Light matters

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Maj. Xavier Miller of the New Mexico National Guard, second from right, leads family members and workers in burying Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth W. Westbrook in the veterans section at the Shiprock, N.M, Community Cemetery on Oct. 16, 2009.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Bean Crop Manager Roselyn Yazzie holds pinto beans fresh from the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry fields Sept. 11, 2009. Behind her is farm equipment to help harvest the crop.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Trista, 6, a child staying at the Christian organization Navajo Ministries in Farmington, N.M., plays under a skylight July 10, 2009, in a shared room in Jonathan and Christine Wood's house on the 17-acre site. The Wood's asked that the children only be referred to by first name to avoid identification.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Five-year-old Mandy With, left, and Ashlee Ryan, 3, rest after they rehearse their dance dressed as baby-chickens May 28, 2009, at Mann Dance Academy on East 20th Street.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; San Juan County volunteer firefighters from Kirtland close in with a hose on a propane "fire tree,” which is used during a training exercise April 2, 2009, at the District 2 fire station.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Helen Moore, with Navajo Agricultural Products Industry, sorts and grades potatoes Sept. 11, 2009, at the potato processing plant. She tosses potatoes into the bins in front of her, often sorting different types simultaneously in one drop.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Cheryl Cadrain hugs her son, 18-year-old Vista Nueva Alternative High School graduate Micah Szumlinski, after the class' graduation ceremony at the Aztec, N.M., Boys and Girls Club on May 16, 2009.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; The scene of a fatal motorcycle accident on East Main Street on June 17, 2009.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Charlene Tyler, aunt of missing woman Kayla Begaye, holds her 2-year-old grandson, Jharrin Tyler, as she waits for news on the identity of the female found dead April 16, 2009, on the Bluffs off Bisti Highway outside Farmington. Begaye, whose identity was confirmed later that day, had been missing since March.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Woody Benally, a participant at the May 7, 2009, National Day of Prayer observance in front of the Civic Center, raises his hands during a prayer.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; New Mexico State Police Officer Jeremy Yazzie walks past his patrol car Sept. 4, 2009, on U.S. 64 on the west end of Kirtland. He had pulled over with his police lights on to help a motorist in the right-hand lane of eastbound U.S. 64, according to N.M. State Police Officer Gary Chavez, when a semitrailer hit his car from the rear. No one was seriously injured, but the patrol car was totaled and traffic was slow in the eastbound lane entering Kirtland.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Cynthia Sosaya, the new principal at Mesa Verde Elementary, keeps an eye out for her students crossing College Boulevard, with the help of a crossing guard, for International Walk to School Day on Oct. 7, 2009.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Jay Fann, small business owner of Mancos Doors LLC, works on a wall hanging he called “Madonna and Child” in his discounted commercial space offered by the business incubator at San Juan College’s Quality Center for Business on Dec. 11, 2009.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Farmington High School’s Nico Lewis beats Durango’s Dylan Schwantes to the ball for a header during the second half of play at FHS on Sept. 15, 2009. Farmington took the game, 2-0.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Tibbets Middle School eighth-grader Gheron Litke, 13, participates in a group dry-land exercise during the high school swim practice Dec. 2, 2009, at the Farmington Aquatic Center.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Farmington High School sprinter Josh Newsome poses for a portrait March 9, 2009.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Amari Salazar, 3, who is dressed as a bee, and princess Lacie Kay, also 3, admire each other’s costumes outside the cake-walk room at the Bloomfield Police Department during the BPD and Police Athletic League’s annual Halloween carnival Oct. 29, 2009.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Ten-year-old Erin Mitchell, a fifth grader at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Farmington, N.M., points out a particularly large bubble to friends while classmate Joel Sutherland, 11, reaches out to pop it during the 11th Annual San Juan Basin Water Fair on May 18, 2009, at McGee Park. Fair director Shaun Bishop, with the San Juan Water Commission, said the goal of the event is to teach fifth graders water safety and conservation.

Xavier Mascareñas/The Daily Times; Natalie Howard, with Pine River Community Learning Center in Colorado's La Plata County, puts up a token protest as she allows herself to be buried in the corn pit at Sutherland Farm by home-schooled students she supervised on a field trip Oct. 2, 2009.

Xavier Mascareñas; In May of 1990, Orlando Coto-Andrades and his wife, Olga Chicota-Guida, seen here in a photo Jan. 27, 2009, arrived in the United States following a period of six years that Orlando spent as a political prisoner in Cuba. In addition to the six years, he said, Fidel Castro's Cuba also took their livelihood, a textile factory. Olga is often found in the sewing room of their home off Yale Boulevard in Albuquerque, N.M. "Olga was very good with the sewing machine, but now not so much. She's not so good," Orlando said referring to Olga's medical condition, Alzheimer's Disease.