By the Grace of God

Stories from the American Dream

The American Dream is the ideal that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. And, this is my journey. I was born into a Spanish family in an apartment behind a cantina in a northern New Mexican mountain village. Our ancestors came from the Archuleta region of Spain in the 1500s. I was the oldest son of eight children. You may recognize this part of the country because of Georgia O’Keefe’s famous landscape paintings of the area. She fell in love with the area surrounding my hometown of El Rito.

With a tremendous passion for life, a keen mind, strong work ethic, integrity and a spiritual focus, my life has been remarkable, without my having to forget or distance myself from the strong roots of my family and heritage along the way.

I’ve been knocked down and have gotten back up countless times. I have survived three near-death experiences, betrayals by both family and friends, unsuccessful runs for Congress and the State Legislature, and the loss of a very successful company.

With all that being said, I’ve been able to successfully navigate through it all because of my unwavering faith, courage, hard work, focus, and my strong moral compass. By the Grace of God, I have created scientific discoveries, for which I hold five patents. I have met with Presidents, Senators, Congressmen, members of the U.S. Judiciary, and U.S. Cabinet Secretaries, all in an attempt to bring jobs to rural America.

I am grateful to Manuel Lujan, Jr. who was a Congressman for 30 years and the Secretary of the Department of the Interior under President George H.W. Bush, for writing the Foreword to the book. Because this book is filled with stories and insights about my great successes and regrettable failures in business, politics, and as an inventor, my hope is that it would be enjoyed by readers seeking inspiration, entrepreneurs, inventors, people interested in politics, among others. Because I am of Spanish descent, I would hope that it would be enjoyed by readers interested in a poor Hispanic man’s perspective on reaching for the American Dream.

About the Author

Phil T. Archuletta is a native New Mexican, born in 1946 in the town of El Rito located in Rio Arriba County. He is one of the founders of Ojo Caliente Craftsman, a company that went on to be one of the largest manufacturers in Northern New Mexico in the 1970s and 1980s.
Today, he is the Chief Executive Officer of P & M Signs, Inc., located in Mountainair. His clients include the U. S. Forest Service, National Park Service, the Department of Game and Fish, Bureau of Land Management, the New Mexico Highway Department and cities, counties and municipalities throughout the United States. He has the distinction of having one of the few Smokey Bear franchises in the country. You can find his signs throughout the entire U.S. Forest Service and National Park system.
In addition to his “day job,” Phil has been inventing and patenting products throughout his lifetime. He has five patents including an anti-vandalism hardware device known as the “Tuffnut.” In addition, through his contract with Rockwell International in the 1980s, he manufactured ground support systems for the B-1 Bomber project.
Today he is in the final stages of receiving the funding needed to begin the manufacturing of his latest patented invention, Altree. This product takes the fuel that has been creating the catastrophic forest fires, and the plastic milk bottles in the landfills, to create a durable building product. Altree was featured at a Wood Products of the Future Conference by the United Nations held in Switzerland in 2010.
This is Phil’s third book. He is the author of the popular book, Traveling New Mexico and the co-author of Women Marked for History. Women Marked for History won the New Mexico Heritage Preservation Award in 2015. Both were published by Sunstone Press.

Rosanne Roberts Archuletta was born in Philadelphia and raised near the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, in a small town called Bangor. She spent most of her adult life living and creating a business in San Francisco. As a volunteer, she was on the Board and was an Instructor and Business Coach at the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center in the city for many years.
She is currently the Learning and Development Director at CUSO Financial Services, LLC, a national FINRA Broker-Dealer, holding the Series 7, 66 and New Mexico Life insurance licenses. From 1989 to 2009, she was the Principal of R.M. Roberts and Associates, a human resources consulting firm. She provided training and coaching, staff recruiting and business consulting to organizations throughout the United States, including Citibank, Visa Corporation, Stanford University, among others. She is a dynamic speaker who has lectured nationally on topics related to professional and personal development. She was a speaker at a conference organized by the United Nations held in Beijing, China in 1995. She was also a speaker at the Pennsylvania State University’s College of Liberal Arts’ Career Day in 2005.
She holds a M.A. degree from Naropa University and a B.A. degree from The Pennsylvania State University. Her Master’s thesis, “Mystics in the Boardroom: Creating a Life Enriching Workplace,” is still being read throughout the country. She is the co-author of Women Marked for History The book won the New Mexico Heritage Preservation Award in 2015.
Rosanne and Phil met in 2008, through their volunteer work at the New Mexico Small Business Development Centers. They were married in November 2010. By the Grace of God, is their second collaboration.