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Mary's Bar

Mary Mora, who was 91 years old when I met her in 2006, is the longtime owner of the old bar in the tiny town of Cerrillos, New Mexico. Mary has told several versions of the bar's history to me and other visitors during the time I've spent with her. She originally told me that the bar was founded by her husband in the 50's, but she recently told me that her father started it in 1944. The building itself dates from 1918 and was once a general store.

Mary was born in Cerrillos and went to the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque. In the 1930s, few women went to universities. Mary was probably one of the first women to graduate from UNM! After graduation she became a schoolteacher, then after she married, she became a stay at home mother. Whatever the bar's origins, Mary has stood behind the counter for decades and is a walking encyclopedia of local history. She says most of the old people in Cerrillos were her students and they still come around to chat.

The Cerrillos Bar became known as Mary's Bar several years ago when a crew filming the movie Vampires used the town of Cerrillos as a set for part of the film. The film crew put up the Mary's Bar signs on the bar and then forgot to take them down when filming ended. Though the Mary's signs remain, Mary tells me that the bar is still really called The Cerrillos Bar. Mary's Bar has been used for the Young Guns films as well, and Mary says that Emilio Estevez and Lou Diamond Phillips are her buddies. She made them authentic Italian spaghetti and meatballs while they were filming in Cerrillos. Mary is the daughter of Italian immigrants and speaks fluent English, Spanish, and Italian.

I discovered Mary's bar about a month after moving to Santa Fe. Anna took me to the town to photograph, and I took a photograph of the bar with several bikers sitting on the porch drinking. One of them objected to me photographing him, although once he realized that I wasn't a cop, he became very friendly. I didn't go inside that day but after visiting Cerrillos a few more times to photograph other buildings, a local woman told me to go inside and meet Mary. I went in and talked to Mary's daughter, Kathy, who now runs the bar day to day. I photographed her with the multitude of cats who inhabit the bar and Mary's home behind the bar. I went back a couple weeks later to give some prints to Kathy, and this time Mary was there. We talked for a while and she let me photograph her too.

The next time I went back was three weeks after I had first met her, and the first thing that she said to me was: "Where's your girlfriend, you said you were going to bring her to meet me". I had promised to bring Anna, but she was sick the day I went to take Mary her prints. At 91, Mary remembered that promise I made the first time I met her and challenged me on breaking it weeks later! On January 13, 2007 I took Anna to Mary's Bar for the first time and made some new photographs. Mary made me promise to bring Anna next time I came to Cerrillos. The cats seem to increase in number with each visit, and Mary told us that she actually has six of them.

In the summer of 2011, I drove out to New Mexico and visited Mary. She is 95 years old now, and no longer working. Her daughter runs the bar for her now. Unfortunately, she is suffering a lot of the effects of her advanced age. She can barely walk now, and her short-term memory is poor. When i walked in today, she remembered me, despite not seeing me for nearly four years, and asked if I was still with the woman I had dated when I lived in Santa Fe, but while talking to me, she kept repeating the same things over and over, forgetting she had just said them a few minutes before. It was sad to see her like that. When I lived in New Mexico, I visited her often and she had a very sharp mind.

One of the stories that she told was about a woman who came in the bar recently, and upon seeing Mary's five cats, declared that she hated cats. Mary said that she told the woman: "The door opens and it closes both ways, you don't like my cats, you can get the hell out!" In some ways she hasn't changed at all!

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A sticker that says: "New Mexico Department of Revenue Luxury Tax Division Retail Cigarette Permit. Expires June 30, 1966" on the glass display case at Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico.

Liquor bottles in the display case next to the counter at Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico. The three bottles are Hiram Walker Peppermint, Jim Beam Kentucky Bourbon whiskey, and Wolfschmidt vodka. An old Dillard's department store ad covers the glass on part of the counter.

The bartender at Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico talks to a customer while a cat sits on his shoulders.

