Rafael Malanga

Ralph and I worked together for many years at the public defenders office in Tucson where we became good friends. He was a vigorous and fearless defender of each of his clients and a wonderfully creative defense lawyer with a true stage presence in front of a jury. On occasion his zealous representation got under the skin of a judge and he was punished with a contempt citation. Ralph and Anna were great admirers of the pottery made in the small home studios of the Chihuahuan village of Mata Ortiz. Originally it was this love of the pottery that inspired Ralph to seek a house in Mata Ortiz. When we saw that house for the first time, he with Anna and me with my wife Maddalena, it was truly a wreck and looked unsalvageable, but Ralph had a dream and gradually over the years he made that house into his own private refuge. Ralph expanded my horizons and I will always be thankful that he was in my life because of that and for many other reasons.