, short for “Deceased Mexican Mafia Member 6.” Details within the indictment and testimony at Chavez’s trial make clear the victim is Frank Munoz, a Mexican Mafia member nicknamed “Little Man.” Chavez’s attorney, Meghan Blanco, said she would ask a judge to dismiss the new indictment, which she called “a crazy, last-minute move on the government’s part.” Blanco said after prosecutors failed to get a guilty verdict with witnesses “whose information is clearly false,” they recruited new informants who are “worse liars than the first batch.” Chavez denies having any role in the conspiracy to kill Munoz and would push for a trial this summer, she said. Released from federal prison in 2013 after serving 23 years for bank robbery, Munoz returned to his old neighborhood on the west side of Wilmington to find it claimed by Mexican Mafia members held in the state prison system, a witness testified at Chavez’s trial. “Sleepy and Tonito were old members,” the witness told the jury, referring to Gabriel “Sleepy” Huerta and Emiliano “Tonito” Lopez, who were both serving life terms for murder. “They’ve been controlling Wilmington for over a decade.” Gabriel ‘Sleepy’ Huerta is an alleged member of the Mexican Mafia’s three-man ‘commission.’ He’s been charged in a more mundane matter: the beating of a Wilmington gang member who lost a gun. With Munoz trying to collect money in the harbor area, the witness said, Huerta and Lopez sent him a message through Chavez: “Slow your roll.” Huerta, a reputed member of the Mexican Mafia’s three-man governing “commission,” was charged late last year with overseeing the Eastside Wilmas gang. The 64-year-old, who has been imprisoned since 1984, has pleaded not guilty to directing drug deals and ordering an assault on the streets of Wilmington. Lopez was stabbed to death at Calipatria State Prison in 2016. Munoz had modest ambitions for a Mexican Mafia member. Hobbled by knee surgeries that he’d undergone in prison, a witness told detectives in an interview reviewed by The Times, Munoz was content to sell small amounts of methamphetamine and collect a few hundred dollars here and there from gang members working on his behalf. In an indictment unsealed after his death, federal prosecutors accused Munoz of collecting a “tax” from pushers who sold drugs in motels, bars and parking lots in Wilmington. In one call cited by prosecutors, Munoz discussed the packaging of six ounces of meth, which he said he would pick up himself. After a jailed member of the Northside Longo gang told the authorities that Munoz was trying to stake a claim in Long Beach, Munoz was caught on a recorded line ordering the man’s beating and a $500 fine. The syndicate once relied on associates on the streets but court data showed that smuggled phones have given imprisoned leaders greater control over drug deals “All I wanted was someone that will smack this motherf— upside the head a couple of times just to let him know to keep his f— mouth shut,” Munoz told an inmate in the Los Angeles County jail Sheriff’s deputies moved the target into protective custody before he was harmed Munoz found himself in the middle of a bitter feud playing out on prison yards and the streets of Los Angeles between Mexican Mafia members who served time in the federal and state prison systems After getting out of federal prison in 2014 Dominick “Solo” Gonzales began collecting money from gangs and dealers in the San Fernando Valley angering Mexican Mafia members in the California system whose grip over the area had gone unchallenged for years witnesses testified at a federal racketeering trial Gonzales was making up for lost time. He’d served 15 years, and felt the Mexican Mafia members in the California system had disrespected his stepfather, Frank “Sapo” Fernandez, by cutting him out of the San Fernando Valley rackets after he was sent to federal prison for life in 2000. Gonzales also clashed with Pete “Malo” Cordero, the nephew of a Mexican Mafia member. After Cordero was gunned down in late 2015, Gonzales was blamed. Mexican Mafia members held a 30-man conference call, dialing in from various state prisons on contraband cellphones, a witness testified. The consensus: Gonzales had to go. The task fell to Cordero’s best friend, Jose “Cartune” Loza, according to evidence presented at Loza’s trial in 2019. After setting up a meeting with Gonzales at El Jalisco Cafe in Bassett in the San Gabriel Valley, Loza asked Munoz to accompany him, a witness testified. Munoz refused, citing his bad knees. Jose Luis Loza of Whittier is sentenced after a trial that served as a window into arguably Southern California’s most powerful criminal organization. Loza shot Gonzales to death at the restaurant, and is now serving a sentence of life plus 30 years in federal prison. After Gonzales’ death, Munoz was placed on “the lista” — the Mexican Mafia’s hit list, according to witnesses who testified against Loza and Chavez. Chavez represented Raul “Cool Cat” Rocha, who in 2016 was petitioning to overturn a 25-years-to-life sentence for his third strike — stealing a pair of pants in 1995. While being held in Los Angeles County jail, Rocha testified that another inmate, Robert “Dopey” Hinojos, asked that he bring a note inquiring about Gonzales and Munoz to the legal visiting room. Rocha testified that Chavez confirmed both men were marked for death before swallowing the note. Chavez denied passing word of any hit list, telling the jury: “I did not, and would not, ever harm someone.” Around 4 p.m. on Oct. 1, 2016, Munoz was standing outside his fiancee’s home in Hawaiian Gardens when a gunman shot him 13 times, according to a coroner’s report. The indictment says only that “UICC 58” — unindicted co-conspirator 58 — killed Munoz with the help of two other people. Robert Hinojos was convicted after a trial that shed light on the workings of the Mexican Mafia, a group of about 140 men who wield enormous influence in prisons and on the streets of Southern California. Hinojos, a reputed Mexican Mafia member from Paramount’s Brown Nation gang, is now serving two life