Spring 2000 Bulletin

Staff News

Farewells Well, the river rolls on and on and Amigos Bravos says a farewell to Development Director, Julia Bergen and Projects Director, Ernie Atencio. Julia Bergen was in charge of our fundraising efforts for a year and a half and due to her efforts Amigos Bravos was able to significantly increase our funding base. Julia laid the groundwork for opening the Albuquerque office and was a great team player. She pitched in on every one of Amigos Bravos' many endeavors. She is now Executive Director of Fine Arts for Children and Teens, an art school in Santa Fe. We thank Julia for the efforts, talents, and creativity that she gave on behalf of the Río Grande and we wish her well in her new career. Ernie Atencio also leaves us after three years as Projects Director. Ernie was behind our Molywatch effort, the Río Costilla project, and the award-winning Amigos Bravos Oral History project. Ernie had begun the process of bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders for the Somos Vecinos project. During his tenure with Amigos Bravos, Ernie became a highly skilled community organizer and provided assistance to numerous individuals and groups working on river issues throughout New Mexico. We give Ernie our heartfelt thanks for his great effort to further Amigos Bravos' mission and for the exceptional quality of his work. We wish him success in his new career as a consultant and writer.

Welcomes We are delighted to welcome the three new members of our staff. Jennifer McCabe has lived in Taos for four years. She came to Amigos Bravos as a new member when KTAO radio announced raffle ticket sales in April of 1999. When she received our Fall '99 Bulletin she called Amigos Bravos to find out how she could get involved with our work. After two months of subbing she was hired as our Database Manager in January. She is focused on making the new database program work for us, developing e-mail communication with our members, and producing comprehensive reports to analyze the effectiveness of our fundraising and membership activities. She was instrumental in selecting a new networked computer system for which we hope to receive funding in the Fall. Andrew Kelton joined the staff as Research & Development Director in March. Andrew has worked as an environmentalist and research consultant in the United States, Canada, Scotland and England, where he grew up. He was a Research Associate at Edinburgh University's Centre for Human Ecology, and a self-employed environmental consultant for six years in Scotland, where he contributed to innovative environmental policy development for government and conservation organizations, campaigned to protect dwindling salmon stocks, wrote freelance articles for newspapers such as the Times Higher Education Supplement and edited his own fishing and conservation journal, the Green Highlander. In New Mexico he has been closely involved for two years with the Alliance for the Rio Grande Heritage. He brings a legal, campaigning and research background, plus wide international experience of diverse communities and environmental issues, to underpin Amigos Bravos' projects & policy role and development activities. Cynthia Gomez joined the staff as Projects Director in April. Cynthia is a native New Mexican, raised in Albuquerque, with farming roots in Jarales and Pueblitos. Since 1977, Cynthia has been engaged with the social, cultural, environmental and educational movements in New Mexico. Her community work includes sociology and multi-cultural studies, community education, video production, and oral histories. In 1989 Cynthia conducted the Los Padillas oral history project, "A Portrait of Los Padillas" with UNM's Center for Regional Studies, and contributed to the anthology, "New Mexican Women, Their Images, Their Lives." A barrio poet, mother of two daughters Samantha and Margarita and grandmother of Marissa, Cynthia is a graduate student at UNM's College of Education working in community-based action research. She is committed to deepening the understanding, knowledge and wisdom held within the spirit of people and culture of nature. As a young child, she recalls asking her mother, "Where do we come from?" Her mother replied, "we've always been from here." After years of pondering her mother's answer, she came tounderstand that "here" means the land, the mother place of natural boundaries and the bridging of life itself.

Please return to the Spring 2000 Bulletin Index.