Querencia

by Stephen J. Bodio, Malcolm Brooks (Introduction)

Born in Boston, Stephen Bodio wandered into Magdalena, New Mexico, in the 1970s while on his way to Montana and never left. He was accompanied by Betsy Huntington, who was twenty years his senior; the couple had been inseparable from the day they met. After stumbling upon a vintage home along the highway, they settled into a country life; it was the perfect way for the two of them to make their lives together in an out-of-the-way place.

It’s through Bodio that Betsy’s story is painted in such memorable passages that soon captivate readers. Together they made their home among the mountains of New Mexico, returning to a simple life of hunting, falconry, and becoming acquainted with the local reptiles and insects of the desert. A lover of nature, Bodio here explains in vivid detail his time spent in the wilderness. He found himself the center of his neighbors’ attention when they discovered his endless fascination with the local fauna, from snakes and birds to coursing dogs. He became accustomed to Magdalena through the people and wildlife, even joining in the biggest festival on the the Quemado Rodeo, better known by locals as the Street Dance and Brawl.

From the Spanish term meaning “the heart’s true home,” Querencia captivates and settles the heart. It is an astonishing read for those looking for an escape from the hustle of the big city, or just seeking to find solitude in the country life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Animals, Biography Memoir, Westerns, Nature

170 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 1990

Reviews

[Ellie Julio · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard for me to comment without getting overwrought; I've lived in Magdalena periodically, and I've known Bodio since I was 7. So I'll keep this short.

Querencia is a love story about the New Mexican high country and an unusual Bostonian woman that's written in the sort of vivid, descriptive prose that makes you want to leave the city behind. Part ode, part elegy, part Western - it's romantic in all senses. You feel as if you're sitting at the kitchen table, listening to cowboy stories into the wee hours and drinking too much whiskey for the elevation. A sad, lovely essay on a place and way of living few understand.

[Steven McKay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could remember how I found this book. I do know that it wasn't at all what I expected.
This book is beautifully written, with memorable descriptions of rural New Mexico and the small town in which the author finds himself living.
That said, I had trouble with a single, repeated topic: bloodsports. I am not a fan of sport hunting, cock fighting, etc. I recognize that meat comes from animals and that animals eat each other, but I don't get a thrill from the process. I pressed on through these passages, but I feel that they ultimately detracted from my enjoyment of the book.

[Brad Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful, elegiac, spare but full-hearted memoir of a love affair between two people and a place, the area in and around Magdalena, New Mexico. It's about love, literary poverty, work, hunting, dogs (so great about dogs), and friends. And death and survival. I wish someone would take it up and reprint it.

[John of Canada · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had read a review of this several years ago and knew I had wanted to read it,but I forgot why.When I finally started,I thought it was fiction in the style of Jim Harrison and Charles Portis.When I caught on,I realized it was non-fiction in the style of Jim Harrison.I have never wanted to visit a place as much as I do New Mexico after reading this.It amazed how Stephen and Betsy(read the book!)could be so rich while fighting through poverty.His writings about wildlife and nature reminded me of Edward Abbey.
I first came across the term querencia a million years ago when I was reading books about bullfighting,stuff like "Or I'll Dress You in Mourning"about El Cordobes,a matador equivalent of a rock star and Death in the Afternoon by Hemingway.If you want to read a book that will make you love animals,weather,people of all types and loving relationships irrelevant of age difference then this is for you.Read this book.

[Steve Betz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly charming book about Bodio's years in New Mexico in the 1970s. He and his girlfriend moved from Boston to rural central New Mexico and lived a fairly hand-to-mouth existence, learning the turning of the seasons, the local animals, and the local population. Querencia is a difficult to translate word, roughly meaning the place where you feel most at home.

New Mexico has a special place in my heart and my life and I can envision the echoes of the more wild place he describes still in the places I've known during this century.

Poignant and thoughtful -- a true treat for any amateur naturalist and most certainly for anyone that has spent time in the Land of Enchantment.

[Angela Soto · Rating 4 out of 5]

This started out very slowly for me. I almost gave up. It seemed to ramble, and I was constantly back tracking to make sure I understood something. But, lo and behold, at last it clicked and I couldn't put it down. Quite a few tears later, I am so glad I stuck with it. Perhaps if I had approached it more like a set of memories being related than a beginning, middle, and end type of story, I would have enjoyed it sooner. I recommend it, especially to those who are familiar with the southwest landscape and ways of life.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A love letter to New Mexico. Rural NM. Not just the land but the people. A Bostonian’s whimsical experiment in place morphs into his forever home. Like in religion when converts become zealous protectors so it is with transplants to New Mexico. They call it the Land of Enchantment for a good reason. I should know as I too like Bodio have been mesmerized by the place.

It’s not for everybody. Hunting. Cock fighting. At times his home reminded me of Farley Mowat’s writing with the menagerie- comical adventures with the animals. Any New Mexican will readily concur with his descriptions of the seasons and the topography. But this is a book that is a memoir too and it’s got plenty of vicissitudes. It was written in 1990 after the loss of a soulmate. In 2021 Bodio is still charging forward, still living in Magdalena, despite dealing with Parkinson’s Disease. Time to read his fiction book and maybe some of his books on birds.

