Questa Creative Council

Kids Express

Alberta — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 19:23:27 +0000

A first-ever, five-day art exhibit featuring young local artists will be held at the Questa Youth Center, April 16–20.

The event is hosted by a collaborative team from Questa Creative Council (QCC), Harwood Museum of Art, LEAP, Village of Questa, Vida del Norte Afterschool Program, and local schools (Alta Vista Elementary & Intermediate School, Roots & Wings Community School, and Red River Valley Charter School).

A reception for the artists, their families, and the community will take place Thursday, April 16, from 4:30 to 6:30 pm. The show offers open hours Friday and Saturday, April 17–18, from 12 to 6 pm, and will be on view for Sunday and Monday happenings.

“Supporting youth artistic expression and bringing together students and teachers across programs is what this show is all about,” says coordinator Claire Coté, who is also a QCC board member and LEAP director. As a Harwood Teaching Artist she leads a weekly art project at Vida del Norte’s After School Program at Questa’s Youth Center.

Art teacher Maya McDonald adds, “Alta Vista is excited to be part of an event that showcases the excellence and expression of our students!”
“We at the Harwood Museum of Art believe in the transformative power of arts experiences. We’re grateful to Claire Coté for leading this.”

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Ceramic Café

Dan Kuehn — Sat, 21 Oct 2023 16:12:15 +0000

Clay | Tools | Glazes | Inspiration | Community

The 2026 session will run April 9th-May 28th, 2026, Thursdays, 5-9pm. All are welcome to attend! Although kids under age 12 must be accompanied by an adult. No previous experience necessary, tools and clay are provided (see below if you plan a volume of work).

We meet at the Questa Youth & Family Center’s Art Room, next to the Questa Library, at 10 Municipal Park Drive. Ceramic Cafe is an “open studio” format, so you may come and go within the announced hours as you please. You can be self-guided, or, get help from host and expert ceramicist, Carole Merriman.

If you are a returning clay-player, have been in the Cafe before and want to make a volume of pieces, we ask that you pay for your own bag of clay. Glazing and advice are still free!

For more information you may leave a message for Carole at (575) 586-5658 or email: info@questacreative.org

Donations for provisions appreciated

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Hannah McKeand

Dan Kuehn — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 21:12:47 +0000

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Mary F. Miller

Dan Kuehn — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 17:01:16 +0000

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#8 Mining

Alberta — Fri, 24 May 2024 20:22:46 +0000

Sign #8 Text:

Mining in and around Questa dates back to the 1890s, when gold ore was the goal. World War I created a market for the rare mineral molybdenum: a lighter weight replacement for tungsten used for hardening steel. The first local molybdenum claims were staked in 1914. By the 1950s, fifty tons of ore per day were being extracted through over 50 miles of tunnels in Questa.

The mine became one of the largest private employers in Taos County, however, its change to open-pit mining in 1965 led to deforestation and pollution. Under new ownership by Chevron, the Questa Mine permanently closed in 2014.

It is an EPA Superfund Cleanup Site. Chevron has been instrumental in solar-energy installations that allow our village to now be 100 percent solar powered during daylight hours. Find an in-depth history of the mine at QuestaTrail.org.

A complex story

Mining in Questa is not a simple issue. On the one hand, the mine provided significant economic opportunities for local residents. At one time it employed 750 workers and was the largest private employer in Taos County. The mine’s owners funded infrastructure in the village, such as a local park, streetlights, and the new solar array. On the other hand, the mine polluted the Red River and local watershed and posed potential health risks, both to employees through the dangers of daily mining operations, and to local residents through exposure to mine-related pollution of local water, air, and land.

Environmental and economic challenges continue. Questa’s mine produced Molybdenum, a hardening agent for steel.

Through the simple acts of owning a car, cooking with cast iron, or digging in a garden with gardening tools, one is likely reaping the benefits of molybdenum. Most lifestyles inherently create a demand for this resource.

Historic mining in Questa

The hills of northern New Mexico saw much hard-rock prospecting in the 1800s. While area gold mines were abandoned by 1900, seams of molybdenum above the Red River were mined in the tunnels and mills that were left behind.

Official Chevron Questa Mines history reports that residents were using this trace mineral for a primitive form of shoe polish. The first claims for mining molybdenum were staked in the Questa area in 1914 and equaled an area of 200 acres. It is unclear if a commercial market existed then for molybdenum, though tunneling a twisting mile underground, hand-drilling, and hauling ore by mule seems like a lot of trouble for shoe polish, so recorded history seems to be incomplete.

Why was Molybdenum of value?

Evidence has shown molybdenum’s use as an alloy in the production of Japanese Samurai swords dating back to the 14^th century. Swedish scientist Carl Wilhelm Scheele studied this chemical element in the late 1700s, though it wasn’t until the late 1800s that extraction of large quantities became practical, after which interest increased in Europe and experiments demonstrated that molybdenum could replace tungsten in many steel alloys. A French company, Schneider and Co., was the first to market molybdenum use in production of armor plates. Demand for alloy steels were high during World War I and supplies of tungsten were limited, therefore research and development of this substitute ore increased. Another benefit: molybdenum weighs half as much as tungsten, thus its end products were easier to fabricate and transport.

