Girl Power
"It was a hush-hush business, going into treatment," said Naranjo, a resident of San Ildefonso Pueblo. "A woman's place was at home cleaning, coming up for her husband. Treatment was more of a shameful business."
Which is ironic because sobriety proved a life-reduction recourse from an existence on the Pueblo surrounded by heavy drinking, drug use, domestic abuse, sexual assault and incest. Such practices were not only common but largely ignored by tribal leaders and members alike, Naranjo said.
"It was normal," Naranjo said. "I grew up with it. I was in a dysfunctional family."
Naranjo, who had her first child at the age of 15, saw her mom go out drinking and used that as an excuse to drink herself.
"We were leeching off each additional," Naranjo said. "But I know if I didn't get sober, I was going to lose my kids and lose my life. I was in the frame of mind of suicide, you know?"
Naranjo wasn't alone in her struggles. Among her acquaintances needing a support system that wasn't there were a woman grieving the loss of a close aunt and one woman in financial peril after divorcing her husband of 20 years.
"We said, 'What can we do to get help?' and we started to get collectively some evenings," Naranjo said. "We needed to get strong. We needed strength to cope."
On the additional side of the experience, in 1989, Naranjo and her two friends became founding members of Tewa Women United, now an Española-based nonprofit that acts as an umbrella organization for several programs offering help to victims of sexual and domestic violence, as well as promoting environmental and reproductive justice throughout Rio Arriba County.
Or, as Naranjo's niece, Tewa Women United's current Executive Director Corrine Sanchez, phrases it: "We are able to protect the most vulnerable."
Naranjo shies away from family members who place her "up on a pedestal" for her recovery.
"I wanted to be the same as everyone else in recovery," Naranjo said. "It was a shameful business to have problems, (but) I'm coming into who I am. I'm ready to be a voice."
Naranjo, who now makes and sells jewelry, has 22 grandchildren and fantastic-grandchildren of her own. She also works as a contractor in Tewa Women United's Circle of Grandmothers program where she temporarily adopted five more granddaughters for an afternoon of art therapy June 29. Naranjo and her real granddaughter Tenisha Garcia showed the children how to make pouches filled with lavender for relaxation and how to decorate doorknob hangers.
At the end of the session, Naranjo hushed the excited children for a moment of suggestion with the lights off and a candle burning. She repeated a Tewa phrase from earlier in the session, kunn-dah, which earnings "thank you," as the girls left quietly with their guardians.
"It's up to you to keep yourself strong and positive," Naranjo told them. "It may not be simple at times, but you will find yourself stronger."
Tewa Women United consists of several self-sustaining programs, each with its own focus. One, called V.O.I.C.E.S. (for Valuing Our Integrity with Courage, Empowerment and Support), provides support for victims of sexual violence and trauma like domestic abuse, dating violence and substance abuse. Others focus on environmental justice, women's health and reproductive justice. The Circle of Grandmothers program connects tribal elders, or "cultural wisdom holders," with young women in need of mentoring and support.
"It's about making options," Sanchez said. "We've always taken a stand for what may maybe be versus fighting against what already exists."
Though beyond doubt an optimist, Sanchez makes no mistake about the County's problems. She pointed out that Rio Arriba shares the First Judicial Constituency with Santa Fe and Los Alamos Counties, which regularly rank numbers one and two for having the state's healthiest populations. Rio Arriba comes in around 32 of New Mexico's 33 counties.
"We're at the bottom of the barrel," Sanchez said. "We need to get our voices collectively and talk about this disparity, to see how we can come collectively to protect what's there. We need to transform what we're seeing."
Based on statistics, the challenges facing young women in New Mexico, and especially in Rio Arriba, are staggering, according to County health systems planner Elena Berliner.
The rate of teen pregnancy in Rio Arriba is the ninth highest in the state, which ranks second nationally. Furthermore, one in four youths in New Mexico under the age of 18 grew up in poverty, and in Rio Arriba, one in four youths under 18 lacks health insurance, Berliner said.
Add to that Rio Arriba's additional socioeconomic problems — gangs, drug and alcohol abuse, the lack of an economic engine, a dearth of after-school programs for youths — and the opportunity for youths to engage in "risk-taking behavior" increases even more, Berliner said.
"The result is young public are getting pregnant nearer, more often," Berliner said.
There is a scarcity of programs in the County meant at addressing all of these problems, according to Berliner. But Tewa Women United helps fill this gap by as long as education, outreach and emotional support for youths, mothers and families in general, Berliner said. Tewa Women United was also one of the founding members in 2007 of the County's now 30-member teen pregnancy coalition, which seeks to address some of these issues.
"Tewa Women United fills a gap that no one else can fill," Berliner said.
Tewa Women United gained official nonprofit reputation in 2001 and found its current home on Fairview Lane in 2007, which it now rents and is looking to buy, Sanchez said.
Naranjo recounted the nascent group happily spending its first $2,000 and recognized the funding picture has changed dramatically since then.
