2025 True Heroes: Violet Lucero

THE CEDAR BEAMS of Violet Lucero’s loom stretch across a room that should be too small to hold it. Tools handmade by her father and bundles of wool yarn rest nearby. At the heart of this world of patterns and color sits the 71-year-old Navajo culture bearer, her hands moving in the steady, patient rhythm she has employed for more than six decades.

“I weave every day,” Lucero says. “When you’re weaving, you’re praying and healing, and you think about different things that you put in there. Each line can tell a story.”

The oldest of four girls, Lucero was just six years old when she was sent to the Bureau of Indian Affairs dormitory in Magdalena. Those years being away from home were hard, she recalls, even though the school was just 30 miles from her home in Alamo. She originally spoke no English and couldn’t go home except during the summer and vacations, during which time she helped her mother herd their Churro sheep. Learning to care for sheep, Lucero says, is the first step toward becoming a weaver. In this way, she was able to keep connected to many of the traditional teachings, including the Navajo language. 

After graduating from high school, Lucero began working for the Magdalena Municipal School District as an instructional assistant to first- and second-grade teachers. Over the next 30 years helping in the classroom, she worked with Navajo students who were learning English and taught the little ones the fundamentals of weaving by transforming cardboard boxes into looms. 

“Little kids aren’t afraid to just go for it,” says Lucero, who recalls the children often turning scraps of yarn into small, joyful patterns. She combined the lessons with stories, passed down from her grandfather, of sheep, coyotes, and how generations of Navajos used weaving to survive. 

Over the course of her retirement, Lucero has introduced more than 300 students to weaving through classes at the Alamo Wellness Center. (She is currently focusing on her family and her own creations, however.) “I don’t push anyone,” she says. “You have to want to weave.” But it’s not just her knowledge that she passes along; she freely gifts her weavings—big and small—to members of her community. 

When Lucero’s grandson, Michael, had his eighth-grade promotion ceremony, she taught herself to weave necklaces out of ribbon for every child in his class. Many people in Alamo and Magdalena own something made by Lucero, from sash belts to little woven keychains. “Weaving is not just for yourself,” she says. “It’s meant to be shared.”

“She is the grandma for everybody,” says Clara Winston, Lucero’s sister, who recalls that Violet was the only one who stayed and learned to weave from their mother when the rest of the kids snuck off to play. “She makes sure everybody’s okay. She’s just a rock.” 

Lucero’s gifts symbolize more than a shared craft—they are a shared piece of a vital Navajo lifeway. Her weavings represent a continued relationship with the land, the sheep, and a culture thousands of years old. Every weaving Lucero makes represents the cultural resilience that Lucero, and others like her who were forced into assimilation, managed to hold onto for future generations. “Weaving is our tradition,” she says. “It’s done with our hands, but I keep it in my heart. It keeps us strong.”