Nasario García grew up in Ojo del Padre, a village in the Ro̕ Puerco Valley northwest of Albuquerque, the way rural New Mexicans had for generations. His parents built their own adobe house, raised their own food, hauled their water, and brought up their children to respect the old ways. When he was young, García's mother taught him to mend his clothes and enlisted his aid in slaughtering chickens. Here he offers detailed accounts of these and...

On his grandfather's ranch in New Mexico's Río Puerco Valley, eight-year-old Junie's family celebrates matanza, the annual ritual of hog butchering. Includes pork recipes.