State house clerk remembered as Roundhouse matriarch
Mar. 23—Politicians come and go in Santa Fe. Eloisa Block had answers for all their questions.
Former colleagues and family members say she slipped generations of lawmakers handwritten notes of encouragement and worked behind the scenes to set New Mexico's agenda during her 57 years in state government, including more than 30 as deputy clerk of the House of Representatives.
Block died last week at 89.
"I got there in 1965 before the Roundhouse was even built, and Eloisa Block was already in charge of a lot," Steven Arias, chief clerk of the House from 1983-2014, said of his former deputy.
"I was worried about the budget. Eloisa was a people person," added Arias. "She vetted and placed all the employees, and once you were hired, if you had a problem in the Roundhouse, even the janitors, you would ask Eloisa."
Block grew up in the Great Depression on a family ranch with an apple, peach and apricot orchard in Puerto De Luna, a small village about 10 miles south of Santa Rosa. After her father died when she was a teenager, her mother and six kids moved to the big city — Santa Fe — in 1946, when its population was roughly 20,000. The family settled near Upper Canyon Road.
She graduated from Santa Fe High in 1950. In high school, Block worked at an old Free Fraser Pharmacy off the Plaza.
"Eventually everyone in Santa Fe sort of knew her through that job," said Thomas Luna, her younger brother. "And she knew the whole city. She had a fear of driving through downtown or any of the main streets like Cerrillos Road, so she knew how to circle around to get anywhere."
In 1957, she started working in state government as a secretary to Speaker of the House Don Hallam, picking up on the ins and outs of state politics along the way.
"She taught me the protocols. She told me who I could trust," said Clara Apodaca, wife of former Gov. Jerry Apodaca. "I was lost when I moved here from Las Cruces, and I can't imagine the hundreds, the thousands, of people she helped settle down here."
The clerk's office handles all administrative duties for the House of Representatives and organizes secretaries assigned to run each legislative committee. Long before Zoom, Arias and Block saw the Roundhouse adapt to IBM punchcards and memory typewriters in the 1970s and digital vote counting in the 1980s.
"She made sure everyone was trained as we kept modernizing over and over," Arias said. "I'm not sure there is anyone in Santa Fe Eloisa didn't help one way or another."
Even in the age of email, the mother of five kept a personal touch.
"I was lucky enough to receive a few of her handwritten notes over the years," said Rep. Gail Chasey, who has served in the House since 1996. "It's really hard to describe her institutional knowledge and memory. We're not going to see anyone else like Eloisa."
A devout Catholic, Block retired in 2014 and spent her days with church communities all over town — including the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi downtown as well as San Isidro and Our Lady of Guadalupe churches.
"She loved to cook and she loved to entertain and she loved to welcome you to Santa Fe," said daughter Angela Lovato, who added her mother's specialty was biscochitos. "She said she loved moving to Santa Fe because it was like this big city with all these people you could walk around and meet. I don't think she ever stopped wanting to talk to everyone."
