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COVID-19 by the numbers
On Friday, New Mexico health officials reported 125 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of cases to 206,252; DOH has designated 195,354 of those cases as recovered. Bernalillo County had 43 new cases, followed by Taos County with 13, Sandoval County with 10 and Santa Fe County with nine.
The state also announced one additional death from Torrance County; there have now been 4,354 total fatalities. As of Friday, 77 people were hospitalized with COVID-19. The health department will provide a three-day update on new cases, deaths and hospitalizations this afternoon.
Currently, 71.5% of New Mexicans 18 years and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine; 63.4% are fully vaccinated. In Santa Fe County, in the same age group, 81.8% have had at least one dose and 73% are fully vaccinated. Statewide, in the 12-17-year-old age group, 42.8% have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 33.8% are fully vaccinated.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Over the moon
If you missed Virgin Galactic’s successful launch of its Unity 22 from New Mexico to suborbital space yesterday: Here is is, with Stephen Colbert hosting the livestream, and looking back at his own history of ribbing Virgin Galactic co-founder Richard Branson. For his part, Branson posted a dramatic video of himself bicycling to the site at Spaceport America early in the morning prior to the 8:40 am launch. Here’s a video of Branson in space looking down at Earth. Yesterday’s flight was VSS Unity’s 22nd test flight and the first test flight with a full crew in the cabin. According to a company news release, the crew fulfilled a number of test objectives related to the “cabin and customer experience,” including evaluating the commercial customer cabin, the views of Earth, the conditions for conducting research and the effectiveness of the five-day pre-flight training program at Spaceport America.
“Today is a landmark achievement for the company and a historic moment for the new commercial space industry,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement. “With each successful mission, we are paving the way for the next generation of astronauts.” Branson also emphasized making space flight accessible during a post-flight news conference, noting, “We want to turn the next generation of dreamers into the astronauts of today and tomorrow.” To that end, he announced a partnership with Omaze and Space for Humanity, which has launched a sweepstakes to win two seats on a commercial flight to space. Then Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield (who recorded a version of Bowie’s “Space Oddity” from the International Space Station in 2013), pinned commercial astronaut wings on the crew-mates’ flight suits. New Mexico celebrated the occasion as well, with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham describing the state as the “home of the dawn of space tourism” and Spaceport America Executive Director Scott McLaughlin calling the flight “the culmination of decades of work by many hundreds of people focused on the creation and operation of Spaceport America.” (It’s certainly been long in coming from a political point of view; the Albuquerque Journal traces the “long, rocky countdown).
State police: Man stabbed mother prior to being shot by police
State Police on Friday released some details regarding the July 7 fatal shooting by a Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputy. According to a news release, at approximately 8 am, SFCSO responded to a domestic disturbance between a male and female at #1 Entrada Capulin in Tesuque. When they arrived, a SFCSO deputy met with a family member who told the deputy the female was being stabbed by the male, who was identified Friday as Edward Daniel Santana, 45, of Santa Fe. Deputies then encountered the stabbing victim, Delia Cervantes, 67, of Tesuque, lying on a patio bench outside the residence and carried her to a secure location near Bishops Lodge Road where she received emergency medical care.
A State Police spokesman confirmed to the Santa Fe New Mexican that Cervantes was Santana’s mother.A New Mexico State Police officer then arrived on the scene and that officer, along with county deputies, observed Santana standing on the patio holding a fence post. Santana began to “walk towards the officers in an aggressive manner holding the fence post” and ignored officers’ “numerous verbal commands” and continued approaching them. One deputy “deployed his department issued taser” and shortly afterwards “another SFCSO deputy discharged his department issued firearm towards Santana at least once, striking him.” Officers rendered aid to Santana, who was pronounced dead on the scene. Cervantes died later at the hospital where she had been taken. The incident marked the fourth shooting by a police officer in Santa Fe County in two weeks’ time and the second by local sheriff’s deputies. State Police is investigating all four, and has not identified the deputies who fired in a fatal, late-night encounter on June 23 on Siler Road near Rufina Street—or the deputy who killed Santana this week. The sheriff’s office identified the man shot by deputies on June 23 as Nathan Roybal, 32.
