For Larry and Gloria Sanchez, faith has always been the anchor — in their home, in their marriage and in every challenge they faced together. It guided them through job losses, the raising of children and grandchildren, and ultimately through five decades of life as partners rooted in northern New Mexico.

Their 50-year marriage, celebrated in November, is one they say could not have endured without God at the center.
“Everything we have, we leaned on God for,” Gloria said. “That’s what carried us.”

Both grew up in Questa, where neighbors were extended family and almost everyone spoke the same northern New Mexico Spanish. The couple married on Nov. 26, 1975.

“We grew up around each other all our lives,” Gloria said. “Our families had known each other since forever.”
As a young woman just out of high school, Gloria worked as a secretary at the local school, where Larry was 18 and a senior in high school. Larry, who grew up without a father, remembers how tight money was back in school.

“Veinte centavos por lonche (twenty cents for lunch) was a lot back then,” he said. “You know who used to pay for my lunch? Tony Espinoza. Pues éramos pobres (we were poor), what can I say. My mom raised us alone de chiquito (from when we were small) and I didn’t have a dad. Mr. Espinoza probably felt sorry for me. So he would call me forward, y Iba pa allá y pagaban por mi lonche (and I’d come forward and he’d pay for my lunch).”

Larry enlisted in the Army in 1971 and served two years in Germany. While he was overseas, Gloria once noticed a framed photo of him behind a bar at the Golden Q during a reception.

“Everyone was talking about him like he was some celebrity saying he was going

to visit the Golden Q soon,” she said. “I thought, ‘What is so great about this guy who is coming back from Germany?”
When Larry returned home, he worked for the Village of Questa’s water department and later at the mine. He often helped clear rocks on the road near Gloria’s mother’s house. “I’d stop and talk to him and from there, he asked me out,” she said.
For their first date, they took a trip to Santa Fe for an Antonio Aguilar concert — and still laugh like shy teenagers remembering it.

Their 1975 wedding was planned in just two short weeks after Gloria’s coworkers at the mine suggested a pre-Thanksgiving ceremony to give everyone a long weekend. Gloria found her dress in Española, booked the Golden Q for the reception, relying on family to plan their whimsical wedding. Her aunt fashioned her pillbox hat, sewed her veil to make it the perfect addition to her dress. Her aunt also baked a beautiful wedding cake.

Gloria was 28 and Larry was 24 when they married at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church. “It all came together beautifully,” she said.

Their shared faith became the foundation of their marriage.

“Marriage takes commitment, trust, and hard work,” Gloria said. “It takes love, patience, sacrifice. What really helped me was being Catholic and devoted to the calling of marriage.”

Gloria and Larry have one daughter, Therese, who was 6 when they got married.

Therese is married to James Padilla and together they have three children — Zachary, 29; Alexis, 24; and Thiago, 15 — and a 7-month-old great-granddaughter, Rosalie Grace who is daughter to their oldest grandson, Zachary. Over the years they helped raise their grandchildren, cared for aging parents, and supported their daughter through life’s challenges.

They also navigated job changes and layoffs at the mine, including a move to Parachute, Colorado in 1986 during one of the mine’s layoffs. After three years, they returned to Questa, where Larry worked as a mill foreman and supervisor, retiring after 24 years with UnoCal and Chevron.

“What it is también (also) is you got your wife to support you. I think that allowed me to be more engaged in the community, which I did with the help of my wife — otherwise I couldn’t have done it. I have served as a Questa councilman, and I was appointed by Bill Richardson as a county commissioner. I was very involved in the community. Mi mama me decía, ‘Mijito, es un honor pero hazme un favor, mijito.’ And I’d say, ‘What, Mom?’ And she’d say, ‘Cuida los pobres’ (my mom used to tell me, son, it’s an honor but do me a favor and I’d say what mom, and she’d say look out for the less fortunate) and I did take that to heart.

Larry always carried the lessons his mother taught him into public service guiding every decision in his life.
On Nov. 8, the Sanchez’s celebrated their 50th anniversary at the Red River Convention Center with 325 guests. Family from across New Mexico attended, the Bad Boys band played, and several of Gloria’s classmates reunited for the occasion.
The highlight came when Fr. Jason from St. Anthony’s Parish blessed their vows — a moment both say felt like the greatest gift.

“God has been our cornerstone,” Gloria said. “Through every up and down, He kept us together and strong so having our new priest be apart of our special day made it all the more special.”