History, heritage and culture are words Miguel Chavez utters frequently.

The words are reflected in his lifestyle. He spends his days building traditional furniture, milling away in a tidy workshop in his backyard off Baca Street.

It's a yard busy with more than a dozen urban chickens and from which he can see the house where his wife grew up. Inside, the walls are decorated with fading ancestral portraits. More recent cultural milestones recorded there include an 8-by-10 photograph of his oldest daughter, Elena, now 29, who was picked to lead the Fiesta court as queen in 1997.

Miguel Chavez, 53, has a soft voice that he sometimes uses to unleash long speeches about New Mexico's and Santa Fe's past. At times, he's emotional about that topic.

His family roots trace to the Spanish explorers Juan de Oñate and Don Diego de Vargas, and Chavez enjoys participating in the Caballeros de Vargas, a Roman Catholic men's group that he explains is "a sort of an honor guard responsible for safeguarding the image of Our Lady of Peace," a figure of the Virgin Mary also known as La Conquistadora.

"I have tried to balance that background with the decisions that we have to make in putting the interest of the public ahead of any special cultural interests," the two-term councilor said.

That posture was tested during a City Council scuffle last year over a proposal to name of the new Southside Branch Library in honor of a member of New Mexico's Maloof family in exchange for a $1 million donation to help fund library operations. Chavez sponsored a proposal to adopt the name, but an ensuing debate turned into what some in the community perceived as an unnecessarily polarizing of Hispanos versus Anglos, he said.

When other councilors balked at the Maloof name, a compromise was proposed under which the city would accept the donation and name the library after Mike Maloof, with the condition that an already-named downtown branch be renamed in honor of the late historian and educator Pedro Ortega.

Instead of arguing against the notion, Chavez said, he went along with what he thought was a workable solution. Now, he regrets the idea.

"I feel like the public lost," he said. The Maloofs, discouraged by the unfolding drama, withdrew their offer. Chavez said the library still does not have the long-term funding or operating plan in place that it deserves.

Chavez was known in younger years as "Mike" or "Michael" outside his home. He quit high school at the beginning of his junior year to pursue his own business. He trained in the construction trades and learned woodworking from various family members and mentors, and has ever since been self-employed.

He doesn't regret dropping out during the early 1970s, a tumultuous period in the nation, he said. "I really wasn't being challenged," he said. "I just didn't fit in, and so I went to work and continued working. I was fortunate to find a trade I could excel in."

He began his political life as a teenager when he helped his father, Mariano A. Chavez, run for an at-large City Council post in 1971. The elder Chavez lost the election to Sam Pick, who later became mayor. But the younger Chavez didn't realize he would aspire to be an elected official — or as he prefers to label the job, a public servant — until about 20 years later.

"I started going to City Council meetings back when there was no public access (via cable television). So if you wanted to know what was going on, you had to go to City Hall," he said. "I would go to City Hall and I would go to the back of the room and I would watch and I would listen and try to pay attention."

He soon was appointed as a citizen member of the board of directors of Tierra Contenta Corp., which oversees the city-initiated affordable-housing project in southwest Santa Fe. He later was named an at-large member of the Occupational Tax Advisory Board, which recommends how the city should spend money raised by a tax on hotel rooms.

It was during that service that he became interested in advocating for the city to promote authentic culture and heritage tourism, helping push a city policy that would not only help his cottage woodworking industry, but other craftspeople as well.

He still works on that mission, he says, and is proud of his role in getting a permanent gallery space for locally produced work in the civic center that is slated for completion this year.

Fred Flatt, who runs a business-form and check-printing company and lives in District 3, is one of Chavez's supporters. Chavez got Flatt appointed to the city Ethics and Campaign Review Board. Flatt said he wants to see Chavez stay on the council because he's a voice for "the common man." "He's a humble man," Flatt said. "He's very much a man of the people."

Chavez first ran for the City Council in 1996, losing in a three-way race. Then-Mayor Debbie Jaramillo appointed him that year to the city Public Works Committee, a move the council later overturned.

But his next campaign earned him election in 2000, when he beat incumbent Art Sanchez and now-Mayor David Coss. Chavez then won re-election in 2004.

His goals have become broader since he took office, but a 1990 story in a publication about Santa Fe's annual Spanish Market shows Chavez had already developed his life emphasis.

"I'm trying to hold on a little bit tighter to our heritage," he told a reporter more than 18 years ago. "If I can in my own small way preserve part of that heritage, hopefully my kids will grasp onto it and continue it."

MIGUEL MARIANO CHAVEZ

Age: 53

Birthplace: Las Cruces; his family moved back to Santa Fe when he was 3 years old.

Education: General educational development certificate

Occupation: Furniture maker; owns Chavez Woodworks

Work experience: Self-employed since 1978

Political or community experience: Worked on his father's City Council campaign in 1971; won election to City Council in 2000 and 2004; chairs city Public Utilities Committee; served on Tierra Contenta Corp. board of directors and as member of Occupancy Tax Advisory Board and Mayor's Apprenticeship Task Force

Personal: Married to Liz Chavez since 1978. Three children: Elena, Camilia and Manuel. Elena is married to Brian Tercero and they have two children. Chavez has a dog named Spike, two roosters (Dominic and Pico de Gallo), 11 hens and one goldfish.

Campaign finance: Chavez reported collections of $8,379, more than half of which he rolled over from a previous campaign. His major contributors include minimum-wage-law activists Carol Oppenheimer and Morton Simon.

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