The Penitentes

About the Book

I have great love for preserving and retelling unwritten history that my great-grandparents, grand-parents, parents, and I have lived to tell about. I have great ambitions to save our culture and to retell stories of how our ancestors lived. I believe that among the things that shape our lives, perhaps our history is the most significant. I have always had a dream that someday I would be given the opportunity to be able to retell the stories of our ancestors. I have great hopes that you can help me get this book, The Penitentes, published so many of our people can read this and imagine what our lives were like. I believe this book should be published because what is written is exactly what I witnessed as a child and young adult. I have written what my grandparents and parents shared with me about the way of living that actually was the government of this small villages. That is exactly how they learned to live and follow rules in a civilized world. I have never read a book written about the Penitentes, where the author actually saw and or experienced their way of living. Our language and culture has been preserved for hundreds of years because of this secret society. They are the ones that brought the Castilian Spanish to our area. The purpose of this book is to share how our culture, morals, and values were being developed in a very low profile way of living, and their way of living by their strong ways still exists in our small rural communities. This book can be read by many different people who have a wide variety of interests. They may be interested in the area, or they may want to learn a very different way of how a village functioned many years ago, how the villages were formed, and the purpose and responsibility of everyone in their individual village. I believe our culture has been denied or our real way of living for hundreds of years was wrongly described. I believe my book will attract different people who have interest in culture, ethnics, history, and how the real Hispanics lived hundreds of years ago, a totally different form of government that worked just fine for the people who lived in these areas. I believe my book is unique and very culturally related to all Hispanics.

About the Author

I am Janice A. Martinez de Valdez. Born and raced in Los Sauces, Colorado. I grew up in a wonderful ranch-farm owned by my parents. Jose Faustin Martinez and Maria Sophia Montoya. I used to spend a lot of time with my grandparents. My paternal grandparents were Alfredo Martinez, and Matilde Marquez de Martinez. Maternal grandparents, Pedro J. Montoya, and Cleotilde Medina de Montoya. I knew everyone that lived in Los Sauces at a very young age. I often visited with all the elderly and did chores for them. To me I always greeted them as Aunt or Uncle. I graduated from Sanford High School, I received my BA degree from Adams State University, my MA from the University of New Mexico, and I have lots of post degree education also. I retired from teaching from the state of New Mexico. After retiring from teaching I took care of my husband for fifteen years, He was Gregorio Jake Valdez, we had two beautiful sons, Joaquin A. Valdez, and Jake A. Valdez III. My husband was a Vietnam Veteran who came back home from Vietnam with a lot of physical problems. We were married almost forty years. He passed away just short of that. My youngest son was killed on an accident. That was a devasting loss to me and will always be. I have five grandchildren from Joaquin and Melanie Duran Valdez. They have become the center of my life. I have taken care of them for the past twelve years. I have always had this desire to write a book about the penitentes. They shaped the lives of many and have not been given the credit they so humbly deserve. I truly Love our culture and rich values our Hispanic people have. I believe this book I have written speaks to the relevance the Penitentes have in shaping our lives in so many ways. God has blessed me in so many ways I want to thank him for giving me this beautiful opportunity of being able to write this book.” I would like to thank all my family and friends who have supported me in this endeavor. God Bless You!!!