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Wednesday, November 26, 2008 Peralta town clerk loves her new jobPeralta A longtime Marine and Department of Defense employee has been hired as Peralta's first town clerk. Fran Otero Oquin will oversee the day-to-day operations of Peralta Town Hall, answering questions for citizens, filling out paperwork, helping with the details in writing ordinances and getting New Mexico's newest municipality going. Oquin believes that her experience with the military of "dealing with people, being able to handle situations that are quite diverse" will help her with her new position. She says she can't wait to get to work every day. "I'm loving it. More and more people are coming in (to the town hall) every day," she said. "They want to know the numbers for the Bosque Farms police, to request a business license or just to get records." "I love meeting people, hearing their stories, their passion, whatever their concern is. I find that so many people have a passion for this place," she said. She's organized the office from scratch, done research for ordinances, set up the computer system. Although she's never worked for a municipality, Oquin's previous jobs have taken her places — she has worked in California, Alaska, Nevada, Hawaii, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and on a couple Polynesian Islands. "I was the one and only contract officer (on her duty post), buying everything the Marines needed from awards to Hummers," she said of her experience with the military. She settled in Peralta with her husband, Hughry, after retiring in 2001. Born in Roswell, she is a graduate of Albuquerque High School. Although she had never lived in Peralta before, she has roots here. Her great-grandparents, Ramon and Susanita Garcia, lived off La Ladera Road. She remembers a wooden bridge on Valencia Road and crossing the canal in a horse and wagon to go to the store and the post office. "All of this was agricultural," she recalled. "I can remember driving via Broadway or Coors from Albuquerque. The road was lined with cottonwoods." She was a regular visitor to the county until she was 7 or 8 when her grandfather stepped on a nail, developed gangrene and passed away. Her parents, Oscar and Evangelina Anita Otero, were Peralta natives, having attended the local elementary school. Her father was a military man, too, a Bataan survivor, making it through a horrific experience on a "hell ship" and in a mining camp. He was in Japan at the time of the atomic bomb explosions in a prison camp. "I was only 2 when he passed away. I grew up reading his diaries from the war ... and newspaper clippings" about Bataan, she said. She has only one memory about him. "I must have been still a child. I know he was holding me, and I could hear his heartbeat," she said. After graduating from high school in 1966, with friends and neighbors serving in Vietnam, she decided to join the military herself "because of my military background and high ideals." She found herself in Alabama for Army basic training 1967 and then going on to serve several places, including the famed Presidio in San Francisco. Her job was to help men and women returning from Vietnam to get dental repair work and surgeries after they'd been injured in combat. Even though they'd gone through pain and suffering, Oquin said, their attitudes were inspirational. "They all were high-spirited and full of hope. Oh, they did get depressed about how their lives had changed ... but they always tried to look and act with the greatest hope and cheer. "I hated to leave that work. The camaraderie was wonderful to be part of." She met her future husband in El Paso; a Mississippi native, he was in the Army, too. He had orders to go to Vietnam, but President Nixon had signed an agreement to end the conflict and he eventually was sent to Korea. Together, they raised five children and now have 10 grandchildren. They've remodeled homes — something that will come in handy as Peralta establishes its town hall. In her spare time, Oquin enjoys fishing, horses and gardening.
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