God and Life on the Pecos
by
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Southeast New Mexico is a place of significance by the sheer fact that it is an area that was inhabited and continues to be inhabited by Native Americans, settlers with Spanish roots, immigrants from south of the border in Mexico and Anglo settlers. Historically, the role of the divine in such a place was one of master, protector, provider, nourisher, judge, friend and ultimate controller of destinies, although the independent spirit of the frontier was planted deep within many a hearty soul.
The history of the area includes such diverse elements as the Chisum family, German WWII prisoner-of-war camps, mineral water, water rights, an underground civil defense bomb shelter school and the face of Jesus on a tortilla!
It is a region that has been sculpted from many "clays", from the Apache and Comanche tribes that traversed the mountains, valleys and high plains, to the Spanish conquistadors in search of legendary gold, the the Mexican forces that pushed north from Azteca, to the U.S. military troops reconnoitering, to the Texas cattle barons and cowpokes of the nineteenth century, to the Anglo settlers from the East in search of land, to those seeking a better way of life for themselves and their families, and, to the farmers, dairy workers and oilfield workers now trying to make a better living, the central Pecos River valley of southeastern New Mexico has been, is, and will continue to be, a place of dreams, dreams fulfilled, dreams dashed, and dreams yet to be. It is a place where God has been found, lost, then found again, where faith, hope and family are treasures that endure from generation to generation, por los siglos de los siglos.
To find God in a place like this requires some digging, some uprooting, some sifting and some letting go. This God can be an awesome God, a healing God, a comforting God, a challenging God, an absent God, a war-like God and a fiesta God. This was, is and will continue to be the God of the Pecos River Valley of southeastern New Mexico. It is an ancestral God that has been handed down from great-great grandparents to the present generation. It is a God that was brought there by settlers. Sometimes, this God has been lost in translation from place to place. Sometimes, it has been a God of the desperate, a God of survival, a distant God, but, in the end, a God of hope and enduring love.
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About the Book
This is a book that explores finding God and life in the past , present and future along the Pecos River of southeastern New Mexico, a frontier region of the American West that earned a reputation for being wild, unexplored and rebellious (ala “there is no law west of the Pecos”) as it had been for thousands of years under Native-American, Spanish, Mexican and American control. It is a book that gives the reader a glimpse into the lives and struggles of living in this part of the “Land of Enchantment” or “Satan’s Paradise” as the New Mexico Territory was labeled.
About the Author
Fr. Brian Vincenzo Guerrini, ss.cc. is an ordained member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (ss.cc.), a worldwide Catholic religious order of men and women dedicated to contemplating, living and proclaiming the compassionate love of God in the world through the hearts of Jesus and Mary. He spent eleven years living and ministering in southeastern New Mexico, and has ministered in the U.S. (NM, CA, TX, IN, HI), the Kingdom of Tonga, Fiji and India. He was the National Coordinator of the Sacred Heart Communities in Collaboration organization and Executive Director of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of the Pecos Valley, Inc., both for six years. From 2019-2022 (the years of the COVID pandemic), he was the pastor/administrator of St. Damien of Molokai parish and missions on the Hawaiian Island of Molokai and has taught at ‘Api’fo’ou College in Nuku’alofa, Kingdom of Tonga, as well as being a priest-in-residence at the Pacific Regional Seminary in Suva, Fiji. He currently is in residence at the Sacred Hearts residence at Damien High School in La Verne, CA and is also working on a book about the history of the Sacred Hearts on Molokai for his Congregation.