Living In Las Cruces- Spring/Summer 2008

LOCAL HERO

Article and Photography by
Jeff Becker

J. Paul Taylor loves New Mexico. Much of his life has been spent in service, in one way or another, to this great state. Through the years he has served his community as an educator, a superintendent and District 33 State Representative, which count for approximately 50-plus years of public service. Now, he still lives in the house on Calle Principal that he, and his wife Mary, restored and made beautiful with their extensive collections of art and historical artifacts. His latest gift is this, exactly. His house, which has already been deeded to the State Monuments Department, will fall
under the jurisdiction of the state he loves. By turning the home into a monument, Las Cruces and Mesilla will finally have a place that tells its story. For now, Taylor jokes, he is just the tenant, paying the electric bill.

But Taylor's love of New Mexico extends beyond what it is today, and much of his work has gone towards preserving the past and teaching others about the cultures and heritage of this region. Born in Chamberino, Taylor can trace his ancestry back to the 1700s, as he is a descendent of Miguel Romero y Baca Josepha Delgado. His grandfather was New Mexico's delegate to Congress during territorial times. His grandfather helped found the New Mexico Republican party. "I had the advantage of my heritage," he says, and his connection to the past stems from this. "I have been interested in history since I was just a kid," Taylor says. He started collecting Native American baskets when he was just five years old.

It wasn't until he was in college at New Mexico State University, that he was asked to consider just how much he cared for this subject. His original major was in business. One day, his advisor, Lionel Hade, pointed out that nothing he was interested in pointed towards a business career. Without a good answer on hand, Taylor was convinced to major in history, with the intention of one day teaching. "I had wanted to be a teacher since I was in the fifth grade. I had a wonderful fifth grade teacher," he explains, and after serving during World War II, he returned and started teaching.

What is remarkable about his time as an educator and administrator is how far he went to show children why they should be proud to come from this place. He changed the curriculum, with the help of teachers, to be more New Mexico centric. He wanted to educate students in history by teaching them about their families, about their communities and, ultimately, about themselves as a link in this heritage. His intention was to get kids to grasp that their culture is here and that their culture is important. They needed to understand that their early culture was here from the very beginning -- that was the Native Americans, Taylor says. When the Spaniards arrived, they came up through New Mexico from the south before they attached themselves to other parts of the country. Taylor felt that by appreciating their families and their community they could be proud of this place, and its part in history.

"I think it opened their eyes," he says. "The kids would say, 'You know my grandfather, my grandmother's house was like this.' They had looked down on that. It changed their view about their parents." His program put kids with the same teacher for three consecutive grades, and encouraged them to look at their surroundings, and themselves, in new ways. "What I was about was letting them know that their parents, from whatever background they came from, were worthy people, and that they were worthy students. I was trying to say to the kids, through their teachers, we want you to grow up with a great self concept, you are a worthy child." This lesson is what the gift of his home will serve to its future guests.

When walking through the house, it is hard to tell where the house begins and the history ends, for both are immersed in one another. Made of native materials, it is as much a product of the Valley and represents our local history as much as any of the artifacts inside. When the Taylor's bought the house in 1953, it was a far cry from what it is today. Originally the Reynolds/ Barela/Grange home, the name alone traces its deep history. They purchased the property from Perla Aladhib, the caretaker for Father Grange (the man that built the San Albino church). She received the property from Grange upon his death, and had divided the home into apartments. When the Taylors took over, the outside walls had to be rebuilt, the dirt floors had to be bricked and the apartment partitions had to be removed. In it all, the couple managed to preserve the historic qualities of the 13-room adobe (their son, Pat, is now a leading adobe conservationist), and it stands on the Mesilla Plaza as a proud reminder of the past.

Inside, the house teems with bits and pieces of New Mexico's past. From paintings to artifacts, the home is already as much a museum as there is to offer in this part of the state. "These are cultural objects and they need to be utilized as cultural objects," Taylor says.

In giving his home, and his collection, to the people of New Mexico, Taylor's last gift will be to give us a sense of who we are by showing us where we came from. After sitting down with their seven children, Paul and Mary decided to turn the house over to the Monuments division, in essence giving it to the people by way of making it a monument. What, in turn, this museum will offer is an opportunity for all residents and visitors to Mesilla to value not only the Taylor home, but all the homes in Mesilla and all of New Mexico as a whole. Like so much of his work, this last gift will go far to allow locals and visitors alike to appreciate and explore the culture of the Valley. It will preserve the history and the culture of this area, by showing what Mesilla was, who was here and why and how those people lived in this place. It is a proud history within those walls, and one, no doubt Mesilleros and people of Las Cruces, will smile at each time they pass by. In these times, no other charity seems so valuable.

FOR THIS, J. PAUL TAYLOR IS THIS ISSUE'S LOCAL HERO.