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EL CERRITO, NEW
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EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO fight Generations in a Spanish Village
RICtiARD L.NOSTRAND
Univcrrity of Oklahoma Prcrr : Norman
ALSO BY RICHARD L. NOSTRAND
Los Chicanos: Geografia Histo'rica Regional (Mitxico, D.F., 1976) (ed., with Ellwyn R. Stoddard and Johnathan P. West) Borderlands Sourcebook: A Guide to the Literature on Northern Mexico and the American Southwest (Norman, 1983) (ed., with Sam B. Hilliard) The American South (Baton Rouge, 1988)
The Hispano Homeland (Norman, 1992) (ed., with Lawrence E. Estaville) Homelands: A Geography of Culture and Place across America (Baltimore, 2001)
Published with the assistance of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency which supports the study of such fields as history, philosophy, literature, and language.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA Nostrand, Richard L. (Richard Lee), 1939El Cerrito, New Mexico : eight generations in a Spanish village / Richard L. Nostrand. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8061-3546-8 (hc. : alk. paper) 1. Spanish Americans-New Mexico-El Cerrito-History. 2. Spanish Americans-New Mexico-El Cerrito-Biography. 3. Spanish Americans-New Mexico-El CerritoGenealogy. 4. El Cerrito (N.M.)-History. 5. El Cerrito (N.M.)-Biography. 6. El Cerrito (N.M.)-Genealogy. I. Title
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. 8 Copyright O 2003 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the U.S.A.
TEXT DESIGN BY ELLEN BEELER
For Susan
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CONTENT! List of Illustrations List of Maps List of Tables Preface
1. 2.
3. 4.
THE LAND GRANT GENERATION, CIRCA 1800 THE VILLAGE GENERATION, ClRCA 1825 THE FARM GENERATION, ClRCA 1850 THf LIVESTOCK GENERATION, ClRCA 1875
5. THE HOMESTEAD GENERATION, ClRCA 1900 6. THESCHOOL GENERATION,CIRCA 1925 7. THE EXODUS GENERATION, ClRCA 1950 8. THEANGLICIZEDGENERATION,CIRCA 1975 9. THf PRESENT GENERATION, ClRCA 2000 10. THE NEXT GENERATION, CIRCA 2025 Appendix: Population Tables, l84 1-1 920 Notes Glossary Bibliography Index
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ILLUITRATIONI Vertical life zones correlated with building materials in New Mexico, 1974 Douglas Heffington's archaeological fieldwork, El Cerrito, 1989 Presumed plaza of El Cerrito, circa 1824 The acequia madre at El Barranco, 1980 Mouth of the Cafi6n de Pefia, 1992 Jose Epitacio Quintana (1845-1932) Dolores Quintana, Juan Vigil, Ambrocio Tapia (grandson), circa 1915 Maria de la Cruz Tapia (1851-1923) Manuel Armijo and Isabelita Trujillo (wife) Vibiin Quintana, Cleofas Ribera (wife), Gabriel (son), circa 1927 Genealogy of Cerritefio homesteaders, VariaderoILa Garita Juan N. Quintana I and Delfina Lucero (wife) Fernando Quintana family, Variadero, 1915 Abenicio Rakl and Luz (Lucy) Quintana (wife), 1916 Jose Manuel Quintana (1911-99), 1993 San Miguel del Vado beginning corner, Tract 1, 1980 Luis Maria Quintana and Isabel Aragon (wife) Bridge plaque, New Mexico Highway 104 at Rio Conchas, 1993 Schoolhouse in El Cerrito, 1934-35 Schoolhouse in El Cerrito, 1941 Agapito Quintana and Heliodoro Quintana, circa 1918 Schoolhouse in El Cerrito, 1956 Margarita Quintana de Armijo and friend, circa 1920 Maria Lucero, schoolteacher, and students, El Cerrito, 1941 Schoolchildren and commissary, El Cerrito, circa 1917-18 Ram6n Esquibel and University of Oklahoma students, El Cerrito, 1988 Perfecto Arthur Quintana and Elvira Corrales Emiterio Arellanes family dinner, 1941 Rincon bottomland looking west, 1941 Luis Arag6n and grandchild, 1941 Cerritefios and El Cerrito church, 1941 Juan Baca (1926-97) with his palomino, 1956 Paul Tapia's extended family Eduardo E. Quintana and Jesucita Gutikrrez (wife), 1993 Former homes of Vibi5n and Epitacio Quintana, 1956
13
15 28 47 48 58 58 59 62 71 72 74 75 78 81 86 89 91 95 95 96 97 100 101 105 106 110 115 117 120 124 128 132 134 138
X
ILLUSTRATIONS
Florencio Quintana (1902-2000), 1979 Albinita and Joe Quintana (nephew), 1980 Luis Roberto Aragon, Linda Quintana (wife), Father Vidal, 1980 Jack and Heidi Lanstra, 1980 Ricardo (Rick) Quintana, 1987 John Burns and Joe C' de Baca, 1980 Brock Brown and University of Oklahoma students in ditch, 1982 University of Oklahoma students and Joe C' de Baca on ditch day, 2000 Arag6n family cafio in 1983 and 1993 Luis Aragon, Estefanita Quintana (wife), Zona Loomis and daughters, 1956 El Cerrito village from La Centinela in 1941 and 2000 Joe C' de Baca's remodeled house, 1992 Henry Arellanes and Eloise Trujillo (wife), 1994 Albinita Quintana's horno, El Cerrito, 1980 Altar screen, apparently by Jose de Gracia Gonzales, 1860s(?) El Cerrito cross sections by Joseph J. Bilello, 1975
The San Miguel del Vado Grant, survey of 1879 Landforms and rivers in northeastern New Mexico The El Cerrito Valley Evolution of the El Cerrito Valley Heffington and Post archaeological sites, El Cerrito, circa 1990 San Miguel del Vado privatized grant lands, 1901 El Cerrito as hypothesized for Ramon Alari's time (1824-41) Possible routes between El Cerrito and San Agustin in 1841 El CerritoJs ancones and dams, circa 1850 Agricultural parcels in the Rinc6n, El Cerrito, 1922 Cerritefio distant connections after circa 1860 Initial Cerritefio homesteads near Variadero filed 1882-1924 Wagon road between El Cerrito and Variadero, circa 1900 Quintana ranch houses, La Garita, 2000 Tract 1 and SHC claims, San Miguel del Vado Grant, early twentieth century Initial Cerritefio homesteads near El Cerrito filed 1907-35 Presumed family houses, El Cerrito, circa 1900 Probable family houses, El Cerrito, circa 1925 Family houses, El Cerrito, 1940 Probable family houses, El Cerrito, 1956 Cerritefios in Pueblo, Colorado, 1959 and circa 1990 El Cerrito, drawn by Jack W. Schafer, 1975 El Cerrito house lot ownership, 1980 El Cerrito house lot ownership, 2000 The Pecos Valley, 2000 Land tenure in El Cerrito, 2000 Spanish Greater New Mexico, 1900
5 7 9 10 14 20 29 37 38 39 66 76 77 80
85 88 92 102 113 127 131 139 140 151 152 158 169
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Agricultural land distributions, Tracts 1-10, San Miguel del Vado Grant, 1803-39, as reported in Coleman Report, 1901 El Cerrito landholding heads of household, 26 May 1824 Agriculture in El Cerrito, October 1850 Agriculture in El Cerrito, July 1860 Agriculture in El Cerrito, August 1870 Wealth by family in El Cerrito, October 1850 Wealth by family in El Cerrito, July 1860 Wealth by family in El Cerrito, August 1870 Population in El Cerrito, 1841-85 Children of Fernando Quintana and Gertrudis Martin, El Cerrito Agriculture in El Cerrito, June 1880 Agriculture in El Cerrito, July 1885 Cerritefio lands patented near Variadero, 1885-193 1 Chronology of land grant decisions affecting El Cerrito, 1794-1910 Cerritefio lands patented near El Cerrito, 1917-61 Schoolteachers in El Cerrito, 1882-1951 School enrollments in El Cerrito, selected years Adult literacy in El Cerrito, selected years El Cerrito population and housing, 1940 El Cerrito land, livestock, and income, 1940 Status of El Cerrito heads of households, 1940 and 1956 Population in El Cerrito, August 1956 Population in El Cerrito, 1 April 1980 Nonresident houses and house lots in El Cerrito, 1980 Population in El Cerrito, 1 April 2000 Nonresident house and house lots in El Cerrito, 2000 La acequia madre of El Cerrito membership, 2000 Communities of more than one thousand Spanish people, 1900 Population in El Cerrito, March 1841 Population in El Cerrito, October 1850 El Cerrito families living in San Agustin, October 1850 Population in El Cerrito, July 1860 Population in El Cerrito, August 1870 Population in El Cerrito, June 1880
xiv
TABLES
A.7 Population in El Cerrito, July 1885 A.8 Population in El Cerrito, June 1900 A.9 Population in El Cerrito, April 1910 A. 10 Population in El Cerrito, January 1920
My first attempt to find El Cerrito ended in failure. An old map-the trademark of my subdiscipline-showed that a crude road followed the Pecos Valley from the village of Villanueva downstream four miles to El Cerrito. And so in my red Volkswagen "Bug" I took this road, but to my amazement I found that it ended a mile below Villanueva at Villanueva State Park. Some people at the park told me that a road continued on the other side of the Pecos and that I could easily ford the shallow river. I had seen advertisements on television that showed how Bugs became amphibious when driven into water, and I boldly drove across the Pecos. On the opposite side I followed the dirt road until it too ended abruptly, at a Soil Conservation Corps chain-link fence. Undaunted, I parked the car, scaled the fence, hiked to the top of a steep rocky hill, and looked downstream. But I did not see El Cerrito. Disappointed, I retraced my steps to Villanueva, where I asked at a store if there was in fact an El Cerrito and how I might get there. "Oh, yes," a kind person said. "The village exists. Drive about two miles on the highway and six miles over a mesa road. The crude road down the valley washed out years ago." I drove the paved highway and a bumpy mesa road, and late that afternoon of 14 October 1979 I reached tiny El Cerrito from the south. Having descended the valley escarpment into the village, I drove slowly down El Cerrito's middle street when a woman suddenly appeared in front of my car with arms stretched high to signal me to stop. As I emerged from my Volkswagen she asked in an abrupt way what I wanted. I explained that I taught at a university-academics are usually regarded as harmless-and that I sought five Spanish villages to which I might return in the spring to study. She answered that I would have to talk to her husband. What began as an adversarial encounter became a cordial visit. The couple, Jack and Heidi Lanstra, then El Cerrito's only Anglos, had attended college, understood what I wanted, and invited me back. Indeed, when I returned, they planned to tell their Spanish neighbors to welcome me as their friend. Toward evening I briefly encountered one of these Spanish villagers, Florencio Quintana. As I drove out of El Cerrito in complete darkness, carefully opening and closing three gates that served as cattle guards on the road going north, I thanked the bright stars above me. My elation at being invited to return had solid grounding. In 1939, exactly forty years earlier, two sociologists employed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Olen E. Leonard and Charles P. Loomis, drove over the bumpy mesa road that led to El Cerrito from the north. They too had designs on studying a Spanish village, and villagers "with noticeable reluctance" invited them back. From living in El Cerrito in 1939-40, Leonard and Loomis wrote a classic village study published by the USDA in 1941-a study
xvi
PREFACE
that had captivated me as a graduate student. My invitation to return meant that I could use this study as a village benchmark for 1940. I did not know in 1979 that Leonard and Loomis's Culture of a Contemporary Rural Community was the beginning of a flurry of publications on El Cerrito. A second study by Loomis had appeared as a journal article in 1941. A 1941 photographic essay by the government photographer Irving Rusinow had been published as a USDA companion work to the Leonard and Loomis book in 1942. In 1943 Leonard submitted a dissertation on El Cerrito to the faculty in rural sociology at Louisiana State University. After revisiting El Cerrito, Loomis published articles in 1958 and 1959. In 1959 Julitin Samora, a student of Loomis's at Michigan State University, studied Cerritefios who had moved to Pueblo, Colorado, yielding still another article in 1961. Indeed, today there are sixteen publications on El Cerrit0.l I returned to El Cerrito in March 1980 with the objective of looking at it and four other villages as case studies in Spanish population shifts since 1940. I planned to begin with El Cerrito and then branch out to the other villages selected the previous fall: San Luis, Manzano, Chamisal, and PeAasco. In the end I followed this plan, but meanwhile El Cerrito hooked me. I remember telephoning my brother Rob in San Diego (from Las Vegas, New Mexico-El Cerrito had no telephone service at the time). I told him that I was living in a tiny village. He asked how many people lived there, and I answered eleven. I'll never forget his laugh: "You're staying there how many weeks?" I quickly explained that some forty-five people came and went on certain weekends and that I had quite a bit more to learn than he might think. And indeed I did. Since 1980 I have returned to El Cerrito more than one hundred times, including fifteen five-day field trips with students from the University of Oklahoma (OU). El Cerrito served as my case study of a village that had been severely depopulated, but it also became my window on to Spanish people in New Mexico. Time after time it became my example in The Hispano Homeland, the book I was then writing about nuevomexicanos in Greater New Mexico. El Cerrito became so important to me that I decided to focus on the village for this book. Although El Cerrito is one of the most studied villages in New Mexico, I found that more remained to be told. Since its founding in 1824, eight twenty-five-year generations have lived in El Cerrito. To analyze village change, I identified the major challenge that each of these generations seemed to face. Chapter 1, "The Land Grant Generation, Circa 1800," provides the background, and chapter 10, "The Next Generation, Circa 2025," attempts to give some advice for the future. But between these bookends is the story of eight generations. Briefly the eight challenges-my analytic themes-are as follows: to construct a fortified settlement for protection (1825) to survive by means of farming and livestock raising (1850) to increase profits by expanding livestock activities (1875) to acquire a grazing land base through homesteading (1900) to learn English for access to seasonal jobs in the Anglo world (1925)
PREFACE
xvii
to survive by moving to and taking jobs in cities (1950) to adapt in the city to mainstream Anglo society (1975) to survive in El Cerrito in largely nontraditional lifestyles (2000) Each chapter is introduced with a profile of the leader of that generation. In undertaking this research, I have been extremely fortunate. I discovered, while plowing through the four reels of microfilm on the San Miguel del Vado Grant, that government officials listed the original land grantees only for Tract 1 (of ten tracts), which belongs to El Cerrito. Knowing the names of these fifteen male grantees allowed me to search in the Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe (AASF) records on baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and burials to determine where the original families came from and how they were related to the waves of villagers that followed. Meanwhile, by knowing the Cerritefio families I could find El Cerrito in the original returns of the population and agricultural censuses: many census takers noted precincts but not the villages enumerated within them. I located El Cerrito in every possible census beginning with one taken under Mexico in 1841. And to my good fortune, in the 1990s I still had access to six elderly and extremely knowledgeable informants who told me things no other villager seemed to know: Candido Arag6n (1923-96), Enrique "Henry" Vigil Arellanes (1912-2000), Eduardo E. Quintana (1906-), Florencio Quintana (1902-2000), Jos6 Manuel Quintana (1911-99), and Maria Cleofas "Cleo" Quintana de Sena (1926-). My informants, most of whom are cited in the bibliography, top the list of those I wish to thank. While on sabbatical leave in 1993-94 I formally interviewed fifty-five Cerritefios over 141 hours in twelve locations in New Mexico and Colorado. Many found me returning for information two and three times; I went back to learn more from Henry Arellanes seven times. The residents of El Cerrito, in addition to being informants, fed me, housed me, and helped in other ways, especially John Burns, Joe C' de Baca and Mabel SuArez, Jack and Heidi Lanstra, Margie Trujillo de Quintana, Rick Quintana, and Macario Torrez. These individuals, as well as Arturo Madrid, a nonvillager, verified information in certain chapters, and John Burns read critically the entire manuscript. On field trips I learned a great deal from my OU students, several of whom I cite. Brock Brown, Matt Engel, Doug Hurt, Sarah Loy, Pete McCormick, Jeff Roth, Jeff Smith, and Mike and Mary Ann Stevens accompanied me on countless trips; Doug Heffington wrote his dissertation on the village. Malcolm Ebright and JuliAn Josue Vigil supplied helpful information about early San Agustin. And without the help of archivists I would have been stymied. At the State Records Center and Archives in Santa Fe, Sandra Jaramillo and Richard Salazar provided a great deal of help, and A1 Regensberg spent hours skillfully deciphering the handwriting of and explaining the abbreviations used by those who scribed documents found in the AASF. At New Mexico State University, Austin Hoover, Linda Blazer, and Tim Blevins gave me free rein to search the records of Leonard and Loomis in the Rio Grande Historical Collections. At the Bureau of Land Management in Santa Fe, Grace Olivas guided me through the homestead records. And through thick and thin I relied on Susan, my critic, my companion in the field, my computer whiz, and, best of all, my wife.
xviii
PREFACE
Editorial Note Spanish words and terms are italicized (aceite de lampara, pefia). The many Spanish-origin words that Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, shows as having been absorbed into English (from acequia to viga) are not italicized. For Spanish given names and surnames, accents and tildes have been retained (Aniseto Gardufio, Macario Torrez), even though many persons in the present century no longer use them. In New Mexico Spanish women who married kept their maiden surnames, often well into the twentieth century. For continuity I use women's maiden surnames down to the present (Maria Cleofas Quintana), and for clarity I add the husbands' surnames (Maria Cleofas Quintana de Sena). For Spanish place-names in the United States, I follow the conventional practice of dropping accents (Santa Fe) but retaining tildes (Espafiola). The term "Cerritefios" may also require an explanation. "Cerritefios" is shorthand for "El Cerrito's villagers." However, in the days of intense rivalry between the neighboring villages of El Cerrito and La Cuesta (after 1890, Villanueva), residents of La Cuesta used "Cerritefios" disparagingly to refer to El Cerrito's villagers. "Cuesteiios," meanwhile, became the term of disrespect used by people in El Cerrito for those in La Cuesta. In this book I use Cerritefios only for brevity and of course imply no sense of opprobrium.
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
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THE LAND GRANT GENERATION, CIRCA 1800
orenzo Mirquez hoped to better himself by acquiring land in the Pecos Valley. In 1794 he and fifty-one other men petitioned for a large grant of land that straddled the Pecos River north and south of a vado, or ford, at San Miguel del Vado. The governor approved their petition, and Mirquez and his wife, Apolonia Griego de Mirquez, residents of Santa Fe since at least 1762, moved to the new community of San Miguel del Vado del Rio Pecos. In 1803 an alcalde gave Mirquez one parcel of agricultural land that measured fifty varas wide (one vara equals about thirty-three inches), located only one parcel from the small fortified village of San Miguel del Vado. In 1820, when alcaldes distributed new agricultural lands upstream at El Gusano, Mirquez acquired eight more agricultural parcels measuring many varas. On his death in 1826 a substantial estate went to his son Jose Pedro Mirquez. That Mirquez incurred great risks when moving to the Pecos Valley is evidenced by the death of at least one family member, a grandson named Juan Antonio Mirquez, who was killed by Indians. Nevertheless, Lorenzo Mirquez, like other members of his generation, per~evered.~
4
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
The San Miguel del Vado Grant Santa Fe is located on a small river with a modest floodplain. In about 1620 and again in 1692 its limited land and water resources prompted discussion about the advantages of moving the capital to a better endowed locale. But authorities did not move the capital. The problem only became more acute, and in 1794 Lorenzo MBrquez stepped forward to petition Fernando de Chacbn, governor of New Mexico, for new land. MBrquez and his fellow petitioners declared that in Santa Fe they had insufficient land to support their large families, and they wished to relocate at the place called El Vado on the Pecos River, where land and water would be plentiful. Indeed, at the time they presented the petition, the fifty-two families may already have removed to El Vado. The petition requested that they be awarded the land bounded on the north by the Rio de la Vaca from the place called the Rancheria to the Agua Caliente; on the east, by the Cuesta and the little hills of Bernal; on the south, by the Caiion Blanco; and on the west, by the place commonly called El Gusano (Map 1.1).2 Governor Chac6n directed the principal alcalde of Santa Fe, Antonio Jos6 Ortiz, to execute the grant. At San Miguel del Vado, on 26 November 1794, Ortiz admonished the fiftytwo petitioners to construct a fortified settlement, or plaza; to work as a community to build the plaza; to dig the acequias and construct other works needed for the common welfare; to keep firearms (they had twenty-five) and bows and arrows; and to hold their new grant in common. The petitioners reportedly took possession of their grant as they "plucked up grass, cast stones and shouted long live the King."3 Awarding the San Miguel del Vado Grant fit a larger defensive strategy. In the eighteenth century, around the periphery of Spanish-occupied New Mexico, officials created frontier outposts to serve as buffers between Spaniards and nomadic Indians. These outposts included Ojo Caliente, Abiquiu, and Las Trampas in the Rio Arriba; Tome, Belen, and Sabinal in the Rio Abajo; and now San Miguel del Vado southeast of Santa Fe. Of these outposts, Abiquiu, Belen, Sabinal, and San Miguel del Vado were populated at least in part with genizaros, nomadic Indians who, usually while children, had been acquired by Spaniards and raised as Spanish-speaking Catholics. Of the fifty-two petitioners at San Miguel del Vado, officials noted that thirteen were Indians, a number that apparently did not include the Hispanicized genizaros.* Nine years later, in 1803, Spanish colonists lived at San Miguel de Vado and at a second fortified settlement called San Jose del Vado. That year Pedro Bautista Pino, senior alcalde of the Second Precinct of Santa Fe, acting at the request of Governor Chac611, distributed lands under cultivation on the grant. On 12 March 1803, Pino awarded possession of their agricultural parcels to fifty-eight families at San Miguel del Vado, and two days later, some three miles upstream at San Jose del Vado, he distributed forty-seven parcels. Measured in varas along an irrigation ditch, these parcels stretched across the arable bottomland to the Pecos but were "very much broken on account of the many bends of the river." When Pino distributed the agricultural parcels, 1,150 varas remained between the two plazas for future claimants, and agricultural land also existed for future distribution to the south of San Miguel del V a d ~ . ~ By 1803, then, Spaniards, genizaros, and Indians from Santa Fe lived along the banks of the Pecos. Their two communities, or plazas, had the configuration of rectangles built
SAN MIGUEL DEL VADO GRANT SURVEY OF 1879
( LAS VEGAS Rancheria
\
GRANT
- TECOLOTE GRANT
GRANT
Jose del Vado
. '/
Bemal Hill
San Miguel del Vado
0
5
1 1 1 1 1 . 1 Miles
Map 1.1 The San Miguel del Vado Grant, 1879. Deputy Surveyor JohnShaw completed his survey of the grant in December 1879 during adjudication proceedings. Redrawn and modified from "Plat of the Lorenzo Marquez Grant for the San Miguel del Bado Tract . . . 1879," General Land Office Claim No. 119, in Bureau of Land Management, Santa Fe.
6
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
around open spaces also called plazas. Churches were built within the open spaces. The church at San Miguel del Vado, apparently completed by 1807, exists today much modified, yet a growing community long ago obliterated the contiguous houses that once surrounded it. Because San Jose del Vado played a lesser administrative role and had fewer people, its church and surrounding houses are remarkably intact today. Beyond both communities in 1803 stretched the agricultural parcels and beyond them the arable floodplain that would lure waves of new colonists-including those who would found El Cerrito. The colonists on the Pecos had met the challenge of their generation: they had bettered themselves by removing to the San Miguel del Vado Grant.6
Earth History The San Miguel del Vado Grant is located at precisely the point where three major physiographic provinces converge (Map 1.2). To the east stretches the vast Great Plains Province, which includes the Pecos Valley. To the west are the rugged mountains and interior drainage basins of the Basin and Range Province, whose eastern edge, the escarpment of Glorieta Mesa, abuts the grant. And to the north rise the high Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the southernmost range of the Rocky Mountain Province and the headwaters of the perennial Pecos River. The grant's location afforded proximity to much-needed resources: plentiful buffalo on the grass-covered plains, deposits of salt at the low points of the structural basins, and tall straight Ponderosa pine in the mountains. And from the mountains came the all-important Pecos, the lifeline for those who settled the grant.' Geologists tell us that the Laramide Uplift is the major event in Earth history responsible for much of this physiography. During the Cretaceous period (70 million to 135 million years before the present [B.P.]), an inland sea covered the present-day Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. Under this sea thick layers of sediment formed over ancient granite (Precambrian rock dating from 600 million to 5,000 million years B.P.). During the Tertiary (2 million to 70 million years B.P.), the Laramide Uplift forced this granite and its layers of now-sedimentary rock upward in a steep arch, or anticline. In a process known as degradation, this anticline gradually eroded, leaving tilted flat beds of relatively young sedimentary rock to flank and in places overarch the much older granitic core. This describes the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Meanwhile, through aggradation, the eroded sedimentary rock formed the high plains to the east. Thus the high, smooth, southeast-sloping Llano Estacado (Staked Plains) once extended west to the Rocky Mountains, from which it was built (Map 1.2). Smaller remnants of the high plains located closer to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains comprise the Las Vegas Plateau, which remains because it is capped with hard Dakota sandstone and lava flows that occurred during the Tertiary; the smaller Ocate Mesa, which surmounts the Las Vegas Plateau near the Mora River and is also capped with lava; and the Park Plateau, near New Mexico's northern border, which stands 500 to 1,000 feet above the Las Vegas P l a t e a ~ . ~ The Pecos and Canadian Rivers, whose valleys today lie some 500 to 1,500 feet below the Las Vegas Plateau, for the most part stripped away and downcut the high plains just east of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The Canadian, 800 feet lower than the Pecos where the two rivers are closest to each other, has but a shallow valley on the Las Vegas Plateau until
THE LAND GRANT GENERATION
7
about Springer. Below Springer it drops into a narrow canyon that eventually opens at the Dakota sandstone-capped Canadian Escarpment, a bold and imposing dropoff of some 1,000 to 1,500 feet that forms the long southeastern edge of the Las Vegas Plateau. Little notched by streams, this high bluff makes access to the plateau above quite difficult. Farther west, the Pecos meanwhile stripped away layers of Tertiary rock to erode a valley that is
LANDFORMS AND RIVERS NORTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO
BASIN AND RANGE
Uano Estacado
Gu = El Gusano Vi = Villanueva SM = San Migud LV = Las Vegas
d
0
Miles
Map 1.2 Landforms and rivers in northeastern New Mexico. Compiled by the author from landform maps drawn by Erwin Raisz and Guy-Harold Smith.
8
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
generally constricted until it broadens at about Roswell. Unlike the formidable Canadian Escarpment, the escarpment of the Llano Estacado, which marks the eastern edge of the Pecos Valley as well as the southern edge of the Canadian Valley, is but an eroded cuesta of some 500 to 800 feet.9 In the Sangre de Cristo Mountains for a distance of some twenty miles above the town of Pecos, Pecos River headwaters gather to form a V-shaped valley with little floodplain. Below the town of Pecos the valley widens, and for the next thirty miles until Villanueva, generally small and discontinuous river-cut terraces rise above the floodplain. Near El Gusano (renamed South San Ysidro) some ten miles below Pecos, at least five terrace levels have been identified. The highest are the oldest and have the best-developed soils, and the lowest are the youngest and contain recent deposits of alluvium. Terraces in the vicinity of Villanueva are especially broad for this upper Pecos Valley. However, one and a half miles below Villanueva, the Pecos enters a two-and-a-half-mile-long, steep-walled canyon with only a narrow floodplain. It exits this canyon at El Cerrito.lo At El Cerrito, the Pecos meanders in three tight loops in a basically circular valley (Map 1.3). Measuring a generous one-half mile in diameter, this natural amphitheater is largely surrounded by 150-foot cliffs of layered sedimentary rock. Inside each tight meander loop is a point bar, a depositional feature that is flanked by narrow strips of floodplain and rises in two identifiable river-cut terraces (T, and T, in Map 1.3). The point bars quite literally point to cut banks on the opposite side of the river. The first Spanish colonists in El Cerrito called these point bars ancones (sing. anco'n), or bends. Near the center of the natural amphitheater is an isolated steep hill of sedimentary rock that has been truncated by the Pecos. This prominent small hill is the El Cerrito for which the village is named. Known by geomorphologists as a meander core, El Cerrito has blocked the Pecos from cutting through the neck of the second meander loop shown in Map 1.3.l' Sherry L. Haas, a graduate student in geography with two degrees in geology, offered an explanation for how the valley at El Cerrito evolved (Map 1.4). The erosive capacity of the Pecos must have increased during the Pleistocene (2 million years B.P.) through recharge by meltwater from glaciers in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. In stage 1 of Map 1.4, the Pecos downcut in its gentle swing across the area as four intermittent tributaries (A, B, C, D) eroded headward. In stages 2 and 3, lateral erosion widened the original valley (shown by dashed lines) as the Pecos developed a northward-extending meander. Meanwhile, in stage 4, through headward erosion, stream C encountered the floodplain of the Pecos, creating a small mesa. In stage 5, stream C breached the channel of the Pecos, and with a gradient steeper than that of the Pecos, stream C captured the Pecos. The original channel of the river became a saddle, or wind gap, between the small mesa and the upland to the north. In stages 6 and 7, lateral erosion widened the original valley (dashed lines) as the Pecos developed a southward-extending meander. The Pecos also migrated laterally to capture stream B. In stages 7, 8, and 9, erosion by the second northward-developing meander reduced the small mesa to a butte (the El Cerrito meander core). Lateral erosion by the other two meander loops further developed the floodplain while the Pecos captured stream E, created when the Pecos abandoned its channel. By stage 10, the present valley had evolved.12
EL CERRITO VALLEY
MESA
MESA
MESA
0
Feet
2000
R.
Map 1.3 The El Cerrito Valley. The Pecos River meanders in three tight loops in El Cerrito's basically circular valley. Point bars (ancones) literally point to cut banks across the river. Source: USGS maps.
EL CERRITO VALLEY EVOLUTION
Map 1.4 Evolution of the El Cerrito Valley. The village outline helps to locate the valley-shaping processes. Redrawn from Sherry L. Hass.
THE LAND GRANT GENERATION
11
The Natural Environment The Pecos is what geographers call an exotic river. The idea is that the Pecos, which rises in a mountainous humid environment, flows to a lower dry environment-to which it is foreign. In the American Southwest, the Rio Grande and the Colorado are also exotic rivers. Fed by melting snowpacks in the high Rocky Mountains, all three rivers are perennial and all are of singular importance for sustaining life in lower dry environments. Because El Cerrito is only some sixty miles below the headwaters of the Pecos, which form at close to 12,000 feet above sea level, the flow of the Pecos at El Cerrito is strong all year long. In spring melting snows increase the river's volume, as well as the amount of sediment carried, which gives the Pecos a brownish cast, and in fall the Pecos is lower and sometimes delightfully blue, but in all seasons those living in El Cerrito's circular valley have a dependable supply of water. On the mesa next to the dirt road south of the circular valley is a United States Geological Survey (USGS) bench mark (Map 1.3). A circular bronze plaque states that the elevation is exactly 5,800 feet above sea level. The elevation of the village of El Cerrito, at the bottom of the hill, is some 10 to 20 feet above the 5,700-foot contour line that encircles three sides of the village. The average elevation for all of New Mexico is 5,700 feet above sea level.l3 In New Mexico, as in all mountainous areas, temperatures decrease with an increase in elevation. The rule of thumb for this temperature decrease in New Mexico is approximately 3S°F for every 1,000 feet in elevation. Because New Mexico is in the middle latitudes, temperatures also vary widely from season to season (and from day to night). In El Cerrito in July, the hottest month, the average daily maximum temperature is between 85" and 90°F. By contrast, in January, the coldest month, the average daily minimum temperature is between 15" and 20°F. Hot summer days in El Cerrito are quite comfortable because the relative humidity, thus the sensible temperature, is low. In summer and winter, the high mesa located just west of the village plays a microclimatic role. It puts El Cerrito in the shade in late afternoons, making temperatures pleasant in summer but accentuating the cold in winter.14 Cold temperatures, of course, limit an area's growing season. Plants introduced to New Mexico from warmer climates, for example, maize from Mexico, are sometimes damaged or killed when temperatures dip to about freezing levels. The temperature usually used to establish the critical low point is 32OF. In El Cerrito the date of the last daily minimum temperature of 32OF or less in spring is close to 10 May, and the date of the first daily minimum temperature of 32OF or less in fall is close to 10 October. For about one hundred fifty days, then, temperatures in El Cerrito are dependably frost-free. The growing season in El Cerrito is a little over five months.15 Meager amounts of precipitation as well as killing frosts act as an environmental constraint in El Cerrito. It receives an average of only 12 to 14 inches of precipitation annually. The amount is probably closer to 14 inches. This classifies El Cerrito as semiarid, a climatic category for areas where average precipitation is between 10 and 20 inches annually. Of El Cerrito's approximately 13 inches of precipitation, about 3 inches fall as some
12
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
30 inches of snow in winter (1 inch of precipitation equals about 10 inches of snow). Nearly half of the 13-inch total falls as rain in July and August, the two wettest months in El Cerrito and in all of New Mexico. During these months, warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico undergoes convectional heating, and this triggers late afternoon thundershowers. Because evaporation rates are greatest in the summer months, the effectiveness of El Cerrito's July-August precipitation-that is, the amount that is contributed to soil moisture-is even less than the meager totals would suggest. Scant precipitation and high evaporation thus conspire to make growing almost anything in El Cerrito nearly impossible unless it is irrigated, and these two factors also explain the sparse natural vegetation cover.l6 Natural vegetation in El Cerrito falls into two categories, riparian and upland. "Riparian" refers to the riverbank association of cottonwoods, willows, and sycamores that line and are nourished by the Pecos. Upland vegetation is dominated by large bushlike juniper and pifion pine, with grasses such as sideoats grama and lots of bare ground interspersed. The sparseness of the upland cover is of course a result of the scant and unreliable precipitation regime and high rates of evaporation. And the direction upland landforms face has an impact on vegetation density: slopes facing south and west (adret) receive more insolation, are drier, and have a sparser vegetation cover than do north-facing slopes (ubac) where shade and greater moisture efficiency foster a denser vegetation cover. El Cerrito lies within the Upper Sonoran natural vegetation life zone, which is found between roughly 4,500 and 6,000 feet above sea level. The geographer Charles F. Gritzner ingeniously correlated New Mexico's life zones with building material availability (Fig. 1.1).17 Gritzner's chart illustrates one example of the way in which Spaniards at El Cerrito adjusted to the natural environment. Lacking plentiful timber at elevations below about 6,000 feet, villagers built their homes of sun-dried adobe brick and stone. They built fences with vertically placed juniper posts called jacal. They saved the precious Ponderosa pine logs from elevations above 6,000 feet for vigas, or ceiling beams. Adjustments to the natural environment took other forms as well. Cold winter temperatures found villagers building shelters for their livestock, in addition to the normal corrals. Cold temperatures and a restricted growing season precluded the planting of oranges and other frost-sensitive crops grown by Spaniards in places like California and South Texas. Orchards in El Cerrito instead contained peach and apple and other deciduous fruit trees. Finding their arable bottomland constricted and none too plentiful and knowing that almost anything they grew would require irrigation, villagers carved their agricultural fields into long lots so as to distribute precious land equitably and to give everyone access to the irrigation ditch. And the irrigation ditch, which tapped that most indispensable of all elements of the natural environment, the Pecos lifeline, represented an adjustment to scant and unreliable precipitation amounts.
Native Americans The exotic Pecos attracted Native Americans to El Cerrito's secluded valley well before it attracted Spaniards. Two archaeological studies give us a partial record of Native Americans
THE LAND GRANT GENERATION
13
LIFE ZONES AND BUILDING MATERIALS IN NEW MEXICO LIFE ZONES Little Settlement
Ponderosa Pine Zone 6000 feet
Juniper-Piion Zone
Log
Palisade or Jacal
Stone
Adobe
TYPE OF WALL CONSTRUCTlON
W
Fig. 1.1 Vertical life zones correlate with building material availability in New Mexico. Modified from Charles Gritzner, "Construction Materials in a Folk Housing Tradition," Pioneer America 6 (January1974): p. 26. Courtesy of Charles F. Gritzner and Pioneer America.
at El Cerrito in prehistoric and historic times. One is by J. Douglas Heffington, a trained field archaeologist who used archaeological methods to gather information for a dissertation in historical geography at the University of Oklahoma. Heffington obtained permission to grid and with an auger core holes in seven of El Cerrito's thirty house lots (Map 1.5). On two of these house lots, he excavated multiple units when coring revealed the presence of artifacts (Fig. 1.2). From the excavations, which he undertook largely in summer 1989, Heffington retrieved nearly eighteen thousand artifacts, most of them pieces of animal bone and fragments of tin cans. Stephen S. Post and colleagues from the Office of Archaeological Studies of the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe undertook the second study in April 1991. Anticipating a new bridge across the Pecos at El Cerrito and a curve realignment in County Road B28A just north of the bridge, they examined the area straddling the road and found an artifact scatter. At the artifact scatter site, they excavated four test pits in the new road right-of-way.18
HEFFINGTON AND POST SITES EL CERRITO CIRCA 1990
0structures
Map 1.5 Heffington and Post archaeological field sites in El Cerrito, circa 1990. Heffington's own designations (Cl, C2, NI, Q1, 42, T1, V1) identify his seven house lots worked largely in 1989; he augered 643 cores and excavated 14 units (on N I and Cl). Post worked his scatter site and excavated four test pits in April 1991. Sources: Heffington, "El Cerrito," p. 20; Post, Cultural Resources, p. 25.
Fig. 1.2 Frames showing J.Douglas Heffington undertaking archaeological fieldwork in El Cerrito in summer 1989 (Map 1.S identifies sites). Upper left Field assistant JamesCrimes coring with a bucket auger on 42, 6 July. Upper right: Heffington excavating a unit on Cl, 4 July.Lower left: Shallow units excavated on N I (school lot), 5 July.Lower right: Unit within school on NI, also remnant of northeast corner of adobe school wall, 5 July. Photographs by RLN.
16
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
In the test pits Post and his fellow archaeologists found many lithic artifacts. Flakes and chips of stone indicated long-term use of the site for the manufacture of tools and other items of material culture. Native Americans made the artifacts primarily from local rock, especially chalcedony, but also from more precious nonlocal obsidian. Near the surface of one test pit the archaeologists found part of a sandstone man0 ("hand") used for grinding grain on a metate. Unfortunately, none of these lithic artifacts could be dated. But their presence constitutes clear evidence that hunter-gatherers occupied discontinuously but apparently for centuries the site by the bridge on the banks of the Pecos. Indeed, around the rim of the high mesa that overlooks the valley, as well as atop high El Cerrito in the middle of the valley, these same people probably fashioned arrowheads, or points, as they whiled away the hours keeping watch. With his sharp eyes, Heffington found flakes and several points in the deep cracks of the natural rock platforms used as lookouts.1g Post and his coworkers also found some twenty ceramic potsherds on the surface of the site and an additional six potsherds in one of the test units. All the sherds were of Puebloan manufacture between roughly 1720 and 1900, and all were examples of utility ware commonly possessed by Native Americans and Hispanics. The units excavated by Heffington in the village itself produced 714 ceramic sherds, all Puebloan and most (703) micaceous pottery made in the Picuris area south of Taos. Heffington dated the sherds between 1840 and 1890. They are examples of pottery commonly used by all peoples in New Mexico in the nineteenth century. They point only to trade with Pueblo Indians, not occupancy of the El Cerrito Valley by Pueblos. Some present-day villagers in El Cerrito have speculated that the El Cerrito irrigation ditch may be Puebloan in origin and that the first Spanish colonists at El Cerrito may have moved in with Pueblos. That Spaniards used abandoned Pueblo irrigation ditches elsewhere in New Mexico lends credence to this theory. But the absence of archaeological evidence in the Heffington and Post studies that Pueblos lived in the El Cerrito Valley seasonally or permanently would suggest that the irrigation ditch at El Cerrito is Spanish in origin.20 What do we know about Native Americans at El Cerrito? Nomadic hunting and gathering peoples lived discontinuously in the El Cerrito Valley over many centuries. Lithic artifacts tell us this. But evidence that Pueblo Indians lived seasonally or permanently in the valley has not been verified. Fieldhouses, artifact scatters, and petroglyphs at Pueblo Indian sites in the area of El Cerrito confirm the general presence of Pueblos, and use of the Pecos River by Pueblos in the area would be expected. But Pueblos may have found living in the El Cerrito Valley itself too d a n g e r ~ u s . ~ ~ Thus it would seem that the first Spanish colonists at El Cerrito entered a valley full of stone artifacts but empty of Native Americans. Lorenzo Mhrquez and his land grant generation made it possible for El Cerrito, the last of the San Miguel del Vado Grant villages downstream, to be settled in this valley. As we shall see, however, during much of the time Mhrquez and his generation lived in the Pecos Valley, the first colonists at El Cerrito still resided in Santa Fe and the Albuquerque area. For El Cerrito, then, the first generation begins with the village generation.
THE VILLAGE GENERATION, CIRCA 1825
ose Ramon Alari led the generation of Cerritefios who built a village. Born into a prominent family in Santa Fe in about 1783, Alari enlisted as a soldier at the Presidio in Santa Fe in 1802, and before being discharged for chronic illness in 1816, he took part in at least six military campaigns and worked as a military field hand and farmer. The baptisms of two sons i n Santa Fe in 1818 and 1820 suggest that after his discharge Alari and his second wife, Maria Manuela Antonia Jaramillo de Alari, remained for a time in the capital. By 1824, however, he lived in the Pecos Valley, where Diego Padilla, the alcalde and acting president of the jurisdiction of San Miguel del Vado, awarded him and fourteen other men agricultural parcels at El Cerrito. Alari received a disproportionately large share of land in this distribution, and two years later he held the title alcalde. Alari's special land grantee status and his political office likely derived from family prestige and service as a soldier. However, with prominence went responsibility, and from 1824 until he died in 1841, don Rambn, circumstantial evidence suggests, played a major role in his generation's foremost challenge, building a fortified village for protection from nomadic 1ndians.l
18
EL CERRITO,
NEW
MEXICO
Stepping-stone Migration Building fortified villages went hand in hand with the allocation of agricultural parcels: the villages provided protection on an exposed and dangerous frontier, and the agricultural parcels gave sustenance to a people who had to be self-sufficient. In 1803 colonists in the Pecos Valley had lived in two plazas nestled within ribbonlike agricultural parcels. Unclaimed bottomland upstream and downstream awaited distribution to future enterprising colonists. As new colonists arrived from source areas that widened beyond Santa Fe, the two plazas, especially the land grant's seat of authority at San Miguel del Vado, became stepping-stones to new plazas and agricultural parcels. The dates that various alcaldes in the jurisdiction of San Miguel del Vado awarded agricultural parcels suggest that expansion both upstream and downstream commenced in 1815 (Table 2.1).2
Table 2.1. Agricultural Land Distributions, Tracts 1-10, San Miguel del Vado Crant, 1803-1839, as reported in Coleman Report of 1901 Tract
Plaza or (Place)
l
Claimantsa
l
Acres
l
Dates
40 638
1 16.89 2,338.78
1 1 7.65 3,570.02
15 22
79.62 105.84
141.43 205.24
1 81 9-20 1820
10 17
92.84 108.23
185.61 225.65
181 5; 1820 1820-24
2 1
547.37 9.68
555.26 6.94
1833;1839 1 820
(Four bends of Pecos River at mouth of Cow Creek)
1
14.79
14.26
1819
(El Carricito) [now Dead Horse Ranch]
1
125.67
125.67
1838
747
3,539.71
5,147.73
El Cerrito San Josedel Vado to La Cuesta Entraiiosa [renamed San Juan]
El Cusano [renamed
1824 1803;181 5-26; 1837
South San Ysidro] Rio de la Baca [on Cow Creek] Las Mulas [renamed North San Ysidro] (Arroyo de 10s Temporales) (Two bends [ancones] of Cow Creek)
9 10
Total
SOURCE: Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, roll 35, frames 789-840, State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. NOTE: A Tract l1 (43.1 2 acres) awarded in 1839 to one party in sections l 0 and 15 in fractional T 13 N, R 16 E, was deemed to be located outside the boundaries of the San Miguel del Vado Land Crant. a Claimants were parties who, in the report of Clayton G. Coleman, Commissioner of the US. Court of Private Land Claims, filed 9 July 1901, traced titles to agricultural parcels by right of inheritance or purchase in distributions made by alcaldes from Santa Fe (1803) or San Miguel del Vado (1 815-39). Two surveys by Deputy Surveyor Wendell V. Hall undertaken in 1902-03 (one for Tracts 1, 3,4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; one for Tract 2) record a total of 5,147.73 acres.
THE VILLAGE GENERATION
19
Expansion north from San Jose del Vado took place at wide ancones along the Pecos and one of its tributaries called the Rio de la Vaca (present-day Cow Creek) (Map 2.1). Alcaldes awarded bottomland in 1815 and again in 1820 at the plaza of Rio de la Vaca on Cow Creek in Tract 5 (for continuity, I use tract numbers devised later). In l 8 19 and 1820 they distributed more land on the Pecos at the plaza of EntraAosa (San Juan) in Tract 3. Meanwhile, in 1819 they issued land at four ancones at the mouth of Cow Creek in Tract 9, and in 1820 they awarded land along the Pecos at the plaza of El Gusano in Tract 4. Lorenzo Marquez received land in the El Gusano distribution. In 1820 alcaldes issued land in two ancones on Cow Creek in Tract 8; and in 1820, 1822, and 1824, at the plaza of Las Mulas (present-day North San Ysidro), also on Cow Creek, they awarded additional land in Tract 6. All in all, however, the paucity of arable bottomland above San Jose del Vado made expansion there a patchwork affair and curtailed the number of colonist^.^ Downstream from San Miguel del Vado, a wider Pecos Valley yielded more plentiful bottomland and made expansion far more dynamic. In sizable Tract 2, alcaldes distributed several agricultural parcels in l 8 15, then several more in 1816 and 1818, and in a flurry of activity between 1820 and 1826 they awarded several hundred parcels (Map 2.1). The peak years for land distribution in Tract 2 were 1820 and 1824. Among these agricultural parcels plazas were established at El Pueblo, Puertecito (Sena), and La Cuesta (Villanueva), and groups of houses also emerged at Barranco and La Fragua. In 1824 Alcalde Padilla awarded agricultural lands at El Cerrito in Tract 1, the last tract going downstream in the San Miguel del Vado Grant. Minor infilling in 1837 rounded out Tract 2, and 1839 marked the end of agricultural parcel distribution in the jurisdiction of San Miguel del V a d ~ . ~ The plaza of La Cuesta in Tract 2 became the stepping-stone beyond San Miguel del Vado for those who went to El Cerrito. Fortunato Gallegos, La Cuesta's present-day local historian, locates La Cuesta's original settlement on the west side of the Pecos River, the side followed by the old road to San Miguel del Vado. Ruins of a to'rreon can be seen on presentday Vigil and Lucero property about a half mile west of the cuesta containing the present community. La Cuesta existed as early as 1818, when clergy first documented vecinos of "questa" in church records. In the early 1820s landless newcomers swelled the population of this end-of-the-line Pecos Valley plaza. That they included future Cerritefios is part of El Cerrito's oral and documented h i s t ~ r y . ~ On 6 March 1824, at the plaza of La Cuesta, Alari petitioned Alcalde Padilla for land at El Cerrito. In the petition Alari characterized El Cerrito as a paraje, or stopping point, used by travelers as they journeyed downstream from La Cuesta. Alari noted the existence of four uncultivated ancones, and he requested that he and the fourteen men assembled with him at La Cuesta be given the land in the four river bends. Sent forward through proper channels to the Provisional Deputation in Santa Fe, Alari's petition was approved on 14 April 1824, and on 26 May Padilla put the fifteen petitioners in possession of the four ancones? The day Padilla distributed the agricultural parcels the fifteen land grantees likely rode on horseback from the plaza of La Cuesta down the four miles of valley and canyon to El Cerrito. Undoubtedly eager to get on with their new lives, they may have begun construction of their fortified settlement immediately. However, given the constant threat of attack by nomadic Indians and El Cerrito's relative isolation from La Cuesta, El Cerrito's first heads
SAN MIGUEL DEL VADO GRANT LANDS PRIVATIZED Las Mulas (North San Ysidro)
grant boundary (east side) 4
I l l El 0 Carricito
Pueblo Arroyo de 10s Temporales
(Sena)
Tracts 1-10 I
I
I
I
Miles
1
I
La Cuesta (Villanueva)
Map 2.1 San Miguel del Vado privatized grant lands, 1901. In 1901 authorities privatized in ten tracts agricultural lands awarded in 1803 (from Santa Fe) and between 1815 and 1839 (from San Miguel del Vado). Table 2.1 outlines the chronology. Adapted from Wendell V. Hall, Deputy Surveyor, 1902-03, "Plat of the San Miguel del Bado Grant," at Bureau of Land Management, Santa Fe.
THE VILLAGE GENERATION
21
of household may also have lived for a time in the safety of La Cuesta and constructed their plaza from a distance. Between 1824 and 1827 church authorities recorded several people known to be among El Cerrito's first residents as vecinos of La Cuesta. The first recorded ecclesiastical event for a vecino of "Serrito" occurred on 15 April 1827 when Ramon Antonio Alari, adopted son of Jose Ramon Alari, married Maria Dolores Martin in the chapel at San Miguel del Vado. Thus sometime between 26 May 1824 and 15 April 1827, El Cerrito's first families permanently occupied their new ill age.^ Even before the founding of El Cerrito, would-be colonists, including several future Cerriteiios, went beyond El Cerrito's future site by nearly fourteen miles as the crow flies down the Pecos to Anton Chico. On 24 January 1822 Salvador Tapia and sixteen men (whose names are known) petitioned for land at Anton Chico, and on 2 May 1822 authorities awarded Manuel Rivera and thirty-six others (whose names are not part of the record) the Anton Chico Grant. The move down the Pecos proved too risky, as nomadic Indians apparently forced the settlement's abandonment in 1827 or 1828, and brave souls did not reoccupy the plaza at Anton Chico until 1834. Anton Chico and El Cerrito had numerous connections: Joaquin Alarid, probably the brother of Ram6n Alari, attended Governor Facundo Melgares in the preparation of the Anton Chico Grant document in Santa Fe in 1822. Three of Anton Chico's seventeen petitioners, Simon Estrada, Juan Crist6bal Garcia, and Luis Gonzhlez, became residents of El Cerrito, and a fourth, Bernardo Ulibarri, fathered Victorian0 Ulibarri, a future Cerriteiio. Apparently, Bernardo Ulibarri lived in El Pueblo, but the other three seem to have resided in La Cuesta, suggesting that La Cuesta served as the stepping-stone from San Miguel del Vado to both Anton Chico and El C e r r i t ~ . ~
The First Landholding Families How Alari or perhaps others selected El Cerrito's fourteen additional landholders and how he and Alcalde Padilla determined land allocations may never be known. Moreover, of the fifteen men, nothing is known about Pablo Borrego, except that he subsequently sold his land in El Cerrito, or of Benito Urtado (Hurtado?) (Table 2.2). For the remaining thirteen, however, the following can be pieced together. They came from Santa Fe and greater Albuquerque; they had recently arrived in the Pecos Valley; they ranged from young to old; with one exception, they were married, some more than once; many were related, which explains their coming together; all probably had been farmers, although Alari was primarily a soldier; and most became permanent residents of El Cerrito. It is also known that the lion's share of the first ancon-some fifteen of perhaps thirty-five parcels in an area villagers now call the Rincon, meaning "Corneru-went to Jose Ramon AlarL9 Ramon Alari's roots in Santa Fe went back several generations. His father, Manuel Isidoro Alari (1751-1804), like Ramon a soldier in the Presidio at Santa Fe, was the son of Juan Bautista Alari, a Frenchman who entered New Mexico apparently with the Mallet Expedition of 1739, married twice in Santa Fe, and left many offspring with the surname Alarid (as it is spelled today). Ramon's mother, Maria Josefa de Jestis Ortiz Bustamante (1762-?), Manuel's second wife, was the daughter of Nicolas Ortiz 111. Nicolas Ortiz I, a native of Mexico City, took part in the reconquest in 1693, and Nicolas Ortiz I1 owned property in
Table 2.2. El Cerrito Landholding Heads of Household, 26 May 1824 Source Area
Heads of Household Spouses
Baptized
Married
Residence a f t e r 1824
Buried
ca. 1 782
Santa Fe A l a r i [Alarid], Jos6 R a m o n Antonia Troncoso Maria Manuela Antonia Jaramillo San Jose?
ca. 1 789
ca. 181 1
7 826
Borrego, P a b l o Flores, l s i d r o Antonio Maria Juana Nepomucena Carcia
Santa Fe Albu area
ca. 181 0 ca. 181 0
Garcia, Eusebio Lorenzo Maria Catalina Santillanes Maria Luciana Martin Maria Dolores Mares
Albu area Albu area
ca. 1 793
Cuesta
7879 7837 7 838 Cerrito
Garcia, J u a n C r i s t o b a l Maria Tomasa Ra6l
ca. 1 792 Cerrito
Garcia, Jos6 J u l i a n Garcia, Jose R o m a n Maria Casilda Urioste Maria Antonia DurAn
11
M a r t i n e z a [Martin], Jose P a b l o [Francisco] Santa Fe Maria Antonia Teresa Carcia Albu area Rodriguez, J u a n l g n a c i o Maria Luisa "Luz" Tenorio
Santa Fe
Rodriguez, Jose Maria Concepci6n Carcia
Santa Fe
Saiz, Jos6 A l e j a n d r o Maria Cregoria Carcia
Santa Fe Albu area
Salas, J u a n
Santa Fe?
Sancheza, Jose S e v e r i a n o Maria Cuadalupe Blea Maria Antonia Mares
Santa Fe Santa Fe? Santa Fe?
Tenorio, Jos6 Manuel Maria Antonia Ramirez
1
Santa Fe
11 1 7 7 4 1 1 1 ca. 1 798
ca. 181 8
17621
Cerrito ca. 1800 Cerrito?
765?
ca. l796
ca. 1801 ca. 1807
ca. l822
t
Cuesta?
ca. 1770
I
ca. 1 800 ca. 181 2
ca. 1775
1 850e ca. 181 0
1 8 70e
Cerrito
ca. 1796
U r t a d o [Hurtado], B e n i t o SOURCE: Names of heads of household in bold type are from Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, roll 35, frame 795, State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. Other information is from AASF baptism, marriage, and burial records. Confirmed dates are italicized. Accents added. a In "Archive 1090" (1 824), an unnamed son of Sdnchez is the fifteenth grantee. Martinez [Martin] appears as a grantee in the Clayton G. Coleman Report of 1901 in the Land Grant Records. Resident of El Cerrito in 1841 census. C Known t o have lived in El Cerrito, yet not recorded in 1841 census. Resident of El Cerrito in 1850 census. Alive as of this date.
THE VILLAGE GENERATION
23
Santa Fe that included a house located directly in front of the present-day Cathedral of Saint Francis. From his father's first marriage Ramon had at least one half brother and one half sister and from his father's second marriage to Josefa (in 1781), he had four known brothers and two sisters as full siblings. One of the brothers, Joaquin Alarid, likely helped to prepare the Anton Chico Grant document in Santa Fe.lo In 1802, when authorities mustered in Alari at the age of nineteen at the Presidio in Santa Fe, he stood 5'1" and was described as clean shaven, with light chestnut eyes, dark hair, fair skin, a straight nose, and a mole on his right cheek. During the years Alari was a soldier, he and Antonia Troncoso, his first wife, produced three known children, two of whom were baptized in Santa Fe in 1806 and 1808. In about 1811 Alari, now a widower, married Maria Manuela Antonia Jaramillo and adopted her illegitimate son, Ramon Antonio (Ramoncito). The couple had six known children, only two of whom-Jose Francisco Gavino (b. 1820) and Maria Marta-seem to have lived beyond childhood. Manuela Jaramillo's family lived in the Pecos Valley. Two brothers, Miguel and Salvador, resided in San Jose del Vado, where Manuela's parents, Jose Antonio Jaramillo and Juana Montoya, also lived, and a brother and sister, Mariano and Rosa, lived in La Cuesta. Jaramillo family ties in the Pecos Valley and Alari family clout in Santa Fe probably explain Ram6n Alari's good fortune in the land distribution at El Cerrito. How the Alari and Jaramillo families may have been tied to El Cerrito's large Garcia contingency remains unclear? Garcia family members account for seven or eight of the fifteen first landholding families. The family patriarch, Juan Crist6bal Garcia, and his wife, Maria Tomasa Rael, came from the Albuquerque area, as verified by the baptisms in Albuquerque of Jose Ram6n (not an El Cerrito landholder) in 1800 and Jose Julihn in 1801, two of nine or ten known children. In the Albuquerque area the family may have lived in San Carlos de la Alameda, where a Juan Cristobal Garcia purchased 380 varas of land and a three-room adobe house in 1806. Later that year, in the jurisdiction of Albuquerque, authorities placed a Juan Cristobal Garcia on trial for murder. Whether either or both of these Juan Cristobal Garcias was the family patriarch in El Cerrito is not known. Moreover, a gap in the baptismal records for Albuquerque between 1803 and 1821 makes it difficult to know when Juan Cristobal and Tomasa moved to the Pecos Valley. In 1822, however, undoubtedly the El Cerrito Juan Cristobal Garcia received land in the Anton Chico enterprise, and two years later he received land at El Cerrito. Also given land were three of his sons, a daughter, a daughter or a niece, a niece, and an unexplained Garcia woman.12 Of the three Garcia sons, Eusebio, Roman, and JuliAn, the most is known about Eusebio, probably the eldest. In 1819, while still in Albuquerque, Eusebio married Maria Catarina Santillanes, with whom he had seven known children. An older daughter, Maria Soledad, was baptized in Albuquerque in 1822, and four of the younger children were baptized in the jurisdiction of San Miguel del Vado between 1825 and 1832. Thus Eusebio and Catarina moved to the Pecos Valley between 1822 and 1825. Catarina died in 1834, and on 11 October l83 7 Eusebio married Maria Luciana Martin, apparently in a double wedding ceremony that included Maria Soledad. When Luciana died a year later, Eusebio married for the third time. He and Maria Dolores Mares had four known children between 1839 and 1845. Roman, the second son to receive land in 1824, married twice. His first wife, Maria
24
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
Casilda Urioste, bore him at least one son, Jose Candelario, in La Cuesta in 1822. Casilda died in 1836, and two years later Romhn married Maria Antonia Durhn, with whom he had three known children, in 1842, 1844, and 1846. Meanwhile, Jose Candelario married Maria Catarina Durhn, the sister of his stepmother. Finally there was Julian, about whom little is known with certainty beyond his birth in Albuquerque in 1801. Jose Julian Garcia and two contemporaries named Julihn Garcia lived in the jurisdiction of San Miguel del Vado, and because clergy seldom gave full names in church records, the three are easily confused. In the 1830s, however, the Julihn of El Cerrito appeared frequently as a padrino for children born in the village.13 Three or four women of the same Garcia family also received land in El Cerrito, yet in a society dominated by men, authorities made their husbands the grantees. The eldest, Maria Antonia Teresa Garcia, married Jose Pablo (also Francisco) Martin (also Martinez), a Santa Fean at least twenty years her senior. Between about 1818 and 1833 they had eight known children, and after 1824 they resided in El Cerrito. Because she lived in El Cerrito, Maria Gregoria Garcia was also probably a daughter of Juan Cristobal and Tomasa. In one church document Gregoria is given as the daughter of Juan Cristo'bal Garcia and Tomasa Rael, yet in another she is listed as the daughter of Juan Garcia and Francisca Rael, a couple from Albuquerque who lived in La Cuesta, had at least seven children, and were probably kin to Juan Cristobal and Tomasa. Like Teresa, Gregoria married a Santa Fean, Jose Alajandro Saiz, with whom she had five known children. A third Garcia woman, Maria Juana Nepomucena, the daughter of Juan Garcia and Francisca Rai.1 and thus perhaps a niece of Juan Crist6bal and Tomasa, married Isidro Antonio Flores, also a Santa Fean. At least one member of the same Flores family, a brother named Jose Antonio, lived in San Jose del Vado by 1809, and by the early 1820s Flores brothers were well represented in La Cuesta, where "Pomucena" and Isidro married in 1826. Because the El Cerrito land distribution took place in 1824, Garcia family ties may not have played a role in young Isidro's award of land. The couple had four known children and seem always to have lived in La Cuesta. Whether a final Garcia woman, Maria Concepcion, the wife of Jose Rodriguez, had ties with Juan Cristobal is not known. The couple apparently lived in El Cerrito.14 The five landholding heads of household not yet accounted for in Table 2.2 all seem to have been related Santa Feans. Two, Juan Ignacio Rodriguez and Jose Rodriguez, seem to have been brothers born in Santa Fe in 1762 and 1765, respectively. Juan Ignacio and Maria Luisa Tenorio had six known children, two of whom were baptized in Santa Fe in 1801 and 1806. In 1815 a third child was baptized in the jurisdiction of San Miguel del Vado, yet back in Santa Fe a fourth child was baptized in 1818. Juan Ignacio was a resident of El Cerrito when he died in 1835. Jose Rodriguez and Maria Concepcion Garcia also had six known children, all baptized by clergy in Santa Fe between 1797 and 1814. The couple probably lived in El Cerrito after 1824. Jose Severiano Sbnchez, a third head of household, served as a padrino at the baptism of the daughter of Juan Ignacio Rodriguez in Santa Fe in 1801, suggesting a connection as a relative or at least as a close friend.15 With Maria Guadalupe Blea, Severiano Sdnchez had two children in Santa Fe in 1803 and 1807, and with his second wife, Maria Antonia Mares, he had two more children in Santa Fe in 1813 and 1819. However, on 28 January 1827, in La Cuesta (and possibly there-
THE VILLAGE GENERATION
25
fore in El Cerrito), clergy listed him as a padrino for a child born to Eusebio Garcia and Catalina Santillanes. Severiano and Antonia Mares apparently lived in El Cerrito from the beginning. A fourth household head, Jose Manuel Tenorio, may have been kin to Maria Luisa Tenorio, wife of Juan Ignacio Rodriguez. In Santa Fe, Manuel and his wife, Maria Antonia Ramirez, had three of six known children between 1797 and 1802. In 1816 a son, Francisco, married Dolores Mondragon, also a Santa Fean, in the jurisdiction of San Miguel del Vado; in 1825 a daughter, Maria Casilda, gave birth to Maria Teresa de Jesiis in La Cuesta; and on 26 November 1827 a son, Josef Eduardo, became the first Cerritefio of record to be buried. Manuel, a vecino of El Cerrito, died in 1836, and villagers buried him in the Sementerio de la Capilla (Chapel) de La Cuesta. The final household head, Juan Salas, apparently a Santa Fean, is probably the Juan Salas who received four parcels in Tract 2 in 1824. He does not appear to have lived in El Cerrito. A possible connection with El Cerrito is through Ram6n Salas, perhaps a son, husband of Rosa Jaramillo, Manuela Jaramillo's sister. The couple lived in Santa Fe in 1815 and 1820 (Ram6n Alari is listed as a padrino in l 8 15), yet by 1826 they resided in La Cuesta.16 In summary, half a dozen loosely related families from Santa Fe and a largely nuclear Garcia family from the Albuquerque area converged in bountiful Tract 2 sometime between 1815 and 1822. The potential for owning land in the Pecos Valley seems to have pulled them there. In the La Cuesta area marriages between men of several families from Santa Fe and Garcia women from Albuquerque probably brought people together for the El Cerrito enterprise. In 1824, when Padilla distributed agricultural parcels in El Cerrito, Santa Feans represented roughly half the heads of household and Garcia sons and sons-in-law the other half. Why these heads of household received land is a political story that may never be known. That political favoritism played a role is made clear by Ram6n Alari's disproportionately large allocation and also by the fact that one grantee, Isidro Flores, a lad of perhaps only fifteen, apparently had not yet married. What became of these first landholding families? By the late 1840s many of the original heads of household and their wives had died. Severiano Sanchez, who gave his age as eighty-two in 1850, seems to have outlived the older heads (Table A.2, 1850, no. 29). With the passing of the first generation, moreover, few of their surnames survived, and curiously none of them played leading roles. Two widows were notable exceptions. Colorful Manuela Jaramillo de Alari oversaw the land she inherited in 1841 from Ram6n Alari. From a building rooftop behind her multiroom adobe home, she watched her peones at work in her fields and called them for meals by ringing a bell. Her landholdings included property in Los Trigos near San Miguel del Vado, which she sold in 1858. In 1850 she apparently had two genizaros, a woman and a probable son, as household servants-if correct, the only genizaros of record in El Cerrito. By 1860 Desiderio Jaramillo, an eleven-year-old heir and possibly a godson, lived with Manuela. That year he and only one other village child, Francisco Alari, attended school, probably a boarding school in Las Vegas or Santa Fe. When Manuela died in 1867 at the age of seventy-eight, in keeping with her status as El Cerrito's wealthiest villager, the community honored her with burial adentro (inside) the Chapel of La Cuesta. Teresa Garcia de Martin, widowed when her husband, Pablo Martin(ez), died in 1848, facilitated the rise of the Quintana, Ulibarri, and Gardufio families through her
26
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
daughters. Teresa died at the age of seventy-eight in 1876, the first year clergy recorded burials in El Cerrito. Teresa was interred in the Chapel of El Cerrito.17
The First Nonlandholding Families Families that apparently did not own land seem also to have lived in El Cerrito from the beginning. Their ranks included the Bleas. Jose Rafael Blea and his younger brother, Manuel, hailed from Santa Fe, where clergy baptized six brothers and sisters between 1784 and 1805. By 1814 Rafael had moved to the Pecos Valley, where he and Maria de la Luz Maes, a native of Ojo Caliente, married in the church at San Miguel del Vado. Over the next twenty-five years Rafael and Luz had ten known children. They lived in El Cerrito when, on 1 March 1828, in El Cerrito's first recorded baptism, clergy anointed Jose Albino, probably their seventh child. Manuel Blea and his wife, Rafaela Brito, also moved early to El Cerrito, where Rafaela apparently gave birth to five of their seven known children. By 1825 at least one other Blea family member, a sister Paula and her husband, Santiago Martin, lived in La Cuesta. Maria Guadalupe Blea, an early wife in Santa Fe of landholder Severiano Sanchez and possibly another sister of Rafael and Manuel, is one of several possible links between the Bleas and El Cerrito. When Rafael Aragon took a census in El Cerrito in March 1841 the Bleas constituted five village households, those of Rafael and Manuel and three formed by older children of Rafael and Luz (Table A.l, 1841, nos. 4, 8, 9, 10, 32).18 The Madrid family experience paralleled that of the Bleas. On 16 August 1779 clergy baptized Jose Antonio Rafael Madrid, apparently in Santa Fe where four of his brothers and sisters were also baptized between 1767 and 1788. Between 1808 and 1821 Rafael and Maria Ysabel Romero had seven known children in Santa Fe. Ysabel seems to have died, for in the 1820s Rafael is married to Maria Manuela Saiz, baptized on 5 January 1791 in Santa Fe as the daughter of Joaquin Andres Saiz and Maria Antonia Gonzalez. Marriage into the Saiz family provided ample reason for Rafael to be invited to El Cerrito: Juan de Jesus Saiz, a brother of Manuela, was the father of Jose Alejandro, an original landholder and a village resident; and Antonio Saiz, another of Manuela's brothers, was the father of Manuel, who also lived in the village. And so Rafael and Manuela moved to El Cerrito, apparently when the community began, for the baptism of their child, Rafael Antonio, on 15 June 1828, is one of the earliest on record for vecinos of El Cerrito. Rafael and Manuela had another child, Juan, who married villager Maria Antonia Martin, daughter of Pablo Martin. Unfortunately, Manuela Saiz died. In about 1833 Rafael married Trinidad Gonzalez, who bore him at least four more children between 1837 and l85 1. Rafael and Trinidad, Rafael's son with Ysabel Romero, Jose Antonio, his daughter with Ysabel Romero, Maria del Refugio, and the two Saiz cousins, Alejandro and Manuel, all lived in El Cerrito when Rafael Aragon took the census there in 1841 (Table A.l, 1841, nos. 22, 44, 45, 70, 72).19 Luis Maria Gonzalez and his wife, Maria Magdalena Maes, seem also to have been part of the El Cerrito nonlandholding contingency from the beginning. Apparently a native of Santa Fe, Gonzalez was likely the Luis Gonzilez who petitioned for the Anton Chico Grant in 1822. If Magdalena was kin to Luz Maes, wife of Rafael Blea, then the couple had clear ties to El Cerrito. From the 1820s to the 1840s clergy often named Luis Maria and Magdalena
THE VILLAGE GENERATION
27
as padrino and madrina at El Cerrito baptisms, and in 1840 they listed Luis Maria as a witness at the wedding of Fernando Quintana and Gertrudis Martin. In the 1841 census ten of eighty-four El Cerrito households, including that of Luis Maria and Magdalena, contained Gonzalezes (Table A.1, 1841, nos. 6, 23, 27-33, 45). Church records indicate that Juana Gonzalez (household #23) was a daughter of Luis Maria and Magdalena, and they list Miguel Albino (household #32) as a brother of Luis Maria, but how the rest fit is not clear. When Magdalena died Luis Maria married Apolonia Bustos. He and Apolonia seem not to have had children. And when Apolonia died, Luis Maria married Maria Teodora Duran. With Teodora, a now elderly Luis Maria had three more known children between 1855 and 1861, and in 1863, at the age of seventy-five, villagers laid him to rest in the Chapel of La C~esta.~O Two additional nonlandholding families led by Antonio Chavez and Manuel Antonio Gutierrez seem also to have lived in El Cerrito from the beginning (Table A.1, 1841, nos. 12, 36). One of two destinies awaited them and their Blea, Madrid, and Gonzalez neighbors: they either acquired land or moved away from El Cerrito. Through his marriage to Apolonia Bustos, Luis Maria Gonzalez inherited land that Apolonia's father, Cesario Bustos, had purchased from Jose Manuel Tenorio, an original grantee. Thus Luis Maria stayed in El Cerrito and is listed as one of eighteen landowners in 1860 (Table A.4, 1860, no. 12). Manuel Antonio Gutierrez also became a landowner by 1850 and stayed, although it is not known how he acquired his land (Table A.2, 1850, no. 16). The connections that brought the Bleas, Madrids, and Chavezes to El Cerrito appear not to have materialized in land. In a major village exodus, they joined other nonlandholding families in moving to the village of San Agustin not long after Arag6n took the census in 1841 (Table A.3, 1850, Blea nos. 1, 3-5, 13; Chavez nos. 6-8; Madrid nos. 10, 20,21, in San Agustin). Indeed, the exodus took six of the ten Gonzalez households, including Luis Maria's daughter, Juana, and brother, Manuel Albino (Table A.3, 1850, nos. 2, 11-14, 20).21
The Fortified Village El Cerrito's first families constructed their flat-roofed one-story adobe houses flush with one another to form a rectangle that secured an inner plaza. The houses' doors opened onto this plaza. Apparently none of the houses had windows. In laying out their rectangle, Cerritefios seem to have known that its corners should point at least weakly in the cardinal directions, an edict of the Laws of the Indies commonly adhered to in New Mexico. El Cerrito's fortified rectangle as well as its church are turned some 15 degrees from true north. Figure 2.1 presents an artistic view of how the plaza may have looked. No torre6n seems to have been buikZ2 The church was the community focal point, both literally and symbolically. Probably constructed as a community project, the structure's windowless thick adobe walls gave Cerritefios a potential fortress. In a crisis, villagers used a large drum located near the church to sound the alarm. One can imagine, to use the words of Don Usner, "callused hands gripping rosaries behind thick mud walls." The date 1888 is reportedly carved on a present-day church viga now hidden from view under a false ceiling, which suggests that
28
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
HYPOTHETICAL EL CERRITO PLAZA CIRCA 1824
Fig. 2.1 This sketch attempts to capture how the small fortified settlement of El Cerrito may have looked circa 1824. One-story adobe houses with flat roofs presumably enclosed an open plaza. Just when villagers built a substantial church is not known. Entrances to the compound probably had heavy gates. Sketch by RLN, viewed to the northeast.
in 1888 villagers added on to an earlier, perhaps original church or that they constructed an altogether new church. Old-timers report that the church's present pitched roof and belfry were not constructed until about 1920. They also say that when the county built El Cerrito's cement bridge across the Pecos in 1919-20, villagers dismantled a wall that enclosed the churchyard cemetery and used it as fill for the appproach to the bridge. When completed, the church carried the name of the village patron, Nuestra Sefiora de 10s Desamparados, Our Lady of the Forsaken Ones. Perhaps Cerritefios thought of themselves as deserted or abandoned in their end-of-the-line plaza.23 Both the church and the village sat above the Pecos River on a second-level, river-cut terrace. As it swung away from the river, the irrigation ditch followed the outer edge of this terrace to circle three sides of the plaza (Map 2.2). Like its Pecos Valley neighbors, the El Cerrito plaza must have had heavy gates, known as zaguanes, to control access to the inside of the compound. One gate may have existed on the west side to give villagers access to the vado across the Pecos and to the road leading upstream to La Cuesta. Given present village
THE VILLAGE GENERATION
29
pathways, two additional gates may have led to the agricultural fields on the lower terrace and floodplain. In the late nineteenth century, in more peaceful times, the paucity of secondlevel terrace land above the irrigation ditch constrained expansion of the village, with the result that El Cerrito is uncommonly compact.24 The evidence that El Cerrito began as a defensive plaza is overwhelming. First, early CerriteAos came from plaza communities elsewhere in the Pecos Valley. In 1841 George W. Kendall described Anton Chico as a rectangular compound built of one-story, flat-roofed,
Map 2.2 El Cerrito in Ramon Alari's time (ca. 1824-41). The existence of a plaza is confirmed; features shown are conjectural. Houses marked with an "X" are found in Map 7.1 (nos. 1, 2, 4, 8, 18). See text for evidence.
