New Mexico Magazine Author Question and Answer

Featured Author

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Balloon festival at White Sands National Monument

Phaedra Greenwood

Phaedra Greenwood’s memoir, Beside the Rio Hondo: A Memoir of Rural New Mexico, tells about her life in 1992, when she was 49 and determined to make it living alone in an old adobe in Arroyo Hondo, near Taos. Wolf Schneider catches up with her in 2008.

Q: How much of Beside the Rio Hondo is true and how much is creative liberty?

A: It’s all true. What’s fictionalized is that I’ve changed names to protect my neighbors and friends, and I’ve collapsed time sequences because I wanted the story to move within the framework of season by season.

Do you think the type of make-or-break year you had is something others who come to New Mexico can identify with?

Yes, definitely. People come here not really knowing what to expect. Around here, we have this great legend, which the hippies started: If the mountain wants you, you can’t leave, and if the mountain doesn’t want you, you can’t stay.

I’ve heard that so many times—and about Santa Fe, too!

Well, you’re moving to an ecosystem that’s extremely demanding, and the competition for resources is pretty stiff—unless you come with your own resources.

Did you?

I came with very little resources, but I had inner resources. I didn’t have much money. I had an old car. But I had a great love of being here and wanting to be in this place.

Are you still in Arroyo Hondo?

Yes, I still live in the very house that’s on the cover of the book. Every single time I come home, my heart still expands.

How has your life changed since 1992?

Well, I reconciled with my partner, and we’re now back here living together.

Really? Your husband?

Yes! People change and grow, and eventually learn to communicate, and that’s what happened.

You’re writing in the tradition of John Nichols, Frank Waters, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Barbara Waters—were they influences?

John Nichols has been tremendously influential, along with Florida Scott-Maxwell, Meridel Le Sueur, and May Sarton.

You’re in your 60s now. In what ways do you look at life differently, and in what ways the same?

The love that was here then is still here—the love for the land, the people, the culture, the light and space. Now I’m watching patterns, using nature and animals as a model.

Like?

The cats had trapped this little ferret in a woodpile, and I shooed them away and went out there and talked to it, and it came out. It looked bright and curious. And one night I had this wild mouse, and I played Bach for it. This little mouse was about to cross over a log when I put the tape of Bach on, and she paused and didn’t move for 10 minutes and really listened. There is a common exchange of energy and matter that goes on.

You were in Santa Fe today; how does Santa Fe compare with Taos?

Santa Fe is really tailored and beautiful in a consciously directed way. Taos is very ragtag—it’s beautiful because there’s a crack in it and the light is coming through.

What do you think is your forte as a writer?

Storytelling, dialogue, nature. Life is about testing you, and I do take risks. Usually I don’t push it over the line, but I push it pretty close.

For info: www.phaedragreenwood.com

Wolf Schneider has been editor in chief of the Santa Fean, editor of Living West, and consulting editor at Southwest Art.

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