Robert Trujillo, Stacey Trujillo, and Contessa Trujillo

[00:02] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: I am Contessa Trujillo, age 40. Today is March 19, 2023, and we are in Taos, New Mexico. My interview partners are my sister, Stacey and my dad, Bobby And I am a daughter. Sister. My name is Stacey Trujillo. I am 38 years old. Today is March 19, 2023. We are in Taos, New Mexico, and my interview partners are my sister, Contessa, and my dad, Bobby.

[00:31] STACEY TRUJILLO: My name is Robert Trujillo. They call me Bobby for short. I'm 66 years old, going on 67. Today is March 19, 2023. I'm from Taos, New Mexico. My interview partners are my daughters, Stacey and Contessa Trujillo.

[00:53] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: Dad, what's your favorite childhood memory?

[00:57] STACEY TRUJILLO: My favorite childhood memory, I think, was restoring my grandmother's house after my dad figured out that his family was growing. My dad and my mom, they lived with my grandparents next door with my older brother, Paul. While they built their house. They dug out the basement by hand. It took them a few months to build a house. They dug the basement out. They saved all the dirt. They brought straw, and they brought, you know, we had a ditch running nearby, so they would block it down, and they would make those adobes by hand. And most of this is just hearsay for my older brother, but I was actually there, too, in child form. I was only a few months old when a lot of this was going on. So that's one of my favorite memories, because I do remember coming back to my grandmother's house after a few years. When we got older, I probably about ten or eleven years old, and we were making. We, you know, we were making adobes for her house also, because the years had really, you know, gotten a hold of the house. So we. That's one of my favorite, I think, memories from growing up.

[02:10] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: Yeah. How many siblings do you have?

[02:14] STACEY TRUJILLO: According to my sister, 142 or maybe 143 maybe went on the way. I don't know. We just. She wasn't sure. So we're about 142 strong with, oh.

[02:27] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: Just the family as a whole, just.

[02:28] STACEY TRUJILLO: On the Trujillo side, not including on my wife's side, on your side. So, yeah, it's a very strong, strong family. You know, we. Every time we get together, if there's a birthday, we can't. We don't even fit in the house anymore. You know, we get together on Fridays, you know, to hear stories like this from my parents so that my daughters and my granddaughters can understand how we grew up as children in little community of Rancho's de taos. It's about 3 miles south of here. And, I mean, I have so many stories that I could probably keep you here all day, but I'll just try and answer a few questions and see if we can get something out of this story.

[03:13] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: Mm hmm. How many siblings do you have? Brothers and sisters?

[03:18] STACEY TRUJILLO: I have eight. Eight siblings, four brothers, four sisters, and I'm not sure of the grand. I mean, I have two grandchildren. I have Eva, and I have Remy, and I don't know how many nieces and nephews. I don't keep track of them, but we have grand nieces and grand nephews also. We have two brand new babies in the family. One's seven months. I think the other one's a couple of months old. So the family's growing. It's just getting bigger and bigger.

[03:51] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: And you grew up. Were you formally adopted by great grandma and grandpa? Grandma Leah and grandpa.