The growth of Questa’s mine

Questa’s mining claims were acquired by Molycorp in 1921. Additional property was bought, soon expanding the mine from 200 acres to 14,300 acres. Molybdenum, known chemically as Mos2–not as black as charcoal and a bit softer than pencil lead–was even at that time hand-drilled and hauled by mules. Even this labor-intensive method eventually produced 50 tons of ore per day, with 50 miles of tunnels excavated by the mid-1950s, at which time the seam began to run out.

At a moment when the mine could have been abandoned, engineers found large near-surface reserves of ore, and in the late 1950-60s, Molycorp invested $40-million to transition to a thoroughly-mechanized open-pit mine. New Mexico Governor Jack M. Campbell dedicated this new operation in 1966, noting an economic transition in the U.S. from “meeting human needs to meeting human wants.” The booming economy of the 1960s produced many jobs for the area, and, much alloy for a multitude of products. Molycorp built one of North America’s first flotation concentrating plants, powered by the waters of the Red River. These famous trout waters flowed just below the mine. The mine had its own diesel-powered electric-generating station on site.

Soon, the mine was producing 10 million pounds of pure molybdenum concentrate per day. Blasters loosened the mountainside with large, controlled explosions, then diesel-electric trucks the size of 1-storey buildings dug into the loosened ore, with buckets holding 10 cubic yards, moving the ore to the milling area. Mechanical crushers broke the rock in stages, from 8” chunks, to 2-3” pieces, down to ½ – ¾ inches before feeding into liquid-filled ball mills for further crushing, then on to the flotation stage where the slurry was mixed with oil-based re-agents (closely guarded formulas) that created air bubbles to carry the ore to the tanks’ surfaces where it overflowed into additional vats. This process was repeated until a more concentrated pulp finally entered the dryer. Pure molybdenum powder emerged with all waste removed.

In 1977, Molycorp was bought by the major earth-resources company; Union Oil Co. of California (later named Unocal). A new higher-grade ore body was discovered much deeper in the mountain, and a ten-year, $250-million project transitioned the mine to go underground again.

The new underground construction began with two 1,300-foot-deep shafts; one a ventilation shaft to deliver air and a slurry of concrete, and the second 24 feet in diameter, had an advanced hoist system that lowered miners to the mine floor in a 2-minute-long descent. A third access into the mine was a 1 ½-mile tunnel drilled to reach under the main ore body. This contained a conveyer belt that delivered the ore to the surface at a rate of 12,000 tons per hour. At its peak, the mine operated 24 hours/day, 7 days/ week, all year long. Questa’s mine accounted for 10% of worldwide production and 15% of U.S. consumption for a time.

More than 10 miles of tunnel on two levels fed a gravity-block caving method of loosened ore falling in stages to the haulage level where it was transported by railroad cars to the conveyor belt. Traffic was directed from a control room on the surface. Above ground, the milling and flotation steps continued as before. The dry concentrate was transported in 8,000-pound steel containers by truck to Alamosa, Colorado, where it was then transported by rail to Pennsylvania for further processing.

What are molybdenum’s uses today?

Most molybdenum is used as a hardening agent in the steel industry. It is also used in cast-iron engine blocks, in energy pipelines, offshore oil platforms, and medical equipment, as well as for pigments, lubricants, and petroleum catalysts. Highly heat resistant, molybdenum is vital in the space industry to assure safe re-entry of spacecraft to the Earth’s atmosphere.

Problems downstream

While successive owners of the molybdenum mine in Questa promised to re-vegetate the mountainside as work was performed, and to design buildings and structures that blended into our beautiful scenery, and promised to return waters to the Red River in the pristine state, this proved problematic.

Mining of 18,000 tons of ore per day produced only 30 tons of molybdenum concentrate. 17,970 tons of waste remained each day. This liquid waste with its oil-based chemical re-agents filled surface pools on site where steps were taken to remove sediments and the remaining liquid was drained into rubber-lined 10” pipes that ran along State Highway 38 for 9 miles to tailings ponds southwest of the village of Questa. There the liquid dried and stabilizers were sprayed to reduce dust from drifting into the village. Rain and snowfall filled the ponds routinely and the ponds dried again plus groundwater was vulnerable to contaminated seepage.

The tailings pipeline crossed the Red River in several places and crossed farm land and residential property in Questa, with over 100 ruptures on record. Toxic tailings deposits, the result of pipeline breaks, have reportedly led to contaminated wells and health issues in a population that, for generations, had depended on the mine for most of its employment.

Amigos Bravos, a water conservation organization dedicated to protecting the waters of New Mexico, led the effort to hold the mine owners accountable. They worked with federal and state regulatory agencies, individuals, and community organizations to promote cleanup measures and to restore a healthy ecology to the Red River watershed.

Now a Superfund site

The molybdenum mine in Questa was placed on the National Priorities List (Superfund) by the Environmental Protection Agency in May 2000. It was declared a Superfund Cleanup Site in 2009.

