{"id":509750,"date":"2018-01-28T00:01:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-28T07:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=509750"},"modified":"2018-01-29T14:12:34","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T21:12:34","slug":"then-and-now-two-decades-later-preschooler-is-a-mom-with-deep-love-of-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/01\/then-and-now-two-decades-later-preschooler-is-a-mom-with-deep-love-of-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Then and Now: Two decades later, preschooler is a mom with deep love of New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t
\u00a9 Don Usner<\/h6>
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Sophia Salazar at 4 years old.<\/p><\/div>

\u00a9 Don Usner<\/h6>
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Sophia Salazar, now 25, with son Ian.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

Editor’s note: As part of Searchlight\u2019s\u00a0Raising New Mexico<\/a>\u00a0project, photographer Don Usner catches up with people he photographed decades ago, when they were children.\u00a0<\/em>Here’s the story of one of them.<\/em><\/p>\n

Don Usner:<\/b> I first photographed Sophia Salazar in 1997, when she was attending Conjunto Preschool in Espa\u00f1ola, an early childhood education program that integrates children who have various challenges — developmental, cognitive, behavioral — with kids who are on a more typical trajectory. Sophia\u2019s mother and grandmother both worked in the program. <\/i><\/p>\n

Nearly two decades after taking Sophia\u2019s photo, I recognized her name at a teller\u2019s window in a bank in Albuquerque. Later, I arranged to interview and photograph her with her child and husband in Santa Fe. <\/i><\/p>\n

Sophia Salazar:<\/b> I was born in Espa\u00f1ola, New Mexico, and went to Conjunto Preschool in Espa\u00f1ola when I was 3 and 4 years old, so over 20 years ago. I met you on a field trip — I can\u2019t remember the details and I\u2019m not going to pretend to — but that\u2019s where you shot that candid photo, and now that\u2019s what I see everywhere, because my grandmother still works at Conjunto, where the photo is on the wall. And my mom and grandma have the photo at home, too. So that\u2019s what I\u2019m associated with, the girl in the picture \u2014 the girl in the black-and-white photo.<\/p>\n