“I was a heroin addict for about seventeen years. Been to jail a bunch of times, in and out of prison three times. It took a while until I figured out that, without recovery, I wasn’t going to be able to be a father for my kids, son to my parents and a good husband to my wife…

Last time that I got out, I went through the drug court program and successfully completed that. I was given a chance to be a better father to my younger kids than I was to my older kids and I took that opportunity…I got my autobody shop up and running again, started building classic cars, painted them, restoring them, I saw that it brought light to my father’s eyes…

I live to be able to offer hope and long-term sobriety to others and to be of service. This is a feeling I never had before. We have a program on Mondays called RYNO’s Aim for Recovery. We meet on zoom at 9, it’s about six of us that meet to support each other…we do a check-in and set goals to maintain our sobriety if we have bumps in the road. You know, who you’re going to reach out to and to get a plan in place each week and make sure it sticks. If someone needs help, we make a plan to help each other…go to each other’s houses…we don’t want people to get overwhelmed, we want to reduce stress before it causes problems.

Personally, if I don’t take each week and each day by setting achievable goals, I can actually complete, I get overwhelmed and frustrated and that frustration can lead you to drink or whatever….we want to help people avoid that stress and people holding me accountable helps me stay on track….if you don’t have a purpose in life, you’ll find ways to fuck up and I have a purpose, we all need purpose….

Every morning I get up and go pray by the acequia. You know, I’m a traditional Aztec dancer. I play the Aztec drum, my wife is a danzante, and my daughter is a danzante. I balance my Catholicism with the Aztec tradition. Being in the Aztec Mexica way we honor Mother Earth, Father Sky, all the elements, the four directions - and so in the morning I go and pray at the acequia and welcome the sunrise. There, by the water…it keeps me grounded, keeps me settled, and reminds me that I have the opportunity today to walk out to this day sober, to this beautiful water, to spend some time with creator and just give thanks for another day.”

Repurposing Plastics Taos

- JULY 2022