Pilar has been vending at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market since 1987. Her farm is acequia-irrigated, and all products come from her garden.
Anna Maria’s Farm was a 2015 Farmer All Star awardee!
When you get to know Pilar Abadia, you realize that she is a dream catcher. She has always had dreams of how she wants to live her life, and somehow or other, she manifests them. Pilar was born in Mexico City and lived in Mexico for 33 years before coming to the US in 1987. She married a local Taoseño, well, really a man from Riconada, shortly after she came here, and that is how her fate changed to have her life and work here in New Mexico.
She has been selling here for 27 years, when the Market was over on Alto Street. The first 15 years that Pilar sold at the Market, she sold only vegetables. She and her then-husband had 8 acres under cultivation in Riconada. He was a big farmer who sold to restaurants and at the Taos and Santa Fe Farmers’ Markets. But for 13 years, she never earned a dime for her labors on this farm, which, in effect, kept her in servitude, and when that relationship ended, she couldn’t continue to farm alone. The one thing she did take from the relationship was a knowledge of how to make decorations, something that her former mother-in-law showed her. Needing to figure out a way to provide for herself and her daughter, Anna Maria, Pilar migrated down the road a bit to Dixon and saw a three acre field that belonged to Grace Salazar. Grace told Pilar that she would sell her the land, a little at a time. So Pilar planted corn and zinnias, saffron, status, marigolds and gords, wheat and chile piquin in Dixon, and these are the crops that she uses to make her colorful decorations that she sells at the Market. Little by little, Pilar paid for her land and the 100-year-old, crumbling adobe on it. She owns it now, and realized her dream of owning her own home and raising her daughter there. “Thanks to my exes, I buy my house, take care of my daughter. Never on food stamps. I work hard to take care of my daughter!”
Because of the drought, Pilar said that the irrigation ditch in Dixon she depends on had become unreliable, so she doesn’t grow much in Dixon these days. Just down the road in La Canova, near Velarde, Pat Montoya offered to let Pilar grow on his land, since he has access to a great ditch fed by the Rio Grande. She has a thriving acre of flowers, chile and corn growing now, and helps Pat grow some crops, too. Other farmers at the Market help her, too. Matt Romero grew all her chile piquin starts this year.
Life at the Market isn’t easy, though. “Every time I make something new,” she said, “the next weekend at the Market, everybody has the same new thing!” But Pilar likes being there. “If you ask me why I do the Farmers’ Market, it’s because I have a lot of customers. They need a present, they come to me.” Many of those customers know how hard Pilar works, so they try to help her out. One in particular is very special to Pilar, and she is here tonight. Her name is Georgia Carson. “Thanks to her,” Pilar said, “I am doing the Farmers’ Market. Ella es muy importante para mi.”
After more than 25 years at the Market, her hands are getting arthritic. In the old days, she could crank out 80 to 100 decorations a day, but now, her hands can’t do it. “I never have time to enjoy my life,” she laments. “Always working.” But that doesn’t mean she isn’t still trying to catch one more dream. “I want to go to Spain, to see my dad’s family in Zaragoza.” she said. “I want to walk in with my camera and take pictures. If I have a chance, I want to paint landscapes, houses, mountains, whatever. That’s a big dream and I want to have it.” We salute Pilar Abadia, her longtime participation in the Market and her spirit! Let’s see if she can catch this dream, too.