[03:58] STACEY TRUJILLO: Even though my older brother denies me being adopted by my grandparents. My mom had my brother. He was a little over a year old, and I was eight months old when my next sibling, Sandra, was going to be born. And one day my grandmother walked in, and she asked if she could have me. And so eight months of age. At eight months of age, I went with her, and we moved to Colorado. My grandfather worked on a sheep farm in Colorado, and so I left around that time, and I was there with him till I returned back to Taos to Rancho's about. I was about eight years old, maybe whatever. First graders. I had to start school, definitely. And I remember when I first came, I was in the. When I was in the first grade, my brother was already in the second, and he had to translate everything because all I knew was, was 100% Spanish. I didn't know a single word of English, and so he would translate. That was the sister school. You know, we grew up so neatly, you know, tight with the catholic church where we grew up that we were involved in pretty much everything with the church, the rentals church, the Rentus church, St. Francis church. Yeah. And actually, my actual birth certificate name is Roberto Francisco la Vitrugio Francisco, through my patron saint of St. Francis of Assisi, which is the patron saint of animals, and then David, from the story in the Bible of King David. So, you know, I'm deeply rooted down with the community. My family all grew up in the area of ranchos for generations. And as I, you know, explained to a lot of the kids nowadays that it seems like the kids nowadays aren't grateful for what they have. They didn't have to really work for much for the things that they have, you know, they want a new bike, they get it, and then they leave it alone. They don't cherish it, you know? And us, we used to ride on one bike that we had, and we'd drive down to the local dump and would look for rims and tires and handlebars, whatever we could find, and we'd bring it back, and then we'd work in the summer. You know, work ethics were very strong, you know, around the time that we grew up. And, I mean, we used to sell coke bottles up at the grocery store, and it was about a half a mile up the hill. I mean, it was a hard hill to walk up, you know? And we'd collect those bottles, as many as each of us, me and my older brother could carry. And we'd carry him up to that little store, and they'd give us a penny for the small ones and, I think three pennies for the big ones. And we finally realized, you know, there was more bottles than what we could carry. So we ended up making a wagon, and we pull that wagon up on the. Up that hill and sell our bottles, and they'd sell, you know, toys there on a rack and, you know, candy bars and sodas, and, you know, that's. We worked hard for our money back then. We'd work all summer. You know, we cleaned ditches, we. We plastered houses. We sold those bottles. We actually sold booklets at the church, at the San Francisco church there in Ranchos, you know, we'd sell them for $0.50 for the church. The church would get $0.40, we'd get a dime. And as soon as we collected enough money, we'd run over next door to a little grocery store that was there, and we'd probably spend it all at Rubens tendita next door. And I remember sometimes getting busloads of tourists, you know, especially, you know, tourists that came from other countries. And, you know, sometimes we. We give the story of the church, you know, the history of the church, and we maybe exaggerated just a little bit to make it just a little bit more interesting, you know? So it was just awesome times, you know, riding those bikes up and down the CalleJones there in Ranchos, you know, and we knew. We knew all our neighbors. You know, the doors were never locked. If you need anything from a neighbor, you could just, you know, go ask of them. Fond memories of growing up, you guys, you know, that. You know, Contessa, you got to taste a little bit of it with. With your great grandfather and Stacey you know, and we tried to learn from them and we still have my dad and my mom and your mom's dad, you know, they have a lot of stories. I remember your grandma Odila, the stories she had and how she smiled with her eyes when she would say it, you know, so, I mean, I'm just, you know, deeply connected and deeply, you know, I just love the church. We were altar boys there for years and years and I mean, when they were chores to be done, my grandfather was on my Erdomo there, you know, the caretaker, and even if he wasn't on my erdoma for that year, he'd get us up at four or 05:00 in the morning to go sweep snow and have it ready for people when they showed up at seven, you know, so, you know, deeply connected, like they say, you know, to all these things and, you know, just fond memories of growing up.

[09:12] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: Have you experienced any miracles?

[09:15] STACEY TRUJILLO: I've experienced a few miracles, I think, in my life. Sometimes I wonder back, you know, how I even survived, you know, to be this age. You know, I've been run over by three cars, believe it or not, one at 45 miles an hour, another one that's hit me and have a scar over my eye here to prove it, another one when, when I think you were born, right, or you were born and that car also fell on you and I could honestly say that, that my guardian angel was, was watching over me, especially, you know, on the first. On the first one, I remember flying in the air and I, we went and measured it one time, I think it was like 48ft from the highway, and I landed at the door of the little store, you know, and we had two grocery stores, one by the church, one across the highway, and we were told not to go to the other side of that highway unless we had someone older go with us. So that one particular day my cousin went with me and I saw the car coming, but I just tried to beat it, I guess, and all the next thing I do is I remember flying in the air and I yelled at her, why did you push me? And she goes, I didn't push you, grabbed you from me and threw you into that car's path. So I think the Lord saved me for such a time as this, honestly, you know, I'm a pastor at a small church and I love the Lord, I love to do his work. And that's one of the miracles. The other one is when you were born, that I was working on that car and there's no way I could lift the car with my hands. And when he fell on me, started burning my face, and I grabbed it with my hands, you know, the exhaust. And your mom remembers me walking in, and I just remember part of my face was burned and scarred, and my hands were. I tried to get out and I guess I couldn't. And something lifted that car, in my opinion. And that was a miracle also, that I believe the Lord's actually saved me for such a time as this.

