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Inside Marry Aragon’s bizarre castle in the South Valley.
Posted under Audio.
Tags: Manny Aragon
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11:57 am on December 7th, 2009
Even his fence posts have turrets.
U can bet the guy who let them inside no longer has a job.
3:52 pm on December 7th, 2009
On the Manny Aragon sentencing story, you attribute KOAT when it’s really KOB. It’s interesting, I’ve seen that happen before. Do people really think KOAT is Channel 4? The #4 is burned into the bottom right hand of the screen.
Thanks,
Tom Joles
P.S. Good video of Manny castle.
4:17 pm on December 7th, 2009
Shoot. Sorry. I was bleary eyed, I guess.
9:42 pm on December 7th, 2009
It’s no stranger than Tanoan with it’s gigantic TV sets, “interior decoration,” and unused spas. No more excessive than Santa Fe with it’s “tasteful” knockoff neo adobe. Looks like Manny actually hired local woodworkers and masons, rather than “artistic” sons.
While Manny was clearly a bum and worked intensively to gain his lockup, his castle appears to be an individualistic fantasy … probably no more expensive than the luxurious Heights of the whites. Looks like he intended to have fun in it.
Fun is of course a sin….
10:56 pm on December 7th, 2009
Two suggestions;
Introduce your cameraman to a good professional film editor.
Take his zoom lense away from him and break it over your knee.
12:01 am on December 8th, 2009
His house tells the story of his greed (tight a$$), his vanity and his gluttony.
It’s cheap, and that’s what you get when you’re paying with dirty cash. The sickening wide mortar joints are throughout because mortar is cheaper than building materials.
It has a lot of funky bathrooms, because a desire feel clean after all the dirt he was doing. It has no kitchen, because his gluttony required public exposure and eating at home may have fed his gluttony but not his vanity.
The Seal of the State of New Mexico in the same room where he would (supposedly) engage in sexual acts… then fall asleep under its protection.
What are the 7 deadly sins again? Extravagance: An extravagant mess. Gluttony: I already touched on that one. Greed, Sloth/Neglect, Wrath, Envy, Pride (Vanity)…
Boy! When Manny felt like he was going to hell, that guilt dragged him completely through the mud!!! Maybe that’s why there’s so much MUD in the walls?
Wow…Taking that Psychology class sure does work!
12:02 am on December 8th, 2009
What a piece of junk, the county needs to condem and demo. County Should verify building codes etc.. This place is SubStandard.
2:00 am on December 8th, 2009
wow, this is weird. It would be so interesting to get an inside from the construction crew. Clearly, Manny did not take out the scaffold and work on this ‘masterpiece.’ Perhaps a builder could explain how the plan to build this place played out. Did he think up a new design for every room? Why no kitchen? You need a kitchen even for a party house, right?
11:34 am on December 8th, 2009
I am more sick of one of Manny’s ugly, vicious low rent relatives than of anything he could ever do.
12:28 pm on December 8th, 2009
It is a grotesque and gaudy sample of what Manny saw himself as. The king of the South Valley. But why build a home that would be beautiful and a piece of art, rather build a home that is a siplay of what his whole life was. This is truly a piece of art and trust me that is not a compliment, it is a very bad representation of art at that. It shows many of the guilts that he felt as he built it, there is no true design to this home and it does show mannys “cheap” tendencies. Why build something better than your people around rather build larger than what your neighbor has. this is the ideals that an old school politician has, bigger and better is what makes you better than everyone else. This house reminds me of a house not of happiness but of evil. just watching the video you can see the drugs through out and the horrible sex acts that were commited here along with the many illegal acts of those to pass thru those doors. I agree with the post of Chris Trujillo tear the sucker down and show how the mighty have fallen… manny is gone lets take the signs of his corruption and evil deeds with him!
9:53 am on December 9th, 2009
Two words: Term Limits!
Max
5:12 pm on December 9th, 2009
Since Manny isn’t going to be home for a while he might consider opening up his place as a tourist attraction – like the Hearst Castle and Winchester house (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House) in California.
1:14 pm on December 14th, 2009
Maybe the Zachary castle would make a bizzare tourist attraction but i wouldnt compare Manny’s attrocity to the winchester castle. Mannys dump looks like it was put together by the same druggies that worked for him and were part of …….I would be ashamed to display this dump to tourists, its bad enough the south valley looks like it does. Maybe the mayor of the Valle De Atrisco can fix that…. err, he wont have any money to sustain the community much less enforce bulding codes. Nevermind.
12:01 am on December 16th, 2009
I certainly did not believe that anyone would build a vomitorium in this day and age…especially one so enormous…but I suppose by the flab on Manny after living “high off the hog,” and all his flabby cronies, the need was there.
Feel really sorry for the south valley residents who had to see that “house of crap” on a regular basis…but I’m glad it wasn’t built in the foothills are of the N.E. heights!!!
3:21 am on December 18th, 2009
Wow what if the court house had been made entirely out of recycled materials like his house? I think they call this type of architecture an earthship. I bet it cost $10,000 to construct. I wonder if it would have qualified for Obamas taxex refunds? I wish it had been in Tijeras pass so that the State of New Mexico could have opened a rattle snake museum where Manny and Bill Richardson could be put on Display for elementry school kids to gauk at on field trips. Then we could add another 3 “new good jobs” Bill Richardson brought to our state. Oh even better we could get a bunch of Hollywood has beens to make public service endorsements for the New Rattle Snake Museum and then we could all hope rich east coast people would see our state as cultured enough to move here and take over every public sector and tell all these poor people how to preserve nature and resources. And then we can all build earthships and wait for king Obama to fix the whole world. Oh I hope I hope!!!
9:14 pm on December 20th, 2009
Jim,
Good work getting in. Hope they do not fire the old watchman. He was proud to show it.
The house is touching in a way. Manny gave some employment to some local plasterers, masons and traditional NM building crafts. If only there had been a designer! It makes an intersting take on NM/Southwest vernacular, with one from each shelf.
I agree with Samuel’s comment re: Tanoan. Those folks also build disgusting wasteful monuments to themselves. Manny ‘s transgressions should be condemned and this house is obscene, but no more so than most of the rest of the greedy dominant classes. Just a South Valley version.
We need citizen politicians not career politicians. Citizen pols produced our Constitution. Two, maybe 3 terms is enough for everyone. After that people get too big a head.