For the Mountain Mail
Esther Gutierrez, the postmaster at Aragon, has retired after serving this tightly-knit Catron County community for over three decades. Her retirement was effective Tuesday, Feb. 2.
“I have given 36 years of service to my community. Now is the time to enjoy my family,” Esther said. “I will miss my customers.”
Esther’s’ father, Jose S. Vallejos, was the previous postmaster at the Aragon, serving from January, 1959 until his death in November, 1973. Following his footsteps, Esther was appointed officer in charge at that time, and was named postmaster on Feb. 2, 1974, at the age of 21.
Born and raised in Aragon, Esther graduated from Reserve High School. She and her husband Herman have been married for 36 years. They have daughters LeaAnn and Monica, and son Joaquin.
“I plan to spend a lot of my time with my little granddaughter Mia, and watching my son play sports,” Gutierrez said.
Her parents’ house is right on Main Street in Aragon.
“While my dad was postmaster, he had permission to move the post office to his house. A room of the house officially became the Post Office. My mother, Cecilia Vallejos, still lives in the house. She is 85 years old,” Esther said. “When I started working for the Post Office, the hours were minimal, just two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. At that time we had about 44 mail boxes. Today, we are open four hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. We have about 86 mail boxes.”
Behind the counter in the Aragon post office sits a unique piece of postal history - an old fashion postal acceptance window, complete with bars and slots for mail boxes.
“When I became Postmaster, I found this piece in the corner. I have been using it since,” she said.
On the outside edges of this 4 x4-foot section are old style mail boxes. These boxes could only be opened by a combination. The interior of this section had a glass enclosed mail box section. As the customer came into the Post Office, if they saw through the glass mail in their slot, they would ask for the mail. In the center of this section was a metal bar opening to pass mail and products through, and below this opening is a slot to drop mail off.
She could not recall at any time arriving late to work.
“Because of access issues to the post office, I take mail and packages and products out to my customers in their cars. Giving them this service, chatting for a minute, is what I will miss most,” Esther said.
“When we started our family many years ago, on occasions when a babysitter was not available, my girls were in a playpen behind the counter,” Esther said.
A door in the post office leads to her home.
“Once in awhile a new customer will try to exit, only to find themselves in a living room. This is something new to them,” she said.
She said other times she will hear knocking, knowing it’s a new customer trying to access the post office through the house front door.
Over the years Esther has seen kids, once picking up mail for their mom and dad, now picking up mail for their own family.
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