sentences after being convicted of killing a man in Paramount and conspiring to murder an inmate at Centinela State Prison. During Hinojos’ trial for the Paramount murder, prosecutors played a tape that was secretly recorded inside a cell block that Hinojos shared with another Mexican Mafia member, Daniel “Danny Boy” Pina. Explaining that prosecutors had to have “inside knowledge about something” to charge him, Pina whispered to Hinojos: “The good thing is finally you are gonna be able to find out what exactly them bastards have.” “Hopefully there is no, no, no — uh, the thing with Little Man,” Hinojos said, a reference to Munoz’s nickname. Pina shushed him. “Don’t say anything about that to anybody,” he said. High School Sports When the fight ends, the boxing fan is just getting started. That’s when the debate between friends begin, when the blog wars escalate and the news forums go crazy. Two weeks ago, ESPN Deportes debuted A Los Golpes (Rolling with the Punches), a weekly primetime boxing news and analysis show that serves as a post-fight arena filled with expert opinion, debate, analysis and boxing tips. Now airing every Monday (7:30 p.m. ET), the show’s concept was developed to offer fans a broader analysis and review of the main bouts that happened over the weekend. Produced from Los Angeles, the show is also highlighted by the participation of the Mexican boxing champion and International Boxing Hall Of Fame inductee Julio Cesar Chavez. For the first time, he sits on a set as a regular analyst to share his boxing knowledge. He is joined by hosts David Faitelson and Bernardo Osuna, two of the most respected boxing experts in the industry. The combination of these three personalities promises a unique perspective of what is happening in the world of boxing, a sport that is ingrained in the Hispanic culture. In a career that spanned over 25 years, Chávez won six world titles. For several years, he was considered the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world. He is the father of current WBC Middleweight Champion Julio César Chávez, Jr. A Los Golpes includes fun and interactive segments such as: *ESPNDeportesLosAngeles.com also contributed to this story Subscribe to our newsletter to get daily updates Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article Print Most residents of Chavez Ravine had been relocated in the early 1950s The city of Los Angeles obtained the property then traded the land to the Los Angeles Dodgers for the old Wrigley Field property in South Los Angeles with construction of Dodger Stadium slated to begin negotiations with holdout Chavez Ravine residents failed Under a headline “Chavez Ravine Family Evicted; Melee Erupts,” the Los Angeles Times reported on May 9 There was a melee in Chavez Ravine yesterday as forcible eviction of a few residents there began The action erupted only seconds after an army of sheriff’s deputies arrived at the Arechiga family’s residences at 1767 and 1771 Malvina St were armed with a writ of possession recently issued against the Arechigas by the Superior Court the Arechigas have been occupying the property rent-free since 1953 following its acquisition by condemnation by the City Housing Authority in 1951 It is intended to be part of a recreational facility that will include a baseball park for the Los Angeles Dodgers And yesterday the battle was joined in earnest Manual Arechiga) being carried from the house… children of the family wailing hysterically as their sobbing mother struggled fiercely in the grasp of deputies… the 72-year-old matriarch of the family hurling stones at deputies as movers hustled away her belongings… an obstreperous former neighbor screeching defiance at the deputies and finally being forcibly ejected from the battleground Vargas was the last to leave — making good her threat that “they’ll have to carry me.” bulldozers leveled structures on the property Members of the Arechiga family returned and lived on the property to protest of the eviction and bulldozing May 8, 1959: Los Angeles City Councilman Edward Roybal, center, talks with members of the Arechiga family, who continued to camp out on the site of their home after it was razed. (George Fry / Los Angeles Times) The eviction was heavily covered by the news media, both television and print. Several Los Angeles Herald Examiner images are online at the USC Digital Library Also check out this 2012 Framework photo gallery, Remembering Chavez Ravine This post was originally published on April 4 May 13, 1959: After bulldozers destroyed their Chavez Ravine home, Victoria Angustian stands in the doorway of her family’s trailer. With her are Manuel Angustian; children Ivy (sweeping) and Ira; and family matriarch Avrana Arechiga. (John Malmin / Los Angeles Times) See more from the Los Angeles Times archives here Hollywood Inc. Food Print March 31 is Cesar Chavez's birthday and a holiday in California staff writer George Ramos wrote The Times obituary published the next morning who organized the United Farm Workers union staged a massive grape boycott in the late 1960s to dramatize the plight of America's poor farmhands and later became a Gandhi-like leader to urban Mexican-Americans a small farming town on the Mexican border about 25 miles south of Chavez's native Yuma said the legendary farm workers' leader apparently died in his sleep at the home of a family friend "He was our Gandhi," said Democratic state Sen a prominent Chicano politician from Los Angeles' Eastside "It's hard to find people like him who epitomized the spiritual and political goals of a people."President Clinton said in Washington "The labor movement and all Americans have lost a great leader with the death of Cesar Chavez An inspiring fighter for the cause to which he dedicated his life Cesar Chavez was an authentic hero to millions of people throughout the world." America's quest for equality for its ethnic and racial minorities had largely been framed in terms of black and white were largely ignored by politicians except at election time Check out the full 1993 L.A. Times Cesar Chavez obituary