About Me

Growing up in Wells Park gave me the kind of childhood people dream about. While I didn’t fully understand what a gift it was at the time, one thing I never took for granted was my grandmother, Albuquerque’s original “Candy Lady.” By the time I was 12, I was making her famous chocolate-dipped strawberries and running the cash register. 

As the daughter and granddaughter of small business owners, my childhood was spent taking orders, making candy, and meeting customers from all over the world. My parents owned the Sweet Shoppe back in the 80s. You might remember it, it’s where Slow Burn Coffee Roasters now calls home. Eventually, my parents followed a bigger dream and moved downtown, back when 4th street was built for people, not cars. I never let them know it, but their shop, an old-fashioned 1950s restaurant, was a pretty cool place. And in high school they owned and operated Itsa Italian Ice.

That’s the foundation I come from: Old Town, Downtown, Wells Park; a long line of small business owners rooted in connection and community.

But in high school, my path shifted.

I wasn’t planning to go into the family business. To be quite honest, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. 

At the time, I was working in my parents’ restaurant in Spanish Village at the State Fair, while also tutoring students at Dolores Gonzales Elementary School. I started volunteering there when I was 14 years old, reading to children whose first language was not English.

And then those two worlds collided.

During Red Ribbon Week , Governor Bruce King had a campaign against drugs at the fair, I noticed something that didn’t sit right with me. The same kids I was tutoring, being told to stay away from substances, were surrounded by alcohol being sold every few feet at the fair. So I asked a simple question: 

Why are we doing this?

That question changed my life. It led me into 30 years of advocacy, activism, and community development, work focused on making the world better for the next generation.

But at the end of 2025, I was laid off from a job I loved. So I made a decision.

I decided to go back to my roots; to everything my parents and grandmother taught me about small business and connecting it with my 30 years of community work.

And that's how Zia Yarn was born. Alongside it, I launched 505 Craft Collective, a nonprofit focused on making fiber arts accessible to EVERYONE.

This is about more than fiber arts. It’s about connection. It’s about belonging.  It’s about creating a safe, welcoming space for young people, for our queer community, and for anyone who needs a place to land. It’s also about bringing back the lost art of learning side by side, of sitting next to someone, sharing knowledge, making mistakes, and creating something with your hands  in real time.

In a world where so much is learned through TikTok and Instagram, I'm creating space for real, human connection.

I am reimagining what community looks like in Rio Rancho, Bernalillo, and Albuquerque.

And I hope you’ll be part of it.