What 25-year-old Michael remembers as a child was having candlelight dinners with his mom, former Magistrate Judge Susana Chaparro. “I thought it was the neatest thing in the world sitting around the table eating dinner in the candlelight,” Michael says. “I didn’t find out until I was older that our electricity had been shut off. My mom made it seem like us eating in the dark was something special.”
Susana remembers those dinners well.
“It was a tough time,” she says, remembering the time when she was raising Michael on her own, working several jobs at a time in an attempt to make a living. Fortunately, Susana had help from her parents Agustin and Socorro and her sister Norma. “We are a very close family and it was always like four people raising one boy. I was determined to succeed.”
Susana did succeed, and is now a business owner and The First Lady of the City of Las Cruces.
Susana and Mayor Ken Miyagishima went on their first date in 1988 at China Temple, where Ken’s Farmer’s Insurance office is now located. In 1996 they had their second date and their third date in 2002. The extra long courtship eventually led to marriage; the couple exchanging vows five years ago. While Susana admitted she was interested in Ken from the beginning, she wanted to focus on raising Michael instead of finding a husband. Ken, father of Danielle, 16, was also focused on building his political career, serving as county commissioner from 1992 to 2000 and city counselor from 2001 to 2007 before becoming mayor in 2007.
The couple remains busy with family, career and politics. Michael is a student at New Mexico State University and a server at Cattle Baron while Danielle attends high school in addition to taking classes at the Doña Ana Community College and working part time at Dion’s.
Born in Canutillo and raised in Las Cruces, Susana has been a certified court interpreter since 1986 – one of the first in the state. From 1998 to 2006 she made an impact within the community as a magistrate judge where she specialized in domestic violence. While in that role, she and Sylvia Cano-Garcia started the National Institute for Domestic Violence, one of the first domestic violence institutes in the nation. “I love the way I feel every time I walk in a courtroom. I love the justice,” Susana says remembering the lessons she learned on the bench. “The law is not just about punishment. It’s about giving people a chance to be who they want to be.”
Through her institute, Susana met with victims and offenders as families and discussed ways they could change the home environment. The institute also showed them how their crimes affected the family, especially the children.
One week into her job as a judge, a man was brought before Susana and asked if she could give him a chance for his four children.
“I fined him the least amount possible and sent him to get his GED and learn English,” she says. “Four years later he walked up to me and said ‘Thank you for giving me a chance. Thank you for believing in me.’ He told me how he succeeded and got a good job with the city. I think that should happen every time someone makes a mistake, they get a chance to learn from it and make a difference. I’m a hopeful soul.”
No matter what role she is in, Susana is always looking for a way to make a difference in the community.
“I love the spirit of the community. I was raised in the barrio on Mesquite Street and all the culture and cherished spirit is still here,” she says. “How could you not want to be involved in a place like this? |
