C enizo N ot es
Mexican
and
American
Food
by Carolyn Brown Zniewski, Publisher and Danielle Gallo, Editor-in-Chief
T
he New Year is
upon us. I hope
you started yours
out with a large helping
of black-eyed peas and a
slice of sweet potato pie.
That should bring you
luck and prosperity for
the coming year. Many
folks make resolutions
with the intent of
improving their health, fortunes or character. It
is a day when tradition suggests we take stock of
our lives. There is a Chinese curse, “May you
live in interesting times,” and I think it applies
to these last few years very well.
Every one of us has the opportunity and, if I
may, obligation to be good caretakers of our spe-
cial place here in Big Bend: the land, the ani-
mals, the plants and the people. It is by joining
together and helping each other that we will
continue to have the incredible loving and cre-
ative community that we so enjoy. I like to think
that the Cenizo with its stories, photographs,
poems, artwork and advertisements contributes
its share to camaraderie here in West Texas.
My resolution for 2019 is to remember what
Ben Franklin said: “We must, indeed, all hang
together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang
separately.” Here is to a great year, together.
T
here are times
when I miss the
smell of forests so
intensely that it pervades
my dreams. There is a
rich, loamy, acidic odor
to the layered pine nee-
dles and last year’s fallen
leaves that I can’t seem to
let go of, and the smell of
snow melting into forest
litter in April is something I would recognize
until my dying day, even if it takes until then to
experience it again.
But I find that when I travel out of the
Chihuahuan desert to a forested place, my pri-
mary response is claustrophobia. Where the hell
is everything? Which way is north? The trees
hem in the horizon, usually waaaaay over there
fifteen or twenty miles distant, so I can only see
a few hundred feet in any direction. I feel
crowded and disoriented. Where are the long
plains of graceful grasses, bowing primly all in
one direction with the wind? Where are the feet
of the mountains, firmly planted on the flats?
Where does the moon rise?
When I first came to the desert, the open
vastness of the space and the nakedness of every-
thing made me feel small and exposed; dizzy,
self-conscious, insignificant. Having grown
accustomed to squinting at a far horizon, I don’t
know if I could trade it in for the near-sighted-
ness of forests, no matter how wonderful they
smell.
I hope you enjoy this edition of the Cenizo,
kicking off the last year of the second decade of
the second millennium A.D., with some far-
sighted glances into the past, present and future
of the Big Bend.
Open 6 am to 9 pm Everyday
Famous Beef & Chicken Fajitas • Ice Cream
Free Wi Fi • Clean, Fast Service
Rene & Maria Franco, Owners
513 O’Reilly Street • Downtown Presidio
432.229.4409
A LPINE G UEST Q UARTERS
Spacious one or two bedrooms
Downtown Alpine • Walk to Amtrak
Reservations online at:
GuestQuartersAlpineTX.com
AirBnB.com • 432.244.8500
Published by Cenizo Journal LLC
P.O. Box 2257, Marathon, Texas 79842
www.cenizojournal.com
CE N IZ O J OU RN AL S TA F F
PUBLISHER
Carolyn Brown Zniewski
publisher@cenizojournal.com
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Danielle Gallo
editor@cenizojournal.com
WEB MANAGER
Maya Brown Zniewski
mayamadeapothecary@gmail.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Rani Birchfield
aed@cenizojournal.com
DESIGN/PRODUCTION
Wendy Lynn Wright
art@cenizojournal.com
Cenizo
First Quarter 2019
7