In his autobiography, Ambassador Ortiz, Lessons from a Life of Service (University of New Mexico Press, 2005), Frank also remembered his days as a child at Rancho Pancho. He wrote "The most wonderful part of my life as a kid was my time on the family ranch in the forest above Chupadero. Every year in May we would move to this, the most wonderful place in the world. We had a large house made of stone, that's still standing. It was a dream place. At first, it had no heating or lights. We had to use candles and lamps before we finaly got electricity. It was paradise. I grew up climbing mountains there and reveling in a nature wonderland. We planted about 200 fruit trees at the ranch and we had a cow that provided us with milk. We made our own cheese and butter and put up jams and jellies from the apricot trees. I had a horse named Frenchy. It was a wonderful place for us. It also was good for my parents because during the day, while they were in town working, we were out there running wild, with minimum need for supervision. On the weekends, my parents would invite their friends for lunch. It was my job to kill and pluck the chickens for the Sunday meal. I dispatched the chickens with an axes.... While my mother and father both worked in town, Antonia, a woman from the village, cooked and watched out for us. She was too heavy to catch us when we ran from her after being naughty. Antonia's brother Roque was our handyman at the ranch. Antonia made wonderful pies and other delights. Almost every night for dinner she would make Spanish rice, and we would often have beans and posole. We made our own flour tortillas and every Sunday we enjoyed a chicken dinner with guests, after the whole family had gone to mass at Saint Francis Cathedral." (p. 16).