[Mary M.Nabers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Beautiful Book

Reading Querencia is magical. It is poetry in prose, an assortment of memories that make a love story. Yet the love of two people totally suited to each other and in tune with each other is only part of the story. Bodies and his Betsy also fall in love with their part of New Mexico and he describes the land, the snakes and bugs and birds and coyotes and people so that the reader can feel and see. They found their “heart’s home,” Querencia, and we understand.

[John Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book - beautifully written tribute to the people, the culture and the lifestyle of rural New Mexico.
And a very moving story of a love affair between the author and his soul mate, who died much to early from cancer. The books dwells on their life and love of New Mexico, their animals and there friends.
Despite the sad ending, it is not a sad book.

[Rainbowgardener · Rating 4 out of 5]

A weak four stars for this very short (134 pp) memoir. It is the kind of thing I should like: a poetically written depiction of his life in New Mexico. It is full of his love for the high desert country and for his wife. Part of my problem with the book is my problem with her. She is twenty years older than he is. The first thing she ever says to him is give me a Camel (one of his cigarettes). Throughout the whole rest of the book she is never seen without one. So at the end she dies a painful death of, surprise surprise, lung cancer. But she never really comes alive for me. She is supposed to be smart, quirky , adventurous, having traveled the world, done all kinds of unusual things. But all that is the past and is only really alluded to, not depicted. In the present as we see her, she is settled down with the author in their New Mexico house, not apparently doing anything nor seeing anyone besides a small circle of friends. She tries and fails to write a couple books. Some of the time she has little part time jobs. One was reporting for the tiny local weekly newspaper. They have a bunch of dogs, some cats, birds, etc. But again, that seems to be mostly his thing and she isn't really shown interacting with them.

[Steven Howes · Rating 4 out of 5]

One would think that a memoir about life in a small rural village in New Mexico would be less than exciting or entertaining. I found that not to be the case with this beautifully written book about the author's move from the east coast to Magdalena, New Mexico along with his wife. At first feeling out of place, they eventually became firmly entrenched members of the local community. In the end, they both came to consider Magdalena "home" and somewhere they felt connected and safe.

I was reminded a bit of some of Edward Abbey's books I had read previously. Mr. Bodio's descriptions of the people he met, the landscapes he saw, and his personal experiences were amazing in my opinion. In one particular instance, he described his impressions of a visit to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. The reader does not need a photograph to visualize what Mr. Bodio saw that day. I look forward to reading some of his other books.

[Eden · Rating 3 out of 5]

2023 bk 113. I agree with the reviewer who said it started so slow for her that she almost set it aside. It is a slow book and one that I determined to be a nightly read (I keep one 'real' book at my bedside table, reading a chapter a night to wind down without tech.) Through the nights of reading I would alternatively be charmed (descriptions of how they acquired dogs or met people) and appalled (cockfighting). I marked this as travel or ex-pat. As a thoroughly midwesterner of the southern border - the East Coast and West are in many ways alien to me. I've visited Boston and New Mexico but will never, at this time in my life, be assimilated into the culture other than through books as these. The mindset of rural Western America in particular is far from my water rich life. I can's say that I enjoyed the book - but I can say it gave me much to think about.

[Mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a lovely memoir written by Stephen Bodio about the years he spent with his longtime companion in remote southern New Mexico. They found a place where their lives were governed by the seasons, the weather, sunrise and sunset, instead of the constant din of an urban area. Living on a mesa at six thousand feet, they found the freedom to write, and also the freedom to wander in the wilderness collecting specimens(Bodio is a naturalist), dogs and a variety of friends. They hunted and fished, attended fiestas celebrating the killing of deer in the season, and other community events. Bodio’s partner became a writer for the local newspaper. This is a celebration of life that I enjoyed reading to the very end.

[Chris LaTray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had this book for years and then apparently lost it, as I learned when my friend, the writer Malcolm Brooks, who provides the introduction to the edition I've just finished, was looking for a copy to send to someone else. Now, some weeks (or months, who can tell anymore) later, it appears at the used bookstore and I snap it up and read it. Everything I've heard about it is true: it is a beautiful work of nature writing, life writing, love writing.

I come away with this. Love the world and revel in it. Live in it. And if you love someone, or someone loves you, and you are a smoker ... please stop now, before it's too late.

[Pat Hollingsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Querencia is a Spanish word meaning “the heart’s true home.” Part memoir, part adventure, part nature study that one reviewer called “a love letter to New Mexico.” This is a wonderful book that I could read a second time, something I rarely do. You learn about falconry, snakes, dogs, hunting, pig roasts and the draw of the harsh, arid climate of the west. As I drove through Magdalena and Pie Town hauling a horse back to Illinois, I was amazed at the quiet beauty of this remote country. Bodio is a masterful writer.