[11:19] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: What are some of the most important lessons you've learned in life?

[11:23] STACEY TRUJILLO: Oh, the important lessons in life is not to take, I guess, life for granted, to enjoy every day, you know, make it a beautiful day. When we were growing up, remember, after we got. We got home from school, we changed our clothes because back then we were lucky to have two, three pairs of pants for the whole year. And my mom made sure that we got our school closed, took it off, did our chores, chopped wood. We had an open water well. We filled up all the buckets, you know, for drinking water till the next day. I remember on Wednesdays, we filled up a tub of water. We'd build a fire under it, and we warm water for wash day, for washing clothes on Wednesdays. And then we did it again on Saturdays because everyone went to church on Sunday mornings. And we warmed that water, and they would bring the kids in. The girls would go first, and then the youngest kids to the oldest. And by the time we got in there, I mean, that water was just cold and soapy. And, I mean, you know, so, I mean, we just, you know, we did all that kind of stuff growing up. And I just remember all that when I smell, you know, pinon wood burning in the fireplaces and. And I recall, you know, when there was pinon, like every six, seven years, I think we'd go pick Pinon with the whole family, and we'd save it just like pack rats. We couldn't eat it all. And my grandmother would give us so much, you know, every day or maybe, you know, every weekend, we'd have a chance to go to church, like every Sunday morning. And there was always a reward for us being on time to church and all. And my grandmother would take us down to the river and we'd have a picnic. And, I mean, just fond memories of growing up in that little community and sharing, mostly sharing. We used to have an annual matanza where we'd kill a pig and a lamb and chickens, and the neighbors would bring corn and we'd roast it in the ovens that we had outside, and everybody would bring something. And we'd kill that animal, those animals. And then at the end, everybody would take some home. It was just an experience to share things with your neighbors and just to help if you saw an elderly person. Because we had a pathway from our church to the school right through our front yard. And if they were carrying bags, we were supposed to go help them carry it through. And just beautiful things that sometimes I feel that we don't have anymore.

[13:59] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: I think those are some of the good traits that are being passed down. I know for our generation, we trying to keep those things going because, you know, the older generation is getting older and it's something I want to pass down to my children. Even though these generations are very different now with the phones and electronics and stuff, I don't think they appreciate it as much as we did when we were growing up little. And I wish that is something that people would still teach their children to do because I think it's important to have these just in life to keep passing down all of the generations.

[14:42] STACEY TRUJILLO: And I see that you and Isaac are doing a really good job with Remy and Contessa. They're very respectable kids. They. Thank you. I mean, Eva and Remy, sorry. As we get older, we get confused because I have these two, and then I have two just like them. The little ones just like her mom, the older ones just like her auntie there. She was born on her birthday also, you know. So, you know, Eva and Remy, they're being taught. They're being taught, right. You know, we're trying, you know, their grandma here, Melva, she. She tries to interact with them, trying to teach them, you know, how to. How to be creative with her hands and creative with. With the things that are around them. You know, when we were growing up, we didn't have Walmart and we didn't have all these stores where you just go buy stuff and anytime you want, you know.

[15:35] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: Did you guys have a garden? Where'd you get your veggies?

