Manuel Ruben Miera Sr

After a life of  countless adventures, close brushes with death and 30 years of heroic  battles with cancer, a brain tumor and other illnesses, Korean veteran and photojournalist Manuel Ruben Miera, Sr, left mortality quickly and quietly on November 2, 2021.

Manuel was born 24 March 1934, in Taos, N.M., the 3rd child of Victor Miera and Marina Trujillo.  He attended Taos schools until his family moved to Utah where he graduated from Davis High School.

During the Korean conflict, he served in the US Army in Alaska  as a cartographer tracking Soviet movements.  At Brigham Young University, he studied  botany and history and developed a desire to be a professional  photographer.  While there, he met and married his wife, Arlene Donaldson.

As an award-winning photojournalist for the Las Cruces Sun News and the Tucson Daily Citizen, Manuel covered Presidential visits to Mexico, the filming of the movie “Hang Ém High,” the tragic Tucson 1970 Pioneer Hotel fire, riots, and various celebrities including his very favorite actor, John Wayne.  His tight and concentrated focusing often put him in danger.  Once during a rodeo bull riding event,  he looked up to see a bull charging him.  (His leap  over a  fence to safety  earned a him standing ovation that amused him to his last days.)

Manuel was proud of his Native and Hispanic heritage and loved to share stories of herding cattle, hauling wood up the trail from the Rio Grande,  memories of  his father dancing with their Pueblo neighbors, his grandmother exchanging goods and herbs  with her Taos Pueblo friends, and his cousins.

 But most of all he loved his family. He supported his wife, children and grandchildren in their activities and  recited their achievements in careers,  sports, school, service to anyone who would listen. He loved his family so much that when his photo business failed, he mucked cow stalls,  landscaped, drove cars—all  while an  undiagnosed brain tumor grew,  damaging his eyesight and general health.  Finally diagnosed in 1999 and after 2 surgeries which failed to remove the mass, he continued working for several years. (The tumor was finally removed in 2009 which greatly improved the quality of his life.)

Manuel loved too many people to list by name and deeply appreciated the kindly doctors, nurses  caretakers, bus drivers, friends, neighbors and strangers who helped him through the years.

A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,  Manuel loved our Savior and  desired to serve a full-time mission for Him, but was thwarted by war, cancer and other illnesses. 

But he daily strived  to be kind, serve others, repent and forgive. And laugh.  He believed in Christ and that there is life after death and that his family is forever, a blessing from temple covenants.

We thank you, dear husband, Pops, and Grandpa, for your loving example and miss you deeply.

Manuel is survived by his wife Arlene,  his siblings Virginia Mackey and Sam (Mary) Miera; his children Manuel (Lee Ann) Miera, David (Sherae) Miera, Michelle (Nathan) Hunt, and Verma (Hugh) Clark; his grandchildren, Chris, Holli, Ben, Michael, Aaron, , David B. (Kelsie),  Joseph, Jacob (Coraima), Sarah, Marina, Caleb (Bethanie), Ruben, Bethany, James,  Mariana, and Anthony; and great-grandchildren Jacob and Zion.

Services will be held at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 300 Loma Colorado Blvd., NE, Rio Rancho, NM on Wednesday November 24 at 11:00 a.m.

The family would be honored if you remember Manuel by being kind to someone  or forgiving  another.