https://voicesofignacio.cvlcollections.org/files/original/e0263dfdd97ffb760983e83943fb3566.pdf 719da150a3b2fd0cd2e036670e723591 PDF Text Text BEN & CARMEN (Valencia) CORDOVA Joe M, Cordova and his wife Manuelita were living in Silverton in 1914 when their first child was born, Joe was stationed there to work for the D. & R.G.H Railroad. Jose Ben was born March 31, 1914, "That was a bad winter, My dad tells me the snow was 3 feet deep in Silverton, People had to dig a trench to get out of their homes. My folks left Silverton soon afterward and came to Durango. Dad got a job at the smelter. When I got old enough to go down there, I would watch them bring in the railroad cars with the ore. It was already crushed and ready to go into the furnaces. Gold, Silver, lead and other metals were extracted. Three hundred men worked there every shift. Just as kids are crazy about cars today, we were crazy about horses and rodeos. My uncle kept race horses, some of them very expensive ones. Whenever there was a race or a rodeo at the fair grounds, we would go. Once when I was still a small boy, my parents told me to stay home, but that didn't stop me. As soon as they were gone, I headed for the railroad tracks and walked all the way to the fairgrounds. I was barefooted with a pair of bib overalls and a baseball cap. I enjoyed myself and raced home before my parents returned. My Dad asked me, 'Did you go to the rodeo today?' I said, 'No, I stayed home.' Again my dad asked me, 'Did you go to the rodeo today?' I said, 'No, I stayed home,' He then asked, 'Well, who was that barefoot boy with a baseball cap and the bib overalls?' The result was a good spanking for me.'' When I was old enough, my parents enrolled me in Sacred Heart School. Little did they know I would get into a fight with a nun on my second day at school. It happened this way. I sat down behind an Anglo girl. She told me she didn't want a dirty Mexican sitting behind her. Since the backs of the seats were slatted, I kicked her a good one between the slats. When she told on me, the nun came over and shook me. I did not take this peacefully. I fought back and in the process I pulled the nun's habit off her head. After a couple of years at Sacred Heart, my parents enrolled me in Park School which liked better since it bad playgrounds and better facilities. On weekends and in the summer, I spent a lot of time with my Herrera Grandparents at Marvel, If my parents weren't going down there in the wagon, I walked. My grandfather told me I wouldn't have to walk if I could catch some of the wild burros in the hills. The one I caught was very useful. I broke him to pull a cart. In the evenings and on the weekends the burro and I went up the road west of Durango where the coal wagons passed. Coal was spilled all along the way. In an hour or so I could pick up a load of it to sell in Durango, Another way to make some money in the summer was to herd cows for the town folks. Many people in town had a milk cow, but no pasture, For $2.50 per month I would take a person's cow to the hillside south of Smelter Mountain or up on the hill where Ft, Lewis College is now to graze all day. Then before milking time I herded all of them home. I would have a bunch of them. The first few days each summer, it was a chase trying to keep them together on the way out of town and a mess sorting them out to the right barns when we got back to town, but after a few days they calmed down and knew right where to go." As Ben got older he herded sheep for the Bodos, worked on the D. & R.G. Railroad, the Colorado & Southern Railroad(which ran the Galloping Goose) and finally got a job at the Castle Coal Mine. In 1942 Ben came to the San Ignatius Festival in Ignacio and was introduced to a young lady who was a friend of Ben's sisters and his brother Vic. Carmen Valencia met Ben at the dance. Carmen says, "I liked to go on dates and to dance but if a young man showed any extra interest in me, I just turned them off. That night at the dance I wanted 38 �,...., ,...., "I ') "I J to dance with everyone, but this one man kept coming back and back. He was so persistent. That was in July. He kept coming back all summer and during the fall. Finally, we were married in November of 1942. ~") } J J ) ) J ) ') ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) .J ) _) _) _) ·J ,._) J .J ...) Carmen's grandparents came into the San Juan Valley in 1876. Five families left the Huerfano country near Walsenburg in covered wagons. They camped and traveled for three months following the valleys westward. In September the caravan arrived at Turley near the present site of the Navajo Dam. Carmen's mother, Benerita