The mine site’s waste rock dumps had been left un-reclaimed when the open pit operations ceased. Large quantities of heavy metals, dissolved when the rock was exposed to rain and snow, had contaminated both surface and groundwater below the mine. The Red River was reported to be technically dead for a distance of 8 miles until its confluence with the Rio Grande just south of the tailings ponds. The New Mexico Environment Department and other federal and state organization had documented the degraded state of the river for many years. The mine had been cited for pollution that resulted from broken tailings pipes many times.

Chevron inherited the mine in 2005 after a merger with Unocal, which already owned Molycorp, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The mine continued to function until June 1, 2014, when its employees were called together upon arriving for work and told the mine was closed forever as of that day. This proved catastrophic economically for many families of Questa.

Remediation and solar power

Chevron has continued to provide remediation, beginning with building a first-of-its-kind water treatment plant onsite to prevent further runoff or seepage of contaminants. They drained, dredged, lined, and landscaped the popular Eagle Rock Lake east of the village on the banks of the Red River. Groundwater in Questa, and the waters of the Red River are now reportedly clean. In 2016, the Justice Department, EPA, and the State of New Mexico announced a cleanup settlement of $143 million.

While much remediation work is yet to be completed, many eyes are on the project. Chevron Questa Mines has given many thousands of dollars of redevelopment funds to Questa. These are controlled by an economic development board, not by the governing body of the village. Chevron has also led the efforts to look toward a brighter and cleaner future in northern New Mexico, building a 20-acre solar farm adjacent to their obsolete tailings ponds where contaminated soil and water has been removed. This is a 1-megawatt concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) solar facility with about 175 solar panels. It provides enough power for Questa to live off-the-grid during daylight hours.

From a history of agriculture, mainly alfalfa, to generations working in an extractive industry, Questa has in many ways come full circle. It has returned to a lighter footprint on the land and to honoring a culture of resiliency in the face of hardship. This rugged, remote, and beautiful village is re-embracing the strength of its multicultural heritage and becoming a destination for lovers of the outdoors, from anglers to hikers, from artists to equestrians.

The mine is part of the cultural heritage of this area. Its new collaborative initiatives may shape Questa’s story for an ecologically brighter and economically more stable future for coming generations.

Resources:

Chevron Questa Mine, https://www.chevron.com/stories/life-after-mining

https://www.chevron.com/stories/solar

Amigos Bravos, https://amigosbravos.org/chevron-questa-mine they approved this text & use of link

Environmental Protection Agency, https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.Cleanup&id=0600806#bkground

International Molybdenum Association, http://www.imoa.info/molybdenum/molybdenum-history.php

DVD compilation of the mine’s history, supplied by Chevron Questa Mines; ‘Questa Mine, a History in Film’

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#7 Almagre

Alberta — Fri, 24 May 2024 20:16:18 +0000

Sign #7 Text:

Between Questa and Red River there are over 20 naturally occurring iron and clay-rich hydrothermal scars. These occur along the mountains’ steepest faces. This scar is locally referred to as Almagre, Spanish for “red ocher,” a mineral pigment. The scars appear yellow from a distance, but pockets of red ocher wash into the river during rainstorms. The water’s reddish hue during these times may have given the Red River its name.

Taos Pueblo people continue their centuries-old tradition of riding horseback through the mountains to Almagre every summer to gather clay and pigment. Questa’s Red Clay Trail segment of the Kiowa Trail took its name from this practice.

Taos Pueblo’s cultural easement allows for a unique use of our public lands and honors the continuation of this tradition. Read more on the Arabic roots of Southwest words, and about this geology at QuestaTrail.org.

You might think the scars are signs of mining, but they’re not!

The natural hydrothermal scars date back to interglacial periods and are evidence of abundant surface water speeding the dissolution of pyrite, and freeze/thaw cycles destabilizing the rock of this mineral-rich mountain.

Almagre is a word with Arabic roots dating to Moorish Spain, meaning red ochre. Though the scars are more yellow than red, it is the red color that is prized for paint, and that rinses out of the rock to color the river.

Our history is a living history. Every Questeño knows the Tewa of Taos Pueblo ride horseback through the mountains to Almagre each summer. The mineral it offers has sacred relevance still. A Cultural Easement with the Forest Service allows for this unbroken tradition.

Language, like a time capsule

The remote Rio Grande Valley, in the relatively remote southwest–and in a historically remote continent–preserved a version of Spanish that most Spaniards in Spain today would not recognize. Taos historian and linguist Larry Torres likens this to a British person returning to England in the current day, but speaking Chaucer’s English.

This region’s isolation built strong do-it-yourself practices of crafts, art, religion, and more. Our rural history was of storytelling, not reading. With a general lack of literary culture, influence of the spoken word had more impact than the evolving and more formal language-use residents would have encountered over time in books .

The first Spanish inhabitants of New Mexico and southern Colorado spoke 16th-century versions of Castilian, and to a lesser extent Andalusian, Galician, and Portuguese dialects. And these became represented by different chronological stages of speech. Constant immigration to the Americas continued from Spain into the mid-1800s.

Also interesting is the fact that Castilian was already a very conservative language, with less of the natural alterations and growth that was seen in other European languages with Roman roots. Spain was more geographically isolated in its Iberian Peninsula location, with less influence from the neighboring dialects of Europe, or its cultural influences.

