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Sanchez was a mom with a microfiche

By Jan Jonas
Thursday, February 16, 2006

To Jane Calvin Sanchez, the history of New Mexico was more fascinating than anything else in her life.
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Raised in Cerrillos on her father's ranch, Sanchez spent hours riding her horse in the San Marcos Pueblo area, scouring the hills and poking into the ruins.

Sanchez, 76, died Sunday of a heart attack.

She and her husband Manuel P. "Pat" Sanchez moved to Albuquerque in the early 1950s. A widow since 1996, she lived in Glenwood Hills at the time of her death.

In her home office, a microfiche machine with reels of newspaper articles on New Mexico history sits near the computer where she kept her research data.

Jane Sanchez's interest was the private lives of people such as explorers Francisco V squez de Coronado and Juan Cabeza de Vaca, said her son, Philip Sanchez.

After he was born, she stayed home and raised her family.

"Though she was always working on her historical thing," daughter Sandra Sanchez said.

When Philip Sanchez graduated from high school in 1952, the family went to Salamanca, Spain, where Coronado was born. She did some research at the time, then returned to Spain and London about two years ago to complete the project.

After all four children were in school, she worked for the New Mexico Historical Review. She also had several articles published in the Review throughout her 40-year career.

The State Department once used her research on mining in New Mexico as it pertained to the development of Spanish land grants, said daughter Patricia Elena Sanchez.

Her will dictates that her children donate some of her research to historical organizations.

Sanchez completed much of her work at Zimmerman Library on the University of New Mexico campus.

She graduated from UNM in the early 1950s, majoring in languages.

She taught her children how to find answers to their questions.

"I remember asking my mom about World War II and how it started," Sandra Sanchez said. "She took me over to Zimmerman Library at UNM and pulled up microfilm . . . and let me peruse newspapers on that.

"She was always encouraging us to go with her to the library and look stuff up and see the actual news."

She also took her children to sites to tickle their senses with history.

"My parents always took us places in New Mexico," Sandra Sanchez said. "We would go and have picnics in downtown San Pedro."

Daughter Anne Mitchell said, "When they took us to historical sites, if we were passing a historical marker, we couldn't pass it up."

"She usually knew what was on the marker," Sandra Sanchez said, but they stopped anyway.

The four still chuckle at memories of a trip to the family cabin in Mora when they were teens.

"Dad was driving," Sandra Sanchez said. "Some cows were blocking the road. My dad blew the horn. The cows looked up at us and ignored us.

"Mom got out and started after those cows. She was a little knock-kneed. She was herding those cows. She had a couple of sticks. She was yelling, `Yo, yo.'

"The cows did get moving."

Now when they gather and one of them pipes up with "Yo, yo," they don't need to tell the story. They just laugh.

A rosary is planned at 7 p.m. Thursday at French Mortuary, 10500 Lomas Blvd. N.E. with a funeral Mass at 10 a.m. Friday at Prince of Peace Catholic Community, 12500 Carmel Ave. N.E.

Burial is scheduled next week at Santa Fe National Cemetery.