Celebrate the Lives and Generations of Los Sanchez

Saturday June 15 from 4 to 7 at Don Carlos Lounge

So, the time comes, turn back the clock. If you’re reading this you’re invited to join the brothers Sanchez, Cory, Jim, and Zack in a celebration of life featuring Geno and Jules, Grandfather Joe and Mary, and Great Grand Father Filemon. For didn’t both Filemon and Joe used to sneak away from the hubbub and their wives to enjoy a moment’s grace with George Trujillo at Don Carlos’s lounge on the eastern end of the Canon by-pass?

Perhaps Filemon and Joe discussed the Mitote with a fellow loungers like our departed vato loco, Richard Trujillo, or Cosme Trujillo,  Andres Vargas, and Patrocino Barela, all friends from Canon. (Will I ever forget Filemon’s stepdaughter Mar-Lu?)

Indeed, an open bar and buffet, punctuated by the songs of the “Ship-Shape Zack Gray Singers” will entertain the bystanders and passers-by even as eulogies and stories are told to praise but not to bury the spirit of those who still live on De Teves Lane and haunt Gallery A,  adjacent to the Plaza.

Once, a long time ago, when Lent was over, every Saturday Taosenos celebrated, going from one Wedding Dance to another throughout the villages of the county and Town of Taos. Taosenos danced at, among others, Los Compadres, Old Martinez Hall, Andy’s Fiesta Lounge, Casa Loma in Las Colonias, Indian Hills downtown, Sebastian’s in Ranchitos, Anglada’s in Canon, the Sleeping Boy in midtown, La Contenta in El Prado, the bar in Talpa, and Don Carlos Lounge in Canon: the last man standing. Why today, women are permitted to sit or stand at George’s bar.

Today we go to memorials. Come to this era’s ritual of reunion and homecoming, where we remember la familia, mourn and celebrate the passing of our friends and days. Lift a glass to Los Sanchez (and to Ruthie) and to the spirit of La Vida Loca that we fought for and loved and sing, “Those were the days, my friend, we thought they’d never end…”