The life of a teen-age mother

Michelle Whitmore, 16, places a shoe on her daughter, Kiara's , foot as Whitmore's mother plays with her own daughter, Michelle's sister, on a recent school morning.

After waking at 6:30 a.m., Central High school student Gabriela Padilla, 18, readies her 2 year-old son Isiah, for day care at the school.

Photos by Nicole Goodhue

 

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Local agencies respond quickly
Tara Drolma and Tanya Brazil

Staff Writers

PREWITT — A hazardous chemical leak at the Tri-State Escalante Generating Station was contained within an hour Friday after local law enforcement agencies responded to the emergency in force.

New Mexico State Police Capt. Glenn Thomas, who is with the agency charged with mandating hazardous material spills, said a leak from a bad fitting in a 2,080 pound, pressured cylinder caused 80 gallons of liquid chlorine gasses to be released into the atmosphere near Prewitt.

The spill was contained within the building by the McKinley-Gallup Hazardous Material Team by 2:30 p.m., he said, and the material never made it outside where it could hurt people.

However, witnesses at the main road block on Route 66 near Borrego Pass turn off said they observed a large cloud of vapor coming from generating station's water processing plant.

Another witness reported smelling the faint odor of chlorine east of the plant after motorists were able to pass through roadblocks.

But an employee at the warehouse facility three blocks from the plant, Manuel Espindola, said he did not smell anything unusual and that to him everything appeared to be perfectly normal.

Espindola said his shift was over and that he did not know much, only that he had been notified of the leak and asked whether he could smell chlorine.

Gallup Fire Department Capt. Robert Garcia said the hazardous material team isolated the spill and so no one was in danger. Calm winds of 15 mph also helped not to disseminate the vapors, he said.

Although the spill has been contained, he said, it is now up to the plant to hire a professional clean up team to put the tank back in service and make sure the building is safe.

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Teen moms and life with baby
Dreams, education are not impossible for young mothers

This is the first of several stories looking at how teen mothers juggle their lives and responsibilities.

Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer

GALLUP — While the air is still gray and cool, Gabriela Padilla, 18, in her leopard-pattern pajamas, wakes up at 6:30 a.m. next to her sleeping son in a quiet apartment and noiselessly gets ready for high school. A half-hour later she'll wake up her toddler by tickling him and get him ready for day care.

In another part of Gallup, before Michelle Whitmore, 16, is up, her two little sisters are on the livingroom sofa watching cartoons. Whitmore's mother and her boyfriend circle the house getting ready for the day. Whitmore wakes up around 7:30 a.m., bathes and dresses her baby girl as she sings "Eensy Weensy Spider," then gets ready herself.

In Zuni, Amber Bowekaty, 17, wakes up around 7 a.m. She has to get in the shower by 8 a.m. because her son wakes up at 8:30 a.m. and he would insist on taking a shower with his mom. Bowekaty waits for her aunt to come over to take care of her son and then leaves for school. She spends the day at school anxious to get back to her baby.

Some may say these three young mothers are pulled in different directions by two worlds or that they are trying to juggle those worlds their youth and their adulthood. It seems more that the women are moving both parts of their lives along together and they no longer notice it as two separate situations; their motherhood and their childhood combine.

Padilla's 2-year-old son, Isiah, cries when he is awakened. When her coaxing and sweet talking won't quiet him, she puts a pacifier into his mouth. After he calms down and starts sucking on the pacifier, Padilla laughs and sighs. "He likes his pacifier. I don't know how I'm going to stop that habit."

Padilla herself has let go of many old habits she had before she was a mother. She describes herself as someone who liked to party during most of her free time.

"Once I had a kid, I matured a lot and my life changed," Padilla said. Her roommate in her old apartment who was her age suddenly seemed a lot younger, and Padilla decided she needed to move out.

"She was still in that crazy episode. So me and her didn't really click," Padilla said, laughing a little at her somewhat conservative behavior. "I told her not to have parties. I probably settled her down a little bit."

