November 23 – Too modest to take credit for it, Martha Rotunno was an icon.
Rotunno, 92, died Oct. 31 at her home, surrounded by loving family, amid an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Santa Feans may remember Rotunno as a waitress at Tia Sophia’s, where she worked for more than twenty years—and, according to some accounts, where she coined the now legendary term “Christmas” to refer to the combination of red and green chile.
When she retired in 1996, her retirement party was attended by then-Mayor Debbie Jaramillo, who named September 5 Martha Rotunno Day, and City Council Member Peso Chavez, who gave a speech honoring her service.
“She knew how to live,” said Gilda Montaño, one of Rotunno’s four surviving daughters.
“She didn’t like to see anyone suffer,” Montaño said. “So whether it was buying groceries, borrowing money, inviting us to spend the holidays with us – whatever it was – she was just there. That’s the person she was.”
Even in retirement, she continued to serve the community as a volunteer at Bienvenidos Outreach, where she served food to the homeless, and at Keep Santa Fe Beautiful, where she volunteered regularly and often brought her famous sugar cookies for fellow volunteers. Her work earned her Keep Santa Fe Beautiful’s Individual of the Year award in 2007.
“I told people I wasn’t from here, and they looked at me funny and said, ‘Oh yeah, you are.’ I may not have been born and raised here, but Santa Fe is my home and I believe it is important to keep my home clean and beautiful,” she told The New Mexican at the time.
Rotunno grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, where her family emigrated from Mexico during the Great Depression. There she worked in her family’s supermarket.
“It was a very close-knit community,” Montaño said. “Her father was also very giving. He sent many people to school and helped them in every way he could. So I think she learned a lot from him there.”
Growing up near Lake Michigan also gave Rotunno her love of the beach and the sun — a love she never lost, her daughter said.
While in Michigan, she also met husband Robert Rotunno, the delivery man who brought soda to the store – and a native Santa Fean, who took Martha to the City Different in 1959. Robert was the father of Martha’s seven children, including Gilda and sisters Nancy, Lorraine and Cindy – who survive Martha – but the couple separated decades ago, with Martha finding a new connection in longtime companion Joe Medina.
When Rotunno moved to Santa Fe, Rotunno immediately immersed himself in the community, Gilda Montaño said, starting with the church.
A devout Catholic, Rotunno was also a valued member and Eucharist minister for her local parish, San Isidro, where she was a member of the altar society. For her service to the church and her charitable events, the church kitchen was named after Martha, and she became the first parishioner to receive the St. Francis Award from former Archbishop Michael Sheehan, in honor of her dedicated service to the church.
“She depended on God for a lot of things,” Montaño said. “Her faith was her strength, and it got her through a lot.”
Rotunno played an active role in her children’s lives, serving as president of the PTA and helping organize and fundraise for the local Special Olympics in which daughter Nancy, who has Down syndrome, participated.
“I grew up at Tia’s and saw her waiting tables,” Montaño recalls. “And she never wanted to take credit for it, but she really came up with Christmas chilies.”
Rotunno didn’t start her restaurant career at Tia Sophia’s. She started as a server at The Pantry on Cerillos shortly after moving to Santa Fe, before moving to a number of now-closed businesses: La Cocina on Cerillos, now Taco Bell; the Estrada Room on Cordova Road, now the New Baking Company; and the Green Onion on St. Michael’s Drive, now Sunrise Family Restaurant.
In 1975, she started at Tia Sophia’s, 210 W San Francisco St., where she continued to work for 21 years.
“People loved her,” said Carl Schoepke, who said Rotunno trained him. “People would say, ‘We want to take a picture with her!’ She had a lot of regulars.”
In keeping with Martha’s pattern of serving her own sweets, Schoepke remembered her as being loved by the restaurant staff for her homemade lime margaritas.
“She was one of my parents’ original employees,” said Nick Maryol, owner of Tia Sophia’s. “She just became synonymous with the restaurant.”
Maryol also weighed in on the controversy surrounding Chile.
“People were agonizing and worrying about whether they were going to get red or green – they said ‘get them both,’” Maryol said. “She used the phrase ‘Christmas’ because it was red and green and the rest was history. And now it’s iconic. She was a classic.”
