Our people: A nice life laid out

Adan Lucero retired from his work as a tile setter 10 years ago after working in the business for more than 35 years. Nowadays Lucero spends his days taking care of his wife and daughter, who are both wheelchair bound. Lucero and his wife spend each weekday at the La Casa Senior Center or the Friendship Senior Center. He stays busy shooting pool while his wife plays bingo. Lucero also likes to watch western movies and collects coins. He is a die-hard Denver Broncos fan.

CMI photo: Benna Sayyed

Adan Lucero practices his pool shot at the La Casa Senior Center. Lucero said he and his wife Theresa visit the center three days a week.

Tell me about your career as a tile setter. What did you like most about it? First, I started as a laborer, then I became an apprentice and then a tile setter. It took five years to become a tile setter. I set wall tile, floor tile, marble, Formica, linoleum.

I mostly did schools. I worked for Martin Tile for 25 years then I went to McDaniel's (Home Furniture) for 10 years. After that I worked on and off for different people.

I enjoyed it. I got to meet a lot of people. The work could be hard because you're mostly on your knees and your back.

Courtesy photo

Adan Lucero at age 7. Lucero was a student at the Guadalupe Catholic school in 1947.

When I did a school I had anywhere from eight to 10 thousand square feet of tile to put down. You were crawling on your knees. You had to put knee pads on. You had to deal with some body pain. Nowadays they call it arthritis (laughing). When you get old, that's where you get it, from all that working on your knees.

How do you like to spend your retirement? I've been wanting to go fishing. I used to be the pool chairman up here (at La Casa), but I passed the job onto to another guy six months ago. Now I just shoot pool.

Sometimes my wife and I are here from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Then we go home and I put her down for a nap. I watch TV and read. I like my quiet time in the morning to read my Bible and study mostly religious books.

When I get up in the morning I like to spend a couple hours by myself. It's what I call my quiet time. I like to watch cowboy movies. We never had cable, but when my daughter moved in with us not too long ago she put in the satellite. Now I get a lot of cowboy movies.

How do you help your wife and daughter, who are in wheelchairs? I'm the chief cook and dishwasher. I do everything around the house. I like to cook. I fix breakfast every morning. Last night I cooked a pot of beans with chili meat. I might fry a fish.

The only time I use the oven is when I'm baking fish or chicken or something.

What do you like most about Clovis? Everything. Most of my buddies left to California or Detroit, but they're all back. They came back and said, "you're still here." I said, "Yeah I love Clovis." Everybody says it's too windy. I say if there's no wind you better worry about a tornado sucking the air somewhere (laughing).

I love Clovis. All my family was raised here. My parents were part Indian and they were in New Mexico all their lives. My (paternal) grandmother was Navajo and my (paternal) grandfather was Cherokee. My mother was a mixture of everything; I don't know what she was (laughing).

Courtesy photo

Adan Lucero at age 36 with his wife Theresa in 1983.

How have you noticed Clovis change over the years? When I was growing up, the city limits ended at 14th Street. It was all farm houses north of there. I like all the changes that have been happening. The only problem is that everything is going to the north.

Living here was much easier when I was growing up. Now there's gangs, drugs and shootings. There were fights between people back then, but they were not as bad as the gangs now. Nobody really got hurt, maybe bruised, but that's about it.

How did you meet your wife? I used to hang around with her brother. That's how I met her. I used to work at Walgreens.

There was a little snack bar up there. I worked as a dishwasher and as a cook's helper. Every time she came in she always hated my guts. She would walk around to avoid me.

We started hanging around theaters. Her family was real strict. I had to take my brother-in-law and my nephew as chaperones. I would give them a quarter or a half dollar and run them off to Dairy Queen.

They say don't hate nobody cause you wind up married to them (laughing).

Tell me about a time when you got into trouble as a teenager: Always (laughing). I was the first boy my parents had and used to get into a lot of trouble as a teenager.

When I was 13 my father bought me a 1936 Studebaker, one of those gangster cars. He bought me a 1947 canary yellow Oldsmobile convertible when I was 15.

That's when I met my wife. I got 15 tickets in six weeks without a license. They (the police) told my dad, "The next time we catch him without a license we're going to put you out instead of your son."

So my dad sold my car. Back then when a teenager got arrested for something, they call your parents and go pick you up. They did not press charges for anything because you were a teenager. Nowadays they pick them up and lock them up in a hurry.

— Compiled by CMI staff writer Benna Sayyed