Almost Famous
People everyone should know.
Oct. 2023
Emily Gossett, 20, is the National FFA Officer Candidate representing New Mexico. She is an alumna of the Silver City FFA Chapter and served as a state officer, twice.
In November, she will be in Indianapolis at the National FFA Convention where a national nominating committee will determine if she will serve in one of the six positions on the national leadership team for the FFA Organization.
The FFA Organization was founded in 1928 as the Future Farmers of America. In 1988, the organization was renamed to encourage anyone interested in agriculture to join, not just farmers.
In New Mexico alone, there are over 3,000 members in the state’s 80 chapters. Nationally, there are over 900,000 members in over 9,000 chapters across all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
UPDATE: In November 2023, she was named the 2023-2024 Western Region Vice President.
Erica Yvette-Garcia, 21, was crowned the 2023 National Runner-Up for Miss Agriculture USA and Miss Agriculture New Mexico in June of 2023.
Erica doesn’t exactly know how many past generations are involved in her family’s farm in Belen, but she is more than proud of her upbringing and of her family’s legacy.
While Erica isn’t actively ruling the land, she studies for her bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics at New Mexico State University.
Miss Agriculture USA began in 2018 and is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to celebrate and promote agriculture; especially the women who make it happen.
Omero Olvera is a Las Cruces local who went all-out for the Pride on the Plaza Festival in downtown Las Cruces in Oct. 2023.
His spouse handmakes costumes, and the couple will be showing them off during the Day of the Dead Festival later in the month.
His response was simply, “Okay, sure” when I asked if I could take his picture because he looked too good to not photograph.
Bruce Berman is an associate professor at New Mexico State University.
Before his adventures led him to both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, he photographed Appalachian migrants and members of the Black Panther party during Chicago’s Rust Belt years of the 1960s.
He now lives in El Paso, Texas and commutes to Las Cruces, N.M. to teach photojournalism courses.
Not to be mistaken for Indiana Jones; Berman is much more daring.
Soon to be called “Iron Knees”.
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