30
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
windowless houses, a plan he said characterized the majority of New Mexico's villages. The plaza at San Jose del Vado, as noted in chapter 1, is intact to this day. Second, JesGs Maria Quintana V. (Vigil), son of Anastacio Quintana, told his daughter Bella that villagers built El Cerrito as a placita for protection from Indians: "You can see that the houses were one after another." In 1940, when Olen Leonard asked members of each El Cerrito household the age of their houses, the only houses reported to be one hundred years old surrounded the church (Map 2.2). And there is additional evidence. In about 1919, the westernmost room of the Emiterio Arellanes h o u s e o n c e the house of Ramon Alari-had to be torn down to make a right-of-way for the new bridge. This house had formed part of the rectangle. And when coring sample holes on the same Alari-Arellanes house lot in 1989, Heffington found no evidence of buried trash. He did find subsurface trash deposited outside the original plaza, especially along the route leading to the vado. Early villagers clearly deposited their trash outside the compound.25 The Alari-Arellanes house in the plaza's northeast corner consisted of perhaps six or seven rooms all in a row. North of this long house, outside the plaza, stood the two-room structure (now gone) to the top of which Manuela Jaramillo de Alari would climb to observe her field-workers and to ring a bell to call them for meals. Fernando Quintana apparently bought the long house for his daughter, Maria Simona, at about the time Simona and Jose Emiterio Arellanes married in 1878. Ricardo (Rick) Patricio Quintana, the present owner, reported that a170 de 1877 is carved in a viga in a newer part of the house, which suggests that Fernando may have added to the house when he bought it. Doorways between older rooms are quite low, but then Ramon Alari stood only 5'1". As recently as 1941 the house still had only a flat roof (see Fig. 9.7, below).26 Well beyond Ramon Alari's generation, Apaches and other nomadic people posed real dangers in El Cerrito. Anastacio Quintana told Olen Leonard in 1940 that when he was a boy (he was born in 1862), Indians stole buffalo meat and lard from village homes at night. Through open windows they would spear tortillas with long pointed sticks. He related the story of the time his father, Fernando, watered an ox. Indians appeared and took the ox. Fernando ran to the village, beat the "huge drum" used for calling villagers in an emergency, and with their help immediately pursued the Indians. When they caught up with the ox, they found only its bones; the Indians had stripped off the meat and fled. To warn of such marauders, villagers stationed a centinela atop La Centinela, as they called the high mesa west of the village (Map 2.2). Another sentinel stood watch on the high bluff northeast of the village near the new ~emetery.~' La Centinela also played a role in the villagers' religious life. Henry Arellanes remembers that villagers burned a candle in a small man-made cave on a rock shelf halfway up La Centinela. When someone lost a cow, villagers ascended La Centinela to observe the burning candle. The direction the candle's flame pointed would lead them to the
THE fARM GENERATION, CIRCA 1850
uintana family members in El Cerrito today explain that long ago three Quintana brothers, Fernando, Miguel, and Juan, went directly from Spain to the Pecos Valley. Fernando founded El Cerrito, while Miguel and Juan located in villages upstream. This story is partly true. Altogether, six Quintana brothers moved to the Pecos Valley, including Miguel and Juan, who settled in Los Trigos, and Fernando, who moved to El Cerrito. However, the brothers came from Santa Fe, not Spain, and Fernando, a child of five in 1824, played no role in founding El Cerrito. In Santa Fe, don Jose Miguel Antonio Quintana and doAa Maria Josefa Sena de Quintana had at least ten children between 1800 and about 1826, and in 1823, when a census taker recorded Fernando's age as three, the family lived in the barrio of San Miguel on the south side of the Santa Fe River. As a young man Femando (sometimes called Fernandes) worked in the Spanish village of Pecos, and on 11 September 1840, in San Miguel del Vado, he married Maria Gertrudis Martin, daughter of Pablo Martin and Teresa Garcia and granddaughter of Juan Cristobal Garcia. A resourceful and ambitious person who had married well, Femando rose quickly into the ranks of El Cerrito's elite and emerged as the undisputed leader of a generation whose challenge was to stay close to home and farm.l
32
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
New Families In the 1830s the census reveals new surnames, including Duran, Mbrquez, Apodaca, and Estrada, in El Cerrito, and during the 1840s and 1850s, we find the additional names Quintana, Ulibam', Manzanares, and Gardufio. Although the evidence is sometimes sketchy, the people bearing these new surnames either had relatives in El Cerrito or they were young men like Fernando Quintana who married village women. The newcomers now came from beyond Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Ojo Caliente-from the Taos area, La Cafiada, the Santa Clara area, and the Pecos Valley itself. Of the eight newcomers, only Apodoca did not remain permanently. The Bleas apparently did not own land, and Justo Apodaca's marriage to Tomasa Blea in 1836 thus seems to have precluded his acquiring land, at least through marriage. But the other newcomers acquired land and became permanent CerriteAos. The 1841 census shows El Cerrito's population to have grown in seventeen short years to 321, which may well be the village's all-time high. The eighty-four households listed for 1841 in Table A.l thus include some original landholders and nonlandholders, their numerous children and grandchildren, and the first of the newcomer^.^ Longtime villager Pedro Luis Duran moved to El Cerrito with his parents, Juan Durhn and Maria Juana Montoya de Durhn, sometime in the 1830s. Pedro's testimony given in 1900 at the age of seventy-nine during the San Miguel del Vado Grant proceedings provides insight into family mobility in the early 1800s. Clergy baptized Pedro in an Indian village on the Rio Chiquito near Taos soon after his birth on 12 December 1820. From the Rio Chiquito the family moved to La Cuesta sometime before the baptism there of a second son, Jose Tomas, on 24 December 1824. Pedro returned to the Taos area with his grandparents, and when they died sometime between 1830 and 1832, he rejoined his family in La Cuesta. For unknown reasons, perhaps Durhn ties to Maria Antonia Durhn, second wife (in 1838) of land grantee Roman Garcia, or perhaps Montoya ties to Manuela Jaramillo's family, the Duran family moved to El Cerrito in the 1830s. Census taker Aragon listed them in El Cerrito in 1841 (Table A.l, 1841, no. 15). In about 1842 Pedro married Maria Dolores Tenorio of La Cuesta, in 1844 or 1845 buffalo killed Pedro's father near El Cerrito, and after Stephen Watts Kearny invaded New Mexico in 1846, Pedro at least nominally took the place of his father in the service of Governor Manuel Armijo, the only villager known to have served in this capacity. Baptismal and census records show that for twenty years after 1843 Pedro and Dolores produced twelve or thirteen children. Jeslis Maria, one of the eldest, inherited the land his father had purchased from Jos6 M. Chavez, who in turn had purchased land from original grantee Pablo Borrego. Pedro died in 1906 at the age of eightyseven, and villagers buried him in El Cerrito. "Doloritas," as her name is written on a grave marker in the El Cerrito church cemetery, died in 1909.3 In the 1830sJose Rafael Marquez and Juana Paula de Jesus Segura also became residents of El Cerrito. Rafael, a native of Albuquerque, followed in the footsteps of an older brother, Juliin Lorenzo, who had moved to the Pecos Valley some twenty years earlier. Meanwhile, Paula, a native of La Cafiada but baptized in Santa Fe, also found her way to the Pecos frontier. On 29 January 1834, clergy married the two somewhere in the jurisdiction of San Miguel del Vado, perhaps in El Cerrito. Church records give El Cerrito as their residence at
THEFARMGENERATION
33
the baptism of their first known child, Maria ~ r s u l ain , 1837. Rafael had possible family ties to El Cerrito through his mother, a Rael from Albuquerque. Paula had more definite ties: Roque Madrid, her maternal grandfather, was the father of Rafael Madrid, an early villager. Rafael Marquez and Paula are listed with two children in El Cerrito in the 1841 census (Table A.l, 1841, no. 46). At some point they acquired land, apparently through purchase from Juan Ignacio Rodriguez and Juan Salas. Anastacia, baptized in 1858 and the last of their eleven known children, inherited the land. Rafael and Paula lived out their days in El Cerrito, and on 8 December 1866, at the age of sixty-five, Rafael was buried in the cemetery at La C ~ e s t a . ~ In the mid-1830s the surname Estrada appears in El Cerrito. Juan Sim6n Estrada, not a newcomer to the Pecos Valley, had petitioned for land at Anton Chico in 1822. The early Anton Chico community failed, and by the 1830s Sim6n and his wife, Maria Andrea Maes, lived in El Cerrito. If Andrea had village ties through Luz Maes, wife of Rafael Blea, she and Sim6n had definite ties through their daughter, Maria Clementa Estrada, who married villager Manuel Saiz on 16 December 1837. Both couples were El Cerrito residents in 1841 (Table A. 1, 1841, nos. 18, 72). Sim6n and Andrea apparently moved from El Cerrito sometime after census taker James D. Robinson recorded them in 1850 (Table A.2, 1850, no. 9). But Manuel and Clementa stayed and had a dozen children between about 1838 and 1864. Manuel meanwhile became the heir to his cousin Alejandro's land. Always an outlier from the major Saiz family presence in La Cuesta, Manuel and Clementa headed up the one nuclear Saiz family in El Cerrito. When Manuel died in 1883, Clementa inherited his property, and when she died in 1901, the Saiz family in El Cerrito essentially came to an end. Given Saiz family strength in La Cuesta, it is not surprising that when the four adults died, Sim6n and Andrea in 1870 and 1871, then Manuel and Clementa, villagers interred each in the cemetery at La C u e ~ t a . ~ Fernando Quintana probably moved to El Cerrito when he and Gertrudis Martin married in September 1840. However, an unexplained Francisco Quintana, a widower with three children in El Cerrito in the March 1841 census, raises questions about Fernando's early contact with El Cerrito (Table A.l, 1841, no. 64). Fernando and Gertrudis are absent in the March 1841 census, which is curious, because three months earlier, on 27 December 1840, clergy recorded them as padrino and madrina at a village baptism. In El Cerrito, the couple got off to a rocky start. On 29 September 1841 clergy baptized their first child, Maria Agapita, who died just three months later. Jose Antonio, their second child, baptized on 16 May 1843, also died young. But the next eight children born in El Cerrito between 1845 and 1865 lived. Through contacts facilitated by his marriage and through hard work, Fernando purchased land from original grantees Manuela Jaramillo de Alari and Roman Garcia. Meanwhile, Gertrudis also bought land from Jose Armenta, who had purchased land from original grantee Isidro Flores. The census taken in 1870 shows that Fernando was El Cerrito's largest landholder, well ahead of Luis Manzanares (Table 3.6). In addition to these facts, we know that Fernando rose before dawn; was strong, healthy, and a good Indian fighter; and at the end of his life walked with a limp. Gertrudis had a heart-shaped growth over one eye, reportedly the result of an injury sustained when a picture frame fell from a wall and struck her forehead. She had Indian features that some attribute to Apache ancestors.
34
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
Villagers buried the couple in the Chapel of El Cerrito, Fernando in 1897 at the age of seventy-eight and Gertrudis in 1913 at the age of eighty-eighk6 It was Fernando Quintana's good fortune to be Teresa Garcia's son-in-law, for Teresa controlled village land once possessed by her father, Juan Crist6bal Garcia, and her husband, Pablo Martin, both original grantees. Two additional young nonvillage men likewise benefited from marrying daughters of Teresa Garcia and Pablo Martin. The first, Victoriano Ulibarri, at about the age of twenty-four, married Maria Francisca Martin, just thirteen, in 1844. Victoriano, the son of Bernardo Ulibarri, who seems to have lived in El Pueblo, had thirteen known children with Francisca between about 1846 and 1874. Having the right village contacts must have helped Victoriano to purchase land, from original grantee Juan Salas; Victoriano's eldest son, Jose Francisco, also purchased land from original grantee Eusebio Garcia. Meanwhile, the couple's second son, Pedro, purchased land from Jesus Maria Quintana. A second son-in-law, Aniseto Gardufio, a native of La Cuesta, married Maria Isabel Martin, probably in 1854. He and Isabel produced five known children between 1855 and 1867, but then Isabel seems to have died. In 1902, when authorities identified land claims in Tract 1 of the San Miguel del Vado Grant, their eldest son, Jose Gregorio, owned land purchased from the heirs of Manuela Jaramillo de Alari, while a younger son, Jose Crestino, owned land purchased from his cousin, Francisco Ulibarri.' Between 1846 and 1850 Luis Maria Manzanares moved to El Cerrito with his young wife and son. Luis was born in about 1817 in Playa de San Antonio (El Guache) in Santa Clara Parish and had no apparent family ties to El Cerrito. His wife, Maria Agapita Mares, who was born in about 1829 in San Miguel del Vado, did have influential family connections in El Cerrito. Her kin included Maria Antonia Mares, second wife of original landholder Severiano Sinchez, and she may also have been related to Maria Dolores Mares, third wife of original landholder Eusebio Garcia. In 1844 Luis and Agapita married in the Pueblo village of San Felipe; on 15 September 1846 a son, Jose Melquiades, was baptized in Santa Fe; and by 1850 the family lived in El Cerrito (Table A.2, 1850, no. 21). Altogether, Luis and Agapita had eleven children, nine of whom lived, and in time Agapita inherited the land of Severiano Sanchez. Albino, the youngest son, purchased land from the heirs of Manuela Jaramillo de Alari. By 1885 the Manzanares family had resources that put them second only to the Quintanas in family wealth (Tables 4.3, 4.4). And this created problems8 The similarities between Fernando Quintana and Gertrudis Martin, on the one hand, and Luis Manzanares and Agapita Mares, on the other, went well beyond amassing wealth. Fernando and Gertrudis were born in about 1819 and 1825, Luis and Agapita in about 1817 and 1829. Both Fernando and Luis became Cerritefios through marriage (in 1840 and 1844). Between 1841 and 1865 Fernando and Gertrudis had ten children, eight of whom lived; between 1846 and 1867 Luis and Agapita had eleven children, nine of whom lived. Fernando had an edge on acquiring land through his mother-in-law, Teresa Garcia, while Luis gained an advantage through his wife's kin, Antonia Mares. Both couples had able sons (four Quintanas, five Manzanareses) to help farm and raise livestock, and both had two daughters who added to their families' strength through marriage: Maria Dolores Quintana married Juan Vigil in 1864, and Simona Quintana married Emiterio Arellanes in 1878; Dolores Manzanares married Melquiades Flores in 1874, and Maria Juana Manzanares mar-
THE FARM GENERATION
35
ried Juan Antonio Montoya (a CerriteAo) in 1880. Although Fernando and Luis had amicable relations as they sought wealth and power, rivalry in the next generation led to a feud. The way the principals ended is that Luis and Fernando, each seventy-eight, died in 1896 and 1897, respectively, while Gertrudis died in 1913. All three were buried in the Chapel of El Cerrito. Agapita was alive in 1900, but by 1910 she and all other Manzanareses had been driven from the ill age.^
San Agustin By 1841 El Cerrito had become overcrowded. High birthrates among the first families produced a large second generation of sons and daughters. New families continued to arrive. And now 321 people inhabited the tiny plaza. CerriteAos also faced the problem of an unequal distribution of wealth. Elite families owned most of the valley agricultural land and livestock, while the other families seem to have supplied the field hands and shepherds. Thus when a new frontier offered economic opportunity, the landless families, indeed all families wanting to better themselves, seized the occasion and moved on. The exodus was so massive that at first glance the 1850 census for El Cerrito appears grossly inaccurate. The four original census schedules (pages that in 1850 had forty-two lines, one per person) listing El Cerrito families show only 130 people in thirty-four households, compared to 321 people in eighty-four households in 1841 (Tables A. 1, A.2). Did El Cerrito's population actually plummet by 60 percent between 1841 and 1850? The 1850 census, although imperfect, affirms that it did. Taken by an Anglo named James D. Robinson, apparently the twenty-five-year-old Pennsylvania-born barber who resided in Santa Fe, the 1850 census suffers from misspelled Spanish names such as Arragon for Aragbn, Bacca for Baca, Guttierez for Gutierrez, and, an extreme example, Tuckelata for the place-name Tecolote. Such misspellings of course raise the issue of Robinson's competence in Spanish. Moreover, while in El Cerrito on 19-20 October 1850, Robinson recorded six families twice. Even if this happened when he later recopied his schedules, it suggests sloppiness, perhaps dishonesty. Despite these shortcomings, Robinson's enumeration recorded the new surnames Quintana and Manzanares, and it accurately omitted many surnames, including Apodaca, Baca, Blea, Chavez, Esquibel, Garcia, Gonzalez, Gurule, Gutierrez, Lovato, Lucero, Madrid, Martin, Mestas, Mondragon, Padilla, Saiz, Sinchez, and Sandoval.lo On 16-17 October 1850, while taking the census along the lower Gallinas River at San Agustin, Robinson recorded all the foregoing surnames, in all twenty-nine former El Cerrito households (eight now belonging to sons or grandsons) containing one hundred twenty people (Table A.3). And Robinson's schedules show that these former CerriteAos were prospering: twenty-six of the twenty-nine heads of household owned real estate that ranged in value from $50 to $1,000, and two, Antonio Chavez and Rafael Madrid, employed servants. Back in El Cerrito, only Manuela Jaramillo de Alari had real estate valued at $1,000 and also servants in 1850 (Table A.2, 1850, no. 20). At San Agustin, the former CerriteAos did not live in one group. Robinson recorded them as interspersed with other families. Because many of the other families had CerriteAo surnames, one assumes that relatives, perhaps from San Miguel or Las Vegas, regrouped to live together along the lower Gallinas River. In
36
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
his place headings, Robinson wrote "Las Vegas" as the location of these families. Two other censuses confirm it was actually San Agustin: an 1845 census taken under Mexico according to which these same people lived in the "Bayes de San Agustin" and the 1860 U.S. Census taken by twenty-nine-year-old Prussian-born Charles Emil Wesche, who recorded that these Cerriteiio families were living in the "Settlements in the Valles de San Agustin."ll Thus in a large migration that probably found a long caravan of wagons inching its way to the Gallinas Valley, more than one-third of El Cerrito's people relocated to San Agustin. Their destination, land in the town of Las Vegas Grant, was located sixteen miles from El Cerrito as the crow flies but twice that distance for a caravan attempting to negotiate the terrain of the Canadian Escarpment (Map 3.1). The exodus happened within months of the March 1841 census in El Cerrito; residents of San Agustin have prioritized water rights dating from 1841. Among the one hundred twenty individuals who removed to San Agustin were four sons and three daughters of the original fifteen landholders in El Cerrito. Even Eusebio Garcia, himself an original grantee, made the move to San Agustin. San Miguel del Vado Grant records show that at some point Francisco Ulibarri and Juan J. Salazar bought Eusebio's El Cerrito lands. When removing to San Agustin, the onetime resident of Albuquerque, La Cuesta, and El Cerrito may have made his last move, for after 1845 Eusebio disappears from the census records.12 The exodus of families from El Cerrito to San Agustin fits the familiar Spanish frontier pattern of stepping-stone migration. Like raindrops rolling one to the next down a windowpane, each one swelling before breaking away, landless families in frontier villages swollen with people moved to new villages and new lands on a more distant frontier. El Cerrito contributed to San Agustin much as La Cuesta had contributed to El Cerrito, San Miguel to La Cuesta, and Santa Fe to San Miguel. With the possible exception of a jump to La Cuesta, Rafael Blea and probably his brother Manuel had participated in all five moves. And Blea family members would make a sixth move still farther east to found Trementina (Map 3.1). According to Samuel Leo Gonzales, Santiago Blea, born in El Cerrito to Rafael Blea and Luz Maes de Blea in 1830, used the Trementina area as a summer sheep camp in the 1870s. By 1880 he lived permanently in Trementina. This time, however, a new impetus-animosity of those in San Agustin who opposed the Blea family's conversion to Protestantism-urged the Bleas along.13 The spontaneous village-by-village migration east from Santa Fe had a precedent in New Mexico. Spanish people moving north from Santa Fe to Colorado, a far more dynamic frontier than that leading east, also migrated in a stepping-stonepattern. For example, the Vallejos brothers moved in 1852 from Taos (or Taos County) to San Pablo in Colorado's San Luis Valley, and fifteen years later they moved again to Cucharas east of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Walsenburg. Typically, families traveled short distances and relocated several times within one generation. Many Anglos migrating west in the United States did much the same thing. Those familiar with Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books will recall that Mr. Ingalls moved his family five times, from Wisconsin to Iowa to Minnesota (the "Big Woods") to Kansas to South Dakota (the "Prairie"), where Laura married Almanzo Wilder in 1885. An important difference between Anglo and Spanish migrations, however, is that Anglos often moved from farmstead to farmstead whereas Spanish people migrated from village to village.14
THE FARM GENERATION
37
EL CERRITO TO SAN AGUSTIN
Map 3.1 Possible routes between El Cerrito and San Agustin in 1841. Some 120 CerriteAos may have taken one of these routes when relocating to San Agustin in 1841. Blea family members eventually moved farther east to Trementina.
The Agricultural Fields In the long run knowledge about eastern San Miguel County, probably acquired in part through contact with San Agustin after 1841, proved extremely important to CerriteAos. At midcentury, however, economic activities among a now pared-down village population focused on agricultural fields close to home. Villagers farmed two types of fields. On the mesa above the village they dry farmed flat areas called temporales, a term meaning "seasonal," which in New Mexico came to mean seasonally dry-farmed fields. On at least two of the four ancones of the Pecos River that Ramon Alari petitioned for and received in 1824, they irrigated fertile strips of alluvium, with rights to surface water later prioritized to 1824. Each ancon had its own name. Cerritefios called the ancon adjacent to the village the Kincon. They referred to the second ancon as simply the A n c h , although today it is also called the Peninsula. Going downstream, the third ancon was named the Ancon de h a m o , meaning the "bend with the cottonwood tree," and the fourth ancon was named the
38
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
Ancon de Molino, the "bend with the mill." The thin strip of bottomland lying upstream from the village was named the Anconcito (Map 3.2).15 Cerritefios subdivided their ancones mainly into ribbonlike fields known to geographers as long lots. One short end of each long lot fronted on the community lifeline, the irrigation ditch. Spanish people measured their long lots by how many varas they extended along an irrigation ditch. The earliest record for the long lot pattern in the Rinc6n is from 1922, when personnel from the Office of the State Engineer, while adjudicating water rights, mapped Rinc6n parcels and their landowners (Map 3.3). Cerritefios also subdivided the \\
EL CERRITO ANCONES AND DAMS CIRCA 1850
-
.
-
j;' 0
/
R C
5'
4
G5-
dam irrigation ditch cliff
= 5 5 - future dirt road
Map 3.2 El Cerrito's ancones and dams circa 1850. Rock and brush dams raised water from the Pecos into irrigation ditches at three and probably all four ancones. Locations of dams and irrigation ditches are inferred from present information.
EL CERRITO, 1922
Map 3.3 Agricultural parcels in the Rincbn, El Cerrito, 1922. The Office of the State Engineer, when adjudicating water rights along the Pecos in 1922, mapped El Cerrito's basically long lot pattern. Source: Modifed from Map A1 5 of the Hope Decree.
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
40
Ancon and presumably one or both of the remaining ancones in a similar way. Long lots had many advantages: each landowner had access to water, water flowed efficiently by gravity from the irrigation ditch through furrows and back to the Pecos, and by arranging long lots in contiguous rows and without fences, villagers made maximum use of their precious arable bottomland. In a society that practiced equal inheritance, when villagers left their long lots to heirs their parcels could easily be subdivided into still thinner long lots, although in practice one or several brothers usually bought out other brothers and sisters, thus minimizing long lot fragmentation.16
Table 3.1. Ac riculture in El Cerrito, October 1850
No. Name of Owner
1 Alari, Ram6n[cito] 2
Aragbn, Antonio
3
Carcia, Antonia Teresa
4
5
1 Carcia, JosCManuel 1 Carcia, JosCP. 1
8 Jaramillo, Manuela Anta.
SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Agricultural Schedules of the New Mexico Territory Census [l 8501, Schedule 4, Productions of ~ ~ r i c u l t upp. ~ e ,271-72. Original schedules in State ~ecordsCenter and Archives, Santa Fe. NOTE: Assistant Marshal james D. Robinson recorded productions of agriculture for 11 heads of households in El Cerrito in San Miguel County, New Mexico Territory, October 1850. a Robinson must have included here acres of dry-farmed temporales. Bushels produced year end, 1 June1850. C Robinson recorded no figures under pounds of wool produced year end, 1 June1850.
(spunod) loom
salnw pue sassy
42
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
At midcentury Cerritefios may have irrigated as many as 130 total acres, some 65 on the Rincon, 50 on the Ancon, and the balance on the Ancon de ~ l a m oor the Ancon de Molino. Irrigation agriculture is labor-intensive, yields per acre are high, and no one family seems to have cultivated more than 25 to 30 acres. The figures given under the category "Acres of Improved Land" in 1850, 1860, and 1870 (Tables 3.1, 3.2, 3.3), especially in 1850 and 1870, must have included the temporales. In their temporales Cerritefios successfully dry farmed beans and peas, although with only low yields per acre. Crops raised on the irrigated long lots included "Indian" corn, grown by all landholders listed in the agricultural schedules for 1850, 1860, and 1870, as well as wheat, grown by half the families, and hay raised for animal feed. For field work most landholding families owned one or more horses, asses or mules, or oxen. All these families also possessed farm implements or machinery. In 1850, and probably from the beginning in El Cerrito, income gained from agricultural pursuits derived more from the sale of livestock than from field crops. In 1850 Cerritefios focused on sheep raised for both their wool and lamb or mutton (Table 3.1). By 1860 and 1870 the agricultural schedules suggest that emphasis had shifted to cattle, sold for their hides and beef, and dairy cows, whose products included cheese and butter (Tables 3.2, 3.3). Families listed in the agricultural schedules often kept a few pigs, a milk cow, and chickens, although poultry did not become a census category until 1880. One assumes that as early as 1850 Cerritefios hauled their products in wagons to the mercantile businesses already located around the plaza at Las Vegas, a practice for which there is considerable documentation by the turn of the century. Family wealth in El Cerrito derived mainly from the ownership of land and livestock. Tables 3.4 and 3.5 show that the households of Manuela Jaramillo de Alari and her son, Ramon Alari, were the two wealthiest in 1850 and 1860, except for Jose Manuel Garcia and Manuel Antonio Gutierrez, who ranked second and third in 1850. Following the deaths of Manuela and Ramon (both in 1867), Fernando Quintana, the only villager for whom the census taker completed an agricultural schedule in 1870, led all others in family wealth (Table 3.6). Around the village just below the irrigation ditch, in plots far smaller than an acre, many village families kept a huerta, or garden, for raising vegetables for household consumption. At the upper ends of long lots, before the field crops began, many families also had small arboledas, or orchards, where deciduous fruit trees bore remarkably high quality peaches, apricots, plums, and apples. Within the village there existed an era, a circular, fenced threshing ground (Map 3.3). Goats would trample on this watered-down flat place, and on the now hard-packed dry ground beans and wheat would be trampled by horses (preferably unshod) to separate the vegetable or grain from the chaff. With a good wind the chaff could be winnowed. A second era that probably postdated the bridge existed across the Pecos north of the village (Map 3.3). All these categories of land use-the gardens, the orchards, and the threshing ground-were owned privately by the villagers, as were the house lots (solares) and irrigated fields (suertes). On the other hand, the temporales on the mesa, indeed all the land beyond the village and the four ancones, were held in common by the villagers and all other grantees on the San Miguel del Vado Grant until homesteading privatized this land after about 1910.17
Table 3.3. Ac
1
t
Name of Owner
Quintana, Fernando
SOURCE: US. Bureau of the Census, Agricultural Schedules of the New Mexico Territory Census [ l 8701, Schedule 3, Productions of Agriculture, pp. 6-7. Original Schedules in State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. NOTE: Assistant Marshal Demetrio Perez recorded productions of agriculture for only one head of household in El Cerrito in San Miguel County, New Mexico Territory, August 1870. a PPrez must have included here acres of dry-famed temporales. Bushels or tons produced year end, 1 June1870. Perez specified winter, not spring, wheat. C That Perez recorded no sheep or wool suggests that Quintana now specialized in dairying and cattle raising. The term "milch," meaning cows giving milk, is used in the census.
44
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
Dams and Irrigation Ditches Ramon Alari's generation, of necessity, built El Cerrito's public works-its fortified village and dams and irrigation ditches. These efforts were community enterprises, because they required more labor than one family could supply. Fernando Quintana's generation benefited from having these public works already in place.18 Early Cerriteiios thus constructed simple rock and brush atarques, or dams, to raise the level of the Pecos so that its waters could feed irrigation ditches. We know that three dams
Table 3.4. Wealth by Family in El Cerrito, October 1850 Head of Household
Occupation
70 83 80 40
jaramillo, Manuela Antonia Carcia, Jose Manuel Cuti&rez, Manuel Antonio Alari, Ramon[cito] Conzhlez, Luis Maria Cuti&rez, Pablo Aragon, Antonio Carcia, Antonia Teresa Carcia, Jose P. Saiz, Manuel Siinchez, Severiano Mirauez, Rafael Sandoval, Juan
1
Archuleta, Fernando Archuleta, Juan M. Durin, Estevan Duran, Pedro Luis Estrada, Jose Conziilez, Estevan Manzanares, Luis
1
Moya, Maria C. Ocana. Anna Maria Sinaco, Antonio Tenorio, Francisco
1
1
50 40 51 50 40 30 82 50 35 27 26 25 30 20 25 25 70 20 28 50
1,000 500 400 300
F
F
1
1
1
1 F F
1
1
1
1
250 200 150 150 150 150 150 110 100 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50
farmer
1
1
Domestic Agricultural Help Schedule
4
Yes
farmer
Yes
farmer
Yes
farmer
Yes
farmer
Yes
farmer
1
farmer
Yes
farmer
Yes
farmer
Yes
farmer
Yes
farmer
Yes
farmer farmer
I
I
I
I
I
I
laborer laborer laborer laborer laborer weaver
1
laborer laborer
1
1
laborer laborer
I
I
SOURCE: US. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules of the Seventh Census [l 8501, pp. 57-60 (29A, 29B, 30A, 308). NOTES: Listed in rank order are all heads of household for whom a sum is recorded under value of real estate owned. Fernando Quintana, who should have had at least $150 in value of real estate, is missing (Table 3.1). a Ages given as reported in census. Sex indicated when female.
THE FARM GENERATION
45
existed upstream from each of the first three ancones, and a fourth probably existed above the last ancon (Map 3.2). When the annual spring snowmelt swelled the Pecos these dams often sustained damage. And heavy cloudbursts sometimes destroyed one or more dams. Speaking of the most important dam located upstream from the Rincon, Pedro Luis D u r h observed in 1900 that twice during his life (he moved to El Cerrito in the 1830s) "they have raised the ditch over the dam," by which he seems to have meant that twice floods had carried the dam away, thus requiring that the ditch be extended above the new dam. A flood in May 1937 took out the same dam and at the same time submerged much of the village. Today that dam is built of concrete (see chap. 9). A flood in October 1904 destroyed the two dams that supplied water to the Ancon and the Ancon de ~ l a m o . Villagers did not rebuild them. Instead, they installed a caAo, or flume, probably constructed of several hollowed-out logs to conduct water across the Pecos from the Rinc6n to the Ancon. The cafio did not last. In the mid-1950s primarily Aragon family members who
able 3.5.
Wealth by Family in El Cerrito, July 1860
Head of Household
Agea
Sexb
jaramillo, Manuela
80
F
Alari, Ramon[cito]
Real Estate Value ( f )
Personal Estate Value (S)
Occupation
Domestic Children Agricultural Help in School Schedule
1
Yes
1
Yes
1,000
4,000
farmer
55
1,700
2,000
farmer
Quintana, Fernando
38
1,200
1,600
farmer
Yes
Saiz, Manuel
42
1,000
600
farmer
Yes
Conzhlez, Luis Maria
70
400
650
musician
Manzanares, Luis
36
300
300
laborer
250
100
laborer
Mares, Maria Antonia
40
Mhrquez, Rafael
56
Montoya, Vicente
70
Carcia, Antonia Teresa
70
F
laborer
250
F
3
200
150
laborer
200
100
laborer
Mares, Juan
22
200
laborer
jimknez, Quirino
36
200
laborer
Ulibarri, Victorian0
42
120
laborer
Quintana, Pedro
23
100
100
laborer
80
laborer
Mirquez, Pedro
21
100
Carcia, Antonio
28
100
day laborer
Carcia, Jos6Miguel
39
100
laborer
Rakl, Eleuterio
25
100
laborer
1
SOURCE: US. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules of the Eighth Census [l 8601, pp. 182-86. NOTE: Listed in rank order are all heads of household for whom a sum is recorded under value of real estate andlor personal estate owned. Ages given as reported in census. Sex indicated when female.
46
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
now owned the fifty-acre Ancon reconstructed its dam, but an unstable sandy west bank led to its being washed away.lg Early Cerritefios also dug the main acequia that carries water to the Rincon. From behind the cement dam, this acequia today swings away from the Pecos to follow the outer edge of the narrow floodplain. Its gradient is thus less steep than that of the Pecos. Just before it enters the village, at a point called El Barranco (the Precipice), the ditch clings to the side of a rock cliff some 12 feet directly above the Pecos (Fig. 3.1). It then follows the contour of the second-level terrace around three sides of the village before finishing its 7,000-foot course and returning to the Pecos (Map 3.3). From this main acequia a secondary ditch called Seis Varas, because its easement is six varas wide, conducts water into part of the Rincon itself. The Seis Varas Ditch once ran down the middle of its 18-foot-wideeasement, but today it flows along the easement's north side, and a dirt road occupies the rest of the space. Lateral ditches diverge from the Seis Varas Ditch, and from it and its laterals gates allow water into individual fields when the mayordomo, or ditch foreman, (theoretically) gives permission. Ditch-threatening disasters are unpredictable. North of El Cerrito is a basin called the Cafion de Pefia, or Canyon of Large Rocks, that drains some twenty square miles of often Table 3.6. Wealth by Family in El Cerrito, August 1870 Head of Household Quintana, Fernando Saiz, Manuel Manzanares, Luis Quintana, Epitacio Mares, luan Padilla, Cruz Tenorio, Santiago DurGn, Pedro Luis Lucero, Juan Rael, Eleuterio Ulibarri, Victorian0 Armijo, Manuel Padilla, Antonia Salazar, Diego Vigil, Juan
1
--
57 55 60 28 35 33 35 45 28 35 45 25 40 50 28
-
1
1
F
Real Estate Personal Estate value (S) V S)
824 300 200 200 200 1 00 150 1 00
1 00 1 00 1 00 50 50 50 50
1,192 1 00 150 100
Occupation
Agricultural Schedule
farmer
Yes
farm laborer farm laborer farm laborer farm laborer
1 00
farm laborer farm laborer farm laborer farm laborer farm laborer farm laborer farm laborer housekeeper farm laborer farm laborer
SOURCE: US. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules of the Ninth Census [l 8701, pp. 47A, 478, 48A; 678, 67A. NOTE: Listed in rank order are all heads of household for whom a sum is recorded under value of real estate andlor personal estate owned. a Ages given as reported in census. Sex indicated when female.
Fig. 3.1 At a point called El Barranco (the Precipice) the acequia madre hugs the rock cliff at the base of which flows the Pecos. From the crown of the ditch (which is used as a footpath) to the water level of the Pecos is a 16-foot drop; the floor of the irrigation ditch itself is about 4 feet below this crown, or some 12 feet above the Pecos. Photograph by RLN, 7 May 1980.
Fig. 3.2 The mouth of the Caii6n de Peiia (Canyon of Large Rocks) lies directly across from El Barranco. On 17 August 1989 a local downpour caused rushing water to carry boulders and debris into the Pecos, confining even more the river's channel a t the base of El Barranco. Photograph by RLN, 29 June1992.
THE FARM GENERATION
49
steeply sloping upland. The mouth of the caflo'n is located directly across from El Barranco where the ditch to the Rinc6n hugs the vertical rock cliff upstream from the village (Map 3.2). In a term paper written in October 1984, Chad Wright, an OU graduate student on that year's annual field trip, pointed out that a major summer convectional downpour over the CaAon de PeAa could potentially aim runoff directly at the irrigation ditch where it is most vulnerable. This is exactly what happened on 17 August 1989. Water rushing out of the mouth of the CaAon de PeAa carried boulders and debris into the Pecos, pushing the main channel quite close to the river's south bank (Fig. 3.2). The ditch at El Barranco did not sustain damage, but the episode prompted villagers to reinforce the steep dirt embankment with rock-filled wire mesh gabion baskets. Just downstream the flowing river sufficiently weakened the old cement bridge to warrant its closure by county officials. In March 1992 the county replaced it with a new steel bridge.20
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THE LIVEITOCK GENE RATION, CIRCA 1875
os6 Epitacio Quintana is widely regarded as El Cerrito's most distinguished resident. He is also the acknowledged leader of a generation challenged to maximize income by dramatically expanding its livestock-raising activities. As the eldest son of Fernando Quintana and Gertrudis Martin de Quintana, "Pitacio" held a privileged position in El Cerrito, but his ability, vision, and strong work ethic contributed even more to his success as a stock raiser, freighter, and politician. During his long life (18451932), Pitacio amassed a small fortune. Two of his buildings in the village ostentatiously symbolized his wealth and importance: his "commissary," an imposing double-room warehouse located in the middle of the village, and across from it his twostory adobe house that rose above the row of contiguous onestory houses owned by seemingly lower-status villagers. And everyone knew that under his house existed the only sdtano, or cellar, in the village. That villagers widely admired Pitacio is clear from the dozen children who were his namesakes. That villagers knew him to be greedy and not very generous, even with his own family, is equally clear. For taking care of his "nanitaU-his mother, Gertrudis-for years an invalid, Pitacio gave his younger sister Simona merely "an old bashful cow." Thus the successful Pitacio is remembered with respect but little 1ove.l
52
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
Women in El Cerrito Epitacio came into the world four years after the great exodus from El Cerrito to San Agustin. Over the next thirty-five years the number of Cerritefios fluctuated modestly, from an apparent low of 107 in 1870 to a high of 161 in 1885. Some of the increases can be attributed to a trickling in of people; some of the decreases, to the dying off of long-term villagers. During these thirty-five years, however, one demographic variable remained relatively constant: the number of men was always approximately equal to the number of women (Table 4. In 1875 most of the village men and women married. Women married when quite young, typically between the ages of fifteen and seventeen, but nearly all women married by their midtwenties. Men wed when somewhat older, typically between the ages of nineteen and twenty-one. Once married, most couples made it their major goal to have children, and their offspring arrived in rather rapid succession, often throughout a woman's reproductive years. Women commonly gave birth to ten or more children, yet high rates of infant mortality took perhaps 40 percent of the newborns. As noted earlier, Agapita Mares had good fortune. Born in about 1829 and married to Luis Manzanares in 1844, Agapita bore eleven children between 1846 and 1866, nine of whom lived. Dolores Tenorio seems to have been more typical. Born in about 1830, probably in La Cuesta where she and Pedro Luis Durdn married by 1842, she too had eleven children, but only six lived. If a wife or husband died, the surviving spouse readily remarried and if possible had more ~ h i l d r e n . ~ Women in El Cerrito wanted to appear younger than they actually were. When the various census takers gathered information in the village, they typically recorded understated ages. If the mentirillas, or white lies, about ages were more often told by husbands than wives, women, probably for reasons of vanity, clearly sanctioned the practice. Shaving off a few years happened in all censuses between 1841 and 1920. Census takers reported that Dolores Martin, baptized 10 April 1813 and the wife of Ramoncito Alari, was 23 (-4) in 1841 and 30 (-7) in 1850 but 47 (+2) in 1860. Francisca Martin, baptized 4 February 1831 and the wife of Victorian0 Ulibarri, was recorded as 30 (+l) in 1860, 35 (-4) in 1870, 40 (-9) in 1880, and 50 (-4) in 1885. In one humorous example, the census taker noted that in 1841
Table 4.1. Population in El Cerrito, I841-188S Year
Total Females
Total Males
Total Population
SOURCE: Compiled from Tables A.l (1 841), A.2 (1 850), A.4 (1 860), A S (1 870), A.6 (1 880), A.7 (1 885).
THE LIVESTOCK GENERATION
53
Manuela Gonzilez was a mother aged fifteen with a child aged seven. Interestingly, as women reached their sixties, seventies, and eighties, ages came to be exaggerated, probably for reasons of pride and respect. Census takers reported that Manuela Jaramillo de Alari, baptized in about 1789, was 44 (-8) in 1841 but 70 (+8) in 1850 and 80 (+8) in 1860. And Teresa Garcia de Martin, baptized in about 1798, was recorded as 28 (-15) in 1841, 50 (-2) in 1850, but 70 (+8) in 1860 and 90 (+18)in 1870. The ages of the very young appear to be the most accurate in the c e n s ~ s e s . ~ El Cerrito's married women worked in the home. In the 1870, 1880, and 1885 censuses enumerators almost always gave women's occupations as "house keeper" or "house keeping." Only rarely did they note that these women also kept the family vegetable garden, which supplied much of the food consumed in the home. Every census reported at least a few women to be heads of household. Enumerators usually recorded single or widowed female heads of household as "seamstresses" or "laundrywomen," jobs that apparently brought in income. Wealthy widows who had inherited land from their husbands were sometimes recorded as "farmers." Divorce was rare in El Cerrito. Census takers cited only one example between 1880, the year the census first asked one's "Civil Condition" (Single, Married, Widowed, or Divorced), and 1920, the most recent census for which original schedules are available. In 1885 they noted that Francisca Jimenez de Tenorio was a divorced "house keeper. In the above example, Jimenez is Francisca's maiden surname. To indicate the surname of FranciscaJs(former) husband, Tenorio, the census taker wrote "de Tenorio." He might also have written "y Tenorio." Francisca Jimenez and all other women in El Cerrito and in New Mexico's Spanish society retained their maiden surnames after marrying, a custom that paid respect to a woman's family lineage and a practice that would prove of great benefit to future genealogists. After the 1880s some Spanish women thought it desirable to emulate Anglo women who at marriage dropped their maiden surnames and took their husbands' surnames. In El Cerrito, however, women used their maiden surnames well into the twentieth c e n t ~ r y . ~ Women's given names had their own importance. Parents christened their daughters Maria and their sons Jose, the custom throughout New Mexico's highly Roman Catholic society in the nineteenth century. To differentiate one child from another, parents used a child's second given name, often that of a relative. Thus villagers knew Maria Agapita Mares as Agapita and Jose Epitacio Quintana as Epitacio or Pitacio. Often, only the female ending -a or the male ending -0 differentiated a woman's given name from that of a man: AgapitaJAgapito, DemitriaJDemitrio, Florencia/Florencio, GregoriaJGregorio,NepomucenaJ Nepomuceno. Sometimes villagers achieved the gender distinction by merely dropping the -a: JuanaJJuan, JulianaJJuliin, ManuelaJManuel, RafaelaJRafael,Tomasa/Tomis. By choosing one of these closely paired names, parents could seemingly prepare for the birth of either sex. In a practice that applied almost exclusively to women, however, villagers frequently adopted the diminutive of given names. Antonia became Antofiita; Cruz, Crucita; Dolores, Dolorita; Estefana, Estefanita; and Felipa, Felipita. Used for women of all ages, diminutives expressed outwardly the warmth and affection accorded women by their male counterparts.
54
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
Because women and men in Spanish society inherited equally, some village women played important roles in controlling the destiny of family property. Manuela Jaramillo de Alari, probably El Cerrito's wealthiest widow, outlived her husband, Ramon Alari, and thus channeled perhaps one-third of El Cerrito's Rincon to heirs. Unfortunately, her one surviving son, Ramoncito Alari, died soon after Manuela in 1867. Manuela's many land parcels thus seem to have passed to Desiderio Jaramillo, perhaps a godson, and apparently to Juan de Jesus Jaramillo, who lived in El Cerrito for a time in about 1885. By 1902, when authorities adjudicated land claims on the San Miguel del Vado Grant, all Jaramillo village land seems to have left the hands of a Jaramillo. Teresa Garcia de Martin had greater success in directing her land to heirs. As an older daughter of land grantee Juan Cristobal Garcia and the wife of land grantee Pablo Martin, who Teresa outlived, Teresa inherited land, although how much is not known. She purchased land from the heirs of her brother, land grantee Julihn Garcia. When Teresa died in 1876, two daughters, Gertrudis and Francisca, stood to gain-and did. Fernando Quintana, husband of Gertrudis, became El Cerrito's first or second largest landholder by 1885, and Victorian0 Ulibarri, husband of Francisca, with whom Teresa lived in 1870, also owned land. Aniseto Gardufio, husband of a third daughter, Isabel, may not have inherited because Isabel died.8 Thus a typical woman in El Cerrito in about 1875 married and gave birth to many children. She wished to appear younger than her chronological age until the time when exaggerating her age seemed desirable. Women in El Cerrito raised the children and kept the house, and during the growing season, they also kept the family vegetable garden. Throughout their lives women went by their maiden surnames, a custom that acknowledged their own family lineage. And men used diminutive forms of women's given names, a practice that showed love and affection for the female gender. Because women and men inherited equally, some women found themselves controlling the destiny of family property. Despite all this, women were generally subservient to men. Men dominated El Cerrito society in the latter half of the nineteenth century. They earned the income outside the home, made important family decisions, learned English if necessary, and received more schooling. Of the eight children in the Fernando Quintana household, for example, three of the four sons (not Anastacio) could read and write, yet none of the four daughters had these skill^.^
Quintana Family Marriages Fernando Quintana and Gertrudis Martin de Quintana, El Cerrito's Quintana progenitors, married in 1840 at the ages of approximately twenty-one and thirteen. Between 1841 and 1865 they had ten children, eight of whom lived (Table 4.2). For Gertrudis to have had ten children during some twenty-five child-bearing years was not excessive, and to have lost only two was good fortune, given El Cerrito's high rates of infant mortality. Child loss often correlated with the age of the mother: the younger the mother, the greater the loss, as in Gertrudis's case. Of the eight children who lived, more is remembered of the four sons than of the four daughters. Epitacio (Fig. 4.1) and Anastacio are described as short and stocky, with light complexions and bald heads. Some called Epitacio "El Pelon," the Bald One, but
THE LIVESTOCK GENERATION
55
not to his face. Jestis Maria and Luciano, on the other hand, were tall and kept their hair. Many recall that “Maria” looked less Spanish because of his dark complexion. Of the four daughters, Dolores (Fig. 4.2), Norberta, Cesaria, and Simona, it is remembered that Dolores had a birthmark on her cheek.1° Like most other Cerriteiios, all eight Quintana children married (Table 4.2). Their spouses came from villages up the Pecos Valley. The Quintana children and their betrothed met through a network of relatives, for they and their spouses all seem to have been related. Whether the parents of the eight couples arranged any of the marriages is not known, but well-to-do families tried to consolidate their wealth in land and livestock through marriage, which the Quintana marriages did. Dolores wed first, to Juan Vigil of San Jose (Fig. 4.2). Brother and sister Epitacio and Norberta married another brother-sister combination, Maria de la Cruz Tapia (Fig. 4.3) and Antonio Abdn Tapia of San Miguel. In chronological order Cesaria married Isidro Ldpez of San Miguel, Jesus Maria married Maria Antonia Ribera of El Pueblo, and Simona married Jose Emiterio Arellanes of San Miguel. Approval of these last three nuptials required special church dispensation to clear up the double impediments of third- and fourth-degree consanguinity. Isidro Lopez and Emiterio Arellanes were half brothers, the children of the same mother but different fathers. Less is known of Anastacio’s bride, Felipa Vigil, also apparently from San Miguel, and the village of origin of Refugio Trujillo, Luciano’s bride, is unknown. l1 Marriage ceremonies usually took place in the village of the bride. Unlike most priests, Father Juan Benito Fayett made note of the place where the weddings of four Quintana children took place: three-Cesaria, Antonia (wife of Jesus Maria), and Simona-married in the chapel where the bride lived; while Norberta married in the church at San Miguel. After marriage the bride customarily moved into the groom’s village. The brides of all four Quintana men moved to El Cerrito. Likewise, Norberta and Cesaria moved to the villages of their husbands. Antonio Tapia, Norberta’s husband, owned a farm and orchard in Coruco (“Little Bed Bug”) across the Pecos from San Miguel, and Isidro Lbpez, Cesaria‘s husband, worked as a railroad tie contractor in San Miguel before he relocated to Las Vegas. Quintana family influence, however, pulled the husbands of Dolores and Simona to El Cerrito. Fernando Quintana probably invited Juan Vigil, who became El Cerrito’s molinero, and Emiterio Arellanes, who became an employee of Epitacio, to live in El Cerrito. Indeed, when he married, Emiterio’s two older half brothers, Isidro and Pablo Lcipez, advised him not to move to El Cerrito. They correctly warned Emiterio that he would be taken advantage of. Brother-in-law Epitacio employed Emiterio as a cook at his sheep ranch, paying him a meager $12 a month, $6 in cash and $6 in groceries to be furnished from Epitacio’s commissary. The wealth did not trickle down.12 Analysis of the month of marriage for the seven Quintana children for whom this is known suggests that the Quintanas and their spouses, who married between 1864 and 1885, preferred fall and winter marriage dates (Table 4.2). The distribution was bimodal: fall, 3 (2 in October, 1 in November); and winter, 4 ( 2 in January, 2 in February). A larger body of data confirms the fall-winter seasons of marriage for an earlier period. Thirty marriages between 1826 and 1846 involving known Cerriteiios show the same two peaks: fall, 15 (5 in September, 5 in October, 5 in November), and winter, 7 (3 in January, 4 in
56
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
Table 4.2. Children of Fernando Quintana Quintana Child Spouse
Maria Agapita Quintana
Baptisma
JoseAntonio Quintana
16 May 1843 25 May 1845
Maria Antonia de 10s Dolores (Dolorita) Quintana
Age at Marriage
Priest
29 Sep 1841
JoseEpitacio (Pitacio) Quintana Maria de la Cruz (Crucita) Tapia
Marriage Date
26 Nov 1 864
May 1851
22 Jun1850
8 Jan1864
1 3?
-l
13
JuanGuerin
JuanCuerin
19
Juan(Juanito)Vigil Maria Norberta (Norbertita) Quintana
JuanBenito Fayett
Antonio Ab6n Tapia
16 Jan l848
Maria Cesaria (Cesarita) Quintana
3 Sep 1855
29 Jan 1875 Fayett
lsidro Lopez JeslisMaria Acenci6n Quintana
19 May 1 858
Maria Antonia (Tonita) Ribera
May 1 858C
Maria Simona (Simonita, Chatita) Quintana
20 Feb 1860
JosCEmiterio Macario Arellanes
5 Mar 1856
JoseAnastacio (Tacho) Quintana Felipa (Felipita) Vigil JoseLuciano Quintana Maria Refugio (Refugita) Trujillo
27 Apr 1 862 26 Apr 1868
6 Oct 1878
JuanBenito Fayett
17 Oct l878
JuanBenito Fayett
? Feb 1885
1
JuanBenito Fayett?
1
2 Jul1865 Mar 1 870C
SOURCE: AASF marriages in roll 53A (identifiable by dates; no frame numbers), for children 3-9,contain information on marriage date, priest, impediment of consanguinity, and place of marriage (when given). Other information is from AASF baptisms and burials, El Cerrito cemetery markers, interviews, and the unusually detailed 1900 and 191 0 population census schedules. a All Quintana children born in El Cerrito, baptized in San Miguel. 1 910 census. C 1900 census. Alive as of this date.
February), with eight other months falling in line (2 each in March and December, 1 each in April, May, June, July, and none in August). In an agrarian society people usually planned to be married after the growing season, but this does not explain the JanuaryFebruary peak. The days of the week on which the six Quintana children married (for whom this is known) suggests a preference for Friday, a fact reinforced by the Friday wedding date (11 September 1840) of Fernando and Gertrudis. The days of marriage for all
THELIVESTOCKGENERATION
57
and Maria Gertrudis Martin, El Cerrito Death or Burial
Impediment of Consanguinity
Spouse Relationships
Spouse's Village
Where Married
Permanent Residence
Children ~orn/~live~
20 Dec 1841 Died younq
#5 sister-brother
Parish of San Miguel
Cerrito
Parish of San Miguel
Cerrito
San Miguel
San lose lglesia de San Miguel San Miguel (Coruco) #3 sister-brother
San Miguel
double 3"
Capilla del San Miguel; Las Vegas Serrito
#8 half-brother 1 Jul1933
20 Apr 1948 9 Jun 1949 2 Oct 1944 6 Jan1926 Sept 1945?
Capilla del Pueblo
Cerrito
Capilla del Serrito
Cerrito
not legible
Cerrito
El Pueblo
1 920d 15 Feb l936
San Miguel
double 3" and 4" double 3" and 4"
#6 half-brother
San Miguel
San Miguel Cerrito
seven Quintanas were as follows: Thursday, one; Friday, three; Saturday, one; Sunday, one; and Monday, one.13 It is instructive to place the foregoing marriage data in a larger context. The geographer Wilbur Zelinsky analyzed the season of marriage, as well as the days of the week marriage ceremonies took place, for the United States and Canada between 1844 and 1974. He found that before the 1890s only one seasonal pattern prevailed: people universally married in the fall (October and November) and early winter (December). Before the 1890s, for reasons that are not clear, ceremonies took place on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Zelinsky found that after the 1890s five patterns emerged, all variations of summer monthly peaks, and a shift occurred whereby Friday and especially Saturday were the days most frequently chosen for marriage ceremonies. He tentatively explained the emergence of the five summer patterns as delayed responses to societal changes brought on by industrialization and urbanization. It would seem, then, that agrarian, nineteenth-century El Cerrito paralleled the rest of the United States and Canada in its postharvest marriage season, except for the
Fig. 4.1 JoseEpitacio Quintana (1 845-1 932). Success as a stock raiser, freighter, and politician made "Pitacio" El Cerrito's wealthiest and bestknown person in his time. Photograph courtesy of grandson Eduardo E. Quintana, Pueblo, Colorado.
Fig. 4.2 Maria Antonia de 10s Dolores Quintana (1 850-1 92?) married JuanVigil (1843?-1923) in 1864. Quintana family clout pulled Juan to El Cerrito from his home village of San Jose.Shown with the couple is a grandson, Ambrocio Tapia, whose birth in 1911 would date this image circa 1915. Photograph courtesy of Pablo (Paul) Tapia (nephew of Ambrocio), Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Fig. 4.3 Maria de la Cruz Tapia (1 851-1 923). After marrying Epitacio Quintana in 1864, "Crucita" moved from her home village of San Miguel to Pitacio's village, El Cerrito. Photograph courtesy of great-granddaughter JuliaCarcia de Castillo, Denver, Colorado.
60
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
unexplained secondary peak in January and February. The sample of the days of the week when clergy performed marriage ceremonies of El Cerrito villagers is too small to support generalizations.l4 The six Quintana children who lived in El Cerrito became key architects in building a Quintana dynasty, in part because they and their six spouses lived long lives and, with the exception of Jesits Maria, had a number of (grand)children. Pitacio and Cruz Tapia had eight children, four of whom still lived in 1910 (Table 4.2). A daughter, Josefa, died in about 1898, when she was about twenty-four, leaving a granddaughter, Crucita, to be raised by Pitacio and Cruz. Dolores and Juan Vigil had fourteen children, eight of whom lived. One son, Ramon Benito Vigil, was informally adopted and raised by his grandfather, Fernando Quintana, perhaps because Juan Vigil always struggled financially. Jesus Maria and Antonia Ribera had no children. They informally adopted and raised Fernando, the youngest son of Pitacio and Cruz, a rather common practice for a barren couple. Simona and Emiterio Arellanes had ten children, and they named one of the six who lived Epitacio. Anastacio and Felipa Vigil had six children, four of whom lived, and Luciano and Refugio Trujillo had thirteen children, only five of whom lived. Infant mortality carried away children even of the well-to-do. The village midwife during much of this time was Cirilia Bellas, a stout woman from La Entrafiosa who lived in the second house northwest from the church. Cirilia was also Pitacio's mistress. According to Adin Quintana, as El Pel6n would approach Cirilia's house, young Epitacio Arellanes, who had hidden himself in the church cemetery, would call out, "iAdonde vas, Padrino?" (Where are you going, Godfather?). Caught in his tracks, El Pel6n would mutter something profane and shoot his gun into the ground.15
Family Wealth During the quarter century after 1860, seventeen newcomers arrived in El Cerrito and stayed at least a decade. Several emerged into the ranks of the wealthy, and several stayed a lifetime. The 1860s found Pedro Quintana, Eleuterio RaC11, Juan Vigil, and Manuel Armijo moving to the village. Juan Lucero, Blas Garcia, Melquiades Flores, Anastacio Bustos, Emiterio Arellanes, Jose de la Cruz Aragon, and Atilano Apodaca arrived in the 1870s. And the five years ending in 1885 saw the arrival of Albino Dominguez, Anastacio Apodaca, Antonio Gonzhlez, Remigio Martin[ez], Pablo Apodaca, and Juan de Jesus Jaramillo-in approximately that order. Eight of the seventeen were single men who married village women; one, Juan de Jesits Jaramillo, had a connection to Manuela Jaramillo's wealth; and the remaining eight arrived for reasons that are not clear. However, that so many young men could be pulled to the village of their brides, in defiance of prevailing patrilocal practice, is testimony to the strength of El Cerrito's economy at this time.16 Of the seventeen newcomers, Manuel Armijo had the greatest impact on El Cerrito, owing more to his legacy of at least twenty children born to two wives over forty years than to his modest rank among the wealthy (Fig. 4.4). Born in about 1845, probably in La Cuesta where his parents lived in 1850, Manuel married villager Bhrbara Marquez around 1868, the probable explanation for his move to El Cerrito. Between 1869 and 1877 the couple had five known children. When Barbara died, Manuel married Isabel Trujillo (sister of Refugio
THE LIVESTOCK GENERATION
61
Trujillo, who later married Luciano Quintana), and between 1880 and 1910 they had fifteen known children, two of whom married offspring of Vibiin Quintana, Epitacio's oldest son. Needless to say, strong ties bound the Armijos and the Quintanas. Meanwhile, Manuel purchased land from Desiderio Jaramillo and from Remigio Martin, who had bought from original grantee Jose Rodriguez. Manuel lived comfortably as a farmer, but the story goes that each fall when Anastacio Quintana butchered three cows on his era, Manuel would stick his head in Anastacio's door and say, "iCuscurros? icuscurros? Los Quintanas comen tripas vacas bravas." (Crumbs? Crumbs? The Quintanas eat expensive cow bellies). Anastacio would respond by sending meat to Manuel's house. Manuel died on 30 May 1923 at about seventy-five, and Isabel died on 1July 1923. Villagers buried both in the church cemetery." Newcomer Juan de J e s k Jaramillo rose immediately into the ranks of El Cerrito's wealthy on his arrival in the early 1880s. Juan was the son of Juan Jaramillo and ~ r s u l a Montoya, residents of Puertecito in the 1830s, and seems to have been born in about 1825. He may have been sixty when he, his wife of forty years, Juana Antonia Urioste, and their four sons moved to the village. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Juan was related to Manuela Jaramillo and either inherited land from her or purchased land from Desiderio Jaramillo. Juan ranked third in family wealth in 1885. By 1900, however, neither he nor his family lived in El Cerrito. The surname Quintana would suggest that Pedro Quintana also belonged on the list of wealthy families. He did not. Apparently a nephew of Fernando Quintana, Pedro certainly had relatives in El Cerrito, but he seems to have been pulled to the village through his marriage to Librada Saiz. Pedro and Librada lived in El Cerrito in 1860; in 1862 and 1865 clergy baptized two children born there, but in 1870 the family resided in San Miguel, where Fernando's brothers Miguel, Juan, and Ram6n lived. The 1880 census shows that Pedro and Librada were back in El Cerrito, and in 1881 their third child was baptized there. But by 1885 they had returned again to San Miguel, perhaps to stay. In 1994 Candido Arag6n recalled only that Pedro once owned land on the Anc6n.18 The agricultural census schedules for 1880 list thirteen heads of household, thus giving a rather complete cross-sectionalprofile of village family wealth for that date (Table 4.3). The thirteen heads, all men, owned 142 acres of tilled land, probably all irrigated, which had an approximate value of $25 per acre. The number of acres owned by each head ranged from 5 to 35 (the latter belonging to Fernando Quintana). Collectively the thirteen men planted approximately two-thirds of their 142 acres in Indian corn and one-third in wheat. Yields of both corn and wheat approximated twelve bushels per acre valued at about $1 per bushel. All heads of household grew corn, and eight grew wheat; Fernando Quintana led in the production of both. Fernando also owned 65 of the villagers' 106 milk cows, which had a value of $20 each. The unexplained absence of sheep and cattle that had been noted by census takers in previous and subsequent agricultural schedules masks a goodly portion of Cerritefio family wealth, probably especially for Epitacio Quintana. For draft animals, villagers favored oxen (43) over asses or mules (22) and horses (3). All thirteen heads owned farm implements or machinery. In the three major categories of family wealth-value of farmland, value of livestock, and value of crops produced-Fernando Quintana clearly led his nearest rival by a factor of two. Luis Manzanares came in a distant second, followed closely by Juan Lucero, Manuel Saiz, and Pedro Luis ~ u r a n . ' ~
Fig. 4.4 Manuel Armijo (ca. 1845-1 923) moved to El Cerrito in about 1868. He and "lsabelita" Trujillo (1 865-1 923), his second wife, had fifteen known children between 1880 and 1910. Photographs courtesy of Maria Cleofas (Cleo) Quintana de Sena, Pueblo, Colorado.
Table 4.3. P ~riculturein El Cerrito, June 1880
No.
I Name of Owner
1
Apodaca, Anastacio
2
Apodaca, Atilano
3
Dominguez, Albino
4
Dur6n, Pedro Luis
5
Flores, Melquiades
6
Lucero, Juan
7
Manzanares, Luis Martin, Manuel Martin, Remigio
t 12
Saiz, Manuel
13
Ulibarri, Victorian0
SOURCE: US. Bureau of the Census, Agricultural Schedules of the New Mexico Territory Census [l 8801, Schedule 2, Productions of Agriculture, pp. 25-26. Original Schedules in State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. NOTE: Enumerator John H. Mink recorded productions of agriculture for 13 heads of household in El Cerrito in Enumeration District 30, Precinct 2, San Miguel County, New Mexico Territory, June 1880.
64
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
The agricultural schedules for 1885 list only six heads of household, again all men. By 1885, when Dionicio Martinez took a special semidecennial census, Fernando Quintana seems to have given much of his land and livestock to family members, who are not among the six heads Martinez records (Table 4.4). Thus in 1885 Luis Manzanares had become El Cerrito's wealthiest person, followed by Fernando Quintana, Juan de Jesus Jaramillo, Remigio Martin, Pablo Apodaca, and Manuel Armijo. The 1885 schedules show that four of the village newcomers Uaramillo, Martin, Apodaca, Armijo) had prospered, and enumerator Martinez reported a new category of income, wood cut in cords. But omitting so many heads of household, notably Epitacio Quintana, the only person given by Martinez as a "stock raiser" under occupations in the population schedules, and the number of cattle and sheep owned, which for Pitacio and others had become so important, renders analysis of family wealth in 1885 not very useful. Nevertheless, by the mid-1880s the Quintanas and the Manzanareses led all other village families in wealth. And their competitiveness led to a major village feud. The principal couples, Fernando Quintana-Gertrudis Martin and Luis Manzanares-Agapita Mares, seem to have been amicable, for as late as 1874, at the baptism of Maria Anastacia, daughter of Melquiades Flores and Dolores Manzanares and granddaughter of Luis and Agapita, clergy recorded Fernando and Gertrudis as godparents. The major rift seems to have developed once Epitacio Quintana and Crescencio Manzanares took the family reins. Indeed, the village seems to have split into two moieties, or primary subdivisions. The Quintanas were aligned with the following families: Arellanes, Armijo, probably Durin and GarduAo, and possibly Saiz, Ulibarri, and Vigil; and aligned with the Manzanareses were those with the surnames Apodaca, Dominguez, Flores, (Remijio) Martin[ez], Montoya, and (Eleuterio) Rael. What transpired, according to later generations of Quintanas or their cohorts, is that Epitacio closed a lateral leading from the main acequia to Manzanares farmland. One report had him shutting off water conducted by the caAo to the Ancon. A Manzanares, the story goes, hit Epitacio over the head with a shovel, knocking him into the acequia. Vibiin, Epitacio's son, went after the Manzanares man with a loaded gun and fired but missed. At some point Albino Manzanares knifed Luis M. Quintana. This violence, and probably much more, ended in the Quintanas running off the Manzanares family and its supporters, mostly before 1900. From Villanueva in 1910, Crescencio served as executor of the Luis Manzanares estate, some of which Quintanas apparently bought. To hear this story only from Quintana sympathizers, as no Manzanareses remain to tell it, and to learn that Epitacio and others had been aggressive and mean, leaves little doubt about its veracity.20
Conchas Valley Connections In a more tranquil setting, the Conchas River gathers in rivulets on the flat Las Vegas Plateau some twenty miles east of Las Vegas (Map 4.1). Within ten miles it has carved a major notch in the south-facing Canadian Escarpment. Again on flat land below the escarpment, the Conchas, which easterners would look upon more as a creek or brook than a river, swings east eventually to finish its sixty-mile journey-all within San Miguel County-where it flows into the Canadian River. Encarnacih Estrada, a member of one of
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EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
the valley's first colonist families, recalled years later that in 1875 the middle section of the Conchas ran "in a series of puddles" through what she called a "meadow." In time, she explained, it cut an arroyo that meandered like a snake, and still later this arroyo straightened out and deepened. Today, if one stands on the bridge used by Highway 104 where it crosses the Conchas at La Garita-a community known before World War I as Variadero (New Mexican Spanish for a stream that frequently changes course) and before that as Estrada-the Conchas is fully twenty-five feet below the roadbed.21 The ciboleros, or buffalo hunters, followed the Conchas as it flowed in puddles over a flat meadow. After the fall harvest and before Christmas, men (and sometimes women and
CERRITERO DISTANT CONNECTIONS 1860s-1930s
I I
/
Encino I
Willard
1 /
Corona
Miles
Map 4.1 Cerriteiio ciboleros traveled east through the Conchas Valley to the Llano Estacado begin-
ning in about the 1860s, and they exploited salt deposits in the Estancia Valley to the southwest as recently as the 1930s.