The front window of Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico is covered in metal bars. A handwritten sign is taped to the outside of the window that says "If you bought it somewhere else, drink it somewhere else!! And take your trash with you!"

An unfriendly looking old grey cat laying on a chair in Mary's Bar.

A handwritten note taped to the tip jar on the counter at Mary's Bar says God knows when you don't tip.

The hand lettered signs next to the counter at Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico say "In God we trust, all others cash. No credit, no checks, no plastic, no exception!" Another sign says you must be 21 years old to buy liquor.

Mary Mora's daughter Kathy sits behind the bar with one of her mother's cats on her lap. A sign behind the bar has the Latin phrase "illegitimi non carborundum" and several beer advertisements and religious stickers. A tip jar sits on the counter of Mary's Bar.

A fat gray cat lounges on the counter in front of the bartender at Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico. The wall behind the bar is covered in beer signs and patriotic stickers and the counter is full of whiskey and liquor bottles.

A bartender stands behind the bar with a cat on her shoulders at Mary's Bar in the small town of Cerrillos, New Mexico.

Liquor bottles in the display case next to the counter at Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico. The three bottles are Hiram Walker Peppermint, Jim Beam Kentucky Bourbon whiskey, and Wolfschmidt vodka.

Mary Mora counting money behind the counter at Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico.

Elderly bartender Mary Mora behind the counter of Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico. The wall behind the bar is covered in old neon beer signs from Budweiser, Jim Beam, and Corona. There are several patriotic signs and American flags and a mounted deer head and owl.

Old bartender Mary Mora behind the counter of Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico. The wall behnd the bar is covered in old neon beer signs from Budweiser, Jim Beam, and Corona. There are several patriotic signs and American flags and a mounted deer head and owl.

Mary Mora sits behind the counter of her bar. Old metal bar stools sit in front of the wooden bar and old cabinets hang behind it.

Ninety year old bartender Mary Mora behind the counter of Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico. The wall behind the bar is covered in old neon beer signs from Budweiser and Corona. There are several patriotic signs and American flags and a mounted deer head.

Ninety-one year old Mary Mora sits at an old wooden table and works on a word find puzzle book late at night in her bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico.

Elderly bartender Mary Mora works on a word find puzzle book late at night in her bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico.

Ninety year old bartender Mary Mora sits behind the counter of her small town saloon in Cerrillos, New Mexico.

Old bartender Mary Mora sits behind the counter of her small town bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico surrounded by old beer advertisements and liquor bottles. A mounted deer head and an owl hang on the wall behind the bar.

Old bartender Mary Mora sits at the table in her bar doing word find puzzles while two of her cats keep her company.

Bikers drink on the front porch at Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico and a motorcycle is parked in front of the building. The bar is an old west structure built in 1918 and is built of adobe with a tin roof. An American flag flies from the porch and a television antenna is mounted on the roof.

The front of Mary's bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico. The bar is an adobe building with a tin roof that looks like an old west saloon. A hitching rail stands in front of the porch.

The handpainted wooden Open sign that hangs from the porch pillar in front of Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico.

A fat cat curled up on an old chair at Mary's Bar gives me a dirty look while another cat jumps into the window in the background.

The front door of Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico has two no smoking signs and a handpainted sign that says No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service.

A Hispanic man with tattoos outside Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico. He has his girlfriend's face tattooed on his chest.

An elderly woman tourist looks uncomfortable as she leans against a bar stool at Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico.

A tourist takes a photo with a digital camera inside Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico. The old tin ceiling and old beer signs and sports posters are visible in the old saloon.

Warm Morning model 521 wood-burning stove.

The sign by the door at Mary's Bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico says "We have a deal with the bank. They don't sell beer. We don't cash checks."

Mary Mora at age 95

Ninety five year old Mary Mora walks to her home in the back rooms of the bar she owns in Cerrillos, New Mexico.

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Christopher Crawford
Fine Art Photography

Fort Wayne, IN

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