Padilla lived in a two-bedroom low-income apartment by herself for most of this year. Her mother lived about 10 minutes from her. Padilla still asked her mother to help her out when she needed it like baby-sitting Isiah when she went to work and occasionally calling in the mornings to make sure she was awake. But Padilla, 18, is trying to become independent and to learn to raise her son on her own because she feels she needs to.

"It's hard to live with your parents when you have a kid because they want to do everything for you," Padilla said.

Padilla said the good thing about being a young mother is that she will be able to relate to her son as he goes through growing pains. However, taking care of Isiah has been difficult for Padilla. She said, "I just pray to God he learns from me how hard it was for me."

Now Padilla is in Albuquerque. She started college at the University of New Mexico. When she last spoke to the Independent in August, she said Isiah was going to stay in Gallup with his grandmother for about a month as Padilla looked for a place of her own.

Isiah is Padilla's motivation, but sometimes, she says, she wonders if life would be less difficult without her son.

"I wouldn't even be thinking about going to college if I didn't have him," Padilla said. "Sometimes I think if I didn't have him it'd be so much easier to go to college, but then I snap out of it."

What statistics don't always show is the emotions involved in having a baby when you haven't quite left childhood behind. The girls interviewed for these stories are in love with their child, they are slowly letting go of old expectations and they are shoring up enthusiasm for the best possible future for themselves and their child.

Michelle, 16

Michelle Whitmore's grandmother glows when she compliments her 16-year-old granddaughter's parenting. During the summer, Whitmore, her siblings and other children stomped in and out of Whitmore's grandmother's home. In the past, Whitmore played with the kids and hung out with her friends. Now, Whitmore is a mother. She doesn't regret it, but she does notice she had to grow up pretty fast after she had a daughter.

"My friends like to party. I can't, I gotta be home," Whitmore said. "It feels like ... my friends are always up for something. I can't always do that.

"For me, it's like I gotta check on my baby, I gotta go here, I gotta go there."

When Whitmore recalls what she was like before she had Kiara, her almost 2-year-old daughter, Whitmore laughs a little and says, "I was a bad girl."

Her grandmother smiles and adds, "She turned into a little mama."

Whitmore did well in school before she had Kiara and she continues to do well. Whitmore worked two jobs last year while going to school and taking care of her daughter.

Whitmore did have to give up being on the basketball team. That's what she misses most from her past.

But whenever Whitmore looks at Kiara, she says, "What would we do without her?"

Now, she's making plans for after high school. Whitmore attends Gallup Central High School. She wants to go to college.
Whitmore isn't looking too far into the future, but she knows she wants to give Kiara a good life.

"I want myself to be there as a good example," Whitmore said. And that may be her most important goal.

Amber, 17

Amber Bowekaty spent the first three months of her son's life with him. When it was time to return to school, she was reluctant and it took a month for her to adjust. Her parents told her she had to do well in school if she wanted to be a good mother to MacKenzie, and she knew they were right.

Now, Bowekaty is getting good grades and is thinking about attending community college after high school. While she's in school, she looks forward to summer vacation because she can spend more time with her 2-year-old son. At the same time, summer days can be difficult because Bowekaty's usually by herself and MacKenzie can be overwhelming.

She misses being like her sister, who spends most of her free time on the phone or watching television. And she wonders about going, "wild or doing crazy stuff other people talk about."

Bowekaty tries to keep up with her peers. She went to her prom and other social events, but she found out that other things are off-limits to her since she had her son MacKenzie.

"I feel like I missed a big old chunk of my childhood," she said. "When I was pregnant, we (Bowekaty and her boyfriend) still did what we liked to do. After I had the baby, it was no longer just us. We had to think about feeding the baby, changing diapers and other stuff."

Most of Bowekaty's friends are other teens with children. She said they enjoy talking about their children together. And since she's the more experienced one, she can tell them about potty training, weaning and when babies finally sleep through the entire night.

Bowekaty and the other two mothers said they realize taking care of a child while their life is just beginning is hard, but all of them said they couldn't imagine their life without their child.

Teen pregnancy "is not a mistake. I wouldn't recommend it, but it's not really a mistake," Bowekaty said. "It's just something that happens."

Monday: Teen birth rate declining nationally.