THE LIVESTOCK GENERATION
67
children) from villages up and down the Pecos Valley crossed through the Conchas Valley o n their way to the Llano Estacado. They ascended the Caprock Escarpment in the vicinity of Tucumcari (Map 4.1). JesGs Maria Armijo told Olen Leonard in El Cerrito in 1940 that Cerritefios went annually as far as Texas and Colorado to hunt buffalo. A scar in the shape of a Y o n the steep Pecos Valley wall just south of Villanueva, according to Fortunato Gallegos, is the trace left by the ciboleros' carretas as they climbed onto the mesa o n their way to the Conchas. On the Llano Estacado, where most ciboleros hunted, poles were stuck in the ground, and between them villagers stretched lines o n which they hung slabs of buffalo meat t o dry-the real reason, according to Gallegos, for the term "Staked Plains.'' In about 1866 ten-year-old Emiterio Arellanes accompanied his half brothers, Pablo and Isidro Lopez, o n the annual cibolero party originating at San Miguel. On 12 December young Emiterio became lost when he left camp alone to search for some of his party's horses o n the flat llano. Frightened and unsure of what to do, he spent the long night in a tree, an experience he never forgot.22 Epitacio Quintana must have passed through the Conchas Valley many times as a cibolero, for this would explain his leadership role in what happened. In 1877 along the Conchas River about one mile downstream from Variadero, Pitacio squatted o n land o n which he built a ranch house (Map 4.1). Whether his employees stayed year-round at the ranch, located some fifty miles east of El Cerrito, is not known. From the enterprise, however, Epitacio became wealthy, initially by raising sheep and later by raising cattle, which he branded with a "PQ" on the left ribs. In establishing the ranch, Epitacio led the way for a generation of Quintanas and their relatives who, through homesteading, put together sizable cattle ranches in the Conchas Valley upstream from Variadero. Spanish people from other Pecos Valley villages followed the same pattern. Pablo (Paul) Lucero told me that his grandfather, a resident of San Jose, traveled through the Conchas Valley as a cibolero, and became the first settler at Variadero and that this led directly to his parents homesteading in 1908 northwest of Variadero, where Paul now lives.23 While Epitacio became El Cerrito's cattle baron o n grazing lands far east of the village, Cerritefios routinely traveled some one hundred miles southwest to the salinas in the Estancia Valley (Map 4.1). In the Great Basin the lowest points of many interior drainage basins, or "valleys," contain dried-up salt flats. Villagers exploited one such salina near present-day Willard. The trip to Willard by wagon took two days each way, and the villagers used the clean white salt they returned with for cooking. Animals consumed the dirty salt. Within the memories of recent villagers three trips are documented. At the age of five (circa 1907) Florencio Quintana accompanied his uncle, Vibian, who apparently regularly freighted salt to Mora County, to the salinas; Emiterio Arellanes and his son, Rogelio (born in 1899), made the round trip to the salinas; and in what may have been the last trip, in 1938, when fifteen or sixteen, Candido Arag6n and his uncle, Silvestre Aragon, drove two horse-drawn wagons by way of Encino, Duran, and Corona to the salinas near Willard. Candido and Silvestre left from Cafion Blanco where Silvestre lived. By 1938 the mesa land Candido crossed over to get to Cafion Blanco had already been carved into homestead^.^^
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THE HOMEITEAD GENERATION, CIRCA 1900
ach spring when the school year ended in El Cerrito, Vibihn Quintana (1865-1932) loaded his family into a wagon for the two-day trip to Variadero. For Vibiin's children and grandchildren, this meant another dull summer in the Conchas Valley away from village friends. But for Vibiin, it affirmed a commitment to raise livestock on homesteaded land. When the federal government opened the public domain to homesteaders in the Conchas Valley, Cerritefios stepped forward to file twenty-seven claims near Variadero. And when the common lands of the San Miguel del Vado Grant were opened to homesteaders, villagers filed an additional thirtytwo claims near El Cerrito. The challenge was this: in the absence of an open range and common lands, Cerritefios had to piece together homesteads in sufficiently large contiguous blocks to have viable livestock ranches. Vibihn himself homesteaded three tracts totaling 598.72 acres, and he saw that three of his sons homesteaded three more tracts of 1,454.17 acres. In total acres homesteaded and in ranching income earned Vibiin fared no better than his younger brothers, Luis M., Juan N. I, and Fernando, the four wealthiest Cerritefios in their time. But Luis stayed in El Cerrito while Juan and Fernando relocated permanently to Variadero; only Vibihn
70
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
split his time between both places. For his tenacity, Vibihn merits recognition as his generation's nominal leader (Fig. 5.1).l
Homesteading Near Variadero For many years ciboleros from El Cerrito crossed through the flat, grass-covered Conchas Valley on their way to the Llano Estacado. The valley and its small meandering river clearly appealed to them and to other Spanish villagers from the Pecos Valley. Three land grants issued between 1818 and 1824 had privatized most of the land along the Conchas River, but a twenty-mile-wide strip between two of the grants remained in the public domain. Epitacio Quintana and his father, Fernando, recognized this, and according to testimony in their homestead applications, beginning in March 1877 they squatted on land that straddled the Conchas River a mile downstream from the future community of Variadero. In 1882 and 1883 each filed for adjacent 160-acre homesteads, and in February 1885 both received patents to their claims. In this same thirty-six-square-mile township (Township 14 North Range 24 East), where some ninety-five homesteaders would eventually patent land, authorities issued only one earlier patent-to an Antonio Encinas in 1884. Thus Epitacio and Fernando helped to initiate the homesteading process and led the way for their fellow villagers .2 Epitacio undoubtedly masterminded the strategy that his fellow Cerritefios followed in the Variadero area, for the course of events unmistakably benefited the Quintana family, especially Epitacio's sons. The sixteen villagers who homesteaded near Variadero included only Quintanas and their relatives. Figure 5.2 shows the relationships: in addition to Epitacio and Fernando, they included Epitacio's three brothers, his four sons and two grandsons, two nephews (Vigils) and the husband of a niece (Tapia), and a brother-in-law (Arellanes) and his daughter. The participants spanned four generations. This strategy enabled the principals-notably Epitacio's sons-to acquire more homesteaded land. Moreover, it made it possible for villagers to piece together tracts in contiguous blocks and, when possible, tracts that fronted on potentially leasable New Mexico school lands. This required knowledge of the Township and Range System. And this strategy called for maximizing the acreage individuals alienated from the public domain, which required an understanding of the laws that governed homesteading. Villagers used one of four land laws to acquire land (Table 5.1). The original Homestead Act of 1862 allowed a person to file for a homestead entry (HE) of 160 acres, or a quarter of a square mile. In 1909 the government doubled the acreage an individual might claim to 320, half a square mile. Those already in possession of 160 acres could now file a second HE for another 160 acres, a situation Jesus Maria Quintana and Juan N. Quintana I took advantage of (Fig. 5.3). Recognizing that stock raising in dry areas required far more land, in 1916 the government authorized 640-acre stock raising homestead entries (SRHE). This full square mile represented the maximum amount of land one person could alienate from the public domain. In the Variadero area SRHE claims brought Fernando Quintana (Epitacio's son; Fig 5.4) and Vibihn Quintana close to their 640-acre limits, and Juan N. Quintana I, with 680 acres, exceeded the limit. Like three others, Juan had purchased 40 acres (at $1.50
Fig. 5.1 Vibian Quintana (seated), his wife, Cleofas Ribera, and their youngest son (and future village schoolteacher), Cabriel, pose in El Cerrito circa 1927. Light complexioned and bald like his father, Epitacio, Vibi6n (spelled as he signed his name in the homestead records) had a less stocky build. "Cleofitas" was the daughter of retail merchant Jos6Lino Ribera (more commonly spelled with a b than a v) and Rita L6pez of San Miguel. Photograph courtesy of Eduardo E. Quintana, son of Vibian and Cleofas, Pueblo, Colorado.
72
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
per acre) at public sale (PS), the fourth way CerriteAos might acquire public domain. Land acquired through purchase lay outside the category of land homesteaded. Altogether, the twenty-seven tracts patented by sixteen villagers in the Variadero area between 1885 and 1931 totaled 4,706.19 acres, or 7.35 square miles. The first two entries filed by Epitacio and Fernando Quintana lay in Township 14 North Range 24 East (Map 5.1). Both 160-acre parcels turned out to be outliers on the eastern side of the main Cerritefio homestead effort. Seventeen of twenty-seven entries filed by villagers lay in the western half of Township 13 North Range 23 East, and from there they stretched west and north into three additional thirty-six-square-miletownships. The pattern of patents that emerged showed faithful adherence to the strategy: entries formed contiguous blocks accomplished by straddling township boundaries, and entries lay adjacent to sections designated for
--Epitacio Quintana (1845-1932) Cruz Tapia
--Vibian Quintana (1 865-1932) Cleofas Ribera
--HeliodoroQuintana (1 902-1982)
--Luis M. Quintana (1 867-1950) Antonia Aragon
--Placid0 Quintana (1893-?)
--Juan N. Quintana I (1 869- 1945) --FernandoQuintana (1876-1942)
Fernando Quintana (1819?-1897) Gertrudis Martin
--Dolores Quintana Juan Vigil
--Santiago Vigil (1876- 1947) --Ramon Vigil (1 877-C1959) --Cmz Vigil Andres Tapia (1 877-1958)
--Jesus Maria Quintana ( l 858-1933) --Simona Quintana Emiterio Arellanes (1856- 1948)
--Paula Arellanes (1891-1957)
--Anastacio Quintana (1 862-1949) --Luciano Quintana (1 865-1926) Fig. 5.2 Genealogy of the sixteen Cerritefio homesteaders in boldface font at VariaderoILa Carita. Compiled from the author's records.
Table 5.1. Cerriteiio Lands Patented in the Variadero/La Carita Area, 1885-1931 No!
Name
15
Arellanes Emiterio
18
Paula
7
QuintanaAnastacio
1
Epitacio
2
FernandoC
i!
l
kquisitionb Land
T/R/Sec Location
1
I
114~23~31 14 N 2 3 E 31 13 N 23 E 5,7,8
Date Entry Filed
Acres
22 Jan 1915
30 Oct 1919
27 Mar 1899
23 May 1905
5 May 1904 113~22~13
1
11 Decl911 5May1920
SRHE
14 jan 1927
1 29 Jun 1929
PS
13N23E8
3 Feb 1912
HE
13N23 E43
4 Mar 1914
7 Oct 1919
HE
13N23E19
15Dec1920
25 Jan 1926
26 Jan 1921
25 Jan 1926
HE
22 Oct 1896
1 Mar 1904
PS
18Mar1913
6 Dec 1914
SRHE Juan N. I
-
25 Feb 1885
SRHE
JeslisMaria
I
-
Patent No.
21 Jan 1914
ern an do^
Heliodoro
Date Patent Issued
13 N 23 E 19/30
16 Sep 1914
HE
4 Aug 1916
8 Sep 1920
SRHE
26 Aug 1920
17 Sep l926
22 Jan 1924
30 Jan 1931
29 Mar 1898
18 Apr 1905
SRHE Luciano
1029040
18 Apr 1905
Luis M.
2 Sep 1920 Vibiin
Vigil
Ram6n Santiago
Total Patents: 27
HE
13N23E7
10 Feb 1897
18 Apr 1905
SRHE
4 N 22 E 35
14 Feb 1917
8 Oct 1926
PS
113N23E6
1 Aug 1917
7 lun 1920
HE
13N22E13 13N23E18
12 Jun 1911
20 Sep 1918
HE
13N23E17
13Nov1902 1 Feb 1909
/
648516
4592 Total Acres: 4,706.1 9
SOURCE: Compiled from plats and patent records at Bureau of Land Management, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dates for the ten earliest entries filed (14 Oct 1892 to 13 Nov 1902) obtained from Land Entry Files, National Archives, Washington, D.C. a Numbers represent chronology of dates homesteaders filed entries, 1882-1 924. HE = homestead entry; PS = public sale; SRHE = stock raising homestead entry. C Epitacio's father. Epitacio's son.
Fig. 5.3 JuanN. Quintana 1 (1869-1 945), born in El Cerrito, and Delfina Lucero (1884-1 961), born at Corazon near Variadero, had eighteen children, eleven of whom lived. The first two sons, Jos6 Manuel (child no. 7) and Juan N. II (child no. 12) took over their father's ranch near Variadero. In Juan's first marriage to Delfinals older sister Francisca, who died young, a daughter, Josefita, was born. Photographer and date unknown; courtesy of Balbina Guti6rrez de Quintana, widow of Jos6 Manuel, Las Vegas, New Mexico.
THE HOMESTEAD GENERATION
75
the support of schools (sections 2, 16, 32, and 36). To achieve these objectives, CerriteAos had to outmaneuver other largely Spanish homesteaders from the Pecos Valley and from nearby Trementina who had similar designs. The numbers 1 through 27 given in entries in Map 5.1 show the chronological order in which Cerritefios filed; in Table 5.1 the same numbers identify the owners and the kinds of entries they filed for. To acquire patent to a claim, Cerritefios had to be twenty-one years old, had to live on his or her land for as little as two years (at least in one instance), and had to make improvements during that time. Improvements included building a house, which in the Variadero area nearly always meant a stone structure with a flat roof; often a corral; sometimes a chicken house; and usually barbed-wire fencing. Claimants were also to cultivate land, which in the Variadero area meant dry farming several acres with little return expected. Authorities seldom specified the exact number of acres they expected claimants to cultivate, and they responded favorably to villagers who petitioned during the homesteading process not to be held to more than a few acres. Some villagers in the Variadero area dug shallow wells by hand, and from these they irrigated small kitchen gardens. Before a patent could be issued the claimant published a "notice of his intention to make final proof" for several
Fig. 5.4 Fernando Quintana's family poses in 1915, probably at their home near Variadero. (From left to right) Cliofes (191 1-77), Adela Ribera (?-l 91 8, Fernando's first wife and first cousin to Cleofas Ribera), Antonia Ribera (wife of Jesk Maria Quintana), Napole6n (1 914-), Fernando (1876-1 942),
and lgnacia (1909-89). Not shown is the eldest daughter, Luz (see Fig. 5.5). Photograph courtesy of Julia Carcia de Castillo, daughter of Ignacia, Denver, Colorado.
76
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
consecutive weeks in a local newspaper. Then the claimant and two witnesses-always close relatives-appeared before the probate judge of San Miguel County to testify that he or she had fulfilled the foregoing requirement^.^ Few Cerritefios who homesteaded in the Variadero area intended to live permanently on their claims. Like many of their homesteading neighbors, they visited their lands only sporadically, and to secure patents they gave answers in testimony that stretched the truth. For the benefit of authorities who may have visited the homestead in their absence, villagers testified, for example, that they had been away from their claims for as long as six months to accommodate their children who attended school elsewhere or to seek medical care for a family member or to visit relatives. The testimony of the claimant's two close relatives repeated verbatim that of the claimant. To justify why so few acres had been cultivated, Cerritefios testified (truthfully) that their crops often failed because of the lack of adequate rain. Villagers merely went through the motions of plowing because they anticipated little from their efforts. To fake a greater level of activity, Cerritefios scattered charcoal and ashes
Map 5.1 Initial Cerriteiio homesteads near Variadero filed 1882-1 924. Cerriteiios patented twentyseven parcels; their chronology by date of entry is noted. Spanish people dominated the homestead process: the northern three "townships" (T14N) averaged 95 percent Spanish (5 percent Anglo), while the southern two (T13N) averaged 75 percent Spanish (25 percent Anglo).
THE HOMESTEAD GENERATION
77
around their farmsteads, a fact reported by the descendants of claimants. And the chicanery took other forms. Juan N. Quintana I, who lived permanently on his claim, opened stores at both his houses and in the hamlet of Variadero to sell provisions-ften on credit-to his neighbors. This added to his income, of course, but Quintana also knew that homesteaders who could not pay their bills in cash might end up paying him in land.4 Most Cerriteiios who homesteaded near Variadero thus lived in El Cerrito and traveled the approximately fifty miles to their homesteads occasionally and for relatively short stays. The route they took began with fording the Pecos at El Cerrito (Map 5.2). If they drove sheep a temporary bridge made by connecting wagons end to end got the animals safely across the river. On the first day villagers crossed mesa country north of Anton Chico en route to Chupinas, where they took advantage of spring water at a ranch belonging to Anastacio Ra6.l to make camp (Fig. 5.5). Occasionally villagers camped a bit farther along on the Gallinas River south of Chaperito. On the second day villagers crossed Mesa Montosa, always staying south of the Conchas River. On this leg of the journey they could obtain
EL CERRITO TO VARIADERO WAGON ROAD CIRCA 1900
LAS VEGAS GRANT
ANTONIO ORTlZ GRANT
(CONCHAS RANCH) ANTON CHIC0 GRANT
PRESTON BECK JR. GRANT
Map 5.2 Wagon road between El Cerrito and Variadero, circa 1900. Traversing the fifty miles took two days by wagon or one day on horseback. Cerritefios in wagons camped overnight at the Ra6l ranch a t Chupinas Spring or on the banks of the Gallinas River.
Fig. 5.5 As Quintanas passed through the Chupinas Spring area, where Anastacio Ra6l owned his ranch, the younger generation formed lasting relationships. Shown here are Luz (Lucy) Quintana (1 898-1 996), daughter of Fernando, when married (in 1916 in El Cerrito) to Abenicio Ra6l (1891-1 980), son of Anastacio Rael. Anastacio Ra61fs adopted son, Luis Aragon, married Estefana Quintana, daughter of Anastacio Quintana, in 1916. In 1994 the author visited Luz Quintana de Rael, a widow and nearly blind, in Denver, Colorado. Photograph courtesy of julia Carcia de Castillo, a niece, Denver, Colorado.
THE HOMESTEAD GENERATION
79
water at Cabra Spring. Jose Manuel Quintana, the eldest son of Juan N. Quintana I and Delfina Lucero, recalled how his mother roasted a cabrito for the two-day trip, which for them began and ended near Variadero. Manuel loved cabrito and always wanted lunch as soon as the trip began.5 Today Quintanas continue to live west of Variadero (the name of the hamlet) or La Garita (the name of the post office and now commonly used for the community) that straddles State Highway 104 (Map 5.3). Their lands lie entirely west of Highway 104 and stretch the six miles to the Conchas Ranch, the former Preston Beck Jr. Grant. Altogether, three extended Quintana families own some 20,000 acres, up considerably from the 4,700 alienated in initial homesteads, and they also lease considerable school land acreage. Map 5.3 shows that their houses are grouped in the vicinity of the initial 160-acre homesteads patented to Vibian (#4), Fernando (#5), and Juan N. I (#3) (numbers are from Map 5.1). Benchmark events in the lives of members of the three families provide a synopsis of how things evolved. After Vibian died in 1932, Heliodoro, Hipolito, and Josk Lino went back and forth between El Cerrito and La Garita until 1942, when they joined Eduardo, who had moved to La Garita permanently. In about 1950 financially difficult times forced all the brothers except for Hipolito to move to Pueblo, and in about 1965 Hipolito left for Albuquerque. The brothers continued to ranch, and their ranch houses became temporary residences for occasions such as branding. The sons of Juan N. I and Fernando fared better financially and for the most part stayed in La Garita. Juan N. 1's summer home, where all eighteen children had been born, went to Jose Manuel, and his winter home near the long-abandoned school went to Juan N. 11. In 1974 Juan N. I1 moved to Las Vegas but returned the fifty-two miles each way at least weekly to attend to ranch duties. Fernando's home went to his son Cliofes and in 1977 to Cliofes's widow, Rita Garcia de Quintana. In 1947 Napoleon, a second son of Fernando, built his own home. Those Quintanas who are still alive today are quite elderly, and their middle-aged children have taken over the ran~hes.~ In the twentieth century, then, three extended Quintana families branched off from their parent village of El Cerrito. In the Variadero area they became vaqueros; the Conchas River carried too little water for them to attempt to irrigate cropland. Thus, unlike their brethren on the Pecos who owned land by the vara and farmed, these Quintanas owned land by the acre and herded cattle. Today, with obvious success, they trailer whiteface Herefords and Black Angus from pasture to pasture where the carrying capacity of the valley's grama grasses is forty acres per cow. The Quintanas represent the elite of the ranchers in the Variadero area. They have become the wealthy Quintanas. And with the passing of time they have virtually severed all contact with their parent village. Although residents of the same county, the Quintanas in Variadero and those in El Cerrito live in two different worlds. Jose Manuel Quintana, who died in 1999, had not visited El Cerrito since 1933, when he was twenty-one, to attend the funeral of his uncle and padrino, Jesus Maria Quintana. And his widow, Balbina Gutikrrez de Quintana, has never been to El Cerrito (Fig. 5.6).7
Map 5.3 Quintanas continue to live on or near the initial 160-acre homesteads filed for by JuanN. 1 (#3 in 1896), Vibi6n (#4 in 1897), and Fernando (#5 in 1898) in T13N, R23E. Their ranches stretch west from State Highway 104 to the Conchas Ranch.
THE HOMESTEAD GENERATION
81
Adjudicating the San Miguel del Vado Grant That Cerritefios had to homestead the common land on their own land grant was an injustice. No one questioned the validity of the San Miguel del Vado Grant. Governor Fernando de Chac6n followed proper procedure when he awarded land in 1794 to Lorenzo Marquez and fifty-one additional petitioners. Alcalde Pedro Bautista Pino properly put the petitioners and others in possession of their agricultural plots in 1803. Everyone recognized that grantees owned their private tracts and used the common lands for the benefit of all. No one contested the grant's external boundaries. And from the beginning the original grantees and their descendants resided on their grant without interruption. The problem stemmed from the fact that unlike the treaties signed in 1803 (Louisiana Purchase) and in 1819 (acquisition of Florida), which had provisions to confirm titles to land grants outright, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican War on 2 February 1848 required that land grantees petition for confirmation of their titles. For the San Miguel del Vado
Fig. 5.6 jos6 Manuel Quintana (1911-99) standing on Quintana ranch land in the semiarid Conchas Valley west of the hamlet of La Garita. For twelve hours on six occasions, Manuel kindly told me about La Carita, his beloved birthplace. Photograph by RLN, 18 October 1993.
82
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
Grant, this led to a prolonged half century of legal maneuverings, with an unsatisfactory o~tcome.~ Two issues emerged during the grant's tortuous history of litigation: should the San Miguel del Vado Grant be awarded only to the heirs and assigns of Lorenzo Mhrquez, the only petitioner named in 1794, or should it be awarded to the heirs and assigns of all of those to whom Alcalde Pino and subsequent alcaldes had awarded lands? In 1879 Surveyor General Henry M. Atkinson recommended the former, and in 1886 Surveyor General George W. Julian recommended the latter. In the end the Julian recommendation prevailed. In 1887 Secretary of the Interior L. Q. C. Lamar raised a second issue: should title be awarded only for those lands held as private property in 1848, or should title be given for all lands held privately and in common? The Court of Private Land Claims initially recommended that title be awarded for all lands private and common, but in 1897 the Supreme Court ruled that only lands held privately be confirmed. The key events as the litigation ran its course are described below (see also Table 5.2). On 22 July 1854 Congress created the Office of the Surveyor General for New Mexico Territory, and William Pelham was appointed surveyor general. Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States pledged itself to protect the legal rights of Mexicans in the conquered area, yet the treaty required that these people submit land claims for adjudication. Thus on 18 March 1857 Faustin Baca y Ortiz, justice of the peace of San Miguel del Vado, stepped forward on behalf of the inhabitants of the San Miguel del Vado Grant to petition Pelham for confirmation of title to the grant. Pelham took no action. On 15 July 1859, however, Pelham recommended approval of the Anton Chico Grant, a community tract much like the San Miguel del Vado Grant. Congress confirmed the Anton Chico Grant on 21 June 1860.9 On 13 November 1879 Henry M. Atkinson, now the surveyor general for New Mexico Territory, found the San Miguel del Vado Grant valid, but he argued that because no document named the fifty-one cograntees with Lorenzo Marquez, title should be awarded only to the heirs and assigns of Mhrquez. Thus Atkinson rejected the Baca y Ortiz petition of 1857 that had been submitted on behalf of the heirs of all who received land. Congress took no action. In the interim Atkinson had his deputy surveyor, John Shaw, map the grant. Shaw's survey became part of the grant's official documentation in December 1879 (see Map 1.l).1° In December 1886 George W. Julian, the newest of New Mexico Territory's surveyors general, recommended approval of the San Miguel del Vado Grant to the heirs and assigns of all the grantees. In a well-known article, "Land Stealing in New Mexico," published in the North American Review in July 1887, Julian criticized Atkinson for having personal gain in mind when he found for the heirs of Lorenzo Mhrquez. Congress took no action on the Julian recommendation. Meanwhile, Secretary of the Interior Lamar recommended in 1887 that only private lands occupied in 1848 when U.S. officials signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo should be confirmed. He argued that according to Spanish law, unallocated common lands reverted to the king of Spain and should now revert to the federal government. This argument of course made light of the fact that several generations of San Miguel del Vado grantees and their descendants had been grazing their livestock on these common
Table 5.2. Chronology of Land Grant Decisions Affecting El Cerrito, 1794-1 910 Nov 1794
I
I
Lorenzo Marquez and 51 others (not named) petition Governor Fernando de Chac6n for San Miquel del Vado (SMdelV) Grant
26 Nov 1794
Santa Fe Alcalde Antonio JoseOrtiz puts 52 petitioners in possession of the SMdelV Grant
12 Mar 1803
Santa Fe Alcalde Pedro Bautista Pino distributes 58 agricultural parcels at plaza of San Miguel del Vado
14 Mar 1803 24 Jan1822 2 May 1822 26 May 1824 8 Mar 1834 2 Feb 1848 22 Jul1854 18 Mar 1857 15 lul 1859 21 Junl860 25 Nov 1879
Alcalde Pino distributes 47 agricultural parcels at plaza of San Josedel Vado
1 Salvador Tapia and 16 others (named) petition for Anton Chico Grant
Manuel Rivera and 36 others (not named) awarded Anton Chico Grant by Governor Facundo Melgares San Miguel del Vado Alcalde Diego Padilla distributes land to 15 men (named) at El Cerrito Anton Chico Grant reinstatement application filed Treaty of Cuadalupe Hidalgo requires grantees to petition for title to land Office of the Surveyor General (SG) for Territory of New Mexico created San Miguel Justiceof the Peace Faustin Baca y Ortiz petitions SG for title to SMdelV Crant
1 SG William Pelham reco~mends~onfir~ation of ~nto; chic0 Grant 1 Conqress confirms Anton Chico Grant
SG Henry M. Atkinson recommends confirmation of SMdelV Grant to Mirquez heirs and assians
Dec 1879
Deputy Surveyor JohnShaw completes "Plat" of SMdelV Grant (Map 1 .l)
Dec 1886
SG Ceorge W. Julianrecommends confirmation of SMdelV Grant to heirs and assigns of all grantees
3 Mar 1891 2 Aug 1892 16 Jan1893 2 Mar l893 18 Apr 1894 19 Dec 1894 24 May 1897 10 May 1900 12 Dec 1900 9 Jul1901 1 1 Jul1902 13 Feb 1904
Court of Private Land Claims (PLC) created by Congress (abolished 30 June 1904) JulianSandoval et al. petition PLC for title to SMdelV Grant for heirs and assigns of all grantees Levi P. Morton petitions PLC for title to SMdelV Grant for Marquez heirs and assigns JuanMirquez et al. petition PLC for title to SMdelV Grant for Mirquez heirs and assigns PLC recommends confirmation to JulianSandoval et al. and dismisses the Levi Morton and JuanMarquez petitions U.S. government appeals PLC recommendation of 18 Apr 1894 to Supreme Court (SC) SC reverses PLC decree recommending confirmation to Sandoval et al.; remands case to PLC for a decision in conformity with SC opinion PLC requested to take testimony to ascertain fee simple ownership on SMdelV Grant at time of 1848 treaty PLC refers ownership mandate to Clayton G. Coleman Clayton G. Coleman Report finds 747 claimants to 3,539.71acres in ten tracts (Table 2.1) List of El Cerrito land claimants in Tract 1 determined Deputy Surveyor Wendell V. Hall's surveys of ten tracts (published in two maps) record
5,147.73acres, 1 1 7.65 acres in Tract 1 27 Jan 191 0
Congress issues patent for ten tracts on SMdelV Grant
SOURCE: Modified from Kent Howard Gompert, "The San Miguel Del Bado Land Grant" (1986),pp. 126-27.
84
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
lands. Congress postponed any decision until after it created the Court of Private Land Claims.l l Under the auspices of the Court of Private Land Claims, established in 1891, three petitioners came forward. On 2 August 1892 Julihn Sandoval et al. petitioned for approval of the entire grant to all its heirs and assigns. On 16 January 1893 Levi P. Morton, who served as vice president under Rutherford B. Hayes and as ambassador to France and who had acquired part ownership of the grant and thus become a legal successor to Lorenzo Mhrquez, petitioned for approval of the grant to the heirs of Mhrquez. And on 2 March 1893 Juan Mbrquez, Sylvester Mhrquez, and other heirs of Lorenzo petitioned for approval of the grant to themselves. On 18 April 1894 the Court of Private Land Claims dismissed the Morton and the heirs of Marquez petitions and recommended that legal title for the entire grant be awarded to Sandoval et al. as petitioners for all the heirs and assigns. But on 19 December 1894 federal government officials, persuaded by Lamar's point that title should be awarded only to private lands, appealed to the Supreme Court. On 24 May 1897, in its famous Sandoval Decision, the Supreme Court ruled that title should go to the heirs and assigns of all the grantees but only for the private lands. This decision became the benchmark case in future land grant adjudication wherein the courts denied or reduced common lands in community land grant petitions.12 In late 1897 John Veeder, attorney for Julihn Sandoval et al., petitioned the Court of Private Land Claims for testimony to be taken for purposes of determining agricultural parcels possessed by settlers in fee simple at the time of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. This produced the Clayton T. Coleman Report filed on 9 July 1901. In the Coleman Report 747 individuals claimed 3,539.71 acres in ten tracts (see Table 2.1). Angered by the court decisions that had been handed down, Hispanic people on the grant raised money to pay for an appeal to the Supreme Court in 1902, but the Court dismissed their appeal. On 31 December 1903 Deputy Surveyor Wendell V. Hall submitted his surveys of the ten tracts; their publication followed on 13 February 1904. Tract 1showed that 117.65 acres should go to CerriteAos (Map 5.4; Fig. 5.7). There being no additional contestants, officials issued patents for the ten tracts on 27 January 1910. Thus after 1910 CerriteAos had patent only to 117.65 acres of private land, which included some five acres for the village. To regain access to any common lands, which had become part of the public domain, they would have to file homestead claims.13
Homesteading Near El Cerrito In March 1909 authorities opened the public lands of the San Miguel del Vado Grant for private homestead entry. With two major exceptions, the Armijo and Durbn families, all CerriteAos stepped forward to file claims. Between 1917 and 1939 twenty-eight villagers patented thirty-one homesteads, and in 1961 Cris6stomo Vigil purchased 176.44 acres at public sale to complete CerriteAo initial land acquisition near El Cerrito. Altogether, twentynine villagers patented thirty-two claims for a total of 6,230.58 acres, or 9.74 square miles (Table 5.3). Competition for this land came from within the grant. Spanish people constituted 100 percent of those receiving patents in the three townships where Cerriteiios
TRACT 1 AND SHCs T12N R15E, EARLY 20th CENTURY
I
ANTON CHIC0 GRANT
\ Mile
lid
Map 5.4 Tract 1 of the San Miguel del Vado Grant contains 11 7.65 acres, including the village of El Cerrito, and is located where sections 11-1 4 come together in T12N, R1SE. Also shown are nine of twelve small holding claims containing 115.58 acres in the Cafi6n de PeAa area.
86
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
Fig. 5.7 This stone monument documents the beginning corner of El Cerrito's circular Tract 1. It is
located at the base of the mesa above a cattle guard where the road enters the village in its southwest corner. Photograph by RLN, 1 3 August 1980. acquired land. Elsewhere on the grant, Anglos entered into the competition. The historian G. Emlen Hall estimates that in the entire San Miguel del Vado Grant Spanish people recovered nearly two-thirds of their grant's public domain. Hall points out the irony of the situation: "residents ended up owning under United States law what the United States had said was not theirs under Spanish and Mexican law."'* Homesteading near El Cerrito differed in several ways from that near Variadero. Some Cerritefio families had squatted on land in the vicinity of Tract 1, the 117.65-acre block of San Miguel del Vado Grant land awarded to villagers (Map 5.5). Government officials allowed these squatters to file small holding claims (SHC), which did not exist near Variadero, to secure title by right of preemption. Twelve villagers did so, and officials issued patents quickly, often within a year (Table 5.3). Nine claims that ranged from 6.02 to 25.94 acres formed a block of 115.58 acres in the Cafion de Pefia area north of El Cerrito. The three remaining SHC claims, all larger and near El Cerrito, went to Federico Madrid (77.29 acres), Epitacio Quintana (80.00 acres), and Jesus Maria Quintana (104.21 acres). The remaining claims alienated near El Cerrito, like those near Variadero, included HE tracts ( l l ) , SRHE tracts (S), and one PS tract. Only three villagers who homesteaded near El Cerrito--Epitacio Quintana, Jesus Maria Quintana, and Luis M. Quintana-had also homesteaded claims near Variadero. For a second reason homesteading near El Cerrito was different. Near Variadero one family of Quintanas orchestrated the acquisition of contiguous homesteads next to New Mexico school lands to create several viable ranches and some relatively wealthy people, whereas, near El Cerrito many families sought their own pieces of upland grazing land.
Table 5.3. Cerriteiio Lands Patented in the El Cerrito Area, 1917-1961 Land T/R/Sec Location NM Acquisitionb Prinicpal Meridian
NO.^ Name
Date Entry
Date Patent Issued
Filed
12
Aragon Juande la Cruz
SHC Trl
12N15E1 1
17 May 1919
29 Mar 1920
5
Luis
HE
12N15E12
30Apr 1919
l 1 Aug 1926
17
Arellanes
18 27
Rogelio
16 23
Baca
Epitacio
Fidel
HE
12N15E13
19 Apr 1920
28 Aug 1926
HE SRHE
12N15E24 12N15E23
21 Apr 1920 1 Aug 1929
26 0ct 1926 15 Mar 1937
HE SRHE
12N15E3 12N15E9
2 Oct 1919 4Apr 1927 13lan1928- 3Mar1937
2
Bustos
Anastacio
SHC Trl
12N15E2,11
15
Carcia
Blas
SHC Trl
12N15E11
31
Madrid
Francisca GC SHC Trl
4
Federico
SHC Trl
29
Juan P.
SRHE
30
1 Mdrquez
Anastacia
I
12N15E2,11
8Apr1919
12Sep1921
22 Sep 1919
28 Jun 1922
30 jul 1935
20 Dec 1935
12N15E2
14Apr1919
13Sep1921
12N1SE10,11
l 0 Dec 1932
19 Sep 1939
SHC Trl
1 12N15E2,ll
126~ar1935
1
12N15E11
3Mar1936
Nicolas
SHC Trl
20Aug1919
17Mar1920
Andreita
SRHE
12N15E24,25
5 May 1920
28 Aug 1926
9
Casimiro
HE
12N15E11,12
13 May 1919
28Aug 1926
25
Eduardo E.
SRHE
12N15E23,26
1 Nov 1928
28 lull937
10
Epitacio
SHC Trl
12N15E14,15
15May1919
29Mar1920
13
Ortega
19
Quintana
26
Hipolito E.
SRHE
11
Jes6sMaria
SHC Trl
20
Luis M.
HE?
P--
14 6
Miguel V.
22
Ra6l
Abenicio
7
l Sena
Rosaura C.d
Tapia
24
Torres
21 8 32 1 3
Ulibarri Vigil
7 )an 1929 25 May 1938
12N15E14
15 May 1919
29 Mar 1920
12N16E30
5 Mav 1920
3 Feb 1928
-
P
Quintana y Vigil JesiisM.
28
12N15E13,14,15,22,27
-
HE
12N15E13
20Sep1919
l 1 Aug1926
HE
12N15E1
30 Apr 1919
20 Nov 1924
SRHE
I
SHC Trl
12N15E14
1 12N15El,2,ll ,l2
281~11926 15Dec1932
1
7 May 1919
1 29 Mar 1920
Benjamin
SRHE
12N15E35
26 ]an 1931
24 Aug 1938
Lucianita B.e
HE
12N15E25
ll Apr 1928
14 Apr 1936
Maria B[acaIf
HE
12N15E25
14 May 1921
8 Oct 1926
Pedro
SHC Trl
Crisostomo T.
PS
JuanB.
HE SHC Trl
12N15E1,l1
7May1919
Total Patents: 32
17Mar1920 14 Aug 1961
12N15E15 11N15E2,3 12N15E2,ll
Patent
24 Jul 19079 8 Apr 1919
6 Mar 1917 13 Sep 1921 Total Acres: 6,230.58
SOURCE: Compiled from plats and patent records at Bureau of Land Management, Santa Fe, New Mexico. a
Numbers represent chronology of dates homesteaders filed entries, 1907-35 (for homesteads) and 1961 (date of PS to C. Vigil). HE = homestead entry; PS = public sale; SHC = small holding claims in Tract 1; SRHE = stock raising homestead entry.
C
Maiden name Cardutio. Maiden name Cutierrez. Widow of Epifanio Torres; the "B" stands for "V" in Vigil. Widow of JoskTorres.
g
The discrepancy between this filing date (July 1907) and the opening date for homestead filing (March 1909) is unexplained.
Map 5.5 Initial CerriteAo homesteads near El Cerrito filed 1907-1 935 (and public sale in 1961). Cerritefios patented thirty-two parcels; their chronology by date of entry is noted. Spanish people obtained 100 percent of the patents in the one full and three partial townships shown.
THE HOMESTEAD GENERATION
89
Although Map 5.5 shows that most homesteads near El Cerrito are contiguous and some adjoin New Mexico school lands, with two exceptions El Cerrito families worked independently and ended up with parcels too small for viable ranches. Brothers Epitacio and Rogelio Arellanes did piece together three parcels for 931.5 acres, but for whatever reason, they fell short of making their acreage into a productive ranch (Map 5.5, nos. 17, 18, 27). Luis M. Quintana, on the other hand, established a viable sheep ranch in the area of El Fileto Cafi6n (Fig. 5.8). Luis and his eldest son, Placido, had helped extended family members by homesteading near Variadero. Now in a preplanned arrangement, Vibian's two sons, Hipolito and Eduardo, helped Luis. Luis added the two SRHE claims of Hipolito and Eduardo (617.28 and 640.00 acres, respectively) to his own tract of 151.18 acres and the SRHE claim of his daughter, Andreita-for a total of 2,048.46 acres (Map 5.5, nos. 25, 26, 19, 20). By 1940, when Olen Leonard and Charles Loomis described Luis as El Cerrito's "one big sheepman" and its "richest" villager, Luis owned or rented more than 3,000 acres (see Table 7.2 below). Like his three brothers at Variadero, Luis had become a stock raiser. By contrast, the other El Cerrito villagers could make relatively little use of their "crazy-quilt" homestead ownership pattern and were primarily farmers.15
Fig. 5.8 Luis Maria Quintana (also shown on the dust jacket) and lsabel (Isabelita) Arag6n (1875-1 942), a native of Anton Chico, had nine children between 1893 and 1910, four of whom lived to adulthood. Photographer and date unknown; courtesy Erminda (Erma) Quintana de Chacbn, granddaughter (daughter of Florencio Quintana), Westminster, Colorado.
90
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
In Bless Me, UZtirna (1972), Rudolfo A. Anaya captures beautifully the dichotomy between stock raisers and farmers. The novel is about young "Antonio" growing up in "Guadalupe," an analog for Anaya himself who in the 1940s grew up in Santa Rosa (located some fifty miles downstream from El Cerrito). Antonio could not understand why his parents, individuals so fundamentally different, ever married. His father came from "Las Pasturas," a village of boisterous vaqueros who rode horseback like the wind over the grassy llano. His mother came from "El Puerto de 10s Lunas," a village of quiet farming people who followed the phases of the moon for planting and harvesting. When the couple moved to Santa Rosa, Antonio's father insisted that they build their house on a hill above the Pecos River on the edge of the llano. His mother, who wanted to live in the valley, complained bitterly that her garden on the hill "grew only rocks." Her people, like the farmers in El Cerrito, found their nourishment in the fertile valley; his people, like Luis M. Quintana and the stock raisers at Variadero, found their freedom and nourishment in the windswept plains.16
Village Leadership In 1940 Leonard and Loomis remarked that to be a leader in one of New Mexico's Spanish villages one needed three qualities: age and experience, a respected family context, and the ability to "express oneself fluently" in front of a group. They also commented that in 1940 some Cerriteiios felt that El Cerrito had no "real" leaders. Forty years earlier, however, El Cerrito had no shortage of able leaders, and the Quintana family supplied a disproportionate share of them. Quintana men had led the effort to homestead land from which to secure an income. In about 1900 the Quintana brothers Epitacio and Jesus Maria rose in the Republican Party and were elected to important county offices. Responsible villagers from several families stood for election to the three-person boards of directors to oversee El Cerrito's school district. And several families produced enterprising village merchants. At the turn of the century El Cerrito had probably reached its high point in political and economic leadership." That tiny and remote El Cerrito could compete successfully in the county political arena is quite remarkable. For decades before the New Deal era of the 1930s, Republicans had a strong grip on politics in San Miguel County. In the biennial elections held each November of even-numbered years nearly all forty to sixty adult men and women voted in El Cerrito's Precinct 37, and their support went heavily, sometimes unanimously, for Republican candidates. Epitacio and Jesus Maria capitalized on their precinct's Republican strength to gain nomination for county office. Epitacio was county commissioner from 1899 to 1900 and county assessor in 1905-6. Voters elected Jesfis Maria superintendent of schools in 1903-4 and county commissioner twice in 1917-18 and 1923-24. These offices brought great honor to the two individuals and to their village. To lessen the burden of holding office, elected officials had the resources to hire a deputy to handle day-to-day business in Las Vegas, a perk Superintendent of Schools Jesus Maria took full advantage of. The legacy of his service as county commissioner can be seen on identical plaques on two new concrete bridges built at El Cerrito and Variadero. Both bridges have been replaced, yet the plaque and the original bridge still exists at Variadero (Fig. 5.9, Map 5.3). In the early 1930s, when it seemed that
THE HOMESTEAD GENERATION
91
some villagers might waiver in their support of Republican candidates, Maria admonished his fellow Cerritefios, "No sean chaquetas voliadas," Don't be turncoats.18 Elections in El Cerrito tapped additional leaders to run the school. Each school district in San Miguel County had its board of directors consisting of a president, a secretary, and a treasurer. These political bodies recommended to the County Board of Directors their choice of teachers, the salary level, and the length of the school year. For forty years from the 1880s to the 1920s, El Cerrito's School District 7 (before 21 November 1889) and 22 (1889-1951) consistently listed the same board members. The four who served with greatest regularity were Manuel Armijo, Jesus Maria Durhn, Epitacio Quintana, and Jesus Maria Quintana (who also served on the board for School District 15 in the area of Variadero) (Map 5.6). Six villagers who rotated on and off with regularity were Emiterio Arellanes, Jesus Maria Armijo, Anastacio Bustos, Crestino Gardufio, Luis M. Quintana, and Juan Vigil. Those who served at least once included Pablo Apodaca, Epitacio Arellanes, Pablo Durhn, Anastacio Quintana, Fernando Quintana, Luciano Quintana, Melquiades Saiz, Lucillo Torres, and Macario T6rrez.lg The list of school board members also included several village merchants. Besides Epitacio Quintana, at least five additional male villagers operated stores. In the 1890s Pablo Apodaca and Manuel Armijo consigned goods from wholesaler Charles Ilfeld of Las Vegas-staples such as flour, sugar, lard, baking soda, coffee, tobacco, and kerosene oil-
Fig. 5.9 County Commissioner J. M. Quintana's name appeared on identical metal plaques placed on bridges whose construction he supported at El Cerrito and VariaderoILa Garita. The El Cerrito bridge no longer exists. The bridge at La Carita, which displays the plaque shown, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Photograph by RLN, 18 October 1993.
92
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
which they seem to have sold from their homes. In the twentieth century those who ran stores included George Vigil (1897-1958), son of Juan; Macario T6rrez (1903-39), husband of Ignacia Vigil; and Brigido Quintana (1910-71), son of Luciano. Today Joe Quintana can point to the room in his home where his father, Brigido, sold goods. In about 1900, then, El Cerrito could boast about its many resourceful citizens and leaders, yet to a person all were men. New Mexico's Spanish society at this time discouraged women from running a business or from seeking elected office. That a woman would lead El Cerrito's next generation is remarkable.20
PRESUMED FAMILY HOUSES EL CERRITO CIRCA 1900
1 Aragbn, Arculano
2 Arellanes, Emiterio 3 Armijo, Manuel 4 Duran, Jesus Maria 5 Duran, Pablo 6 Estrada de Saiz, Clementa
7 Gardufio, Crestino 8 Manzanares home (and barn) 9 Mares de Manzanares, Agapita 10 Quintana, Epitacio 11 Quintana, Jesus Maria 12 Vigil, Juan
m
Map 5.6 Presumed family houses in El Cerrito, circa 1900. Sources: written descriptions of house
locations in Assessment Rolls, Precinct 37 (El Cerrito), San Miguel County, analyzed for 1896-1 901; Florencio Quintana (1902-2000) while walking the village on 2 April 1980.
THE ICHOOL GENERATION, CIRCA 1925
Lamilymembers had gathered around young Benito's open coffin in the front room of Cleofas Ribera de Quintana's home, lighting matches to see his face in the dark of the night. Soon Benito's mother entered, and amid wailing and sobbing she asked God why a third child had died. This happened in November 1940; in December she would lose still a fourth child. Life held much tragedy for Margarita Quintana de Armijo. Born the second daughter of Vibihn Quintana and Cleofas Ribera in 1897, Margarita completed high school in Las Vegas, spoke English, and for several years between 1917 and 1920 taught school in El Cerrito. In the absence of the priest, who came to the village only once a month, Margarita conducted El Cerrito's church services, taught catechism, recorded village baptisms, marriages, and deaths, and even carved cemetery headstones. Like most CerriteAos, Margarita and her husband, fellow villager Cristiano Benito Armijo, moved to Pueblo, Colorado, in the great exodus of the 1940s and 1950s. But when she died in Pueblo at the age of ninety-seven in 1994, onetime villagers agreed that Margarita had been "everything" to El Cerrito. Short, bright, well educated, well dressed, vivacious, and deeply religious, Margarita had no equal as the leader of El Cerrito's school generati0n.l
94
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
The Schoolhouse Before El Cerrito had its own grade school only a handful of villagers could read and write. In Demetrio Pitrez's especially accurate census of 1870 only seven villagers, all men over the age of eighteen, could read Spanish, and three could also write Spanish. Only the well-to-do, moreover, could afford to send their children elsewhere to school. In 1860 Francisco Alarid and Desiderio Jaramillo, both eleven-year-old boys belonging to El Cerrito's wealthiest single family, attended school, most likely as boarders in Las Vegas or Santa Fe. In 1870 three Quintana households lived in La Cuesta, possibly so that the six youngest school-age children of the Fernando and Gertrudis household could attend school. This reason for the temporary removal of these Quintanas to La Cuesta is only speculation, however, for although Perez recorded Esquipula Tenorio as the schoolteacher in La Cuesta in 1870, he did not indicate that the Quintana children attended school during that year. In 1880 the Epitacio Quintana family lived both in El Cerrito and, temporarily, in the home of father-in-law Pablo Tapia in San Miguel, where Vibian (14), Luis (12), and Juan (10) attended school. Having their own school would increase educational availability and literacy in El C e r r i t ~ . ~ El Cerrito's schoolhouse seems to have been built between 1880, when the census shows no children attending school in the village, and 1882, the first year a schoolteacher is recorded there. County funds probably paid for the structure, and village politicians Epitacio Quintana and Jesus Maria Quintana likely made it happen. The large one-story rectangular schoolhouse, measuring 20 by 50 feet, had walls of hefty adobe bricks-measuring 8 by 16 by 4 inches-that rested on belowground flat stone footings. At the west end of the one long room stood a freestanding wood-burning stove. Because the school accommodated grades 1 through 8, a partition often separated students in grades 1 through 4 from those in the upper grades. The school had no electricity or running water; a kerosene lantern provided light when needed; and a bucket of water from the irrigation ditch (purified by the 1940s with pills provided by the visiting school nurse) quenched the thirst of anyone who had a cup. Behind the school on the north side stood two outhouses, one for boys and one for girls3 Two early photographs of the front of the schoolhouse survive. The first, taken in 1934-35, perhaps by George I. Siinchez, shows a building exterior in need of replastering (Fig. 6.1). The second, taken by the government photographer Irving Rusinow in April 1941, shows a replastered structure (Fig. 6.2). The later photo also shows the stone footing capped with cement, perhaps to protect the foundation from surface runoff coming downslope from the west. The original structure had a flat roof much like the one shown east of the school in Figure 6.2. There is no record of when carpenters built the pitched roof, complete with fancy hipped gable ends and a single central dormer, all covered with sheet iron. Both doors, as well as the six-pane double-sashed windows, appear to have been purchased factory made. The door on the right (east) side, because of its different door jamb, its raised stoop, and its asymmetrical placement, seems to have been added to the original building. The automobile shown in Figure 6.2 probably belonged to Rusinow as it is cropped from the school photograph in his photographic essay published in 1942.~ El Cerrito's schoolhouse also served as the polling place, the meeting place for the Ditch Association, and the village dance hall. On given Saturday nights at least once a
Fig. 6.1 El schoolhouse as photographed in 1934-35, perhaps by George I. Sinchez. Sinchez Collection, Box II: C, Scrapbook item no. 22, p. 7, of the Mexican American Archives, Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas at Austin. Courtesy of the Benson Latin American Collection.
Fig. 6.2 lrving Rusinow‘s photograph taken 10-1 6 April 1941 shows Cosme Quintana (left) and his cousin, Evaristo Quintana, also presumably automobile, in front of El schoolhouse. National Archives Neg. 83-G-37874.
96
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
month nearly all villagers of all ages turned out in their best for the baile, the favorite form of recreation for most Cerriteiios. The partition came down, women sat along the wall, probably in the movable school desks, men stood along the opposite wall and by the door, and when the traditional Spanish music began, played on a fiddle and a guitar and occasionally an accordion, the men stepped forward for a partner. Among the men were potential suitors from villages all around, for future spouses were often found at dances. As the evening wore on some of the men would step outside for a swig from a jug of mula, moonshine that packed the kick of a mule. Sometimes the drinking led to a fight to settle some between-village rivalry. To disguise this drinking and smoking from the women, men came prepared with pockets stuffed with mint? When Leonard and Loomis lived in El Cerrito in 1940, an absence of rowdy behavior meant that dances could last until two o'clock or three o'clock in the morning. In 1940 in Fig. 6.3 Agapito Quintana (1896-1 993)) son of Anastacio Quintana and Felipa Vigil, (left) and Heliodoro Quintana (1 902-82), son of Vibi6n Quintana and Cleofas Ribera, taken circa 1918, probably in Las Vegas. Photograph courtesy of Maria Cleofas (Cleo) Quintana de Sena, daughter of Heliodoro, Pueblo, Colorado.
THE SCHOOL GENERATION
97
Villanueva, by contrast, to prevent fights from breaking out, dances had to be stopped by ten or eleven. However, an event some twenty-five years earlier that many in both communities remembered well in 1940 reminded everyone that not all CerriteAos had always been tranquil. Agapito Quintana and R u b h Torres, two young men from El Cerrito who apparently sought the affection of the same young woman, attended a dance in Villanueva (Fig. 6.3). In a fight, Agapito knifed Rubkn in the back, and Rub& died. Back in El Cerrito, Rub6nfsfather, Jose Torres, refused to press murder charges against Agapito, and without legal action the matter was dropped. The families on both sides also tried to suppress knowledge of the event. Agapito continued to live in El Cerrito. He became something of a hero when he saved Josefa Aragbn, wife of Jose Efren Garcia, from drowning in the Pecos. Agapito married Maria Paz Chhvez of El Pueblo, and the couple had nine children, eight in El Cerrito and the last in Las Vegas, where the family moved in 1947. By the time Agapito died in Las Vegas at the age of ninety-six in 1993, the unfortunate incident was all but forgotten. Most who attended Agapito's funeral remembered him as the last of the grandchildren of Fernando Quintana and Gertrudis Martim6 The exodus of families from El Cerrito in the 1940s took a toll on the number of children who attended school, and in 1951, because of low enrollments, the New Mexico Board of Education closed El Cerrito's schoolhouse. El Cerrito's school district was consolidated with that of Villanueva, to which buses now transported El Cerrito's children. After it was closed the Torres family bought the schoolhouse from San Miguel County (Fig. 6.4). In the late 1950s hay stored in the building ignited, reportedly from a fire built by George Torres
Fig. 6.4 In August 1956 the front of the schoolhouse, now owned by the Torres family, displayed modifications. (From left to right, west to east) A window had been made into a door; a new window
had been added; under the dormer a door had become a window; a door had been converted to a loading shoot; and a window stayed the same. Photograph by Charles P. Loomis, courtesy of the Rio Crande Historical Collections, Accession No. RC 84-24, New Mexico State University Library, Las Cruces.
Table 6.1. Schoolteachers in El Cerrito, 1882-1951 Year
Sex
Home Village
M M M
La Cuesta
Esquipula Tenorio Epifanio Escudero
Delfino E. Martinez
M
Schoolteacher Esquipula Tenorio
Delfino E. Martinez
El Pueblo
I
Eleuterio Armijo
M M
Villanueva
Cecilia Lopez F Juan Garcia y Conzalesl M
Villanueva Las Vegas
Antonio Armijo
Luciano Shnchez
I
M
I
M M F F
Villanueva
Bertha Paaan
I I
F F F
Cora Nicholas Elvira Martinez Cabriel Quintana Consuelo Callegos Gabriel Quintana
I
F F M
30 20
1
35 45 30 38
La Cuesta n o w renamed Villanueva
1 1 Margarita daughter of Vibian
100 1 1 0 0 100 80 1 1 0 0 100 100 80 100 80
F
I
L
El Cerrito
F I F 1
Ramon (Ray) Esquibel
Record book: 26 students, all male. Census: 18 students, 1 female (Table 6.2) 21 students, all male In 1886-87 two schoolteachenp
I Villanueva [
Zela Bibb
Josie Martinez
45 45
Sanchez
I F 1
Margarita LaraAaga Eufemia Cutigrrez
Maria Lucero Maria Lucero
Tenorio knew only Spanish
El Pueblo
1 M /
Cora Nicholas Catherine Callery
30
El Pueblo
Andalecio Sena
Dollie Mussey Mrs. N. Parker
Comments
La Cuesta
Cuadalupe Trujillo Delfino E. Martinez
Antonio E. Armiio V. M. Flores Margarita Quintana
Monthly Salary ($)
1 1 Nicholas, upper grades Callery, lower grades Nicholas, upper grades Martinez, lower grades
El Cerrito Villanueva
Quintana, son of Vibiin
El Cerrito
Quintana, principal and upper grades Lucero, lower grades
Villanueva Villanueva Las Vegas
Martinez mar Abel Tapia of El Cerrito
Las Vegas
Last schoolteacher; nine students
SOURCES are listed in table footnotes; accents are added to names. Day Book, 1879-86, Condado de San Miguel, Comisionados de Escuelas Publicas, 1882-83 (p. 40); 1883-84 (p. 51); whether teachers knew "Castellano" and "Ingles" noted on p. 40. Superintendent's Record Book 1884-87, San Miguel County, 1884-85 (p. 166)) 1885-86 (p. 169), 1886-87 (p. 1 72), 1887-88 (p. 196). C Superintendent's Record Book 1889-97, San Miguel Countyl 1888-89 (p. 153), 1891-92 (p. 167). Register of Teachers Employed, San Miguel Countyl 1899-1 900 (p. 339), 1900-1 901 (p. 342), 1902-3 (p. 347), 1904-5 (p. 350), 1905-6 (p. 353), 1907-8 (p. 356). Table A.10 (1920) #3; the year Margarita Quintana taught Henry Arellanes first grade in the commissary (Fig. 6.6), she was El Cerrito's only teacher; interviews with author, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 19 February 1994 and 30 April 1994. a
THE SCHOOL GENERATION
99
Table 6.1 continued Annual Reports, 1922-23 to 1931-32, School Superintendent, San Miguel County, 1922-23 (Item No. 32/3), 1923-24 (Item No. 3315)) 1924-25 (Item No. 34/4), 1925-26 (Item No. 3514)) 1927-28 (Item No. 36/3), 1928-29 (Item No. 37/4), 1929-30 (Item No. 38/4), 1930-31 (Item No. 3914). Leonard noted that Cabriel taught in El Cerrito in September 1935, p. 2 of Cabriel Quintana's 8-page Family Schedule dated 1 April 1940. Consuelo Francisca Callegos taught 1.5 to 2 years in El Cerrito according to her younger sister, Carmen Callegos de Ceoffrion, interview with author, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 26 November 1993. The full year was 1935-36, according to Consuelo's cousin, Lucy Lbpez, who was visiting Consuelo in El Cerrito on 11 October 1935, the date Maria Carmen and Maria Consuelo Amijo died; interview with author, Las Vegas, New Mexico, 16 October 1993. Leonard verifies the schoolteacher status of Cabriel Quintana (1 0 April 1940) and of Maria Lucero (25 March 1940), "Interviews with Residents." lrving Rusinov documents that Maria Lucero was El Cerrito's schoolteacher in 194041 in his photograph taken in April 1941 (Fig. 6.6). josie Martinez resigned after teaching one year in 1945-46 to marry villager Abel Tapia; interview with author, Pueblo, Colorado, 8 July 1988. Ram6n (Ray) Esquibel was El Cerrito's last schoolteacher in 1950-51; interview with author, El Cerrito, New Mexico, 22 September 1988.
while cooking, and the fire destroyed most of the structure. In 1982 Faustin Torres Jr., of Portales, New Mexico, announced his intention to sell his village properties, which included the school. John Burns and his partners, already village landowners, purchased all of Torres's holdings. John knew of my interest in one day rebuilding the schoolhouse with the objective of making it a tiny OU West of the Pecos before giving it to the village for a meeting place and museum. He and El Cerrito Tenants in Common kindly agreed to sell the schoolhouse to me. The rebuilding began in 200Z.7
Teachers An accurate list of teachers can be pieced together for twenty-eight of the nearly seventy years that El Cerrito's school operated (Table 6.1). Villagers recall the names of an additional fifteen teachers primarily during the 1930s and 1940s, but the exact years these men and women taught is uncertain. The following profile emerges from the lists. Both men and women taught in El Cerrito, yet men dominated before and women after about 1910. Judging from their surnames, most of El Cerrito's teachers were Spanish, with a generous sprinkling of Anglos in more recent years. In most years El Cerrito had only one teacher, but occasionally the county school board hired two, one for the lower grades and one for the upper grades. The length of a teacher's employment in El Cerrito typically ranged from one to three years. And El Cerrito's teachers came from a number of communities in San Miguel County, including El Cerrito, which produced at least four.8 Being hired to teach in El Cerrito had less to do with educational credentials than politics. Each school district in San Miguel County, including El Cerrito's District 7 (1882-89), later District 22 (1889-1951), elected a three-member district school board that could recommend who might be hired. But everyone knew that when the county school board made
100
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
its hiring decisions, it often made appointments as political favors to officeholders or influential people of the controlling political party. Everyone knew, for example, that when Margarita Quintana became the teacher in El Cerrito in about 1917, her grandfather Epitacio Quintana, county commissioner of the Second District in 1899-1900 and county assessor in 1905-6, whose Republican Party held power at the time, pulled the strings (Fig. 6.5). And all agreed that Perfecto Gallegos, Villanueva's onetime county clerk, did the same for the appointment of his daughter, Consuelo Gallegos, as El Cerrito's teacher in 1935-36. Jose P. Quintana explained to Leonard in 1940 that he had lost his teaching job of several years in El Cerrito because "we [the villagers] failed to support candidates that were elected in the last regular e l e ~ t i o n . " ~ Nonetheless, a teacher's education did count. El Cerrito's three Quintana teachers, sister and brother Margarita and Gabriel and their cousin Jose P., all had high school degrees, and Gabriel had taken one year of college. According to Leonard's family schedules showing years of schooling completed for all villagers in 1940, no other villager had completed more than eleventh grade. Jose P., Leonard noted, had attended three years at the high school for Spanish natives of New Mexico in El Rito. And Margarita and Gabriel had attended high school in Las Vegas, the location of the county's nearest public and private high schools. To be able to attend high school, Margarita, and her older sister, Rosa, had boarded with an aunt, Chavela Ribera, who lived on South Pacific Street. At Normal High
Fig. 6.5 Margarita Quintana (in hat) (1897-1 994) and an unidentified friend, circa 1920. Margarita and her husband, Cristiano Benito Armijo (1894-1 965), had eight children. Photograph courtesy of Geraldine Sinchez de De Blassie, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
THE SCHOOL GENERATION
101
School in Las Vegas, Rosa met her future husband, Francisco Lbpez, who attended the Esquela de 10s Hermanos High School. Once married, the couple, who lived at the intersection of New Mexico Avenue and Valley Street, helped Rosa's younger siblings Eduardo, Rita, Jose Lino, and Gabriel, attend high school.1° Teachers who came from communities around San Miguel County paid to room with El Cerrito families. Exceptions seem to have been those from Villanueva. Maria Lucero, for example, commuted from Villanueva in 193940 (Fig. 6.6). Teachers chose the families with whom they would live, and they negotiated the amount they would pay for a room. In 1950-51, Ramon (Ray) Esquibel arranged to live for the year with the Rogelio Arellanes family. Like the teachers who preceded him, Esquibel would stay in El Cerrito during the week and return to his family home (in Las Vegas) on the weekend. At least four other Cerritefio families welcomed teachers as renters-and the extra income this would mean. These families are shown on a map of El Cerrito that places families in houses in about 1925, as reconstructed (with minor changes) from memory by Henry Arellanes, who spent his first sixteen years in the village between 1912 and 1928 (Map 6.1).11
Fig. 6.6 Maria Lucero, El Cerrito's schoolteacher in 1940-41, commuted to El Cerrito from Villanueva. Here she presides over students (left to right) lsidro Armijo, Utimia Torres, Grace Quintana, JoseTorres, Evaristo Quintana, and Flora Armijo. Photograph by lrving Rusinow, 10-1 6 April 1941. National Archives Neg. 83-G-37875.
102
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
While he rented a room in the home of Rogelio Arellanes, Esquibel saw a good deal of Benito Rivera, a nephew being raised by Rogelio, and at school Benito was teacher's pet. Maria Quintana, also a student in 1950-51, remembered Benito as a "skinny tattletale," and Benito's status as teacher's pet only compounded Maria's irritation. At Christmas Esquibel and his nine students exchanged presents. But Maria observed that Esquibel gave Benito a
PROBABLE FAMILY HOUSES EL CERRITO CIRCA 1925
1 2
3 4 S
6
7 8 9 10
Aragon, Luis Arellanes, Emiterio Armijo, Cristiano B. Armijo, Jesus Maria Bellas, Cirilia Duran, Petra Quintana, Anastacio Quintana, Epitacio Quintana, Fernando Quintana, Jesus aria
11 12
13 14 15 16
17 l8 19
20
Quintana V., Jesus aria Quintana, Luciano Quintana, Luis M. Quintana, Vibian Tapia, Ambrocio Torres, Jose Torres, LUC~O Vigil, George Vigil, Ramon Vigil, Santiago
PL!!
Map 6.1 Probable family houses in El Cerrito circa 1925, as recalled by Henry Arellanes, grandson of Emiterio Arellanes and a villager from his birth in 1912 to 1928. The five "X'S" indicate houses where teachers rented at various times.
THE SCHOOL GENERATION
103
second present from "Santa." Maria liked Esquibel, but this made her angry. To retaliate, she wrapped up a cow dropping and left it as an anonymous gift for Benito. Later, when Benito opened the present, both he and Esquibel were understandably upset. A delighted Maria had successfully retaliated.12 One of two schoolteachers in 1935-36, Consuelo Gallegos, rented the back room in the home of Cleofas Ribera, widow of VibiAn Quintana (Map 6.1). On 11 October 1935, from the window of that room, two visitors, Lucy L6pez (Consuelo's cousin) and Venerana Ribera (Consuelo's grandmother), witnessed what may have been the most horrible event ever to have occurred in El Cerrito. Margarita Quintana de Armijo, whose home later took in schoolteacher renters, had gone to the house of Anastacio Quintana to watch a government employee demonstrate how to preserve food. She left her thirteen-year-old, Maria Carmen, to care for her one-year-old, Maria Consuelo. To light a fire in the wood-burning stove, Carmen seems to have used too much aceite de Zhmpara. She caught fire and in a panic grabbed little Consuelo and ran outside. Lucy and Venerana jumped to the window as they heard the screaming human torch run by. They rushed outside with sheets to smother the flames. Others joined the chase, but no one could catch Carmen. The two girls, according to Lucy, turned to "charcoal" and died. In the tragedy Margarita lost the first two of her then seven children.13
Students Students attending El Cerrito's school came exclusively from El Cerrito. Their ages in grades 1 through 8 ranged from six to eighteen, and only rarely was there someone aged five or nineteen. In school they learned the basics, reading, writing, and arithmetic, and sometime after 1910, English as well. A typical school year began in September and ended in May, but at least in some years this nine-month pattern shrank to only three or four months. Josie Martinez found it impossible to teach a nine-month school year's curriculum in 1945-46, the one year she taught, because so many families did not return from working in Colorado until October and left again for Colorado in March. And the school day began when students observed the teacher walking to school, their signal to leave home for school.14 When El Cerrito's school first opened, mainly-perhaps only-boys attended. Villagers placed greater importance on educating males than females. After all, they reasoned, as housekeepers women would have less need to read and write than would men, who had to earn an income outside the home. This does not explain why boys dominated El Cerrito's early enrollments, however. In the 1880s tradition in Spanish New Mexico held that boys and girls should be kept apart for the well-being of the girls. Young women, convention suggested, should be closely chaperoned. If resources did not exist to build two schools, one for boys and one for girls, then only boys should attend the one school. Thus in 1884-85, according to census figures, seventeen boys and only one girl attended school in El Cerrito (Table 6.2). Josefa Quintana must have felt awkward, yet the value placed on education by her father, Epitacio, and by the Quintana family generally seems to have outweighed the need for supervision.15
104
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
Table 6.2. School Enrollments in El Cerrito in Selected Years School Year 1884-8Sa
I
All Children Ages 6-18 47
I
At School Ages 6-18 18
I
At School Males 17b
I
At School Females 1C
Sources are listed in table footnotes. Figures are for students who attended school within the census year. U. S. Census sources are cited in Tables A.7 (1 885), A.8 (1 900), A.9 (1 91O), and A.10 (1920). In 1884-85, Luis M. Quintana, son of Epitacio, given as age 19. In 1909-1 0, a woman (name not legible) in home of Ram6n Vigil, also given as age 19. Both students counted here and not as adults in Table 6.3. C The sole female student was JosefaQuintana, age 12, daughter of Epitacio. JoseA. Torres, age 5-1 1/ l 2 (in January1920), son of Lucio, counted as six because he attended school. These 37 students are listed by name in Annual Reports, 1922-23 to 1931-32, School Superintendent, San Miguel County, 1922-23 (Item No. 3213). Ram6n (Ray) Esquibel, El Cerrito's schoolteacher in 1950-51, could recall the names of six of nine students taught that year: Arturo Quintana, Mary Quintana, Vidal Quintana, Benito Rivera, Teresita Torres, and Margie Trujillo. Interview with author, Las Vegas, New Mexico, 17 August 1988.
a
After the 1880s something of a balance existed in the number of boys and girls in school. Annual school enrollments seem to have ranged from a high of forty-five in 1919-20 to a low of nine in 1950-51 (Table 6.2). The discrepancy between the number of school-age children at school in 1909-10 (23) and the total number of school-age children (41) cannot be explained readily, for after the 1880s most school-age children seem to have attended school. A remarkable photograph taken in about 1917-18 shows Cerritefio schoolchildren in front of Epitacio Quintana's commissary, which for reasons that are not known served as the schoolhouse at least that one year (Fig. 6.7). The thirty-seven students pictured may have had two schoolteachers: Margarita Quintana, whose face unfortunately is scratched out, and an unidentified woman standing behind Margarita. Maria Cleofas (Cleo) Quintana de Sena, whose father, Heliodoro, then about sixteen, stands at the photo's far left, remembers the excitement of being with so many children when she attended school in the 1930s and 1940s. She hated the loneliness of the family homestead in the Conchas Valley during long summers after school adjourned? In 1940 Leonard determined from interviewing village families that boys and girls not in school and not married had finished an average of 6.6 and 7.0 years of schooling, respectively. He also found that husbands and wives of El Cerrito's twenty-one resident families each had finished 5.1 years of school on average. Altogether, Leonard recorded twenty-one CerriteAos who had completed the eighth grade. To continue with school meant leaving El Cerrito, an expense only wealthier families could afford, unless by good fortune the students had relatives in Las Vegas with whom they could live. Individuals listed in Leonard's sched-
1
Heliodoro Quintana
S
2
8
3
Eduardo Quintana Macario Torres
4
Florencio Quintana
Antonio Quintana Enrique Armip r Cliofes Quintana 8 Rita Quintana
Albinita Quintana lgnacia Quintana ii Gertrudis Armijo 12 Margarita Quintana (teacher) 9
10
Fig. 6.7 El Cerrito's students circa 191 7-1 8 stand in front of Epitacio Quintana's commissary used that year as the school. Margarita Quintana, the teacher (face scratched out), stands at right. Known villagers are labeled. Photograph courtesy of Geraldine SBnchez de De Blassie, Albuquerque, New Mexico, whose mother, Gertrudis Armijo, has a circle drawn around her head.
106
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
ules who went beyond the eighth grade included Felipa Vigil, wife of Anastacio Quintana (9); Stelanda Montano, wife of Gabriel Quintana (9); Agustina Vigil (9); Cirilio Aragbn (10); Jose Lino Quintana (10); Rita Quintana (10); Benito Armijo (11); Eduardo Quintana (11); and El Cerrito's three schoolteachers. Some of the graduates of El Cerrito's grade school who moved permanently to the Conchas Valley also furthered their education. Cliofes Quintana attended Menual School in Albuquerque and Napole6n Quintana went to the Spanish American Normal School in El Rito, New Mexico.17 Esquibel recalled what he taught in a typical day in 1950-51 (Fig. 6.8). The primary focus of his curriculum was reading, and this plus language arts occupied the entire morning. Esquibel took pride in knowing the exact reading level of each of his nine students. In the afternoon pupils studied social science, science, and math, and on Friday afternoons their curriculum included art. For breaks from the routine, Esquibel and his students played baseball in the open area across from the school. On longer breaks he and his students went to the river for picnic lunches. On occasion they went fishing. Esquibel pointed out that
Fig. 6.8 Ramon (Ray) Esquibel (standing, in dark hat), El Cerrito schoolteacher in 1950-51, rendezvoused with University of Oklahoma students and guests in El Cerrito, New Mexico. Standing (left to right) are Bob Campbell (University of New Mexico geographer), Tim Anderson, Mark Warren, Esquibel, Anna Thompson, Carmen Maso, Virginia Thompson, Elinore Barrett (University of New Mexico geographer), Nancy Hanks (with camera), David Brockway. Kneeling (left to right) are Doug Heffington and Tony Clay. Photograph by RLN, 22 September 1988.
