OUR CULTURAL VALUES

OUR CULTURAL VALUES by: f. g. lopriato y lopez

It will come as a surprise to the mayor and the city of Albuquerque's Health Department, but New Mexico, including this city and county are united by a culture that is over four hundred years old. Mayor Martin Chavez because he has publicly vowed, on the radio, and over the microphones of KKOB AM, that he would change the culture of New Mexico .. To underscore that statement he added that if anyone doubted that he could not do it, to just wait and he would show them. or words to that effect. The Health Department would do well not to even try to politicize the state's traditionaI dishes, such as Posole, tamales, biscochitos and postre during the most sacred and/or most festive days of the year, especially when they attempt to demand that these things be purchased at stores in cans and at the pastry counters. Either the mayor and his Health Department never learned or they have been so driven to undo state culture that they forgot. Whatever the case may be, it's time that someone reminded them that every society has a system of values, a se of interreated values in which a great deal of sentiment is invested. Common sense should tell them that the word, Value, means something of importance to an individual or a group. Ideals; beliefs; things; and people. As political leaders, of any given society they occupy the posts of that that society's Pilots, and societies are piloted by their values. Further, that these things can be important to the society in both a negative or a positive way. i.e. what the society likes and what it doesn't like. No society on the face of the earth is concerned exclusively with the attainment of material ends. Prestige; status; pride; family honor; love of country,; state; county; religious beliefs; and what is commonly known as honor can and often are values so great that entire societies will sacrifice; comfort; well being, and even life itself. i.e. Before the second world war Japanese Immigration into the United States was halted and caused thousands of Japanese citizens to commit suicide, many by jumping into volcanoes, not because they wanted to immigrate themselves but because Japan and its emperor had been insulted. Murder suicide, mass murders, and even individual suicides in the United States are due more to any of these reasons than we care to admit. if you think that these self edifying roach hunters give a tinker's dam about anything but their own perceived importance, you have another guess coming. When guests visit a real New Mexican home during the winter holiday season, they know that they will find a pot of posole; biscochitos; bread pudding,' and tamales, hot coffee or chocolate. even in the most humble houses. Now, come with me to an all-out, no holds barred, gala get together hosted by the mayor after his State of The City speech, for his most loyal subjects, a very special group of Straw Bosses, responsible for assessing the mayor's chances if he seeks an additional term in office and after that their job will be to convince you to vote for him in the primaries and again in the general elections. indeed, a group from which much will be demanded and should be amply rewarded for hav­ing answered the mayor's call. A thin slice of German chocolate cake, and no more. No coffee, no chocolate no ice cream or milk. not even a glass of water with which to wash it down. Economic conditions being what they are and food shortages getting worst and more expensive every day, I look for more New Mexicans to revive the social customs of the past among our own, law or no law.