Birth and early life
de Aragón was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, a small town in northeastern New Mexico. It is generally agreed that the most significant biographical link between de Aragón and his work is this fact of his birth and growth to maturity in his native New Mexico. Here is the source of his knowledge and love of his Hispanic culture and traditions, his biological view of life, and many of his characters, whether true life heroes such as Padre Antonio Jose Martinez, who is the subject in many of his writings, or the legendary La Llorona, who is the famous wailing female ghost of Hispanic folklore. (Jim Sagel, "Ray John de Aragón in Profile")
De Aragón lived most of his first thirty years in Old Town Las Vegas near the Arroyo Manteca, where his mother Maria Cleofas Sanchez de Aragón recounted stories to him of La Llorona roaming up and down the waterways in search of her lost children. He also learned about the heritage of Los Penitentes, the flagellant lay brotherhood of New Mexico through the stories told of his maternal grandfather and uncles who were members of this deeply religious order. The author's love of this “land of enchantment” can be felt as he describes the land and its people: (Jim Sagel, "Ray John de Aragón in Profile")
"Along the lush green banks of the Rio Grande, la gente, the people, lived, prayed, cried, and laughed. Spirits of the old ones nurtured the rich perfumed earth. Los Hispanos understood the joyous meaning of life in the beautiful winding valleys, but they also felt the very forceful presence of Dońa Sebastiana, DeathThe knowledge of being and passing was learned from Los Antepasados, those who came before. This wonderful heritage was passed down through los dichos (folk sayings), that mingled harmoniously with the haunting alabado chants of the Penitentes and the stories of the elders, which flowed onward incessantly like the nurturing water of the river."
Surely these years with his family form the background from which de Aragón draws his detailed...and often beautiful...descriptions of natural phenomena as he attaches importance to these experiences in his work. (Jim Sagel, "Ray John de Aragón in Profile")
At the same time, in addition to his love of the land, it is clear that de Aragón read widely. He says he was influenced through an elementary teacher who had her students write book reports and highly motivated their interest in reading. It was through her that he was exposed to tales of knight errantry like Don Quixote, Amadis de Gaula, and El Cid. Later influences were Fray Angelico Chavez, Fabiola C. de Baca, Aurora Lucero and Cleofas Jaramillo. The author's interest eventually leaned toward the controversial which was sparked by the defaming novel,
Death Comes to the Archbishop, written by Willa Cather in which she tainted the image of Hispanic New Mexicans and their heroes.
Although Ray John de Aragón contributed to literary publications both in high school and college (he attended the University of Albuquerque for six years where he earned two degrees), the entire period of his young adulthood was influenced by Reyes Lopez Tijerinas’ Alianza Federal de las Mercedes, a land grant group of the 1960s which sought justice for New Mexico Hispanos. His membership in this group provided him with first-hand knowledge of pressing land grant problems and other civil rights and human rights struggles which were affecting all Hispanics in the United States. This became the basis of his future writings, which were further stimulated by Willa Cather's novel, wherein she denigrated the accomplishments and fame of the heroic folk hero priest of New Mexico Don Antonio Jose Martinez.
The perpetuation of “La Leyenda Negra” or the “Black Legend” by Cather and others incensed him to the point of writing against social injustice and striving to correct the historical record. His source material was derived from a variety of subjects as diverse as Hispano women in history, the “Gorras Blancas” (the Hispanic New Mexican ranchers who fought injustice during the 1890s) and the famous Sheriff Elfego Baca.
His historical revisionist award-winning and bestselling book, Padre Martinez and Bishop Lamy written during the social unrest of the 1960s and 70s, focused on trying to change the stereotypical image of the Mexican bandido and the barefoot, fat and pregnant Hispanic woman or her counterpart, the slut. This book, claimed one newspaper reporter (Rita Pino Vargas, "El Visitante Dominical"), became one of the most frequently reviewed books produced by a Hispanic writer in the U.S. This prompted the use of the book as a source text in courses at various universities such as Stanford, the University of UCLA at Berkeley, Harvard, Notre Dame University, and the University of New Mexico. In addition, it was used as required reading in history classes and some English classes in numerous other schools. The publicity that this book aroused led to a series of speaking engagements for the author and countless appearances on nationally syndicated radio and television talk shows that included the networks of CBS, ABC, NBC, Univision, and Telemundo. The end result was a documentary filmed for Illustrated Daily through KNME TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which was shown through PBS.
During this period de Aragón married Rosa Maria Calles, a renowned artist, playwright, director, and producer from Tome, New Mexico. After the birth of their children, Rosalia Cleofas, Lucia Dolores, Ramon Juan, and Linda Dulcinea, the author in partnership with his wife wrote and illustrated a series of children’s books entitled, City of Candy and Streets of Ice Cream, Fright on Halloween Night, the Christmas No One Wanted, Dodo the Bird, and the Adventures of Don Quixote, which is a bilingual adaptation of the famous novel by Cervantes. Even in his children’s books there is that feeling of searching to make things right.