THE SCHOOL GENERATION
107
Table 6.3. Adult Literacy in El Cerrito in Selected Years Year
All Adults 19 and Over
Read Spanish Male Female
Write Spanish Male Female
Speak Englisha Male Female
SOURCES: Figures are from the several US. Censuses as cited in Tables A.7 (1885), A.8 (1900), A.9 (191O), and A.10 (1920). a The question "Can speak English" (1900) or "Whether able to speak English" (1910, 1920) was not asked in 1885. The enumerator in 1885, Dionicio Martinez, may have been a bit too generous in recording who could read and write. For example, Anastacio Quintana (age 23) could read and write in 1885 but not in 1880, 1900, 1910, or 1920. C All five who spoke English were young and single: JesusMaria Armijo, 19; Florencio Quintana (son of Luciano), 18; Margarita Quintana (later schoolteacher), 13; JuanUlibarri, 31; Ceorge Vigil, 22. Of the 44 Cerriteiios who spoke English in 1920, 29 were men, 27 were single, and 24 were 18 and under.
rather than hire a janitor to clean the school, he paid his students to tidy up at the end of each day, a monetary supplement each family greatly appreciated.18 Learning the basics had a direct impact on adult literacy in El Cerrito. Table 6.3 shows the number of Cerritefios nineteen and older who could read and write through 1920, and except for a minor dip in the number of men who could read in 1910, the numbers steadily rose with each census. The number of men who could read and write seems always to have exceeded the number of women who could read and write. Moreover, both men and women had greater proficiency in reading than in writing. Table 6.3 shows, however, that by 1920 the gap between those who could read but not write had almost disappeared. It also shows rapid progress by 1920 in the ability of villagers to speak English.
Learning English In 1900 Nestor Sena, the census enumerator from San Jose some fifteen miles up the Pecos Valley, reported an interesting fact about El Cerrito: not one of the 136 villagers spoke English (Table 6.3). At the turn of the twentieth century Cerritefios clearly had yet to interact with the outside English-speaking world. By 1910, however, five villagers spoke English: four younger men who undoubtedly had worked outside the village and thirteen-year-old Margarita Quintana who may have learned English from one of these men. By 1920, amazingly, forty-four villagers spoke English. Mostly men (29), mostly single (27), and mostly young (24 eighteen years old and younger), these Cerritefios had learned English either while working outside El Cerrito or in its school. There is some doubt about how much English some actually spoke. In 1940 Loomis reported that Cristiano Armijo and Cleofas Ribera de Quintana, two of the forty-four, knew no English. After 1920 English steadily
108
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
gained over Spanish to the point that in 2000, although all CerriteAos knew some Spanish, English had become the language spoken in the village. As recently as 1980, however, two older women (no longer alive in 2000), Albinita Quintana and Agneda Gonzhlez de Quintana, spoke virtually no English, and Florencio Quintana (who died in 2000) spoke very little English.lg Teachers introduced English to El Cerrito's school curriculum sometime after 1910. Political pressure to bring Spanish-speakingvillagers into mainstream English-speaking society had been under way in New Mexico well back in the territorial period, and finally the movement reached isolated El Cerrito. But in El Cerrito English proficiency progressed only slowly. Some teachers themselves had trouble speaking English, and some students clearly resisted. Loomis commented that "being natives and of the people here," neither Gabriel Quintana nor Maria Lucero, the two schoolteachers in 193940, "can force the children in El Cerrito to talk English. It is precious little they learn, too." Out of inertia Spanish continued to be spoken in school down to when Esquibel taught in 1950-51. Through 1940, in the village itself, neither students out of school nor villagers spoke English. In 1940 Luis Armijo remarked to Leonard, "[mlany of the young people here don't know enough English to ask for a job."20 Indeed, by 1940 the need to obtain work in the English-speaking world outside El Cerrito gave additional impetus to the desire to learn English. Gabriel Quintana told Leonard that villagers "want the children to learn to read, write and figure. However, . . . [all1 of the people feel that it is more important to learn English than anything else." And Quintana pointed out why: if a boy does not learn English he will be able to do little more than "farm or work at cheap labor." Thus on the eve of the great exodus from El Cerrito, all villagers valued knowing how to speak English, yet few had much proficiency in it. Proficiency would come during the exodus g e n e r a t i ~ n . ~ ~
THE EXODUS GENERATION, CIRCA 1950
illagers describe Perfecto Quintana as having been pretty much that-perfect. Tall, handsome, and smart, Perfecto excelled at most everything important to a young Spanish male born around 1925: horsemanship, guitar playing and singing, dancing, fixing cars, and, of course, drinking and smoking punche, the native tobacco. Perfecto finished the eighth grade in El Cerrito, learned English at a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp, and served in the Pacific theater at the end of World War 11. After his military discharge in November 1946, Perfecto found little economic opportunity in his home village. His rejection of his parents' less than subtle urging that he marry the daughter of a prominent Villanueva family probably added to his burdens. And so by May 1947 Perfecto had moved to Rocky Ford, Colorado, where he worked for Ryan, a sugar beet grower known to many Cerritefios. In Rocky Ford Perfecto quickly met fun-loving and quick-witted Elvira Corrales, with whom he would have ten children. From 1947 until he died in California in 1970, Perfecto returned often to El Cerrito but only to visit. Challenged by the need to make a living, he and others of his generation left El Cerrito permanently. Although Perfecto did not lead the exodus-the powerful trend had no apparent leader-he certainly exemplified his generation's departure (Fig. 7.1).l
Fig. 7.1 (Clockwise from above) Perfecto Arthur Quintana (1 925-70) in the army in Japanin 1945. Elvira Corrales (1 921- ) and Perfecto at the Arkansas Valley Fair in Rocky Ford, Colorado, August 1947. An embarrassed Perfecto had shaven off all his bigote after having removed part of it by accident. Perfecto shown with lasso in El Cerrito in 1968 in photograph taken by his sister Maria (Mary) Quintana. Photographs courtesy of Elvira Corrales, Rocky Ford, Colorado.
THE EXODUS GENERATION
111
Village Life in 1940 Leonard and Loomis left a rich archive from which to reconstruct village life in 1940. And the reconstruction shows that the 140 CerriteAos were remarkably alike (Table 7.1; Map 7.1). In ethnicity all identified with their Spanishness, and many were products of village intermarriage. All spoke Spanish in the home yet recognized the value of knowing English as a second language. All were members of the Roman Catholic church, whose services they attended on average three times a week. Every head of household, twenty-two men and two widows, owned his or her house, save for Cristiano Armijo who one day would inherit the house of his mother-in-law, Cleofas Ribera de Quintana. All villagers lived in houses constructed of adobe brick, all used wood-burning stoves for heat, and all burned kerosene lamps for light. No villager's house had running water or indoor plumbing: children carried water from the irrigation ditch or river, and everyone (including the men) used outdoor privies. Practically every family in 1940 did little more than subsist from foodstuffs grown in small irrigated gardens. And to improve their lot in life, nearly every adult male and female voted-now in support of the Democratic Party.2 Similarities among villagers did not carry over to equality in relationships between men and women, however. In every household husbands dominated the lives of their wives and children, including married children. Men made all major family decisions, and if a wife dared to disagree she could be beaten without incurring the disapproval of villagers. Men also had license to cheat on their wives. Maria Lucero, El Cerrito's schoolteacher from Villanueva and the only woman interviewed by Leonard, told Leonard that she thought nearly all men in all villages up and down the Pecos "stepped out" on their wives. They kept their affairs quiet, of course. The wives, on the other hand, would never cheat on their husbands, for to do so would meet with general condemnation and a severe beating by the husband. Men also had license to drink, sometimes to e x c e s 3 Men, of course, worked outside the home, chopping wood, plowing fields, and otherwise earning a livelihood. Women worked in the home. They cared for the children, cooked meals, baked bread in outdoor hornos, washed and sewed clothes, and cleaned the house. During the growing season, women (and children) tended the family vegetable garden. Women planted, weeded, and harvested much of what the family ate. Their knowledge of plants extended to wild herbs used to heal the sick, for women took care of a family's health needs. When the growing season ended women preserved fruits and vegetables in glass jars. They hung strips of jerked beef (called tasajos) marinated in red chile to dry under the eaves of north-facing walls. And they dried apples, apricots, peaches, and plums i n sacks hung below indoor vigas. Boys had responsibility for picking this fruit in the orchards4 Young people in El Cerrito obeyed their parents. They performed chores such as picking fruit, hauling wood, and carrying water, reportedly without protest. Spanish custom permitted boys to try to exploit girls. For this reason, adults closely supervised young women to the point that they forbade them even to speak to their male contemporaries in public. Maria Lucero told Leonard how this protective policy broke down: in school the girls wrote letters to the Villanueva boys, who replied with letters of their own. Lucero knew for she served as "the chief letter carrier." At appointed times the Villanueva boys, who had ridden
l
Table 7.1. El Cerrito Population and Housing, 1940
I
Family No.
1 2
I
I
Head of Household
Arag6n Arellanes
I
l
I
Family in Household
l
I
I
#
Total in Dwelling No. of Replacement Household Age (years) Rooms1 Value (l)
100 1 00
8
8 3
Luis Emiterio
I
I
3
3 5
P
p -
Armijo
Epitacioa
vacant
Rogelio
5 7
5 7
(7) 7 10 2 6 1
(7) 7 10 2 6 3
Cristiano B. ~nrique~ jeslis Maria
Quintana
Agapito Anastacio Casimiro
[Ribera]
CleofasC
8
8
Cabriel
4 8 4
4 8 4
(6) 2 9
(6) 5 9
Hipolitoe Jose Luis M. 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
2d
Florencio Heliodoro
Miguel
100 150
3s
1 00 70
3 2
125 200
60 1 00 33 70 38 2 30 40
5 2 2 5 6 3 3 2
100 50 50 125 200
-
-
-
26 1 00
4
400 75
60 70 75 40
-
3
1 00 200 75
s6stenesgh AndrQ
4
4
Torres
Faustin
8
8
[Vigil]
lgnaciaC
7
7
8
8
Tapia
Lucio Vigil
I
Cris6stomo1
Total
70
2
50
SO
1 4 1
SO
vacant
2
2
Ram6n Santiaqo
3 2 3
75 1 50 1 00 75
1 I
9
135
1
1 5
9 140
1
SOURCE: Leonard, "Family Schedules" [ l 9401. No schedules. In 1940 Epitacio Arellanes, a WPA timekeeper, lived with his family in Las Vegas, where Simonita was born (5 February 1940). Simonita Teresa Arellanes, interview with author, Las Vegas, New Mexico, 16 October 1993. Schedules may be missing. Leonard interviewed Enrique Armijo in El Cerrito on 8 March and 26 March 1940. In his "Diary of Events," Loomis mentions Enrique on 3 December 1940. Enrique is also shown in lrving Rusinow's photograph of villagers taken 10-1 6 April 1941 (Fig. 7.5 ). Enrique and his wife, Emelia Lopez, had ten children (eight lived) after 1931. Enrique seems to have been living in El Cerrito 1 April 1940, 1 estimate with a household of seven. C Cleofas Ribera de Quintana and lgnacia Vigil de Torres, both widows, were the two female heads of household. Relatives in the Cleofas Ribera de Quintana household included Erminia Armijo, 12,granddaughter (daughter of Cristiano Armijo and Margarita Quintana), and Cadmio Antonio (Tony or "Chamo") Lopez, 10, grandson (son of Francisco Ldpez and Rosa Quintana). Leonard reported that Hipolito Quintana had moved temporarily to Las Vegas for the duration of a WPA project. "Interviews with Residents," 24 March 1940. Leonard interviewed josC P. Quintana in El Cerrito on 15 March and 20 March 1940. In his revisit in 1956, Loomis explained that JosCP. had moved from El Cerrito in 1940, which may explain the absence of schedules. JosCP. and his wife, Rosario Lucero, had five children after 1934; 1 estimate a household of six in 1940. a
Table 7.1. continued Relatives in the Luis M. Quintana household included S6stenes Quintana, 22, and his wife, Flaria, 20, and Estella Quintana, 15. Sostenes and Estella were the children of Plicido Quintana (oldest son of Luis M.) and his first wife, Veneranda. h No schedules. No schedules. In 1939 Crisostomo Vigil married Adelaida Ortiz and moved permanently to her hometown, Villanueva. Interviews with author, Villanueva, New Mexico, 17 October and 21 November 1993. Loomis mentions that Cridstomo was one of two mayordomos de la copia (church) during the funcidn of 1940. "Diary of Events," 3 December 1940. g
FAMILY HOUSES, EL CERRITO, 1940
STREET 240 yards
CHURCH
0 barn := corral ;= garage ; = shed I
=
STREET
BACK STREET
R! Map 7.1 Family houses, El Cerrito, 1940. Source: Slightly modified from Leonard and Loomis, Culture of a Contemporary Rural Community (1941), Fig. 12, p. 38. On the draft version of this map, Loomis wrote, "Approximate Location and Physical Spacing of Houses and Buildings, El Cerrito." Numbers 1-26 in dwellings in the Loomis map represented the random order in which Leonard completed family schedules. Numbers 1-26 here correspond to the alphabetical list of families in Table 7.1. That the five houses reported to be the oldest (100 years old) in Table 7.1 (1, 2, 4, 8, 18) surround the church adds to the evidence that El Cerrito originated as a fortified plaza.
1 14
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
on horseback across the mesa or down the valley, met two or three Cerritefio girls who had taken a walk. Clandestine "love-making" took place. Lucero knew of two illegitimate births in El Cerrito (one child was born dead and the other arrived while the girl stayed with relatives in Las Vegas), and she reported that one girl in school at that time was pregnant. The need to chaperone young women strictly ended only when a young man promised t o marry a young woman.5 Thus in an awkward environment of prescribed behavior young men picked out a potential partner. Although parents occasionally encouraged a given match in 1940, they did not arrange marriages. When a young man settled on a prospective bride, village protocol went into effect. The parents of the young man called on the parents of the young woman to state their son's desires. If the young woman and her parents agreed, within several days the young woman's parents called at the home of the young man to give an affirmative answer. They now set a marriage date not too far in the future, for courtships did not last long. The marriage, an expensive occasion paid for mainly by the young man, followed its own protocol. Two days before the boda, or wedding, the bride's family would entertain the young man's family and friends, and on the day before the event the prospective groom's family would host a party and a dance for the young woman's family and probably for all villagers. The wedding took place the next morning, after which the couple left for Las Vegas to be photographed. When they returned the party ~ o n t i n u e d . ~ The parish priest officiated at weddings. In 1940 Spanish-born Father Dodd, who after thirty-five years in the United States still struggled with English (but to the delight of Cerriteiios spoke fluent Spanish), held this position. Father Dodd typically traveled from the parish seat in Villanueva to El Cerrito once a month for services, and he officiated at special events, including funerals and the village fitncio'n, a major celebration held annually on 8 December to honor El Cerrito's patron, Nuestra Sefiora de 10s Desamparados. In 1940 Leonard and Loomis characterized Cerriteiios as devoutly religious. Nearly all villagers attended Sunday services, held at about ten o'clock, and when the church bell beckoned villagers to the frequent evening services, the "more faithful" women (as Father Dodd characterized them) and some men attended. Loomis observed that even at the remote sheep camp belonging to Luis M. Quintana, the men knelt in prayer. The attitude of most Cerriteiios in 1940 seems to have been summed up by Hipolito Quintana, who said that one's good fortune-happiness, successful crops, longevity-lay in the hands of God.' One's fortune seems also to have been guided by superstitions and folk concepts of health. Father Dodd found his parishioners "surprisingly superstitious." For example, villagers believed that a baby could come under the spell of a wicked person with the power to cast an "evil eye," and to cancel the hex, someone, perhaps the child's mother, would have to spurt water from the mouth in the direction of the wicked person. The phase of the moon at the time of a baby's birth had a bearing on the ease of the baby's delivery and the baby's subsequent personality. Concerning health, Luis Armijo told Leonard that he attributed the stomach problems afflicting many Cerriteiios to changes in the weather. With warmer weather coming, stomach ailments were sure to increase, he noted. Armijo dismissed the thought that drinking river water might cause the ailments. To resolve health problems, villagers relied on their own resources. For example, they treated an earache by pouring the warm urine of a healthy baby into the ear. Two women mkdicas, who also
THE EXODUS GENERATION
115
served as midwives, lived in Villanueva. But villagers rarely sought a doctor because they could not afford one.8 Indeed, in 1940 dire economic straits forced Cerritefios to be nearly self-sufficient. Their diet exemplified this. A typical family meal consisted of beans, blue corn, chili, and tortillas (Fig. 7.2). It might also include fresh vegetables and fruit in the growing season and whatever a housewife had preserved or dried in the off-season. For many, meat and eggs were luxuries, as was milk, which, when available, went to the children. The villagers produced all these items, except for the chili, which they claimed did not grow well in El Cerrito. Villagers also bought lard, wheat flour, Irish and sweet potatoes, coffee, and soap in Las Vegas. On average, a family head or representative went to Las Vegas once a month and would make a contribution to the automobile owner to pay for gas and oil. Villagers drank coffee with every meal, and with their coffee they also took a little of that precious milk.g
Fig. 7.2 Dinner a t the Arellanes home in El Cerrito, photographed b y lrving Rusinow, 10-1 6 April 1941. (Clockwise from left) Jos6 Emiterio Macario Arellanes; ~ r s u l aArellanes (daughter of Emiterio and wife of Jose Bravela Rivera); Benito Rivera (adopted); Antonio (Tony) Arellanes (son of Epitacio [Pete] Arellanes and Manuelita [Mela] Martinez de Arellanes); Olga (adopted daughter of Epitacio and Manuelita); Maria Arellanes, Carlota Arellanes, Rita Arellanes (daughters of Rogelio Arellanes and Josefita [Fefa] Romero de Arellanes); Manuelita (Mela) Martinez de Arellanes (holding an unidentified baby); Paublita Arellanes (daughter of Erniterio and wife of Melquiades Sena). National Archives Neg. 83-C-37831.
1 16
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
Making a Living in 1940 Most male villagers had time for another cup of coffee because they had little land to work. The number of irrigated acres recorded for fourteen families in the Rincon, the bottomland nearest the village, averaged only 1.75 per family (Table 7.2). Equal inheritance practices had played a major role in whittling down parcel sizes of irrigated land, valued in 1940 at $100 per acre (Fig. 7.3). In their irrigated fields men grew largely corn and alfalfa (the latter required three irrigations per cutting), and in their irrigated orchards they grew peaches and pears. To sustain soil fertility, they spread nearly all available barnyard manure on their irrigated land. Many families also owned parcels of mesa land of varying sizes where they grew beans without irrigation. A market existed for beans, but scant and unreliable precipitation made dry farming risky. Villagers did not apply manure on the upland fields, nor did they see the need to plow on the contour and thus check soil erosion. Dry land seems to have been worth only $1to $6 an acre. In addition to their bottomland and mesa parcels, each family had its garden, which was maintained by the housewife and children. Gardens located above the irrigation ditch had to be watered by hand each week.1° In 1940 Cerritefios irrigated only the Rincon. According to Jestis Maria Armijo, a "squabble" between villagers some years earlier ended in shutting down the water conducted by a flume across the Pecos to the Ancon, and the five landowners of the Ancon lacked the votes in the Ditch Association to reopen the gate even though there was ample water. The Ancon had not been irrigated since at least 1912. Luis Aragon, a non-Cerriteiio by birth who in 1916 married Estefana Quintana, daughter of Anastacio, homesteaded 174 acres just north of the village and in 1940 was on his way to buying up the Ancon. Aragon dry farmed a part of the Ancon; he had been unsuccessful in the use of a hand pump to try to irrigate a small area. Still, he hoped one day to be able to irrigate the Ancon, perhaps by using a gasoline-driven water pump, and he planned to live there with enough land for his entire family. He explained to Leonard that the Lord had treated him well since the early 1930s when he had given an acre of his mesa homestead to the village for its new cemetery. His ambition offended many villagers, however, and Gabriel Quintana noted that only Aragon did not interact with other villagers in sharing tools and equipment (Fig. 7.4).11 From their irrigated parcels villagers marketed primarily corn, alfalfa, and peaches. Beans produced on dry land holdings also went to market. Relatively little total village income actually accrued from the sale of crops, however (Table 7.2). To help make ends meet, some Cerritefios collected firewood, which they sold in Las Vegas, on the unfenced mesa land adjacent to the village. Some villagers kept a few head of livestock on the unfenced mesa in summer; the animals were fed in enclosed corrals in winter. Livestock was not sent to market. Pifion nuts gathered on the mesa were sold at market, however. Cristiano Armijo's family had collected 500 pounds of pifion nuts, which in 1940 sold in Raton, New Mexico, for $8 per 100 pounds. Gathering pifion nuts went rather quickly if villagers exploited the dens of "rats," as Spanish people called the burrowing mesa animals. Loomis learned from Heliodoro Quintana that one year this strategy backfired: winter came on suddenly after villagers had robbed the dens of their pifion, and the rats from the mesa literally "descended upon" El Cerrito where they ate up the corn villagers had stored.12
THE EXODUS GENERATION
117
Revenue from livestock supported two Cerritefio families in 1940. Luis M. Quintana, characterized by Loomis as El Cerrito's "richest" villager, headed one of the families (see dust jacket). Quintana owned 1,292 acres of grazing land and rented an additional 2,073 acres (Table 7.2). On this land, according to Leonard's family schedules, Quintana grazed 500 sheep, 81 goats, and 25 cows. At his sheep camp located on homesteaded land south of
Fig. 7.3 Taken from atop El Cerrito looking west, lrving Rusinow's photograph of 10-1 6 April 1941 shows the well cared for long lots and orchards of the Rindn, also irrigation ditches, barbed-wire fences, a rock retaining wall, and sheep. The Pecos exits i t s caA6n from behind the village. National Archives Neg. 83-C-37794.
Table 7.2. El Cerrito Land, Livestc ck, and Income, 1940 I
l
No.
irrigated
1
Arag6n
2
I Arellanes
I
I
Family Head of Household Acres Owned
l
How Acquired
l
Emiterio
3.0
I
Livestock Owned
lnherlt purchase1nomestead Buildings ($1 Rented Horses Mules Cows Hogs Sheep Goats Chicken
Dry
2
264 CCC Cerilio (son)
I
13.0
640.0
1 .S
1
6
Income Sourcea($)
1
1
1
450
1
10
264 CCC (?)
~pitacio~
3
Rogelio
1 .5
5
Armijo Cristiano B.
.5
8
Quintana
Agapito
26.0
Anastacio
2.5
Casimiro
2.0
320.0
2.0
Cleofase
3.0
2000.0
1.0
[Ribera]
985
2.0
320
900
2000
3350
I
176 DPW
2
300
2.5
5
10
2
6
1
10
1 50
Florencio
12
1455 Other
76
26.0
9 11
640
.5
10
13
I 2
l
I
I
Acres
Luis
4
14
Value Farm/
I
Cabriel I
I
Heliodoro
I
I
I
120.0
1 765 Teaching
3.Og
I
120
350
320 Other
484 WPA 181 SS; 30 Other: Luis (land rent)
16
JoseP.C
17
Luis M.
18
Miguel
19
S6stenesi
2.75
1292.0 200.0 600.0 25.0
25.0
494
2742
1 00
2073'
2
25
500
81
2000 Stock
1
575 Other
2
106 CCC Ambrocio (son)
Table 7.2. continued Family Head of Household Acres Owned No.
Irrigated
21
Torres
Faustin
22
vigil]
lgnaciaC Lucio
23 24
Vigil
Dry
How Acquired
Value Farm/
Acres
Livestock Owned
Income
Inherit Purchase Homestead Buildings ($) Rented Horses Mules Cows Hogs Sheep Coats Chicken
44.0
44.0
3.0
40.0
40.0
3.0
1.O
40.0
40.0
1.O
285
2
Sourcea($)
2
10
75 Relief; 40 Crops
360
1
6
217 DPW
250
2
15
352WPA?; 30 Crops
2
Cris6stomob
25
Ramdn
.75
.75
100
26
Santiago
.25
.25
150
190 Other (son) 2.0k
2
352 Other (son)
SOURCE: Leonard, "Family Schedules" [l 9401. For some information schedules apply to calendar year 1939. CCC = Civilian Conservation Corps; DPW = Defense Plant Worker?; SS = Social Security; WPA = Work Projects Administration. Totals by categories are Government $2,779; Other (WagesJunknown)$2,542; Stock $2,350; Teaching $765; Crops $70. No schedules; see Table 7.1. C Schedules may be missing; see Table 7.1. These figures are from Leonard's interview with Enrique Armijo, 26 March 1940. Loomis reported the La Carita ranch belonging to Cleofas Ribera de Quintana to contain 3,000 acres and 100 head of cattle. "Diary of Events," 11 June1940. Florencio Quintana divided his crop from the 8.5 rented acres with the landowners, his uncle and cousin. g Gabriel Quintana operated three acres for his father-in-law, a nonvillager. h Hipolito Quintana rented his 640-acre homestead (630 given in Leonard, "Family Schedules") located near El Cerrito to Luis M. Quintana. Leonard, "Interviews with Residents," 24 March 1940. Luis M. Quintana rented 1,990 acres and "share rented" 83 additional acres for a total of 2,073 acres. See Sdstenes Quintana in Table 7.1. Santiago Vigil divided the crop from the two acres he farmed as a cropper with the landowner, his cousin.
a
120
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
Fig. 7.4 Luis Arag6n holds a grandchild in his El Cerrito home when photographed by lrving Rusinow, 10-1 6 April 1941. Luis (1 891 -1 978) and Estefana Quintana (1 889-1 982) had eight children between 191 9 and 1934; several contributed to the family's gradual purchase of the An&. National Archives Neg. 83-C-37826.
El Cerrito, he employed two heads of household as sheepherders, likely Andres Tapia and Santiago Vigil, also three young men as goatherds. Quintana himself acted as cook. His eldest son, Placido, who lived in Dahlia near Anton Chico, may also have been involved in the operation. Several years earlier Quintana had struggled to repay a debt to Ilfeld, a major mercantile house in Las Vegas, but with that behind him in 193940 he earned $2,000 from the sale of livestock.13 Sefiora Cleofas Ribera, widow of Vibihn Quintana, headed El Cerrito's second livestockowning family. Her ranch comprised 3,000 acres in La Garita, as villagers in 1940 referred to their Conchas Valley offshoot. Sefiora Ribera's five sons, Helidoro, Hipolito, Eduardo, Jose Lino, and Gabriel, shared in the ranch, yet Gabriel, the schoolteacher, took less interest. In 1940 Eduardo and Jose Lino lived in the two-room ranch house with their wives and Jose Lino's child. Heliodoro and Hipolito would visit La Garita from their homes in El Cerrito, where Sefiora Ribera also lived. Since Vibihn's death in 1932 drought had reduced the size of the family's herd, which now numbered one hundred cows valued at $25 per head. In
THE EXODUS GENERATION
121
about 1940 the family channeled all of its resources to rebuilding the herd-to the detriment of barns and equipment in El Cerrito that the family neglected. The sale of livestock in 193940 garnered Sefiora Ribera $350 (Table 7.2). Once they could afford a new roof for a second house (built of stone) in La Garita, Heliodoro and Hipolito planned to move there permanently. Little is known of La Garita's two Quintana families, headed by Juan Nepomuceno and Fernando, both sons of Epitacio, whose holdings in land and livestock must have surpassed those of Luis M. Quintana.14 In 1940 income Cerritefios received from the federal government, largely from depressionera New Deal agencies, actually outranked all other sources (Table 7.2). The "WP," as villagers called the Work Projects Administration (WPA), employed male heads of household. It paid $30 to $40 per month, which villagers regarded as good money, but to be hired one had to own an automobile, pay rent for housing, and speak some English. Some young male villagers signed up for two or three years in CCC camps, where they too earned a good wage and could also learn English. Dissatisfaction with village life, for example, with the strict chaperoning of young women, and an appreciation for alternatives outside of El Cerrito characterized the thinking of these young men once they returned to El Cerrito. Two families received incomes from persons employed by the DPW (Defense Plant Workers?), one from Social Security, and one from relief (Table 7.2). Villagers resented the Farm Security Administration (FSA) after they learned they would have to pay for the farm machinery acquired with FSA funds in 1935-36-which they were now repaying.15 Long before the creation of New Deal alphabet agencies male villagers left El Cerrito seasonally for wage work. This seems to have begun as early as 1879 when the Santa Fe Railroad built into New Mexico through Raton Pass and employed villagers to lay track. In the twentieth century men from El Cerrito took jobs in the sugar beet fields and smelters of Colorado, in the cotton fields of Texas, and on ranches in New Mexico, Wyoming, and Montana. Enganchistas, or recruiters, did some of the initial hiring. An enganche in Las Vegas, for example, hired Enrique Arrnijo to work for a sugar beet grower in Rocky Ford, and another enganche in Villanueva hired several sons of Luis Arag6n to herd, lamb, and shear sheep in Roswell, New Mexico. Armijo told Leonard that in 1930 he made good money$2.00 to $3.50 per day-working in Colorado's sugar beet fields. But "since 1930," he noted, men from El Cerrito who sought seasonal jobs "found little work and very poor pay." Taking such jobs had potential hardships. Heliodoro Quintana told Loomis of the winter he and others almost froze to death while "bumming" a ride home from Colorado on a train engine. The engine's water tank soaked them until their clothes literally froze to the "irons of the tool box" on which they rode.16 In 1940 villagers no longer sold mula. During Prohibition (1919-33), federal law made the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages illegal, prompting a black market trade in which some Cerritefio families took part. Into 55-gallon drums went 10 to 20 gallons of water, 25 pounds of white (yellow) corn, 75 pounds of sugar, 1pound of yeast, and apricots or peaches. At warm temperatures the corn softened and the ingredients "worked," and when boiled the alcohol was distilled. Because smoke from the wood fires curled into the sky above the stills, villagers did their distilling at night in an effort to elude "detectives" who patrolled in airplanes during the day. In the daytime lookouts on the mesa
122
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
west of the village alerted the families involved when detectives approached in their Model T Fords, much as centinelas once warned of approaching nomadic Indians. A given vat produced 10 to 20 gallons of mula, and each gallon jug sold for up to $2.50. People all around associated high-quality mula with El Cerrito. Unfortunately, so did the federal detectives, who had Abenicio Rael and Faustin Torres Sr. convicted for possession of stills and incarcerated for two-year terms in federal penitentiaries in Leavenworth, Kansas, and Kooskia, Idaho. Rael and Torres took the rap for the other Cerriteiios involved.17
The Context for the Exodus Thus in 1940 Leonard and Loomis found El Cerrito well populated with 140 people and its time-honored institutions relatively intact. They observed that male heads of household controlled family decisions while wives took charge of the home, as in past generations. They found that young people attended school while adults dealt with the perennial problem of protecting girls from boys. The Catholic church dominated village life and church weddings continued to be elaborate affairs. Villagers harbored numerous superstitious beliefs and retained their adherence to folk medicine. Leonard and Loomis also observed that Saturday night dances brightened the lives of many, as did the annual funcion, yet more than a few villagers commented on how, until recent years, the funci6n had been a much more extravagant affair that lasted more than one day.18 That the funci6n had once been more extravagant understated the desperate economic conditions in which villagers found themselves in 1940. No male heads of household worked at seasonal jobs outside the village. Government agencies, notably the WPA and the CCC, had become the largest sources of income for village families. To be sure, the two extended families that owned livestock and grazing land lived in relative comfort. But most families clung tenaciously to their small irrigated plots from which they sold alfalfa, corn, and peaches, as well as beans from their dry-farmed tracts. That CerriteAos earned little from the sale of crops explains in part why they took little interest in spraying their orchards to improve the quality of their fruit or in contour plowing to slow soil erosion on the upland. Their distrust of machinery also led them to resist the use of new technology.lg For a tradition-bound people, resistance to change and innovation went hand in hand with strong attachment to place. Leonard and Loomis commented on the profound love and sentimental attachment Cerriteiios felt for their land and their fellow villagers. When away from El Cerrito, Jose P. Quintana felt awkward and "homesick," and he longed to return. He told Leonard, "Few people ever leave the village for long. I have never been away when I wasn't glad when I started back home. We don't make friends away from home that take the place of the ones at home." Enrique Armijo noted, " m h e reason most people come back to El Cerrito if they ever leave [is to] come back to their land." Many household heads told Leonard and Loomis of their preference to live in El Cerrito and be stock raisers and farmers. But they also said that to make a living at farming would require 10 acres of irrigated land (or 15 if one had the help of family), and to be comfortable in stock raising would require perhaps 100 cattle or 300 sheep and 3,000 acres of grazing land. Leonard quoted Hipolito Quintana as saying, "A family can't earn a living farming here. . . . There is about enough land for three full-time farmers and about thirty families have a piece of it."20
THE EXODUS GENERATION
123
And so as the male villagers stood in front of their church during Easter week in April 1941-remaining as always until each had had his say-they knew all too well the options available to them (Fig. 7.5). Few had enough land to be viable farmers or ranchers. Earlier generations of Cerritefios, faced with insufficient land, could move to San Agustin and the Conchas Valley, but those options had disappeared. Nor could the men leave temporarily for seasonal work, for those jobs had dried up during the Great Depression. Some hoped that the federal government would construct a dam on the Pecos River so that villagers could make a living on irrigated mesa land. Two families debated whether to weave "Navajo" blankets or rugs in their homes; at $20 profit per rug, five sold each month could bring in $100. Younger Cerritefios who had lived outside El Cerrito now openly expressed their dissatisfaction with village life, some heads of household now said openly that they would be willing to sell their holdings, and no family wanted to live forever at a subsistence level. All knew that major change was ine~itable.~'
The Exodus That change came in a gradual yet wholesale exodus of villagers. In December 1941 the United States entered World War I1 and the nation's economy quickly rebounded. With jobs again available, many village men or entire families returned to the familiar pattern of heading north seasonally to take agricultural jobs in Colorado's Arkansas Valley. And within several years families began to stay permanently in urban areas, notably Pueblo. Four examples are illustrative. In 1942 Heliodoro Quintana moved his family permanently to his mother's ranch at La Garita. To make ends meet, he worked summers in the beet fields at Swink, six miles east of Rocky Ford, and in 1950 he moved his family permanently to Pueblo, where he took a job as a plumber. Beginning in 1943,Jeslis Maria Armijo, in a truck whose sides he covered with canvas, drove his family north to Vroman, located six miles west of Rocky Ford. The family worked in the sugar beet and onion fields between March and October and then returned to El Cerrito. In 1949 Armijo decided to stay in Rocky Ford during the winter, and a year later he moved his family permanently to Pueblo, where he took a job at the Army Ordnance Depot. After 1943 Agapito Quintana worked for the Sante Fe Railroad in Springer, New Mexico, and in the beet fields at Holly, Colorado, before moving permanently to Las Vegas in 1947. And after Rambn Vigil's wife, Josefina Trujillo, died in 1944, Vigil moved to Villanueva to join his son Crisostomo and his daughter Ignacia, who had moved there in 1944.22 In his restudy of El Cerrito in 1956 Loomis documents the extent of the exodus. In 1940 Leonard had recorded twenty-six heads of household, two of whom (Epitacio Arellanes and Crisostomo Vigil) had already moved away. Of the remaining twenty-four Loomis found in 1956 that five had died, five still lived in El Cerrito, and fourteen had moved away (Table 7.3). Of the fourteen families that had left, five relocated in New Mexico (one in La Garita, two in Villanueva, one in Las Vegas, and one in Albuquerque) and nine moved to Colorado (Pueblo and Denver). With eight families, Pueblo had become the major urban magnet for Cerritefios. In Pueblo villagers had located in neighborhoods on the east side where housing was more affordable.As newcomers arrived relatives took them in until they could find employment and a place to live. By the late 1950s Pueblo had a strongly cohesive if residentially dispersed Cerritefio subpopulation.23
23 24 25
Cristiano Armijo 2 Agapito Quintana 3 Emiterio Arellanes 4 Miguel Quintana 5 Florencio Quintana 6 Cosme Quintana l
7 8 9 10 11 12
Luis M. Quintana Enrique Armijo Celestine Torres Florencio Quintana Jr. Ambrocio Tapia Juan Vigil
Lucinda Tapia de Vigil l 8 Teodoro ~ r a g 6 n l 9 Tile Vigil 20 Anea Vigil 21 Antonio Armijo 22 lgnacia Vigil de Torres 17
26 27 28 29 30 31
Amalia Tapia Rosa Armijo Felipita Vigil de Quintana Emilia Armijo Deluvina Aragon Ramona Aragon Luisa rago on Estefanita Quintana de rag on ~ 6 n i c a~ a r c / a(dau. Ramona)
Fig. 7.5 During Easter week, as always, women sat at the front of El Cerrito's church while men sat or knelt, usually at the back. The men exited first. lrving Rusinow's priceless photograph taken 10-1 6 April 1941 shows the men conversing before returning home for dinner. National Archives Neg. 83-C-37865.
THE EXODUS GENERATION
125
In 1956 Loomis found only thirty-four people left in El Cerrito, one-fourth of the total recorded in 1940. They lived in eleven families (Table 7.4; Map 7.2). The heads of household in five families had not changed since 1940. Luis Aragon (no. 1 in Table 7.4) lived with his wife and a grandson. His five daughters had left between 1944 and 1954, four when they married, and his three sons had left in 1952 after returning from military service. Rogelio Arellanes (#3) and his wife lived with their daughter Rita and her two sons taken in from a failed marriage. Two single daughters, Carlota and Maria, had jobs in Muleshoe, Texas. Florencio Quintana (#7) lived with his wife and seven of their twelve surviving children. Between 1946 and 1956 the other five had moved to Colorado, three to Denver and
Table 7.3. Status of El Cerrito Heads of Household, 1940 and 1956 I
Family No.
I
Head of Household
I
Residence in 1940 El Cerrito Elsewhere
Status/Residence in 1956 Deceased El Cerrito Elsewhere
I I
Arag6n Arellanes
Luis
X
Emiterio
X
Quintana
I
11
X
[Ribera]
13 14
1
Las Vegas
Rogelio
X
Cristiano B.
X
Pueblo
Enrique
X
Pueblo
X
Jesk Maria
X
Pueblo
Agapito
X
Las Vegas
Casimiro
12
I
Las Vegas
Anastacio 10
l
I
X
Epitacio Armijo
l
X
I
X
Cleofas
X
Florencio
X
Gabriel
I
X
I
I
x
I
I Pueblo X
1
I
I
1-
Heliodoro
X X
15
Hipolito
X
La Garita
16
los6 P.
X
Pueblo
18
Miguel
X
Denver
S6stenes
X
Andr6s
X
19
Pueblo Pueblo
Albuquerque X
20
Tapia
21
Torres
Faustin
X
Pueblo
22
[Vigil]
lgnacia
X
Villanueva
Lucio
X
23 24
Vigil
Cris6stomo
X Villanueva
Villanueva
25
Ram6n
X
26
Santiago
X
Villanueva X
SOURCE: Leonard, "Family Schedules" [l 9401; Loomis, "Family Schedules" [l 9561.
Table 7.4. Population in ElCerrito, August 1956 No.
1
Surname
Given Name(s)
Relation
Aragon
Luis
head
[Quintana]
Estefana
wife
Sex
I Comments
1940 #l; Estefana, daughter of Anastacio
Carcia
Luis
Arellanes
Paublita
head
Paublita, daughter of Emiterio; widow of Melquiades Sena
Arellanes
Rogelio
head
1940 #4; Rita separated from
[Romero]
Josefa
wife
Rita
Baca
gr son
husband, Villanueva
dau
Rogelio
gr son
J. Ricardo
gr son
Juan
head
lgnacia
wife
Armijo family; JuanBaca's
Mabel
dau
aunt is Agneda Conzilez
Baca family purchased land from
Felipe
son
Quintana Jr.
Agapito
head
1940 #8
Quintana
Antonio
head
1940 # l 0; Florencia, widow of
Quintana [Conzalez]
Tapia
de Quintana -
Fernando
brother
Florencia
sister
Florencio
head
Agneda
wife
Arturo
son
Eugenio
son
Maria
dau
Vidal
son
Rumaldo
son
Ceorge
son
Lydia
dau
Andres
head
Am brocio
son head
Tapia
Lucinda
Trujillo
Margarita
Torres
Lucio
head
[Duran]
lsabelita
wife
Rosalia
dau
Torres
Rafael
head
gr dau
Leandro Montoya
1940 #26; Lucinda, widow of Santiago Vigil 1940 #23
1940 #21; Rafael, son Faustin
Total: 34 SOURCE: Loomis, "Family Schedules" [ l 9561. NOTE: Loomis gathered his data with the help of two "field agents," Elroy Campos and Rito Carcia.
THE EXODUS GENERATION
127
two to Pueblo. Andres Tapia (#8), now a widower, lived with an unmarried son. His other five children had moved away between 1934 and 1948, and all now lived in Pueblo. And Lucio Torres (#10) lived with his wife and an unmarried daughter. Their two sons and six other daughters had left El Cerrito between 1938 and 1955. For five additional families, only one to three people per household remained: Paublita Arellanes (#2), now a widow, lived alone; young Agapito Quintana Jr. (#S) lived alone; Antonio, Fernando, and Florencia Quintana (#6),all children of Luciano, lived together; Lucinda Tapia (#g), now a widow, had taken in a granddaughter; and Rafael Torres (#11) lived alone. The eleventh family, headed by Juan Baca (#4), were the only village new corner^.^^ Juan Baca had grown up in Maes, a village in north central San Miguel County. He knew of El Cerrito through his aunt Agneda Gonzilez who had been raised on a ranch midway between Maes and La Garita and had married Florencio Quintana. Unlike Maes, El Cerrito had a reliable supply of water for irrigating alfalfa and other hay crops that Baca needed for cattle feed back in Maes. Thus when Baca learned that the Armijo family wished to sell its El Cerrito property, he had his father, Fidencio Baca, buy all of it-five irrigated acres, two
PROBABLE FAMILY HOUSES EL CERRITO, 1956
Map 7.2 Probable family houses, El Cerrito, 1956. Source: Based on Loomis, "Family Schedules" (1 956). Numbers 1-1 1 correspond to the alphabetical list of families in Table 7.4. JuanBaca (4) now owned the Jesk Maria Armijo house and Luis Arag6n (1) had bought and now occupied the house next to the one where he lived in 1940.
l28
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
dry land acres, and three houses and house lots-for $1,300 from Cristiano Armijo. In May 1956 Baca and his young family moved into the house of Jesfis Maria Armijo (Fig. 7.6). Meanwhile, two major improvements greatly enhanced the quality of life for Baca and all other villagers: In June 1949 the state of New Mexico paid $3,444 to drill a well that would supply water for domestic use to every subscribing home, and in August 1952 the Rural Electrification Administration extended power lines down the Pecos Valley to El Cerrito, where each household had the option to be metered for electricity. By 1956 nearly all families had water pumped into their kitchens and electricity for lights and appliance^.^^ Improvements notwithstanding, after 1956 the exodus continued, and by about 1968-69 only five people in two families remained. Luis Arag6n and Estefana Quintana lived in one house, and Fernando and Florencia Quintana and their sister Albinita, who had returned from Pueblo, lived in the other. El Cerrito had probably reached its all-time population low. Even Juan Baca had moved away. Thus in a relatively short quarter century, the village had disintegrated. Each of five generations between 1825 and 1925 had successfully met its challenge and survived. But to survive, this sixth generation moved away. During the same quarter century that Cerritefios left, Spanish people throughout New Mexico moved from villages to urban centers. And as the Cerritefios moved away probably few realized that in doing so they would burden their own children-the seventh generation-with still another new challenge, that of Anglici~ation.~~
Fig. 7.6 Juan Baca (1926-97) resided in El Cerrito for perhaps a decade after 1956 when his father, Fidencio Baca, purchased property from the Armijo family. Charles P. Loomis photographed Baca (on crutches) with his palomino in August 1956, several months after Baca had moved to El Cerrito. Photograph courtesy of the Rio Grande Collections, Accession No. RG 84-24, New Mexico State University Library, Las Cruces.
THE ANGLICIZED GENERATION, CIRCA 1975
W
hen Spanish people moved from their villages to urban centers dominated by Anglos, they became "Anglicized," which means that they became more like Anglos, especially in their shift to English. Cerritefios of the exodus generation circa 1950-the first generation to go to the citybecame Anglicized, and so did their children, referred to here as the Anglicized generation. The distinction between the two generations lies in the degree of Anglicization. Pablo (Paul) Tapia and his children illustrate the point. Paul's father, Benjamin Tapia, moved his young family out of El Cerrito in 1936, when Paul was only three months old. The family's child migration ladder finds children being born in Las Vegas, then La Junta, Colorado, and finally Pueblo. In the process Paul did things typical of his exodus generation: he became bilingual, he chose a Spanish wife, he had seven children, and he revisited El Cerrito often and felt strong attachment to it. Paul also did two things that were not typical of his generation: in Pueblo he finished high school, and after four of his children were born he moved-from Pueblo to Colorado Springs, an hour's drive to the north. By contrast, Paul's seven children of the Anglicized generation carried the Anglo-urban challenge further: they finished high school and attended college; they
130
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
chose both Spanish and Anglo spouses; they limited the number of children to an average of two; they learned English fluently and neglected Spanish almost completely; some left their home community of Colorado Springs (two moved to Denver and one moved to Grand Junction); and with one exception they took little interest in El Cerrito (Fig. 8.1).'
Pueblo, Colorado In 1950 Benjamin Tapia's family moved permanently to Pueblo, the urban destination for most CerriteAos. Nine years later, in summer 1959, Julihn Samora, a native of Colorado and graduate student in sociology working under Loomis at Michigan State University, oversaw a study of the nearly twenty families from El Cerrito who were living in Pueblo. Samora arranged to have Moses Trujillo, a relative in Denver, interview nine family heads of household, eight men and one woman. On 12 August 1959, on stationery from Pueblo's Hotel Whitman, Loomis identified six of the nine heads: J e s ~ Maria s Armijo, Cristiano Armijo, Heliodoro Quintana, Eduardo E. Quintana, Gabriel Quintana, and Librada Solano de Tapia for her husband, Benjamin Tapia. A profile of the nine heads of household reveals that their ages ranged from forty-five to seventy-four and averaged fifty-nine and that they had three to eight years of schooling, with an average of five years2 Of the nine heads of household in 1959, two worked full time at the Army Ordnance Depot located fifteen miles east of Pueblo (Benjamin Tapia seems to have been one), three worked irregularly as farm or railroad laborers, two received old age pensions, one received Social Security, and one received welfare. These villagers stated that underemployment or unemployment was their biggest concern. Yet older sons also held jobs at the Army Ordnance Depot, at steel mills, in building construction, and as farm laborers, and they contributed to their family incomes. Indeed, these younger people had advised their parents on how to secure pensions and Social Security. What surprised Loomis and others in 1959 was the rather remarkable economic progress already achieved by the first-generation Pueblo CerriteAos. With the exception of one head of household, who hoped to return to El Cerrito, all owned their own homes or were buying them, and all apparently owned relatively new automobiles. The nine people interviewed in 1959 lived on Pueblo's more affordable east side or on Saint Charles Mesa east of the city limits (Map 8.1). Their homes were scattered in neighborhoods characterized as "fairly good to good," and both homes and yards were "well cared for." Despite the scattered residential pattern, these families formed a cohesive group. They confined their social interactions almost exclusively to their extended families and to their network of compadres-godparents. CerriteAos found Anglos in Pueblo friendlier than expected, yet none had a close Anglo friend, nor did their circle of close friends seem to include Spanish-speaking people who were not from El Cerrito. Some villagers, however, had begun to appreciate Anglo ways. For example, most favored Anglo medicines and doctors over their traditional folk remedies and mkdicos, which they also continued to use. Cerritefios in Pueblo, then, comprised a subsociety. For them, Pueblo had replaced El Cerrito. Indeed, when visiting El Cerrito, which they referred to with affection as "La Placita," they felt a "mild sort of contempt" for those who continued to live in the village and had not taken advantage of the better life in Pueb10.~
CERRITEROS IN
PUEBLO, COLORADO
1959 AND CIRCA 1990
@ RESIDENCE 1959
RESIDENCE 1990 STORE 1990
I Sanders l Division 1
I I
7----
--
I
'-I
-1
_I
I I
/ ' /
\
Mile
Map 8.1 Cerriteiios in Pueblo, Colorado, 1959 and circa 1990. Shown are known and approximate residences (and one store) of first-generation migrants from El Cerrito. In 1945 Cristiano Armijo initiated the migration that grew to include the surnames Aragon, Quintana, Tapia, Torrez, and Vigil. Shown are thirteen heavily Hispanic neighborhoods in Pueblo. Sources: Loomis, RC 84-24, Rio Crande Historical Collections, for 1959; and Nostrand, interviews in Pueblo, 1988 and 1993-94, for circa 1990.
Fig. 8.1 (Clockwise from top left): Cruz Vigil de Tapia and Andrks Tapia (seated) and their grandson, Andrks Tapia (Paul's older brother), in El Cerrito about 1936; Benjamin Tapia (Paul's father) standing at right with Eduardo E. Quintana (left) and Romhn Vigil (son of Santiago), (center) in El Cerrito about 1919; the seven Tapia children, (left to right) Jerri (#6), Beverly (#5), Eugene (#7), Valerie (#3 in wedding gown), Roberta (#4), Paul (#2), Tamara (#l), at Valerie's wedding on 21 March 1981; and Paul Tapia and Alyce Gauna de Tapia in Colorado Springs, 1992. Photographs courtesy of Paul Tapia and Eduardo Quintana (for photograph showing himself).
134
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
In July 1988 I interviewed nine Cerriteiio heads of household (usually husbands and wives) who lived or had lived in Pueblo. Seven were first-generationvillagers in Pueblo, and two were their Pueblo-born children. One of the seven, Eduardo E. Quintana, eighty-one years old in 1988, had been interviewed for the Samora study in 1959 (Fig. 8.2). My purpose in 1988 was to learn how Spanish villagers from New Mexico coped with urbanization. In 1993-94, when I initiated research for the present study during a sabbatical leave from the University of Oklahoma, I reinterviewed seven of the nine people from 1988 and added nine new interviewees to my list, four first generation and five second generation. What follows is information from eighteen Cerriteiio families with significant roots in Pueblo circa 1990.4 By 1990 most first-generation male heads of household had retired, often from one of three employers: the Army Ordnance Depot, now called the Pueblo Army Depot Activity; Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I), now a remnant of a once major steel mill; and a meatpacking plant on Santa Fe Avenue that had operated under several names and had closed. The majority of first-generation wives, all of Spanish ancestry like their husbands, had not worked outside the home. By 1990 families that had come from El Cerrito usually continued to live in Pueblo and owned homes mainly on the east side. Some lived in the dozen heavily
Fig. 8.2 Eduardo E. Quintana (1906- ) and Jesucita Guti6rrez de Quintana (191 7- ) shown at their
home in "the Grove" in Pueblo, Colorado, 13 September 1993. Quintana, who had just turned eighty-seven, moved permanently to Pueblo from La Garita in 1951 and from 1952 to 1971 worked in the American Store Packing House on Santa Fe Avenue. He and Jesucitareturned often to their ranch at La Garita; meanwhile, they adopted and raised Max, son of Jesucita's brother, and Juanita, daughter of Jesucita's sister. Photograph by RLN.
THE ANGLICIZED GENERATION -
135
--
Hispanic (Spanish- and Mexican-origin) neighborhoods shown in Map 8.l. The residences of their numerous children and grandchildren were more widespread in Pueblo, and each family could name a child or grandchild who had left Pueblo altogether, usually for Denver, Los Angeles, or New York. CerriteAos in Pueblo no longer formed a cohesive subgroup. At important events such as high school graduations, weddings, and funerals, all generations would come together simply because of their blood ties. On such occasions the young, a few with Anglo spouses, often had to be introduced to the old. But aside from important events and the occasional family reunion, few occasions seemed to present themselves for social interaction. The subgroup of villagers noted in 1959 had disintegrated by 1990. By 1990 attitudes toward El Cerrito differed widely. Some first-generation CerriteAos in Pueblo still felt strong attachment to the village, would visit often, and planned to retire there. Two villagers who had worked thirty years at CF&I had already retired in El Cerrito, Cirilio Aragon (about 1982) and Macario Torrez (in 1989). Mainly for reasons of health, Candido Aragon (who died in 1996), Florencio Quintana Jr., and Paul Tapia (of Colorado Springs) acknowledged that moving to El Cerrito would now be difficult. Others of the first generation had fond memories of a village full of people and of orchard trees laden with fruit, and they regretted that brothers or sisters had sold the family property, thus precluding a return to the village. And still others of the first generation who also remembered El Cerrito as a special place had not returned and probably never would. Embarrassed to have once been so poor and come from such a small place, they would answer "Las Vegas" when asked by a stranger about their home village. This shocked and disappointed those with strong loyalties to El Cerrito. A general lack of attachment also characterized the feelings of the children and grandchildren, most of whom had never been to El Cerrito. Major differences, then, separated first- and second-generation CerriteAos in Pueblodifferences attributed to degrees of Anglicization and differences that probably characterized Spanish people from other New Mexican villages no matter what urban place they now resided in:
Place of residence. The first generation rarely moved beyond Pueblo whereas the second generation lived mainly in Pueblo but could be pulled to Denver, Los Angeles, or New York. Ties to El Cerrito. The first generation had fond memories of their natal village, and some visited regularly, whereas their children usually felt little attachment to El Cerrito and only rarely went there. Years of schooling. The first generation rarely went beyond the eighth grade, whereas the second generation usually finished high school and some attended college. Choosing a spouse. The first generation married Spanish people exclusively, whereas their children sometimes married Anglos or people who were half Spanish and half Anglo. Number of children. The first generation in Pueblo averaged 5.5 offspring, with a range of 2 to 10, whereas the second generation averaged only 2.0 children, with a range of 1 to 4. Language. Although both the first and second generations could be characterized as bilingual, the first generation had greater fluency in Spanish while their children had greater fluency in English.
1 36
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
The Shift to English Students of language and culture readily acknowledge that the two are inextricably interwoven. To lose one's language is also to lose a part of one's culture. To be sure, items in New Mexican Spanish such as cuentos, dichos, and adivinanzas can be translated into English (stories, sayings, riddles), but in the process their impact may be lost, especially when a play on words is involved. For example, Cerritefios took pride in having many children. When Jose Manuel Quintana's family passed another family in wagons on a dirt road, the following exchange brought smiles all around: Kuantos muchachos tienes? i Quince! iTodos vivos? Unos vivos y otros tontos, per0 todos comen. How many children do you have? Fifteen! All alive? (also, all smart?) Some smart and others stupid, but all eat. The English translation above does not convey the ironic usage of vivos. Hence the shift to English had its d o w n ~ i d e . ~ But the shift occurred, and for Cerritefios who moved to Pueblo, it took only three generations. The first generation-the migrants-spoke Spanish as their mother tongue. They also learned English, and surprisingly, some, such as Paul Tapia, became more comfortable speaking English than Spanish. The second generation-the children-learned both Spanish and English at home and English at school. Most became bilingual. But in the city they spoke more English than Spanish, and not surprisingly the second generation had greatest fluency in English. By the third generation-the grandchildren-the shift to English was usually complete. Grandchildren could sometimes understand when their grandparents spoke in Spanish but could rarely reply in Spanish. English had become their mother tongue. To learn Spanish now required taking a course in scho01.~ Back in El Cerrito the transition from Spanish to English went forward less quickly. Loomis reported in August 1956 that all thirty-four villagers (in eleven families) spoke Spanish in the home. Many knew some English from school or from having lived outside the village, yet in isolated El Cerrito there was little incentive to speak English. In 1980 I found that of eleven villagers (in five families), three older Cerritefios spoke only Spanish, although they understood some English; five middle-aged Cerritefios could be characterized as bilingual; and three, the daughter of a Spanish couple and two Anglos, spoke English but knew some Spanish. By 2000, of the twenty-two villagers (in eleven families), all knew at least some Spanish and English, and many-including both Spanish people and Angloswere fluent in both. Clearly, a shift to English was under way. Sorting out this shift from generation to generation worked in Pueblo but not in El Cerrito. In El Cerrito the lack of normal population growth and a permanent influx of Anglos complicated the tran~ition.~
THE ANGLICIZED GENERATION
137
The Anglo Influx Only sketchy evidence exists to suggest how early contact between Cerritefios and Anglos developed. Villagers may have been involved, because of proximity, with the capture of invading Texans near Anton Chico in the ill-fated Texan-Santa Fe Expedition of 1841. Pedro Luis D u r h and perhaps other villagers served, at least nominally, in the army recruited by Governor Manuel Armijo to defend New Mexico from the invading Anglos led by General Kearny in 1846. Between the 1860s and the 1940s Cerritefios dealt sporadically with Jewish merchants such as Charles Ilfeld, Emanuel Rosenwald, and Joseph and Milton Taichert, all located on or near the Las Vegas Old Town plaza, when marketing their products and purchasing goods. Sustained encounters with Anglos seem to have started with the arrival of Anglo women teachers in the early 1920s (Table 6.1). In the late 1930s one teacher, Leona Dice, lived with her husband, Harry Dice, in Quintana Cabin located about a mile north of El Cerrito in the Santa Fe National Forest. Mr. Dice, a forest ranger, taught Luis Aragbn, whose homestead also lay north of the village, new ways of farming and of caring for livestock. Sustained contact continued in 1939-40 when Leonard and Loomis lived in El Cerrito. In August 1956, when Loomis revisited the village, he photographed the home and back room where he and Leonard had been renters (Fig. 8.3).8 A decade later Anglos began to buy village land. In about 1965 Colonel Cullum B. Watson purchased a solar and 13.36 irrigated acres from Rogelio Arellanes. Watson and his friend Colonel Harry Messec, both residents of Albuquerque, had purchased real estate for development in the Mineral Hill area west of Las Vegas. Land with water rights had special appeal to them. According to Mary Messec, the colonel's wife, in about 1968 she saw in a newspaper advertisement that Willie Torrez of El Cerrito sought to sell his solar (0.38 acre) and 7.45 acres with water rights. Separately from Watson, the Messecs bought Willie's land-as an investment, for they had n o plans to live in El Cerrito. Luis Arag6n became their village contact, and eventually Teodoro (Ted) Arag6n oversaw their property, which included supplying three peones to clean the irrigation ditch each April. Colonel Messec died in 1981. In 2000 Mary Messec lived in Baltimore, and Don Messec, her son who resided in Santa Fe, managed the property for her. Meanwhile, the Watson property in El Cerrito changed ownership, perhaps more than once, and in 1979 Ricardo (Rick) Quintana bought it, thus bringing it back into the hands of a villager.9 On the heels of Watson and Messec Anglos came to live in El Cerrito. Two long-haired hippies referred to by villagers as "Mad John" and "Dirty Barry"-in part because they kept goats in their kitchen-started the procession. For a number of months in 1970-71 these vagamundarios, as Albinita Quintana called them, rented the former Luis M. Quintana house located west of the church. Jose P. Quintana, who had moved to Pueblo, transferred ownership of this family house to Isidoro V. (I. V.) Lucero of Villanueva, and Lucero gave low priority to the welfare of El Cerrito when choosing his tenants. Jack and Heidi Lanstra, a couple who would become permanent residents, arrived in November 1971. In the early to mid-1970s four additional parties of Anglos consisting of a total of twelve people lived temporarily in El Cerrito. In addition to the Lucero house, they rented the houses of Ted Arag6n and Elvira Corrales. None remained longer than about two years.1°
138
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
Fig. 8.3 In 1939-40 Leonard and Loomis rented the back room shown midway behind the former
homes of Vibiin Quintana and Epitacio Quintana (the two-story house). Electric power lines reached El Cerrito only in August 1952. Photograph by Charles P. Loomis, August 1956, courtesy of the Rio Crande Historical Collections, Accession No. RC 84-24, New Mexico State University Library, Las Cruces. In the early 1970s a group that would call itself Tenants in Common became the third Anglo party to buy land in El Cerrito. A decade earlier, at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, several students including John Burns, Joe C' de Baca, and Jack Lanstra became fast friends. On completing their bachelor's degrees, they went their separate ways, only to regroup as business partners in the late 1960s in the Bay Area. In 1970 they returned to Las Vegas where they formed Alternatives, Inc., a company that produced educational materials. They also sought to buy rural property on which to reside. They came u p empty-handed i n their search for land after driving the high country north of Las Vegas, and in November 1971 a real estate tip took them south to Bernal, located only ten miles north of El Cerrito. The Bernal property eluded them, but in exploring the area, they drove the unimproved dirt road south to El Cerrito. At the place o n a high bluff overlooking the Pecos River where Leonard and Loomis had paused in amazement in 1939, they too stopped to gaze down o n the "green gem," as John Burns called it, that is El Cerrito.ll They drove down the face of the bluff and into El Cerrito, and to their good fortune, o n this and subsequent trips, their plan fell into place. They learned that Juan Baca wished to sell his three solares with houses and some nine acres of irrigable land (Map 8.2). Baca's interest i n the visitors as possible purchasers rose a notch when it became clear that Baca knew Joe C' de Baca's uncle. In a matter of weeks, the three partners in Alternatives, Inc., struck a deal with Baca: they would buy the former Armijo property for $12,000. Meanwhile, Jack
Map 8.2 El Cerrito in 1975, drawn b y Jack W. Schafer. In 1975 five artists depicted "sections" of El Cerrito o n five sheets as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) sponsored b y N e w Mexico's Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation under the direction of the National Park Service. I have added t o Schafer's sheet 3 the Lucero rental house and Juan Baca's three solares (labeled Burns [where Baca lived], C' de Baca, and Angel).
140
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
and Heidi learned of the Lucero rental house, which they moved into in November 1971. In 1972, when Juan Baca formally sold his land, the three partners had grown to nine Tenants in Common, six Anglos and three (male) Hispanics: James and Carol h g e l , John Bums, Jose and Janet C' de Baca, Phillip and Irene C' de Baca, and Jack and Heidi Lanstra. The Tenants' purchase of land continued. In 1982 Faustin Lorenzo Torres Jr., of Portales, New Mexico, telephoned John Burns to ask if he might be interested in purchasing his several solares (one with a house) amounting to 0.78 acre and his 3.04 acres of irrigated land. Representing Tenants in Common, John Burns negotiated for the package, paying Torres $13,500. To facilitate the deal, the Tenants promptly deeded property to two additional parties. I had an interest in the solar on which the school once sat, and for $2,200 the solar measuring 0.19 acre and its schoolhouse ruins became mine. For a brief time, Charles and Anita Vernon owned the solar with a house and some irrigated land, which they sold in about 1983 to Raymundo (Ray) Valdez, a former Texan known in his adopted Las Vegas for his skills as an organizer and for his knowledge in restoring historic buildings. These transactions brought to an end any major purchasing of property by outsiders in El Cerrito.12
HOUSE LOT OWNERSHIP EL CERRITO, 1980
Map 8.3 El Cerrito house lot ownership, 1980. Source: Richard L. Nostrand, resident in El Cerrito in March-April 1980. Numbers 1-5 correspond to the alphabetical list of resident families in Table 8.1, and numbers 6-24 correspond to the alphabetical list of nonresident families (houses vacant and some in substantial ruin) in Table 8.2.
THE ANGLICIZED GENERATION
141
The Villagers in 1980 In 1980 eleven people lived in El Cerrito (Table 8.1). They constituted five households, as shown in Map 8.3. The nonresidents, also shown in Map 8.3, are listed in Table 8.2. From an all-time low of only five villagers in the late 1960s, El Cerrito's population had rebounded modestly to eleven. The danger that the village would join the ranks of New Mexico's ghost towns now seemed less likely. And the presence of Anglos suggested that the
Table 8.1. Population in El Cerrito, 1 April 1980 I
I
No. Surname
1
I
Arag6n
I
Given Name(s)
Luis Roberto (Joe)
[~uintanallLinda Louise
I
Alisha Lynn 2 3
Lanstra
1 [Silva]
John(jack) Millam
I Heidi Jean
I
Relation
I
head friend daughter head
I I
wife
I
Sex
M F F M
I
I
Birthdate
1
Birthplace
19 Mar 1951 Las Vegas, NM 29 Aug 1957
1
Pueblo, CO
30 Aug 1975
Pueblo, CO
8 Aug 1939
Phoenix, AZ
Occupation
rancher
I
housewife
I
gardener
farmer
F
1 16 Nov 1944 1
Honolulu, HI
M
8 Sep 1934
El Cerrito, NM
rancher
19 June 1941 Las Vegas, NM
gardener
Quintana Abraham (Abrin) Reynaldo
head
[Trujillo]
Maria Margarita (Margie)
wife
F
4
Quintana
Florencio
head
M
4 Sep 1902
[Gonzilez] Maria Agneda
wife
F
15 Apr 1906 Variadero, NM housewife
5
Quintana
head
M
18 Apr 1957
Pueblo, CO
farmer
aunt
F
5 Jul 1908
El Cerrito, NM
gardener
JosephAlbert
Quintana Albinita
El Cerrito, NM
retired
Total: 11 SOURCE: Richard L. Nostrand, unofficial census taker, El Cerrito, New Mexico, 1 April 1980.
P-
Table 8.2. Nonresident Houses and House Lots in El Cerrito, 1980 Name
No.
Name
6
Angel, James
16
Quintana, Leandro (Lalo)
No.
7
Aragbn, Cirilio
17
Quintana, Ricardo (Rick)
8
Aragbn, Teodoro Fed)
18
Quintana, Rumaldo
9
Burns, John
19
Sandoval, Vidal
10
C'de Baca, Jos6(Joe)
20
Tapia, Am brosio
11
Corrales, Elvira
21
Tapia, Pablo (Paul)
12
Lucero, lsidoro V. (I. V.)
22
Torres Jr, Faustin Lorenzo
13
Messec, Harry
23
Tbrrez, Macario
14
Ouintana Ir., Florencio
24
Tbrrez, Willie
15
1
Quintana, Heliodoro
SOURCES: Interviews with Jackand Heidi Lanstra, 29 March 1980; and Florencio and Agneda Quintana, 6 April 1980. NOTE: Numbers correspond with households in Map 8.3.
142
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
days of pure Spanish ethnicity had ended. The five families in 1980 were villagers who had tried the outside world and returned to El Cerrito, the children of villagers born in Pueblo who found El Cerrito something of a refuge, and an Anglo couple seeking an alternative way of life. Florencio Quintana and Agneda Gonzalez de Quintana had left El Cerrito several times but by 1980 had returned to retire (Table 8.1, no. 4). Florencio was born in El Cerrito in 1902, the second son of Luis M. Quintana (Fig. 8.4). In 1922 he married Agneda Gonzalez. Between 1923 and 1950 Florencio and Agneda had seventeen children, eleven boys and six girls. As Quintana family resources dwindled Florencio found it necessary to leave El Cerrito to find work. He, Agneda, and at least some of the children traveled to Upstate New York and California, and once they stayed six years in Denver. In 1972 they returned to the village to retire. In 1980 eleven of their seventeen children were alive, six in Albuquerque, two in Denver, and one in Pueblo, Alaska, and El Cerrito (AbrAn).13 Typically, when the Quintana children turned eighteen, they left for cities. But Abran, Florencio's ninth child, born in 1934, had stronger ties to the village, perhaps because he married a fellow villager, Margarita (Margie) Trujillo. Margie's mother, Gertrudis Margarita Vigil, born in 1919 to CerriteAo Santiago Vigil, married a nonvillager, Elauterio Trujillo. She lived in Las Vegas when Margie was born in 1941. Gertrudis died in 1945, and Margie went to El Cerrito to be raised by her grandmother, Maria Lucinda Tapia de Vigil (see Table 7.4). In 1958 Margie and Abran married in El Cerrito. Confronted with the need to make a living, they left the village, at one time living nine years in Hayward, California. But in 1974 they returned to live permanently in the house that had belonged to Margie's grandfather, Santiago Vigil (Map 8.3). Abran ran cattle on mesa land, and Margie kept a large vegetable garden and served as the mayordoma of the church.14 In 1980 Joe Quintana lived in El Cerrito with his elderly aunt, Albinita (Table 8.1, no. 5; Fig. 8.5). Albinita, born in 1908, was the last of thirteen children of Luciano Quintana and Refugio Trujillo de Quintana. Only six of the thirteen lived to adulthood, and only one of the six, Brigido, had children. Albinita, who never married, lived in Pueblo for some years but returned to El Cerrito in the 1960s to live with her single brother, Fernandes, and a widowed sister, Florencia Quintana de Montoya. Joe, born in Pueblo in 1957 the seventh of Brigido's eight children, moved to El Cerrito in 1978, soon after the death of Fernandes. His purpose was to help Albinita and Florencia but also to perfect his Spanish, to manage family property, and to commute to New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas. For Joe, El Cerrito served as something of a refuge from city life but also a place with new challenges.15 El Cerrito also served as a refuge for Luis Roberto Aragon, known to many as "Joe" (Table 8.1, no. 1). Luis was born in Pueblo in 1951 to Candido Aragon and Mary Barela de Aragon. He had a scrape with the law and moved to El Cerrito for a fresh start. Joining him were Linda Quintana, who despite her surname had n o village connection, and their daughter, Alisha. Both Linda and Alisha were born in Pueblo, Alisha in 1975. In El Cerrito Luis lived in Candido's house and from it he managed the family enterprise, which included running cattle on the mesa. On a gorgeous Saturday in May 1980, El Cerrito came
Fig. 8.4 Florencio Quintana (1902-2000) kindly allowed me to take his photograph on my first visit to El Cerrito on 14 October 1979. On several occasions in 1980, Florencio and Agneda invited me to talk with them at their kitchen table, memorable visits for one just learning about the village.
Fig. 8.5 Albinita Quintana (1 908-89) and her nephew JoeQuintana (1 957- ) stand in front of their adobe house in El Cerrito. In 1978 Joehad moved from Pueblo, Colorado, to live with Albinita. Photograph by RLN, 17 May 1980.
THE ANGLICIZED GENERATION
145
alive with cars and about one hundred fifty guests invited to witness Luis and Linda's marriage (Fig. 8.6). The occasion marked the first wedding in El Cerrito since the marriage of Abran and Margie in 1958. And by the end of 1980 the birth of a son, Luis Candido Aragon, added the twelfth villager to the rolls.16 My review of families living in El Cerrito in 1980 ends with the Anglo couple, Jack and Heidi Lanstra (Table 8.1, no. 2; Fig. 8.7). They moved to the village to seek refuge from a society torn by its involvement in Vietnam and to enjoy a low-stress lifestyle. Jack, who had grown up in Washington State, and Heidi, a native Hawaiian, had met at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas. In El Cerrito the couple began construction of a southfacing passive solar sandstone house above the irrigation ditch. They also solidified friendships in the village by becoming involved in community projects such as repairing the dam. They earned a modest income from selling wild asparagus, ornamental house plants, and
Fig. 8.6 On 17 May 1980 h i s Roberto (Joe)Aragon and Linda Quintana married in El Cerrito. Father Vidal of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in West Las Vegas officiated. Photograph by RLN.
