Post by Okwes on Feb 28, 2007 11:27:39 GMT -5
Scholarship honors basket weaver
XAVIER GALLEGOS/Tucson Citizen Simon Valenzuela, with his daughters
Pascula, 5, (left) and Uneek, 8, says he and his children will sell
baskets to raise money for a scholarship in his late wife's honor.
Michael Wills and Simon Valenzuela are trying to turn tragedy into
tribute. The two met during a November 2005 American Indian cultural
fair where Valenzuela and his wife, Olvera, sold their handwoven
baskets. Olvera Valenzuela, a Tohono O'odham Nation member who taught
her husband and one daughter to make baskets, was awaiting a kidney
transplant. Months later, she lost consciousness and her daughter Uneek
found her and called 911. But a week laster, Valenzuela had a heart
attack and died. Wills has since decided to help create the Olvera
Valenzuela Memorial Scholarship. "It was a good thing to do," said
Wills, 53, a New Yorker and 1975 University of Arizona graduate. "They
were a nice young couple." The scholarship - $500 for one College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences student each year - requires an essay
about the conservation of American Indian culture. Olvera Valenzuela
was concerned that basket weaving was a "dying art" and earned a
fellowship that allowed her to teach others to make the baskets,
Valenzuela said. "She grew into basket weaving and always thought
everyone knew how," Valenzuela said. "When she came into the city, she
learned that not everyone was as fortunate as her in learning how to
weave baskets." He said he and his family will sell baskets to raise
money for the fund. "My wife was a very talented basket weaver and
wanted to get her teachings to young kids," said Valenzuela, 38, a
Pascua Yaqui tribal member. "With that, she inspired me." Valenzuela,
who is raising his daughters Uneek and Pascula, said it has been
difficult to continue the art because of his wife's death. But he and
Uneek will return to the art form someday, he said. "I haven't really
had the heart for it. It's like a little depression," Valenzuela said.
"But I'll shake it off. I want to show what she taught me."
XAVIER GALLEGOS/Tucson Citizen Simon Valenzuela, with his daughters
Pascula, 5, (left) and Uneek, 8, says he and his children will sell
baskets to raise money for a scholarship in his late wife's honor.
Michael Wills and Simon Valenzuela are trying to turn tragedy into
tribute. The two met during a November 2005 American Indian cultural
fair where Valenzuela and his wife, Olvera, sold their handwoven
baskets. Olvera Valenzuela, a Tohono O'odham Nation member who taught
her husband and one daughter to make baskets, was awaiting a kidney
transplant. Months later, she lost consciousness and her daughter Uneek
found her and called 911. But a week laster, Valenzuela had a heart
attack and died. Wills has since decided to help create the Olvera
Valenzuela Memorial Scholarship. "It was a good thing to do," said
Wills, 53, a New Yorker and 1975 University of Arizona graduate. "They
were a nice young couple." The scholarship - $500 for one College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences student each year - requires an essay
about the conservation of American Indian culture. Olvera Valenzuela
was concerned that basket weaving was a "dying art" and earned a
fellowship that allowed her to teach others to make the baskets,
Valenzuela said. "She grew into basket weaving and always thought
everyone knew how," Valenzuela said. "When she came into the city, she
learned that not everyone was as fortunate as her in learning how to
weave baskets." He said he and his family will sell baskets to raise
money for the fund. "My wife was a very talented basket weaver and
wanted to get her teachings to young kids," said Valenzuela, 38, a
Pascua Yaqui tribal member. "With that, she inspired me." Valenzuela,
who is raising his daughters Uneek and Pascula, said it has been
difficult to continue the art because of his wife's death. But he and
Uneek will return to the art form someday, he said. "I haven't really
had the heart for it. It's like a little depression," Valenzuela said.
"But I'll shake it off. I want to show what she taught me."