PUEBLO, Colo.—To hear Ruben Archuleta tell it, all his life’s adventures—a stint as a sailor during the Vietnam War, nearly 30 years as a Pueblo policeman and a blossoming career as a self-taught woodcarver, historian and author—are a simple result of chance.
“My whole life has been by accident or fate, whatever you want to call it,” Archuleta said recently as he prepared for a trip to South Dakota, his wife Joan’s home state.
Each episode set the stage for future events.
Take his military career, for example.
“I tried to join the Army in 1962 at age 17, but my father refused to give his permission. He did let me join the Navy,” where Archuleta served four years just as the Vietnam War rapidly escalated.
His service time was served at sea but he attributes recent health problems to his wartime exposure to Agent Orange, a potent herbicide used to defoliate Vietnam’s jungles.
“I was contacted by the executive officer of my ship who said nine out of 200-plus crew members had died of prostate cancer,” which Archuleta attributes to Agent Orange exposure.
“I was diagnosed with prostate cancer five years ago but it is in remission,” he said.
He has had two surgeries to his lower back and will have another one, he said, another malady he traces to Agent Orange.
Despite all that, “Thank God I have my health,” the 65-year-old Archuleta said.
Back in Pueblo in 1968, Archuleta’s life again was changed by happenstance.
“A friend said I should call two girls we met from South Dakota to see if they wanted to go out on a date,” he recalls. “I called and the woman who answered the phone would become my wife in 1969.”
His 39-year marriage to the former Joan Stuedeman has been blessed with three children and six grandchildren.
“She is my right hand; she understands proper Spanish much better than I do,” Archuleta said, quite a talent when the two are exploring old documents written in Spanish.
That same year, another friend saw a newspaper ad for openings in the Pueblo Police Department.
“I called and we both went for the exam. I tested No. 1,” he said.
Thus began Archuleta’s nearly 30-year career in law enforcement, culminating in his appointment in 1995 as police chief. He also found time to earn a degree in business administration from what then was the University of Southern Colorado, now Colorado State University-Pueblo.
Police Chief James Billings said Archuleta “was very impressive to me since I first met him.”
“He was there before me and we worked together from 1985 to 1998. He was a sergeant assigned to the special operations section, among other things,” Billings said. “One thing I remember well is his muscular physique—he always had a great physique. And his great sense of humor.”
Archuleta’s legacy at the police department is very evident, Billings said.
“As the city’s first Hispanic chief, he showed the Hispanic community among others that there were opportunities in the police force for advancement, all the way to the top,” Billings said. “He was an ambassador for public relations.”
Winding up his police career, Archuleta was not quite ready to go quietly into retirement.
“I always had an interest in history, the penitentes, Archbishop (Jean-Baptiste) Lamy of Santa Fe (New Mexico), my family’s genealogy,” he said. “I got involved in Colorado-New Mexico genealogy and other things just followed.”
His interest in wood sculpting, for instance, came about naturally from his interest in the santos, or religious figures he saw during his historical research on los penitentes, the lay religious organization that sprang up in the Spanish colonial period because of a lack of priests in New Mexico.
“Looking at a piece of black walnut, I could see an image of St. Francis inside the wood. All I had to do was remove the rest of the wood,” Archuleta said.
His sculptures are on display at art galleries and available at his website, .
During his research into matters historical and cultural, Archuleta noticed that many of the so-called reference works “showed bias and distortions. There is so much that that has to be documented accurately.
“When I first mentioned writing a book about the penitentes, I was told, ‘You’ll never be able to write about the penitentes because they are not around anymore and won’t talk because they’re very secretive,’ ” he said. “Much of what is written about our ancestors was written by outsiders. There are many inaccuracies in their stories.”
Attempting “to set the record straight,” Archuleta has written four books: “I Came From El Valle,” “Land of the Penitentes Land of Traditions,” “Eppie Archuleta and The Tale of Juan de La Burra” and”Penitente Renaissance, Manifesting Hope.”
Joe Ulibarri, a retired municipal judge and fellow history buff, calls Archuleta “a Renaissance man.”
“He retires from law enforcement and gets into carving santerios, writing books,” Ulibarri said. “It is very difficult to write books. He had been writing police reports for 30, 40 years and then he starts writing books.”
The former police chief “is a very forceful man. I edited one of his books and I am an old English teacher, so I wanted to edit it, change punctuation.
“He said, ‘Don’t change anything. I write the way I talk and that’s the way I want it.’ ”
Ulibarri called his friend “old stock from the San Luis Valley, around Antonito and Mogote. He loves his history and he loves his biographies.”
Archuleta and his wife share many common interests, Ulibarri said.
“She does weaving on her own, but she follows him in his interests. They travel to conventions together, like an upcoming genealogical conference in Santa Fe,” he said. “Ruben will be there peddling his books. She has embraced his love of books and is a fine cook, by the way; she makes great chile.”
Lately, Archuleta’s interest has been piqued by a pioneering civil rights organization that sprang up in 1900 in Antonito, seven miles from the New Mexico border.
“The Sociedad Proteccion Mutua de Trabajadores Unidos (Society for the Mutual Protection of United Workers) quickly spread throughout Colorado, New Mexico and Utah with hundreds of members and numerous chapters,” Archuleta writes on his website. “Originally formed to counter racism, the SPMDTU eventually evolved into a society which provided its members with life insurance, economic assistance in time of need and held cultural events for the membership and their families.
“My maternal great-grandfather, Apolonio Quintana, was elected to one of the officer posts at the first organizational meeting.”
His research thus far into the organization has yielded information sought by other individuals, he said.
“I am trying to help other people who are looking for their ancestors in SPMDTU or its women’s auxiliary.”
In 2008, the Pueblo Latino Chamber of Commerce presented Archuleta with its Lifetime Achievement Award for his many accomplishments.
Nowadays, given his bouts of illness, Archuleta limits his public-speaking dates and curtails activities such as book signings, but “I have learned to work around these things.”
“I will continue to try to show history as it truly was,” he said.