146
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
pigs. One day their neighbor Fernandes Quintana observed Jack struggling with pick and shovel to remove a dirt and rock mound near the irrigation ditch. Through John Burns, who stood nearby, Fernandes gave Jack some advice in a Spanish dicho: El agua emblandese la tierra como el vejez a1 coraz6n del hombre. Water softens the land as age softens the heart of man.17 Fig. 8.7 Jackand
Heidi Lanstra, village residents since November 1971, on our chance encounter in October 1979 invited me to return to El Cerrito. For two decades they have answered my interminable questions while extending warm hospitality. Photograph by RLN, 13 August 1980.
THE PREIENT GENE RATION, CIRCA 2000
R
icardo (Rick) Quintana has El Cerrito in his blood. His strong attachment to the village is unmistakable (Fig. 9.1). This attachment developed when Rick, who grew up in Pueblo, spent summers in El Cerrito with his grandparents, Florencio Quintana and Agneda Gonziilez de Quintana. In 1979, at twenty-five, Rick had the good fortune to buy for $7,000 the historically important Ramon Alari house and its adjacent irrigated acres-the property once owned by his greatgreat-great-grandfather, Fernando Quintana, and essentially what Rogelio Arellanes had sold to Colonel Watson. Four years later Rick purchased the onetime Heliodoro Quintana house and its solar for $1,000. In 1984 he moved t o El Cerrito and occupied the house of his father, Florencio Quintana Jr. Rick's wife went back and forth between El Cerrito and Pueblo as their third and fourth children arrived i n 1985 and 1986, but the marriage did not last, and all four children returned to Pueblo. Rick remained in the village, however, and in the mid1990s acquired still more property, the Isidoro V. Lucero house once owned by his great-grandfather, Luis M. Quintana. Today Rick and a friend, Margaret McGee, maintain a large kitchen garden and in other ways struggle to survive in El Cerrito. No conceivable force will pry Rick from this precious place.
l48
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
Perhaps not all members of the present generation share Rick's village attachment, but they do share the same challenge-to survive in nontraditional ways.l
The Villagers in 2000 On 1April 2000 twenty-two people in eleven families resided in El Cerrito (Table 9.1). This was exactly twice the number of villagers counted in 1980. El Cerrito's population had grown to an apparent high of thirty-nine in 1988 before departures and deaths reduced it to twenty-two. Of the twenty-two, seventeen counted themselves as Spanish and five as Anglos (John Burns, Jack and Heidi Lanstra, Margaret McGee, and April Vrendenburg). Seventeen were newcomers, and five were holdovers from 1980 (Jack and Heidi Lanstra, Abriin and Margie Quintana, and Joe Quintana). And of the eleven resident families, eight lived in the nuclear village shown in Map 9.1 while three lived at distances of from one to Fig. 9.1 Soft-spoken
Ricardo (Rick) Quintana (1 954- ) is shown
impressing a group of OU students with his depth of feeling about the village of his ancestors. Photograph by RLN, El Cerrito, 26 September 1987.
THE PRESENT GENERATION
149
two and a half miles by road. Map 9.1 also locates the houses or house lots of nonresidents (see also Table 9.2). The five villagers in three families described as holdovers from 1980 are discussed in chapter 8. Interviews with the seventeen newcomers in eight families provided the following profile. All came directly or indirectly from Albuquerque (four families), Pueblo (three families), or Las Vegas (one family). They trickled into El Cerrito one family at a time between 1982 and the late 1990s, many when they retired. They ranged in age from thirtyone to seventy-nine and averaged fifty-six years old. Their years of schooling ranged from four to completion of college, and for John Burns a master's degree. All spoke English, all spoke at least some Spanish, and several were more comfortable speaking Spanish than English. Incomes for each of the eight families before moving to El Cerrito could be characterized as modest. And with the exceptions of John Burns and J e s h (Jess)Torres, the remaining six heads of household had either been born in El Cerrito or were the children of those born in El C e r r i t ~ . ~ The eight newcomer families owned land in El Cerrito, through inheritance or recent purchase, as in the case of Rick Quintana. Landownership fell into three categories: house lots, bottomland with water rights, and mesa land. With the exception of Maria Quintana, all the families owned a house lot in the village, even Cirilio Aragon and Teodoro Aragon, who chose to live at a distance. Eight of the eleven families owned land with water rights. One who did not, Jess Torres, kept horses on land he had purchased from his Uncle Willie Torrez that was the village rnolino site, measuring 45 feet by 90 feet stretching between the irrigation ditch and the river. Reasoning that no animal could be denied water, the mayordomo gave Jess permission to water his horses. In 2000 villagers made little use of the bottomland beyond planting pasture grass. However, three families (including Rick Quintana) maintained kitchen gardens. Three of the eight families that owned mesa land, Cirilio Aragbn, Ted Aragon, and Macario Torrez, raised ~ a t t l e . ~ No villagers earned much income from the sale of cattle or crops. Older heads of household who had retired with pensions had modest incomes. To survive economically, younger villagers had to commute to jobs (Table 9.1). Las Vegas, twenty-six miles away and the nearest major community, attracted most of the commuters. Margie Quintana delivered her leatherwork in Las Vegas once a week. John Burns traveled to Las Vegas on business twice a week. Joe Quintana and Luis Aragon I11 had jobs that required them to commute five days a week. Heidi Lanstra, the champion village commuter, drove 60 miles each way to Santa Fe five days a week. Jess Torres traveled only sporadically to Albuquerque, but that commute amounted to some 90 miles each way. Compounding the inconvenience were El Cerrito's dirt roads. Two unpaved roads connect El Cerrito to the outside (Map 9.2). Leading north are 10.2 miles of dirt road to Bernal and Interstate 25. Leading south and then west are 6.2 miles of dirt road before one reaches New Mexico Highway 3. When it rains both roads become somewhat hazardous, and when it pours both can become impassable. El Cerrito's remoteness and difficulty of access inconvenienced more villagers than those who had to commute to work. El Cerrito is a village without goods or services. It has no store, gas station, or cafe, nor does it have a barber shop, a post office, or a school. As Joe C' de Baca quipped, it is hard to spend money in El Cerrito. Because no family in El Cerrito
Table 9.1. Population in El Cerrito, 1 April 2000
-
I
No. Surname
I Given Name(s) Cirilio Raquel (Rachael) V Luis Ill
Arag6na [Conzilez]
I
I
I
I ~elationlSex l
friend Vrendenburg April head Teodoro Ued) lsidro Araq6na head JohnMiles Burns John(Jack)Millam head Lanstra I Heidi lean I wife [Silval Quintana l~braham(Abrdn) ~eynaldol head wife Maria Margarita (Margie) [Trujillo] head Joseph(Joe)Albert Quintana brother Robert head Quintana Leandro (Lalo) Candido Elsie Maria wife [Perea] head Quintanaa Maria (Mary) friend Orona Cruz head Quintanab Ricardo (Rick) Patricio friend McCee Margaret (Meg) head Jesljs(Jess)Cilbert Castillo TorresC Macario (Mac) head T6rrez wife [Sandoval] Rose son Marty Lynn Total: 22
8 Jan 1921 26 Jun 1922 8 May 1957
M F M
head wife son
I
l
I
I
I
Birthdate
I
Birthplace El Cerrito, NM Variadero, NM Las Vegas, NM
18 Apr 1969 Las Veaas, NM F M 15 May 1925 El Cerrito, NM M 22 Sep 1938 Las Vegas, NM M 8 Aug 1939 Phoenix, AZ F 1 1 6 ~ 0 ~ 1 9 4 4 Honolulu, HI El Cerrito, NM M 8 Sep 1934 F 19 Jun 1941 Las Veqas, NM Pueblo, CO M 18 Apr 1957 El Cerrito, NM 27 Jul 1950 M La Carita, NM 8 Oct l936 M Denver, CO F 24 Nov 1934 27 Feb 1943 Las Vegas, NM F M 3 May 1934 Sugar City, CO Pueblo, CO M 17 Apr 1954 Midland, TX F 13 Mar 1953 Santa Rosa, NM M 1 Jul 1960 M 30 May 1937 El Cerrito, NM Pueblo, CO 6 Dec 1938 F Pueblo, CO M 18 Nov 1969
I
l Occupation retired housewife computer programmer sales manager retired self-employed building restorer accountant retired leather worker teacher odd iobs retired housewife retired retired odd jobs artist horse trainer retired housewife none
SOURCE: Richard L. Nostrand, unofficial census taker, El Cerrito, New Mexico, with help from John Burns and Heidi Lanstra on 26 March 2000 and Margie Quintana on 15 April 2000. a Houses located outside the nuclear village are shown elsewhere. In Map 9.1 Rick Quintana resides on solar #9, yet Rick's father, Florencio Quintana Jr.owns the house lot. C On 1 April 2000 Torres lived temporarily in Albuquerque; he gave El Cerrito as his residence in the census and had returned to El Cerrito by early July2000.
Table 9.2. Nonresident Houses and House Lots in El Cerrito, 2000 No.
Name
No.
Name
12 13 14
Angel, JamesP. and Carol A. Angel
22
Quintana, Cloria and Polo Castro
Aragbn, Luis Roberto (Joe)
23
Quintanatb Ricardo (Rick)
Araq6n Illa, Luis
24
15 16 17
1 1
Araq~jn,~ Teodoro (Ted) C'de Baca, Janet C'de Baca, Jos6(Joe)
1 1
25 26 27
Quintanafb Ricardo (Rick)
1 1
QuintanaIb Ricardo (Rick) Quintana, Rumaldo Quintana, Vidal Sandoval, Vidal and Louisa Arag6n
Corrales, Elvira
28 29
20
Messec,Mary
30
Tapia, Pablo (Paul)
21
Nostrand, Richard L.
31
Valdez,Raymundo(Ray)
18
C'de Baca, Phillip and lrene C'de Baca
19
Sena, Joeand Otilia (Lala) Arag6n
SOURCE: Author's interviews. NOTE: Numbers correspond with households in Map 9.1; some house lots contain only ruins or no ruins at all. a House lot owner who lives in El Cerrito but outside the nuclear village. Rick Quintana lives in house lot #9.
HOUSE LOT OWNERSHIP EL CERRITO, 2000
Map 9.1 El Cerrito house lot ownership, 2000. Numbers 1-1 1 correspond to the alphabetical list of resident families in Table 9.1, and numbers 12-31 correspond to the alphabetical list of nonresident families in Table 9.2. Three resident families (1, 2, 8) lived outside the nuclear village. Source: Author's interviews.
152
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
is completely self-sufficient, every family finds it necessary to leave to obtain services of some kind. Busing children to school in 2000 was not a problem because the village had had no school-age children since about 1997. Getting one's mail became a lesser problem when villagers voluntarily picked up their neighbors' mail. Seven families had post office boxes in Villanueva, located eight miles away, and four had them in Serafina, about twelve
Map 9.2 The Pecos Valley, 2000. Two dirt roads link El Cerrito to the outside, one leading north to Bernal (10.2 miles) and a second leading south and west to New Mexico Highway 3 (6.2 miles).
THE PRESENT GENERATION
153
miles away (Map 9.2). Besides a post office, Villanueva had two small stores. Otherwise, the nearest shopping was in Las Vegas. The hardships of remoteness and dirt roads then, coupled with an absence of goods and services, adversely affected all villagers. These conditions made living in El Cerrito somewhat unconventional. Ironically, these same hardships are what had drawn seventeen new people to El Cerrito since 1980. Remoteness had kept land values low. And difficulty of access had preserved the quaintness of El Cerrito. Part of the attractiveness of retiring in the village was that little had changed there. Some who lived in El Cerrito in 2000 also found that interacting with a few people on a daily basis-a necessary kind of support system-seemed preferable to the more numerous yet superficial exchanges typical of life in urban centers. And then there were the ills of the city-drugs, pollution, congestion-that had been push factors in the decisions to move to El Cerrito and accept its nontraditional challenges. Life in El Cerrito in 2000 actually had many conveniences. All eleven families had running water-pumped from the community well in the nuclear village and from individual wells for the three outlying families. Every household save one had electricity, and that one, Maria Quintana's, 1.6 miles south and west of the village, had a generator. All families owned refrigerators (two of them propane fueled), ten owned washing machines (only four owned clothes dryers, however), and six owned freezers, all electric. Tanks containing propane had become village features, and nine families had propane cooking stoves while two had propane heaters. Firewood could be found on the mesa, and nearly all families had iron wood-burning cooking stoves (called estufas de Zefia) and metal freestanding heaters (called fogones, sing. fogh). Nine of the eleven families had indoor plumbing and some kind of septic system. Seven of eleven families owned televisions, usually with satellite dishes to enhance reception. In 1980 an underground telephone cable that followed the road from New Mexico Highway 3 had reached El Cerrito, in 1982 it became operational, and in 2000 nine of eleven families had telephones. Half the families owned automobiles, more than half owned tractors, and all owned pickup t r ~ c k s . ~ Would El Cerrito's conveniences, as well as its inconveniences, be strong enough to lure additional people to the village? A number of onetime villagers living in cities continued to have major interests in El Cerrito. Fifteen of the twenty people listed in Table 9.2 and shown in Map 9.1 are nonresidents who owned houses or house lots. And eight nonresidents listed in Table 9.2 also owned acreage with water rights. Several of these people responded guardedly that they intended to move to El Cerrito when they retired. But a pessimist would contend that for older people who are about to retire, the advantages of city life will probably outweigh the challenges of living in El Cerrito. Future population increases will be modest at best.5
The Ditch Association All those who own bottomland acres with water rights belong to La Acequia Madre del Cerrito, or Ditch Association. In 2000 this included eight residents and eleven nonresidents (Table 9.3). Altogether, these nlneteen people, known as parciantes, owned about 1l 3 acres of potentially irrigable land. Parciantes are obligated to provide laborers to maintain the
154
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
irrigation ditch and the dam. The formula used in El Cerrito to determine one's obligation for laborers is that for every three acres (or fraction thereof) owned, a parciante is to furnish one peon for each eight-hour workday mandated. For example, as shown in Table 9.3, Rick Quintana is obligated to provide two peones because he owns between three and six acres. Cirilio Aragon, the largest landowner, must furnish ten peones, which villagers have established as the maximum number any one parciante must provide. In the early twentieth century, when villagers still relied heavily on the sale of agricultural produce for a living, the irrigation ditch had greater importance; today much of the bottomland is simply pasture. Still, the Ditch Association remains the most important institution in El Cerrito, and it is the glue that holds the village together? In New Mexico every village seems to have an irrigation ditch, and every ditch association is required to have approved bylaws governing the business of the ditch on file with the Office of the State Engineer. Each ditch association must meet every second year on the first Monday of October. North of Interstate 40, ditch associations meet in odd-numbered
Table 9.3. La Acequia Madre of El Cerrito Membership, 2000 Parciante
Angel, James and Carol
Peones
Residence
2
Springer, N M
10
El Cerrito, N M
Aragon, Luis Roberto ( J o ~ ) ~
6
Las Vegas, N M
Aragon, Teodoro
3
El Cerrito, N M
Burns, john
l
El Cerrito, N M
Araq6n, Cirilio
C'de Baca, Janet
I
1
I
Las Veqas, N M
C'de Baca, Josk (Joe)
1
C'de Baca, Phillip and lrene
1
Colma, CA
Encinias, John
1
Las Vegas, N M
Lanstra, Jack and Heidi
I
2
Las Vegas, N M
I
El Cerrito, N M
Messec, Mary
3
Quintana jr., Florencio
1
Pueblo, C O
Quintana, Joseph (Joe)
1
El Cerrito, N M
Catonsville, M D
Quintana, Leandro (Lalo)
2
El Cerrito, N M
Quintana, Ricardo ( ~ i c k ) ~
2
El Cerrito, N M
Sinchez, David
1
Albuquerque, N M
Sandoval, Vidal
2
Los Alamos, N M
Torrez, Macario
1
El Cerrito, N M
Valdez, Raymundo (Ray)
1
Las Vegas, N M
TOTAL
42
SOURCE: John Burns, Secretary, Ditch Association, 15 April 2000. Son of Candido Arag6n Son of Florencio Quintana Jr.
a
THE PRESENT GENERATION
155
years; south of Interstate 40, they meet in even-numbered years. At the meetings three commissioners (president, secretary, and treasurer) and a mayordomo are to be elected for twoyear terms. In El Cerrito, in elections that are conducted openly, each parciante's vote is proportional to the number of peones he or she supplies. In 2000 the officeholders were Joe C' de Baca, president; John Burns, secretary; Luis Aragon 111, treasurer; and Luis Roberto Aragon, mayordomo (Fig 9.2). In recent years the Aragon family has controlled the elections because they muster twenty-five of the forty-two peones voted. During the course of the year, the mayordomo is responsible for allocating water and organizing work parties, if necessary, to repair or otherwise maintain the ditch and the dam. The major annual event is the day all peones or their representatives come together to clean the 7,000-foot-long acequia madre, or mother ditch.7 In anticipation of ditch day, a Saturday in mid-April scheduled to avoid Easter weekend, in late March or early April the mayordomo closes the headgate where water enters the ditch. Between the dam and the village the El Cerrito ditch follows the base of a northfacing, 200 to 300-foot vertical rock cliff. Mud in the ditch dries out slowly in the shade cast by the cliff, and for this reason and lingering winter temperatures, El Cerrito's ditch is often the last in the local Pecos Valley to be cleaned. On ditch day the peones gather at 8:00 A.M. near the school lot and with shovel in hand walk to the area of the dam. The mayordomo
Fig. 9.2 John Burns (left) and Joe C' de Baca, in 2000 the secretary and president, respectively, of the Ditch Association, are shown here in front of the El Cerrito church on 1 7 May 1980. Photograph
by RLN.
156
EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
has paced off 9 to 12-foot-long tareas (lit., tasks) which he has marked on the crown of the ditch with small red construction flags or by digging divots in the ditch with his shovel. The peones' job is to remove the year's accumulation of silt and to square up the bottom of the ditch. When a peon has finished a terea he or she walks downstream along the crown of the ditch-greeting friends and attempting to avoid their shovels of dirt-to the next available tarea. In 1982 forty peones, nine from the University of Oklahoma and the rest from the village, cleaned the ditch; with an hour break for lunch at noon, we finished at about 4:00 P.M. (Fig. 9.3). In 2000 sixty-seven peones, eight from OU and seven from Northern Arizona University, dug the ditch (Fig. 9.4). By 2000 ditch day had become something of a macho activity, and the more numerous peones finished by lunch. In 1982 a
Fig. 9.3 OU students use shovels to square up the ditch while Brock Brown takes a drink of water and Joe C' de Baca watches. Photograph by RLN, 1 7 April 1982.
THE PRESENT GENERATION
157
Fig. 9.4 For ditch day in April 2000 "OU" supplied eight peones. Shown here are seven and JoeC' de Baca (with shears). (Left to right) Matt Engel (University of Nebraska), Mike Stevens, John Marshall, Doug Hurt, Jason Hilkovitch, Jeff Roth, and Jeff Smith (Kansas State University). Photograph by RLN, 15 April 2000.
female OU student was discouraged from participating, yet in 2000 the majordomo accepted the help of several female students in this enterpri~e.~ The acequia madre conducts water to El Cerrito's 113 acres of irrigable bottomland (Map 9.3). Below the dam is the long narrow area lying between the ditch and the Pecos that villagers call the Anconcito. From its appearance, the Anconcito has not been irrigated for decades. Below the village is the Rinch, the bottomland that encompasses about sixtythree acres and is El Cerrito's most valued land. Crossing the entire Rinc6n is the Seis Varas. This ditch ultimately flows into a suspended metal pipe that bridges the Pecos to take irrigation water to the fifty-acre Anc6n (Fig. 9.5). The Aragon family owns the Anc6n, and in 1982, after failing to reestablish a dam that once served it, they successfully engineered a modern-day cafio as a substitute. Map 9.3 shows ownership of El Cerrito's agricultural land in 2000. When I complimented Rick Quintana for his detailed knowledge of who owns what, he responded that anyone in the village could give me the same information-suggesting how important the ownership of each small parcel is to most ~illagers.~ El Cerrito's dam is an essential part of the irrigation system. It raises the level of the Pecos so that water will flow into the mother ditch. Rivers can be treacherous, and in less than two centuries floodwaters have destroyed El Cerrito's main dam half a dozen times. Most recently, on 17 August 1989, a sudden local cloudburst dumped an estimated 7 inches of rain on El Cerrito, and rushing water partially destroyed the cement-capped rock and brush dam. In 1990 the Corps of Engineers constructed a new dam made of concrete
LAND TENURE IN EL CERRITO, 2000 NAMES OF LAND OWNERS
6 C' de Baca, Janet
12 Quintana Jr., Florencio
i kgel, James
7 CVde Baca, Joe
13 Quintana, Joe
2 ~ragbn,Candido (heirs of)
8 C' de Baca, Phillip
14 Quintana, Leandro
3 ~ragbn,Cirilio (heirs of)
9 Encinias, John
15 Sandoval, Vidal
4
rago on, Teodoro
5 Burns, John
10 Lanstra, Jack
16 Torres, Jesh
11 Messec, Mary
17 ~orrez,Macario
Map 9.3 Land Tenure in El Cerrito, 2000. The acequia madre traces the perimeter of the village before it empties back into the Pecos. The Rinc6n is traversed by the Seis Varas Ditch, which leads to the Arag6n flume and Ancon. See text for numbers on map. Omitted is the Anconcito showing parcels owned by David Sanchez and Raymundo Valdez.
THE PRESENT GENERATION
159
poured over rock-filled wire mesh gabion baskets. The total cost, $280,000, was shared by the federal government (90 percent), the State of New Mexico (7.5 percent), and El Cerrito's parciantes (2.5 percent). The Ditch Association applied the same formula used to determine a parciante's obligation for labor, one pe6n per three acres owned: each parciante owed $62.32 per peon per year for five years. After the dam's completion villagers complained about an apparent design flaw: the intake for the ditch faced upstream, and logs and debris would have to be removed regularly from its protective grill. Had the intake faced parallel to the river's flow, removing debris would not be required as frequently. Allocating surface water is the business of El Cerrito's Ditch Association. El Cerrito's Well Association, because it deals with groundwater, is a separate institution. Known formally as the El Cerrito Mutual Domestic Water Consumers' Association, this organization, when created in 1949, had a slate of officers, but village depopulation and the take-charge personality of Luis Aragon saw a less formal governance evolve: In 2000 Rick Quintana, the president, and John Burns, the secretary-treasurer, were serving long indefinite terms. In 1949, when the well, its well house, a water tank, and underground pipes to distribute the water to individual houses came to exist, Luis Arag6n took over. In Las Vegas he bought the pipes used to distribute the water (reimbursement came later). That June he and two sons dug most of the trenches and installed most of the mainline pipes, and he became
Fig. 9.5 This modern-day cafio, installed by the Arag6n family in 1982, carries irrigation water from the Rinc6n to the An&. (Left) Abdulla Ahmed AI-Taher, an OU graduate student, sits at the Ancon end of the flume, 24 September 1983. (Right) The flume crosses the Pecos with El Cerrito (the hill) in the background, 15 October 1993. Photographs by RLN.
160
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
the operator of the internal combustion engine used to pump well water to the water tank. In time Aragon relinguished his mainstay role; a pump run by an electric motor replaced the gasoline one; and on the house lot belonging to John Burns, a larger water tank replaced the old one. Burns lives on the highest village solar. Water flows by gravity from the water tank behind his house to the rest of the village. He is the first to know if the tank's water level is low, and he activates the pump accordingly. As secretary-treasurerof the Well Association, Burns is also the person who collects the $6 per house per month, which he deposits in a bank account to be used for repairs as required.1°
The Modern Feud The irrigation ditch brings villagers together in a cooperative effort: on ditch day all peones stand shoulder-to-shoulder squaring up tareas to prepare the ditch to carry water for the next growing season. But underneath this cooperative spirit is a rift-in El Cerrito and reportedly in most Spanish villages in New Mexico-that divides villagers, here along lines of the two leading families. The reasons prompting animosity in El Cerrito have included disputes over ownership of land, over allocation of irrigation water, and over who should be buried in the cemetery and jealousies over family wealth. The 1841 exodus of the Bleas and many others to San Agustin may have been prompted in part by a feud. And in about 1900 a violent quarrel between the Quintanas and the Manzanareses resulted in the departure of the entire Manzanares family and its allies. El Cerrito's modern feud is between the Quintanas and the Araghs. When Luis Aragon married Estefana Quintana in 1916, few could have foreseen the impact nonvillager Arag6n would have on El Cerrito. Between 1919 and 1926 Luis and Estefanita homesteaded 174 acres of upland directly north of the village. Luis, however, had his eye on acquiring the fifty-acre Anc6n and its superior alluvial soils. Members of the Ditch Association had denied landowners on the Ancon access to water since at least 1912, reducing the Ancon to dry farming and making it less valuable land. Beginning in 1935, Luis and several of his children pooled their resources to buy the Ancon little by little. In the 1940s and 1950s, while the Quintanas and others left El Cerrito, Luis gradually acquired more land. By 1956, when Loomis revisited El Cerrito, Luis owned thirty of the fifty acres in the Ancon and twenty-five acres of irrigated land in the Rincon (Fig. 9.6). And when Luis died in 1978 the Arag6n clan had secured enough land to control the votes in the Ditch Association. That they had failed to construct a permanent dam to supply water to the Ancon now did not matter because water from the irrigation ditch would flow to the Ancon through their modern-day cafio. Luis Arag6n never moved to the Anc6n as he had planned in the 1930s. His aggressive behavior had meanwhile offended many villagers. But the takecharge attitude of Luis and his sons had been of major importance in keeping El Cerrito and its Ditch Association alive in the aftermath of the great village exodus after 1940. Under Luis, the Arag6n clan had risen to become the strong and sometimes bitter rival of the once all-powerful Quintanas. l Soon after Luis Aragon died, Cirilio and Ted returned permanently to El Cerrito and Candido made El Cerrito his home away from Pueblo. The leadership of the Arag6n clan
THE PRESENT GENERATION
161
Fig. 9.6 Luis Aragon (right) and Estefanita Quintana de Aragon (left) with Mrs. Charles P. (Zona) Loomis and her three daughters (adopted with Charles in Costa Rica) in El Cerrito in August 1956. Industrious and enterprising Luis Aragon had become the leader of a prominent family by 1956.
Photograph by Charles P. Loomis, courtesy of the Rio Grande Historical Collections, Accession No. RG 84-24, New Mexico State University Library, Las Cruces.
had passed to them, and Candido took charge of the Ditch Association. But in 1996 Candido passed away, and then Cirilio died in 2000. With these deaths the AragonQuintana rivalry seemed almost immediately to lose its edge. At the village funcion held at Margie and Abran Quintana's home on 26 August 2000, local Aragon and Quintana family members came together amicably, something the village had not seen in decades. That all the Quintanas and Aragons were related seemed to have renewed meaning. Although relations between the two factions could be characterized as cooperative but guarded, El Cerrito in 2000 seemed to be on the brink of more tranquil times.I2
Recent Changes The Arag6n family had already started its acquisition of the Ancon when Irving Rusinow, the government photographer sent by the USDA, spent a week in El Cerrito in April 1941. In October 2000 1 hiked up La Centinela to the place where Rusinow had stood to photograph the village, and my photograph shows that El Cerrito had changed, but not very
l62
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
much (Fig. 9.7). The church still sat in the middle of the village plaza. The village houses had the same configuration, including the long row of end-to-end adobes that stretched in front of the south-facing church. The streets had not been paved, nor had they been named. And the houses had no numbers for addresses. El Cerrito was intact and immediately recognizable some sixty years after 1941. l 3 Yet El Cerrito had changed in a number of tangible ways. Three rather large houses had been built on the south side: at the foot of La Centinela, the home of Macario T6rrez (Fig. 9.7: 1); beyond it, that of Jack and Heidi Lanstra (2); and then the home of Gloria Quintana and Polo Castro, in 2000 not occupied (3). Some of the old adobe houses had disappeared, notably the two-story house with basement built by Epitacio Quintana, which had burned (4). Some older houses had been remodeled: Joe C' de Baca had enlarged the former home of Enrique Armijo and had added a Territorial-style faqade (5) (Fig. 9.8). Originally, all of the village structures, even the church, had flat roofs, apparently because of the expense of purchasing the materials to cover a pitched roof. In 1941 Rusinow's photograph shows that some houses still had flat roofs; by 1980 all inhabited structures had pitched roofs. As shown in the 2000 photograph, El Cerrito had a well house (6) and telephone poles and electric wires. Not shown in either photograph is the school, which had burned and by 2000 had all but disappeared. Even the church had changed: in 1982 Abrin Quintana and Vidal Quintana, fearing that the bell in the churchyard might be stolen, raised it into its belfry atop the church entrance.14 The list of recent changes includes items outside the nuclear village. On the valuable bottomland of the Rinc6n are half a dozen structures built mainly since 1980 (Map 9.3). The heirs of Candido Aragon have two structures that serve as a machine shop, farm implement shed, and hay barn (Map 9.3: 1). Vidal Sandoval has a wooden shed (2) for farm implements and a wooden hay barn (3). And John Burns owns a tool shed (4) and two greenhouses, one a metal quonset hut (5) and the other a wooden structure with special fiberglass solar siding and roof (6). On the Ancon the heirs of Cirilio Arag6n have a house (7) plus two small frame buildings and two corrals. Spanning the Pecos from the Rincon to the Ancon is the Aragon metal cafi6. In March 1992 workers completed a modern-looking bridge with arched steel superstructure across the Pecos. Its plaque reads "BR. No 8794." And since 1990 a gabion basket and concrete dam has diverted water into the irrigation ditch. The side of the ditch itself is reinforced with gabion baskets at El Barranco where the ditch clings to the side of a rock cliff across from the mouth of the Cafi6n de Pefia. Gabion baskets are only one of the new materials used in constructing these features. Adobe bricks, favored for generations in building houses because of their superior insulating properties, are currently a less chosen medium. Flat sandstone blocks, once used for constructing some houses and many barns and corrals, are returning. Both Jack Lanstra and Polo Castro used sandstone for their houses. Cirilio Aragon and Macario Torrez built their new houses with prefabricated cement blocks. Recently three manufactured metal homes have appeared in El Cerrito. Jess Torres introduced the first, a small mobile home, in 1989. Ten years later he hauled it away and now has a small camping trailer; his intent is to build a permanent house probably with adobe brick. Maria Quintana's manufactured home is hidden from view on the mesa southwest of the village. And the third such home is unoc-
Fig. 9.7 The village of El Cerrito, 10-1 6 April 1941 (above) and 26 October 2000 (below), looking northeast from La Centinela. See text for numbers in both photographs. Upper photograph by lrving Rusinow, National Archives Neg. 83-C-37795; lower photograph by RLN.
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EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
cupied and is parked near the ruins of Casimiro Quintana's sandstone homestead house and onetime era located near the bridge north of the river (Map 3.3). Intended to be the residence of Robert Quintana, in September 1998 its movers found that they could not negotiate El Cerrito's narrow streets and deposited the metal structure on Quintana land outside the village. Finally, the Catholic church has undergone recent local reorganization. For decades the church at El Cerrito, Nuestra Sefiora de 10s Desamparados, had been one of six missions within Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish based in Villanueva. In the mid-1980s the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, lacking sufficient clergy, placed a deacon (who ranks just below a priest) in charge of the parish. The deacon has since been replaced by sisters from a religious order. Meanwhile, church authorities reassigned Palma, one of the six missions, to Moriarty. Parishoners in Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish are hopeful that they will again be assigned a priest. Until that happens, the priest at San Miguel, in 2000 Reverend Gary Ortiz, officiates at Villanueva. Reverend Ortiz is spread thin as he ministers to San Miguel and its seven missions and to Villanueva and its five missions. He visits El Cerrito only for major occasions including the annual funcion, now held in August to better accommodate villagers. Margie Quintana continues to serve as church mayordoma, a position she has held since 1974.15
Fig. 9.8 On 29 June1992, remodeling of Joe C' de Baca's adobe house in the Territorial style
neared completion. Photograph by RLN.
THE NEXT GENE RATION, CIRCA 2025
very author can use an angel. For this study I had the help of several whose names I note in the preface. One deserves special recognition: Henry Arellanes, who with his wife, Manuelita Eloisa (Eloise) Trujillo de Arellanes, spent sixteen hours at their home in Albuquerque telling me about El Cerrito on seven visits between 1994 and 1998 (Fig. 10.1). Even before Henry's birth in El Cerrito in 1912, his grandfather, Emiterio, asked Henry's father, Epitacio, if he could be "given" the newborn to raise. Epitacio agreed; Emiterio and Henry's grandmother, Simona Quintana de Arellanes, in the absence of Henry's parents, who left El Cerrito, raised the boy until he finished the eighth grade at the age of sixteen. In 1928 Henry moved to Pecos to live with his father and attend high school, but still he returned to El Cerrito to be with his grandparents during the summer. Eventually Henry attended the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, married Eloise, with whom he had two children, and worked as a city planner and in real estate. Meanwhile, he visited El Cerrito periodically, keeping alive his vivid childhood memories. Let us hope that El Cerrito's next generation has its angel. Change is inevitable, and the challenge for the next generation, in the opinion of many, will be to preserve the village for its considerable value as a window on Spanish New Mexico's past.l
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EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
Historical Preservation The beauty of El Cerrito is its compactness and small population, its young age as Spanish villages go, and its relative isolation. Being compact and lightly populated means that the newcomer can comprehend El Cerrito relatively quickly. Being of relatively recent age means that El Cerrito has an absence of undecipherable layers of change. And, most important for this study, being relatively isolated means that El Cerrito is well preserved. El Cerrito's oldest houses show clearly the rectangular configuration of its former fortified plaza. A pre-1900 church graces the center of that rectangle. And El Cerrito's unpaved streets, its irrigation ditches, and its agricultural long lots have not changed appreciably for one hundred years. But the village is gradually deteriorating. Since I first walked the village in 1980, a number of changes have occurred. Some are beneficial, such as hoisting the church bell into its belfry and constructing a flume across Fig. 10.1 Henry Arellanes and Eloise Trujillo de Arellanes stand in their front yard in Albuquerque on 30 April 1994. Raised by grandparents Emiterio Arellanes and Simona Quintana de Arellanes, Henry lived in El Cerrito from his birth in 1912 until 1928. Photograph by RLN.
THE NEXT GENERATION
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the Pecos. But others arguably can be categorized as detrimental. A few old adobe houses have been dismantled or extensively remodeled. Several new houses not built with adobe brick have gone up. Three manufactured houses or campers have moved into the area. The last of the adobe hornos, through disuse and erosion, has collapsed and melted (Fig. 10.2). Half a dozen barns or similar structures have arisen on the Rincon and the Ancon. A modern steel bridge with designer curves has replaced the more quaint squarish cement bridge across the Pecos. A modern cement dam has replaced its cruder cement-capped predecessor, which had replaced the rock and brush dams of yesteryear. And gabion baskets now reinforce a stretch of the irrigation ditch at El Barranco. To call any changes in the village "detrimental" is of course a value judgment. More to the point, to suggest that any changes should be managed or directed when they occur on private property disregards people's rights. The village, its bottomland, and the surrounding mesa are all held as private property over which owners have complete control. So those who propose preservation for historical reasons merely suggest how property owners might act voluntarily. Three suggestions that would seem to be in the long-term best interests of all villagers are as follows: houses in the village should be restored, not remodeled; the agricultural land of the bottomland should be preserved for agriculture and needed structures located only on the margins; and manufactured houses, if allowed at all, should be given a predetermined village life span.2
Fig. 10.2 In 1980 only two dome-shaped outdoor ovens remained in El Cerrito, and by the end of the decade both had collapsed. This horno belonged to Albinita Quintana. Photograph by RLN, 17 May 1980.
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EL CERRITO. NEW MEXICO
Any proposals for the preservation of El Cerrito's past must also consider the collective needs of villagers. Villagers need a sewer system that will eliminate potential groundwater contamination from septic tank seepage. This will entail construction of a treatment facility. Villagers need fire protection, which at the least will require a fire truck, a source of water, perhaps hydrants, and a volunteer delivery system. Villagers need to be energy-smart. Today's solar panels make sense in the American Southwest where the percentage of annual sunshine is high. Moreover, villagers may decide for aesthetic reasons to bury all electric wires; the underground telephone cables set an admirable precedent. And villagers may decide to construct a road along the north bank of the Pecos to facilitate repairing the dam. What villagers do not need are hard-surfaced roads leading to El Cerrito, for this would lead to El Cerrito's undoing. El Cerrito, then, is marvelously intact and historically rich but also fragile and deteriorating. The challenge is to recognize what is of value and to preserve these precious features. Given that El Cerrito is owned as private property, most measures will have to be voluntary. Nominating El Cerrito for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places would raise the level of community consciousness about what is at stake. Rebuilding El Cerrito's school as it once was would set a worthy example. No one wishes to see El Cerrito frozen in time, and no one wants to have the village site bulldozed to accommodate development. A middle ground between these two extremes should be the goal in historical preservation.
The Heyday So, the skeptic of historical preservation asks, just what cross section in time, what magic moment, do you intend to capture? In truth no single slice of the past can be captured with total authenticity. Even America's prize example of historical preservation, Colonial Williamsburg, has paved streets, electric lights, and trolleys for transporting tourists. But for El Cerrito a worthy date to try to capture is 1900, when the village was in its prime. New Mexico's Spanish population more generally reached its peak in vigor and prosperity at the turn of the century. The evidence is copious. In 1900, 140,000 Spanish Americans lived in Greater New Mexico, an area the size of Utah that stretched beyond New Mexico Territory to parts of four adjacent states or territories (Map 10.1). These Spanish people constituted 64 percent of their own region's population; Anglos, who had been intruding since 1821, accounted for most of the rest. By 1900 this region, everywhere a minimum 10 percent Spanish as determined in the original census schedules, had almost reached its greatest area1 extent. But in the inner portion of the region, an area the size of Tennessee, Spanish people constituted a minimum 90 percent of the population. Several larger communities, such as Santa Fe, which was 72 percent spanish, were exceptions. As a whole, however, this inner half of Greater New Mexico amounted to a Spanish "Stronghold" where Spanish people dominated society, held the reins of local politics, and wielded considerable economic clout. Amazingly, nowhere in America has so large an area been so purely ethnic so re~ently.~ In its heyday Spanish people in Greater New Mexico lived in hundreds of small villages. The hierarchy of Spanish communities shows that only seven exceeded a population
Map 10.1 Spanish Greater New Mexico in 1900. This large region-85,000 square miles, or an area the size of Utah-contained 485 census precincts where Spanish people constituted a minimum of 10 percent of the population. The region's inner Stronghold42,300 square miles, or an area the size of Tennessee-where Spanish people were a minimum of 90 percent of the population, contained 29 purely Spanish precincts. Omitted are 13 nonregion inliers, 13 region outliers, and 12 areas where Spanish people constituted less than 90 percent in the Stronghold. El Cerrito is located immediately northeast of La Cuesta, also 100 percent Spanish. Source: Population Schedules of the 9001. Twelfth Census [l
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of 1,000 (Table 10.1). Santa Fe, the largest, with 4,793, and the region's demographic center, served as New Mexico's political and religious focus. Next in size came Las Vegas and Albuquerque, each twin communities with plaza-centered Old Towns and railroad depot-centered New Towns. Then came Ranchos de Taos, Taos, Espafiola, and Ocate, after which all villages had under 1,000 Spanish people. Generally, the proportion of the Spanish population increased as village sizes decreased. A total of twenty-nine census precincts, each containing at least one village, had 100 percent Spanish populations in 1900. This meant that every person in the precinct had a Spanish name, had been born in New Mexico Territory or the four states or territories to which New Mexico-born Spanish people had migrated, and in "color or race" was not an "Indian." Precinct 37 and its single village of El Cerrito was one of these twenty-nine purely Spanish place^.^ By just about any measure, tiny El Cerrito had reached its apex in 1900. The Quintana family had taken charge. For better or worse, they had all but driven out the Manzanareses and their allies, assuring greater village social cohesiveness. Under Epitacio Quintana's leadership, the strategy to homestead contiguous blocks of grazing land in the Conchas Valley had gone forward. El Cerrito's stock raisers prospered from these grasslands. The annual village funci6n had become a two-day celebration that began with homemade fireworks and horsemen who rode out to greet the priest. That 136 villagers knew only Spanish had clearly curtailed neither countywide business deals nor political opportunities. Epitacio and JesGs Maria Quintana, by successfully networking beyond El Cerrito, were elected and reelected to county offices in this turn-of-the-century period dominated by Republicans. In 1900 Table 10.1. Communities of More than 1,000 Spanish People, 1900 Community Santa Fe City Periphery Las Vegas Old Town East Las Vegas Albuquerque Old Town New Town Ranchos de Taos Taos Espaiiola Ocate
Spanish
4,793 3,732 1,061 3,319 2,699 620 2,024 927 1,097 1,386 1,123 1,112 1,066
O/O
71.8 66.6 98.8 48.6 82.9 17.3 27.2 77.8 17.6 98.5 91.7 91.2 96.9
Anglo
O/O
Mexican American
1,368 1,355 13 3,454 502 2,952 5,295 224 5,071 21
20.5 24.2 1.2 50.6 15.4 82.6 71.3 18.8 81.3 1.5 8.2
48 48
.7 .9
48 46 2 105 36 69
.7 1.4
100 106 31
8.7 2.8
2
1 1
O/O
Total
467a 467
7.0 8.3
7 7
.l .2
1.4 3.0 1 .l
5 4 1
.l .3
.l .l .l
3 2
.2 .2
6,676 5,602 1,074 6,828 3,254 3,574 7,429 1,191 6,238 1,407 1,225 1,219 1,100
O/O
Indian
.l
SOURCE: Population Schedules of the Twelfth Census [l9001. NOTE: Communities are located in Greater New Mexico. a All Indians in Santa Fe located in two boarding schools: lndian Industrial (305),Saint Catherine (162).
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nearly all children between the ages of six and eighteen attended El Cerrito's school; this would raise the level of adult literacy. And in a society in which religion played a major role in day-to-day life, every villager belonged to and attended the one Roman Catholic church. An altar screen displayed in El Cerrito's church at the turn of the century is symbolic of the village in its heyday (Fig. 10.3). Jos6 de Gracia Gonzales, a santero from Chihuahua who worked in the Taos area in the 1860s and then lived in Trinidad, Colorado, painted the scene of the Trinity as an altarpiece that found its way to El Cerrito. Gonzales applied brightly colored oils to boards fastened together in a wedge-shaped display called a retablo. What family or group of villagers acquired the religious image and when is not known. However, because Gonzales is said to have been "the most importmt Hispanic painter working in New Mexico after 1860," the icon clearly represents good taste and village pride. In about 1920, the altar screen, then apparently in disrepair, became partial payment to Jay Stern, a contractor in Las Vegas who had done work on El Cerrito's church. It eventually found its way to Santa Fe and is now part of the collection in the Museum of International Folk Art.s
A Window on the Past After 1900 the influx of Anglos continued, urban centers grew, Spanish control eroded, and almost everywhere Spanish villages went into decline. El Cerrito experienced severe depopulation. But primarily because of its isolation, El Cerrito in a physical way survived very much intact. Going to El Cerrito today is to take a step back in time. El Cerrito's value today lies more in what was than what is. The village is a window on Spanish New Mexico's past. Just how is El Cerrito representative of Spanish New Mexico in its heyday? The list of contributing features is long: the church and its cemetery in the middle of the plaza; adobe houses built in the Spanish vernacular style and the dirt streets they face; the main irrigation ditch, its laterals, and the low wood-plank bridges that cross over them; the gardens, orchards, and agricultural fields-generally unkempt but nonetheless there; the jacal fences; the swimming hole on the Pecos (Fig. 10.4). Former villagers are of course gone, but they held many of the occupations found in small Spanish villages in about 1900: stock raisers, stock herders, farmers, day laborers, carpenters, blacksmiths, and laundrywomen. Occupations present in El Cerrito in 1900 but not listed in the census because of their secondary importance also included at least one merchant, miller, musician, freighter, and seamstress. And in 1900 El Cerrito had a male schoolteacher who would have been recorded in the census in his home village. More generally, El Cerrito is representative of past Spanish villages because of its ciboleros, probable genizaros, feuds, politicians, homesteaders, seasonal wage workers, and Anglo intruders. For the professor of historical geography standing with students in El Cerrito, a number of these features seem to cry out for explanation. For example, villagers chose a secondlevel terrace for their village site to avoid floodwaters, a decision that also made El Cerrito an unusually compact village. They laid out their original fortified rectangle so that corners would point weakly in the cardinal directions, an orientation so common in New Mexico that compliance with the Laws of the Indies must be the explanation. Villagers oriented
Fig. 10.3 This top section of a wooden altar screen displayed in El Cerrito's church at the turn of the twentieth century is attributed to well-known santero Josede Cracia Conzales. Conzales may have painted the brightly colored oil of the Trinity scene in the Taos area in the 1860s. The section shown measures approximately 39 inches (99 cm) high by 37 inches (95 cm) wide at the base. Fragment of Altar Screen (L5.71-21), photograph courtesy of the Museum of International Folk Art, a unit of the Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe.
Fig. 10.4 Two cross sections of El Cerrito drawn in 1975 by Josephj. Bilello show many of the structures that contribute to El Cerrito's historical richness. (Top) Village looking from north to south shows causeway leading from bridge to church and access to historic ford (above ford is water tank at west end of village). (Bottom) Village looking from east to west with water tank at foot of mesa. Taken from Sheet 4 of Historic American Buildings Survey.
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their church (as well as the graves in the churchyard cemetery) north and south, suggesting that the need to face east when praying must have been secondary. The irrigation ditch, which defines three sides of the village, villagers carefully had follow the contour of the village terrace, so that water flowed by gravity to the gardens, orchards, and fields below. And villagers laid out their agricultural long lots in a long, narrow configuration. When narrow ends fronted on the ditch, more villagers had access to the precious irrigation water. Contact with its nearest neighboring village, La Cuesta (Villanueva),followed up the Pecos Valley, making the river ford the original village approach, not the relatively recent bridge. And the Saturday night dance so anticipated by nearly all villagers made the schoolhouse the focal point of a veritable clearinghouse for marriage partners coming from villages all around. The closing of the schoolhouse (in 1951) and its subsequent deterioration is but one example of how El Cerrito does not faithfully represent the 1900 heyday. Gone also are other structures, notably Epitacio Quintana's two-story house and the village molino, present as recently as 1940; the era now occupied by corrals for livestock; and the once-ubiquitous backyard hornos. Noncontributing features added since 1900 include the well house and water tank (1949); the "telephone" poles and power lines (1952); and since about 1980, new houses, remodeled houses, manufactured houses, and the structures on the bottomland. The Penitente Brotherhood is reported to have been weak in El Cerrito, explaining why a rnorada (chapel) never existed to persist. And in 1900 all structures in El Cerrito seem to have had flat roofs. The first pitched roof apparently went up over the church about 1920, and by 1980 all major structures had pitched roofs. Thus, some lenses with filters are needed when one looks at the past through the El Cerrito win do^.^ The El Cerrito window also allows one to view New Mexico's Spanish subculture. In Spanish colonial times, three subcultures developed on the northern frontier of New Spain, nuevomexicanos, tejanos, and californios. Nuevomexicanos, the oldest and largest subculture, lived in villages and raised sheep. Tejanos and californios, more recent in origin and fewer in number, lived in villages and on ranchos and raised longhorn cattle. After 1821 Anglos from the East overwhelmed the tejanos and californios, and after 1900 Mexican immigrants almost totally overwhelmed both groups, with the result that the tejano and californio subcultures have all but disappeared. Anglos also engulfed the nuevomexicanos, especially in the twentieth century, but the nuevomexicano subculture survived relatively intact. The irony today is that this once-flourishing and dynamic neuvomexicano subculture has taken a backseat to the dynamic and growing latino immigrant peoples in California and Texas. Nevertheless, Spanish people in Greater New Mexico constitute the only surviving Spanish colonial subculture found in the United States today.7
Spanish Cultural Values In the American Southwest today Spanish people and Anglos overlap. The history of this overlap had its twists and turns. All three Spanish colonial subcultures found themselves intruded on by Anglos in the short Mexican period that ended in a military takeover; and under American control, additional Anglos and immigrants from Mexico added new layers
THENEXTCENERATION
175
to those who had already arrived. The outcome: a southwestern borderland through which Spanish cultural values diffuse into mainstream American culture. Walt Whitman recognized this. Organizers of an event celebrating the anniversary of the founding of Santa Fe in 1883 asked Whitman to read a poem for the occasion. Lacking sufficient time, Whitman instead wrote a letter which a dignitary read: Many leading traits for our future national personality, and some of the best ones, will certainly prove to have originated from other than British stock. . . . To that composite American identity of the future, Spanish character will supply some of the most needed parts. No stock shows a grander historic retrospect-grander in religiousness and loyalty, or for patriotism, courage, decorum, gravity and honor. . . . As to the Spanish stock of our Southwest, it is certain to me that we do not begin to appreciate the splendor and sterling value of its race element. Who knows but that element, like the course of some subterranean river, dipping invisibly for a hundred or two years, is now to emerge in broadest flow and permanent acti~n?~ Tiny El Cerrito offers many examples of admirable Spanish values. One is embodied in the strength of extended families. Many a grandchild lived with a grandparent to be of help. Henry Arellanes could have had a happier childhood as he chopped wood and carried water for his grandparents with whom he lived, yet this institution allowed older people to remain independent, an admirable substitute for today's retirement homes. Less often a child would be "given" to childless relatives to be raised. Epitacio Quintana gave his youngest son, Fernando, to his childless younger brother, Jesus Maria, a boon to Fernando because Jesus Maria left him a great deal of land. Some villagers opposed this practice. When barren Andrellita Quintana de Gonzales asked her younger brother Florencio if she might be given Florencio's son, Abran, to raise, Isabelita Aragon de Quintana, the grandmother, intervened. "You give away only the puppies," she said. AbrAn stayed with his parents. Many a family took in the child of a brother or sister whose marriage had broken up or who could not earn a living. And the practice of women retaining their maiden surnames after marriage identified and expressed respect for the extended family lineage on the maternal side.9 Other Spanish cultural values found in El Cerrito are worthy of emulation. Paradoxically in a male-dominated society, male villagers in El Cerrito sometimes downplayed their own importance. When fifteen men founded El Cerrito in 1824, they named their community for a small if conspicuous hill, not for Ramon Alari, the leader. When a couple's firstborn son arrived, villagers rarely named him after the father. Juniors might appear down the line-if at all. In El Cerrito children learned early to respect their elders. When Luis M. Quintana visited his primo (cousin) Emiterio Arellanes, he often asked for a glass of water. Young Rita Arellanes brought him the glass and, abiding by proper etiquette, Rita then stood near Luis, arms folded, until Luis requested more water or until he left-which sometimes took an hour. A resentful Rita minded her manners. And villagers had a sense of humor about life and about themselves. Jose Manuel Quintana told me about Teodoro Pacheco, a villager in La Garita, who observed that houses with flat roofs leaked after a rain.
176
EL CERRITO, NEW MEXICO
So Pacheco built an extra-sturdy ceiling and piled on a thick layer of dirt. When a hard rain came, Pacheco gloated, for all the villagers' roofs leaked except for his-until a week later.1° Villagers in El Cerrito exemplified values that many-certainly geographers-would describe as being based on geography. At the top of the list is attachment to place. People in all folk cultures feel strong attachment to place, but for Spanish people in New Mexico this attachment seems to have been uncommonly strong. Cerritefios left the village reluctantly to earn money, made few friends when gone, and rejoiced when they returned. To quote Leonard and Loomis, whose knowledge of New Mexico drew heavily on El Cerrito, "Individuals are identified as much by the community in which they live as by family name." Another example concerns land use and land tenure. Cerritefios owned privately the small bottomland fields that required irrigation and had to be worked intensively, but they shared with all fellow grantees the dry upland mesa lands used for grazing sheep. The symbiotic relationship between private lands used intensively and common lands used expansively on Spanish land grants made good sense ecologically in a semiarid environment. For Cerritefios and for others on the land grant, opening the grazing uplands to homesteading ended this advantage. Finally, the stepping-stone migration in which El Cerrito played a role confirms that Spanish people dynamically expanded their frontiers and that Spanish values accepted risk when trying to better themselves econ~mically.~~ Spanish values sustained El Cerrito's villagers as they confronted and overcame challenges generation after generation. The challenge villagers may have found most wrenching was what to do following the Great Depression when old ways of making a living no longer worked. They left for the city, a solution that ended forever El Cerrito's integrity as a Spanish village. A far smaller village population today continues to struggle economically. Young villagers make a living by commuting to jobs while older villagers live on pension checks and Social Security. A home-based industry might bring economic stability to villagers. Like Chimayo, El Cerrito could become a village of weavers. It could also become a village of potters, or of makers of special preserves that could capitalize on high-quality local deciduous fruits such as peaches, pears, and apricots. Or maybe an angel will step forward to suggest how villagers might capitalize on their truly most precious asset-what was.
POPULATION TABLEI, 1841-1920
Table A.1. Population in El Cerrito, March 1841 NO.^ Head and AgeC Spouse and AgeC In Household Comments
a
and Aged
I
l
1 34 1 Alari, Jose Ram6n 5 4
1 35 1 Alari, [Rambn]
-1 l 19
Angel, Miguel 40
[Maria] Manuela [Antonia] Jaramillo 4 4
Jose Maria 13 Francisco 1 0 Albina 8
[Maria] Dolores [de Altagracia] Martin 23
Ramonsito, son of Manuela and adopted son of Ram6n #l; mar Dolores 15 April 1827 i n San Miguel
JosefaSaiz 28
Jose Nestor 16 Francisco 1 0 Magdalena 4
-
Ram6n, 1824: 1 of 15, bur 1 3 April 1841
Josefa, sister of Manuel #72 Tomasa, dau of Rafael#8
87
Apodaca, [Jose] Justo 2 7
[Maria] Tomasa [Blea] 24
30
Aragbn, Diego 30
Teresa Lovato 18
67
Baca, Antonio 30
Josefa [Conzalez] 2 7
Josefa bur 16 Sep 1852 Antonio 13 Leonor 8 (54A) Pablo 5 Serafina 3 Manuela (sister) l!
48
Baca, joaquin 46
Maria Antonia 38
Alexo 21 Facunda 9 Nestor 8
78
Blea, Dose] Rafael 37
Teresa, dau of lsidro #40
[JosC] Albino 9 Santiago 7 [Maria] lrinea 4
Rafael and Luz mar 16 Dec 1814 i n San Miguel; moved t o ElCerrito by 1 Mar 1828, when Albino bap
178
APPENDIX
Table A.1. Population in El Cerrito, March 1841 (continued) I
Head and AgeC
Spouse and AgeC
Comments In Household and ~ g e ~
Blea, Manuel 28
Xafaela Brito 26
Manuel, bro of Rafael #8 Manuel 12 [Maria] Deonicia 1 C Maria del Socorro 8 [Maria] Senobia 6 Culas Dos6 Nicolis] t
Blea, Marselino 21
:Maria] lgnasia [de la Luz Angel] l3
Brito, JoseMaria 24
Leonarda Criego 13
Chivez, Antonio 58
Luvina Callego 47
Marselino, son of Rafael
#8 Cuadalupe 18 JoseMaria 12 Trenida 1 1 Antonio 10 Juan8 JuanJose7
Chivez, JuanAntonio 26 [Maria] Dolores [Martin] 20 Jos6Dolores 10 JoseLauriano 6 Santiago 1
Wife #l JuanaOrtega d
1838
Dolores, dau of Pablo Martin #51;juan, son of Antonio and Juana#l 2
Josefa14 JoseSipio 13 Catario(?)8
Chivez, Luisa (W) 25
p p -
Pedro [Luis] l 6 JoseTomis 14 Juan5 [Maria] Cuadalupe '
Durin, juan 40
[Maria] JuanaMontoya 28
Durin, JuanJose76
Paula rPereal 30
Maria Luisa 20
Esquibel, J.Antonio 30
Maria Rodriguez 25
Josefa8 Fernando 6
Pedro moved to El Cerrito in the 1830s; mar Dolores Tenorio in La Cuesta by 1842; JoseTomis mar Deonicia Blea #9 1845 Maria, dau of Juan lgnacio (1824:1 of 15) Sim6n, fa of Clementa
Estrada, [Juan]Sim6n 40 [Maria] Andrea [Maes] 30
#72;Anton Chico petitioner Fr6ssuez. Antonio 30 Callego, Tomis 41
Encarnaci6n Abeyta 25
llario 8 Lauriano 5
Carcia, [Elusebio 48
[Maria] Dolores Mares 30
1 824:1 of 15;Eusebio, Polinaria 16 son of juan Crist6bal Jos6Antonio 8 Ram6n 3 [Jose]Catalino 2 Francisca [Antonia] '
--
Carcia, Francisco [Xavier] [Maria del] Refugio Madrid
27
26
Francisco, son of JuanCrist6bal (1824: 1 of 15); Refugio, dau of Rafael and wife #l,#45
APPENDIX
179
Table A.1. Population in El Cerrito, March 1841 (continued) Spouse and AgeC
In Household and Aged
Comments
P
Carcia, Juan26
Juana[Maria] Conzilez 20
Marcos Antonio 5 Marselino 3
Carcia, JuanJose46
Josefa[Sandoval] 25
JoseCuadalupe 12 Jose Francisco 7 Birbara 6
Carcia, Juliin 30
Juan, son of Juan Crist6bal; Juana, dau of Luis Maria #31; Marselino incorrectly listed in #31
1824:1 of 15?;presumed son of Juan Crist6bal
Cillen, Juana (W) 50 Conzalez, [Rafael] Agustir Josefa[Saiz] 25
30 Conzalez, Francisco (W)
Antonio 8 [Maria] lsidora 7 [Maria] Teresa 5
Wife #l Manuela Martin, dau of Pablo Martin #51
juan Andrks 5 Jose 3 Maria 2
30 Conzalez, Certrudis (W)
Juana20 Juanlsidro 18 Petra 1
38 Conzalez, Jose(W) 60 Conzalez, [Luis Maria] Francisco [in census] 46
[Maria] Magdalena Maes 40 Maria de 10s Angeles 1 7
Conzalez, Miguel Albino
Fabiana Blea 25
27
Pelegrina 7 Maria Perfecta 6 Tomasa 3 Lauriano 2
Curule, Domingo 20
Manuela Conzilez 15
Estefana 7 (!)
Cutierrez, Bartolo 50
losefa Encinas 30
Fernando 6
Cutierrez, Manuel 36
Loreta Saiz 22
Marselina 15 Catarina 13 juan 12 Petra 8 Josede la Cruz 1
Cutierrez, Manuel Antonio 65
[Maria] Dolores Curule 32
Salvador 14 Teresa 12
L6pez, juan 36
Paula Baca 16
Wife #2 Apolonia Bustos; wife #3 Maria Teodora Durin; Anton Chico petitioner Fabiana, dau of Rafael
#8; Miguel Albino, bro of Luis Maria #31
Lovato, Certrudis (W) 48 Lovato, lgnasia (W) 50
Dolores 6
Lovato, lsidro (W) 46
Dario 22 Siriaco 18 Luisa 12 Ramona 6 Culas [Nicolas] 4
lsidro, widower of Casilda Tenorio; Casilda, dau of JoseManuel (1824:1 of 1 9 , d 1838
180
APPENDIX
Table A.1. Population in El Cerrito, March 1841 (continued)
I I Head and AgeC
Spouse and Agec
Lucero, Jose Maria 25
Juana Martin 20
In Household Comments and ~ g e ~
Juana, dau of Pablo Martin #51 Tomds 13 Encarnacibn 11 Matias 6 Manuela 3 (?)
Madrid, [jose] Antonio 25 Petra [Mestas] 1 8
Albino 4 Pablo 3
Antonio, son of Rafael and wife #l, #45
i Madrid, Rafael 65
Maria Trinidad [Conzdlez] Juan 15 [#2] 25 [Wife #3 mar ca. 1833: Rafael [Antonio] 1 2 [#2] Reyes 8 [#3] Juana 4 [#3]
Mdrquez, Uose] Rafael 25 [Juana] Paula [de Jesljs] Segura 2 0
Maria ~ r s u l a1 Pedro Antonio 8 mo.
Wife # l Maria Ysabel Romero;wife #2 Maria Manuela Saiz;Juan mar Antonia Martin dau Pablo #51
Rafael moved t o El Cerrito i n the 1830s; mar Paula 29 jan 1834
Martina 8 Miguela 3 Martin, Bitorino 38
Soleda 32
Martin, Francisco 51
Maria Merced Carcia 2 0
Martin, [Jose Pablo] [Maria Antonia] Teresa Francisco [in census] 40 Carcia 2 8
Mestas, Gertrudis 0 60
Doroteo 17
Wife # l Maria Certrudis Sdnchez; Merced, dau Eusebio Carcia and Catarina Santillanes
Jose [Antonio] l 5 Maria Antonia 1 3 [Maria] Francisca 12 [Maria] lsabel 8
Pablo, 1824: 1 of 15, bur 30 May 1848; Teresa, dau of Juan Cristbbal; Francisca bap 4 Feb 1831, mar Victorian0 Ulibarri 26 Mar 1844
1
Mestas, Juan 68
Matiana Martin 2 4
Mestas, Rafaela (W) 30
Culas [Nicolis] 22 Pedro 12 Candelario 1 0 Petrona 9 Dolores 2 Leonardo 2
Mondragbn, Dolores (W) 42 Juan Aparisio 2 Montoya, F6lix 5 0 Mufiis. Anastasia (W) 31
Refuqio 2 4
1
Maria Petra 6
Rafaela, widow of lsabel Gonzdlez, d 1836
APPENDIX
181
Table A.1. Population in El Cerrito, March 1841 (continued) No.
Head and AgeC
Spouse and AgeC
In Household Comments and ~ g e ~
Olgin, Francisco 25
Maria Juana Baca 28
Camilo 3 Bautista 1
Padilla, Valentino 5 0
Maria de J e s k Madrid 35
juan de Dios 22 Maria Antonia 1 2 Marselina 11 juan de la Cruz 9 JosCde la Cruz 4
Padilla, Rafael 30 Parras, juan 30
Josefa (sister) 2 7 Benito (brother) 20 Vitoria (sister) 1 4
Quintana, Francisco (W) 50
Miguel 19 Luis Maria 18 Maria lgnasia 1 2 Teresa Baca 2 2
Rael, Jose Manuel 38
Martina Baca 26
Ramirez, Antonia (W) 60
F6lix 7 Catarina 6 Julio 1 Bartola 1 Juana 30 Manuel20 Dolores 7
Rodriguez, Jorge 26
Rafaela Salegesa 20
Rodriguez, Jose Miguel [de Jes~js]30
[Maria] Francisca Anaya 25 Maria Rosa 1 3 Miguel, son of Jose [ J o s ~FClix ] 9 Rodriguez (1 824: 1 [JosC] Ramdn 7 of 15) [ M a h del] Refugio 3 [Maria] Susana [del Refugio] 2
Saiz, Uose] Alejandro 40
[Maria] Gregoria Carcia 34
Francisco 2 0 JoseAntonio 15 juan 1 2 Maria Miguela 7
1824: 1 of 15; Cregoria, dau of either Juan Cristdbal and Tomasa Rael or Juan and Francisca Rael
Saiz, [Pedro de la] Asencidn 37
Certrudis Mirquez 24
Albino 1 8 Josefa 8 JuanAntonio 6 Francisco 5 Ledn 8
Asencidn, bro of Alejandro #70
Saiz, Manuel 25
[Maria] Clementa Estrada 22 [ M a h ] Cuadalupe 3 Manuel, cousin of Pedro [Antonio] l Alejandro #70; mar Clementa 1 6 Dec 1837
Jorge, son of juan lgnacio (1 824: 1 of 15)
Sdnchez, juan Felipe 35
Marta Carcia 24
Sbnchez, Luciano 28 [Maria] Micaela 1 0
[Maria de la] Luz Chbvez 30 Inks 13 Luciano, son of Severiano Sinchez [Maria] Mdnica 6 Maria Francisca del (1 824: 1 of 15) Rosario 5 [Maria] Luvina 3 JosC l
182
APPENDIX
Table A.1. Population in El Cerrito, March 1841 (continued) No.'
Head and AgeC
Spouse and Agec
In Household Comments and ~ g e ~
Sandoval, Catarina (W) 33
Pabla Lucero 12 lsidro 8 Francisco 5 Maria Francisca 3
Sandoval, Francisco ON) 70 Sandoval, Juan25
In& Aragon 30
l
Manuel (grandson) 16 Rosario 7 Jos6Cipriano 2
Sandoval, Rafael 60
M6nica Fresquez 30
Sandoval, Vitervo 50
[Maria de la] Luz [Martin] 40 Rosario 19 JuanElixio 1 5Vitalia 12 Josefa9 juana 4 Cavino 2
Silva, lsidro 24
Serafina 23
Ventura 9' Rosalia 7 Manuel6 Refugio 3 luan 2
Tenorio, Antonio 30
Catarina Perea 25
Santiago 10
Tenorio, Esquipula 20
Polonia Madrid 18
Antonio, son of Jos6 Manuel (1 824: 1 of 15)
Trujillo, Certrudis (W) 47
, Maria Francisca (W) 8 (!)
Total: 321 people SOURCE: JulianJosueVigil, transcriber, "San Miguel del Bado, 1841 Census" (1984), pp. 3-5, households 4-87. NOTES: Rafael Aragon, justice of the peace of the Second Division of the jurisdiction of San Miguel del Vado, took this census of El Cerrito in March 1841. Aragon's census appears in roll 41, frames 1257-1 259 (El Cerrito only) of the Mexican Archives of New Mexico in the State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. In the 1841 census, Aragon, age 44, recorded himself and two other Arag6n families as households 1-3; El Cerrito began with household 4. In the 1850 census, Aragon, a farmer of 52, lived near El Cerrito, probably in La Cuesta (1 850, roll 469, p. 64 or 32B). His enumeration of his neighbors appears to be entirely accurate. In his transcription, Vigil dates the census as March 1841 and he numbers the households to create an index of surnames. I confirmed in AASF documents that households 4-87 identify El Cerrito families. Of El Cerrito's total 84 households, I was able to verijl48 (57 percent), and because Rafael Arag6n presumably enumerated households in El Cerrito seriatim, those not verified must also be El Cerrito residents. In this table complete names if known are given in brackets, abbreviations given in the census are written out, spelling is systematized, accents are added, and occasional corrections are made for sex (example: Alvina changed to CJose]Albino, #8). Ages are not changed except when months (mo.), not years, was intended. Ages were typically understated, especially for women; the most accurate ages are for the young. Women went by their maiden surnames (example: Jaramillowas Manuela's maiden surname in household 1). Retained from Vigil are the marks ?, !, and 0for widow. a Households listed alphabetically by surname. Households as numbered in Vigil transcription. C Marital status is assumed as it was not reported. Members of households were usually the couple's children.
APPENDIX
183
Table A.2. Population in El Cerrito, October 1850
-
Surname
Alari [Martin]
Given Name(s)
Rambn Doloritas JosCFrancisco Nicolds Francisca
Sex
Age
M F M M F
40 30 2 14 16
Araabn
51 27 20
Arch uIeta Maria Archuleta
5 ChavCz Sinchez
6 Durdn 7
Durdn [Tenorio]
8
Estrada Flores
-
Occupation Real Estate 4griculture Schedule Value (a)
farmer
300
farmer
150
laborer
50
laborer
50
Juan M. Maria lgnacia Jose Manuel JuanAntonio
26 18 7 4 2
Maria Encarnacibn? JoseLeonoro? Maria R. Maria Certrudis
50 7 13
Esteva n Rosaria
25 20
laborer
30 20 2 1
laborer
50
20 27 19 1 -
laborer
50
1841 #2
5
M
Pedro [Luis] Dolores Refugio Jesh
JosC Diego Felicita Maria de los Angeles
Comments
F F M
~
I 1841 #15
9
Estrada [Maes]
Simbn Maria Andrea
10
Carcia
Antonia Teresa lsabela Juanit o
F F M
50 16 6
farmer
150
1841 #51; Teresa is widow of Pablo Martin (1824: 1 of 15)
11
Carcia
JosCManuel Cuadalupe Jose Rafael Maria Candelaria Maria Carmel
M F M F F
83 28 11
farmer
500
In 1841, this family apparently lived in La Cuesta (1 841: Vigil household #121); Manuel lived next t o Teresa Carcia #10 in 1850
farmer
150
60 50
1841 #18
5 2
12
-
Carcia
JosCP. Pasquala JosC
40 30 9
184
APPENDIX
Table A.Z. Population in El Cerrito, October 1850 continued)
-
No.
Surname
Given Name(s)
Sex
Carduiio? Sena
Juan Maria
M F
4ge
I
Occupation Real Estate Value ($)
Estevan Maria de la Luz Conzdlez [Duran]
Luis Maria Teodora Marselina Simona
farmer
Manuel Antonio Teresa Maria Rita Maria Teresa JuanP. Juliin lgnacio Abrin Maria de la Cruz Claudia
farmer
Pablo Maria Santos JuanB. Pedro Maria Andrea
farmer
Herrera
Rosa Felipe Antonia
laramillo
Jose Maria lgnacia S. Dolores Samosa
laramillo Montoya Duran Marcos Marcos
Manuela Antonia Faustin Pedro Dolores "Ind." Marcos? "Ind."
farmer servant servant
Manzanares [Mares]
Luis Maria [Agapita] Jose[Melquiades] Dose] Crescencio
laborer
yes
1841#31
yes
1841#1; Manuela is widow of Ramdn Alari (1 824: 1 of 15) Color: "Ind." genizaros Luis and Agapita moved to El Cerrito between 1846 and 1850; Agapita kin to Antonia #29
APPENDIX
185
Table A.2. Population in El Cerrito, October 1850 (continued) No. Surname Given Name@) Dccupation Real Estate \griculture l Comments Sex Value (I)
Mdrquez [Segura]
Rafael Paula Pedro Dolores Clara
M F M F F
farmer
Moya Montoya
Maria G. Vicente Maria L.
F M F
laborer
Ocana
Anna Maria Teodora Justo
F F M
Ortiz
Manuel Rosa Elena?
M F F
Perea Tenorio
Catarina Santiago Vicente
F M M
Quintana [Martin]
Fernando Certrudis Antonio (?)
