Steve Masters

The book, by Alexander Andrews, is based on interviews with Gonzales, a long-time Santa Fe lawyer. It includes stories about Gonzales losing his eyesight, his grandfather being killed by an Apache arrow, his father who knew Billy the Kid, and his experience defending 20th-century New Mexican outlaw Reies Lopez Tijerina.

The interviews are interspersed with personal accounts from Andrews, who worked as Gonzales’ administrative assistant for 10 years. During that time, he began collecting Post-it notes about interesting office happenings that shed light on a man who Andrews says could be “charming or exasperating; generous or cheap; forgiving or vindictive; magnanimous or petty; modest or vain; impulsive or dilatory.”

Gonzales graduated from Georgetown Law School in 1939 and became the first blind person to be admitted to the New Mexico Bar Association. He practiced law in Santa Fe for 60 years.

Copies of Albert: Behind the Dark Glasses are available in the NMSU University Bookstore or from the author: Alexander Andrews, 2600 W. Zia Rd. O-2, Santa Fe, NM 87505, (505) 989-3256.