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You say hello, I say La Cucaracha

Walter Howerton Jr.
Managing Editor

Telephones were bad enough. Once, when I lived in Atlanta an ice storm knocked out my phone and I never bothered to have it repaired. I lived for years without a telephone, but my wife and children weren't willing to live that way. They loved to talk on the phone for hours. They loved for people to call them out of the blue. I've never figured that out. Why should I have to talk to you at your convenience?

Cell phones have made things worse. They are nothing but high-tech cockroaches with little ringer-dingers.

I always sort of hoped those rumors about cell phones and brain tumors would turn out to be true so the government would have to ban the irritating little things.

I hate cell phones. I hate hearing them chirp in restaurants and beep in the movies. It's like finding a cockroach in your salad or your popcorn.

I hate having to drive on the same road with people who can't do anything without a telephone stuck to their ear. I want one of those bumper stickers that says, "Hang Up and Drive."

I hate to see people walking down the street talking on the phone, or in a store. What can they be saying to each other? What can be that important?

A year or so ago, I got a clue.

I was shopping in a Santa Fe grocery store and there in the paper products aisle was a woman with a cell phone. What was she saying? "I'm over here by the toilet paper. Where are you?" She actually was talking to someone else inside the store! Scented or unscented, squeezable or not? Now, what could be more important than that? It might even be worth risking the brain tumor.

Hello. Just as I always suspected, but why should I have to listen to it?

Cell phones are as ubiquitous as cockroaches and not half as useful. But don't get me wrong, I'm no Luddite.

Before you run for the dictionary, "Ubiquitous" means all over the place, like trucks on Interstate 40, like the cockroaches that used to move the silverware around in my kitchen drawers when I lived in St. Paul, Minn. ( I would hear things going clink in the night), like needy New Agers 12-stepping through Santa Fe, like McDonald's or Wal-Mart.

"Luddite" is a word the snooty sandals-and-cell-phone types use to describe guys like me who compare their beloved cell phones to cockroaches.

Luddites actually were workers in the 19th century who destroyed labor-saving machinery to protest being replaced in the workplace (given the way things have turned out, they probably were onto something). Nowadays it means someone opposed to technological change.

That's not me.

I am not one of those low-tech guys in a high-tech world.

I don't watch television, haven't for years my television won't even pick up any TV shows but I love movies and own both a VCR and a DVD player, a gizmo that allows me to shift from one to the other and a big old Sony to watch movies on. I love music and have stacks of CDs and a fancy CD changer on my stereo. I have a tape player, too. My car has all kinds of computer
chips to tell it what to do. Sometimes it tells me what to do. I love the way it talks to me. "Fuel is low," my car says. Or, "Right
door is open." I love that stuff.

Most of all, I love my computer and my Internet connection. A computer makes a writer's life easier. I love my email. I keep in touch with people I've never met face to face, including one woman who jokingly calls herself my "electronic wife." We have sent emails to each other nearly every day for at least three years and never met in the flesh. I love dropping little love notes to
my real wife at work, especially since we are living so far apart these days. I love picking up trivia and trash along the
information highway.

I love doing all that stuff when I want to.

So, don't hand me that Luddite stuff. But don't hand me a cell phone either. I might decide to have a Luddite moment and smash it.

Telephones? I don't think it's that important for you to be able to reach me whenever you want to. Cell phones? Just another expensive way for people to be boorish (put down the phone and run and look that one up in your own dictionary).

Everybody's talking, but how much is being said?

"Hello. I'm over here by the toilet paper. Where are you?"

Keep in touch? I would just as soon stick a cockroach in my ear.

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Coaches unsure how teams will stack up

Santiago Ramos
Staff Sports Writer

Shiprock head coach Kevin Holman feels that Thoreau is the No. 1 team in the newly-aligned District 1AAA. But Thoreau coach Mike Christie feels the district race will be a tossup among Shiprock, Tohatchi and Thoreau.

With just 420 students, new Crownpoint head coach Rick Pawela feels that his Eagles are"the little fish in the big pond".

The district champion will play at the regional tournament that will be held in Gallup while the district runnerup will have to travel to its regionals in Hobbs.