Valdez, was born that fall. She was the first baby born among the pioneer immigrants in this area. When Benerita was grown, she married Manuel Valencia. They farmed in the San Juan Valley in New Mexico until 1927. That year two of their children died within two months. These tragedies prompted them to move to Colorado. Carmen was only five years old at the time, but she remembers how her mother kept count of the number of times the family forded the Pine river on the way. Since there was no road over the ridge to Ignacio, the Valencias simply followed the river. The valley is narrow and winding and steep cliffs rise abruptly first on one side, then on the other. Benerita became curious about how many crossings they would make. She tore the hem loose from one of Manuel's handkerchiefs and tied a knot every time they reached a ford. By the time they reached Ignacio, there were 13 knots in the hem. The family leased Harry Richard's farm near La Boca. Manuel died in 1931. Carmen and her mother moved to town. "When I started to school," Carmen says, "I could speak hardly a word of English. If we spoke Spanish there, we were put in the closet. When I was 16, my brother that was supporting us, decided to get married. I decided to go to work. The pay was not high. Household work 8-12 paid 25 cents. Also, I did baby-sitting and whatever I could find. Mother watched me like a hawk. I loved to dance and mother would take me, but if I danced more then three times with any one boy, we went straight home. I was 21 when I married Ben. We moved to one of the cabins west of Durango near the Castle Coal mine. Ben's shift was from 6:00 am to 3:00 pm. I was very spoiled and not used to being alone. I was afraid of the owls hooting in the woods. Our cabin had no curtains or blinds and to top it off, shortly after we got settled there was a report of a killer on the loose west of Durango. Well, I made newspaper blinds. If there was a killer on the loose, I didn't want to see him. After a year we moved to Ignacio. Ben worked for the county for a while until he was hired by Okla Lunsford. Then Dan Sandoval taught Ben all he knew about slaughtering animals. Ben worked in the slaughter house and the locker plant all his life until he recently retired because of disability." Carmen and Ben built their own house in 1950. They hired Pete Valdez to make the adobe bricks (1500 of them for $100.00). Each brick weighed 22 pounds and had to be turned every 3 days until dry. "It was a lot of work", Carmen recalls, "but we didn't mind it, we were so eager to have our own home." J The Cordovas had three children, Vickie, who now lives in Vail; Carmen (known to most people as Dee Dee) and Charles James who died when he was 6 years old. In 1961 they adopted Anthony. There are three grandchildren who, according to Carmen, "are the light of our lives". They are Daniel Ben Ryder, Deann Carmen Ryder and Dawn Garcia. Both Carmen and Ben are busy in community and church work. We wish them many more years of happiness. -~ J February, 1977 -- By Shelby Smith ...J ...J ...J .J .J J .J 39 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shelby Smith Interviews Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/?language=en Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1973-1980 Subject The topic of the resource Ignacio; Southwest Colorado Description An account of the resource Collection of biographies, predominantly of residents from the Ignacio Senior Center, based on interviews conducted by Shelby Smith from approximately 1973 to 1980. The abridged interviews were originally published as individual entries in The Thoughtful Years newsletter, published by the Ignacio Senior Center, beginning in 1973. They were later published as a whole in Smith's book: Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley, from which the original scans in this collection have been derived. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ben Cordova and Carmen (Valencia) Cordova Biography Date Created Date of creation of the resource. 1977-02 Subject The topic of the resource Cordova, Ben; Cordova, Carmen (Valencia) Description An account of the resource Biography of Ben Cordova and Carmen Cordova based on an interview conducted by Shelby Smith in February, 1977. Included in the book "Oral Histories of the Southern Pine River Valley" by Shelby Smith. Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Ignacio, Colorado; Southwest Colorado Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cordova, Ben; Cordova, Carmen (Valencia) Extent The size or duration of the resource. 2 pages Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smith, Shelby