By Kathy Cordova
For The Taos News
Community activist Rae Domenico revealed several wishes for her area of residence in a recent interview. “We live in such a special, beautiful area. Because it is so wonderful, we need to be careful how we treat and manage it,” commented Domenico, officer of the Ranchos de Taos Neighborhood Association.
FAMILY
Domenico, born and raised in Denver, hails from immigrant ancestors who moved to the U.S.
from Italy in 1880. Memories of Denver’s “Little Italy,” hard-working farmers and construction workers, and stories about travel in horse-drawn carts comprise her background.
Part of her family’s legacy includes holding on to 80 acres of farm land in Colorado, despite pressure to sell it to developers. This heritage greatly impressed Domenico, so much in fact that she transferred her ideas into action in her own life.
Domenico listed family as “those people who are important to me, regardless of whether or not they are blood-related,” she explained. Therefore, family, to her, includes several people with whom she associated in Australia. Some of the residents of Northern New Mexico pueblos also comprise family to Domenico.
OCCUPATION
Domenico is retired from multi-media production work. She started the Games Department at Hanna-Barbera Studios in Los Angeles. For six years, she helped create computer and video games for children. Then, Domenico joined Saban Entertainment’s Game Department (home of the “Power Rangers”) as a senior pro-ducer.
The desire for a new challenge sent Domenico to Sydney, Australia, to help start a media department for Beyond Productions. “One day, I looked around and noted that most of the employees in my department were in their early twenties. I felt it was time to go. I headed back to the states in 2000,” the media creator related.
Domenico returned to Denver and considered living in Tucson, Ariz. However, she traveled while deciding where to live. With a book listing information about pueblo feast days in hand, the traveler moved around seeking the special events. Several years ago, she set-tled in Ranchos de Taos.
Recently, she created a new business called Four Ravens Designs. Domenico creates mandalas that reflect inspirations of cultures from around the world. Using these ideas, she created a line of cards that reflects Buddhism, Christianity, American Indian, St. Francis and Persian influences. Six themes include the following: beauty, radiance, peace, balance, truth and love. The business owner combines computer and art skills to create not only greeting cards, but wrapping paper, laminated bookmarks, mini gift cards and magnets, some with inspirational messages in addition to various mandalas. “I’m starting out slowly. I make and cut everything myself, so it’s time consuming,” she smiled.
HOBBIES AND INTERESTS
“I think it’s important for people to grow their own food, especially with all the chaos in the world,” stated Domenico. She experiments in a small greenhouse, observing what worked and what did not. Unfortunately, the grasshoppers ate her outside crops (except the corn). She hopes that the combination of starting the plants in the greenhouse and moving them outside may provide a longer growing season. The fledgling gardener credits neighbor Ray Madson as an inspiration for the vegetable garden.
Domenico listed sustainable technology as an ongoing interest. She currently researches how to retrofit her home into an efficient dwelling. “It’s not so easy. There are many decisions to make. In fact, I’ll have a little help soon. My situation will be a case study for the Bioneers Conference in California in October. The three-day event will have a satellite feed to Taos,” she explained.
Domenico still follows the pueblo feasts. In addition, she hosts feasts of her own. Domenico’s friends know she loves to cook and bake. In this past year alone, she baked 1,500 lavender biscottis for the Taos Garden Club tour. On occasion, she hosts “make your own ravioli” parties. She also likes to make red and green chile jelly cookies, cakes, other goodies and Italian food
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
All of Domenico’s community work focuses on neighborhood issues. She serves as secretary of the Ranchos de Taos Neighborhood Association, work-ing alongside board members Orlando Santistevan, Hank Saxe, Tanya Vigil, Phynix Carlson and Christine Santistevan. “We started our issues with the Wal-Mart situation and then moved on from there. Two groups joined forces and completed bylaws. The county approved our association in July 2004,” she related.
The group works toward preserving acequias, agricultural land, language and culture of the com-munity. The board hopes to work on a zoning map for boundaries, and listing residential, open, green agricultural and traditionally used land and other categories. To raise funds for this endeavor, the associ-ation plans an art prize drawing in September with donations from Michael Vigil, Tessa Còrdova, Vicente Mart'nez, Tupper Hawley and Kim Miles.
She belongs to two Taos County steering committees to update the current land-use regulations and to work on a Future Growth Plan. The work remains an outgrowth of the county’s Complete Comprehensive Plan and Subdivision Regulations begun last year.
PLANS AND GOALS
“We want a strong relationship with all the residences in the Ranchos area, providing a voice for all different concerns and opinions. At the county level, we’d like to organize the neighborhood associ-ations, with each group eventually enjoying the same designations and goals. We have much to do, but hard work and cooperation is the answer,” she concluded.