One linguistic influence that much of the Iberian Peninsula did experience, however, was as a result of its 500 years under Arabic rule. Spanish immigration to the Americas began very soon after Arabic control was pushed back into North Africa. Many words with Arabic origin were still in common use, and remain so today in northern New Mexico–words such as acequia and almagre, as noted on the Questa History Trail.

The Nahuatl language of the Aztecs was the most prominent language that immigrants encountered in the Americas. Many words of these natives of Mexico made their way into common usage as settlers moved north into the Rio Grande Valley. Less commonly used are words from Navajo, Ute or Comanche languages, although some prominent words are still in use today. Each autumn, Questa has a harvest-time festival with its roots in the trade-fair tradition of the region. This is called a cambalache; a word that is Comanche in origin.

By the mid-1800s, residents of New Mexico had also been in contact with a growing number of English speakers, and this impacted the language and vocabulary of the area. As with other influences, there is less structural change from the archaic Castilian roots, than simple additions of words for which there was or is not a Spanish equivalent.

After centuries of archaic Spanish, with its additions of Arabic, then its inclusion of Nahuatl, and the occasional word from the Plains, Questa’s language is evolving.

Would you like to record the stories of your elders for our oral-history cache? Contact us at QuestaStories.org. Questa has a unique culture to preserve and history to share.

^{And for the Geologists among you:}

⁴⁰AR/³⁹AR AGE AND GEOMORPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF HYDROTHERMAL ALTERATION SCARS IN THE RED RIVER VALLEY, NEW MEXICO

Over twenty hydrothermal alteration scars occur in two bands of elevation (3200 – 2900 and 2800 – 2600 m amsl) along the Red River Valley between the towns of Red River and Questa in northern New Mexico. These elevations correspond to hanging valleys on the north facing slopes and sharp changes of relief on the margins of the Red River Valley. Scars are the locus of sporadic mass movements and contribute to water quality degradation of the Red River.

The amphitheater-like scars form over highly fractured areas of extensive quartz-sericite-pyrite ± kaolinite-alunite alteration. Alunite from the Hottentot scar yielded a ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age of 24.96 ± 0.16 Ma, slightly older than mineralization at the Questa molybdenum deposit. The presence of alunite suggests that hydrothermal alteration of at least this scar is different from that associated with molybdenum mineralization at the Questa Molybdenum mine. This is also reflected in different d³⁴S_CDT pyrite between the deposit (0.0 %_o) and scars (-1.7 to -11 %_o).

Development of the alteration scars on the landscape began at least 1.85 Ma based on ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages of jarosite from ferricrete at high elevation on the margin of the Goat Hill scar. Ferricretes at the base of the lowest elevation scars yield ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar maximum ages as young as 0.34 ± 0.16 Ma. Five other ages within this range mark periods of increased erosion in the Red River Valley. The spectrum of seven ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages yielded from different scars generally coincides with geomorphic surface ages established by other workers. These geomorphic and radiometric ages are best correlated to interglacial periods, during which times abundant surface water probably enhanced the oxidation of the pyrite in their host rocks.

The above document is available online, without authorship-
Resources cited:
¹LUETH, V.W.,¹PETERS, L., ²CAMPBELL, A.R., ¹DONAHUE, K. and ¹MCLEMORE, V.T., AND ³WALKER, B.M.
¹NMBGMR, New Mexico Tech, Socorro, NM 87801, vwlueth@nmt.edu

²Earth & Environmental Science, New Mexico Tech, Socorro, NM 87801
3Molycorp, P.O. Box 469, Questa, NM 87556

Resources re. language:

https://archive.org/stream/spanishlanguagei00espirich/spanishlanguagei00espirich_djvu.txt

Dictionary of Spanish Words From the Moorish Era, by Juan Alvarado
https://issuu.com/boricuababe723/docs/dictionary_of_spanish_words_from_th

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#6 El Oratorio

Alberta — Fri, 24 May 2024 20:10:29 +0000

Sign #6 Text:

Across the street at the back of the cemetery is an old adobe structure called an oratorio. Flavio Cisneros, a retired local history teacher, recalls, “I remember my grandmother telling me how a grieving family would hold a wake for the dead at their home, and then they brought the body to the oratorio until it could be buried.”

Flavio’s maternal grandparents passed away during the influenza outbreak of 1918 and are buried in this cemetery.

Questa experienced a hundred years of settlement by very faithful families prior to hosting a resident priest. Like many villages in the rural southwest, the Hermanos Pentientes played an important role in religious ceremonies. Local memories tell us that until the mid-1900s, it was assumed all men in Questa were Hermanos, joining the brotherhood at age 14. Learn about the Penitentes and read more memories at QuestaTrail.org and QuestaStories.org.

What is an oratorio?

Only one oratorio existed in Questa, in the cemetery across the road from the historic church. The oratorio would have been used as long as the cemetery was active. It is difficult to read the earliest dates on the headstones, but this site was probably in use from the 1800s. Being outside the old plaza walls (no longer visible), this was located almost as close as it could have been, and may date to the earliest stable times of settlement in Questa – and stability did not come until the U.S. Cavalry arrived in the mid-1800s.