Thoreau

THOREAU - The Thoreau Hawks have three starters back with 5-10 senior all-district point guard Kerry Dodge, 6-3 senior guard Rollen Walthall, who has excellent range, and 5-8 senior point guard Jeremy Mazon, from last year's squad that was the district runnerup.

"He's a real saavy player who doesn't force anything,"Christie said of Dodge, who averaged 11 points per game last season for the Hawks.

Also back are 5-11 junior power forward Jonathan Shelly, 6-1 senior center Conlee Woody and 5-10 junior shooting guard Eric Thomas.

When asked about the new district with Shiprock added in, Christie said it will be"a shootout".

"Shiprock has a good group coming back, Tohatchi is always tough and Wingate will be a wild card," Christie said. "It used to be Wingate, Tohatchi and us in the district battle. Now you throw Shiprock in there. It will be a lot like it used to be (with the old district). It will be a real exciting year."

With the football team still playing in the state playoffs this weekend, Christie says he expects a slow start for his Hawks.

Shiprock

SHIPROCK - Shiprock coach Holman says he's trying to bounce back from last year's disappointing showing after placing third at state two years ago.

"Last year I booted two starters off so it was rough," said Holman who starts his fourth year at Shiprock. "This year's team is working hard to put in the effort."

Shiprock has two returning starters in 5-9 senior all-around player Owen Wero and 6-0 senior post Henry Haven. 5-9 senior guard Benson Billy will be out until Christmas because of a broken hand.

But the Chieftains will also have 5-8 junior guard Hendrick Begay, along with 5-8 senior point guard Andrew Yazzie, 5-11 junior post Michael Barton, 5-10 sophomore forward Raphael Brown, and 6-0 junior forward Eric Frank.

"We won't go very deep this year," Holman said.

The Chieftains will be in the newly-aligned District 1AAA with Thoreau, Wingate, Tohatchi and Crownpoint and Holman feels that the competition will be tougher than the former 1AAA which featured Aztec, Piedra Vista, Bloomfield, Kirtland and Shiprock.

"Everybody in the district will be competitive," Holman said. "There will be no easy ballgames. I'm looking forward to playing the other teams because they bring in the big crowds. It will be a war. In my six years at Wingate it was nice playing against Mike (Christie) and Albert (Jim)."

Holman pointed out the Shiprock will be playing a tough preseason schedule opening Dec. 5 against Monument Valley, Kayenta, Ariz. before playing Class 5A Corona Del Sol out of Phoenix in the Farmington Invitational and then playing defending state champion Tuba City.

"It (the preseason schedule) will get us ready for districts or kill us," Holman said. "We'll be battle-tough when we play Tohatchi in our district opener. Our goal is to win districts."

Tohatchi

TOHATCHI - Tohatchi head coach Albert Jim has two starters back from last year's team that finished third in the district behind Wingate and Thoreau.

Leading the Cougars will be 5-5 junior point guard Leland Tyler and 5-11 senior small forward Travis Long, who made second team all-district while averaging 14 points per game.

"Leland brings back experience at point guard," Jim said of Tyler.

Also returning with varsity experience is 6-1 senior small forward Lionel Yazzie and 6-0 junior guard Jonah Billie. Back after leaving Tohatchi two years ago is 5-10 senior shooting guard Gerald Nez.

"I have to get the players oriented into our offense," Jim said. "But I'm pretty happy with the team. They're very compatible so they'll be competitive."

Jim welcomes the return of Shiprock to the 1AAA.

"It (Shiprock) will add to the district," he said. "Everybody in the district knows Shiprock. It will make for an interesting race. It will come down to the second half of the district season."

Tohatchi will travel to Piedra Vista for its season opener next Tuesday.

Crownpoint

CROWNPOINT - Crownpoint may prove to be the darkhorse with four returning starters along with two transfers.

The Eagles will be returning four starters in 5-10 senior guard Cauy Francisco, 5-10 senior guard Kyle Devore, 6-0 junior post Marquez Johnson and 5-7 senior point guard Michael Norton.

Crownpoint was also blessed with Ramah transfer Colin Henio, a 6-2 forward-post, who Pawela expects to be one of the team's leading scorers this year.