[15:38] STACEY TRUJILLO: We had our. We had our own gardens, we had our own fruit trees. You know, we had different kinds of. We had red raspberries, we had white raspberries. We had rhubarb's along the river. We had asparagus and I, cherry trees. I remember the cherries and we had the gold cherries and the little small sour ones. You know, we used to have all that. We used to grow our own vegetables, our own fruit. You know, we'd make sure that there was some for the winter. I remember my grandmother, you know, they would pack in jars. You know, they would pack all this fruit that we had. And, I mean, it was just a beautiful, awesome time to grow up in, you know, in the fifties and sixties, you know, and times have changed, but we're trying to hold on to our history, to our heritage, to our culture, through the story of the Ancanos, that they live these things and we live these things. We can tell you about them because it was part of our daily routine. And we played past that sunset every day until they had to call us in stories that we could spend hours on. But, you know, those are the most important things that I can recall that are very prevalent in my personal life.

[16:51] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: Who were Grandma Leah and Grandpa Lipa.

[16:54] STACEY TRUJILLO: Like my grandfather, was a very simple minded person. He never had a driver's license, he never owned a rifle, he never owned a fishing rod. He owned a shovel, a pitchfork and a rake. And because he was a sheep herder, he was the foreman in 3000, 4000 head of sheep. And I recall stories of one time that this is one lamb didn't want to go in the pen in the winter because they bring him down off the mountain. We'd be there up all summer. That's where we grew up, in the mountains. For three, four months we were there. He was a gentleman with calloused hands. I hear stories that he just got his fist and just punched it once in the forehead and killed it. Another time he was going up to the, to the camp because he would service the sheep herders. He'd take him food, you know, he would take him grain for the horses and stuff salt for the sheep. And there was, he had his horse and he had two donkeys and a baby one coming up behind it. And the little baby one kept wanting to nurse and kept disrupting all the things that were in the camp that he would take. He would pack the eggs inside of the grain so he wouldn't break it. They knew how to do all that stuff. And he said that he had enough of that little animal. And he got off his horse, cut his throat and threw it down the mountain. But he was a gentleman. He had nothing bad to say about anybody. But when he came down to, to being a man's man, my grandfather was that man. And I remember he had horses that if he yelled at him, they would start shaking their feet. They trembled at that man. And yet he took care of them. He made sure they were fed, he made sure that they were comfortable inside the corrals. I mean, that was my grandfather, my grandmother, I tell you, the words could not explain that woman she was the love of the neighborhood. She shared everything. And she made sure that not only we went to church on Sundays, but all the neighbors. And as we walked by the houses, all the neighbors would come in, and she would walk in, and it looked like, they say, like a mother goose with about 20 little kids following her. And we take up two or three benches at church, and everybody loved her. I mean, when, you know, when they had her, we had the light of our lives in that little area. I mean, she made tortillas for the whole family, and, I mean, she loved my wife to death, you know.

[19:35] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: Tell us that story.

[19:36] STACEY TRUJILLO: I don't know if I should. No. There was one time that we had kind of broken up, and I was, you know, devastated. I was. I was in love with her, and I still am, you know, but I. I decided, well, you know, I guess I'll start seeing somebody else. So I met. I met this other girl at the drive in, and so I brought her to meet my grandmother, and she said, nope. She said, melba, this is the only. She's the one for you. Nobody else. And she wouldn't accept anybody else. So that was that. Okay.

[20:13] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: Did they speak English? Grandma and grandpa spoke Spanish. Yeah.

[20:16] STACEY TRUJILLO: Yeah, we all spoke Spanish. That was our number one, you know, language. Of course, we learned it, you know, in school, but they spoke. They spoke both languages. Spanish was prevalent, especially when they. They would tell you off, you know. And now my daughters and granddaughters very know very little Spanish, you know, so sometimes me and their mom, if we want to say. We wanted to say something about it, we talk in Spanish. And they didn't understand, so they kind of understood, I guess so, you know, that's just stories that I hope we can keep alive, you know, for generations to come, so that they can understand that nothing in life is free, you know, especially our freedom. We live in a beautiful, beautiful country that everybody wants to come here, you know, and if we lose that freedom that we have here, where are we going to go? We have nowhere else to go. And they can't blame people for wanting to come and live here, you know, but we gotta do things, you know, in a certain way. And, you know, Taos is such a welcoming place. I mean, we welcome everybody. People tell me you must be from northern New Mexico. Even in Colorado. Other places, people that I meet, you know, we've always got a smile. We always have a greeting, a well wish for people, you know, and I hope that never changes in this little community, because, you know, it's growing. It's growing by leaps and bounds. The machine is rolling, and it's sometimes hard to stop. It's hard to stop growth.