M F M
Schedule
servant
1841 #81; Catarina, apparently widow of Antonio Tenorio, son of JoseManuel (1824: 1 of 15) yes
Fernando moved to El Cerrito in
1840; Certrudis, dau of Teresa Carcia #l 0 Saiz [Estrada]
Manuel Clementa Maria C[uadalupe] Pedro Antonio Maria Librada Maria Certrudis Maria lsidora Pablo Ant6n
M F F M F F F M
farmer
1841 #72; Clementa, dau of Sim6n #9; Cuadalupe mar to Quirino JimCnez(1860 #l 5); Librada mar to Pedro Quintana
(1880 #26) Sdnchez [Mares]
Severiano Maria Antonia
M F
farmer
Sandoval [Aragbn]
Juan lgnacia JosCCipriano Rafaela
M F M F
farmer
1824:1 of 15; Severiano apparently died before 1860
186
No.
APPENDIX
-
Table A.2. Population in El Cerrito, October 1850 continued) Surname
31
enorio
Given Name(s)
Sex
Petrita Prudencia lose
F F M
Antonio Asenci6n Ramon
laborer
Francisco Maria Rita Maria Teresa JuanP. Juli6n lgnacio Abr6n Maria de la Cruz Claonica
laborer
-+ 34
Tenorio
Occupation Seal Estate Pgriculture Value (8) Schedule
Comments
Francisco, probably the oldest son of jos6 Manuel (1824: 1 of 15); mar to Dolores Mondragon in 1816 (27: 267)
Luis Maria Antonia
Total: 130 people
SOURCE: US. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules of the Seventh Census [ l 8501, roll 469, pp. 57-60 (29A, 29B, 30A, 30B). NOTES: Assistant Marshal JamesD. Robinson took the census in San Miguel County between 12 October and 20 November 1850. He listed all people under four place headings: Las Vegas, La Cuesta, San Miguel, and Tuckelata (Tecolote). Robinson was in El Cerrito, found within "La Cuesta," on 19-20 October. All people on pages 57-60, which contained the El Cerrito families, were born in New Mexico Territory. No information was recorded under "Color," except for the two people in household #20 who Robinson noted as "Ind" (Indian). Robinson was apparently the twenty-five-year-oldPennsylvania-born barber whose name was given in Santa Fe as David Robinson (1 850, roll 468:693). An Anglo, his knowledge of written Spanish was imperfect, he neglected to give the villages he enumerated, and in the four pages containing El Cerrito families, he repeated six families. His count for El Cerrito in 1850 is not altogether accurate. In this table abbreviations given in the census are written out, spelling is systematized, and accents are added. Ages are given as reported in census; complete names if known are noted in brackets.
APPENDIX
187
Table A.3. El Cerrito Families Living in San Agustin, October 1850 No. No." Surname
l
~iven Name(s)
Age
I
Occupatior
Real Estate Comments Value (5)
P
1
4
laborer
75
Tomasa, dau of Rafael #3
[Blea]
Tomasa Magdalena JoseMaria Luisa
Baca [Conzilez]
JuanAntoni Maria Manuel JuanaM.
laborer
Blea [Maes]
nose] Rafael Maria Luz Santiago JuanMaria Maria Francisco
farmer
Blea [Brito]
Manuel Rafaela Deonicia Nicolhs JeslisMaria Leonarzo
farmer
Manuel, bro of Rafael #3
Blea [Angel]
Marselino lgnacia Victoria
farmer
Marcelino, son of Rafael #3
Chavez
Antonio Maria Miguel Antonio JuanP. JuanJose Maria Luciana Jos6Manuel
laborer
Duriin
Otero
servant JoseMaria, son of Antonio,
Ch6vez [Bernal]
JoseMaria Trinidad Cecelio JoskAnastacio
laborer
Chhvez Martin
JoseDolores Dolores Lauriano Santiago
laborer
Martin given as head of household; JoseDolores, son of juan Antonio, 1841 #l 3
[EsqUibel] Rodriguez
JoseAntonio Maria Josefa Fernando Pedro
farmer
Surname Cavallero was apparently incorrectly given for Esquibel; Maria, dau of Juanlgnacio (1 824: 1 of 15)
Carcia [Madrid]
Francisco [Maria del] Refugio
1841 # l 2
29
1
laborer laborer
Francisco, son of juan Crist6bal (1 824: 1 of 1 5); Refugio, dau of Rafael,
1841 #22
188
APPENDIX
Table A.3. El Cerrito Families Living in San Agustin, October 1850 (continued) 7
v
No. NO.^ Surname
Given Name(s)
11
23
Carcia [Conzilez]
Juan Juana JoseCregorio Juanito Benito
12
27
Conzilez [Saiz]
Agustin Maria Josefa Maria Teresa Asenci6n
farmer
13
32
Conzilez [Blea]
Miguel Albino Maria Fabiana Pelegrena Perfecta Tomasa JoseLauriano Marcos Antonia Nicolasa
farmer
14
33
Guru16 [Conzilez]
Domingo Maria M. Maria Estefana Joselgnacio
farmer
15
34
GutiCrrez [Encinas]
Bartolo Josefa Miguel Fernando
hatter
16
35
Cuti6rrez [Saiz]
Manuel Loreta Juan Ricardo Josede la Cruz Esquipula
farmer
17
38
Lovato
Certrudis Rafaela Alegra Felipe
18
41
Lucero [Martin]
JoseM[aria] JuanaM[artin] Juana M.
laborer
JuanaMartin, dau of Pablo (1 824: 1 of 1 5)
19
41
Lucero
JoseM. Felicita
laborer
JoseM., presumed son of JoseMaria, 1 841 #41
20
45
Madrid [Conzilez]
Rafael Trinidad Reyes Juanita Rumalda Cristina Joseph Vicente
farmer
Pineto
Real Estatc Value (S)
laborer
Comments
juan, son of juan Crist6bal (1 824: 1 of 15)
Fabiana, dau of Rafael #3; Miguel Albino, bro of Luis Maria Conzalez
laborer
servant servant
APPENDIX
189
Table A.3. El Cerrito Families Living in San Agustin, October 1850 (continued)
I
Surname
Occupation Real Estate Comments
Madrid CutiCrrez
Rafael Maria P. JoseCarpio
Martin [Carcia]
Francisco Maria C[arcia] Jose Josefila
Mestas [Carcia]
Nicolds Maria [Luz]
Mondrag6n Tenorio
Luciano Concepci6n
Padilla
Juande Dios lgnacia
Padilla
Rafael Antonio JuanaM. JosCRamin JosCPedro Maria lose Carlos
laborer
100
Saiz [Quintana]
JoseAntonio [Maria] Faustina lose Cornelio
laborer
50
Luciano Maria
laborer
Sandoval
laborer
Maria [Merced] Carcia, dau of Eusebio (1 824: 1 of 15)
7 50 farmer
Nicolis, son of Juan, 1841 #53
laborer
Juande Dios, son of Valentino, 1841 #61
Manuel Ologia Martina Total: 120 people
CutiCrrez given as head of household; Rafael, son of Rafael, 1841 #45
Luciano, son of Severiano (1824: 1 of 15)
110 laborer
I
l
JoseAntonio, son of Jose Alejandro, 1841 #70 (1824: 1 of 15); Faustina, sister of Fernando
Manuel, grandson of Francisco, 1841 #76
SOURCE: US. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules of the Seventh Census [l 8501, roll 469, pp. 29-37 (15A, 158, 16A, 168, 17A, 178, 18A, 188, 19A). NOTES: Assistant Marshal james D. Robinson recorded these families interspersed with other families in schedules labeled "Las Vegas" in San Miguel County on 16-1 7 October. That these families lived in San Agustin is verified in censuses taken in 1845 and 1860 (see text). All 120 people were born in New Mexico Territory, including Joseph, a black servant in the Rafael Madrid household (#20). In this table abbreviations given in the census are written out, spelling is systematized, and accents are added. Ages are given as reported in the census; complete names if known are noted in brackets. a Household numbers in March 1841 census (Table A.l).
190
APPENDIX
Table A.4.-Population in El Cerrito, Jul Surname
Given Name(s)
Alari [Martin]
Ramon[cito] Dolores Francisco Ortega Sim6n [Maria] Monica [TapiaI Andrea JosCEncarnaci6n Mauricio Antonia Salazar Hildefonzo Mondrag6n JeslisMaria Maria Taf oya
Archiveque
Juan Francisca
Archiveque
Sex
Occupation
M
farmer
F M M F F M M F M M F
servant
farm laborer cook day laborer
Manuel Refugio
M F M F
Barela? Tenorio Maes
Ruvina? Maria Antonia josefita C. Eutalia
M F F F -
day laborer
Dur6n penorio]
Pedro L[uis] Maria Dolores Barbara Jeslis[Maria] [Maria] Petra Juan Hermenegildo Mata? Nepomuceno [Maria] Emiteria
M F F M F M M M M F -
day laborer
Antonia T[eresa] Juan Aniseta Agustin Maria
F M F M F
laborer
Carcia Salazar
Antonio Diego M. Maria
M M F -
day laborer laborer
Carcia [Conzilez]
JoseMiguel [Maria] Asencidn Vidal [Maria] Paulina
M F F F
laborer
Carcia Montova
Juana Felipa
F F -
vasherwoman seamstress
Carcia Macutia
Real 'ersonal 4griculture Comments Estate Estate Schedule Value Value ($1 (S )
Rambn, son of Manuela Jaramillo # l 4, bur 29 Sep 1867 in La Cuesta; Dolores bur 18 Oct 1868 in La Cuesta; Francisco attended school within year;Ortega family lived in La Cuesta in 1870 (1870: 67A) and 1880 (1880: 265B)
day laborer
shepherd
vasherwoman
Teresa, widow of Pablo Martin (1824: 1 of 15)
l
APPENDIX
191
Table A.4. Population in El Cerrito, July 1860 (continued) Surname
Given Name(s)
occupation
l
Estate Value
,
Persona Agriculture Comments Estate Schedule Value (f 1
Carcia
Juliin Martina Ramon Senforino?
Carduiio [Martin]
Aniseto [Maria] lsabel [Maria] Sista [Jose]Cregorio Agustin Trinidad
Aniseto and lsabel mar by 1854; Aniseto, son of Manuel Carduiio and Victoria Padilla of La Cuesta; Isabel, dau of Teresa Carcia #6
Conzalez [Duran]
Luis Maria Teodora Piedad [Maria] Viviana [Maria] Apolonia
1850 # l 5; Luis Maria moved to El Cerrito in the 1820s; bur 23 June 1863 in La Cuesta (age 75)
Herrera
Francisca Apolinaria Eusebio
Jaramillo
Manuela Desiderio
Jimknez [Saiz]
Quirino Maria Cuadalupe Jos6Encio 1. Pedro [Pascual]
Jaramillo
day laborer
l farmer
4000
Manuela (1824: 1 of 15 wife), bur 6 Feb 1867 in La Cuesta (age 78); Desiderio attended school within year Cuadalupe, dau of Manuel Saiz #30
Agapita is related to Antonia #l 8, with whom her son Melquiades is living
Manzanares Luis [Mares] Agapita Crescencio Ramon Doloritas [Maria] Juana [Maria] Justa Maria Petra Mares
1000
Juan Hilario 1. Fabiin Luciano
Maria Antonia Mares [Manzanares: JoseMelquiades
labore day laborer
Antonia, wife #2 of Severiano Sanchez (1824: 1 of 15); real ages: >60; 14
192
APPENDIX
Table A.4. Population in El Cerrito, Ju y 1860 (continued) No. Surname
I
Given Name(s)
Sex Age
Occupation
Real 'ersonal 4griculturc Comments Estatc Estate Schedule Value Value
($1
19 Mirquez
[Segura]
Pedro Maria Juana [Jos6]Rafael Maria Paula [Maria] Barbarita Luz [Maria] Miguela Maria Anastacia
($1
21 19
laborer
Pedro, son of Rafael #20 (?)
56 47 11 8 5 3
laborer
Rafael bur 8 Dec 1866 in La Cuesta
-
Martin
Maria Antonia Casimiro
Mestas
Juan Dorotea Luis Francisco M6nica Maeacia?
Montoya
Vicente Maria Luisa Catarina Epitacio Victoria J[uan]Antonio juliana
Parras
Juan Socorro Benigna Estanislada Anastacia
Quintana [Martin]
Fernando Maria Certrudis [JosC]Epitacio [Maria] Dolores [Maria] Norberta [Maria] Cesaria JeslisMaria [Maria] Simona
Antonia, wife of JuanMadrid; Casimiro bap 5 Mar 1860 (50A:324)
l
Quintana [Saiz]
29 24 10 6 4 1
laborer
day laborer
I:
Pedro Vidal [Librada] Jos6
I [Mirquez] I Dolores
shepherd
I
F
farmer
15
laborer
23 16 5112
laborer
1850 #27; Certrudis, dau of Teresa Carcia #6
Pedro, probable nephew of Fernando #25; Librada, apparently dau of Manuel#30; both in San Miguel in 1870:218A Dolores, apparently dau Rafael #20
APPENDIX
193
Table A.4. Population in El Cerrito. li y 1860 (continued) Surname
Occupation
Real Persona Agricultur( Comments Estat~ Estate Schedule Valuc Value
($1 Reynosa
Librado Epifania Guadalupe Cenobia
Saiz
Agapita JuanBautista
servant
Saiz Estrada
Manuel Maria [Clementa] Maria juana Pedro Gertrudis lsidora Nabor Melquiades Juan[Pablo] Jeslis [JosC]Cermdn
farmer
Tenorio [Callegos]
Lovato Trujillo
Olguin Ulibarri [Martin]
day laborer
laborer
Santiago Dolores [Maria] Perfiria Gregoria UosC] Tircio lgnacia
day laborer
Miguel A. juana Maria Maria Simona josC F. Ana Maria
shepherd
Victorian0 Francisca josC Francisco Pedro [Maria] Carlota [Mah] Candelaria
($1
laborer shepherd
Certrudis mar AndrCs Carcia; Andres bur Apr 1866 (age 34)
Santiago, grandson 3f JoseManuel renorio (1 824: 1 3f 15); 1850 #26
Jictoriano and 'rancisca mar 26 Mar 1844; Jictoriano, son of 3ernardo Ulibarri and Victoria Callegos :of El Pueblo?); 'rancisca, dau of reresa Carcia #6
Total: 157 people SOURCE: US. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules of the Eighth Census [l8601, roll 713, pp. 182-86 (1 82 separated from 183-86). NOTES: Assistant Marshal Charles Emil Wesche took the census in San Miguel County between 15 Juneand 14 August 1860. He faithfully recorded the places being enumerated, including the "Town of El Cerrito" given as a heading on pages 182-1 86 (Weschels page numbers). Wesche recorded villagers in El Cerrito on 26 July.All El Cerrito villagers were born in New Mexico Territory: no information was recorded for them under "Color." Wesche himself was not found in the 1860 census, but in both the 1870 (roll 895, p. 1378) and 1880 (roll 803, p. 2891)) censuses, he lived in Las Vegas where he was a merchant (and hotel keeper in 1880). Although born in Prussia apparently in 1831, Wesche had lived in New Mexico long enough by 1860 to know Spanish well, suggesting, when coupled with his clear identification of places, that his count in El Cerrito is accurate, save for his double count of the Sim6n Ortega family of five. In this table abbreviations in the census are written out, spelling is systematized, and accents are added. Ages are given as reported in the census; complete names if known are noted in brackets.
194
APPENDIX
Table A.S. PO - ~ulationin El Cerrito, August 1870
No. Surname
Given Name@)
1 4rmendariza 2 4rmijo [Mbrquez]
Manuel B6rbara Antonio P
3
Durin [Mhrquez]
leslis [Maria] [Maria de la] Luz
iex
Occupation
M M
farm laborer
F M
M F
M
farm laborer housekeeper
vlanuel bap ca. 1845, son of Luis; 36rbara appar dau lafael 1860 #20
farm laborer vasherwomar
eslis, son of Pedro Y4; Luz, dau of ?afael Mdrquez (?)
farm laborer housekeeper vasherwomar vasherwomar
l860 #5
4 Duran [Tenorio]
Pedro L[uis] Dolores Barbara Petra Esmerejilda Emiteria Pablo
5 Lovato Armijo Montoya
Luisa Juana Epitacio Victoria JuanAntonio
F F M F M -
housekeeper vasherwomar farm laborer
6 Lucero
Juan Francisca Merced
M F M -
farm laborer housekeeper
7 Manzanares Luis Maria Agapita [Mares] Crescencio Ram6n Dolores [Maria] Juana Justa Petra [Jose] Anastacio Albino
M F M M F F F F M M -
farm laborer housekeeper farm laborer farm laborer
8 Marcelo
F M F F -
housekeeper
CarduAo
Juana Jose Simona Maria
Antonia 9 Mares Manzanares Melquiades
F F F F F M
F M
-
Real 'ersonal tgriculture Comments Schedule Estate Estate Value Value ($1 ($1
1860 # l 6; Dolores nar Melquiades 'lores; Juanamar uan Montoya
P
housekeeper farm laborer
4ntonia, wife #2 of jeveriano Sanchez 11824: 1 of 15); Welquiades, son of A s #7
APPENDIX
195
Table AS. Population in El Cerrito, Au! ust 1870 (continued) Surname
Given Name(s)
Mares Ma rtinez Madrid Mares
Juan [Maria] Antonia Juan Hilaria Fabian Luciano Cabino Raimundo Estanislas
Mestas Montoya
Andrea Juana
Padilla Carcia Padilla Carcia
[Maria] Antonia Blas Tomasa Audencia
F M F F -
housekeeper farm laborer
Antonia, widow of Anselmo Pacheco
Padilla [Armijo]
[juan? de la] Cruz M Diega F Felipe M Nabor M Juana F
farm laborer housekeeper
Diega, probably sister of Manuel #2
farm laborer housekeeper
Epitacio, son of Fernando #l 5
farmer housekeeper ~asherwomar
Certrudis, dau of Teresa Carcia (#20) and Pablo Martin (1824: 1 of 15)
Se:
M F
M F M M M M M
Occupatio~
farm laborer housekeeper farm laborer washerwomar
Real Personal Agriculture Estatc Estate Schedule Value Value ($1 (S)
Comments
200
1860 #l 7;Antonia apparently widow of juan Madrid, 1860 #21
F
F F
housekeeper
F
F
Epitacio Maria Cruz Jose[Vibiin] Luis Juan
M F M M M F
Saiz :Estrada]
Carcia
Fernando Certrudis Norberta Cesaria [lesljs] Maria Simona Marcelino [Anastacio?] [Josb]Luciano
M F F F M F M
Emiterio [Eleuterio] Dolores Anastacia [Maria] Filomena
M F F F
farm laborer housekeeper
Manuel Clementa Certrudis lsidora Nabor Melquiades JuanP[ablo] German [Jose] Pantale6n Eugenia
M F F F M M M M
farm laborer housekeeper vasherwomar vasherwomar farm laborer
M
M
F -
196
APPENDIX
Table AS. Population in El Cerrito, AUSr s t 1870 (continued) Surname
Given Name(s)
Occupation
Real 'ersonal Agriculture Comments Estate Estate Schedule Value Value
(S
Jlibarri :Martin]
Jarcia Jigil :Quintana]
Diego Manuela
farm laborer housekeeper
Santiago Dolores Perfiria Tircio [JosC]lsaac Zen6n Perfecto
farm laborer housekeeper washerwoman
Victorian0 Francisca Francisco Pedro Carlota [JosC]Cesario [JosC] Valentino Maria [Jeronima de la] Cruz Maria lsmael Teresa
farm laborer housekeeper farm laborer farm laborer
Juan Dolores Cesaria Eugenia
($1
1860 #31; Santiago, grandson of JosCManuel Tenorio (1824: 1 of 15)
washerwoman farm laborer housekeeper
Dolores, dau of Fernando # l 5
Total: 107 people SOURCE: US. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules of the Ninth Census [ l 8701, roll 895, pp. 47A, 47B, 48A; 678, 68A. NOTES: Assistant Marshal Demetrio PCrez took the census in San Miguel County between 30 Juneand 11 October 1870. He noted conscientiously the names of all places visited, including the "Village" (he also used "Town") of "El Serrito," which PCrez enumerated on 3 August (pp. 47A, 478, 48A). PCrez himself was a thirtythree-year-old native New Mexican and clerk of the probate court in Las Vegas, his residence (roll 895, p. 150B). His count of people in El Cerrito appears to be entirely accurate in part because PCrez began his enumeration of each new village on a new census schedule. In this table abbreviations in the census are written out, spelling is systematized, and accents are added. Ages are given as reported in the census; complete names if known are noted in brackets. a Armendariz, apparently a single male, was born in Mexico. Probably a short-term resident of El Cerrito, he was the only villager not born in New Mexico Territory in 1870 or in the entire period before statehood in 1912. He and all other villagers in 1870 were noted by PCrez to be " W for "White" under "Color." In 1870 Fernando Quintana and his two married children, Epitacio Quintana and Dolores Quintana de Vigil, lived in La Cuesta, where PCrez recorded them on 1 August (pp. 678, 68A). The temporary removal of these three households (14, 15, 21) to La Cuesta remains unexplained; a possible reason is the presence of Esquipula Tenorio, a schoolteacher (and probably onetime resident of El Cerrito in 1841) in the years before El Cerrito had a school (p. 688). Because these Quintanas were residents of El Cerrito in every other decennial census, it seemed best to include them in the village total in 1870.
APPENDIX
Table A.6. Population in El Cerrito, June 1880
No. Surname
1
Given Name(s)
Relationa Sex
Age S/M/ Occupation W/Da
Anastacio
head
M
36
M
[Montoya]
[Maria] Catalina Patricia Rigida Celedan?
wife dau dau son
F F F M
30 12 7 5
M S S
Telano [Atilano] [Maria] Juana Marina Moises
head wife dau son
M F F M
farmer housekeeper
JosCde la Cruz [Maria] Brigida Alejandro Herculano Pedro [Maria] Silveria
head wife son son son dau
M F M M M F
day laborer housekeeper
[Martinez]
3 Aragdn [Conzilez]
4 Armijo
5 Dominguez
S
Padilla [Manuel] M head Rabarezo [Antonio]: son M Birbara niece (?) F
1 870 #2; Padilla noted as given name for Manuel
head wife
M F
JesQs[Maria] [Maria de la] Luz Lucio Manuel Victoriana
head wife son son dau
M F M M F
M M S S
Pedro Luis Maria Dolores Emiteria Pablo
head wife dau son
M F F M
M M S S
farmer housekeeper
Melquiades [Manzanares] Dolores Bernamil? [Maria] Josefa
head wife son dau
M F M F
M M
farmer housekeeper
Blas Juana JesQsMaria
head wife son
M F M
M M S
Aniseto Refugio Crestino
head wife son
M F M
M S
[JosC]Cregorio Emerejelda
head wife
M F
UosC] Antonio Barbarita [Maria] juanita
head wife dau
M F F
6 Durin [Mirquez]
7 Durin [Tenorio]
8 Flores
Carcia [Armijo]
10 Carduiio
CarduAo
12 Conzilez [Durin]
4griculture Comments Schedule
farmer and day lab housekeeper
Albino Tomasa
[Padilla]
11
7I I
Apodaca
2 Apodaca
9
197
mar 10 Jan 1880 in Capilla del Serrito herder housekeeper
S
JesQs,son of Pedro Luis #7; Victoriana given by mistake as a son
Dolores, dau of Luis #l 8
S S
20 24
1
M M
day laborer housekeeper
1
carpenter housekeeper day laborer housekeeper
Cregorio, son Aniseto #l 0 and lsabel Martin Barbarita appar dau Pedro Luis #7
198
APPENDIX
Table A.6. Population in El -Cerrito, June 1880 (continued)
No. Surname
Given Name(s)
Relationa Sex
Occupation
limknez Tenorio
Francisca Francisco Nicolis Cirilia
head son son dau
F M M F
14
Lovato
Luisa Candelaria
head jranddau
F F
housekeeper
15
Lucero
Juan Francisca Merced Agapita
head wife nephew niece
M F M F
farmer housekeeper farm hand
13
Carduiio
herder day laborer
16
Madrid [Martinez]
Atanacio Susana
head wife
M F
day laborer housekeeper
17
Madrid Mares
Juan Reymunida?
head niece
M F
day laborer
18
Manzanares
Luis
head
M
farmer and herder
[Mares]
Maria [Agapita] Crescencio Ram6n Anastacio Albino
wife son son son son
F M M M M
Manzanares
Juan Felipa Juliana Crestina
head wife dau dau
M F F F
day laborer housekeeper
20
Martin
Manuel
head
M
[Apodaca]
[Maria] Benigna Am brosio Ularia Braulio [Jose]Santiago [Maria] Victorian0
wife son dau son son dau
F M F M M F
farmer and laborer housekeeper
Martin[ez]
Remigio Ramona Narcisa
Manzanares
M head F wife jranddau F
farmer housekeeper
22
JuanAntonio Montoya [Manzanares: [Maria] Juana
head wife
M F
day laborer housekeeper
23
Ortega [Martin]
head wife dau son son
M F F M M
beggar laundress housekeeper
Antonio Dolores Feliciana Regino Cruz
Francisca's surname given as Jimenesde Tenorio; 1885: D
housekeeper
19
21
\griculture Comments Schedule
Juana, dau of Luis # l 8, mar dur yr
APPENDIX
199
Table A.6. Population in El Cerrito, June 1880 1
-
Surname
I Given Name(s)
~ u i n t a n a ~ Epitacio [Tapia] Cruz Vibiin Luis Juan Josefa Fernando Quintana [Martin]
Fernando Maria Certrudis Anastasio Luciano Jesk Maria Maria Antonia
Relation
Sex
Occupation
Agriculture
Comments
Schedule
head wife son son son dau son
M F M M M F M
farmer housekeeper
Yes
Epitacio, son of Fernando #25
head wife son son son d-in-law
M
farmer housekeeper
Yes
Certrudis, dau of Pablo Martin (1824:1 of 15) and Teresa Carcia; Jesh Maria and Antonia mar dur
F
M M M F
Yr Quintana
Pedro
head
M
[Saiz]
[Maria] Librada [Josk]Longino Antonia
wife son dau
F M F
Literio [Eleuterio] Dolores Filomena
head wife dau
M F F
day laborer housekeeper
Saiz [Estrada]
Manuel Clementa Nabor Melquiades JuanPablo German Pantale6n
head wife son son son son son
M F M M M M M
farmer housekeeper freighter day laborer day laborer farmhand farmhand
Ulibarri [Durhn]
Pedro Petra Juan Dolores Jos6lnocencio
head wife son dau son
M F M F M
shepherd housekeeper
Pedro, son of Victoriano #30; Petra, dau of Pedro Luis #7
Ulibarri
Victoriano
head
M
[Martin]
Francisca Carlota Valenth Cruz [Maria] Emilia [Maria] lnocencia [Maria] Juliana
wife dau son dau dau dau dau
F F M F F F F
potter and farmer housekeeper
Francisca, dau of Pablo Martin (1 824: 1 of 15) and Teresa Carcia
farmer and day lab housekeeper
1860 #26; Librada appar dau Manuel
#28
1870 #l 7; Manuel, cousin of Alejandro (1 824: 1 of 1 5); Manuel and Clementa mar 16 Dec 1 837; Manuel bur 27 Jan1883 in La Cuesta
200
APPENDIX
Table A.6. Population in El Cerrito, June 1880 (continued) No. Surname
Given Name(s)
31
Juan Dolores Santiago Ram6n
Vigil [Quintana]
I
I I
Relationa Sex
head wife son son
M F M M
Age
35 29 5 2
Occupation Agriculture Comments Schedule
herder housekeeper
1870 #21; Dolores, dau of Fernando #25; Ram6n raised by Fernando #25
Total: 129 people SOURCE: US. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules of the Tenth Census [l 8801, roll 803, enumeration district 30, precinct 2, pp. 2698, 270A, 270B. NOTES: JohnH. Mink, one of nine "enumerators" who took the census in San Miguel County in 1880, was in "Cierrito," as he spelled it, on 28-29 June.At the top of page 2698, Mink left a one-line gap between the two villages Plaza de 10s Conzales and Cierrito, whose names he recorded in the left margin as he took the census. This gap, Mink's knowledge of Spanish, and his diligence in labeling the places he enumerated suggest that his count of people in El Cerrito is accurate. All El Cerrito villagers were born in New Mexico Territory, and all were noted to be " W for "White" under "Color." Mink himself was not found in the 1880 census, but in 1870 he was noted to be a lawyer, fifty-three, born in Prussia, and a resident of Lower Las Vegas, where he lived with Maria Antonia Martinez and their children, Maria (1 1) and Pedro (3) (1870: roll 895, p. 146A). In this table abbreviations in the census are written out, spelling is systematized, and accents are added. Ages are given as reported in the census; complete names if known are noted in brackets a The 1880 census was the first to give the "Relationship of each person to the head of the family" and to give the person's "Civil Condition": Single (S), Married (M), Widowed (W), or Divorced (D). In 1880, "Value of Real Estate" and "Value of Personal Estate" were no longer reported. Epitacio Quintana, Cruz, and their five children were also listed by enumerator JamesE. Whitmore in the household of Pablo Tapia, Epitaciotsfather-in-law, in San Miguel (401A). Vibian, Luis, and Juanwere noted as having attended school within the census year ending 31 May 1880. All three boys could read, and Vibidn could also write. Before El Cerrito had a school, the family probably lived in San Miguel during the school year.
APPENDIX
-
Table A.7. Population in El Cerrito, July 1885 --
No. Surname
1
Apodaca
2 Apodaca [Maes]
Given Name($)
Relation Sex
M F M F
Pablo Josefa Elena Onofre Adelaida Pablo Miquela Cruz Tiburcia
head wife dau son dau son dau dau dau
M F F M F M F F F
laborer iousekeeper
laborer iousekeeper
Emiterio Simona ljrsula Paula
head wife dau dau
M F F F
4
Armijo [Trujillo]
Manuel lsabel JoseAntonio Francisca Eleuterio Birbara Cenoveva Margarito Cesaria
head wife son dau son dau dau son dau
M F M F M F F M F
Anastacio Sixta Ezequiel [Maria] lsabel Agapita
head wife son dau sister
M F M F F
Albino Tomasa Juande la Cruz Lucia
head wife son dau
M F M F
JeslisMaria Maria de la Luz JoseLucio Manuel Victorians Margarita Epifania
head wife son son dau dau dau
M F M M F F F
Pedro Luis Paula [Dolores?] Emiteria Pablo
head wife dau son
M F F M
5 Bustos [CarduAo]
CarduAo
6 Dominguez [Padilla]
7 Durin [Mirquez]
8 Dur6n [Tenorio]
Occupation Agriculture Comments Schedule
head wife father dau
Arellanes [Quintana]
-
7
Nicolis Macedonia David Amada
3
-
201
iousekeeper laborer Yes
Simona, dau of Fernando #20
1880 #4;lsabel [wife #2)mar :a. 1879:their zhildren begin with Lucas [not listed here) and Cenoveva
laborer iousekeeper
Sixta, dau 4niseto 1880
#l 0
1 880 #5; iousekeeper
Tomasa, dau of luan de la Cruz Padilla and Refugio Tenorio
laborer iousekeeper
1880 #6;Jeslls
lousekeeper lousekeeper laborer
Maria, son of Pedro Luis #8
202
APPENDIX
Table A.7. Population in El Cerrito, July 1885 ( ontinued) Surname
Given Name(s)
Estrada Saiz
Clementa Nabor Melquiades juan Pablo Pantaledn
head son son son son
F M M M M
iousekeeper laborer laborer laborer laborer
Conzalez [Durdn]
JoseAntonio Biirbara Miquela [Maria] Banafacia
head wife dau dau
M F F F
laborer
Juande Jesus JuanaAntonia Pascual Mdnico Pedro Fblix
head wife son son son son
M F M M M M
laborer iousekeeper laborer laborer
Francisca Francisco Nicolas Cirila Luisa
head son son dau
F M M F F
iousekeeper laborer laborer
M F M M
laborer iousekeeper
laramillo [Urioste]
IimCnez renorio
Lovato Madrid [Carduiio] Maes
Conz6lez 4ragdn [Durin]
Vigil
Juan Francisca Manuel Juan Cerila Brijida Agustina Josede la Cruz Atilana Victorians Alejandro Areulario Pedro Silveria Rosalio Juan
Relation Sex
head wife son father wife dau mother father wife dau son son son dau son stepson
F F
F M F F M M M F M M
Occupation
Agriculture Comments Schedule
1880 #28; Clementa, widow of Manuel Saiz bur 1883; Clementa bur 1901
iousekeeper
laborer
iousekeeper
laborer iousekeeper iousekeeper laborer iousekeeper iousekeeper laborer laborer
Juande Jesus, son of juan Jaramilloand lhsula Montoya of Puertecito, mar Juana, dau of Juan Domind[g?]o Urioste and Maria del Refugio Armijo 15 Mar 1845; heir of Manuela?; moves to El Cerrito after 1880; Pedro mar Cenoveva Armijo #4 l880 # l 3
APPENDIX
203
Table A.7. Population in El Cerrito, July 1885 (
No. Surname
Given Name($)
Relation
Occupation Agriculture Comments Schedule
14
Manzanares
Juan Felipa Juliana Crestina Lupe
head wife dau dau grandmother
laborer housekeeper
15
Manzanares [Mares]
Luis Agapita Crescencio Ram6n Anastacio Albino Melquiades Flores [Manzanares: Doloritas Bernab6 Josefa Lazaro
head wife son son son son father wife son dau son
laborer housekeeper laborer laborer laborer laborer laborer housekeeper
Luis and Agapita mar 1844; Luis bur l 3 June 1896 in El Cerrito (age 78); Melquiades, son-in-law of Luis; Doloritas, dau of Luis
16
Martin Ortega
Dolores Feliciana Regino Cruz
head dau son son
housekeeper housekeeper laborer
Dolores, widow of Antonio Ortega (beggar in 1880 census)
17
Martin [Apodaca]
Manuel Benigna Am brocio Ularia Braulio Santiago Victoriana Juana Sabina
head wife son dau son son dau dau dau
laborer housekeeper
18
Martinez [Apodaca] Apodaca [Martinez]
Remigi Ramona Atilano Juana Marina Moises Tiburcia Anselina
head wife father wife dau son dau dau
laborer housekeeper laborer housekeeper
19
Padilla [Garcia] Garcia [Armijo]
Maria Antonia Maria Udenciana Blas Maria Juana JoseMaria Lucio
head dau father wife son son
housekeeper laborer housekeeper
Antonia, widow of Anselmo Pacheco, 1880 #9
204
APPENDIX
Table A.7. Population in El Cerrito, July 1885 ( ontinued) -
No. Surname
Given Name@)
Relation Sex
20
Pitacio [Epitacio] Cruz Vibian Luis Juan Josefa Fernando Fernando Gertrudis Luciano Cruz? JesOsMaria Maria Antonia Anastacio Felipa
head wife son son son dau son father wife son servant father wife father wife
M F M M M F M M F M F M F M F
Quintana [Tapial
Quintana [Martin] UI Quintana [Ri bera] Quintana [Vigil]
Occupation Agriculture Comments Schedule
stock raiser housekeepe~ laborer laborer laborer laborer housekeepe~ laborer laborer housekeeper laborer housekeeper
Epitacio, JesOs Maria and Anastacio sons of Fernando and Certrudis; Fernando and Certrudis mar 11 Sep 1840; Fernando bur l 8 O c t l897 in El Cerrito (age 78); Anastacio mar dur census yr ending 31 May 1885
21
Saiz [RaCI]
GermAn Filomena Manuelita
head wife dau
M F F
laborer housekeeper
German, son of Clementa Estrada #9; Filomena (bur 1889), dau of Eleuterio Ra6l (bur 1902)
22
Ulibarri [Durin]
Pedro Petra Juan Dolores Jos6lnocencio
head wife son dau son
M F M F M -
laborer housekeeper
Pedro, son of Victoriano #23; Petra, dau of Pedro Luis #8
23
Ulibarri [Martin]
Victoriano Francisca Valentin Emilia Juliana
head wife son dau dau
M F M F F
laborer housekeeper laborer housekeeper
24
Vigil
Ram6n Juan Dolores Santiago Ram6n Manuel Cruz Benito
head son wife son son son dau son
M M F M M M F M
laborer laborer housekeeper
[Quintana]
Ramh, father of Juan, moved to El Cerrito, probably from San Jose, when widowed; Dolores, dau of Fernando #20
Total: 161 people SOURCE: US. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules of the New Mexico Territory Census [ l 8851, roll 4, enumeration district 25, precinct 37, pp. 62, 63, 64, 65. NOTES: In the special semidecennial census of 1885, Dionicio Martinez was one of five "enumerators" in San Miguel County. Between 23 Juneand late Julyor early August, Martinez recorded people in Enumeration District 25, composed mainly of Pecos Valley villages between El Cerrito and Pecos. He was apparently in El Cerrito in late July. Martinez noted that he was in El Cerrito and Precinct 37 at the top of the first three pages containing El Cerrito villagers; my knowledge of El Cerrito families suggested where the village began and ended on pages 62 and 65. The El Cerrito count appears accurate in part because Dionicio Martinez, a thirty-eight-year-old native New Mexican and carpenter who lived in nearby El Rito (p.68), enumerated his own people. All villagers in El Cerrito were born in New Mexico Territory and all were noted to be "W" for "White" under "Color." In this table abbreviations in the census are written out, spelling is systematized, and accents are added. Ages are given as reported in the census; complete names if known are noted in brackets. a Single (S), Married (M), Widowed (W), or Divorced (D).
Given Name(s)
4
( Arrnijo
[Garduiio]
Relation
Table - A.8. Population in El Cerrito, June 1900 Sex
Born MO Y P
Yrs M a P
Occupation
Alejandro lnocencia Teresa Paubla Onofre Silvenia Justo
head wife dau dau son dau son
M F F F M F M
stock herder
Arculano Helena? josefa? Viviin? ? C
head wife dau son dau
M F F M F
stock herder
J.[de la] Cruz
head wife son
M F M
stock raiser
Atilana Juan Manuel lsabel Cruz Apolonia JeslisM[aria] Margarita Cristiano B. Francisca Fidel
head wife dau dau son dau son dau son
M F F F M F M F M
farmer
Anastacio Sixta lsabela Gabina Agneda
head wife dau dau dau
M F F F F
carpenter
Atilana, d 18 Apr 1902, bur church cem
Y Y
Y Y
1885 #4; Manuel and lsabel (wife #2) had 15 children, 1880-1910
No.
I
Table A.8. - Population in El Cerrito, June1900 (continued)
Relation
wd
stock raiser
Y
Y
stock herder
Y
Y
Durin [Mirquez]
J[esljs] Maria [Maria] Luz Manuel Victoriana Epifania Antonia lsabel
head wife son dau dau dau dau
Lucio Petra
head wife
Pablo Adriana Consanci6n Sixta Cleofas
head wife son dau dau
Durin [Tenorio]
Pedro [Luis] Doloritas Barbarita
head wife dau
Carcia [Armijo]
Blas Juana Cenoveva Jose
head wife dau son
day laborer
CarduAo [Ulibarri]
Crestino Cruz Esequial Victorian0
head wife son fa-law
stock herder
Cregorio? Mesefilda? Arcenso?
head wife son
stock herder
head wife
stock raiser
Anastacia
Ulibarri CarduAo
Madrid
Born MO Y P
I
R
Occupation
Given Name(s)
Durin
Sex
Yrs M a P
Surname
I
Comments
1885 #7; jesljs Maria, son of Pedro Luis #9
p stock herder
l
l
Lucio, son of jesljs Maria #6 Pablo, son of Pedro Luis #9
Pedro d 27 May 1906, bur church cem; Dolores d 17 May 1909, bur church cem
laundry
1885 # l 9
I
Y
Y
I
1; 1 Y
1880 # l 0, #30; 1885 #23
No.
Table A.8. Population in El Cerrito, June 1900 (continued) Surname
Born MO Y P
Given Name(s)
Francisca Am brosia Ramon Salom6n
head wife dau son son
Agapita Crescencio Ram6n Anastacio Albino
head son son son son
Dolores Regino Cruz
head son son
Quintana [Vigil]
Anastacio Felipa DesOs] Manh @L: Estefana Miguel Agapito
head wife son dau son son
Quintana [Tapia] [Martin]
Epitacio Cruz Certrudes
Quintana [Ribera]
JesusM[aria] Antonia
head wife
Quintana [Trujillo]
Luciano Refugio Antonia Florencia Casimiro Antonio
head wife dau dau son son
Madrid [Cardufio]
[Mares] Manzanares
Martinez
luan
head wife mother
M
F F M M
9
12 3 7 3 F 12 3 M M 8 M 4 M 10 F 1 8 M M 5 M 4 7 F M 4 F 12 M 10 M 3 M 12 F 5 9 F M 5 F 5 6 M F 3 F 1 F 5 3 M 8 M
Age
1844 55 1865 34 1885 15 1894 5 1898 2 1834 65 1852 48 1854 45 1868 32 1870 29 1835 65 1865 34 1870 30 1862 38 1865 34 1886 14 1888 1 1 1891 8 4 1896 1848 51 1851 49 1833 66 1858 42 1858 42 1865 34 1870 30 1888 12 1891 9 1893 7 1898 1
S/M/ W/Db
M M
S S S
Yrs M a p
# ChC
Occupation
I
R Wd
I stock herder
W
S S S S
Comments
stock raiser day laborer farmer stock herder
W
S S
stock herder day laborer
M
day laborer
I:
i
Agapita, widow of Luis Manzanares d 13 June
1896
Given as Martin in 1885 Y
#l 6 Table 4.2
M S S S S M
Table 4.2
M
W M
M M M S S S S
l
stockraiser stock raiser
IY Y Y Y
Y
Table 4.2
Y
Table 4.2
No.
I
Sex
Table A.8. Population in El Cerrito, June1900 (continued)
Surname
Given Name($)
Quintana [Aragon]
Luis M[aria] lsabel Placido Andrea
head wife son dau
Quintana [Ribera]
Vibian Cleofas Rosa Epitacio Margarita lrene
head wife dau son dau dau
Saabedra
Marcelino Miquela Juan Nestora Ceronimo Miguel lsabela Eutemia Francisca Antonia
head wife son dau son son dau dau dau dau
Melquiades Tesla?
head wife
0
head wife
0
Saiz Sena [Cutierrez]
Jose Rosaura
RaCl [Marquez]
Eleuterio Dolores Manuela German
Saiz
1
Relation
Born MO Y P
Yrs M a p
Occupation
Comments
stock raiser
Luis, son of Epitacio #l 8
stock raiser
Vibiin, son of Epitacio #l 8; Margarita, future schoolteacher
-
-
day laborer day laborer
-
P
stock herder
Melquiades, son of Manuel who d 1883
blacksmith head wife dau son-law
Eleuterio bur 1902; German, son of Manuel
1 stock herder
APPENDIX
209
-
Table A.9. Population in El Cerrito, April 1910 Sex
Yrs Mar
Occupation
No.
Surname
Given Name(s)
Relation
1
Aragon Marquez Saabedra
Josede la Cruz Anastacia Francisca
head wife niece
farmer "odd jobs"
2
Arellanes Quintana
Emiterio Simona Epitacio Paublita Rogelio lsimiro Enfemia Emiterio Albina
head wife son dau son son dau gr son gr dau
ranch laborer
Manuel lsabel JesusMa[ria] Margarita Cristiano Benito Macedonia Enrique Certruditas
head wife son dau son dau son dau
farmer home farmer sheepherder
Ribera Ribera
3
Armijo Trujillo
Comments
Table 4.2
sheepherder
home farmer
4
Baca Durin
Fidel Victoriana Paulita? Rosa
head wife dau dau
sheepherder
5
Bustos Durin
Cuadalupe Barbarita
head wife
farmer
6
Durin Mirquez
jeslis Maria Luz Antonia lsabel Filomeno
head wife dau dau neph
ranch laborer fam laundress
sheepherder
1900 #4; Isabel, if 40, married at age 8!
Table A.9. Population in El Cerrito, April 1910 (continued) Given Name(s)
10
1
Relation
Sex
Age
Yrs Mar
Occupation
head wife
M F
57 56
farmer home farmer
JoseEfren josefa
head wife
M F
22 18
sheepherder
CarduAo Madrid Madrid Madrid Madrid
Ma[ria] Fra[ncisca] N. Ramdn Salom6n Ma[ria] Rosario Ma[ria] Clementa
head son son dau dau
F M M F F
45 14 12 8 3
farmer
Madrid Durin
Federico Epifania Eloisa Juan Alfredo
head wife dau son son
M F F M M
33 23 5 3 2
sheepherder
F
70
"own income"
Carcia Armijo
Blas Juana
Carcia Aragdn
Dolores
l
head
12
Ortega Saiz
Cruz Manuelita Natividad Marcelino Paulita
head wife dau son dau
M F F M F
35 24 8 5 1
ranch laborer farm laundress
13
Ortega Cisneros Callegos Callegos
Nicolis Dolores Estolano Ma[ria]
head wife son son
M F M
M
40 43 24 20
farmer farm laborer sheepherder sheepherder
Quintana Vigil
Anastacio Felipa Jes~js Ma[ria V.] Estefanita Miguel Agapito
head wife son dau son son
M F M F M M
48 32 22 20 15 13
sheep raiser
14
sheepherder fruit gardener farm laborer
Comments
Jose, son of Blas?josefa, dau Arculano?
1900 #26;widow of Eleuterio Rael
1900 #l 7;Table 4.2;Jeslis Maria V pigill to distinguish from JeshMaria #l 7
-
Table A.9. Population in El Cerrito, April 1910 (continued)
No.
Surname
Given Name(s)
15
Quintana Tapia Martinez
Epitacio Ma[ria] de la Cruz Ma[ria] de la Cruz
16
Quintana Ribera
17 18
19
20
Relation
Sex
Age
S/M/ W/Da
Yrs Mar
Occupation
head wife gr dau
M F F
63 57 16
M-l M-l S
45 45
farmer
Fernando Adela Luz Epitacio lgnacia
head wife dau son dau
M F F M F
35 32 12 8 1
M-l M-l S S S
13 13
cattle herder
Quintana Ribera
JesljsMaria Antonia
head wife
M F
52 52
M-l M-l
32 32
sheep raiser
Quintana Trujillo
Luciano Refugio Florencio Casimiro Antonio Fernando Albin[it]a
head wife son son son son dau
M F M M M M F
45 40 18 17 10 9 5
M-l M-l S S S
24 24
sheep raiser home farmer home farmer home farmer
Luis Maria lsabel Placido Andrea Florentio
head wife son dau son
M F M F M
42 33 17 15 8
M-l M-l S S S
18 18
farmer
Vibian Cleofas Margarita Heliodoro Hipolito Eduardo Rita
head wife dau son son son dau
M F F M M M F
44 35 13 8 6 3 1
M-l M-l S S S S S
20 20
Quintana Arag6n
Quintana Ribera
l 1900 #l 8; Table 4.2
Fernando (1 876-1 942), son of Epitacio #l 5, raised by JesljsMaria #l 7
Emp
I I W
1900 #l 9; Table 4.2 1900 #20; Table 4.2
s S
1900 #21; Luis (1867-1 950), son of Epitacio #l 5
home farmer
sheep raiser
1900 #22; Vibiin (1 8651932)) son of Epitacio #l 5; Margarita is future schoolteacher
-
Table A.9. Population in El Cerrito, April 1910 (continued) 7
Relation
No.
Surname
Given Name(s)
21
Tapia Vigil
AndrCs Crucita Benjamin Amalia
head wife son dau
22
Torres Baca
Josb Maria Lucio Epifanio Rube[n] Faustin Macario Josefita
head wife son son son son son dau
Sex
Yrs Mar
M F M F
9 9
# L.vb
1
I
Occupation
Comments
sheepherder
Crucita, dau of Juan#24
I farmer
6
ranch laborer goat herder goat herder
23
Ulibarri Dur6n
Pedro Petra Juan
head wife son
farm laborer "odd jobs" sheepherder
24
Vigil Quintana
J[uan] B. y Ulibarri Dolores Ceorge Cesaria Felipita Lucianita
head wife son dau dau dau
farmer
Ramdn Matilda lngacia ? ? ? ?
head wife dau mo? sis? sis? sis?
25
Vigil Tapia
1900 #28;Table 4.2
grocery seller
farm laborer
1
1900 #30;Ramdn (1 877~ a . 1 9 5 9 son ) ~ of Juan#24; Matilda, wife #l,d 2 Dec
7
1903
No.
Table A.9. Surname
Given Name(s)
Vigil Tapia
Santiago Lucinda Rebeca Agustina Romin Dolores Total: 124 people
I
I
in El Cerrito, April 1910 (continued)
Relation
S/M/ W/Da
head wife dau dau son dau
M-2 M-l S S S S
Yrs Mar
6 6
# Chb # L V ~ Occupation
stock raiser 4
4
Emp/ W/OAC
Emp
Comments
Santiago (1 876-1 947), son of Juan#24; Lucinda, b San Miguel 1884, bur Las Vegas 1958
SOURCE: US. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules of the Thirteenth Census [ l 9101, roll 91 7, enumeration district 208, precinct 37, pp. 192A, 192B, 193A. NOTES: In 1910 census guidelines pushed forward the date people were to be enumerated in their place of abode from 1 June(1860-1 900) to 15 April. Enumerator Francisco Baca y Sandoval, El Cerrito's only census taker whom I could not find elsewhere in the census, took the census in El Cerrito on 25-26 April. Baca y Sandoval departed from earlier census takers by recording the maiden surnames of women and by noting the number of times people had been married. He did not make clear, however, precisely where El Cerrito began and ended. His schedule headings reveal that El Cerrito now shared Precinct 37 with CaAon de PeAa "Village" and CaRon Blanco "Village," and I determined El Cerrito's population from my knowledge of family surnames. Baca y Sandoval noted that all villagers were New Mexico born, and for each CerriteAo he recorded a "W" for "White" under "Color or race." In this table I systematize the spelling of names, including adding accents. Ages are given as recorded in the census. a Single (S), Married (M), Widowed (W), or Divorced (D). Numbers following the M indicate marriage number. #Ch = mother of how many children; #Lv = number of those children living. C In this new category enumerators noted Employers (Emp), Employees or Workers (W), and Self-employed or Working on Own Account (OA). Read Spanish (R), Write Spanish (W), Speak English (E): Y =Yes. Five people reportedly spoke English.
Table A.10 Population in El Cerrito, January 1920 Given Name($)
[Quintana] 2
Arellanes [Quintana]
Relation
Sex
Occupation
farmer
Emiterio Simona Paulita Rogelio
head wife dau son
farmer
W
steam r.r. laborer
W W
Armijo [Quintana]
Cristiano B[enito] Magie [Margarita]
head wife
stock herder teacher
4
Armijo ~rujillo]
Manuel lsabelita Macedonia JoseE[nrique] Certrudita
head wife son son dau
farmer
Donaciano Marquitas Margarito
head wife son
farmer
Cerilia Andalicia
head niece
family laundry
Jesk M[aria] Maria L[uz]
head wife
stock herder
Esquibel
Callegos
l
head wife dau
3
[Marquez]
I
~ m p / w / O A ~ RWEC Comments
Luis Estefanita Ramona
Petra
head
home laundry
Julidn Nicanora
head dau
stone mason
Nestor Benegnina Maximiliano Martina Just0 Rosa Maximiliano
head wife head wife son dau son
farmer stock herder
Luis of Chupinas, bur 1978 hill cem; Estefanita bur 1982 hill cern 1910 #2; Table 4.2; Simona bur 1936 church cem; Emiterio bur l948 church cern Cristiano, son of Manuel #4; Margarita, dau Vibiin #20 1910 #3; Manuel d 3 May 1923, bur church cem; lsabelita d 1 Jul 1923, bur church cern
W
I
I
W W W W
Cerilia is village midwife
living in Cation de Petia
No.
Table A.10 Population in El Cerrito, January1920 (continued)
I Relation I
Sex
Occupation
Abr6n Petra Seligtino
head wife gr son
M F M
farmer
Madrid
Federico Epifania Eloisa Juan Alfredo
head wife dau son son
M F F M M
farmer
Quintana [Vigil]
Anastacio Felipa Miguel Agapito
head wife son son
M F M M
farmer
Quintana [Tapia]
Epitacio Maria C[ruz]
head wife
M F
stock raiser
Quintana
Fernando lgnacia Cliofes Napole6n
head dau son son
M F M M
stock raiser
Quintana [Ribera]
UesQs]Maria Antonia
head wife
M F
stock raiser
Quintana [Martinez]
JesQs[Maria] V. Cruz Delfino Felipita Anastacio
head wife son dau son
M F M F M
farmer
Surname
Lucero Conzdlez
I Given Name(s)
E ~ P / W / O A ~ RWEC Comments
OA
191 0 #l 0;living in Cafion de Pefia
Y
1910 #l 4;Table 4.2
W YYY YYY
steam r.r. laborer steam r.r. laborer
191 0 #l 5;Table 4.2;Cruz, d 18 Jul 1923,bur church cem 191 0 #l 6;Adela Ribera, wife #l, d 1918
-
l
OA
PI
191 0 #l 7;Table 4.2;j. M. d 1 Jul 1933,bur hill cem JesQsMaria V[igil], son of Anastacio #l 3;Cruz, gr dau Epitacio #l 4
Table A.10 Population in El Cerrito, January1920 (continued) Given Name(s)
~rujillo]
19
Quintana
20
1 Quintana [Ribera]
Relation
I
Sex
E ~ ~ / w / o ARWEC ~
Occupation
Luciano Refujita Casimiro Antonio Fernando Albinita Brijido
head wife son son son dau son
Luis Ma[ria] lsabel Andrecita Florencio JoseP.
head wife dau son son
farmer
Vibidn Cleofas Heliodoro Hipolito Eduardo Rita A. JoseL[ino] Cabriel
head wife son son son dau son son
stock raiser
I
OA
I
I
W
I W
farmer
OA
steam r.r. laborer steam r.r. laborer
W W
W Y YYY YYY YYY
S S
21
RaCl [Quintana]
Abenicio Luz Epitacio
head wife son
ranch laborer
22
Tapia
Ambrocio Cecilia Matilda
head wife gr dau
ranch laborer
23
Tapia [Vigil]
AndrCs Cruz Benjamin Amalia Am brocio Ofelia Abel
head wife son dau son dau son
stock herder
Comments
1910 # l 8; Table 4.2
YYY YYY OA
W
1910 # l 9; Luis, son of Epitacio # l 4; Luis d 19 Mar 1950; lsabel d 22 Apr 1942; both bur hill cem
YYY
1910 #20; Vibian, son of Epitacio # l 4, d 22 Nov 1932, bur church cem
Abenicio of Chupinas; Luz, dau of Fernando # l 5
1910 #21; Cruz, dau of Juan#28
Table A.10 Population in El Cerrito, January1920 (continued) No.
I Surname l
I
I Given Name(s)
1
Relation
Sex
Occupation
Jose Maria Epifanio Faustin Macario Josefita
head wife son son son dau
M F M M M F
farmer
Torres [Dur&n]
Lucio lsabelita JoseA. Doloritas Adelina Carlota
head wife son dau dau dau
M F M F F F
stock herder
Ulibarri
JoseE. Juan Clenita Doloritas
head son dau dau
M M F F
stock herder
Vigil
Ceorge Cugerita? Juan Felipita Eslita
head wife son dau dau
stock herder
Vigil [Quintana]
Juan Doloritas Cesarita Lucianita
father mother sis-in-law sis-in-law
none
Torres [Baca]
Comments
stock herder stock herder home farmer
family laundry family laundry
Lucio, son of Jose#24
YYY YYY W George, son of Juan#28
1910 #24; Table 4.2; Juan, bur 1923 church cem
'
Table A.10 Population in El Cerrito, January 1920 (continued)
[Trujillo]
Given Name(s)
Relation
Ram6n [Benito] Josefina lgnacia Cuadalupe Cris6stomo
head wife dau dau son
Santiago Lucinda Rebeca Agustina Roman Dolores Josefa Serafia Elvira Certrudis
head wife dau dau son dau dau dau dau dau
Total: 129 people
Sex
Occupation
steam r.r. laborer
1910 #25; Ramon, son of Juan #28; Josefinaof El Pueblo wife #2
W
steam r.r. laborer
W
1910 #26; Santiago, son of Juan
I
SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules of the Fourteenth Census [l 9201, roll 1079, Enumeration District 188, Precinct 37, pp. 188A, 1888, 189A. NOTES: In 1920 census guidelines again pushed forward the date people were to be enumerated in their place of abode, from 15 April (1910) to 1 January.Enumerator Domingo Hays, a fifty-six-year-old farmer and stock rancher in La Union (roll 1079, Precinct 16, p. 184A), took the census in El Cerrito on 27-29 January.Hays made clear by notes in the left margins of the schedules for "Cerito Presento 37" that besides El Cerrito the precinct included two households (1 2 people) in "CaAon de PeAa" and six households (36 people) in Cafion BlancoILa Cabra. I included in the El Cerrito count the 12 people in nearby Caiion de Pefia (households # l 0 and # l 2)) whose children attended the El Cerrito school, but not the 36 people in distant Cafion BlancoILa Cabra. Hays's census appears to be entirely accurate. Like previous census takers, for all Cerritefios he recorded a "W" for "White" under "Color or race," and he noted all villagers as New Mexico born. However, newcomer Cerilia Bellas's father was born in "Old" Mexico. In this table I systematize the spellings of names including adding accents. Complete names if known are given in brackets. Ages are given as reported in the census. a Single (S), Married (M), Widowed (W), or Divorced (D). Employers (Emp) [none recorded], Employees or Workers ON), and Self-employed or Working on Own Account (OA). C Read Spanish (R), Write Spanish (W), Speak English (E): Y = Yes. Forty-four people reportedly spoke English.
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Preface 1. The chronology of publications on El Cerrito is as follows: (1) Olen Leonard and C. P. Loomis, Culture of a Contemporary Rural Community: El Cerrito, New Mexico, Rural Life Studies 1, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 1941; rpt. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978) (quote "with noticeable reluctance" on p. 1);(2) Charles P. Loomis, "Informal Groupings in a Spanish-American Village," Sociometry 4, no. 1 (1941): 36-5 1; (3) Irving Rusinow, A Camera Report on El Cem'to, a
Typical Spanish-American Community in New Mexico, Miscellaneous Publication No. 479 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 1942); (4) Olen E. Leonard, The Role of the Land
Grant in the Social Organization and Social Processes of a Spanish-American Village in New Mexico (Ph.D. dissertation, Louisiana State University, 1943; published Ann Arbor, Mich.: Edwards Brothers, 1948; rpt. Albuquerque: Calvin Horn, 1970); (5) Charles P. Loomis, "El Cerrito, New Mexico: A Changing Village," New Mexico Historical Review 33, no. 1 (1958): 53-75; (6) Charles P. Loomis, "Systemic Linkage of El Cerrito," Rural Sociology 24, no. 1 (1959): 54-57; (7) Julian Samora and Richard F. Larson, "Rural Families in an Urban Setting: A Study in Persistence and Change," Journal of Human Relations 9, no. 4 (1960-61): 494-503; (8) Historic American Buildings Survey, "Spanish-American Villages of the Upper Pecos River Valley," Pecos Valley Project, 1975, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation under direction of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior (five sheets show "sections" of El Cerrito drawn by several artists); (9) Richard L. Nostrand, "El Cerrito Revisited," New Mexico Historical Review 57, no. 2 (1982): 109-22; (10) Stephen S. Post, Cultural Resources
Investigation North of the El Cern'to Bridge and Data Recovery Plan for LA 84.318, a Multicomponent Artifact Scatter at El Cern'to, San Miguel
County, New Mexico, Archaeology Notes No. 55 (Santa Fe: Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico, 1991); (11) J. Douglas Heffington, "El Cerrito: An ArcheoGeographical Biography of a New Mexican Village" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 1992); (12) Richard L. Nostrand, The Hispano Homeland (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992) (half of chapter 8 discusses village depopulation in El Cerrito, and half of chapter 9 concerns what happened to Cerriteiios in Pueblo, Colorado); (13) Clyde Eastman and Richard S. Krannich, "Community Change and Persistence: The Case of El Cerrito, New Mexico," Journal of the Community Development Society 26, no. 1 (1995): 41-5 1; (14) Richard L. Nostrand, "Hispano Ethnicity Viewed through the Window of El Cerrito," in Teaching American Ethnic Geography, edited by Lawrence E. Estaville and Carol J. Rosen, 57-69, Pathways in Geography No. 18 (Indiana, Pa.: National Council for Geographic Education, 1997); (15) Clyde Eastman and Richard S. Krannich, El Cerrito: A Photo Essay (Las Cruces: Agricultural Experiment Station, College of Agriculture and Home Economics, New Mexico State University, 1999); (16) Jeffrey S. Smith, Matthew R. Engel, Douglas A. Hurt, Jeffery E. Roth, and James M. Stevens, "La Cultura de la Acequia Madre: Cleaning a Community Irrigation Ditch," North American Geographer, 3, no. 1 (2001): 5-28.
Chapter 1 1. Angelina V. Mdrquez notes the baptisms of four known children born in Santa Fe to Lorenzo Mhrquez and Apolonia Griego de Mdrquez between 1762 and 1773, also that Jose Pedro inherited all his father's land, and that villagers buried Lorenzo Marquez in 1826. "San Miguel del Vado," n.p. Information about Mirquez land at San Miguel del Vado and at El Gusano is in Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, Court of Private Land Claims Case
222
NOTES TO PACES 3-1 2
No. 25 (PLC 25), roll 35, frames 669, 823, 835-36 (hereafter roll and frame numbers are given as follows: 35: 669), State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. For Juan Antonio Marquez, the grandson killed by Indians, see Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, Surveyor General Report (hereafter SG) No. 119, 24: 645. 2. A Spanish census taken in 1790 listed "Lorenso" Marquez, age 46, and his wife, Apolonia Griego, age 42, as residents of Santa Fe with one son (16), a daughter (14), and three female orphans (21, 16, 7) in the household. Virginia Langham Olmsted, comp., Spanish and Mexican Colonial Censuses of New Mexico 1790, 1823, 1845, p. 63. For dissatisfaction with the site of Santa Fe, see Richard L. Nostrand, The Hispano Homeland, p. 34, n. 13. For land grant boundaries, see Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, SG 119, 24: 627. 3. Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, SG 119, 24: 627-28, quote in 628. 4. For frontier outposts and their genizaro residents, see Nostrand, The Hispano Homeland, pp. 44, 77, 244. The 13 Indian petitioners are noted in Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, SG 119, 24: 627. Fray Angelico Chivez gives their source area as the Barrio de Analco in Santa Fe, "New Mexico Roots, Ltd." [1982], reel 1, p. xxiii. The presence of genizaros at San Miguel del Vado is also in E. Boyd, "The Plaza of San Miguel del Vado," pp. 17-18. See also Fray Angklico Chivez, Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, 1678-1 900, p. 205. 5. Concerning San Miguel del Vado, Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, SG 119, 24: 630-32, quote in frame 630; concerning San Jose del Vado, Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25,35: 683-89. 6. Nostrand, The Hispano Homeland, pp. 44, 72, regarding plaza layouts. Boyd, "The Plaza of San Miguel del Vado," p. 17, says the church seems to have been completed before 1807. John L. Kessell gives 1811 as the date the church was finished in Kiva, Cross, and Crown, pp. 426, 550. 7. Nevin M. Fenneman notes that the Basin and Range Province begins at Glorieta Mesa. Physiography of Western United States, pp. 47, 394. 8. This narrative about Earth history is based on Fenneman, Physiography of Western United States, pp. 40, 42, 45, 47, 104-5; and Charles B. Hunt, Physiography of the United States, p. 247. 9. Fenneman, Physiography of Western United States, pp. 9, 44, 47-49; Hunt, Physiography of the United States, p. 226.
10. The vertical sequence of terraces and soils at South San Ysidro is discussed in Paul Karas, "Quaternary Alluvial Sequence of the Upper Pecos River and a Tributary, Glorieta Creek, North-Central New Mexico," pp. 163-66; and Chris Menges, ed., Quaternary Tectonics, Landform Evolution, Soil Chronologies and Glacial Deposits-Northern Rio Grande Rift of New Mexico Field Trip Guidebook, pp. 159-76. 11. Neil E. Salisbury, a geomorphologist colleague in the Department of Geography at the University of Oklahoma who accompanied me on field trips to El Cerrito in 1981 and 1989, provided information on point bars, cut banks, and meander cores. 12. Sherry L. Haas, "Evolution of the Pecos River Floodplain, El Cerrito, New Mexico: A Possible Explanation." 13. The average elevation is from Yi-Fu Tuan and Cyril E. Everard, "New Mexico's Climate: The Appreciation of a Resource," p. 269. 14. Tuan and Everard, "New Mexico's Climate," p. 297, give 5°F per 1,000 feet. The figure 3S°F per 1,000 feet, with imperfections noted, is from Iven Bennett, "Maximum-Minimum Temperature," p. 37. Average daily maximum and minimum temperatures in July and January, respectively, are based on data gathered between 1951 and 1980 as mapped in Iven Bennett, "Warmest and Coldest Months," pp. 34, 35. 15. The dates of the last and first daily minimum temperatures of 32°F or less in spring and fall, respectively, and the resultant length of the growing season are based on data gathered between 1951 and 1980 as mapped in Iven Bennett, "Frost," pp. 46, 47. 16. The figure for El Cerrito's total annual precipitation is based on data gathered between 1951 and 1980 as mapped in Iven Bennett, "Annual Precipitation," p. 43. Bennett reports that El Cerrito's average annual snowfall in inches for the years 1931-84 ranged between 24 and 36 inches (closer to 36). Iven Bennett, "Snow," pp. 53, 54. That July and August are New Mexico's rainiest months is noted by Iven Bennett, "Seasonal Distribution of Precipitation," p. 45. Bennett notes the reduction in precipitation effectiveness owed to evaporation in "Evaporation," p. 49. 17. William C. Martin, "Vegetation: Plateau, Basin, and Plains," p. 71, shows that sideoats grama grass dominates in the upland in the vicinity of El Cerrito. Bennett discusses slope orientation in "Maximum and Minimum Temperatures," pp. 38, 39.
NOTES TO PAGES 13-1 9 18. Heffington, "El Cerrito: An ArcheoGeographical Biography of a New Mexico Village"; and Stephen S. Post, Cultural Resources Investigation North of the El Cerrito Bridge and Data Recovery Plan for LA 84318, a Multicomponent Artifact Scatter at El Cem'to, San Miguel County, New Mexico. 19. See Post, Cultural Resources Investigation, esp.pp.23, 27, 29, 34, 41. 20. Post, Cultural Resources Investigation, pp. 22, 37; Heffington, "El Cerrito," pp. 132-33. Don J. Usner notes apparent Spanish use of Tano irrigation ditches at Chimayo in Sabino's Map: Life in Chimaya"SOld Plaza, p. 24. 21. For Pueblo Indian sites in the El Cerrito area, see Post, Cultural Resources Investigation, p. 11. The final word on whether Native Americans inhabited El Cerrito's valley more than discontinuously is not in. Villagers speak of much evidence of Indian occupancy of the Ancon, the middle meander loop located east of the village (Map 1.3). Bordered by the Pecos on three sides and furnished with a l o o k o u t t h e hill called "El CerritoU-at its neck, this Anc6n had clear advantages for defense.
Chapter 2 1. Information about Alari as a soldier is in Spanish Archives of New Mexico (SANM) I1 Record Group (RG), Series 2, reel 21, frames 1099-1 100, "Filiation [Regimental Register] Josef Ramon Alari . . . ," State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. Alari signed his name Josef, using the archaic spelling. Virginia L. Olmsted translates this document in "Spanish Enlistment Papers of New Mexico, 1732-1820," pp. 229-30. Baptisms of Jose Bonifacio Felis 18 May 1818 and Jose Francisco Gabino 19 February 1820 are in Thomas D. Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms 1747-1851" [San Jose, 25 March 19931, p. 9. Distribution of agricultural parcels in El Cerrito is in Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, 35: 793-95, State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe; also Ralph Emerson Twitchell, The Spanish Archives of New Mexico, vol. 1, doc. 1090, pp. 323-24. For Alari as alcalde in 1826, see Joe Stein and Diana Stein Collection, doc. 9, State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe; also Twitchell, Spanish Archives, vol. 1, doc. 139, p. 49. Alari's burial 13 April 1841, San Miguel Burials, Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe (AASF), roll 38, frame 324 (38: 324).
