El Mero Mero

Notes from Planet New Mexico
September 19, 2011


Whenever Fidel describes Don Bustos, he says Don is "El Mero Mero" of Agri-Cultura Network, the Albuquerque urban agriculture project that Fidel is part of. I guess El Mero Mero could be translated as The Main Main Man or as The One and Only. It points to leadership and power, but, above all, it points to wisdom and knowledge.

As I write this, El Mero Mero is outside in our backyard cold frame, shovel in hand, turning the land that will soon be planted. With him are the project's new trainees: José Luis, Johnny and Brandy.


Outside the cold frame, Fidel and Sasha are weeding the marygolds.



El Mero Mero has his own farm and also travels around the U.S. constantly. His skills and knowledge are much sough-after. He could be anywhere but here. But he's not.

As I was filling out yet another fellowship application, I looked out my home office window and just couldn't resist the beauty of these folks. So I went outside to document a snippet of their morning by taking some pictures.

As I snapped away, Don was talking about the irony of all the research money being pumped into universities to re-invent the wheel, since traditional agriculture in New Mexico has long been doing what these new research projects are trying to promote: sustainability, organic methods, and so on.

Don comes from a long line of farmers that stretches back many generations and hundreds of years. His farm in the Española Valley of northern New Mexico is called Santa Cruz Farm in honor of the local church. Don says he uses many of the same agricultural techniques and rituals as his ancestors. One of those rituals is every year getting the local priest to come over and ceremonially planting a patch of "Guadalupe beans," named in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe.

He also explains that his farm was part of the Santa Cruz de la Cañada Land Grant, 46,000 acres of land "granted" by the King of Spain (ugh... I know) in the 1500s to be communally worked and administered by 16 local families. After New Mexico went from being part of Mexico to being part of the U.S. in the 1800s, the communal land was privatized. But Don is part of a movement to buy back that land so that it will once again be run collectively. Part of that movement is to re-organize land use so that, like in the old ejido system, the best agricultural land is saved for agriculture (rather than grazing, living, construction...).

It's so much information to digest, understand, remember. That's why I'm writing it down before I forget even more details.

I feel like so much of what Don is saying is just flying over my head. But I'll keep listening, learning, writing. The stories he's telling move me. It's the history behind them. But it's also the loving way El Mero Mero tells the stories as he works the land with a shovel and smiles his beautiful beautiful smile.





* I can't take credit for those last two photos! The first I borrowed from the American Friends Service Committee. The last is from Country Living.