[21:50] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: You know, we just had an experience with that, too. This weekend, we met a really lovely couple from Dallas, Texas, that were here skiing and on vacation. And they were just saying how nice it was to be in Taos. And the people are just so friendly and welcoming that it made me happy to see, because sometimes you could hear all the bad stories about, you know, people being rude and not wanting tourists to be here. But they're essentially our livelihood in this little town, too, that, you know, is growing. But it was nice to hear them just say how welcoming people were and how friendly and stuff. So it was nice to still see that.

[22:26] STACEY TRUJILLO: Yeah. And, like me, I have a couple of questions for you guys. You know, that. What do you expect these stories, when we relate these stories to you? You know, I know you believe them, but do we find a way to cherish them and really hide them in our heart? You know, the question I have for you guys is that, you know, you've heard these stories from your grandparents, you know, and you've lived it through in a royondo, through that little farm and that your grandparents had, you know, and growing up down there, you know, playing in the river, playing in the acequias. Sekias are so important to the local people here that the most beautiful thing that I remember in the spring was watching that water start running in those ditches. Do you guys remember all that stuff?

[23:18] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: I think I never understood it because us as kids and the generation is changing. We would go play in the Aztecas and be like, water. And we would go, and, grandpa, get out of there. What are you doing? And we're like, God, he doesn't let us have any fun, you know? And we're not realizing, like, that's the water for his crops and that's, you know, their, you know, their livelihood and stuff. So we never understood it till, of course, now that we grow up and listen and hear the stories, we're like, oh, that was really so important. And it still is. But, you know, just. I was in trouble. Yeah, right. Well, and it's hard, too, because I think that we grew up in such a different time. Like, it's like these generations, like, slowly, like, just become different than they were before. And so, like, growing up and playing in the acequias is like, grandma and Grandpa had the aceh because they had the farms and they had their crops and they had, you know, they were running and working the acquias. But, like, we didn't grow up with an acquia near our house. We didn't have a farm, so we didn't necessarily, like, we grew up with that at grandma and Grandpa's, but we didn't have that in our own spaces, and we don't have that now for the girls, like your daughters to. Well, actually, we have the ackeas now where I'm living now, which is nice because with, you know, Remy's grandpa, he does the acequias, and he will take her with him. Just how I grew up with my dad taking me and his dad taking him, you know, to show him all the stuff, which is really nice, because I feel like, because we didn't grow up with the Osekias, I don't have that much, like, history on him. But with, like, Mike growing up with it and taking Remy and Ava along with him and showing him those stories, it's like how we grew up with dad teaching us the stories, even though we weren't around it. But understand when we went to our grandparents house, right? Cause we still. I mean, very much. And one of the things that I've appreciated in just being back home or always, like, coming back home when I lived elsewhere was the simplicity of life here. And, you know, you still. People still very much live within the cycles of the year.

[25:24] STACEY TRUJILLO: Traditions.

[25:24] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: Right. Well, traditions as well. And I think that's so integrated culturally. But it's just like, you know, at certain times of the year is when you pick Pinon and every few years and, you know, is when it's best. Or everybody has their, like, pinon picking spots, or they have, you know, where they go for wood or going to get a Christmas tree or, you know, like, those are things that in bigger cities, it's like no one's really going for wood at certain times of the year or in the fall when people are roasting the green chili. And it's, you know, it's these, like, my milestones that kind of transition you into the next season.

[25:58] STACEY TRUJILLO: Right.