The cemetery holds remains of some who fell during the great influenza outbreak of 1918, and this seems to be when the cemetery filled and the new one across what is now State Highway 522 was begun.

According to oral histories (Flavio Cisneros) a family would hold the wake for the dead at their home, outside if weather and season permitted, then bring the body to the oratorio. The body was laid out on an adobe table and was only held here awaiting internment (while the grave was being prepared and the funeral organized) – probably not even overnight.

The oratorio was used by all residents, though all residents in Questa may not have been of the Catholic faith. An itinerant priest from Taos made the rounds of small parishes when the weather allowed, but without a resident priest always available, the Hermanos Penitentes played an important role. Local memories tell us that until the mid-1900s, it was assumed that all men in Questa were Hermanos. They joined the brotherhood at the age of 14.

Questa experienced a hundred years of settlement by very faithful families prior to the presence of a resident priest. Like many villages in the rural southwest, this was a classic situation where the practices of the Penitentes would have thrived.

While all residents could have utilized the oratorio, only the Hermanos worshiped in the local moradas, small and often hard-to-find or hard-to-identify adobe structures. There were three moradas within the village of Questa as it is today: one in the south end of the village off Lower Embargo Road, one to the east near the historic (abandoned) La Cienega school, and the third in Llano. The only surviving morada close by now is in Cerro.

A local Questeno recalls his mother telling that when she was a young girl, she accompanied a neighbor woman to the llano morada to do periodic upkeep; smoothing the mud floors, for example. She remembered floors that were caked with blood, indicating that self-flagellation did occur here. Many people see this as extreme, while practitioners who modeled themselves on the pure practices of Jesus, see this as a necessary step toward gaining forgiveness for their very human sins.

Read more about the history of the Penitentes, and their practices below on this page!

Read an informative article from Manitos about Questa Creative Council’s Northern New Mexico Music; Past and Present project and its focus on the music of the Penitentes HERE, and watch a Facebook Live concert HERE. On May 21, 2021, musician Chris Arellano led this remote event filmed in the historic Costilla Plaza, sharing stories, history and playing the music of the Hermanos.

In contrast to historic conflict between Penitentes and the Catholic Church, the two practices co-exist today, and plans are being made to restore this oratorio and cemetery property in Questa.

A Brief History of the Penitentes

The Penitente Brotherhood, Los Hermanos Penitentes, has had great influence on the culture of rural northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Their presence continues to provide a service within communities, taking care of those in need, and offering comfort to those in mourning.

The practices of Los Hermanos may precede the life of St. Francis of Assisi whose philosophy, many believe, forms the basis of a Penitente lifestyle of deep devotion and simplicity; of living as Jesus lived.

Practices of self-inflicted pain that include lashing oneself until bleeding, carving into the skin during initiation ceremonies, and of walking a pilgrimage route carrying heavy wooden crosses, akin to that of Jesus Christ, is most notable to outsiders. These practices have been documented in Europe as early as 1200 AD, and seemed to arise in a void of priestly supervision, when rural lay-people, pre-literate, took their cue from religious imagery as opposed to following church doctrine.

These practices have existed in New Mexico since the southwest was settled and became very important after the Mexican Revolution, when Spain ceded the territory in 1821, and the Catholic Church removed its priests from the entire region. The Hermanos filled the void. Many credit them with taking care of the community, so the priests had a congregation to come back to.

Historic Origins

Los Hermanos de la Fraternidad Piadosa de Nuestro Padre Jesus Nareno, the Brothers of the Pious Fraternity of Our Father Jesus of Nazareth, or sometimes, La Cofradia de Nuestra Padre Jesus Nazareno, the Fraternity of Our Father Jesus of Nazareth, dates back over 800 years, with its roots in Spain and Italy. Waves of popularity for this form of folk Catholicism are documented as far as the Alps, with reports of ten thousand Flagellantes marching across the countryside for Holy Week. Attempts by the Church to put down these practices during the Middle Ages often increased their popularity. A disastrous plague that raged in Germany in 1349 increased their numbers, and conflicts with the Church worsened. During the Inquisition, 91 members of the then-named Brothers of the Cross were burned at one incident in Sangerhusen, Germany.

Is there a direct lineage from these Flagellant practices among the men of Europe and the present Penitentes of New Mexico? Many believe that the practices were quite naturally brought across the ocean, died out in more populous areas of the New World, but survived in remote areas in the southwest where residents were isolated from new ideas, just as their language was isolated from changes over the centuries. Beliefs of ancestors persisted, and even became exaggerated in the absence of any moderating influence, and in the presence of a rugged life full of conflict and disease; a strong faith was needed.

Another interpretation of this history is that New Mexico’s Penitente practice represents the survival of the Third Order of St. Francis. A “third order” referring to lay practice, vs. the first and second order of living within the priesthood, or a monastery. The Franciscans, in the 13th century, introduced simple, straightforward customs that could easily be (according to the Church) exaggerated and corrupted by the laity.

