In 1960 the family moved back to Santa Fe and Ana began first grade at St. Francis Parochial Elementary School. By her third year it was apparent that she wasn’t cut out to follow a structured setting, and she was expelled from St. Francis when she defiantly flung a desk at the nun in charge. Her mother was distraught, since her second-born child broke the family tradition of generations before, and would not receive a Catholic education. She reluctantly enrolled her in the public school system, and Ana went on to attend Kearny Elementary, De Vargas Junior High School, and Santa Fe High School, from which she graduated in 1974. She then enrolled at the College of Santa Fe, where she majored in theater, and that’s where the prayers of Natalie Ortiz Pacheco, who lamented her daughter’s wayward path, were answered.

In the College’s Performing Arts Department Ana’s life made a change in course when she became a student of Broadway actress Kim Stanley. Ana’s inquisitive nature caught Stanley’s attention, and she was appointed stage manager for the production of Bus Stop in 1975. It was during this time that the actress encouraged her to quit school, move to New York, and become a writer. Ana heeded her advice, and to this day credits Stanley for changing her direction in life. She continues to be amazed that she got to know what some people believe to be the greatest actress of the 20th century, right in her hometown of Santa Fe. [ Click here ]