in 1971. Convention required that she
forego her studies, and her passion for
music and dance, to “cook, clean and
raise a family.”
Her first job was in a bank, where
she rose to be stock registrar. Her first
child, Alessandra, was born in 1973,
followed by Marco, Carlo and Marisa.
Her husband worked as a machinist for
the City of Chicago. By the mid-eight-
ies, Allyson was creative director of a
youth performing troupe, working after
hours; however, the strains on her mar-
riage had become too great, and she
divorced Antonio in 1986.
While still in Chicago, she took a
Montessori training course and, from
1979-1987, was a lead teacher. She
resumed at Montessori in the late
nineties, as Director of Education at
Downers Grove Montessori, IL. In
between, she took a succession of jobs:
with Benetton, in real estate; with a
company selling nutritional products;
and with a communications company.
On the Montessori school notice
board she noticed an ad for someone to
teach at the Montessori school in
Alpine, TX. She drove 20 hours in
August 1996 to meet with Liz Sibley,
the energetic founder of the school.
More students were needed, Liz told
her. Why did such a move appeal to
her? “I guess I’m a Renaissance
woman,” she offered.
After two years and hard work on
the part of Allyson and two other
teachers, it was time to leave when new
administrators were brought in. Alpine,
peaceful and pretty, with a growing
arts/music/intellectual scene, had
been a good move. But now she need-
ed a new job.
Undaunted, she plunged into the
restaurant business. In 1999, she
opened La Tapatia, a tortilleria and
café. In 2007, La Trattoria opened, in
larger premises. Starting with almost
zero equipment, she persevered and, a
year later, was doing good business.
Two years later, realizing a restaurant
should be a family affair, she sold the
business.
Allyson then moved into Spanish
language teaching and also got a para-
legal certificate at the University of
Texas in El Paso. She started doing pri-
vate legal work in Spanish, and then
interpreting in the court system. She
also returned to her first love, music
and dance, by joining Alpine’s
Tahitian dance group for three years,
and more recently resumed singing and
sometimes playing bass for the local
band “Special Delivery.”
MICHAEL “AKU” RODRIGUEZ
Michael “Aku” RoDriguez, of
Apache and Zapotec heritage, has
returned to the Big Bend region after a
career in music and documentary film
production. His most recent work, a
documentary trailer called “Their Last
Ride,” won three industry awards.
RoDriguez was born in 1972 in
Irvine, Texas to Rosie and Dee
Rodriguez, a truck driver. In the early
days, the family travelled a lot due to
his father’s job, including to Marfa and
Balmorhea, where he “nested” (a
favorite expression) and also went to
school.
His teen years were troubled. He
was temporarily estranged from his
family and was kicked out of the house.
He later attended junior college briefly.
He got married, then divorced. The
traditions of his culture helped him sur-
vive. He derived solace from his
Medicine Man, who explained his spir-
itual identity. “We all have gifts,” said
the Medicine Man, who remains a
force in his life, adding, “Light and
dark are always with us.”
During five years with his family in
San Bernardino, CA, he started play-
ing music with a band called “The
Tabloids.” At age 24 he moved to the
Dallas area. Enrolling at Tarrant
County College in Fort Worth to study
film, he gained experience as a line-
producer and cinematographer for
fashion trade shows. It was here he
started working as an actor as well as
learning the intricacies of feature film
production.
He also joined a band called
“Spoon-Fed Tribe,” playing alternative
tribal music. The band toured Texas,
became successful and recorded with
Sony. He played bass guitar, keyboards
and percussion. Later, RoDiguez
joined another band, “Joint Method,”
which split up over financial disagree-
ments.
With his Native American features,
his black hair falling in two braids and
a dazzling smile, RoDriguez was a nat-
ural target for film-makers looking for a
certain type of actor for cameo roles,
typically a Harley biker with two guns.
Later came more substantial roles, as in
the indie film The Prodigy (2005), and
the “Walker, Texas Ranger” TV series.
He then got into a variety of indie
film productions, while also investing in
film-making equipment. He expanded
his film-making roles to writing as well
as producing and directing and, over
four years, made promotional docu-
mentaries, moving from Texas to
California to New York. In 2008 he
produced, wrote the music for and
starred in The Rose, A Sense of Place
about Fort Worth’s historic Rose
Marine Theater, which was aired by
PBS.
In 2015 he returned to Balmorhea,
this time with his wife, Dragonfly.
There, he came across a Cherokee
woman, Neta Rhyne, who was deeply
concerned about the transportation of
slaughter-bound horses past her house
heading to Mexico. Aku was equally
moved by this inhumane traffic of hors-
es, and he collaborated with Neta
Rhyne to produce a trailer, Their Last
Ride, by his company So Be It Films.
The full-length documentary is expect-
ed to air later this year. Meanwhile,
there are all sorts of other subjects in
the area likely to attract the attention of
this active documentary film-maker.
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