[David Rudin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A meditation on life in rural New Mexico. Bodio and partner Betsy, integrate into the small rural community of Magdalena, New Mexico, hunt, fish, work their dogs and write.
That sounds like a pretty boring book, but it’s not. Bodio is an honest writer, his prose so spare, his observations penetrating and kind. His voice is clear, consistent and intimate draws you in and holds you.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is really more like a series of amateur photographic essays. Sometimes, the focus is spot on and gloriously true and detailed, like the sand and grit in anticipation of the monsoon in southern New Mexico. Others are completely out of focus and seriously lacking, like wanting and wanting to get married, then it is done. I really thought it would be something special.

[Rod Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book, part memoir, part nature writing in the tradition of Terry Tempest William's "Refuge." It also broke my heart with a life experience strongly resonating with a fresh grief in my own life.

[Ernest Hogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book about living, loving, and dying in New Mexico. Stephen Bodio is one hell of a writer.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

New Mexico as I know it written by a man who has survived the loss of what could only be called his soulmate.

[G R · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read all of the glowing reviews, and I can only add that this book may be the very best I have ever read.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I skipped over the hunting scenes (there weren’t too many). The writing made me gasp.

[Mike Augustine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this were top notch. Refreshing and odd with what, for me, was and ending I understand was appropriate, but of course sucked (not the writing).

[Eduardo Santiago]

Abandoned at 40%. Couldn’t relate to... anybody, actually. Not my kind of people nor the kind of people I need to learn anything from. Then they started hunting coyotes for sport.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into this one. Good descriptions but poor story.

[M e r i Castillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovingly told story about life and death in Magdalena, New Mexico.

[Clay Beene · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Betsy had taken to calling New Mexico “a bare and bloody land,” but with affection.”

[Laurence Byrne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a lovely story

[Nagrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen Bodio was that weird guy with the dogs and falcons that my dad used to talk country living, guns and hunting with in the post office, gas station or coffee shop for what seemed like tedious hours to a six year old. I always knew he was a writer, but never really paid much attention until recently. While searching blogger several months ago I came across his excellent blog, Stephen Bodio's Querencia, much to my surprised delight. It has been a regular read ever since. At my parents home a few weeks ago, I was raiding their bookshelves for a few different volumes - Intending to borrow 10,00 Goddamn Cattle by Katie Lee, and Horseman Pass By by McMurtry, and whatever else I could lay hands on, I saw they had somewhere acquired a second paperback copy of Bodio's autobiographical work Querencia, so I nabbed that as well. It was, as its turned out, the only member of a foot-plus tall stack which I've read since taking it. Other reviewers have already said a lot about this work, and its depth, and power, which I dont disagree with, or feel like repeating. Correct they are that Querencia is a great work, a heartfelt memoir of a person, a place, and a time. It is that, and at least for me, much more. Filled with rich details of people, falcons, guns, hunting, the country, and simple day to day life in an incredibly unique place, Querencia, is more than a simple memoir of loss. It is a fundamental account of exactly its title, a querencia.
As a writer who firmly believes, yet also struggles with the idea, that the best writing is done scared, done aching and afraid of whats on the paper but knowing it would be unhealthy to quit, I was fascinated and moved by Bodio's writing. Writing so freshly on the heels of a great loss, and detailing not the loss alone but the life before it, must have been both painful and healing, and it shows in the words, some of which simply bleed. Further, as a native resident of the small mountain community Bodio describes, more than the words of hope and sorrow bleed for me - People, places, events I knew, or have known, since childhood are described in loving detail. Seeing these individuals and things through the fresh eyes of Bodio, writing as the outsider coming in, was immensely pleasurable at the same time as it was often sad. Querencia has earned a permanent place on my bookshelf as a work of great love, and a documentation of a place and time that also exists somewhat in my own history, which is now gone.

[Nagrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Other reviewers have already said a lot about this work, and its depth, and power, which I don't disagree with, or feel like repeating. Correct they are that Querencia is a great work, a heartfelt memoir of a person, a place, and a time. It is that, and at least for me, much more. Filled with rich details of people, falcons, guns, hunting, the country, and simple day to day life in an incredibly unique place, Querencia, is more than a simple memoir of loss. It is a fundamental account of exactly its title, a querencia.
As a writer who firmly believes, yet also struggles with the idea, that the best writing is done scared, done aching and afraid of whats on the paper but knowing it would be unhealthy to quit, I was fascinated and moved by Bodio's writing. Writing so freshly on the heels of a great loss, and detailing not the loss alone but the life before it, must have been both painful and healing, and it shows in the words, some of which simply bleed. Further, as a native resident of the small mountain community Bodio describes, more than the words of hope and sorrow bleed for me - People, places, events I knew, or have known, since childhood are described in loving detail. Seeing these individuals and things through the fresh eyes of Bodio, writing as the outsider coming in, was immensely pleasurable at the same time as it was often sad. Querencia has earned a permanent place on my bookshelf as a work of great love, and a documentation of a place and time that also exists somewhat in my own history, which is now gone.