ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Daniel Gutierrez fell in love with Barelas.
A California native by way of the University of Illinois, Gutierrez arrived in the historic Albuquerque neighborhood in 2007 as part of his dissertation research on Chicano identities.
What Gutierrez found was a home he didn’t know he was looking for, and he has stuck around ever since.
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Gutierrez is now head of New Mexico MainStreet, a state Economic Development Department program that partners with local groups in a “bottoms-up approach” to transform downtowns across the state. The goal is to boost business, artistic and cultural activities in those areas.