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Phil San Fillippo
Phil San Filippo, the Executive Director at the Las Cruces Convention and Visitors Bureau, has spent most of his professional life in the tourism industry. He has worked for two tour operators, a Las Vegas Hotel and the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism.

Originally from Newark, N.J., San Filippo spent more than 25 years in Florida before settling down in Las Cruces with wife Marsha Troy San Filippo. They have two sons, both working toward their degrees in higher education.

1. Red or green? Without a doubt, green all the way.

2. How long have you lived in Las Cruces? 15 months.

3. What is your hometown? Newark, N.J.

4. What was the first car you owned? Ford Fairlane 500

5. What's your favorite restaurant in the area? Wherever I'm eating at the time.

6. What do you have on your iPod right now? My music taste is a bit eclectic. Right now, my iPod includes The National, Muse, Bruno Mars, Adele, Led Zeppelin, Gotye, Little Texas, Bri Bagwell, Bruce Springsteen, Andrea Bocelli and the soundtracks of The Book of Mormon and Jersey Boys.

7. What's the best thing about Las Cruces? The people. It is a very friendly city.

8. What's the worst thing about Las Cruces? Not having a Whole Foods.

9. What's your favorite movie? Favorite book or author? "The Godfather" and Richard North Patterson.

10. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? I have the best of all worlds. I live here in Las Cruces and still have a place in Florida.

11. If you could time-travel to any place or time in history, where would you go? I would travel into the future. Although there are so many events in the past that would be fun to experience, I believe the best days are still ahead.

12. What super power would you like to have? It would be fun to turn invisible when you want to.

13. What's your favorite sports team? Miami Heat.

14. If you won the lottery, what would you do? I would rent a villa in Tuscany for a month and fine-tune my culinary skills, give to charity and travel. 15. What do you do with your free time? Read, listen to music, bicycle, scuba dive, enjoy family.

16. Do you have any pets? We have two rescue dogs. Jazz is a rescue from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Grady was rescued here at the Doña Ana County shelter.

17. If you could magically add one thing to Las Cruces, what would it be? Whole Foods.

18. Who is your celebrity crush? Catherine Zeta Jones.

19. Where do you go to relax? One, home. Two, the Cayman Islands.

21. What material possession or object do you own that you treasure? A coin that was found from a shipwreck off of the coast of the United Kingdom and an autographed album by Les Paul.

22. What's your favorite annual event in Las Cruces/Mesilla? The Las Cruces Country Music Festival.

23. What was your nearest brush with fame? I was recruited to go to work for the William Morris Agency at one time and I turned down the job.

24. What do you consider your greatest achievement? My two sons, but they did all the work. I was just there for the ride.

25. What's one thing people would be surprised to know about you? I'm an OK drummer, but a decent Spoons player.

This week's Meet Your Neighbor was compiled by Jocelyn Apodaca. If you have an idea for a person to feature in Meet Your Neighbor, contact Jocelyn Apodaca at or 575-541-5444.