[25:58] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: And I think those things are so ingrained here, which I appreciate. And I don't know. I haven't experienced that, I guess, in other places in the same ways. And that's what I'm trying to, like, put these traditions down to my children, too, because I think they see the roasting of the green chile, but they don't understand that's a very new Mexico thing. And they're gonna get older. I'm not sure if they're gonna want to stay in Taos or go to the big cities or whatnot. But to them, they're gonna tell these stories and be like, that's so weird. What's green chili? Or what is that? I want them to learn these stories and grow up with them and have archives of these, because then they can listen to them and know their history and know, like, spread that to other people. I think that's what I want to do, is just remember all the stories, pass them down to my children so they can pass them down to their children and keep the traditions going.

[26:50] STACEY TRUJILLO: Yeah, like, you know, Contessa has a plan of making an adobe wall, you know, one of these days. And I remember growing up in this. This, you know, adobe homes with viga ceilings and wood fireplaces and. And stoves. And I said, one day I want to build a house out of adobe just like the one my grand, my grandparents had, you know, and I. You remember, you know, we made 25,000 adobes on the property. I had some workers, and our neighbors had a rental, and there was two women there that were going to build their own home, and they wanted to learn how to make adobes. And they got in that mud pit with a straw and the water and just danced in there, and they said, you know, this is incredible, you know, just to be able to use your hands, you know, to build a home just like my parents and grandparents did for themselves, you know? So it's, you know, we're looking up, you know, I remember, you know, we were in town here in the plaza one time, and this lady was so excited to buy a three $5 adobe to take back to wherever she came from. She couldn't believe that houses were made out of little bricks, you know, how do they tie them and stuff, you know? And to me, it was like, well, you know, we grew up with this and these things, you know, making those adobes, and I stacking them up and making the mud and bringing the vigas up from the mounds ourselves and all these things. So the culture and the tradition is still very, very alive in northern New Mexico. I think a lot of people that move here want to learn about these ways of building, and most of them end up building adobe houses.

[28:30] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: I feel the same way, too, with the traditions of cooking, because memories growing up was always with my mom in the kitchen. Always. Any picture I had was me on the counter and my mom making food. So I consider myself a pretty good cook now. And my daughters, too, kind of are just like us. Like, one will come and sit and wanna put her hands in the dough or make the meatloaf or whatnot too. So, like, I cherish that memory, too. My mom teaching me how to cook and now me knowing how to make tortillas and passing that down to my children, because a lot of people just don't cook anymore. We're so busy working and double working and not have, you don't have time to do a lot of the stuff. And I think I'd be really sad if I didn't have that memory of, like, me and my mom cooking in the kitchen. So I think those are traditions also that, you know, I cherish having, because even something as little as, like, making tortillas, it reminds me of my mom, reminds me of my grandma. My kids are going to remember those things. So I. I think that's important, too, to you.

[29:29] STACEY TRUJILLO: Actually started at about two months old, getting into mom's cupboards and taking all the pans, the pots and pans and spreading them all over the kitchen and stuff. So it's awesome. Any other questions?

[29:45] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: What's your favorite memory of me? You're asking me?

[29:49] STACEY TRUJILLO: Yeah.

[29:49] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: Oh, my gosh. My favorite memory of you. It's so. I don't know. I was, like, actually telling the story a few stories recently because we just grew up so, like, in the same environment, but, like, we ended up just being, like, so different people. Such different people and, like, the same people. And so it's interesting, like, thinking about you, like, always, because I was always in the kitchen with you guys, but I just never really took up, like, the cooking, and you were always just, like, in the kitchen and in everything. And so one of my favorite pictures of you is the one when you're really little and you have all of the pots and pans around you near the cupboard, and you're wearing those, like, your diaper, and I think just like a pair of mister potato head red glasses. And I feel like that picture is so all encompassing of you in terms of, like, your sense of humor and your ability to just show up to life so free spirited and carefree and also strong willed. It's funny because I think I see a lot of those same characteristics in Remy which drive you bananas, but it's equally funny and sweet and challenging, I think. But I know what to look forward to. Yeah, you do. Raising us from baby form is crazy because they do. I think they do resemble a lot the way we grew up in their personalities and how ones just vary into, like, books and the others, like, not. Or I'm like, oh, my gosh, this is how it was. I remember this.

