'Finding another Belen'

Below- Felix Gomez, Ruperto Baldonado and MargoSaenz

Belen Day! A perfect day to celebrate the families of Belen, and the surrounding areas. As Mayor Ronnie Torres, Roger Swanson and Ken Gibson drove up in the van to Dana Park, I was there to greet the delegation of Belen. We kicked off the festivities by honoring former Hispanic leaders in the community that paved the way for many minorities in Barstow, Ruperto Baldonado, Margo Saenz and Felix Gomez. An estimated 3,000 people atteneded the event throughout the day. I would like to thank Mayor Ronnie Torres, Roger Swanson and Ken Gibson for traveling to Barstow to celebrate our heritage. Dos Costas Communication, Roland and Manny deserve the credit for making this event a success. Thanks, Joe

By AARON AUPPERLEE Staff Writer April 9, 2007 - 8:27AM BARSTOW — Sixty years ago, people from Belen and other New Mexico towns in search of jobs trekked to a hot plot in the Mojave Desert called Barstow. Their search and journey ended with many finding employment. On Saturday, 60 years after the Barstow migration, people from Belen, a small town just southwest of Albuquerque, once again trekked to Barstow, this time finding a little bit of their home town in their sister city 700 miles away. “It’s kind of like finding another Belen here,” Belen Mayor Ronnie Torres said. “Which is kind of weird.” Torres, Barstow residents and others from New Mexico towns with a cross-desert connection to Barstow packed Dana Park on Saturday for the third annual Fiestas de Belen and chili cook-off to honor the contributions of Barstow Hispanics and celebrate the history Barstow and Belen share. In the 1950s and 1960s, the lure of jobs in Barstow — at the Marine Corps Logistics Base, Fort Irwin and Santa Fe railroad — brought many unemployed and starving middle-aged men and their families to the desert, said Felix Gomez, uncle of City Council member Joe Gomez. “They settled down, and consequently it grew,” Felix Gomez said about Barstow in the 1950s. Gomez likes to take a portion of the credit for starting the migration of Hispanics from New Mexico to Barstow. When he was recovering from a World War II injury in Los Angeles, a doctor told him if he wanted to have use of his fingers later in life, he would have to move some place dry and hot. Gomez said he knew a friend who drove a bus at the Marine Corp Logistics Base and decided to give Barstow a try. He arrived in Barstow on July 4 and had a job the next day. Eventually, Gomez became the first Hispanic supervisor at the base, and he began hiring other Hispanics looking for work. He first brought out his brothers, sisters, mother and father. Then he hired middle-aged men from the Belen area with families to support who eventually brought their families to Barstow. Now, according to Gomez, 50 to 60 percent of the Hispanics in Barstow trace their roots back to the Belen area. Torres said the strong connection between Belen and Barstow make the two vacation destinations. “I was telling people I was coming to Barstow, and everyone had a story about someone they knew or saw there,” he said. Barstow Mayor Lawrence Dale presented Torres with a key to Barstow, and City Council member Joe Gomez read a proclamation passed by the Council establishing April 7, 2007, Belen Day” and entering the cities of Belen and Barstow into a sister-city relationship. Torres also donated two books about Belen on New Mexico history to the Barstow library.