The New Mexico Restaurant Association, the Santa Fe Restaurant Association, the New Mexico Tourism Hall of Fame, El Rancho de las Golondrinas, the Occupancy Tax Advisory Board, Santa Fe Economic Development, the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce.

Not to mention the Santa Fe Wine and Chilé Fiesta and the Community Advisory Committee of KNME-TV.

And not to forget: The School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management Advisory Board.

These are just some of the organizations Santa Fe restaurateur Al Lucero, owner with his wife, Laurie, of Maria's New Mexican Kitchen, is serving on or has served on as a board member.

Lucero's enthusiastic involvement in the community and the restaurant industry is what gained him a nomination to The Santa Fe New Mexican's 10 Who Made a Difference in 2009.

As Jill and Roger Goldhamer, the couple who nominated Lucero, said, "Al has worked tirelessly for approximately 30 years to promote the hospitality and tourism industries in Santa Fe and the state."

They added: "While we realize that the majority of past winners have been connected to nonprofits, we hope you will recognize that Al's efforts aren't just about business. While boosting the city's economy is business, it's also about providing jobs and training for those employees."

Another friend of Lucero, businessman and former Santa Fe Mayor Joe Valdes, has known Lucero ever since he, Lucero, a Santa Fe native, moved back to Santa Fe after 30 years working in broadcasting to start Santa Fe's first television station, Channel 2.

"He was very active in the community," Valdes said. "He did a lot of stuff — I don't know how the guy keeps up with the things he does. He's a great asset to the people of Santa Fe and one of the cornerstones of local business."

Valdes added: "I have a high regard for him and his wife."

Eddie Smithson, an official with the state Tourism Department, goes back 50 years with Lucero, when Smithson was fresh out of the Marine Corps and Lucero was running a radio station in Farmington.

"I watched his career. He was very successful," Smithson said. "And he was very, very civic minded."

Smithson recalled that he and others warned Lucero about buying a restaurant when he had no experience in the industry. Lucero went ahead and bought Maria's, turning it into the successful business it remains to this day.

"It's fortunate he didn't listen to us," Smithson said with a laugh.

Maria's New Mexican Kitchen will celebrate it's 60th anniversary next year, an achievement Lucero attributes in great part to his wife, Laurie. "I was only able to do all these things (to stimulate tourism) because she was here minding the store."

The Luceros are the fifth owners of Maria's — they bought the business in 1985. The restaurant was started in 1950 by Maria and Gil Lopez.

Not everything the Luceros have ventured into has succeeded.

After buying Maria's, the Luceros opened a second eatery, Rafters, in developer Joe Schepps' Sanbusco Market Center. Unlike Maria's, however, Rafters crashed and burned.

"That brought us back to earth very quickly," Lucero said. "We paid everybody off. It took a year. To do that, we had to sell our house and rent a house for a year. It was a great learning process."

Another seback came with the imposition of the minimum wage in the city of Santa Fe. That wage is now $9.85 an hour.

Al Lucero was in the forefront of the opposition to the minimum wage because he thinks that a mandated wage takes away incentive and encourages kids to drop out of high school.

It's a battle he lost, but Lucero still believes workers should earn higher wages, not have them presented as a right.

Lucero added that Maria's provides both the minimum wage and health insurance to its 55 to 60 employees. "And we have paid vacation," he added.

Among Al Lucero's major achievements is the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, a 72,000-square-foot, $50 million facility that many in the tourism industry had championed for years.

"I was on the Occupancy Tax Advisory Board, and we supported it," Lucero said, adding that then-Mayor Larry Delgado was also behind the project. Some may argue that the center is underutilized, but Lucero is confident that will change in the coming years.

"The center's potential is not being realized because of the recession we're in," Lucero said. "Over the next 10 years, the center will be a major factor in the economic growth and stability of Santa Fe."

Lucero was also a major mover in the successful effort to start the Wine and Chile Fiesta, which takes place in the fall and is intended to fill hotels and restaurants at a slower time of the year.

"I've always felt full hotel rooms meant full restaurants," Lucero said. "I've done my best to stimulate that and get it to happen."

He added: "Most everything I've done has been to improve things for our employees and our industry."

More recently Lucero has become interested in helping the Buckaroo Ball, an annual charitable event that in 2009 was canceled due to the weak economy. Profits of the ball go to needy children.

"I'm a big supporter of that," Lucero said. "It will be back next year."

Another achievement of Lucero's is the popularity of the margarita, a tequila drink that he is an expert in concocting. He's written three books on tequila, including the Great Margarita Book, which has sold more than 100,000 copies.

"We sell a lot of books out of the restaurant, but most of the sales are through book stores and the Web," Lucero said.