Finding where her heart is

For nearly three decades, Rosario "Chayo" Garcia built a life in northern New Mexico.

She and her husband raised two sons in Española. They helped operate a restaurant that could serve hundreds of customers on a busy night, a flower shop that marked life's celebrations and sorrows, and a family bar whose history stretched back generations. Garcia served on a college board of regents, became deeply involved in the community and poured herself into the work of raising a family.

Yet even after all those years, Las Cruces never stopped feeling like home.

When Garcia and her husband returned nine years ago to help care for her aging parents, she found herself in an unfamiliar position. She was back in the city where she had been born and raised, but much of her adult life had been spent elsewhere. The challenge was not coming home. The challenge was reconnecting.

Looking back now, Garcia says she sometimes wishes she could merge the two worlds that shaped her — the community she left behind in Española and the one that welcomed her home in Las Cruces. In many ways, she has spent the years since doing exactly that, bringing together a lifetime of experiences centered on businesses, education, family and service through her work with the Progress Club of Las Cruces.

The role may be different, but the motivation is familiar.

Long before she became president of the Progress Club, Garcia learned the value of serving others while growing up in a family where hard work was simply part of daily life. Her parents were farmers, and as a child she helped at the family's produce stand near Picacho Avenue.

She learned how to greet customers, make change and build relationships with people from every walk of life. Those lessons stayed with her through Mayfield High School, New Mexico State University and eventually into business ownership.

What Garcia remembers most about those years is not the long hours, though there were plenty of them. It is the people.

Running a restaurant and bar meant meeting hundreds of customers every week. Operating a flower shop meant being present for weddings, anniversaries, funerals and countless moments in between. Every day brought new faces and new stories.

The businesses were successful, but they also reinforced something Garcia had discovered early in life: she enjoyed connecting with people far more than managing products or transactions. That realization eventually led her in a different direction.

With a minor in psychology already in hand, Garcia began working in schools as a behavioral manager. The change surprised even her. After years in business, she discovered a passion for helping children struggling with anxiety, behavioral challenges and difficult circumstances. The work became deeply personal as she helped students learn to regulate emotions, supported parents trying to understand their children and gave teachers the ability to focus on the rest of their classrooms.

Garcia often says she wonders whether she missed her true calling. The satisfaction she found in helping children succeed was unlike anything she had experienced before, and the impact extended far beyond a single student. When a child learned to cope with challenges more effectively, entire families often benefited as well.

That desire to help never disappeared when she retired from the schools and returned to Las Cruces.

Instead, it found a new outlet. Soon after moving home, Garcia's aunt invited her to attend a meeting of the Progress Club, a local chapter of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. Founded nationally in 1890, the organization encourages volunteer service through projects focused on education, literacy, civic improvement, veterans, domestic violence prevention and community support. Garcia immediately recognized something familiar in the women she met.

She found people who wanted to invest in their communities the same way she always had.

Today, under Garcia's leadership, the Progress Club continues a tradition that has quietly shaped Las Cruces for decades. The organization supports scholarships through NMSU, contributes to libraries, assists veterans, supports La Casa and participates in projects that touch nearly every corner of the community.

Members write letters to veterans participating in Honor Flights, provide educational support to local schools and create opportunities for women new to Las Cruces to find friendships and meaningful ways to serve.

What impresses Garcia most is not any single project but the collective impact.

For years, she said, the club operated almost like a quiet stream flowing through the community. Many residents had little idea how much support the organization provided or how many local causes benefited from its work. That has begun to change as more people learn about the club's history and mission.

Garcia sees another benefit as well.

Many of the women who join are searching for the same thing she was when she returned home — a sense of connection. Some arrive through the club's popular book discussions. Others are looking for volunteer opportunities. What they often discover is a network of friendships built around a shared commitment to helping others.

That idea resonates with Garcia because it mirrors her own journey.

Whether she was selling vegetables as a child, greeting customers in a restaurant, helping students navigate difficult emotions, caring for her parents or leading a community organization, the work has always centered on people. The setting may have changed over the years, but the purpose has remained remarkably consistent.

In that sense, Garcia never really had to choose between the different chapters of her life. The restaurant owner, the counselor, the caregiver and the volunteer were never separate identities at all. They were simply different expressions of the same instinct that has guided her from the beginning — a belief that communities become stronger when people are willing to show up for one another.