Tea with Juan Quezada: An Afternoon at Rancho Barro Blanco

Abstract

It’s spring, and the Palanganas River flows leisurely and low. Juan Quezada, at the wheel of his pickup, shepherds a group of American women up the rocky riverbank toward his ranch house overlooking Mata Ortiz. One of the women, a Romance language teacher named Kay, sits next to Juan. She’s carrying on a lively conversation with him in Spanish. Cathleen rides next to Kay, easily joining in the discussion. Like Kay, Cathleen is fluent in Spanish, in her case from years of work in agribusiness. The rest of us—Nora, Patricia, Remedios, and myself—are far less proficient in Juan’s native language. We’re relegated to the truck bed. From that hot, dusty vantage point we enjoy a majestic panorama that stretches from El Indio Peak down to Mata Ortiz and west to the Sierra Madre range that marks the boundary between the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora. Through the gritty windshield, Kay and Cathleen take in the view of Rancho Barro Blanco, Juan’s White Clay Ranch. “No,” Juan tells them, “I didn’t first find white clay here on the ranch. The name ‘Barro Blanco’ is to honor the pottery.” After all, it is his pottery that affords Juan this second home a mere ten minutes from his house in Mata Ortiz. Rancho Barro Blanco is populated, we see, with a wild variety of exotic cattle, goats, sheep, and fowl, including a teeming flock of chickens and their hatchling pollitos. The barnyard is immaculate and the outbuildings well kept. “Those fences are coyote-proof,” Juan says, gesturing to the metal netting that safeguards the fowl. “I lost a baby ostrich, and then another, to the coyotes. So I put up this special fencing to protect all the rest.” A congenial javelina trots over to greet us as Juan brings the pickup to a stop and swings his cowboy-booted feet out of the cab. Although well into his sixties, Juan strides to the back of the truck with the clip and grace of a young man, and helps us over the tailgate. He tentatively N A N c y A N d r e w s wrote the award-winning children’s book, The Pot That Juan Built.