"We expect big things from him," said Pawela who coached the Crownpoint JV girls for the past eight years.

The Eagles also welcomed the return of 6-1 senior guard Warren Deal, a Tohatchi transfer who is back after a two-year absence. Deal, according to Pawela, won't be eligible to play until January, in time for the district season.

Also on the varsity is 6-0 senior post Chamblis Lantana and 5-11 senior guard Erickson Chavez.

"We have a good nucleus of players plus transfers Colin (Henio) and Warren (Deal) which was a pleasant surprise," said
Pawela who replaced veteran Eagle coach Emmett Hunt who is now coaching at Moriarty Junior High. "The kids are excited to play so I've very pleased. We don't have a lot of height but we have speed. We'll do fine in the district. We've very optimistic."
Crownpoint opens up at Dulce tonight. Pawela is being assisted by junior high coach Leonard Sanders and JV coach Kelton McPherson.

Wingate

FORT WINGATE - Wingate, last year's district 6AAA champs, lost graduated its entire starting lineup along with losing head coach Peter Viola who returned back to college for his doctorate degree.

Tom Chee, who was the head coach at Shiprock Northwest and Newcomb, will be in a rebuilding season with the Bears.

On this year's team will be Titus Nelson, a 5-11 junior shooting guard who left Wingate and transferred to Pine Hill and is now back at Wingate and is one of the better players on the team according to his coach; 5-10 senior guard Leland Ramone; 6-0 junior forward Davis Six; 6-0 senior center Michael Ben; 5-9 sophomore point guard Randy Becenti; 6-0 junior forward Devan Mendez; 5-7 senior point guard-guard Robert Emerson; 5-7 junior point guard Ivan John; 5-11 junior forward Dominic Longhair; and 5-10 junior guard-shooting forward Jerrick Hildreth.

"We'll have a rough start," Chee said. "Having Shiprock in will make the district tougher. But the district race will probably be between Shiprock, Thoreau and Tohatchi. With hard work and teamwork I would be surprised if we don't have a .500 or better season."

Wingate will open its season at Aztec Tuesday, Nov. 28.Gallup preview

Gallup faster, deeper for upcoming campaign

GALLUP — There will be life in the Gallup girls basketball program after Dani Aretino.

"We won't have anybody that will get thirteen rebounds a game, but overall we have better athleticism and speed," veteran head coach John Lomansey said about the 2000-2001 Bengal team which lost four starters, including Aretino.

The Gallup girls will begin their tough preseason schedule when they host Moriarty tonight at Gallup High School.

Lomansney's confidence apparently stems from fact that season after season, Gallup has consistenly replenished its talent pool. So returning only the players with significant varsity action from last year's state runner-up team doesn't seem to worry Lomasney.

Five-foot-nine senior Roberta Tahe is the only returning starter. Tahe, who has started for Lamsney since her sophmore season, led the team in assists dishing out 4.5 per game laster year. She also averaged 6.7 points per game.

5'9" junior foward Tanya Baily, who saw considerable action as Gallup's main reserve last season before starting in place of injured Pearline Kelewood in the state finals. She will join a dominant under classmen squad which carries only four seniors.

With several returning letterman Lomasney will have the luxery of a bench that goes eight players deep. The depth chart received a boost with a pair of transfers from Window Rock with varsity experience.

Junior Candace Roanhoarse a 5'10 foward and 5'8 sophmore gaurd Sunny St. Clarie will join seniors Crystal Pinto, a 5'5 foward, Mioshia Wagner, a 5'7 guard, as well as threre other juniors who will vy for playing time.

5'7 foward Vanessa Hubbard, 5'5 guard Iris Wilson, 6'1 center Christine Begay are among those that Lomaney tab to contribute this season. "Our expectations for this season are high again," said Lomasney "Of coarse wer're in a new district with Rio Rancho which looks to be real strong again and Cibola who's always been real strong, we lost farmington but Rio Rancho's much like a Farmington so we look to have a real good distric." said Lomasney.

