Real Estate Questions Answered Here
by Art Santellen, REALTOR®
 Note:
I'll be out of town for the holidays. This is the same message I left
with you last year. The words are still true and hopefully, this year's message
will be shared with thousands of new Hispania News readers on the Internet. So
I'd like to, again, leave you with this holiday message.
The reverence we hold for this land pales in comparison to the reverence held
by Native Americans for the land. In a corner of Colorado, ancient Native
Americans built their pueblos.
Today, we call this place, Mesa Verde. Alongside this mesa there is a valley
with an ancient trade route once used by the Spaniards, then the Mexicans. It
was used to carry the riches of the north to Mexico and the colonists of the
south to Colorado. After 500 years, our ties to the land have been strengthened
by the sweat and tears of our ancestors...and, sometimes by their blood.
The Sangre de Cristo mountains, these are the mountains our forefathers saw
as they traveled north from the Spanish colony of Santa Fe. The wind whispering
through the aspen, cottonwood and evergreens tell us this land is a spiritual
land. So, we should not be surprised at how strong the land beckons us.
Not far from La Junta, one can still see the fort from which restless trapers
and traders rested from their trek along the trail that began in the
disillusionment of the East and lead to the promise of the West.
From here, Kit Carson and other military men traveled along the Santa Fe
Trail toward the battlefields of the Mexican - U. S. War of 1846 in California.
Just west of Pueblo, the first recorded birth of an "Anglo" child was
born to a Mormon couple. They were probably on their way to Utah but the beauty
and promise of Colorado captured them just as it has captured so many of
us.
Who can say how many Hispanic children were born in the previous 300 years?
So, we should not be surprised at how strong the land beckons us.
In Rocky Ford there is a cemetery whose tombstones read like a history book.
There, we read the names of Hispanic families that buried their dead from the
very first days the town was little more than a place to rest along the trail
headed toward the Rocky Mountains. Here, we also see the names of Hispanic young
men who gave their lives in many, many wars so that we, today, might live in
liberty. Here also, are buried those who survived the wars but lived out the
balance of their lives carrying the scars of warfare in their hearts and in
their minds.
There, do you see it? There is the name of he infant daughter of a Hispanic
family too poor and too far from the medical help she desperately needed. Here
also are the names of the farm workers who toiled in the hot sun in fields
surrounding the cemetery. Here you can see the names f the sugar beet factory
workers who tried so hard to be good providers for their family. There, just
over there, is the grandmother who raised her children with love and honor. She
was the one who was "The one sure thing" for her children and
grandchildren growing up in a troubled time. So, we should not be surprised at
how strong the land beckons us.
The mountains, the streams, the forests, the plains and the fields. They are
all spirits that remind us of our ties to the land. In villages from northern
New Mexico, to the eastern plains, and from Wyoming around to Utah, from Four
Corners, past Mesa Verde and throughout the San Luis Valley...the land beckons
us.
This year. Yes, this is the year we make our family a promise. A promise that
next year we will give our children and grandchildren a Christmas gift worth
keeping...a little house on our very own piece of land. Not because we will love
them more, but rather because to do less would show less respect and reverence
for the land that beckons us so.
If you do this, I promise you that generations yet unborn will revere the
memories of births and weddings, of graduations and baptisms, of life and death
in your home. And every Christmas the tamales will taste better. Your home will
be like mine where every Christmas Eve, my entire family including the nieces
and nephews, cousins, uncles and aunts get together at the family home. We eat
home made tamales, drink perhaps a little too much, share stories, tell jokes,
open Christmas gifts and mostly share our love for one another. Oh yes, the
family adventurer, Uncle Art (and who is the woman he bringing with him this
time?) comes from far away.
Merry Christmas and the happiest of the
holiday season from my family to yours.
The answers to these, and other fascinating real estate questions will be
answered here, in Hispania News, next week.
When you're ready to buy or sell a home, see a REALTOR®
Art is a REALTOR® with Heritage Realtors in Colorado
Springs.
If you have a real estate question you’d like answered, please send them to
Art Santellen, care of Hispania News,
PO Box 15116,
Colorado Springs, CO 80935
Art Santellen via e-mail
Asantellen@aol.com
Santellen@netscape.net
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