"The first time we got money, the funders wanted to meet us," said Naranjo. "We were so pleased, but it didn't last long. Within the year it was gone."
But it gave them the motivation to go out and get more funding, she said.
By last fiscal year, the group was operating with about $695,000 in grants and additional revenue, according to Sanchez. That map plummeted to about $400,000 for the current fiscal year, Sanchez said.
"The economy kind of tanked out," Sanchez said. "It's a really hard place to be."
One bright spot is the group's latest grant, about $40,000 for three years from the NoVo Foundation, according to Sanchez. The grant is part of a 10-year, $80 million nationwide campaign to strengthen the movement to end violence against girls and women.
"It was an incredible process, a dream come right," Sanchez said. "It resonates so well with what Tewa Women United is already doing. I felt like my ancestors were celebrating."
As part of the grant, Sanchez flew to New York City to meet with 15 additional grant recipients where they brainstormed thoughts for new anti-violence initiatives and rubbed elbows with the Foundation's patrons, Peter and Jennifer Buffett, the son and daughter-in-law of billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
"Warren Buffett is an awesome investor," Sanchez said. "Sometimes he'll take years before he sees a profit. And (his son and daughter-in-law) have that keen sense that it takes a couple of years to really the turn the tide."
Tewa Women United's additional major funders include the Marguerite Casey Foundation, the Ms. Foundation for Women, the New Mexico Community Foundation Catalyst Fund, the McCune Foundation, the Tides Foundation's Indigenous Public's Fund, the Chamiza Foundation and the O'Keeffe Foundation, Sanchez said.
Tewa Women United is also working with It Takes a Valley, an Española-based advocacy group, to engage the community in a discussion about how to improve life in the Valley.
For individuals who want to get involved, Tewa Women United is online at www.tewawomenunited.org, on Facebook and Twitter, and always welcomes monetary donations, donated supplies like diapers or gently used baby items, and volunteers.
Jeanette Tsosie answered the doorbell at Tewa Women United's building on East Fairview Lane June 26, a Sunday afternoon. Tsosie, an Española mother of four, wore a red flower print dress and was quick to flash a smile and offer an invitation inside to sit in on a class she was hosting for first-time mothers. Tsosie bustled around the kitchen and started background out plates of food, one heaped with fresh watermelon. The doorbell rang again and she went to answer it.
Felipe Gallegos and Crystal Martinez came inside and sat down on a sofa in the room where the class was to take place. Martinez was seven months into her first pregnancy, expecting twins. Later, David Viera and Kristy Romero joined them. Romero was 8.5 months pregnant also with her first baby, a boy. Her due date is July 10.
Through Tewa Women United, Tsosie has been a doula, which comes from the Greek word for "a woman who serves," for about 12 mothers, offering one-on-one advice, counseling and help from early pregnancy through early childhood.
"I just like life there the moment a baby comes into the world," Tsosie said. "It's the most awesome, gorgeous business."
The program helps new families have a healthy and simple pregnancy, program coordinator Jessica Riggs said.
"We educate (new parents) in different choices, help them choose birth plans and advocate for them in that background," Riggs said.
Tsosie said she had her first experience with a doula for her second child's birth.
"It was just an incredible experience for me," she said. "I just want to help women have that positive experience."
Tsosie said the class two weeks ago was unique in that both mothers were accompanied by partners.
"A lot of times you just have the mothers without their partners," she said. "It's very rare to have the partner involved. And it's very hard to be pregnant and alone."
The doula program encompasses everything from nutrition classes to family nights to home visits before, during and after a mother gives birth, Tsosie said
The doula program was originally 100 percent free because it was funded by a centralized grant which ran out this year. Though Tewa Women United now questions mothers to pay a small amount for the service, that fee is adjusted based on the client's income and the program won't turn anyone away.
"We'll serve anyone that needs help," Tsosie said. "You pay what you can."
Sanchez estimated the organization has reached over 15,000 public over the years, including at least 500 in Rio Arriba through direct services like the doula program or domestic violence counseling.
Diana Halsey, of Santa Clara Pueblo, was introduced to the doula program by a midwife who recommended the program because Halsey was having her first child.
"If you have any fears, you have that support," said Halsey, holding 16-month-ancient Amber wrapped close to her chest. "(Doulas) help with learning different techniques during labor, help with birth plans (and) in case the doctor comes in, they help to know the medical language."
The doulas stay involved after birth and have classes for children including musical groups and herbal classes for babies to help with things like teething and earaches, Halsey said. They also teach "baby wear" — how to wrap your baby around your chest to carry it with you — and lend the wraps to mothers.
"The baby gets to hear mom's heartbeat, and they weep less and are able to learn from you as you do house chores," Halsey said.
The doula program also offers new mothers free supplies, such as diapers, body wash, baby lotion and wipes. The doulas also encourage breast-feeding because it tends to be better for babies' health.
"And it's cheaper," Halsey said. "I don't have to worry about spending $50 a week on formula."
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