[31:39] STACEY TRUJILLO: Yeah. And what's really, really, you know, awesome. Like, my wife likes to collect photo albums of all the kids, and she pretty much has one for almost everyone already. They're almost all done, and she's, you know, but I go through them and I just start seeing these things that we did when we were young, you know, just trying to remember when they were two years old and three years old and ten years old and teenagers, you know, and all this stuff. And, I mean, you know, after a while, you just even cherish those memories, you know, because they grow so fast. You know, even my grandkids, I see the pictures of, you know, on the wall. My daughter, you know, Stacey has their pictures almost every year, every six months, some of them. And when they were born. And I tell my wife, sometimes I don't remember all the pictures of those ages, you know, I just kind of see them as where they are now, you know, and you wonder, you know, what they're going to be like or what they're going to go through in the future, you know, with a lot of things that are changing, generational changes, you know, the adaptation of cell phones and computers, you know, the computer age. You know, a lot of times we don't rely on our own skills and our own knowledge to, to be able to sustain because we don't know what the future is going to bring sometimes, you know, we could suddenly go back into, you know, an age wherever. But you do have to store food again. You know, we are avid hunters, and we have meat through the winter, you know, and it's such a big family, it doesn't last very much, even though we do manage to kill a few, you know. But, you know, I see one question here and it says, you know, what do you want to be remembered by? You know what? That's my question to you guys, and I'll tell you in a minute what I feel. But what would you like to be remembered for?

[33:36] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: I think I would like to be remembered for, I guess, my humor and my kindness. I think I'm pretty kind all around. I think that's the most you can ask for, is just to be remembered of doing special things for people that make them feel better.

[33:54] STACEY TRUJILLO: That's good. That's good.

[33:56] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: How about you? Along those same lines. I think I would want to be remembered for, like, showing up fully, like, no matter what it was or giving circumstances.

[34:08] STACEY TRUJILLO: Yeah. And, you know, there was a time in our lives when a handshake was, was very, very important. And one thing that I taught my daughters, and my wife will remind me sometimes, is that your word is your bond? When you say you're going to do something, you do it 100%. I think my daughters have done that. I'm so proud of them. One of them has seen a lot of the world, and the other one has seen the rest of it with me. I'm so proud of them that I look at them now and they're grown women and have their own families now and carrying on. I just thank God every single day to be so blessed to have them. Four women, two daughters, two granddaughters, and my wife. Five women in my life. There was a time when I wanted a boy. All men want boys. And this one, this little one here, my shadow, she was with me everywhere, doing everything. It's awesome.

[35:16] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: You chopped off all my hair to prove it, too.

[35:21] STACEY TRUJILLO: So, you know, I just want to be remembered for a person that was a man of his word that went through, you know, what he said he was going to do. I remember when I took my worker to Mexico, you know, and people told me, you know, it's dangerous. You're not going to come back. Aren't you afraid? And I told him, I gave this man my word that I would take him. And I did. I took him all the way home. And so, you know, that's. That's one thing that if somebody comes to me today and said, you owe me a $20 for this or that or whatever, I will pay it again. And my older brother gets mad at me and he goes, you got to understand that you can't do that. And I go, I have to. When I leave this world, I want people to know that I was a man of my word and I never cheated anybody. I don't really say things bad about anybody. I try to just stay in focus with the things that God has planned for us. So, pretty proud of all you guys.

[36:18] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: Proud of you, too, dad. Thank you. We learned it from you. He passed that down to us, so we wouldn't have learned it any other way.

[36:28] STACEY TRUJILLO: Any other questions? No.

[36:32] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: Thank you guys for doing this.

[36:34] STACEY TRUJILLO: It was our pleasure. You know, we should, you know, we do this every week, you know, and sometimes we need to do it a little bit more, you know?

[36:40] CONTESSA TRUJILLO: Yes. Thank you. Love you guys.

[36:43] STACEY TRUJILLO: Love you, too.