Epée me now, or épée me later: Former RRECU prez buys fixer-upper, learns fencing

RIO RANCHO — Mara Minwegen has been a teacher, a librarian, a journalist, a care-giver and, as some Rio Rancho Public Schools educators may recall, a union president.

In 2002, she ran against Jane Powdrell-Culbert for a seat in the Santa Fe House of Representatives, but lost. So have others; Powdrell-Culbert didn’t lose an election until 2022.

But what has given Minwegen more pleasure in the past two years came after she got into fencing* – and not the chain-link kind.

“There are rules (in the sport),” Minwegen said. “I’m not any good at it; I’m a novice. I’ve been beaten by an eighth-grader, but they’re the Olympic hopefuls. I’m just a doofus adult.”

But she’s had enough sorrow in her life, namely taking care of her parents, former teachers, and an elderly adult in their final years, and she’s battled asthma her entire life.

“Nobody teaches you how to get old,” she said she’s learned along the way.

She soon learned that her footwork was an advantage in this new sport, for her, because she’d been a dancer many years ago while growing up in Minnesota. She also skied, ice-skated and has crewed on a sailboat in Lake Superior. Oh, and she earned an expert badge in grenades in basic training during the year she spent in the U.S. Army.

“I came to Rio Rancho in 1994 and I started with Rio Rancho Public Schools, and I loved it – I loved it here,” she recalled. “I got involved with the (Rio Rancho School Employees Union) union and made some super-good friends with, that I’m friends with to this day.”

Her involvement with the union wasn’t planned, nor was becoming the second RRSEU president.

“I met some people who really inspired me; Wynn Olmon (RRSEU’s first president)was one of them,” she said. “(She) taught so much. … She taught me so much: about politics, about how to advocate for education in general up at the state legislature, about negotiations – how it works.

“She just really opened a whole new world for me,” Minwegen said. “I admired her; she was just really a good person, and I will never forget her.”

“When I became president, I taught half-time and was president half-time … they matched my salary,” she said. “That was one of the best times of my life, even though I was working 24/7, and eventually working myself into the ground.

“But I learned so much and it was so deeply satisfying to me. It was the one and only time in my life when I could tangibly see in front of me I could fix a problem for somebody. So if somebody would come to us and say something was wrong, I could help them – I could visibly see what I was doing to help them. I could go to the state legislature and lobby for tangible, real things that would help teachers.”

She also learned, “You’re not going to get everything you want,” but enjoyed the give-and-take enough to proclaim, “The only thing that stopped me from doing that job forever is like, literally, I got pneumonia and got really sick.”

“I felt very strongly that I was responsible to my constituency and wanted to do the best I could all the time,” she said. “I left in 2003 because I had been really sick twice that year.”

Thanks to her union gig, she learned how to deal with all kinds of people, “How to ask the right questions” and “I got a lot braver about putting myself in front of the public.”

Once she recovered, and after her daughter graduated from Rio Rancho High School in 2002, she found a job at a private school, but in 2008, returned to Minnesota to take care of her elderly folks and an elderly uncle.

She returned to New Mexico in 2016 because of her financial situation; she bought a house and got a teaching job with Bernalillo Public Schools.

“But then, going back and forth (to Minnesota), was really hard; everybody passed away and I took a job with a library (in Tucson).

“I didn’t like Tucson, I moved back here and bought a fixer-upper and fixed it up. … During the pandemic, I just wanted to be someplace that felt like home and it was safe and I had friends here. That little fixer-upper turned out to be the right price and the right time and it gave me a whole project to do for a year.”

Another satisfying time was a year and a half she spent volunteering for the Cibola County History Museum.

Finally, a point to this story

A few years ago, a visit with her daughter in Los Angeles led to her fascination, as a lifelong learner, with fencing.

“A friend of hers, who was a stunt man and did a lot of sword-fighting, let my daughter and I take one of his sword-fighting classes,” she said. “I loved it so much, I came home and Googled fencing in Albuquerque and found Duke City Fencing, where they train everybody from young kids to adults recreational, people who have never fenced before.”

“My first visit was there in November 2021,” she said, and she goes there twice a week.

“Their coaches are wonderful and it is a warm. welcoming and delightful place,” she said. “Fencing is a fabulous workout; it is like physical chess. It’s cardio, it’s skill, it’s motor control – it’s a lot like ballet and it’s a lot like chess. … You have to be thinking at the same time you’re fighting, and you legitimately stab people.” . (They can’t get hurt; the swords, or foils, are blunted and competitors are heavily protected.)

She recommends it to others, to get a new adventure.

“Maybe in another five years, I’ll be a not-embarrassing fencer,” she said, modestly.

“I’m deeply grateful to have things I like to do,” she said, which includes traveling, often driving long distances between stops.

“I’m currently seeking the next adventure,” she said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do next; I can’t seem to settle down into any one idea, but ski season is coming up and I’ve got my season pass for Santa Fe and that’s what I’m going to do (next).”

So it’s all downhill for now.

“I’m 65 and still – knock on wood – in pretty good shape,” she concluded.

(* Speed, energy, and precision are what defines top-level fencing, among a handful of sports featured in every modern Olympics since 1896.

There are three disciplines of fencing: foil, épée and sabre. According to historical records, the foil started from military training, the épée was developed from swordsmanship duels, and the sabre can be traced back to the cavalry.

Each discipline has its own specific targets and rules.)