and Boquillas canyons with Jim Bones and
Robert Graves that she describes as “the best
four days of my life.”
By 1984 Whitson was ready for a new life.
She resigned from Texas Monthly and headed
back to Terlingua. Far Flung Adventures, to
her joy, offered her a job managing the office.
In 1986 she met geologist Bill Bourbon and
they married two years later in the Barker
House in Big Bend National Park.
In 1988 she took a job with the Big Bend
Natural History Association, overseeing book
sales in and managing the seminar program.
After 16 years she was ready to retire and ready
for a new venture.
She resuscitated Whitson Food Products as
Whitson Chile Products and, using a recipe still
in the family, started selling the original
Whitson’s Moist Seasoning. She obtained vital
grants from the Texas Agriculture Department
and sold the product around Texas. Later she
added spicy sweet pickles, candied jalapenos, a
serrano salsa, and more. Two containers of the
pickles and jalapenos recently shipped to
Norway, indicating the continuing popularity
of the products.
With Bill she started Bourbon Properties,
buying and selling land and renting homes. In
addition to her entrepreneurial drive, she start-
ed the Terlingua Chamber of Commerce,
helped start the first clinic in South County,
Primary Care Services, and joined the board of
Last Minute, Low Budget Productions, the
community theater group.
Today Sarah Bourbon spends less time on
her product business and more time hiking,
biking, and tending her garden.
ROBeRTO LUJaN
Roberto Lujan pours me a glass of pome-
granate juice in the kitchen of his house in
Presidio. Outside, a ploughed field of rich soil
gives way to the Rio Grande.
He was born in the Lockhart Clinic in
Alpine in April 1956, the middle child of five
born to Sabina Sandate Lujan and Eugenio
Almodova Lujan. His grandfather came from
San Carlos, Chihuahua and worked as an
arriero, driving mule trains. His father worked
for many years at SRSU as a transportation
driver.
School segregation in Alpine at that time
ended in eighth grade, and Lujan graduated
from Alpine High School in 1974. His coun-
selor said he would make a good gardener.
Instead, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was
sent to Germany. In an army bus in East Berlin
with fellow soldiers, he endured hostile gestures
from local men and felt American for the first
time.
As a Hispanic of Apache Humano heritage
who experienced segregation and racism,
Lujan realized that education was the way for-
ward. He continued his education at Sul Ross.
He was always attracted to art and completed
his BA in Fine Arts (1980) with a minor in
teaching (K-12.) In 1994 he also gained a
Masters of Education at SRSU.
He became a social worker but found the
system heavily bureaucratic. However, he got
to visit the border area and found it very differ-
ent, culturally rich and satisfying. Lujan left the
Department of Human Resources in 1990 and
went briefly to Corpus Christi, where he took
several jobs. After a chance meeting in Presidio
with the Superintendent of the Presidio ISD, he
landed his first teaching job – in Presidio. His
students played marbles and wore boots. Lujan
felt he was coming back to a place of origin.
After three years, he was qualified to teach
core subjects in the high school. He also met
and later married Julia West, also a teacher,
who today shares his home near the Rio
Grande. Teaching became a passion for him.
He started soccer in Presidio and got his stu-
dents into the Texas History Day program.
It was at Sul Ross that Lujan become aware
of his Native American roots. Getting involved
in the arts and feeling part of nature fed the
feeling. “We are in occupied territory,” he says.
He considers Border Patrol check points the
same as the presidios built in earlier centuries.
The land is sacred to him and the Pipeline,
which he vehemently opposes, intrudes on this
sacred land. With his Hispanic and Native
American heritage, he does not feel alone but
empowered. At Alpine High School’s 50th
Reunion he was the only male Hispanic.
Now retired, Lujan is embarking on a new
project in the studio he is building in Shafter.
He intends to exercise his creative side, which
was fostered at Sul Ross but led to little. He
describes this new venture with vigor, talking
about 100 art projects – a new challenge. He
will also develop his pomegranate juice, the
only person locally in this business.
Christina’s World
Folk Art • Jewelry from Around the World
Local Artisans • Fossils
Large Day of the Dead Collection
“Beauty is Critical”
The Boardwalk, Lajitas
Open daily 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
A LPINE G UEST Q UARTERS
Spacious • Downtown Alpine
Walk to Amtrak
Reservations online at:
AlpineGuestLodging.rocks
or 432.386.2398
Corrections:
Bob Miles, Fourth Quarter 2016
The Sproul family, Miles’ father’s side of the family,
settled in the Davis Mountains in 1886.
Miles started school in Alpine in 1951.
Miles’ mother’s name was Pauline and his son’s
name is Robert.
Miles’ most recent article in Cenizo Journal was
“Presidio Area Spanish Missions,” as well as two
poems, “Old Gods” and “Back to the Blanket,” in the
same issue (4th Quarter 2015)
My apologies for the errors. Jim Glendinning
Cenizo
First Quarter 2017
15