This Third Order of St. Francis was commonly practiced in New Mexico during all of the Spanish era. Franciscan priests among the new settlers encouraged this. Wills documented over a 200-year period quite often show reference to the deceased having been a member of the Third Order and requesting a simple funeral in line with these practices. “I direct that when God, our Lord, shall see fit to call me out of this present life, my body be enshrouded in the habit of our father, San Francisco, of whose Third Order I am a brother, and that my funeral be modest.”

Following Mexico’s independence in 1821, the church pulled its priests out of New Mexico, and the Penitentes filled the void. When the United States took possession of the current southwest states, including our Rio Grande Valley in 1848, many residents still had strong allegiances to Spain. With the help of the Catholic Church, a program to “Americanize” the religious practices was begun. Its practices formally banned; the faithful Penitentes became a much more secret society.

The New Mexican practitioners were called, “Los hermanos penitentes de la tercer orden de San Francisco,” and there are records of the Archbishop of Santa Fe issuing stern communiques in the mid-1800s to the hermanos mayores to cease flagellation and the carrying of heavy crosses. Copies of the rules of the Third Order of St. Francis were enclosed so these could be followed in their original form without any “extreme” alterations. When this did not have the desired effect, the Penitentes were ordered to disband in 1889.

Moradas, small buildings for worship, often located in hard-to-spot locations, and of adobe buildings with no windows, became the new normal for these traditional worshipers. Some believe the moradas of the Rio Grande Valley were inspired by the area’s Native American kivas, sacred underground spaces where Tewa men still conduct private religious rituals.

During recovery from the Great Depression, a New Deal program called the Federal Writers’ Project, begun in 1935, sponsored many writers to venture into America’s rural communities and document the local culture and folklore. Some of these male writers reportedly infiltrated Penitente meetings and later wrote sensational reports of their practices. This created an even more secretive backlash that continued for decades.

The Catholic Church and the Penitentes have, to a great extent, reconciled, with Hermanos often leading the procession in church ceremonies to mark the Holy Week.

Information about the Practices of the Penitentes is easily found online. A synopsis can be found here.

Resources:
http://www.library.arizona.edu/exhibits/swetc/spmc/body.1_div.34.html

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11635c.htm

http://www.elsantuariodechimayo.us/Santuario/Penitentes.html

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/03/penitentes-new-mexico_n_6990204.html

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#5 Acequias: el agua es la vida!

Alberta — Fri, 24 May 2024 19:50:05 +0000

Sign #5 Text:

Acequias were a practice brought from Islamic Spain (from the Arabic verb saqá, to irrigate). Similar systems were already in use by Natives in the Southwest. These irrigation canals are an example of sharing use, responsibility, and protection of the commons. “Ditches” are filled by water from sources miles away. This Cabresto Ditch is fed from Cabresto Lake, nine miles above our village.

In early spring, the community comes together to clear the ditch of brush and debris, allowing the water an even, controlled flow when the compuertas (headgates) are opened. The mayordomo (ditch boss) parcels out water usage and enforces the schedule for the parciantes (surface water rights owners and users). There is a strong acequia culture along the upper, middle, and lower Rio Grande corridors; these systems have been preserved for over 200 years. Find memories and added info at QuestaStories.org and QuestaTrail.org.

Acequias were a practice brought from recently-Islamic Spain, where the word originated in the desert climates of north Africa (from the Arabic verb “saqá,” to irrigate). Similar systems were already in use by Natives in the American southwest.

The first Spanish settlers to ‘the new world’ came from a country that had been part of the Islamic Empire for 500 years, until 1492, when the Catholic Queen Isabella gained the throne. It was natural for early New Mexican pioneers to carry on Islamic practices in their land stewardship.

While the natives of this high desert region practiced the same form of water management, it was the Spanish settlers who developed the acequia system into the first form of governance the pioneer communities had. Water was so crucial to survival, that the mayordomos who were elected to manage the distribution to the many parciantes held an important role in the early settlements.

This role is still a respected and important one in the small villages of the Rio Grande Valley. While not as many residents farm or ranch as they used to, the acequias are an important touchstone to the area’s heritage, and still very important in practice to assure fair distribution of a shrinking resource. Maintenance has become even more important as the climate warms.

What can you add to this story?
Did you grow up cleaning the acequia each spring?
Did your parents caution you that La Llorona would get you if you played too close to the ditch?
Did you tell your own children this tale?

Listen to the local memories on our oral-history cache at QuestaStories.org and add your own knowledge and memories!

Acequia culture is alive and well in New Mexico. Stay updated and find information at https://lasacequias.org/

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#4 San Antonio de Padua

Alberta — Fri, 24 May 2024 19:43:55 +0000

Sign #4 Text:

Construction of the Iglesia San Antonio de Padua may have begun with the founding of our village in 1842; it was completed by 1860. Over a period of 170 years, there were two restorations and several remodels. Nonetheless, in winter of 2008, the church’s west wall collapsed.

Facing the prospect of demolition, locals formed the non-profit San Antonio del Rio Colorado Historic Preservation group. The Santa Fe Archdiocese turned the church over to them with a deadline of six years.