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2. That source areas widened to include villages beyond Santa Fe is in Chavez, "New Mexico Roots, Ltd.," reel 1, p. xxiii, State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. The many village sources noted by Father Manuel Antonio Garcia del Valle between l 8 11 and 1817 in San Miguel Marriages, AASF, 27: 246-73, verify this expansion. 3. Land claimants based these land distribution dates on when alcaldes in the jurisdiction of San Miguel del Vado put their ancestors (or those from whom land had been purchased) in possession of their agricultural parcels (Table 2.1). 4. To complete what happened, in two upland areas lying east and west of the Pecos, alcaldes awarded parcels in 1833 and 1839 at Arroyo de 10s Temporales in Tract 7, and in 1838 they distributed land in Tract 10 at El Carricito on the road between San Jose del Vado and newly founded Las Vegas. On 14 November 1900, in testimony in the San Miguel del Vado Grant adjudication proceedings, Pedro Luis Duran, age 79 and a resident of El Cerrito, noted the existence of "strings of houses" along the Pecos at Barranco and La Fragua found there "as far back as Fe] could remember." Duran was born on the Rio Chiquito above Taos in 1820 but moved to El Cerrito where Aragon recorded him in the 1841 census. Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, 35: 778, and Table A.1, 1841, #15. 5. The original site of La Cuesta is from Fortunato Gallegos, interview with author, Villanueva, New Mex., 17 October 1993. In Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe 1678-1 900, p. 205, Chavez records a baptism for La Cuesta on 8 November 1818; the record shows that on that date at the church in San Miguel del Vado Father Francisco Bragado baptized a person labeled as a vecino of La Cuesta, San Miguel Baptisms, AASF, 6: 453. Jesus Maria Armijo told Olen E. Leonard on 12 March 1940 that he had learned from his father, Manuel, that "the first El Cerrito families came from Villanueva." "Interviews with Residents." According to Duran, authorities renamed La Cuesta "Aragon," then "Villanueva," after two locally prominent families, when they established a U.S. Post Office. Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, 35: 778. 6. The petition of 6 March 1824, the award of 14 April 1824, and the names of the 15 petitioners (Table 2.2) are in "Archive 1090," SANM I RG, Series 1, reel 5, frames 1508-11 (for the document in Spanish) and reel 3, frames 376-77
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NOTES TO PAGES 19-2 3
(for the English translation), both documents in the State Record Center and Archives, Santa Fe. That Padilla put the petitioners in possession of their lands on 26 May 1824 is in Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, 35: 795. 7. Father Juan Caballero, the cura, or priest, at San Miguel del Vado between 1825 and 1829, performed the Alari-Martin marriage. San Miguel Marriages, AASF, 27: 320. He recorded El Cerrito's first burial (probably at La Cuesta) for Jose Eduardo, son of Jose Manuel Tenorio and Maria Antonia Ramirez, on 26 November 1827. San Miguel Burials, AASF, 35: 830. And he recorded El Cerrito's first baptism for Jose Albino, son of Rafael Blea and Maria de la Luz Maes, on 1 March 1828. San Miguel Baptisms, AASF, 6: 623. 8. The original Anton Chico Grant petition of 1822, award of 1822, and repossession of 1834 are in Land Grant Records, Town of Anton Chico, SG 29, 16: 491-96 (in Spanish) and 518-24 (English translation). That Bernardo Ulibarri lived in El Pueblo is ascertained from the testimony of a son, Candelario Ulibarri, in 1883, frame 610. J. J. Bowden, Private Land Claims in the Southwest, notes the abandonment of Anton Chico in 1827 or 1828, vol. 3, p. 691. 9. In the San Miguel del Vado Grant records, the initial landholding colonists are given only for Tract 1, El Cerrito: PLC 25, 35: 795. Alari's holdings are derived from frames 793-95. That Pablo Borrego sold his land is in frame 794. The only clues about Benito Urtado are that a Julihn Hurtado, vecino of Serrito, was buried there (bur 29 September 1835, 38: 222), followed in 1860 by Julihn's widow, Maria Gertrudis Truxillo (54A: 20 January 1860). A Julio Hurtado, son of Andreas Hurtado, also owned land in Tract 2. PLC 25, 35: 823. The generalizations about the 15 men are largely from AASF baptism, marriage, and burial records. 10. For the Alarid and Ortiz families of Santa Fe, Fray Angelico Chhvez, Origins of New Mexico Families in the Spanish Colonial Period, pp. 122-23, 247-51. Waldo Alarid lists the seven children of Manuel Isidoro Alari and Josefa Ortiz Bustamante in Santa Fe Shadows Whisper: A History of the Alarid and Moya Families, pp. 103-5. He notes (p. 65) that Alari became Alarid (pronounced with a silent 4 early in the nineteenth century. 11. The description of Alari as a soldier is in SANM I1 RG, Series 2, reel 21, frames 1099-1100. Information about Antonia Troncoso and the
couple's three known children is in Alarid, Santa Fe Shadows Whisper, p. 103; also Josefa Rafaela Nepomucena (July 1806), AASF Santa Fe bap 16: 49; Jose Nepomuceno (March 1808) 16: 59; and Jesus Maria [1810], who married Josefa Shnchez (August 1827) mar 31: 659. For the adoption of Ramoncito, "hijo . . . natural" (illegitimate son) of Manuela Jaramillo, AASF San Miguel mar 27: 320. Children of Ram6n Alari and Manuela Jaramillo: Maria Soledad (April 1812) AASF Santa Fe bap 16: 77, Waldo Alarid, personal correspondence, 24 July 1994;Jose Bonifacio Felis (18 May 1818) and Jose Francisco Gabino (19 February 1820)) Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 9; Maria Soledad (at La Cuesta) (3 April 1825) AASF San Miguel bap 6: 492 (18 December 1825) AASF San Miguel bur 35: 758; Jose Maria (25 December 1825) AASF San Miguel bur 35: 760; and Maria Marta, who had two children with Jose Esquipula Griego in El Cerrito in 1858 and 1860, Hispanic Genealogical Research Center (HGRC), "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," pp. 135 (50A: 282) and 167 (50A: 342). That Jose Francisco Gabino lived beyond childhood is in Alarid, Santa Fe Shadows Whisper, p. 104. Jaramillo family members are found in the following AASF documents: Pecos bap 6: 492, 531, 552, 615; San Miguel bap 11: 87, 139, 156, 162, 165,218,221,404,407,429,446,477-78,534, 552, 663, 743, 799,950; 71: 748; San Miguel mar 27: 291; 29: 720. 12. The baptisms of Jose Ram6n, 6 March 1800, and Jose Julihn, 10 March 1801, are in New Mexico Genealogical Society (NMGS), comps., Albuquerque Baptisms Archdiocese of Santa Fe 1706-1850, pp. 200, 494. In her foreword to the volume, p. v, Virginia Langham Olmsted notes the 1803-21 gap in the baptismal records. The purchase of land and a house (for 700 pesos) is in SANM I RG, "Archive No. 377" Uulihn Bejil to Juan Crist6bal Garcia, Alameda, 20 April 18061, Series 1, roll 2, WPA translation, "Archive No. 377," pp. 1-2, State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe; also Twitchell, Spanish Archives, vol. 1, doc. 377, p. 113. Note of a murder trial is in SANM I1 RG, "2031" [Santa Fe, 26 November 18061, Series 2, reel 16, frame 291, State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe; also Twitchell, Spanish Archives, vol. 2, doc. 2031, p. 507. The eight known children of Juan Crist6bal Garcia and Tomasa Rael are Eusebio Lorenzo, Jose Roman, Maria Antonia Teresa (noted below), Jose Ram6n, Jose Julian, Maria Gertrudis, Francisco, Francisco Xavier, and Juan. A second
NOTES TO PACES 23-25
couple whose names were Juan Garcia and Francisca Rael were contemporaries in La Cuesta, and in church records both Tomasa Rael and Francisca Rael are given as the mothers of Maria Gregoria (Francisca bap 6: 499, Tomasa bap 6: 591, as noted below). 13. Regarding Eusebio: Marriage with Maria Catarina Santillanes, 15 February 1819, Chavez, "New Mexico Roots, Ltd.," reel 1, p. 618; and Donald Dreesen, "Albuquerque Marriages," p. 55; her death in 1834, AASF San Miguel bur 38: 212. Seven known children: Maria Soledad bap NMGS, "Albuquerque Baptisms," p. 240, mar 11 October 1837 San Miguel mar 29: 673; Maria Merced mar 29: 645; Maria Polinaria bap 6: 544; Maria Solinacia mar 29: 821; Juan Cristobal bap 6: 579; Jose Miguel bap 6: 639; Maria Guadalupe bap 11: 113. Marriage with Maria Luciana Martin 11 October 1837, 29: 674; her bur 1838, 38: 254. Marriage 1838 to Maria Dolores Mares, 29: 685; four known children, Jose Catalino bap 11: 4 12; Francisca Antonia bap 11: 494; Maria Catarina bap 11: 645 (also 11: 663); Jose Marcelino bap 11: 772. Regarding Romin: Marriage to Maria Casilda Urioste, San Miguel bur 38: 232 (vecino del "Serrito"); son Jose Candelario 1822, 6: 471; marriage of Jose Candelario in 1844, 29: 780. Marriage with Maria Antonia Duran, Chavez, "New Mexico Roots, Ltd.," reel 1, p. 655, also 29: 684; three children, Antonio Abad, bap 11: 556; Jose Donociano, bap 11: 693; Maria Estefana, bap 11: 864. Regarding Julian: contemporaries were Julian Antonio Nicanor Garcia, son of Miguel Antonio Garcia, husband of Maria de 10s Reyes Salas, San Miguel mar 29: 681; and Jose Julian Garcia (same name), son of Nicolas Garcia, husband of Juana Gertrudis Gonzales, Chivez, "New Mexico Roots, Ltd.," reel 1, p. 619, and San Miguel bap 11: 660. 14. Regarding Teresa: Married Jose Pablo Martin, son of Jose Antonio Martin and Maria Apolonia Montoya, bap 14 February 1774 in Santa Fe, Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 303; Ribera bur 54A 30 May 1848. Eight known children: Maria Dolores, San Miguel mar 29: 619; Maria Manuela 29: 614; Maria Juana bap 11: 551 and 11: 709; Jose Antonio bap in La Cuesta 1825, 6: 512; Maria Gertrudis bap ca. 1827 (no document); Maria Antonia 6: 662-663 (?) and mar 29: 779-80; Maria Francisca bap 11: 45; Maria Isabel 11: 145. Regarding Gregoria: daughter of Tomasa bap 6: 591, daughter Francisca 6: 499; Juan Garcia and Francisca Rael married in Albuquerque 12 March 1806, Don
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Dreesen, "Albuquerque Marriages, 1776-1818," p. 61; married Jose Alejandro Saiz, son of Juan de Jesus Saiz (bap l l January 1767) and Maria Dolores Segura of Santa Fe, Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," pp. 495, 496. Five children: Manuel, San Miguel del Bado Grant, PLC 25,35: 794; Francisco, 1841 census; Jose Antonio, La Cuesta 1825, 6: 499; Juan Bautista, La Cuesta 1827, 6: 591; Maria Miguela, 1841 census. Regarding Nepomucena: daughter of Francisca, San Miguel mar 27: 3 11; married Isidro Antonio Flores 2 September 1826, 27: 311; Isidro Flores's father, Jose Antonio Flores, and mother, Maria Rosa Padilla, in Santa Fe, 1798-1802, Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 148; brother of Isidro, Jose Antonio Flores, resident of San Jose del Vado in 1806, mar 27: 243; Flores brothers in La Cuesta in 1818 and 1821, 27: 276 and 6: 467; four children between 1830 and 1846:Jose Patricio bap 11: 14; Maria Encarnacion 11: 8 1; Maria Alvina 11: 120;Jose Toribio 11: 900. 15. Regarding Rodriguez heads as brothers: Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 463. Children of Juan Ignacio and Maria Luisa Tenorio: Juana Maria 1801, Pedro Antonio 1806, Maria Concepci6n 1818 (parents given as vecinos of El Torreon) in Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 464; Jose Marcelino in San Miguel area 1815, 6: 412; Jose Jorge, San Miguel mar 29: 607; Maria, whose son Jose Fernando bap 11: 225. Juan Ignacio's bur 10 May 1835,38: 218. Children of Jose Rodriguez and Maria Conception (11: 303) also Gabriela (11: 415) Garcia: Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," pp. 462-63. At the first baptism, in 1814, the couple were vecinos of Tesuque. 16. Children of Jose Severiano Sanchez and Maria Guadalupe Blea, Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 504; with Maria Antonia Mares, p. 506; Sanchez as padrino for Eusebio Garcia, 6: 579. Children of Jose Manuel Tenorio and Maria Antonia Ramirez: Juana Maria 1797, Maria Casilda 1800, Juan Nepomuceno 1802, Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," pp. 562-63; mar of Francisco and Dolores Mondrag6n in 1816, 27: 267; bap of Maria Teresa de Jesus in 1825, 6: 503; bur of Josef Eduardo in 1827, 35: 830; information about last child, Antonio, a resident of El Cerrito: bap 11: 134, 11: 262, 11: 317; bur 38: 237, 54A 31 August 1849. Jose Manuel bur in 1836, 38: 231. Regarding Juan Salas: Tract 2 parcels, Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, 35: 801; Ram611 Salas as possible son, bap 71: 748; Ram6n Salas and Rosa Jaramillo in Santa Fe, Martinez et al., "Santa Fe
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NOTES TO PACES 25-26
Baptisms," p. 500; in La Cuesta, bap 6: 552. Juan Salas sold his parcels in El Cerrito, Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, 35: 794, 795. 17. Regarding Manuela Jaramillo de Alari: the story of her rooftop vigil is from Enrique (Henry) Vigil Arellanes, interview with author, Albuquerque, 19 April 1994; the sale of 90 varas for 180 pesos at Los Trigos, Joe Stein and Diana Stein Collection, doc. 37, State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe; the two presumed genizaros, Dolores Marcos, 31, female, and Marcos Marcos, 9, male, are in Table A.2, 1850, #20; Desiderio Jaramillo, 11, at school, Table A.4, 1860, #14; Manuela Jaramillo bur 54A 6 February 1867. Regarding Teresa Garcia de Martin(ez): Pablo Martinez bur 54A 30 May 1848; Teresa Garcia bur 54A 15 May 1876. Why no burials are recorded in El Cerrito before 1876 is not understood. Through 1875 most Cerritefios were interred in La Cuesta and only occasionally in San Miguel or elsewhere. Beginning in 1876 nearly all Cerritefios were buried in El Cerrito, prominent ones under the church floor and others in the churchyard. Suzanne Forrest notes in The Preservation of the Village (p. 64) that the New Mexico territorial legislature passed a law that forbade burials beneath church floors or in churchyards for churches located within communities. In correspondence with the author dated 8 February 1993, Forrest said that, according to L. B. Prince, A Concise History of New Mexico, pp. 14-16, the legislature passed this law in 1876. Ironically, 1876 is when burials in El Cerrito began. 18. The six Blea children born in Santa Fe to Juan de Jesus Blea and Maria Mariana Moya, parents of Rafael and Manuel: Maria Manuela bap 1 January 1784; Salvador bap 28 July 1788; Maria Paula Antonia bap 25 December 1790;Juana Maria bap 25 November 1797;Jose de Jesus bap 15 January 1799; and Maria Manuela (again) bap 21 November 1805, Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 82. Rafael Blea is originally from "Sta. Fee," and Luz Maes originally from Ojo Caliente, mar 16 December 1814, 27: 255. The baptism of Maria de la Luz Maes 3 1 May 1795 is recorded in Benito Montoya and Thomas D. Martinez, "San Juan de 10s Caballeros Baptisms 1726-1870" [San Jose, 19941, p. 252. For the ten known children born to Rafael Blea and Luz Maes between 1815 and 1840: Maria Tomasa bap 18 December 1815, 6: 418; Maria Fabiana bap ca. 1816, 11: 776-77; Maria Tuburira bap 18 April 1818, 6: 446; Marcelino mar 15 February
1840, 29: 714; Inocencia mar 27 February 1843, 29: 758; Juan Martin bap 1825, 6: 519; Jos6 Albino, vecino del "Serrito," bap 1 March 1828, 6: 623; Santiago de Jesus bap 25 July 1830, 11: 26; Maria Irinea bap 11 August 1836, 11: 270; and Juan Maria bap 18 June 1840 (mother age 45), 11: 448. For the six children of Manuel Blea and Rafaela Brito: Manuel bap ca. 1827, 1841 census; Maria Deonicia bap 23 May 1829, 6: 646; Maria del Socorro bap 2 October 1831, 11: 70; Maria Senobia bap 7 November 1833, 11: 156; Jose Nicolhs bap 7 February 1837, 11: 309; Jesus Maria bap 9 July 1842, 11: 583; and Maria Leonarda bap of her son, Jose Leonardo, 17 November 1847, 11: 1042. For Paula Blea in La Cuesta, 6: 493 and 6: 580. 19. Rafael Madrid's date of baptism is from Arturo Madrid, personal correspondence, 14 August 1997. For Rafael Madrid's brothers and sisters born to Roque Madrid and Juana Teresa Martin in Santa Fe: Rosalia Gertrudis bap 4 May 1767; Pedro Antonio bap 18 November 1769; Jose Miguel de Jesus bap 17 January 1773; and Maria Luisa bap 26 May 1788, Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 274. For Rafael Madrid's children with Ysabel Romero: Juan Francisco bap 15 July 1808; Maria Rita bap 13 March 1810; Maria Rosalia bap 5 September 1813;Jose Antonio bap 10 May 1815; Maria de Refugio bap 15 March 1816; Maria Josefa bap 14 April 1818; and Maria Andrea bap 6 February 1821, Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 274. In 1818 the couple lived in the Barrio de Guadalupe. Maria del Refugio, whose mother is incorrectly given as Manuela Saiz, married Francisco Xavier Garcia 21 October 1831, mar 29: 616. The Maria Manuela Saiz bap 5 January 1791 is in Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms, " p. 495. The baptism of Rafael Antonio Madrid 15 June 1828 is in 6: 633; and for Juan and Maria Antonia Martin, Hispanic Genealogical Research Center (HGRC), "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," p. 40 (50A: 88), p. 90 (50A: 189), p. 129 (50A: 270), p. 156 (50A: 324), p. 214 (50A: 423). Rafael Madrid, widowed in second marriage, makes prenuptial application to marry Trinidad Gonziilez 12 November 1833, Chhvez, "New Mexico Roots, Ltd.," [1982], reel 1, frame 1048. The known children of Rafael Madrid and Trinidad Gonzhlez are Maria Teresa de 10s Dolores bap 17 March l837, l l : 289; and Maria Juliana Eufemia bap 20 March 1839, 11: 379, bur 23 April 1841, 38: 324; Maria Rumalda bap 14 March 1849, 12: 40-41; and Maria Josefa bap 5 December 1851, 12: 325.
NOTES TO PACES 27-31
20. For Juana Gonzalez bap 11: 361; for Miguel Albino bap 11: 295. Marriage to Apolonia Bustos, Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, 35: 795. Children with Teodora Duran are in HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868": Maria Bibiana bap 12 December 1855, p. 68 (50A: 145); Maria Polonia bap 12 February 1858, p. 119 (50A: 249); and Maria Romula bap 27 February 1861, p. 170 (50A: 347). Luis Maria's bur 54A, 23 June 1863. 21. For land transfers from Jose Manuel Tenorio to Cesario Bustos to Apolonia Bustos to Luis Maria Gonzhlez, Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25,35: 795. 22. For the edict in the Laws of the Indies, Zelia Nuttall, "Royal Ordinances Concerning the Laying out of New Towns," p. 114. The interior open plazas in Santa Fe and Las Vegas are also oriented at a bias to the cardinal directions. Villager John (Jack) Millam Lanstra suggests that orienting the plaza, therefore the church, in this way had religious overtones: the devil would come at the church only from the cardinal directions. Interview with author, Las Vegas, 25 July 1994 (also El Cerrito, 16 April 1999). 23. Usner, Sabino's Map, quote on p. 53. In 1975 Florencio Quintana told an interviewer from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) project about the 1888 date on the church viga (pp. 37-38). Quintana also said that villagers added the modern church ceiling in 1974 (p. 38). HABS, "Spanish-AmericanVillages of the Pecos River Valley." Luis Arag6n told his son Candido that when he first moved to El Cerrito in about 1916, the church had a flat roof. He also told Candido that construction of the cement bridge began in 1919, the year Ramona, his firstborn, arrived. Candido Aragcin, interview with author, Las Vegas, 17 July 1994. That villager Jesus Maria Quintana, whose name appeared as county commissioner on a plaque on the bridge, served in office in 1917-18, would seem to verify this date. Post gives 1916 as the date for construction of the bridge in Cultural Resources, p. 4 1. Jack Lanstra reported that villagers used the churchyard wall as fill for the bridge right-of-way, interview with author, El Cerrito, 7 May 1980. 24. Maria Cleofas (Cleo) Quintana de Sena, who lived in El Cerrito from 1926 to 1942, remembers that when she was a child the Pecos rose almost to the Jesus Maria Armijo house (now owned by John Burns), the highest in the village, interview with author, Pueblo, 26 July
227
1994. Candido Arag6n supplied the date May 1937 for the flood that also totally destroyed El Cerrito's dam, interview with author, Las Vegas, 17 July 1994. 25. George W. Kendall, Narrative of an Expedition across the Great South-Western Prairies from Texas to Santa Fk, vol. 1, pp. 293-94. Kendall added that because Indians pursued warfare only on horseback, they rarely entered the compounds. Arabella (Bella) Quintana de Sanchez, the last of 13 chldren of Jesus Maria Quintana V. (son of Anastacio Quintana), born in Domingo, New Mex., in 1936, recalls her father saying this, interview with author, Albuquerque, 22 April 1994. Olen E. Leonard, "Family Schedules" [1940], gives the ages of village houses. The report of the Arellanes room being torn down to make a right-of-way for the bridge is from Henry Arellanes, who was raised in El Cerrito by his grandfather, Emiterio Arellanes, from 1912 to 1928, interview with author, Albuquerque, 30 April 1994. For trash deposits, Heffington, "El Cerrito," pp. 71, 82, 84. 26. Information about the Alari-Arellanes house is from Henry Arellanes, interviews with author, Albuquerque, 19 February 1994, 22 and 30 April 1994, 1 April 1995. Ricardo (Rick) Patricio Quintana, while working on his house in 1989, reported the carving "afio de 1877," interview with author, El Cerrito, 6 July 1989. 27. The incidences related by Anastacio Quintana are in Leonard and Loomis, Culture of a Contemporary Rural Community, p. 13. Both Candido Aragcin and Cirilio Arag6n spoke of the two centinelas and La Centinela in interviews with author, Candido in Las Vegas, 17 July 1994; Cirilio in El Cerrito, 15 October 1993. Cirilio noted that on occasion Indians also camped peacefully by the future mesa cemetery in order to trade with the villagers. 28. Henry Arellanes told of the man-made cave and candle on La Centinela, interviews with author, Albuquerque, 30 April 1994 and 12 October 1996.
Chapter 3 1. Six sons and four daughters were born to Jose Miguel Antonio Quintana and Maria Josefa Sena in Santa Fe: Maria Teresa de Jesus, bap 17 September 1800; Maria Damiana, bap 29 September 1802;Jose Miguel Antonio, bap 20 November 1803; Jose Dionicio, bap 9 April 1814, buried San Miguel bur 54A, 30 December 1847;
228
NOTES TO PAGES 31-34
Felipe de Santiago, bap 23 December 1816; Fernando, no record; Maria Juana Rita, bap 7 August 1821, all (save Fernando) noted in Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 435; Ramon, San Miguel mar 29: 819; Maria Faustina, San Miguel mar 29: 784; and apparently Juan, San Miguel bap 12: 28-29. Godchildren included Jose Mariano, bap 11 September 1813, and perhaps Juan de Jesus, bap 11 September 1823, noted in Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 436. The titles don and doiia, and residence in the Barrio of San Miguel, when Fernando's age was given as three, are in Olmsted, comp., Spanish and Mexican Colonial Censuses of New Mexico, p. 157. That Fernando worked in Pecos before marrying Gertrudis in San Miguel del Vado is related by Anastacio Quintana, his son, to Leonard in 1940 in Leonard and Loomis, Culture of a Contemporary Rural Community, p. 12. For the marriage of Fernando Quintana and Maria Gertrudis Martin 11 September 1840, San Miguel mar 29: 724. 2. For the marriage of Jose Justo Apodaca and Maria Tomasa Blea 14 January 1836, 29: 656. 3. Testimony taken 14 November 1900 is in Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, 35: 776-79. For the baptism of Jose Tomas 24 December 1824,6: 478. The dozen children of Pedro Luis Duran and Maria Dolores Tenorio were Jesus Maria, bap 12 February 1843, 11: 616; Maria Concencion, bap 12 December 1844, 11: 755-56; Bbrbara, ca. 1854; Jesus Maria (again), bap 7 February 1846, 11: 875; Maria Manuela, bur 54A, 1 September 1849;Juan, ca. 1852; Esmerejilda, ca. 1854; Emiteria, ca. 1855; Petra, ca. 1857; Nepomuceno, ca. 1857;Juan Bautista, bap 27 June 1858, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," p. 129, 50A: 270; Maria Emiteria, bap 2 March 1860, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," p. 156, 50A: 323; and Pablo, ca. 1863. For land transfers from Pablo Borrego to Jose M. Chivez to Pedro Luis Duran, Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, 35: 794. For the burial of Pedro Luis Duran, 54A, 27 May 1906. Doloritas Tenorio de Duran died on 17 May 1909. 4. For the marriages of Rafael and Julian Lorenzo, sons of Pedro Marquez and Maria Josefa Rael, Julian Lorenzo, mar 12 August 1816, 27: 266; Rafael mar 29 January 1834, 29: 627. For Rafael, see also Chgvez, "New Mexico Roots, Ltd.," p. 1834. The baptism of Paula Segura, daughter of Juan Segura and Maria Josefa Madrid, vecinos de La Cafiada, in Santa Fe on 22
March 1819, Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 528. The eleven known children of Rafael and Paula were Maria ~ r s u l abap , 3 October 1837, 11: 313, bur 54A, 9 June 1850; Pedro Antonio, bap 29 June 1840, 11: 450; Maria Dolores, bap 9 October 1842, 11: 593; Jose Santo, bap 6 October 1844, 11: 736; Josit Antonio, bap 24 January 1846, 11: 870-71, bur 10 October 1846, 38: 376; Maria Barbara, bap 4 December 1849, 12: 139; Clara, 1850 census; Luz Cruz, 1860 census; Pedro Selestino, bap 1 June 1854, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," p. 24, 50A: 50; Maria Miguela, bap 28 November 1855, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," p. 66, 50A: 142; and Maria Anastacia, bap 13 April 1858, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," p. 125, 50A: 260. The Mdrquez land transfers are in Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PCL 25, 35: 795. For Rafael's burial, 54A, 8 December 1866. When Paula Segura de Marquez died is not known. 5. For Maria Clementa's marriage to Manuel Saiz, 16 December 1837, 29: 679. Before her marriage, at El Cerrito, Clementa was a madrina with padrino Julian Garcia at the baptism of Marcos Antonio, son of Juan Garcia and Juana Gonzilez, on 12 October 1836, 11: 274. Baptisms of children born to Clementa and Manuel: Maria Guadalupe, ca. 1838, 1841 census; Pedro Antonio, 19 October 1840, 11: 465; Maria Librada, 9 January 1843, 11: 609; Maria Gertrudis, 25 November 1845, 11: 850; Maria Isidora de 10s Dolores, 22 April 1848, 11: 1106; Pablo Antonio, 29 June 1850, 12: 204; Nabor, ca. 1851; Melquiades, ca. 1852;Juan Pablo, 5 July 1857, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," p. 107, 50A: 225; Jesus, ca. 1856; Josit German, 2 June 1860, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," p. 161, 50A: 331; and Jose Pantaleon, 17 July 1864, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," p. 215, 50A: bk. 9:l. Land transactions are in Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25,35: 794. Burial records are as follows: Sirnon Estrada, age 72,54A, 15 January 1870; Andrea Maes de Estrada, age 72,4 September 1871, personal correspondence from Juanita M. Majnik, resident of Ogden, Utah, 30 December 1993; Manuel Saiz, age 65, 54A, 27 January 1883 (adentro de la Capilla de La Cuesta); and Clementa Estrada de Saiz, age 80, 54A, 8 May 1901. 6. For padrinos at the baptism of Maria Guadalupe Duran, daughter of Juan Duran and Juana Montoya, 11: 478. Maria Agapita
NOTES TO PAGES 34-35
Quintana bap 29 September 1841, 11: 536, bur 20? December 1841, 38: 33 1. Jose Antonio Quintana bap 16 May 1843, 11: 638. Baptisms of subsequent children are Jose Epitacio, 25 May 1845, 11: 808; Maria Antonia de 10s Dolores, 22 June 1850, 12: 203; Maria Norberta, 29 March 1853, 12: 408; Maria Sesaria, 3 September 1855, 50A: 127;Jesus Maria Asencibn, 19 May 1858, 50A: 265; Maria Simona, 20 February 1860,SOA: 322; Jose Anastacio, 27 April 1862, 50A: 372; Jose Luciano, 2 July 1865, 50A: Book 9: 28. Land transactions are in Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, 135: 793-94. Interviews with Henry Vigil Arellanes, Albuquerque, 19 February 1994; Vidal Ruben Quintana, El Cerrito, 27 November 1993; and Cris6stomo Vigil, Villanueva, 17 October 1993; all gave personal information about Fernando Quintana and Gertrudis Martin. Anastacio Quintana added to this information when he discussed his father, Fernando, with Olen Leonard in 1940, Leonard and Loomis, Culture of a Contemporary Rural Community, p. 12. For Fernando's burial at the age of 78 years 4.5 months, 54A, 18 October 1897; and for Gertrudis, age 88, 54A, 4 March 1913. 7. For the marriage of Victoriano Ulibarri and Maria Francisca Martin 26 March 1844, 29: 772. An Ulibarri family genealogy has Victoriano baptized in January 1820; Juanita Elaine Montoya de Ulibarri, interview with author, Pueblo, Colorado, 26 July 1994. Francisca was baptized 4 February l831, 11: 45. The couple's known children were Jose Francisco, ca. 1846, 1860 census; Pedro, ca. 1848, 1860 census; Maria (illegible), HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," 1 June 1854, p. 24, SOA: 51; Maria Carlota, 16 November 1856, p. 89, 50A: 189; Maria Candelaria, 10 February 1859, p. 139, 50A: 289; Jose Cesario, 1 September 1861, p. 177, 50A: 358; Jose Valentin, 22 May 1864, p. 212, 50A: 419; Maria Jeronima de la Cruz, 7 October 1866, p. 242, Book 9, SOA: 53; Maria Ismael, ca. 1868, 1870 census; Maria Emilia, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel1867-1885," 16 August 1869, p. 25, 51A: 120; Maria Inocencia, 4 January 1872, p. 57, 51A: 173; Maria Juliana, 23 June 1874, p. 91, 5 1A: 231; and Jose Lasario, bur 54A: 9 April 1879. Land transactions for the Ulibarri and GarduAo families are in Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, 135: 793-94. The five known children of Aniseto Garduiio and Maria Isabel Martin were Maria Sista, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," 1 April 1855, p. 47, SOA: 103;Jose
229
Gregorio, 19 March 1857, p. 100, 50A: 211; Agustin, ca. 1859, 1860 census; Jose Candelario, 9 February 1862, p. 182, 50A: 367; and Crestino, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1867-1885," 17 December 1867, p. 8, 51A: 80. By 1880 Aniseto Garduiio appears to be remarried (Table A.6, 1880, #10). 8. Luis Maria Manzanares is recorded in a Santa Clara census in 1818, Olmsted, Spanish and Mexican Censuses of New Mexico, p. 182. For the marriage of his parents, Juan Pablo Manzanares and Maria Manuela Herrera (Mestas?), 16 May 1801, Santa Clara Pueblo mar 30: 125. His prenuptial application of 19 July 1844, which notes Agapita as a native of San Miguel del Vado and the daughter of Jose Antonio Mares and Maria Reyes Montoya, Chavez, "New Mexico Roots, Ltd.," pp. 1072-73. For the baptism of Jose Melquiades, Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 281. The family lived in El Cerrito in 1850 (Table A.2, 1850, #21). Nine of the eleven children of Luis and Agapita were Jose Melquiades; Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 281; Jose Crescencio, 22 April 1849, 12: 66; Jose Rambn, 4 September 1851, 12: 308; Doloritas, ca. 1853, 1860 census; Maria Juana, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," 7 April 1856, p. 78, 50A: 166; Maria Justa, ca. 1858, bur 54A, 6 December 1875; Maria Petra, 29 June 1860, p. 162, 50A: 333; Anastacio, 7 May 1865, p. 226, bk. 9, 50A: 23; and Albino, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1867-1885," 17 November 1867, p. 7, 51A: 79. Land transactions are in Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25,35: 793-94. That Agapita Mares was kin to Antonia Mares is clear in the 1870 population census schedules: Melquiades, 22, lived with Antonia, 65, Table A.4, 1860, #18. How Luis Manzanares fared in crop and livestock production is in Tables 4.3 and 4.4. 9. For the marriage of Juan Vigil and Dolores Quintana, 53A: 8 January 1864; for Emiterio Arellanes and Simona Quintana, 53A: 17 October 1878. For the unions of Melquiades Flores and Dolores Manzanares, Table A.6; 1880, #8; and for Juan Antonio Montoya and Juana Manzanares, Table A.6, 1880, #22. The burial of Luis Manzanares at age 78, 54A: 13 June 1896. For Agapita in 1900, Table A.8, 1900, #15. 10. The four original schedules showing El Cerrito are pp. 57-60 (also numbered 29A, 29B, 30A, 30B) in U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules of the Seventh Census [1850], roll 469. The 25-year-old Pennsylvania-
230
NOTES TO PACES 35-46
born barber named "David Robinson" (roll 468, p. 693), because he lived in Santa Fe, was more likely the census taker than was "James Robinson," age 22, Ohio born, and a laborer living in Belen de 10s Gabaldones (roll 470, p. 727). These two individuals are the only potential enumerators identified in 1850 in New Mexico Territory. 11. For San Agustin, Population Schedules of the Seventh Census [1850], roll 469, pp. 29-37 (alsonos. 15A, 15B, 16A, 16B, 17A, 17B, 18A, 18B, 19A). The 29 households from Table A.l (1841) are 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 12 (Jose Maria, son), 13 (Jose Dolores, son), 17, 22, 23, 27, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 41, 41 (Jose M., presumed son), 45, 45 (Rafael, son), 50, 53 (Nicolas, son), 57, 61 (Juan de Dios, son), 62, 70 (Jose Antonio, son), 74, 77 (Manuel, grandson). Robinson used "Las Vegas" as his place heading for the entire Gallinas Valley above and below Las Vegas. For the 1845 census, census taker Ylario Gonsales listed 35 households in the "Bayes de San Agustin," the end-of-the-line community going down the Gallinas River from Las Vegas. Of the 35, 22 households came from El Cerrito. Mexican Archives of New Mexico, reel 40, frames 476-78, in State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. For the Wesche enumeration of the Valles de San Agustin, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules of the Eighth Census [1860], roll 713, pp. 159-68. In 1860 Miguel Albino Gonzalez and his wife, Fabiana Blea, led other CerriteAos now living in San Agustin in real estate and personal wealth (p. 163). 12. In a document known as the "Hope Decree," New Mexico's State Engineer, under orders of the U.S. District Court dated 1920, established water rights for communities in the "Pecos Hydrologic Survey." The decree assigned residents of Los Valles de San Agustin rights to the Gallinas River prioritized to 1841. United States of America v. Hope Community Ditch, Final Decree filed 8 May 1933 in Cause No. 712 Equity, vol. 1, p. 197. The four sons and three daughters of original grantees were # l 0 Francisco Garcia, son of Juan Cristobal; # l 1 Juan Garcia, son of Juan Cristobal; #27 Jose Antonio Saiz, son of Jose Alejandro; #28 Luciano Sanchez, son of Severiano; #9 Maria Rodriguez, daughter of Juan Ignacio; # l 8 Juana Martin, daughter of Pablo; and #22 Maria Merced Garcia, daughter of Eusebio, Table A.3, 1850. Eusebio Garcia and his wife, Dolores Mares, are in frame 478 of the 1845 census. For the sale of Eusebio Garcia's lands, Land Grant
Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, 35: 794. 13. The notion of stepping-stone villages is explored more fully in Nostrand, The Hispano Homeland, pp. 96-97. For Trementina and the Bleas becoming Presbyterians, see Samuel Leo Gonzales, The Days of Old, pp. 3, 6, 9. Santiago Blea was Samuel's great-grandfather. Santiago, also Romulo Blea, are shown as heads of household in Trementina in 1880 in U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules of the Tenth Census [1880], p. 442A. 14. For the Vallejos example, see Louis E. Bernal, "Los Vallejos and San Pablo," pp. 178-79. 15. Temporal, meaning "dry farm," is in Fray Angelico Chavez, "Neo-Mexicanisms in New Mexico Place Names," p. 78. Chavez points out that alamo is a common term for any large deciduous tree, p. 68. The "Hope Decree" of 1933 established 1824 as the priority date for the El Cerrito Community Ditch, p. 108. 16. Map A15, dated May 1922, shows agricultural fields in El Cerrito's Rinc6n and Ancon. The 50-acre Ancon is carved into four large parcels, and a note written across it explains that villagers had not irrigated there since 1912. Undertaken by the State Engineer in its "Pecos Hydrologic Survey," Map A15 is part of the "Hope Decree." 17. I first learned about the village era from Adan Quintana, whose father, Agapito, once owned it, interview with author, Las Vegas, New Mex., 9 September 1993. In an interview with Leonard, 20 March 1940, Jose P. Quintana described how an era worked, "Interviews with Residents." Henry Arellanes verified my information about the era, huertas, and arboledas, interview with author, Albuquerque, 12 October 1996. 18. Marc Simmons underscores that because of the labor demands, constructing village irrigation systems required the collective manpower of a community. "Spanish Irrigation Practices in New Mexico," pp. 142-43. 19. By stating in testimony on 14 November 1900 that twice "they have raised the ditch over the dam," Duran seems to have meant that on two occasions villagers rebuilt the Rinc6n dam farther upstream, Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, 35: 779. Much of the rest of the information about dams is from Candido Aragon, interviews with author, El Cerrito, 8 September 1993, and Las Vegas, 17 July 1994; also Cirilio Aragon, interview with author, El Cerrito, 15 October 1993.
20. Chad Evans Wright, "Natural Hazards Faced by Villagers of El Cerrito." Roberto (Robert) Quintana, a villager hired between November 1991 and March 1992 to help with the archaeological assessment conducted at the north end of the new bridge, supplied the bridge chronology, interviews with author, El Cerrito, 10 September 1993 and 11 October 1993. The plaque on the new bridge reads "BR. NQ8794."
Chapter 4 1. Church records show that Jose Epitacio Quintana was born on 23 May 1845 and baptized on 25 May, AASF San Miguel bap 11: 808. His grave marker in the El Cerrito church cemetery records his death on 10 July 1932. The story about the "old bashful cow" is from Henry Arellanes, interviews with author, Albuquerque, 22 April 1994 and 15 May 1994. 2. The ebb and flow of family names to El Cerrito can be seen in Tables A.2 (1850), A.4 (1860), A S (1870), A.6 (1880), and A.7 (1885). 3. The facts about Agapita Mares are from Chhvez, "New Mexico Roots, Ltd.," pp. 1072-73 (bap ca. 1829, mar ca. 1844); Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 281 Uose Melquiades bap 15 Sep 1846); 1870 census: 47B (Albino, the end of the line, bap ca. 1866); and 1900 census: 147A (mother of 11children, 7 alive in 1900). The facts about Dolores Tenorio are from bap 11: 616 (JesusMaria 12 Feb 1843); 11: 755-56 (Consanci6n 12 Dec 1844); 11: 875 Uesus Maria 7 Feb 1846); 1870 census: 47A (Pablo bap ca. 1863); and 1900 census: 147A (mother of 11 children, 6 alive in 1900). 4. For Dolores Martin, see Martinez et al., "Santa Fe Baptisms," p. 297 (10 Apr 1813); Table A. 1 (1841) #2; Table A.2 (1850) #l; Table A.4 (1860) #l. For Francisca Martin, bap 11: 045 (4 Feb l83 1); Table A.4 (1860) #33; Table AS (1870) #20; Table A.6 (1880) #30; Table A.7 (1885) #23. For Manuela Gonzalez, Table A.l (1841) # 33. For Manuela Jaramillo, Table A.l (1841) #l; Table A.2 (1850) #20; Table A.4 (1860) #14. And for Teresa Garcia, Table A.l (1841) #51; Table A.2 (1850) #10; Table A.4 (1860) #6; Table A S (1870) #20. 5. Francisca Jimenez, Table A. 7 (1885) #12. 6. Just when women in El Cerrito stopped using their maiden surnames is not known. The burial records for the village (AASF, Ribera, bur roll 54A) record women's maiden surnames through 1955, yet recording these names implies
but does not confirm their actual use. When Leonard and Loomis methodically recorded information about Cerritefios in 1939-40, they did not ask for, nor did they comment about, women's maiden surnames. Leonard interviewed at length 12 people, l 1 men and one "Mrs. M. Lucero," the schoolteacher. In the 5 April 1940 interview, M. Lucero mentions her husband, "Interviews with Residents." Henry Arellanes, who knew Maria Lucero of Villanueva, confirms that Lucero was her maiden surname, evidence that maiden surnames continued to be used through 1940, interview with author, Albuquerque, 3 July 1998. 7. Use of the diminutive in male given names (e.g., Ramoncito) was uncommon in El Cerrito. For the census taker and probably for others, "Ramoncito" clearly distinguished Ramon Alari, the father, from Ramoncito, the son. Table A.l (1841) #S 1 and 2. Additional examples of paired names from El Cerrito are AnastaciaIAnastacio; AntoniaIAntonio; CesariaICesario; EmiteriaIEmiterio; Francisca/Francisco; Ignacia/Ignacio; LeonardaILeonardo; LucianaILuciano; MarcelinaIMarcelino; MargaritalMargarito; Monica/Monico; PerfectaIPerfecto; RosariaIRosario; TeodoraITeodoro. 8. Land purchases and sales in El Cerrito are found in Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado rant, PLC 25, 35: 793-95. For Teresa Garcia de Martin living in her daughter's house, see TabIe A S (1870) #20. Isabel, who is recorded in Table A.4 (1860) # l 1 but not in Table A.6 (1880) #10, seems to have died before her mother, Teresa. Thus the sons of Aniseto Gardufio and Isabel Martin, Gregorio (born 1857) and Crestino (born 1867), are landowners in 1902 apparently because they purchased land from the heirs of Manuela Jaramillo de Alari and from Francisco Ulibarri, respectively. 9. Data on ability to read or write in the 1860 census are suspect. For 1870, 1880, and 1885, however, they report that the Quintana sons (not Anastacio) could read and write while the Quintana daughters could not. 10. Especially helpful with descriptions were interviews with Henry Arellanes, Albuquerque, 19 February 1994; Adin Quintana, Las Vegas, 17 July 1994; Jose Manuel Quintana and Carmen Balbina Gutierrez de Quintana, La Garita, 18 October 1993; and Crisostomo Vigil, Villanueva, 17 October 1993 and 21 November 1993. Arellanes (19 February 1994) noted the nickname "Chatita" or "Pug nose" given by Epitacio
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NOTES TO PACES 55-61
to Simona, even though Simona did not have a pug nose (in Table 4.2). 11. In "New Mexico Roots, Ltd.," p. X, Chhvez observes that cousins of the well-to-do married cousins because the elite wanted to consolidate their wealth. Taken from AASF San Miguel mar roll 53A (identified only by marriage dates, not frame numbers) are the following names of the parents of Quintana spouses: Cruz Tapia-Pablo Tapia and Maria Luciana Martin; Juan Vigil-Ramon Vigil and Maria Dolores Ulibarri; Antonio Aban Tapia-Pablo Tapia and Maria Luciana Martin; Isidro Lopez-Matias L6pez and Josefa Garcia de Noriega; Antonia Ribera-Urbano Ribera and Maria Rita Sena; and Emiterio Arellanes-Jose Maria Arellanes and Josefa Garcia de Noriega. 12. Information about the occupations or employment of Antonio Tapia, Isidro Lopez, Juan Vigil, and Emiterio Arellanes, also the advice given to Emiterio, is from Henry Arellanes, interviews with author, Albuquerque, 12 February 1994, 22 April 1994, and 15 May 1994. In the 1880 census, when Antonio Tapia, Norberta Quintana, and their three children lived in San Miguel, the census taker reported Antonio to be a freighter, p. 401A. 13. These marriage data are from AASF San Miguel mar, rolls 27, 29, 53A. 14. Wilbur Zelinsky, "The Historical Geography of Season of Marriage," esp. pp. 134-36, 139, 146. 15. That Cirilia Bellas delivered Cerritefio children is from Henry Arellanes, interview with author, Albuquerque, 24 July 1994. The story of El Pel6n and his mistress is from Adan Quintana, interview with author, Las Vegas, New Mex., 17 July 1994. 16. All 17 constitute households found in Tables A.4 (1860), A S (1870), A.6 (1880), and A.7 (1885), and some continue in tables in the twentieth century. The eight who marry village women are Quintana mar Librada Saiz (1860 #26, 1880 #26); Rael mar Dolores Mhrquez (1860 #27, 1870 #16, 1880 #27); Vigil mar Dolores Quintana (1870 #21,1880 #31, 1885 #24); Armijo mar Bhrbara Marquez (1870 #2) and Isabel Trujillo (1880 #4, 1885 #4); Flores mar Dolores Manzanares (1880 #8); Bustos mar Sixta Gardufio (1885 #S); Arellanes mar Simona Quintana (1885 #3); and Gonzalez mar Bhrbara Duran (1880 #12, 1885 #10). A ninth man, Juan Antonio Montoya, also married a village woman, Juana Manzanares (1880 #22), but Juan was not a newcomer to El Cerrito. The son of
unknown parents when baptized on 24 June 1856 (HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," p. 84,SOA: 178),Juan was taken in by villager Vicente Montoya (1860 #23). By 1870 Vicente had apparently died and Juan now lived in the Lovato household (1870 #S). In 1880 Juan had just married Juana Manzanares (1880 #22), and by 1885 the couple had moved away. 17. For the marriage of Manuel's parents, Luis Armijo (son of Antonio Armijo and Maria Ignacia Garcia de Noriega) and Isidora FIores (daughter of Miguel Flores and Maria Rafaela Tapia) in San Miguel del Vado on 29 July 1830, 29: 602. Their eight known children included Jose de Jesh, nacio (born) 23 December 1831, bap 7 January 1832, 11: 80; Diega, ca. 1835;Jose Maria, bap 29 October 1841, 11: 539; Semarillo, ca. 1841; Maria Soledad, bap 12 November 1843, 11: 661; Manuel, ca. 1845; Tricolina, ca. 1848; and Maria Conception, bur 7 July 1855, 54A and date. For the Armijos living in La Cuesta in 1850, census: roll 469, pp. 31A-B. The five children with Barbara Mhrquez, all in HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1867-1885": Antonio, bap 12 September 1869, p. 29, 51A: 126; Francisca, bap 4 September 1871, p. 54, 5 1A: 167;Jose Eluterio, bap 23 February 1873, p. 72, 51A: 198; Maria Estefana, bap 14 February 1875, p. 98, 51A: 243; Maria Bhrbara, bap 6 September 1877, p. 115, 51A: 310. That Isabel and Refugio Trujillo were sisters is from Maria Cleofas (Cleo) Quintana de Sena, interview with author, Pueblo, 26 July 1994. The 15 children of Manuel and Isabel were Lucas, born 15 March 1880; Genoveva, born 20 December 1881; Rosendo, born 10January 1883; Cruzita, born 3 May 1886; Apolonia, born 9 February 1888;J e s b Maria, born 15 October 1891; Margarita, born 27 April 1893; Cristiano Benito, born 30 September 1894;Juanito, born 14 February 1896; Francisca, born 17 May 1898; Fidel, born 27 August 1899; Macedonia, born 12 September 1902; Jose Enrique, born 8 July 1904; Domingo, born 21 May 1907; and Gertruditas, born 8 December 1910. Names and dates born are from a family register in possession of Geraldine Shnchez de De Blassie, daughter of the fifteenth child, Gertrudis, interview with author, Albuquerque, 29 April 1994. Marriages between the children of Manuel Armijo and Vibian Quintana united Cristiano Armijo (1894-1965) and Margarita Quintana (1897-1994), also Macedonia Armijo (1902-60) and Heliodoro Quintana (1902-82). Land transactions are in Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25,35: 794. The
NOTES TO PACES 61-67
story of "Cuscurros" is from Adan Quintana, grandson of Anastacio, interview with author, Las Vegas, New Mex., 17 July 1994. Dates for the deaths of Manuel and Isabel are from Geraldine De Blassie. The grave marker in the church cemetery records Isabel's birth as November 1865. 18. For Juan de Jesus Jaramillo, Juan Jaramillo and ~ r s u l aMontoya, residents of Puertecito, San Miguel bap 11: 164, 11: 234; marriage to Juana Antonia Urioste 15 March 1845, 29: 794; and Table A.6 (1885) #11. For Pedro Quintana, Table A.4 (1860) #26; Jose Maria bap El Cerrito 28 September 1862, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," p. 190, 50A: 381; Jose Longino bap El Cerrito 26 March 1865, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1853-1868," p. 224, 50A: bk. 9: 19; in San Miguel in 1870, census, p. 218A; Table A.6 (1880) #26; Maria Cleofas bap El Cerrito 10 April 1881, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1867-1885," p. 191, 51A: n.s. 101; back in San Miguel in 1885, census, p. 26. For Pedro owning land on the Anc6n, Candido Arag6n, interviews with author, Las Vegas, 8 September 1993 and 17 July 1994. 19. In 1880 two categories previously available in the population census schedules for determining family wealth, value of real estate (1850, 1860, 1870) and value of personal estate (1860, 1870) were dropped. 20. For Fernando Quintana and Gertrudis Martin as godparents for the baptism of Maria Anastasia, child of Melquiades Flores and Dolores Manzanares, on 28 April 1874, HGRC, "Bautismos San Miguel 1867-1885," p. 89, 51A: 227. For the enmity between the Quintanas and the Manzanareses, interviews especially with Henry Arellanes, Albuquerque, 12 October 1996, and Fortunato Gallegos, Villanueva, 17 October 1993. That Crescencio Manzanares administered the estate of his father, Luis, 1910 census, p. 8A. Why Crescencio, the second son after Melquiades, had taken charge, is not clear. Perhaps Melquiades died. 21. Encarnaci6n Estrada described the evolution of the Conchas River to Juan N. Quintana I1 (born in Variadero in 1919), interview with author, Las Vegas, 13 October 1993. Samuel Leo Gonzales, The Days of Old, p. 13, reports that Estradas from the Valles de San Agustin lived in the Variadero area by 1870. On 16 July 1994, at La Garita, the Conchas water level measured 23 feet 6 inches below the roadbed of the old bridge on Highway 104 and approximately 30 feet below the roadbed of the new bridge. In
233
"Neo-Mexicanisms in New Mexico Place Names," p. 79, Chavez so defined variadero. Recognizing years ago the seriousness of the Conchas River downcutting and the need to stabilize the Conchas channel, the Soil Conservation Corps employed Jose Manuel Quintana and his brothers to plant 1,000 Russian olive trees along the river's banks. Jose Manuel Quintana (born in Variadero in 1911) pointed out some of these trees as we drove the valley, interview with author, La Garita, 18 October 1993. 22. Fortunato Gallegos may well be correct in his explanation for the origin of the term "Llano Estacado." The conventional explanation is that ciboleros, so as not to lose their way on the flat plains, used buffalo bones or yucca stems to "stake" a route that would lead them back to camp. Gallegos said that the Y-shaped trace left by carretas became a Y when a storm so damaged the left branch that a right branch had to be opened, interviews with author, Villanueva, 17 October 1993 and 13 October 1996. Jesus Maria Armijo told Leonard on 12 March 1940 what his father, Manuel Armijo, had told him about village ciboleros, "Interviews with Residents." Emiterio Arellanes told his grandson, Henry Arellanes, the story about spending the night in a tree, interviews with author, Albuquerque, 19 February 1994 and 22 April 1994. Charles L. Kenner explained that New Mexicans used buffalo flesh for jerky, fat for tallow used in cooking and candle making, and hides for robes and rugs. A History of New Mexican-Plains Indian Relations, pp. 104-5. 23. Jose Manuel Quintana, son of Juan N. Quintana I, and grandson of Epitacio Quintana, spoke knowledgeably of Pitacio's ranch downstream from Variadero, interview with author, La Garita, New Mexico, 18 October 1993. The 1885 agricultural schedules shed little light on Pitacio's wealth, and no agricultural schedules exist for 1900: government employees destroyed them before the days of microfilming. Pablo (Paul) Lucero, La Garita's local historian today, was born in 1914 on the homestead of his parents, Esequel Lucero (born in San Miguel in 1872) and Luicita Griego (born in San Jose in 1878), interview with author, La Garita, 18 October 1993. Paul told how the community name evolved from Estrada (the earliest post office) to Variadero to La Garita (around World War I1 when authorities moved the La Garita post office, located 9 miles south of Variadero, to Variadero).
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NOTES TO PACES 67-79
24. Florencio Quintana told Jack Lanstra, a resident of El Cerrito after 1971, of his trip with Vibihn, who had a salt freighting business with his brother, Luis M. Quintana, interview with author, Las Vegas, 25 July 1994. Henry Arellanes told of his grandfather, Emiterio Arellanes, and his uncle Rogelio Arellanes driving wagons to Williard, interview with author, Albuquerque, 12 October 1996. And Candido Aragon thought that his trip to the salinas may have been the last one taken by villagers, interview with author, Las Vegas, 17 July 1994.
Chapter 5 1. Eduardo Quintana, when 87 and living in Pueblo, recalled how each summer his father, Vibihn, loaded the family into a wagon for the trip to Variadero, interview with author, Pueblo, 19 August 1994. Vibian was born in El Cerrito on 2 December 1865 and died at age 66 in El Cerrito on 20 November 1932. Villagers buried him on 22 November in the church cemetery. His wife, Cleofas Ribera, was born in San Miguel on 25 September 1874 and died in 1957 at age 84 in Pueblo. After their marriage in San Miguel on 24 November 1890, the couple had ten children: Rosa, 1892-1937 (mar Frank Lopez 1909); Epitacio, 1895 (died young); Margarita, 1897-1994 (mar Cristiano B. Armijo); Irene, 1899-1901; Heliodoro, 1902-82 (mar Macedonia Armijo); Hipolito, 1904-2000 (mar Elvira Vigil 1940; mar Frances Gonzhlez 1969); Eduardo, 1906- (mar Jesucita Gutierrez 1939); Rita, 1909(mar Ambrosio Archuleta);Jose Lino, 1911-93 (mar Rosa Armijo); Gabriel, 1914-2000 (mar Stelanda Montano). 2. In volume 3 of her Private Land Claims in the Southwest, J. J. Bowden shows that the upper reaches of the Conchas River lie within the town of Las Vegas Grant issued as a community tract in 1835 and patented in 1903 (pp. 783-92). Downstream are the three stock-raising grants (Map 5.2) issued to individuals: the Antonio Ortiz Grant made in 1818 and patented in 1877 (pp. 706-10); the Preston Beck Jr. Grant issued to Juan Estevan Pino in 1823 and patented in 1874 (pp. 677-86); and beyond the 20-mile-wide strip of public domain, the Pablo Montoya Grant issued in 1824 and patented in 1877 (pp. 700-705). 3. The Variadero area receives an average of almost 12 inches of precipitation annually, which is slightly less than at El Cerrito. At 4,570
feet above sea level, Variadero is also lower in elevation. H. J. Maker et al., Soil Associations and Land Classification for Irrigation: San Miguel County, p. 8. 4. The deviousness of bygone generations is spoken of openly today. Henry Arellanes told of his grandfather, Emiterio, and others spreading ashes to fake greater activity at the homesteads, interview with author, Albuquerque, 22 April 1994.Jose Manuel Quintana noted the hidden purpose behind his father's stores, interview with author, La Garita, 18 October 1993. Juan N. Quintana I1 noted that his father's store by the (old) bridge in Variadero had two stories and that his father bought land of homesteaders for $0.25 per acre, interview with author, Las Vegas, 13 October 1993. 5. Eduardo Quintana told of the makeshift bridge across the Pecos, interview with author, Pueblo, 13 September 1993. Jose Manuel Quintana, whose father, Juan N. I, moved permanently to his Variadero homestead, described in some detail the route taken to El Cerrito, interview with author, La Garita, 18 October 1993. 6. Eduardo Quintana moved permanently to Variadero at age 16 (about 1927); in 1940 he built a house, but in 1950 he moved to Pueblo, where he worked at the American Store Packing House from 1952 to 1971. Interview with author, Pueblo, 13 September 1993. Maria (Mary) Cleofas (Cleo) Quintana de Sena remembers her father, Heliodoro, moving his family to Variadero in 1942 right after Mary finished the eighth grade in El Cerrito, interview with author, Pueblo, 13 September 1993. Hipolito Quintana moved to Albuquerque after his first wife, Elvira Vigil (daughter of Santiago Vigil), died in October 1965, interview with author, Albuquerque, 19 February 1994. Josit Manuel Quintana (l911-99) built his present home in 1958. His nearby barn was the onetime "summer" home of his father, Juan N. I, as well as the birthplace of all 18 children of Juan N. I and his second wife, Delfina Lucero. Eleven of the 18 children lived, 5 boys and 6 girls. Jose Manuel and Juan N. I1 (1919-95) were the two oldest boys; the other three (Lebarato, Elijio, and Bernardo) moved to Denver or Pueblo. Jose Manuel Quintana and his wife, Balbina Gutierrez, own a second home in Las Vegas. Interview with author, La Garita, 5 September 1993. After moving to Las Vegas in 1974, Juan N. I1 worked for the Forest Service and the Housing Authority for ten years. He regretted
NOTES TO PACES 79-91
buying only a mobile home in 1974 when houses were relatively inexpensive, interview with author, Las Vegas, 13 October 1993. Napoleon Quintana, son of Fernando, and his wife, Alcaria Olguin, built their present home in 1947, about ten years before electricity reached Variadero, interview with author, La Garita, 11 September 1993. 7. Pablo (Paul) Lucero, La Garita's local historian, explained that the Quintanas, especially Jose Manuel, Rita Garcia de Quintana, and Napoleon, represent Variadero's elite, interview with author, La Garita, 18 October 1993. Jose Manuel Quintana confirmed the total absence of irrigated agriculture along the Conchas and the 40-acre-per-cow carrying capacity in interviews with author, Las Vegas, 25 July 1999, and La Garita, 5 September 1993, respectively. That he last visited El Cerrito in 1933 is an extreme example of lack of contact between La Garita and El Cerrito, interview on S September 1993, also 16 July 1994. Juan N. Quintana I1 attended the funeral of Luis M. Quintana in 1950, and since his marriage to Julia Roybal in 1955 he visited one more time, interview with author, Las Vegas, 13 October 1993. Napoleon Quintana, who was born in El Cerrito in 1914, traveled with his cousin Juan N. I1 to attend the funeral of don Luis in 1950, and on 4 July 1991 he again visited El Cerrito to show his wife and children the village for the first time, interview with author, La Garita, 28 September 1993. 8. This discussion draws heavily on Kent Howard Gompert, "The San Miguel del Bado Land Grant: Corruption and Bribery in Northern New Mexico." Gompert compares the treaties of 1803, 1819, and 1848 on pp. 88-90. Curiously, the house lots (solares) that colonists presumably received when Alcalde Pino put them in possession of their agricultural parcels (suertes) in 1803 are not mentioned in the documents. 9. Gompert, "San Miguel del Bado Land Grant," pp. 25-27. Concerning the Baca y Ortiz petition, Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, SG 119, 24: 618-19. The dates for the Anton Chico Grant are in Bowden, Private Land Claims in the Southwest, vol. 3, p. 693. 10. Gompert, "San Miguel del Bado Land Grant," pp. 30-3 1. Concerning Atkinson's recommendation, Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, SG ll9,24: 651-56. 11. Gompert, "San Miguel del Bado Land Grant," pp. 34-37, 73. 12. Gompert, "San Miguel del Bado Land Grant," covers much of this information on pp.
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33, 39-40,42, 48-54, 78-79,83,88. Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, 35: 654-72, regarding Sandoval et al. petition; PLC 60, 40: 6-1 12, regarding Morton petition; PLC 198, 5 1: 5 18-44, regarding Juan Marquez et al. petition; PLC 25, 35: 73842, regarding confirmation by Court of Private Land Claims to Sandoval et al.; PLC 25, 35: 1012, regarding appeal to the Supreme Court; PLC 25,35: 749, regarding Supreme Court decision on 24 May 1897. 13. Gompert, "San Miguel del Bado Land Grant," pp. 81-83, 85-86, 127. Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25,35: 756, 898-904, 9 13-1 7, regarding the Coleman Report. 14. G. Emlen Hall, in "San Miguel del Bado and the Loss of the Common Lands," notes March 1909 as the date officials opened grant lands for entry (p. 422) and estimates that Hispanics recovered nearly two-thirds of their common lands (p. 429); the quote is on p. 432. 15. Crisostomo Vigil noted the "arrangements" the Quintanas made to use each other's land. Luis M. Quintana's sheep ranch headquarters in 1940, said Vigil, were located on the land homesteaded by Hipolito Quintana. Interview with author, Villanueva, 25 July 1999. Loomis characterized Luis M. Quintana as El Cerrito's "richest" villager. "Diary of Events," 10 June 1940. And Leonard and Loomis, Culture of a Contemporary Rural Community, wrote of El Cerrito's "one big sheepman" (p. 31) and its "crazy-quilt" homestead pattern (p. 6). 16. Rudolfo A. Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima. The quote on p. 49 reads "On this hill only rocks grow!" 17. Leonard and Loomis, Culture of a Contemporary Rural Community, pp. 59-60, quoted words on p. 59. 18. Records for San Miguel County in the State Archives and Records Center in Santa Fe are incomplete. New Mexico Blue Books, compiled by the secretary of the territory (before 1912) and the secretary of state (after 1912), record the voting outcome for the various offices by precinct (in San Miguel County, El Cerrito is Precinct 37). This source also lists the elected officials: Epitacio Quintana, Assessor, 1905-6 (p. 42); Jesus Maria Quintana, Commissioner, 1917-18 (p. 90), 1923-24 (p. 57). That Epitacio Quintana held the office of commissioner in 1899-1900 is in La Estrella, an obscure Spanishlanguage newspaper that published an obituary about "Don Epitacio Quintana" (who died 10
July 1932), no date, no page, acquired from Napoleon Quintana, La Garita, 11 September 1993. That Jesus Maria Quintana served as superintendent of schools in 1903-4 is in San Miguel County, Superintendent's Record Book 1897-1908. Jose Manuel Quintana pointed out that a hired deputy did the work and that Jesus Maria would advise, "Don't be a turncoat." Interview with author, La Garita, 18 October 1993. Crisostomo Vigil said that the election results of 1932, when Democrats defeated Republicans statewide, made Maria "sick" and "senile." Interview with author, Villanueva, New Mexico, 17 October 1993. Maria died on 1July 1933. 19. Information on El Cerrito's school board is incomplete. In this paragraph data are from the following: San Miguel County, Superintendent's Record Book, 1884-1 887, pp. 4, 29, 41, 257, 261; and Superintendent's Record Book, 1889-1897, pp. 12, 103, 112,122, 129, 136, 144, 151, 193,203. San Miguel County, Register of District Officers, 1897-1906, pp. 0, 6, 234, 243, 252, 262, 271, 280, 289, 298. San Miguel County, Annual Reports, County School Superintendent, Items for 1922-23 to 1931-32, items 3213, 3315, 3414, 3514, 3613. All the above are in the State Records Center and Archives in Santa Fe. 20. In the Ilfeld Company documents housed at the University of New Mexico, Douglas Heffington found records of transactions for goods with Armijo between 1892 and 1895 and Apodaca between 1893 and 1896. "El Cerrito," pp. 119-25. Several villagers including Candido Arag6n recalled the names of the village merchants in the twentieth century, interview with author, El Cerrito, 8 September 1993. Joseph Albert Quintana showed me his father's former store during an interview in El Cerrito on 6 September 1993.
Chapter 6 1. Charles P. Loomis, "Diary of Events," records on 9 June how Margarita led church services and relates on 19 November the moving events surrounding Benito's funeral. Flora Armijo de Padilla, fifth of eight children born (on 25 November 1929) to Margarita and Cristiano, said that she and her parents moved to Pueblo when she was 16 [l945 or 19461. In Pueblo Flora married Eddie Henry Padilla on 23 June 1952; thereafter, she returned to El
Cerrito only once, in 1955 or so. Flora believes that Margarita's baptismal and other records kept on villagers no longer exist. Interview with author, Pueblo, 14 September 1993. Margarita was born on 30 March 1897 and died on 5 May 1994. 2. In 1870 Demetrio P&ez (Table AS) noted those who could read as Jesus Maria Durin, his father, Pedro Luis Durin, Juan Lucero, Ramon Manzanares, Epitacio Montoya, Diego Salazar, and Victorian0 Ulibarri. Jesus Maria Durin, Epitacio Montoya, and Diego Salazar could also write. How they learned to read and write is not known. For Francisco Alarid and Desiderio Jaramillo, Table A.4, 1860, nos. 1 and 14. For the three Quintana households in La Cuesta, Table AS, 1870, nos. 14, 15, 21, also note b. The schoolteacher Esquipula Tenorio, age 50 in 1870, is probably the same Esquipula Tenorio, then age 20, who lived in El Cerrito in 1841 (Table A.l, #82). And for Epitacio Quintana's family in San Miguel, Table A.6, 1880, #24 and note c. 3. In The Missions of New Mexico since 1776, p.3, John L. Kessell noted that standard-sized adobe bricks used in constructing missions measured 10 X 14 X 4. And Bainbridge Bunting wrote in Taos Adobes, p. 6, that Pueblo Indians, in contrast to Spaniards, used neither adobe brick nor stone footings. Ram6n (Ray) Esquibel, a resident of Las Vegas, New Mexico, and El Cerrito's last schoolteacher, said in an interview with author, 17 August 1988, in Las Vegas, that the one-room school had one "potbelly" stove, no electricity, and no plumbing. Esquibel spent the day at El Cerrito with our OU graduate students on 22 September 1988. 4. Irving Rusinow, Camera Report, published in 1942 as a "companion book" to the volume by Leonard and Loomis; school photograph on p. 123. 5. Jose P. Quintana told Leonard on 15 March 1940 that dances were probably "the entertainment that we enjoy the most." "Interviews with Residents" [1940]. Esquibel explained about the use of mint at dances. Interview with author, El Cerrito, 22 September 1988. Helen Zunser in 1935 described in some detail a Saturday night dance near Hot Springs (6 miles northwest of Las Vegas) in "A New Mexican Village," pp. 147-50. 6. Gabriel Quintana contrasted quiet dances at El Cerrito and unruly ones at Villanueva (also El Pueblo) in Loomis, "Diary of Events," 6 June 1940. Maria Lucero, El Cerrito's schoolteacher from Villanueva, told Leonard on 5 April 1940 that her husband-to-be "was present when the
NOTES TO PAGES 97-1 03
fight took place." "Interviews with Residents." When villagers whom I interviewed learned that I knew of the stabbing, they would tell me what they knew, but no one asked to be cited as a source. Henry Arellanes told me of what he called "el remanse de la Josefa del Efren," or the near-drowning of Josefa in an eddy (remanso), interview with author, Albuquerque, 30 April 1994. The nine children born to Agapito Quintana (9 March 1897 to 6 May 1993) and Maria Pacecita Chavez (1909 to 28 June 1985) were Luciano (1923 or 1924))Adan (1927), Evaristo (1929), Joe C. (1930))Manuel (1932), Samuel David (1935), Geroldin (ca. 1938), Agapito Octavio Jr. (1939), and George (born in Las Vegas in 1949). Adin Quintana, interview with author, Las Vegas, 9 September 1993. 7. The consolidation of El Cerrito's School District 22 with Villanueva's School District 6 is in the New Mexico Department of Education, Minutes of the Meetings of the State Board of Education, 5 June 1951, pp. 466-67. Cadmio Antonio (Tony or "Chamo") L6pez reported that the Torres family bought the schoolhouse from San Miguel County, interview with author, Santa Fe, 20 November 1993. And Jesus Uess) Gilbert Torres told of the George Torres cooking accident, interview with author, El Cerrito, 10 September 1993. The sale of the school solar (0.19 acre) for $2,200 to Richard L. Nostrand by the El Cerrito Tenants in Common Uames P. Angel, Carol A. Angel, John M. Burns, Phillip C' de Baca, Irene C' de Baca, Joe C' de Baca, Janet C' de Baca, John M. Lanstra, and Heidi J. Lanstra) took place on 15 June 1982; authorities recorded the Warranty Deed No. 5507 in bk. A229, p. 6666, County Clerk's Office, San Miguel County, 27 February 1984. 8. The 15 teachers remembered by villagers are Isabel Trujillo (wife of Manuel Armijo and a resident of El Cerrito), Hilario Aragon (brother of Isabel from Anton Chico, wife of Luis M. Quintana), Jose P. Quintana (son of Luis M. Quintana and from El Cerrito), Antonia Flores (Villanueva),Jose Flores, Eufelia Padilla (Pecos), Irene Padilla (Las Vegas), Ramona C' de Baca (Las Vegas), Josephine Romero (Las Vegas?), Agripino Griego (San Jose; he married Plhcido Quintana's daughter), Cruz Maloof, Elsie Sena, Maria Gallegos, Mrs. Benavides (Las Vegas), and Mrs. Dice (wife of a nearby Santa Fe National Forest ranger). The four known Cerriteiios who taught thus included Margarita Quintana, Gabriel Quintana, Isabel Trujillo, and Jose P. Quintana. 9. Loomis, "Diary of Events," 6 June 1940,
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noted that district school boards "recommended" the names of teachers for appointment. Jose P. Quintana explained to Leonard how he lost his teaching job, "Interviews with Residents," 15 March 1940. 10. Leonard, "Family Schedules" [1940].Jose P. Quintana told Leonard of his attending school in El Rito, "Interviews with Residents," 15 March 1940. Known as the Spanish American Normal School, the El Rito institution enrolled students of Spanish ancestry for vocational training, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, vol. 2, Tewa Basin Study, 1935, pp. 147, 153. For Margarita Quintana living with Chavela Ribera in Las Vegas, Flora Armijo de Padilla, interview with author, Pueblo, 14 September 1993. And for Rosa Quintana living with Chavela Ribera and marrying Francisco Lopez, Rosa's son Chamo Lopez, interview with author, Santa Fe, 20 November 1993. 11. Chamo L6pez noted that Maria Lucero "commuted," interview with author, Santa Fe, 20 November 1993. Esquibel explained that he rented a room from Rogelio Arellanes (for an undisclosed amount) and that he returned to Las Vegas on weekends, interview with author, Las Vegas, 17 August 1988. And on 30 April 1994 Henry Arellanes gave me a hand-drawn map showing El Cerrito's families circa 1925, interview with author, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 12. In personal correspondence to the author dated 11 December 1998 and 16 May 2000, Henry Arellanes explained that Josefa Romero, wife of Rogelio Arellanes, took responsibility for raising Benito Rivera, the son of Josefa's sister who for years was ill and hospitalized. Maria (Mary) Quintana related the story about Benito as teacher's pet, interview with author, El Cerrito, 11 October 1993. The thirteenth of 17 children born to Florencio Quintana and Agneda GonzAlez, Maria was the first to be born in a Las Vegas hospital (on 27 February 1943). 13. Everyone cried, according to Lucy Lopez, who with her aunt Venerana was visiting for the week from Las Vegas, interview with author, Las Vegas, 16 October 1993. 14. Josie Martinez de Tapia expressed her complaints about El Cerrito's migrant families in an interview with author, Pueblo, 8 July 1988. Loomis observed on 18 November 1940 how children watched for the teacher to leave for school so they would know when to go, "Diary of Events." 15. In his Annual Report for 1885, San Miguel County Superintendent of Schools
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NOTES TO PACES 103-1 4
W. G. Koogler explained that the perceived need to keep boys separate from girls resulted in low female county enrollments, p. 69 in Superintendent's Record Book, 1884-1887, Office of County Superintendent of Schools, Las Vegas, San Miguel County. 16. Henry Arellanes recalls being taught by Margarita Quintana in the commissary when he attended the first grade, Table 6.1, note e. Born in El Cerrito on 10 November 1926, Cleofas Quintana de Sena went through the eighth grade (she skipped third grade) in El Cerrito between about 1933 and 1941, interview with author, Pueblo, 14 September 1993. 17. Leonard, "Family Schedules" [1940]. Fortunato Gallegos recalled the schools attended by Cliofes and Napoleon of La Garita, interview with author, Villanueva, 17 October 1993. 18. Esquibel, interview with author, EI Cerrito, 22 September 1988. Ray explained the absence of a janitor in an interview with author, Las Vegas, 17 August 1988. 19. Loomis, in "Diary of Events," commented on the inability of Cleofas Ribera de Quintana (4 June 1940) and Cristiano Armijo (8 October 1940) to speak English. 20. Enrique Armijo (born 1904) told Leonard that one of his male teachers in school "couldn't speak English very well," "Interviews with Residents," 26 March 1940. Loomis commented about teachers not being able to force English on children in "Diary of Events," 5 June 1940. Margarita (Margie) Maria Trujillo de Quintana, a student of Esquibel's, said that in school she and other children read E,nglish but spoke Spanish, interview with author, El Cerrito, 7 September 1993. However, after 1950-51, when bused to school in Villanueva, Margie said that in school in Villanueva she had to speak English. Eduardo E. Quintana (b. 1906) said that neither he nor other villagers spoke English when he was growing up in El Cerrito, interview with author, Pueblo, 19 August 1994. Gabriel Quintana told Leonard that students in El Cerrito "learn no English outside of the school, " "Interviews with Residents, " 10 April 1940. And Luis Armijo told Leonard that many young people knew too little English to ask for a job, "Interviews with Residents," 15 March 1940. 21. Leonard quotes Gabriel Quintana in "Interviews with Residents," 10 April 1940.