Besides scheduling nationally ranked Sandia and defending AAAA state champs Clovis, who has come on strong on the New
Mexico basketball scene in recent years, along with potential powers Farmington, Shiprock, Kirtland, and La Cueva, Lomansey also prepared his team by countinuing his summer program.

This past summer the Gallup girls attended a pair of basketball camps and demonstrated their capabilty to match up with teams such as California, Oregon, and McPhearson, Kansas.

The Bengal girls went through the Lake Tahoe Camp undefeated and finished second in Alamoso, CO, to McPhearson which Lomasney cited as the being one of the best in Kansas.

"We had a real productive summer," Lomasney said.

In addition to depth, Lomasney is excited about the display of quickness which came out at the camps and during a recent scrimmage.

"We've got some real athletic kids and their quickness is probably going to be our biggest asset."

With the added quickness look for Gallup's stalwart man-to man defense to present even more problems for opposing teams.

Offensively, Lomasney feels he has strong shooters and that they will try to capitalize on their low seed by pushing the ball upcourt when the opprotunity presents itself. But Lomasney also advised that his girls will countinue to demonstrate the traditional patience with it's halfcourt game.

The only weakness Lomaney feels could hurt the Bengals this season is a lack of a dominate rebounder and inexperience in the trenches. "I told the girls that if they each grab two more rebounds per game then they did last year we shouldn't miss (Dani's inside presence) too much. We just need to do a better job of blocking out."

"Our inexperience is probably what they're going to try to attack," Lomasney said of Gallup's opponents.

The Bengals will have to win the district title to take advantage of the newly formatted playoff system. Gallup High School is hosting this year's regionals next spring. However, despite the fact that Lomasney is grateful for the opportunity to give back to the local businesses by having the teams travelling into the area provide an economic boost, Lomasney was upset that the format
had to undergo revamping.

"I figure if something isn't broke, don't fix it. I didn't think there was anything wrong (with the old playoff system."

The state tournament will also be played in Las Cruces.

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Navajo Council holds the fries

Jim Maniaci
Dine' Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The Ethics-Rules Committee refused Friday to set the date for the next Navajo Nation Council special session a meeting which will decide the future of the multi-million dollar French fry potato plant.

The committee agreed to convene Dec. 1 to decide the special session dates three days before most delegates expect to be back to try to complete what they didn't do in a two-day special session this past Monday and Tuesday.

What the council didn't decide totals $38 million, including French fry potatoes' $30 million involving two distinct partnerships for the Northern Agency economic development project that would provide several hundred year-round positions to the job-starved Navajo Reservation.

When their 8th special session of the year ended Tuesday, delegates voted to let Speaker Edward T. Begay determine which two days during the first week of December they would again be paid their mileage and per diem. But council rules require the committee to actually set the date after the speaker requests a session...

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McKenzie delivers BHS Summit Report

S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Navajo Nation Vice President Dr. Taylor McKenzie was in Gallup Thursday afternoon to discuss the effects of the
Navajo Nation Regional Behavioral Health Summit held last June in Farmington.

The summer summit attracted 480 behavioral health professionals and experts to discuss the problems of alcoholism, substance abuse and some of the resulting problems such as homelessness, mental illness, domestic violence and other serious health issues.

Dr. McKenzie unveiled the ideas and recommendations of the Navajo Nation that resulted from those four summit days:

To establish a behavioral health department that would serve as a vehicle on a continuing basis to monitor, assess and provide guidance to existing behavioral health programs...

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Deaths

Aldrick Ray Becenti

GAMERCO — Services for Aldrick Ray Becenti, infant, will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 20, at Rollie Mortuary-Memorial Chapel. Burial will follow at Sunset Memorial Park.

The infant died Nov. 9 in Albuquerque. He was born Nov. 9, 2000, in Albuquerque into the Start of the Red Streak People Clan for the Bitter Water People Clan.

Survivors include his parents, Raymond and Gina Becenti Jr., both of Gamerco; brother, Terrell Becenti of Gamerco; grandparents, Eugene and Virginia Becenti, both of Smith Lake and grandparents, Marjorie J. Nelson of Black Hat and Raymond Becenti Sr. of Tohatchi.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.