Many people came together and donated over 49,000 hours of service: they retrofitted a new foundation, made and laid adobe bricks, mudded walls, felled trees to carve new beams and railings, welded metal fixtures, blew glass sconces, and created stained glass windows from historic imagery. The volunteer labor, donations, and prayer succeeded — the church was re-consecrated in August of 2016. Find a full timeline of the church at QuestaTrail.org, with stories recalled on QuestaStories.org.

Archaeologists think this strategic hilltop and associated trail were used 5000 years ago until the late 1800s. This pueblito may date to 1150 AD. Accounts from the Spaniard Diego De Vargas mention an Apache farming village here in 1694, after the pueblito was abandoned. Other groups known to camp here or in the field below were Ute, Jicarilla Apache, and Kiowa.

According to oral history, the melted adobe ruins were cleared in the early 1930s to make way for the current VFW cemetery, “El Pueblito.” Decades of scavenging have left only a revered final resting place. Read more about this archaeology at QuestaTrail.org.

Labor of Love, Expression of Faith

Very little written history of Questa’s historic church exists, although there are many family memories and more recent experiences to explore.

Listen to interviews at QuestaStories.org; enjoy, learn, and contact us to add your own voice to this growing cache of important stories.

Today this once-damaged historic church is re-consecrated and again an important hub of the community. It is also a site of pilgrimage for the faithful, for local artists who paint the beautiful architecture beneath the soaring mountains, and for local craftspeople who take inspiration from the re-created fixtures and features.

Timeline of St. Anthony’s Church
Find full timeline of Questa history here

1836 – Canon del Rio Colorado land grant; first church built in Rio Colorado – Oratorio or Capilla at another location.

1840 – “El Oratorio” is built; a place of prayer and religious congregation, on the outskirts of Questa by the side of Cabresto Creek, just south of State Hwy 38, under a cluster of old cottonwood trees. This site is now abandoned.

1842 – Rio Colorado (now the village of Questa) officially founded, San Antonio Church probably begins construction.

1842 – First baptism records from Rio Colorado

Mid 1840s – late 1850s – construction of Rio Colorado church underway.

1855 – Ponderosa pine trees harvested on Flag Mountain for roof vigas on San Antonio church, mules used to skid logs down to Questa, while some vigas were carried by hand by the men.

1860 – Bishop Lamy visits Rio Colorado and notes “the beautiful new church on the north side of the plaza.”

1873 – New church reported as existing in 1873 as part of Rio Grande to Denver Railroad map, and railroad stations connected by stagecoach and freight wagon.

1880 – St Anthony’s church built (reported as existing), according to Library of Congress. (Maybe the new church was listed as part of a U.S. Census.)

1899 – Roof renovation of church, names found written on ceiling boards with 1899 date.

1942 – Msgr. Glenn Patrick Smith – first resident parish priest in Questa. He had a ham radio and speakers, and kept the village informed during WWII.

1943 – Single central bell tower at St. Anthony Church in old photo.

1950 – Two bell towers at St Anthony’s Church shown in old photo.

1972 – Major renovation of church, repair of west walls.

1999 – Renovation by Cornerstones historic preservation group, bell towers extended.

2000 – Limestone whitewash over exterior adobe bricks.

200? – Adobe color plaster over lime stone? Must have occurred sometime then?

2008 – West wall of St. Anthony’s church collapses.
Repairs to the adobe walls undertaken since the 1970s had neither been lasting nor successful, resulting in continued degradation. An effort in the late 1990s to preserve the original east wall left the old wall intact but unstable, hidden and crumbling behind a facade.

2009-10 – Many, but not all parishioners, community members, and Village of Questa want to save the church. Priest and Diocese of Santa Fe want to demolish the old and build anew.

2011 – San Antonio church declared a historic building suitable for preservation.

2011 – Archdiocese relinquishes control of St. Anthony’s Church to San Antonio del Rio Colorado Preservation for six years to complete restoration.

2012 – West wall completed.

2013 – East wall completed.

2014 – Back/north wall completed, heating system and subfloor.

2015 – Front portal finished and exterior brown coat, electric system in place.

2016 – Plaster coat and paint inside, new floor, sound system, altar screen, retablos, and stained glass windows installed.

2016 – August 8, 2016, dedication mass at completed church.

2017 – Final landscaping and color coat.

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#3 El Pueblito

Alberta — Fri, 24 May 2024 19:38:57 +0000

Sign #3 Text:

The grassy, flat area on the hill opposite you is the site of an early Puebloan village called a pueblito, believed to be built by the same people who settled Taos Pueblo. These were “small villages” with semi-underground pit houses and above ground rooms of adobe, stone, and timber.

The Archaeological History of Questa’s VFW Cemetery

By Carrie Leven, Questa Ranger District Archaeologist, U.S.D.A. Forest Service

Buried beneath Questa’s VFW Cemetery named El Pueblito (“little village” in Spanish) is the site of an ancient little village, also referred to as a Pueblito. Archaeologists think the Pueblito dates from about 1000 years ago, and that people lived there most heavily from 1150 to 1225 AD. Pueblitos sometimes grew into larger, multi-storied Pueblos as more travelers, traders, and families moved in over the generations – as long as there was enough water, timber, firewood, and good farming land to sustain their numbers.