AMC greenlights new Hillerman crime show
AMC has ordered six episodes of a new crime show, Dark Winds, based on Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee books, which follow two Navajo police officers working in the American Southwest during the 1970s. Chris Eyre (Smoke Signals) will direct the pilot and executive produce, joined by numerous other executive producers, including Robert Redford and George RR Martin. The show will be filmed near and on Native American lands with support from the Navajo Nation, according to a news release and a statement from Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez welcoming Eyre, the studio, crews and “my friend, Robert Redford.” Nez notes that the Navajo Nation has lifted more COVID-19 restrictions “to welcome visitors and tourists back to Diné Bikéyah. We look forward to welcoming the film crew and we hope this will serve to draw more interest from production companies and draw more tourists to boost our economy and contribute to the ‘Buy Navajo, Buy Local’ initiative.” Redford also released a statement noting: “I read my first Tony Hillerman novel in 1986 while filming in New Mexico and was immediately hooked.” And Martin, on his blog, described himself as thrilled: “Bob Redford and Chris Eyre have put together a great team (with a little help from yours truly), and we hope to make a great show, one that truly captures the magic of this very special place.” Dark Winds is expected to premiere next year.
Listen up
On the most recent episode of New Mexico PBS’ environmental program Our Land, correspondent Laura Paskus Carson National Forest and talks with members of the Cerro Negro Forest Council, which uses the principles of acequia water management to practice community-led forestry. Guests include: Cerro Negro Forest Council Secretary/Treasurer JR Logan; leñero Richard Cordova; member David Fermin Arguello; and mayordomo Art Montoya.
Lookout
Missing the quiet and solitude of #pandemiclife? You may want to consider #lookoutlife, then, which is to say: a job as a fire lookout for the US Forest Service. BBC News profiles 26-year-old Midwesterner Kelsey Sims, who applied was hired for the position (technically called a forestry technician) and moved to New Mexico just as the pandemic hit. She spent lockdown in a historic lookout, built in 1952, alone: When fire risks are high (as they often are here during the spring and summer) fire lookouts can stay in their lookouts 10 hours at a time, six days a week for the whole fire season, which can stretch into October and beyond. The tower lacks running water or electricity (Sims’ appliances run on propane); she buys supplies on her day off. When she’s not scanning the horizon, conferring with colleagues or educating hikers about forest safety, she makes TikToks about her work (we watched them all, at first just to try to figure out where in New Mexico she’s located and then because they are super interesting), hands out with her dog Roo and is teaching herself to cook and to play the bagpipes. “My mom doesn’t really understand it,” Sims tells the BBC. “But if you’re comfortable with yourself this is honestly the most peaceful job in the world. It’s the most pure form of solitude imaginable.” The US has fewer lookouts than once did, as technology such as drones is increasingly used to monitor fires.
Artful bio
Indigenous Santa Feans tell SFR they’re concerned the leader of the organization slated to oversee the city’s Culture, History, Art, Reconciliation and Truth—CHART—process misrepresented her Native heritage. A fact sheet from the city sent ahead of a recent Zoom meeting with reporters made special note of Artful Life co-founder Valerie Martinez’s Hispanic, Diné and Pueblo heritage. The response: “Someone who runs CHART needs to understand what it is to be a Native person, and she is not,” Santa Fe Indigenous Center board member Carrie Wood (Diné) says. Martinez says a DNA test administered through California-based biotech company 23andMe found some Diné and San Ildefonso lineage on her mother’s side dating back to the mid-to-late-1800s. “What I’ve said to people is it’s very complicated,” Martinez, a former City of Santa Fe Poet Laureate, tells SFR. “I don’t have the same experiences [Indigenous people] have; I have my own experiences. I can only be honest about who I am. That’s all I can do. That’s who I am.” Three Sisters Collective co-founder Christina M. Castro (Jemez/Taos Pueblo/Chicana) says that’s not enough to make a claim of affiliation. “So many people in Northern New Mexico have those similar DNA results,” she says. “It’s interesting [Martinez] is embracing them. To introduce herself as such, as representing mine and Carrie’s communities...Pueblos are very close-knit, we know who people are. Putting that as her primary identity—and Hispanic—that’s a big deal, especially in this time.”
A little rain must fall
Santa Fe’s daytime high temperatures should dwindle back into the 80s this week, according to the National Weather Service. Today, we stand a 40% chance to receive showers and thunderstorms after noon on an otherwise sunny day with a high near 86 degrees and east wind 5 to 15 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Chances for precipitation tonight rise to approximately 50%, with the likelihood for storms increasing in mid-week.
Thanks for reading! The Word was happy to learn Margaret Atwood is writing her memoirs.