This little village is located on the level hilltop at the mouth of Red River Canyon and overlooks the valley to the west, with the Red River and Cabresto Creek below. This is a long-used camping place along a significant trail known locally as the Kiowa Trail that was used even before the Pueblito was built. People had come to live in the Questa area seasonally in the summer months who depended on hunting game animals and gathering food from the land. With only raw materials to use, they made spear and dart points and other stone tools from the local volcanic rock, like andesitic basalt and obsidian; some artifacts have been dated to 6800 years ago.

As more people arrived over the 1000s of years, they created a trail and established campsites along the way, near their favorite hunting grounds and plant-harvesting spots, returning year after year when the weather permitted. They used metates and manos made of granitic sandstone for grinding and crushing seeds, nuts, and other plant or mineral materials collected in our rich surroundings. They built semi-underground huts called pit houses, using a construction style called jacal, which refers to both the structures made from branches, timbers, mud, and stone. Pit houses were made by digging a deep pit on the side of a hill, then placing upright timbers to support walls and a roof. Soon these early Puebloan people began making and using pottery from local clays, growing crops in the valleys below, and using the bow and arrow for hunting in the pastures and mountains.

Evidence of the Anasazi or Puebloan culture found along the trail are small settlements of pit houses, some of which were abandoned, and others that were incorporated into Pueblitos. Pueblitos like the one at the VFW cemetery had one or two pit houses along with above-ground work areas and surface rooms of jacal. The people living at the Pueblito near Questa used Plains-style Taos Gray and Taos Black-on-white pottery, small corner-notched dart and arrow points, along with metates and manos for processing food and raw materials. The Pueblito was also a trading and travel center, with traders, hunters, and travelers coming from the north and south on this trail that connected with other major trails.

The early camps and more recent settlements at Rio Colorado have several things in common, mainly that it is a beautiful location with both pasturable and farming land nearby, and water from two rivers. The ruins of older villages get knocked down and covered over by those who come after, because the choice location is still the preferred place to settle in and build anew. For decades, people took arrowheads and pottery from the site, removing so many artifacts that now there is little evidence of the former Pueblito for people to see or for researchers to study. Even though they are degraded, leaving nothing on the surface today, this Pueblito and other archaeological sites in the area are protected by Federal Laws with fines for removing artifacts.

Archaeologists think the Pueblito site may be related to the settlement of Taos Pueblo, which also began about the same time. Taos creation stories tell about the Shell people who moved to the Taos Valley and settled near the Colorado River (understood to be referring to the Red River at Questa). The Pueblito site may be ancestral to the Day People kiva at Taos Pueblo. The Shell people were one of the original groups within the Sun or Day kiva, according to anthropologists.

Like widespread abandonments happening at other Pueblitos and Pueblos in New Mexico, the Puebloans left the Pueblito by the mid-13th century. The villagers perhaps outgrew their forested surroundings, suffered deadly droughts as well as harsh weather with unpredictable freezing temperatures; the same issues that affect modern farmers and other people living in Questa today. Perhaps they eventually moved on, joining relatives and clan groups at the growing Pueblo in Taos.

By the 1600s, groups like the Kiowa, Jicarilla Apache, and Ute used the old Pueblito walls for their camps. Spanish accounts from the De Vargas expedition in 1694 mention an Apache farming village overlooking the Rio Colorado. Later accounts from the Spanish Army traveling on the Kiowa Trail in the mid-1700s and early 1800s mention Indian people living in an abandoned village along the Rio Colorado, the low ruins of which were reportedly still standing in 1887. Archaeological studies at the Pueblito concur that the Jicarilla Apache and Ute may have lived at the site through the late 1800s.

The American Foreign Legion (AFL) and Questa VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) have been using El Pueblito as a cemetery since 1933. According to a long-time caretaker, the AFL leveled and cleared the jumbled ruins of the Pueblito and installed a fence to establish the cemetery. Since that time there was repeated grading of the parking area, and backhoe excavations inside the fenced interior. In 1965, the Questa Ranger District issued a Special Use Permit to the VFW for continued use of the cemetery, because it fell within Carson National Forest-administered lands.

In 1999 the VFW received a grant for maintenance and repair on the “El Pueblito” cemetery. They approached the Questa District Ranger about expanding the area, as more Questa residents would need to be buried there, in addition to VFW members/families and other residents. At that time, there were approximately 225 marked graves, with half the cemetery area unused, although there were believed to be unmarked graves in several locations from before 1933.

Because archaeologists believed there may be an older settlement site below the cemetery, they consulted with the NM State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) on an archaeological site testing program to determine if the cemetery could be expanded, and in what direction. In 2000, the Carson National Forest signed a decision that the VFW cemetery could be expanded in a new section to the east, with conditions that burials would stop in the old cemetery after the expansion was completed. Several burials have occurred in the original area after families showed a record of making payments on the plots.

Today, Questeños continue the tradition of burying family and friends and visiting the dearly departed at El Pueblito Cemetery, or just taking a contemplative walk with a beautiful view. While on the hilltop overlooking Questa, we can also perhaps remember and wonder about the people who lived here hundreds of years ago and who are buried along with the remains of the old Pueblito.

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