Chapter 7 1. Perfecto Arthur Quintana, eldest son of Florencio Quintana and Maria Agneda Gonzilez, was born in El Cerrito 3 April 1925 and died on a freeway in southern California 8 September 1970. Born 5 September 1921 in Sugar City, Colo., Elvira Corrales was the daughter of Chihuahua-born Santiago Corrales and E1 Pasoborn Maria Vildez. Before she met Perfecto, Elvira had three children with Sandy Armijo; he abandoned Elvira and his mother raised the three children. Perfecto and Elvira never married. Elvira's eyes quickly filled with tears as she recalled this information in interviews with the author in Rocky Ford on 9 July 1988, 14 September 1993, and 19 August 1994. 2. Leonard lived in El Cerrito for slightly over seven months between October 1939 and early May 1940, and Loomis lived in the village on and off in 1940 to overlap with Leonard in February, March, and April and for longer stretches in June and October-December. They left three major resources: Leonard's "Family Schedules" (1940))which he completed with help from Gabriel Quintana and which Loomis corrected with help from Heliodoro Quintana; Leonard's "Interviews with Residents" (1940); and Loomis's "Diary of Events" (1940). In his "Diary of Events," Loomis contrasted men in El Cerrito who used privies with Amish men and men in other farming societies who used barns, and so on, 9 June 1940. All are found in archive RG 84-24, Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. I corresponded with Leonard in 1980 but never met him. Between 1979 and 1988 I had considerable contact with Loomis in correspondence, at Western Social Science Association meetings, and in Las Cruces for a long lunch on 7 August 1987, 3. Luis Armijo made clear to Leonard the dominant role of males, "Interviews with Residents," 4 April 1940. Maria Lucero also told Leonard that El Cerrito had no prostitutes, "Interviews with Residents," 5 April 1940. 4. Henry Arellanes reported in detail on the work of women, interview with author, Albuquerque, 12 October 1996. Jesus Maria Armijo told Leonard how on Saturdays his family usually baked a week's supply of bread in their horno, "Interviews with Residents," 12 March 1940. 5. Jose P. Quintana (20 March 1940) and Hipolito Quintana (24 March 1940) underscored
NOTES TO PACES 1 14-1 6
that young CerriteAos respected and obeyed adults, Leonard, "Interviews with Residents." And Maria Lucero explained to Leonard what she had observed as the schoolteacher, including how the father of the pregnant girl was trying to get the boy to marry his daughter, "Interviews with Residents," 25 March 1940 and 5 April 1940. 6. Hipolito Quintana (24 March 1940) and Maria Lucero (25 March 1940) told Leonard about marriages and weddings, "Interviews with Residents." 7. Father Dodd also explained to Leonard that the church would marry third cousins but not second cousins without permission of the bishop because such unions resulted in infirmities-a hardship when choosing a partner, especially in isolated villages where so many residents were related, "Interviews with Residents," 13 April 1940. In his "Diary of Events," Loomis noted (apparently in error) Santa Maria was the patron (4 December 1940) and that men knelt in prayer at the sheep camp (S June 1940). Several villagers including Jesus Maria Armijo belonged to the Penitente Brotherhood, an organization that had far greater strength in Villanueva than in El Cerrito. Leonard learned from Luis Armijo that his father, Jesus Maria Armijo, belonged to the Brotherhood, "Interviews with Residents," 15 March 1940. Hipolito Quintana told Leonard that one's fortune is the work of God, "Interviews with Residents," 24 March 1940. 8. Father Dodd told Leonard that superstitions in the Pecos Valley, such as the two cited, were similar to those in Andalucia, Spain, "Interviews with Residents," 13 April 1940. Luis Armijo thought that river water was purer than well water (El Cerrito would not have a drilled well until 1949), Leonard, "Interviews with Residents," 25 March 1940. In a 1980 lecture Loomis attributed the death of Benito Armijo in November 1940 to typhoid acquired from drinking water, "1980 Dec. Lecture on El Cerrito & background," l-page typescript and 4 pages of handwritten notes given to the author by Loomis, Las Cruces, 7 August 1987. Leonard lists "home remedies," including what to do for an earache, in The Role of the Land Grant, pp. 173-74, earache, p. 173. Hipolito Quintana spoke to Leonard of the two medicas in Villanueva and of the rarity of doctors visiting El Cerrito, "Interviews with Residents," 24 March 1940. 9. In his "Family Schedules," Leonard
239
recorded food items CerriteAos could provide from home production and those that family representatives would purchase in Las Vegas. He also noted that family heads or representatives traveled to Las Vegas on average once a month. For their mail, however, all villagers went to the post office in Villanueva. In interviews with Leonard, Anastacio Quintana (7 March 1940) and Enrique Armijo (8 March 1940) reported that something in the water from the Terrero mines near the Pecos headwaters had destroyed El Cerrito's crops of chili. Loomis noted that villagers drank coffee with all meals, "Diary of Events," 5 June 1940. 10. Leonard reported the number of irrigated acres owned only by these 14 families. Jesus Maria Armijo told Leonard that he owned about half an acre of irrigated land (Leonard recorded one acre in his schedules; Table 7.2). He explained that at his father's death, the father's 6 acres were evenly divided between 12 children, "Interviews with Residents," 12 March 1940. Heliodoro Quintana told Loomis that irrigated land had an assessed per-acre value of $75 and a market value of $100, "Diary of Events," 7 June 1940. Discussions of crops grown; use of irrigation, manure, and gardens; and nonuse of contour plowing are in Leonard interview with Gabriel Quintana 16 March 1940 (who also noted that apples grown in El Cerrito had worms); Loomis, "Diary of Events," 10 June 1940; and Leonard interview with Jose P. Quintana, 20 March 1940. In his interview with Enrique Armijo on 26 March 1940, Leonard noted that CerriteAos had little consciousness of soil erosion and gullying. 11. Jesus Maria Armijo, himself an Ancon landowner, told Leonard of the "squabble" and that the ditch carried enough water for all, "Interviews with Residents," 12 March 1940. The text on Map A15 of the "Hope Decree" clearly states that the Anc6n had been irrigated "previous to 1912." Information about Aragon, who was born in Aguilar and raised by godparents in Chupinas (both near Anton Chico), is primarily from Leonard's interviews with Arag6n on 28 March 1940 and 3 April 1940 and from Loomis, "Diary of Events," 9 June 1940. Gabriel Quintana noted that Luis Aragon did not lend tools, "Interviews with Residents," 16 March 1940. 12. Leonard learned of the sale of peaches, alfalfa, and beans in interviews with Gabriel Quintana on 16 March 1940 and Enrique Armijo on 26 March 1940. Loomis told of gathering
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NOTES TO PACES 116-22
pifion and its perils, "Diary of Events," 6 June 1940, 8 October 1940, 11November 1940, and 5 December 1940. Gabriel Quintana also noted that livestock kept locally would be fed and kept in village corrals in the winter. 13. Leonard and Loomis took a day trip with Gabriel Quintana to visit Luis M. Quintana at his sheep camp, Loomis, "Diary of Events," 10 June 1940. The four children of Luis (1867-1950) and Isabel Aragbn (1875-1942) who lived beyond childhood were Pliicido (1893-?), Maria Andrea (Andreita, 1895-1978)) Florencio (1902-2000), and Jos6 P. ( l 910-90). Jos6 P. told Leonard that Luis owned the only flock of sheep in El Cerrito, "Interviews with Residents," 20 March 1940. 14. Leonard and Loomis took an overnight trip to the La Garita ranch with Heliodoro Quintana, Loomis, "Diary of Events," 11June 1940. Loomis noted the ranch comprised 3,000 acres and 100 head of cattle ( l 1 June 1940). On 8 June he had noted that cows were worth $25 per head; a figure that had risen to $30 as recorded on 16 November 1940. Anastacio Quintana told Leonard of the general loss of livestock by villagers in the drought of the 1930s, "Interview with Residents," 11 March 1940. Loomis reported that the boys were restocking the ranch and that Hipolito, who was living in El Cerrito because he had the job of "Mayordomo de la Copia," would trade places with Jose Lino the next year, 10 November 1940. Loomis also reported the neglect of barns and equipment in El Cerrito, 5 December 1940. The eight children of Vibian (1865-1932) and Cleofas Ribera (1874-1957) who lived beyond childhood were Rosa L6pez (1892-1937)) Margarita (1897-1993)) Heliodoro (1902-82), Hipolito (1904-2000)) Eduardo (1906- ), Rita D. (1909- ), Jos6 Lino (1911- ), and Gabriel (l914-2000). Juan Nepomuceno (1869-1945) and Fernando (1876-1942)) who lived permanently in La Garita, were sons, after Vibian and Luis, of Epitacio Quintana. 15. Loomis noted the use of "WPMin "Diary of Events," 7 June 1940. Anastacio Quintana told Leonard of the pay and qualifications for WPA employment, "Interviews with Residents," 11 March 1940. And Gabriel Quintana noted the dissatisfaction of onetime CCC youth and the more general dissatisfaction with the FSA in Leonard, "Interviews with Residents," 16 March 1940 and 10 April 1940. In addition to the dozen young men who had taken government and other jobs outside the village, normal attri-
tion also found a dozen young women to have married nonvillage men and moved to the villages of their husbands, Leonard, "Family Schedules." 16. In his Role of the Land Grant, p. 150, Leonard noted that the Santa Fe Railroad employed men from El Cerrito in the 1870s. Enrique (Henry) Manuel Armijo (b. 1931), the first of ten children born to Enrique Armijo and Emelia Lopez (of Rainsville, New Mex.), told me that an enganche in Las Vegas had recruited his father to the beet fields of Rocky Ford, interview with author, Albuquerque, 30 April 1994. Candido Aragh reported how an enganche in Villanueva recruited his brothers, interview with author, Las Vegas, 17 July 1994. Enrique Armijo lamented about the lack of seasonal work to Leonard, "Interviews with Residents," 8 March 1940. And Loomis recorded Heliodoro Quintana's story of freezing on a train in "Diary of Events," 8 June 1940. 17. Cris6stomo Vigil, who made mula for ten years in El Cerrito, supplied much of this information, interview with author, Villanueva, 17 October 1993 and 21 November 1993. Cirilio Arag6n delighted in telling me that his father, Luis, told a detective near the cemetery on the mesa that what the detective saw at the base of a cliff was a molino, not a still. The detective seems to have believed him and left. Interview with author, El Cerrito, 15 October 1993. In response to my inquiry, a letter from Katherine A. Day, Chief, FOIAJPA Section, Federal Bureau of Prisons, revealed that Ra6l and Torres each were sentenced to two years and $500 fines in federal court in Albuquerque on 13 March 1936. On 23 March 1936 officials committed them to Leavenworth; on 23 May 1936 the prisoners were transferred to Kooskia, Idaho; on 12 March 1937 they were paroled; and on 12 April 1938 they were discharged. 18. Loomis learned that in celebrating the funci6n in earlier years, a procession of villagers would ride out to meet the priest (who in 1940 arrived by automobile) and villagers would make "great explosions with anvils and muzzle-loading rifles," "Diary of Events," 3 December 1940. 19. Gabriel Quintana told Leonard that Cerritefios did not spray their fruit crops because it might not be profitable and it might also poison livestock or people, "Interviews with Residents," 16 March 1940. And both Anastacio Quintana (7 March 1940) and Hipolito Quintana (24 March 1940) expressed distrust of machinery, Leonard, "Interviews with Residents."
NOTES TO PACES 122-28
20. Leonard quotes Jose P. Quintana on 20 March 1940 and Enrique Armijo on 26 March 1940 regarding attachment of people to land, "Interviews with Residents." He cites Hipolito Quintana on 24 March 1940 and Luis Arag6n on 28 March 1940 stating their preferences to remain in El Cerrito and raise livestock or farm, "Interviews with Residents." And he cites many opinions about what it would take to make a living off the land: Enrique Armijo, 8 March and 26 March 1940; Jesus Maria Armijo, 12 March 1940; Gabriel Quintana, 16 March 1940; and Hipolito Quintana, quoted on 24 March 1940, "Interviews with Residents." Heliodoro Quintana told Loomis what he thought it would take to make a living, "Diary of Events," 8 June 1940. 21. Faustin Torres told Leonard that he hoped the government would build a dam, "Interviews with Residents," 9 March 1940. Luis Armijo (15 March 1940) spoke of the profits to be made weaving blankets or rugs, and Jose P. Quintana (15 March 1940) had started to weave a "Navajo rug" on a homemade loom, "Interviews with Residents." Luis Armijo expressed dissatisfaction with El Cerrito and said his wife from Espafiola (from Santa Fe in 3 March 1940 interview) did not like El Cerrito, 15 March and 25 March 1940, "Interviews with Residents." Two villagers saying they would consider selling their land and leaving permanently were Hipolito Quintana (24 March 1940) and Enrique Armijo (26 March 1940), who said he would take $350 for his land and house, "Interviews with Residents." 22. Cleo Quintana was 15 in 1942 when her father, Heliodoro (1902-82), and mother, Macedonia Armijo (1902-60), moved to La Garita. Hipolito Quintana and family had preceded Heliodoro in 1941. Both of Cleo's parents were born in El Cerrito and died and were buried in Pueblo. Maria Cleofas (Cleo) Quintana de Sena, interviews with author, Pueblo, 13 September 1993 and 26 July 1994. Born in El Cerrito the last of 12 children in 1935, Sadie Armijo was only eight in 1943 when her parents, Jesus Maria Armijo (1891-1985) and Felipita Vigil (1892-1969), left El Cerrito seasonally. Both parents were born in El Cerrito and died and were buried in Pueblo. Zenaida (Sadie) Maria Armijo de Chhvez, interview with author, Pueblo, 19 August 1994. According to Adin Quintana his father, Agapito (1897-1993), and his mother, Maria Paz Chhvez (1909-85), moved to Las Vegas in 1947. Both are buried in Las
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Vegas; Paz had been born in El Pueblo in the Pecos Valley north of El Cerrito. Adin Quintana, interviews with author, Las Vegas, 9 September 1993 and 13 October 1993. Information about Ram6n Vigil, who is buried in Villanueva but whose wife is interred in El Cerrito, is from Ram6n's son Cris6stomo Vigil, interviews with author, Villanueva, 17 October 1993 and 21 November 1993; also from Macario (Max) Tbrrez, who moved with his mother, Ignacia Vigil, to Villanueva in 1944, interview with author, El Cerrito, 7 September 1993. 23. With the help of two "Field Agents," Elroy Campos and Rito Garcia, Loomis completed family schedules drawn on here for those living in El Cerrito in 1956. He noted under "Miscellaneous information" that "approximately 20'' young men from El Cerrito were World War I1 veterans. The dates and apparent ages of the five heads of household who had died by 1956 are Emiterio Arellanes 1856-1948 (93), Anastacio Quintana 1862-1949 (87), Casimiro Quintana 1893-1953 (60), Luis M. Quintana 1867-1950 (82), and Santiago Vigil 1876-1947 (71). All are buried in El Cerrito. For Pueblo, in the late 1950s, see Samora and Larson, "Rural Families in an Urban Setting," pp. 494-503. 24. Loomis, "Family Schedules" [1956]. "Paublita" Arellanes is how her name is spelled on the grave marker in the El Cerrito hill cemetery. 25. Information on Maes and on Erlinda Gonzilez, Juan Baca's mother, as Agneda's younger sister, is from Juan Baca, interview with author in El Cerrito on 6 September 1993 when Baca visited El Cerrito. That Baca's father bought the Armijo property for $1,300 and that Juan Baca moved to El Cerrito in May 1956 is from Loomis, "Family Schedules" [1956]. The El Cerrito hill cemetery contains four graves of Baca family members: Fidencio Baca (1903-59), Juan Baca's father; Frances Padilla (1930-59), Juan Baca's sister; Alfonso Angel Ortiz 111 (11 May-12 August 1962), Fidencio Baca's grandson; and Juanita Baca (1958-76), Juan Baca's daughter. In 1972 Baca sold his El Cer.rito property to the Tenants in Common, John Miles Burns, interview with author, El Cerrito, 13July 1993. Information about El Cerrito's water well and electricity is from Loomis, "Family Schedules" [1956]. 26. Margie Trujillo, who in Table 7.4 is listed as living in household #9, told me about El Cerrito's population low point, Margarita
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NOTES TO PACES 128-34
(Margie) Maria Trujillo de Quintana, interview with author, El Cerrito, 29 March 1980. From his summer visits with his grandparents, Florencio Quintana and Agneda Gonzalez, in El Cerrito, Ricardo (Rick) Patricio Quintana could verify this population nadir of five in the late 1960s, interview with author, El Cerrito, 11 October 1993.
Chapter 8 1. Paul Tapia's great-great-grandfather, Fernando Quintana (of the ca. 1850 generation), initiated Paul's El Cerrito lineage traced through Dolores Quintana (ca. 1875), Cruz Vigil (ca. 1900), and Benjamin Tapia (ca. 1925). Thus Paul belongs to the circa 1950 exodus generation. Fernando Quintana and his daughter Dolores, who married Juan Vigil, are found in Table 4.2, also Fig. 4.2. Cruz (Crucita) Vigil (born El Cerrito 1882, buried El Cerrito 1938) and Andres (Tito) Tapia (born San Miguel 1877, buried Pueblo 1958) had nine children, the fourth being Benjamin Enrique Tapia (born El Cerrito 1906, died Pueblo 1977) who married Maria Librada Solano (born El Pueblo 1914, married San Miguel 1932). The Tapia family's child migration ladder tracks its major moves into the Anglo urban world: Andres (1933) and Paul (1936) born in El Cerrito; Jose Cruz (1940), Maria E. Beatriz (1942), and Cecilia (1947) born in Las Vegas; Dolores (1950) born in La Junta, Colo.; Tomas (1951) born in Pueblo. Left out of Benjamin's child migration ladder was Tobias, number six of eight, who died young in Colorado in 1949. Also omitted were Benjamin's temporary residence in Vancouver, Wash., in 1942-44 while working at a shipyard, his employment as a coal miner at Koehler, New Mex. (southwest of Raton) in 1944, and a brief return to El Cerrito in 1946. In 1951 Benjamin worked at the Army Ordnance Depot in Pueblo. Paul Tapia (born 14 May 1936) finished high school in 1954 and excelled in a thirty-six-year career in the U.S. Army (Airborne). Meanwhile, he married Alyce E. Gauna (born in Springer, New Mex., 7 March 1941), like Paul a New Mexican of Spanish ancestry but unlike Paul a person who knew little Spanish because her family in Pueblo spoke English in the home. They had seven children: Tamara Eugenia (Pueblo, 27 July 1958), Paul Frank (Pueblo, 22 June 1959))Valerie Leigh (Pueblo, 23 December 1960), Roberta Jo (Pueblo, 14 March 1962),
Beverly Stephanie (Colorado Springs, 21 May 1963), Jerri Yevone (Colorado Springs, 6 May 1965), and Eugene Benjamin (Colorado Springs, 4 September 1967). Much of this information is from Paul Tapia and Alyce Gauna de Tapia, Colorado Springs, interviews with author, 13 July 1993, 13 September 1993, 26 July 1994, and 18 August 1994. 2. It is fortunate that Loomis had the foresight to revisit El Cerrito in 1956 and to ask Samora to study CerriteAos in Pueblo in 1959. Samora and Larson's little-known study about Pueblo drawn on here was published in summer 1961 as "Rural Families in an Urban Setting: A Study in Persistence and Change." Samora became a prominent sociologist at Notre Dame University; the role coauthor Larson of the University of Alabama played is not clear. Loomis told me in a telephone interview on 5 June 1988 from Las Cruces, New Mex., that Moses Trujillo (given as "Mose" on p. 494) was a relative of Samora. The Loomis document on Hotel Whitman stationery is part of Loomis, "Family Schedules" [1956], RG 84-24, Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University. 3. Quotes "fairly good to good" and "well cared for," p. 498; "mild sort of contempt," p. 500; and "La Placita" as an affectionate term is on p. 501; Samora and Larson, "Rural Families in an Urban Setting." 4. The nine people interviewed in 1988 included the first generation-Candido Aragon and Mary Barela de Aragon; Elvira Corrales (for Perfecto Quintana); Eduardo E. Quintana and Jesucita Gutierrez de Quintana; Florencio Quintana Jr. and Helen C' de Baca de Quintana; Maria Cleofas Quintana de Sena and Joe Ned Sena; Abel Tapia and Josie Martinez de Tapia; Macario Torrez and Rose Sandoval de Torrezand the second generation-Luis Roberto Uoe) Aragon and Linda Quintana de Aragon; Ricardo (Rick) Patricio Quintana and Repita Chac6n de Quintana. I drew on these interviews for chapter 9 in Nostrand, The Hispano Homeland. The nine new interviews in 1993-94 were with the first generation: Flora Armijo de Padilla (daughter of Cristiano Armijo with whom she arrived in Pueblo in 1945); Zenaida "Sadie" Armijo de Chavez (daughter of Jesus Maria Armijo); Cirilio Aragon; Paul Tapia and Alyce E. Gauna de Tapia; second generation: Gloria Quintana (daughter of Perfecto Quintana); Joseph uoe) Albert Quintana and Wendy Farrell de Quintana; Juanita Gutierrez Quintana (adopted daughter of
NOTES TO PAGES 134-42
Eduardo E. Quintana); Roberto (Robert) Quintana; Juanita Elaine Montoya de Ulibarri (for Joseph Thomas Ulibarri, son of Juan Bautista Ulibarri and great-great-grandson of Victorian0 Ulibarri). In the eighteen interviews and their follow-ups (each total interview lasted an average of 3.7 hours) I asked first-generation villagers about their children to augment my data on the second generation. 5. Josb Manuel Quintana and Carmen Balbina Gutibrrez de Quintana, interview with author, La Garita, 5 September 1993. 6. The linguistic gap between grandparents and grandchildren struck me in an interview in Las Vegas. While I spoke with Avelina Quintana de Lucero, daughter of Juan N. Quintana I and Delfina, her granddaughter, Cynthia Martinez, arrived. Avelina spoke little English and Cynthia little Spanish, forcing the two to communicate in bits of both. Interview with author, Las Vegas, 5 September 1993. 7. Loomis, "Family Schedules" [1956], omitted the households of Agapito Quintana Jr. and Rafael Torres (nos. 5 and 11 in Table 7.4) who must also have spoken Spanish with other villagers. My stay in El Cerrito in 1980 revealed that Florencio Quintana, Agneda Gonzalez de Quintana, and Albinita Quintana spoke Spanish; that Abran Quintana, Margie Trujillo de Quintana, Luis Roberto Aragon, Linda Quintana de Aragon, and Joe Quintana (who lived with Albinita) were bilingual; and that Alisha Aragon and Jack and Heidi Lanstra spoke English (Table 8.1). Villagers in 2000 are discussed in chapter 9. 8. For Pedro Luis Duran, Land Grant Records, San Miguel del Vado Grant, PLC 25, 35: 776-79. In his "Short Index to New Mexican Soldiers' Service Records and Enlistment Papers, 1821-1846," Julian Josub Vigil compiled a list of New Mexico's soldiers who served in the Mexican era. When I compared names of male Cerritefio heads of household in the 1841 census (Table A. 1) to Vigil's alphabetical list of soldiers, ten men emerged as possible soldiers from El Cerrito. Information in the MANM reels in the State Records Center and Archives in Santa Fe showed that none of the ten came from El Cerrito, however. In Table 6.1 six women teachers with English names in El Cerrito are noted: Dollie Mussey, Mrs. N. Parker, Zela Bibb, Bertha Pagan, Cora Nicholas, and Catherine Callery. Two additional women teachers, Cruz Maloof and Mrs. Dice, are given in chapter 6, note 8, with other teachers whose precise years of teaching are unavailable. Luis Aragon spoke favorably
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of the "Anglo family" that lived about a mile from El Cerrito, Leonard, "Interview with Residents," 28 March 1940. That the wife in this family was Mrs. Dice, the schoolteacher who lived in Quintana Cabin, I confirmed in my interviews with Candido Aragon, Las Vegas, 17 July 1994; and Teodoro Aragon, El Cerrito, 20 October 1993. I learned in the Loomis file for 1956 that "Harry" Dice and his wife, "Leona," contracted to drill the well in El Cerrito in June 1949. I assume that this is the same couple who lived in Quintana Cabin a decade earlier. Loomis, "Family Schedules" [1956]. The times when Leonard and Loomis lived in El Cerrito are from Olen E. Leonard, letter to author, 25 August 1980; and Charles P. Loomis, letter to author, 27 December 1980. 9. The precise figures for acres purchased by Watson and Messec are from plats 3820-A and 3821-A drawn in 1968 by H. E. Beisman, a registered surveyor in Las Vegas, New Mex. The additional information about Watson is from Jack and Heidi Lanstra, interview with author, El Cerrito, 31 March 1980. The additional information about Messec is from Donald (Don) Norman Messec, interview with author, Santa Fe, 21 July 1999; and Mary Tate Messec, telephone interview with author, Baltimore, 17 September 1999. 10. Jack and Heidi Lanstra supplied this information in interviews with author in El Cerrito, 29 March 1980,2 April 1980, 10 August 1980, and 7 December 1980. Albinita Quintana's use of "vagabond" is from Joe Quintana, interview with author, El Cerrito, 6 September 1993. 11. This information is largely from John Burns, interview with author, E1 Cerrito, 13 July 1993; and Jose Uoe) C' de Baca, interview with author, 8 September 1993. After his initial visit to El Cerrito, Joe C' de Baca recalled that he did have prior knowledge of the village: At Christmas the Gregorio Apodaca family, his onetime neighbors on North Gonzales Street in Las Vegas, would have sugarcane that came from El Cerrito. For Joe sugarcane was a delicacy; villagers must have used it as an ingredient in mula. Jose Uoe) C' de Baca, interview with author, Las Vegas, 12 October 1993. 12. The precise figures for acres purchased by the Tenants in Common in 1982 are from Edward G. (Ted) Winston Jr., Land Surveyor, Property Survey Drawing No. 82083-36, Las Vegas, May 1982. 13. This information is largely from Florencio Quintana and Agneda Gonzales de Quintana,
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NOTES TO PACES 142-55
interviews with author, El Cerrito, 29 March 1980, 30 March 1980, and 7 May 1980. Agneda died on 23 April 1996 and Florencio on 20 September 2000, both in Albuquerque, where they had moved into an assisted living facility in 1991. 14. Margie Trujillo de Quintana and Abran have opened their home to me on many occasions, including an invitation for dinner when the priest came for the funci6n held on 7 December 1980. Longer interviews with them in El Cerrito occurred on 29 March 1980, 30 March 1980, 12 August 1980, 7 September 1993, and 11 October 1993. After 1945, Margie's younger sister, Edwina, was raised by an aunt in Denver and later by relatives in California. In 1958, when Edwina came for Margie's wedding, she had difficulty communicating with Abrhn and other villagers: she spoke English, and they spoke mostly Spanish. 15. Joe's mother, Celina Gallegos de Quintana, was from El Barranco up the Pecos Valley. Joe arrived in El Cerrito on 10January 1978, nine days after Fernandes died. Florencia died on 8 September 1979, and Albinita died on 28 February 1989. Joe married Wendy Ferrell in 1985; his brother Robert arrived from Pueblo in 1986; and Joe completed his bachelor's degree at Highlands in 1993. Joseph Albert Quintana, Wendy Ferrell, and Robert Quintana, interview with author, El Cerrito, 6 September 1993. 16. Luis Candido arrived in Las Vegas on 17 October 1980. Luis Roberto Aragon and Linda Quintana de Aragon, El Cerrito, interviews on various informal occasions and on 4 July 1988. 17. Jack Lanstra and Heidi Lanstra, interviews with author, El Cerrito, especially 28 March 1980 and 30 March 1980.
Chapter 9 1. Much of this information is from Ricardo (Rick) Patricio Quintana, interviews with author, El Cerrito, 7 September 1993, 11 October 1993. In 1978 Margie Quintana informed Rick that Jay Schlack, then in possession of Colonel Watson's land, because of a run-in with members of the Arag6n family, wished to sell his land. While recovering from a motorcycle injury in a hospital in Pueblo, Rick learned from his nurse, Grace Quintana de Garcia, by coincidence the daughter of Heliodoro Quintana, that she wished to sell the family house. Technically, Rick, who was born in Pueblo in 1954, belongs to El Cerrito's Anglicized generation.
2. Cirilio Aragon, shown to be 79 and the oldest villager in Table 9.1, died in El Cerrito on about 18 August 2000. The families interviewed (all in El Cerrito) with dates of interviews were (1) Cirilio Aragon, 15 October 1993; (2) Teodoro Aragon, 12 September 1993, 20 October 1993; (3) John Burns, 10 September 1993, 12 October 1993, 27 November 1993,24 April 1994; (4) Leandro Quintana, 26 October 2000; (5) Maria Quintana, 11 October 1993; (6) Rick Quintana, 7 September 1993, 11 October 1993; (7) Jescs (Jess) Torres, 10 September 1993, 17 October 1993, 29 October 2000; (8) Macario Torrez, 7 September 1993, 15 October 1993, 24 April 1994. 3. The land owned by Jess Torres had water rights, but Jess could not use ditch water because previous owners of the property had not paid Ditch Association assessments. In acquiring his house lot, Macario Torrez reactivated a claim with the San Miguel del Vado Land Grant Commission to a solar once owned by the Torres family. Interview with author, El Cerrito, 15 October 1993. 4. In January 1980 the Eastern New Mexico Rural Telephone Cooperative laid cable into the village; reportedly, a severed cable held up telephone service until 1982. 5. The eight nonresidents listed in Table 9.2 who owned bottomland acreage with water rights were James Angel, Luis Roberto Aragon, Janet C' de Baca, Joe C' de Baca, Phillip C' de Baca, Mary Messec, Vidal Sandoval, and Ray Valdez. Florencio Quintana Jr. owned both a house lot lived on by his son Rick and land with water rights. And as noted below both John Encinias of Las Vegas and David Shnchez of Albuquerque owned land with water rights but not house lots. 6. Peones are thought to be tied to acreage, and indirectly they are. Technically, however, they are tied to the acre-feet of water a parciante is entitled to use while irrigating and not to a fixed amount of land to be irrigated. It is difficult to understand and determine acre-feet of water, so the formula for peones owed is based on straight acres owned. See Stanley Crawford, Mayordomo, pp. 172-73. Parciantes can employ substitute workers or can choose to be assessed in money instead of workers. 7. If the system has some 113 acres, 42 peones would seem to be too many (3 times 42 = 126). One pebn represents up to three acres, however, and those with less than three acres or multiples of three acres seem to explain the discrepency between 113 and 126.
NOTES TO PAGES 157-65
8. Peter J. McCormick, one of OU's nine graduate students on board for ditch day in 1999, had moved by 2000 to a faculty position at Northern Arizona University, where he recruited his own student participants. Loomis noted that villagers worked two days to clean the ditch in the 1950s, "Family Schedules" [1956]. 9. Villagers use 113 as a whole number for the total acres of irrigated bottomland in their possession, 63 acres in the Anconcito and the Rinc6n and 50 acres in the Ancon. In the Hope Decree (cited in chap. 3), the precise acres of all properties adds up to 63.34 + 50 = 113.34. 10. With the "Family Schedules" compiled by Loomis in 1956 are notes on El Cerrito's "Water Project" in which Loomis rather praises Luis Aragon for his mainstay role in "El Cerrito's Mutual [Domestic] Water Consumers' Association." The organization began with a president, vice president, secretary-treasurer, and two commissioners, but village depopulation left Luis Aragon, the secretary-treasurer, to run things alone. In January 1992, for the first time, a meter was installed to record the total groundwater being pumped annually, John Burns, interview with author, El Cerrito, 12 October 1993. 11. As reported to Leonard, "Interviews with Residents," 28 March 1940, Luis Aragon was buying the Anc6n from several owners ten yards at a time "as measured on the side of the river" for sixty-five cents per yard. Luis managed the purchase as a family enterprise using money he earned as a shepherd and that earned by his daughter Ramona, who worked in a National Youth Administration Camp, and his son Cirilio, who worked in a Civilian Conservation Corps Camp. Candido, Ted, and perhaps several of the four children who followed also helped to channel money to the family purchase of the Anc6n initiated in 1935 with land purchased from the Armijo family, Candido Aragbn, interview with author, Pueblo, 7 July 1988. Loomis reported what Luis Aragon owned in 1956 in his "Family Schedules" [1956]. 12. The death of Candido M. (Primo) Aragon at age 73 on 2 March 1996 in Pueblo represented a major loss in enlightened village leadership. Born in El Cerrito on 18 January 1923, Candido knew accurately and in detail about El Cerrito during his lifetime. He loved to plow the fields and eat the fresh apples grown at "the farm" or "the ranch," as he called El Cerrito. When he retired from 30 years as a carpenter with the Pueblo Army Depot in 1983, he had to abandon
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plans to return permanently to El Cerrito because of his wife's health. He once told me that the only thing available in Pueblo and not at "the farm" was the newspaper. Candido is now buried in El Cerrito. Interviews with author, 7 July 1988 in Pueblo; 8 September 1993 in El Cerrito; 17 July 1994 in Las Vegas. 13. Leonard and Loomis, Culture of a Contemporary Rural Community, used 13 of Rusinow's photographs, including the one of the village taken from La Centinela on the cover. To this day villagers covet their copies of Rusinow's
Camera Report. 14. That all inhabited structures had pitched roofs is shown in a repeat photograph taken in December 1980, Fig. 2 (p. 114) in Nostrand, "El Cerrito Revisited." A repeat photograph that I took in March 1980 appeared below the Rusinow photograph as Fig. 5.3 (p. 125) in Nostrand, The Hispano Homeland. Both of the latter photographs, when published, were disappointingly dark and out of focus, problems corrected in a 1997 paperback edition. 15. The official date of El Cerrito's funcion is 8 December. The five missions in Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish are El Cerrito, Sena, Gonzales Ranch, Leyba, and Aurora. Sister Clarita Trujillo of Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters, the religious order that administered the parish in the 1990s, supplied much of this information. Interview with author, Villanueva, 11 October 1993.
Chapter 10 1. Born in El Cerrito on 24 November 1912, Henry Arellanes had a rather sad childhood in the village. After the birth of a brother, Ismael, in 1914, Henry's parents separated and left El Cerrito. Henry's father lived in Raton and Pecos, and Henry's mother, Teodora Vigil, took Ismael with her to Denver. Henry's authoritarian grandfather kept Henry from visiting his mother for fear he might not return. In 1934, at the age of 21, Henry finally "met" his mother. He knocked on her door in Denver for a long time before anyone came, and when a younger stepbrother finally opened the door Henry was asked why he had not rung the doorbell. An embarrassed Henry answered that he did not know about doorbells. Henry died in Albuquerque on 1 November 2000. Henry Arellanes, interviews with author in Albuquerque, especially 19 February 1994 and 3 July 1998.
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NOTES TO PACES 167-76
2. John Brinckerhoff Jackson argued for the acceptance of manufactured houses in New Mexico's Spanish villages in "The House in the Vernacular Landscape." 3. A fuller discussion is found in Nostrand, "The Hispano Homeland in 1900," pp. 382-96; and Nostrand, The Hispano Homeland, pp. 230-32. 4. Factual information concerning the Spanish "urban hierarchy" is found in Nostrand, The Hispano Homeland, pp. 203-6. El Llano in southern Taos County, with 908 Spanish people, ranked as the largest of the 29 purely Spanish precincts. Los Barelas (near Albuquerque), with 990 Spanish inhabitants (81.2 percent of the total population), ranked after Ocate in Table 10.1. 5. Jose de Gracia Gonzales seems to have been born in Chihuahua in 1835; migrated to northern New Mexico in about 1860; married Maria de Atocha Maestas, apparently from Mora, in the 1860s; and painted and sculpted in Trinidad from about 1871 until his death in about 1901. William Wroth discusses Gonzales in Images of Penance Images of Mercy, pp. 101-5; the "most important Hispanic painter" quote is from p. 101. Information about the painted altar screen, especially the role played by Jay Stern, was supplied by Robin Farwell Gavin, Curator, Spanish Colonial Collections, Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, personal correspondence, 7 July 1993. 6. Olen Leonard reported that Faustin Torres charged villagers for using his "small, waterturned flour mill." "Interviews with Residents," 9 March 1940. Three people, in interviews with the author, confirmed the absence of a morada
in El Cerrito: Candido Aragon, Las Vegas, 17 July 1994; Crisostomo Vigil, Villanueva, 17 October 1993; and Henry Arellanes, Albuquerque, 30 April 1994. Raising the pitched roof over the church may have been the work for which contractor Jay Stern received the altar screen, painted by Gonzales, as partial payment. 7. For a discussion of these three borderlands subcultures, see Nostrand, The Hispano Homeland, pp. 3-25. 8. In the American Southwest an "Anglo" is anyone who is not Hispanic or Native American. For a sketch of the history of Spanish-Anglo overIap, see Nostrand, The Hispano Homeland, pp. 3-7. Whitman's letter, written in Camden, N.J., on 20 July 1883, is discussed and reproduced under the heading "The Spanish Element in Our Nationality," in Walt Whitman, Prose Works 1892, vol. 2, pp. 552-54; passages quoted are from pp. 553-54. 9. The quote about only the puppies is from Margie Trujillo de Quintana and Abran Quintana, interview with author, El Cerrito, 27 November 1993. 10. The story of Rita Arellanes (born 1944) came from her older sister, Simonita Teresa Arellanes (1940-99)) interview with author, Las Vegas, 16 October 1993. And the true story of Pacheco's roof was told to me by Jose Manuel Quintana, Las Vegas, 25 July 1999. 11. The quote is from Leonard and Loomis, Culture of a Contemporary Rural Community, p. 8. G. EmIen Hall makes clear the ecological balance "struck" when Hispanic people separated irrigated lands from grazing lands in this semiarid country, "San Miguel del Bado and the Loss of the Common Lands," pp. 417,427.
GLOSSARY aceite de liimpara acequia madre adentro adivinanza alamo anc6n (pl. ancones) anconcito arboleda atarque azotea baile bigote boda cabrito californio caiio caiion capilla carreta centinela cerrito chatita cibolero compadres cuento cura dicho enganche era estufa de leAa fog611, fogones funci6n genizaro hombre horno
kerosene mother or main irrigation ditch inside (buried under the floor) riddle cottonwood tree; any large deciduous tree land within a bend of the river; point bar a small river-bend area orchard diversion dam flat roof dance mustache wedding young goat, kid native Californian flume or conduit, often a hollowed-out log canyon, gorge chapel, small church two-wheeled cart sentinel small hill pug nose (nickname) buffalo hunter godparents story, tale lay priest or clergyman saying, proverb job recruiter (enganchar = to enlist) threshing floor wood-burning iron cooking stove wood-burning metal heater function, festival Hispanicized nomadic Indian man outdoor dome-shaped adobe oven
248
GLOSSARY
huerta nuevomexicano madrina mayordomola rnedicola mentirillas molinero molino morada mujer mula nacio nanita padrino paraje parciante pel6n pefia peonlpeones placita plaza primo punche remanso retablo rincon salina santero solar/solares s6tano suerte tarea tasajo tejano temporal torreon vado vagamundarios variadero vecino zaguin
vegetable garden native New Mexican godmother malelfemale ditchlchurch foreman/overseer malelfemale doctor white lies miller mill chapel of the Penitente Brotherhood woman corn whiskey or moonshine born affectionate term for mother godfather stopping point for travelers landholder with water rights bald person large rock or boulder laborerllaborers small fortified village (after 1692) fortified village (after 1692); open space in center of village cousin a strong tobacco grown in New Mexico eddy or backwater altarpiece inside corner or angle salt deposit or mine person who carves or paints saints house lot/lots underground cellar agricultural parcel stretch of irrigation ditch to be cleaned jerked beef native Texan dry-farmed field tower used as a lookout river ford vagabonds meandering stream resident heavy gate
Archives and Manuscript Collections Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe (AASF). Pecos Baptisms. Roll 6. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Ribera Baptisms. Rolls 50A, 51A. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Ribera Burials. Roll 54A. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Ribera Marriages. Roll 53A. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . San Miguel Baptisms. Rolls 6, 71, 11, 12. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . San Miguel Burials. Rolls 35, 38. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . San Miguel Marriages. Rolls 27, 54, 29, 53A. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Santa Clara Marriages. Roll 30. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Santa Fe Baptisms. Roll 16. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Santa Fe Marriages. Roll 31. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. Beisman, H. E., surveyor. "Plat Showing Survey for Rogillio [sic]Arellanes El Cerrito San Miguel Co. N. M." [23 December 19681. No. 3820-A. Four tracts surveyed for Brad Watson, Las Vegas, New Mex. . "Plat Showing Survey for Willie Torres El Cerrito San Miguel Co. N. M." [4June 19681. No. 3821A. Six tracts surveyed for Harry Messec, Las Vegas, New Mex. Chavez, Fray Angelico. Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, 1678-1 900. Washington, D.C.: Academy of American Franciscan History, 1957. Chavez, Fray Angelico, comp. "New Mexico Roots Ltd. A Demographic Perspective from Genealogical, Historical and Geographic ~ i t found a in the Diligencias ~a&&iales or Pre-Nuptial
Investigations (1678-1869)of the Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe." Santa Fe, New Mexico [1982], 2 reels. Typescript. Dreesen, Don. "Albuquerque Marriages 1776-1818." New Mexico Genealogist 24, no. 2 (1985): 29-71. . "Albuquerque Marriages [1818-18211." New Mexico Genealogist 25, no. 3 (September 1986): 55-57. Hispanic Genealogical Research Center (HGRC) of New Mexico [in Albuquerque]. "Bautismos San Miguel del Vado July 1853-June 1868." Transcription of the Sacramental Records from the Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe [n.d.]. . "Bautismos San Miguel del Vado May 1867-December l885 ." Transcription of the Sacramental Records from the AASF Duly 19961. Typescript. Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). "Spanish-American Villages of the Upper Pecos River Valley." Pecos Valley Project, 1975. Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation under direction of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Office of Cultural Affairs, Historic Preservation Division, Santa Fe. "Hope Decree." 1933. State Engineer Office, Santa Fe. Vol. 1, Counties of San Miguel and Guadalupe. Typescript. Land Grant Records. San Miguel del Vado Grant, Surveyor General Report No. 119. Roll 24. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . San Miguel del Vado Grant, Court of Private Land Claims Case No. 25. Roll 35. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . San Miguel del Vado Grant, Court of Private Land Claims Case No. 60. Roll 40. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . San Mime1 del Vado Grant, Court of Private ~ a L d Claims Case NO.. 198. Roll
250
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51. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Town of Anton Chico Grant, Surveyor General Report No. 29. Roll 16. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. Leonard, Olen E. "Family Schedules for El Cerrito, New Mexico, April 1, 1940." RG 84-24. Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. . "Interviews with Residents of El Cerrito, New Mexico, 1940." RG 84-24. Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. Loomis, Charles P. "Diary of Events during Stay in El Cerrito, New Mexico" [1940]. RG 84-24. Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. . "Family Schedules for El Cerrito, New Mexico, August 1956." RG 84-24. Rio Grande Historical Collections, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. . "1980 Dec. Lecture on El Cerrito & background." One-page typescript and four pages of handwritten notes given to author by Loomis, 7 August 1987, Las Cruces. Martinez, Thomas D., et al. "Santa Fe Baptisms 1747-185 1." San Jose, Calif., (1992). Typescript. Mexican Archives of New Mexico. "Bayes de San Agustin." [Census ca. April 18451. Reel 40. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. Montoya, Benito, and Thomas D. Martinez. "San Juan de 10s Caballeros Baptisms 1786-1 870." San Jose, Calif. (1994). New Mexico Blue Books. Voting records for New Mexico as recorded annually by secretary of the territory (before 1912) and secretary of state (after 1912). State Records Center and Archives,' Santa Fe. New Mexico Department of Education. Minutes of the meetings of the State Board of Education, 1943-53, Item No. 14. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. New Mexico Genealogical Society. "Albuquerque Baptisms Archdiocese of Santa Fe 1706-1850." Albuquerque, New Mex. (1983). Typescript. Olmsted, Virginia L. "Spanish Enlistment Papers of New Mexico 1732-1820.'' National Genealogical Society Quarterly 67 (1979) 229-36,294-301; 68 (1980): 51-60,121-22.
Olmsted, Virginia Langham, comp. Spanish
and Mexican Colonial Censuses of New Mexico: 1790 l823 1845. Albuquerque: New Mexico Genealogical Society, 1975. . Spanish and Mexican Censuses of New Mexico: 1750 to 1830. Albuquerque: New Mexico Genealogical Society, l98 1. Sanchez, George I. Collection. Mexican American Archives, Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas, Austin. San Miguel County. Annual Reports, County School Superintendent, Department of Education, Items for 1922-23 to 1931-32. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Assessment Rolls, Precinct 37 (El Cerrito) 1884-1912. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. - Day Book, 1879-1886. Comisionados de Escuelas Publicas [Spanish]. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Register of District Officers, 1897-1906. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Register of Teachers Employed. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Superintendent's Record Book 1884-1887. Office of County Superintendent of Schools, Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Superintendent's Record Book 1889-1897. Office of the School Superintendent, Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Superintendent's Record Book 1897-1908. Office of County Superintendent of Schools, Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. Spanish Archives of New Mexico (SANM). I RG. "Archive 377." Uulian Bejil (Vigil) to Juan Cristobal Garcia, Alameda, 20 April 18061. Series 1, Roll 2. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. - I RG. "Archive 1090." [Grant by Provincial Deputation to Jose Ramon Alarid and others of El Cerrito, 14 April 18241. Series 1, Roll 3. "1090 La Cuesta." [Grant to Alarid of El Cerrito on 14 April 1824-in Spanish]. Series 1, Roll 5. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe.
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. I1 RG. "[Archive] 2031." [Account of trial for Juan Cristobal Garcia, Santa Fe, 26 November 18061. Series 2, Reel 16. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . I1 RG. "[Archive] Filiacion." [Regimental Register showing "Josef" Ramon Alari]. Series 2, Reel 21. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. Stein, Joe, and Diana Stein. Collection. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. The Spanish Archives of New Mexico. Vol. 1. Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark, 1914. . The Spanish Archives of New Mexico. Vol. 2. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Torch Press, 1914; rpt. New York: Arno Press, 1976. Vigil, Julian Josuit, transcriber. "San Miguel del Bado, 1841 Census." Springer, New Mex.: Editorial Telaraiia, 1984. Pamphlet. Winston Jr., Edward G. (Ted), surveyor. "El Cerrito Tenants in Common Property Survey Drawing Number 82083-36 w a y 19821. Las Vegas, New Mex. Interviews The author conducted all interviews noted. "Villager(s)" refers to those born in El Cerrito or having a strong village connection. Aragon, Candido, and Mary Barela de Aragon. Villagers. Pueblo, Colo., 7 July 1988; El Cerrito, 8 September 1993; Las Vegas, New Mex., 17 July 1994. Aragon, Cirilio. Villager. El Cerrito, 15 October 1993. Aragon, Luis Roberto (Joe),and Linda Quintana de Aragon. Villagers. El Cerrito, 4 July 1988. Aragon, Teodoro (Ted) Isidro, and Jenny Baca de Aragon. Villagers. El Cerrito, 12 September 1993, 20 October 1993. Arellanes, Enrique (Henry) Vigil, and Manuelita Eloisa (Eloise) Trujillo de Arellanes. Villagers. Albuquerque, New Mex., 19 February 1994, 22 April 1994, 30 April 1994, 15 May 1994,24 July 1994, 12 October 1996, 3 July 1998. Arellanes, Simonita (Simmie) Tresa. Villager. Las Vegas, New Mex., 16 October 1993. Armijo, Enrique (Henry) Manuel. Villager. Albuquerque, New Mex., 30 April 1994. Baca, Juan. Villager. El Cerrito, 6 September 1993.
251
Burns, John Miles. Villager. El Cerrito, 13 July 1993, 10 September 1993, 12 October 1993, 27 November 1993, 24 April 1994, 14 October 1996. C' de Baca, Jose Uoe) Leon. Villager. Las Vegas, New Mex., 8 September 1993, 12 October 1993. Chiivez, Zenaida (Sadie) Maria Armijo de. Villager. Pueblo, Colo., 19 August 1994. Corrales, Elvira. Villager. Rocky Ford, Colo., 9 July 1988, 14 September 1993, 19 August 1994. DeBlassie, Geraldine Sanchez de. Villager. Albuquerque, New Mex., 29 April 1994. Esquibel, Ramon (Ray). Schoolteacher. Las Vegas, New Mex., 17 August 1988. El Cerrito, 22 September 1988. Gallegos, Fortunato. Local historian. Villanueva, New Mex., 17 October 1993, 21 November 1993,13 October 1996. Geoffrion, Carmen Gallegos de, and Robert Desiderio Geoffrion. Residents of Los Alamos, New Mex. Los Alamos, 26 November 1993. Lanstra, John (Jack)Millam, and Heidi Jean (Silva) Lanstra. Villagers. El Cerrito, 28, 29, 30, 31 March 1980; 2, 3, 6, 27 April 1980; 12, 13 August 1980; 6, 7 December 1980. Las Vegas, New Mex., 20 October 1993, 25 July 1994. Loomis, Charles P., and Zona K. Loomis. Residents of Las Cruces, New Mex. Las Cruces, 7 August 1987. Telephone interview, 5 June 1988. Lopez, Cadmio Antonio (Tony, Chamo), and Dolores Quintana de Lopez. Villagers. Santa Fe, New Mex., 20 November 1993. Lopez, Lucy. Resident of Las Vegas, New Mex. Las Vegas, 16 October 1993, 27 November 1993. Lucero, Avelina Quintana del and Cynthia Martinez (granddaughter). Residents of Las Vegas, New Mex. Las Vegas, 5 September 1993. Lucero, Pablo (Paul). Local historian. La Garita, New Mex., 18 October 1993. Messec, Donald (Don) Norman, and Charlene Teters (wife). Residents of Santa Fe, New Mex. Santa Fe, 21 July 1999. Messec, Mary Tate. Resident of Baltimore, Md. Telephone interview, 17 September 1999. Padilla, Flora Armijo de. Villager. Pueblo, Colo., 14 September 1993. Quintana, Adan, and Filomena (File) Guerin de Quintana. Villagers. Las Vegas, New
252
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mex., 9 September 1993, 13 October 1993,27 November 1993, 17 July 1994. Quintana, Eduardo E., and Jesucita Gutierrez de Quintana. Villagers. Pueblo, Colo., 8 September 1988, 13 September 1993, 19 August 1994. Quintana, Florencio, and Maria Agneda Gonzilez de Quintana. Villagers. El Cerrito, 29, 30 March 1980; 2, 6 April 1980; 7 May 1980; 12,13 August 1980; 7 December 1980. Quintana Jr., Florencio, and Helen [C' del Baca de Quintana. Villagers. Pueblo, Colo., 3 July 1988. Quintana, Gloria. Villager. El Cerrito, 10 September 1993, 11 October 1993. Quintana, Hipolito (Polo), and Frances Gonzales de Quintana. Villagers. Albuquerque, New Mex., 19 February 1994. Quintana, Jose Manuel, and Carmen Balbina GutiQrez de Quintana. Residents of La Garita, New Mex. La Garita, 5 September 1993, 11 September 1993, 18 October 1993, 16 July 1994. Las Vegas, New Mex., 25 July 1999, 27 October 2000. Quintana, Joseph Albert, and Wendy Farrell (wife). Villagers. El Cerrito, 6 September 1993. Las Vegas, New Mex., 19 October 1993. El Cerrito, 27 November 1993. Quintana 11, Juan Nepomoceno, and Julia Roybal de Quintana. Residents of La Garita, New Mex. Las Vegas, 13 October 1993. Quintana, Juanita GutiQrez. Resident of Pueblo, Colo. Pueblo, 11 September 1993. Quintana, Leandro (Lalo) Candido. Villager. El Cerrito, 26 October 2000. Quintana, Maria (Mary). Villager. El Cerrito, 11 October 1993. Quintana, Maria Margarita (Margie) Trujillo de, and Abrin Quintana. Villagers. El Cerrito, 29, 30 March 1980; 17 May 1980; 12 August 1980; 7 September 1993; 11October 1993; 27 November 1993. Quintana, Napoleon, and Alcaria Olguin de Quintana. Residents of La Garita, New Mex. La Garita, 11September 1993. Quintana, Ricardo (Rick) Patricio, and Repita Chacon de Quintana. Villagers. El Cerrito, 5 July 1988. With Margaret (Meg) McGee, El Cerrito, 7 September 1993, 11 October 1993.
Quintana, Roberto (Robert). Villager. El Cerrito, 10 September 1993, 11 October 1993. Quintana, Vidal Ruben. Villager. El Cerrito, 20,27 November 1993. Salisbury, Neil E. Professor of Geography, University of Oklahoma, Norman. On field trip in El Cerrito, 18-19 September 1981. Sinchez, Arabella (Bella) Evelyn Quintana de. Villager. Albuquerque, New Mex., 22 April 1994. Sena, Maria Cleofas (Cleo) Quintana de, and Joe (Ned) Sena. Villagers. Pueblo, Colo., 8 July 1988; 13, 14 September 1993; 26 July 1994; 19 August 1994. Tapia, Josie Martinez de, and Abel Tapia. Schoolteacher, villager. Pueblo, Colo., 8 July 1988. Tapia, Pablo (Paul), and Alyce E. Gauna de Tapia. Villagers. Colorado Springs, Colo., 13 July 1993, 13 September 1993, 26 July 1994, 18 August 1994. Torres, Jesus Uess) Gilbert Castillo. Villager. El Cerrito, 10 September 1993, 17 October 1993, 29 October 2000. Torrez, Macario and Rose Sandoval de T6rrez. Villagers. Pueblo, Colo., 6 July 1988. El Cerrito, 7 September 1993, 15 October 1993,24 April 1994. Trujillo, Clarita. Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sister and Parish Coordinator, Villanueva, New Mex. Villanueva, 11 October 1993. Ulibarri, Juanita Elaine Montoya de. Resident of Pueblo, Colo. Pueblo, 26 July 1994. Vigil, Crisostomo, and Adelaida Ortiz de Vigil. Villagers. Villanueva, New Mex., 17 October 1993,21 November 1993, 24 April 1994, 25 July 1999.
Personal Correspondence Alarid, Waldo. Author and resident of Santa Fe, New Mex. 24 July 1994. Arellanes, Enrique (Henry) Vigil. Villager. 11 December 1998, 16 May 2000. Day, Katherine A. Section Chief, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, D.C. 15 March 2000. Forrest, Suzanne S. Author and resident of Placitas, New Mex. 8 February 1993. Gavin, Robin Farwell. Curator, Spanish Colonial Collections, Museum of
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International Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mex. 7 July 1993. Leonard, Olen E. Author and resident of Tucson, Ariz. 25 August 1980. Loomis, Charles P. Author and resident of Las Cruces, New Mex. 12 August 1980. Madrid, Arturo. Professor of Modern Languages, Trinity University, San Antonio, Tex. 14 August 1997. Majnik, Juanita Madrid. Saiz family genealogist and resident of Ogden, Utah. 30 December 1993.
Unpublished Theses and Papers Gompert, Kent Howard. "The San Miguel del Bado Land Grant: Corruption and Bribery in Northern New Mexico." Master's thesis, University of New Mexico, 1986. Haas, Sherry L. "Evolution of the Pecos River Floodplain, El Cerrito, New Mexico: A Possible Explanation." Seminar paper, Geography, University of Oklahoma, November 1986. Heffington,J. Douglas. "El Cerrito: An Archeo-Geographical Biography of a New Mexican Village." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 1992. Marquez, Angelina V. "San Miguel Del Vado (the Marquez Family Tree)." Class paper, Anthropology, Colorado College, 1973. Doc. 30 in State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe, New Mex. Wright, Chad Evans. "Natural Hazards Faced by Villagers of El Cerrito." Seminar paper, Geography, University of Oklahoma, October 1984.
Government Publications Leonard, Olen, and C. P. Loomis. Culture of a
Contemporary Rural Community: El Cerrito, New Mexico. Rural Life Studies 1. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, November 1941. [Rpt. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978.1 Maker, H. J., P. S. Derr, J. U. Anderson, V. G. Link. Soil Associations and Land
Classification for Irrigation: San Miguel County. Agricultural Experiment Station
253
Research Report 221. New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, April 1972. Post, Stephen S. Cultural Resources Investigation
North of the El Cerrito Bn'dge and Data Recovery Plan for LA 84318, a Multicomponent Artifact Scatter at El Cerrito, San Miguel County, New Mexico. Archaeology Notes No. 55. Santa Fe: Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico, 1991. Rusinow, Irving. A Camera Report on El Cerrito,
a Typical Spanish-American Community in New Mexico. Miscellaneous Publication No. 479. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 1942. U.S. Bureau of the Census. Agricultural Schedules of the New Mexico Territory Census [1850]. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Agricultural Schedules of the New Mexico Territory Census [1860]. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Agricultural Schedules of the New Mexico Territory Census [1870]. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Agricultural Schedules of the New Mexico Territory Census [1880]. State Records Center and Archives, Santa Fe. . Agricultural Schedules of the New Mexico Territory Census [ l8851. Microcopy No. M846. Washington, D.C.: National Archives Microfilm Publications, 1971. . Population Schedules of the Seventh Census [1850]. Microcopy No. 432. Washington, D.C.: National Archives Microfilm Publications, 1963. . Population Schedules of the Eighth Census [l86O]. Microcopy No. M653. Washington, D.C.: National Archives Microfilm Publications, 1967. . Population Schedules of the Ninth Census [1870]. Microcopy No. M593. Washington, D.C.: National Archives Microfilm Publications, 1965. . Population Schedules of the Tenth Census [1880]. Microcopy No. T9. Washington, D.C.: National Archives Microfilm Publications, n.d. . Population Schedules of New Mexico Territory Census [1885]. Microcopy No. M846. Washington, D.C.: National Archives Microfilm Publications, 1971. . Po~ulationSchedules of the Twelfth
254
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Census [l9OO]. Microcopy No. T-623. Washington, D.C.: National Archives Microfilm Publications, n.d. . Population Schedules of the Thirteenth Census [ l9 101. Microcopy No. T624. Washington, D.C.: National Archives Microfilm Publications, n.d. . Population Schedules of the Fourteenth Census [1920]. Microcopy No. T625. Washington, D.C.: National Archives Microfilm Publications, n.d. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Soil Conservation Service. The SpanishAmerican Villages. Vol. 2: Tewa Basin Study, 1935. Albuquerque: Economic Surveys Division, Southwest Region, 1939.
Books and Pamphlets Alarid, Waldo. Santa Fe Shadows Whisper: A History of the Alarid and Moya Families. Pueblo, Colo.: El Escritorio, 1997. Anaya, Rudolfo A. Bless Me, Ultima. 1972; rpt. Berkeley, Calif.: Tonatiuh-Quinto Sol Publications, 1991. Bowden, J. J. Private Land Claims in the Southwest. 6 vols. Houston: Privately published, 1969. Bunting, Bainbridge. Taos Adobes: Spanish Colonial and Territorial Architecture of the Taos Valley. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1964. Chhvez, Fray Angelica. Origins of New Mexico Families in the Spanish Colonial Period. Santa Fe: Historical Society of New Mexico, 1954. Crawford, Stanley. Mayordomo: Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988. Eastman, Clyde', and Richard S. Krannich. El Cerrito: A Photo Essay. Las Cruces: Agricultural Experiment Station, College of Agriculture and Home Economics, New Mexico State University, 1999. Fenneman, Nevin M. Physiography of Western United States. New York: McGraw Hill, 1931. Forrest, Suzanne. The Preservation of the Village: New Mexico 5 Hispanics and the New Deal. New Mexico Land Grant Series. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989.
Gonzales, Samuel Leo. 7'he Days of Old. N.p.: n.p., 1993. Pamphlet. Hunt, Charles B. Physiography of the United States. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1967. Kendall, George W. Narrative of an Expedition across the Great South- Western Prairies from Texas to Santa Fe'. 2 vols. London: David Bogue, 1845. Reprint, n.p.: Readex Microprint Corporation, 1966. Kenner, Charles L. A History of New Mexican-Plains Indian Relations. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969. Kessell, John L. Kiva, Cross, and Crown: The Pecos Indians and New Mexico, 1540-1 840. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987. Kessell, John L. The Missions of New Mexico since 1776. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1980. Leonard, Olen E. The Role of the Land Grant in the Social Organization and Social Processes of a Spanish-American Village in New Mexico. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Edwards Brothers, 1948; rpt. Albuquerque: Calvin Horn, 1970. Originally Ph.D. dissertation, Louisiana State University, 1943. Nostrand, Richard L. The Hispano Homeland. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992. Usner, Don J. Sabino's Map: Life in Chimay6's Old Plaza. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1995. Vigil, Julihn Josue, comp. A Short Index to New Mexican Soldiers' Service Records and Enlistment Papers, 1821-1 846. Springer, New Mex.: Editorial Telarafia, 1984. Whitman, Walt. Prose Works 1892. 2 vols. Edited by Floyd Stovall. New York: New York University Press, 1963-1964. Wroth, William. Images of Penance Images of Mercy: Southwestern Santos in the Late Nineteenth Century. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.
Articles, Chapters, and Series Bennett, Iven. "Annual Precipitation. " In New Mexico in Maps, 2d ed., edited by Jerry L. Williams, 42-44. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986. . "Evaporation." In New Mexico in Maps, 2d ed., edited by Jerry L. Williams,
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48-49. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986. . "Frost." In New Mexico in Maps, 2d ed., edited by Jerry L. Williams, 46-47. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986. . "Maximum-Minimum Temperatures." In New Mexico in Maps, 2d ed., edited by Jerry L. Williams, 3 7-39. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986. . "Seasonal Distribution of Precipitation." In New Mexico in Maps, 2d ed., edited by Jerry L. Williams, 44-45. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986. . "Snow." In New Mexico in Maps, 2d ed., edited by Jerry L. Williams, 52-54. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986. . "Warmest and Coldest Months." In New Mexico in Maps, 2d ed., edited by Jerry L. Williams, 34-36. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986. Bernal, Louis E. "Los Vallejos and San Pablo." Colorado Magazine 22, no. 4 (1945): 178-79. Boyd, E. "The Plaza of San Miguel del Vado." El Palacio 77, no. 4 (1971): 17-27. Chavez, Fray Angitlico. "Neo-Mexicanismsin New Mexico Place Names." El Palacio 57, no. 3 (1950): 67-79. Eastman, Clyde, and Richard S. Krannich. "Community Change and Persistence: The Case of El Cerrito, New Mexico." Journal of the Community Development Society 26, no. 1 (1995): 41-51. Ellis, Florence Hawley. "The Long Lost 'City' of San Gabriel del Yungue, Second Oldest European Settlement in the United States." In When Cultures Meet, Remembering San Gabriel del Yunge Oweenge, edited by Herman Agoyo and Lynnwood Brown, 10-38. Santa Fe: Sunstone Press, 1987. Gritzner, Charles. "Construction Materials in a Folk Housing Tradition: Considerations Governing Their Selection in New Mexico." Pioneer America 6, no. 1 (19 74): 25-39. Hall, G. Emlen. "San Miguel del Bado and the Loss of the Common Lands of New Mexico Community Land Grants." New Mexico Historical Review 66, no. 4 (1991): 413-32. Jackson, John Brinckerhoff. "The House in
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the Vernacular Landscape." In The Making of the American Landscape, edited by Michael P. Conzen, 355-69. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990. Karas, Paul A. "Quaternary Alluvial Sequence of the Upper Pecos River and a Tributary, Glorieta Creek, North-Central New Mexico." In Quaternary Tectonics, Landform Evolution, Soil Chronologies and Glacial Deposits-Northern Rio Grande Rift of New Mexico Field Trip Guidebook, edited by Chris Menges, 159-76. Albuquerque: Department of Geology, University of New Mexico, 8-1 1 October 1987. Loomis, Charles P. "El Cerrito, New Mexico: A Changing Village." New Mexico Historical Review 33, no. 1 (1958): 53-75. . "Informal Groupings in a SpanishAmerican Village." Sociometry 4, no. 1 (1941): 36-51. . "Systemic Linkage of El Cerrito." Rural Sociology 24, no. 1 (1959): 54-57. Martin, William C. "Vegetation: Plateau, Basin, and Plains." In New Mexico in Maps, 2d ed., edited by Jerry L. Williams, 70-72. Albuquerque:. University of New Mexico Press, 1986. Nostrand, Richard L. "El Cerrito Revisited." New Mexico Historical Review 57 no. 2 (1982): 109-22. . "Hispano Ethnicity Viewed through the Window of El Cerrito." In Teaching American Ethnic Geography, edited by Lawrence E. Estaville and Carol J. Rosen, 5 7-69. Pathways in Geography No. 18. Indiana, Pa.: National Council for Geographic Education, 1997. . "The Hispano Homeland in 1900." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 70, no. 3 (1980): 382-96. Nuttall, Zelia. "Royal Ordinances Concerning the Laying Out of New Towns." Hispanic American Historical Review 5, no. 2 (1922): 249-54. Samora, Julian, and Richard F. Larson. "Rural Families in an Urban Setting: A Study in Persistence and Change." Journal of Human Relations 9, no. 4 (1960-61): 494-503. Simmons, Marc. "Spanish Irrigation Practices in New Mexico." New Mexico Historical Review 47, no. 2 (1972): 135-50. Smith, Jeffrey S., Matthew R. Engel, Douglas A. Hurt, Jeffery E. Roth, and James M. Stevens. "La Cultura de la Acequia
256
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Madre: Cleaning a Community Irrigation Ditch." North American Geographer 3, no. 1 (2001): 5-28. Tuan, Yi-Fu and Cyril E. Everard. "New Mexico's Climate: The Appreciation of a Resource." Natural Resources Journal 4, no. 2 (196465): 268-308. Zelinsky, Wilbur. "The Historical Geography of Season of Marriage: The United States
and Canada, 1844-1974." In Exploring
the Beloved Country: Geographic Forays into American Society and Culture, 132-55. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1994. Zunser, Helen. "A New Mexican Village." Journal of American Folk-Lore 48, no. 188 (1935): 125-78.
INDEX A11 references to illustrations are in italic w e . Acequia. See Irrigation ditches Adobe buildings, 12, 27, 94, 162, 167 Age, recording of, 52-53, 54 Agriculture. See Farming Alari, Francisco, 25, 94 Alari, Joaquin, 21, 23 Alari, Jose Francisco Gavino, 23 Alari, Jose Ramon, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 30, 37,54,147 Alari, Juan Bautista, 71 Alari, Manuel Isidoro, 21 Alari, Maria Marta, 23 Alari, Ramon Antonio (Ramoncito), 21, 23, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 52, 54 Alari-Arellanes house, 30 Alari (Alarid) family, 21, 23 Albuquerque, 123, 142, 149, 170 Alternatives, Inc., 138 Anaya, Rudolfo A., 90 Ancon, the, 37, 40, 42, 45, 46, 116, 157, 158, 159, 160, 162 Anconcito, 38, 157 Ancdn de hilamo, 37,42, 45 Anc6n de Molino, 38, 42 Ancones (point bars), 8, 9, 37-38, 38, 40 Angel, James and Carol, 140, 141, 150, 154, l58 Anglicization, 128, 129-30, 135 Anglos, in Spanish New Mexico, 137-38, 140, 148,171,174 Anton Chico, 29-30 Anton Chico Grant, 21, 23, 33, 77, 82, 83, 85, 88 Apodaca, Anastacio, 60, 63 Apodaca, Atilano, 60, 63 Apodaca, Justo, 32 Apodaca, Pablo, 60, 64, 65, 91-92 Apodaca family, 32, 35, 64 Aragon, Alisha Lynn, 141, 142 Aragon, Antonia, 72 Aragon, Antonio, 40, 44 Aragon, Arculano, 92 Aragon, Candido, 61, 67, 135, 142, 158, 160, 161,162
Aragon, Cirilio, 106, 135, 141, 149-50, 154, 158, 160,161, 162 Aragon, Deluvina, 124 Aragon, Jose de la Cruz, 60 Aragon, Josefa, 9 7 Aragon, Juan de la Cruz, 87 Aragon, Louisa, 150 Aragon,Luis,39, 87, 102, 112, 116, 118, 120, 124, 125, 126,127, 128, 137,161; and Well Association, 159-60 Aragon, Luis, 111, 149, 150, 155 Aragon, Luisa, 124 Aragon, Luis Candido, 145 Aragon, Luis Roberto Uoe), 141-42, 145, 145, 150, 154-55 Aragon, Otilia (Lala), 150 Aragon, Rafael, 26, 182 Aragon, Ramona, 124 Aragon, Silvestre, 67 Aragon, Teodoro (Ted), 124, 137, 141, 149, 150, 154,158, 160 Arag6n de Quintana, Isabel (Isabelita), 89, 175 Arag6n family, 45, 155, 157; Quintanas' rivalry with, 160-6 1 Archaeology, 12-13, 14-1 5, 16 Archuleta, Fernando, 44 Archuleta, Juan M., 44 Arellanes, Antonio (Tony), 115 Arellanes, Carlota, 115, 125 Arellanes, Epitacio, 60, 87, 89, 91, 118, 123, 125, 165 Arellanes, Henry, 30, 101, 102, 165, 166, 175 Arellanes, J. Ricardo, 126 Arellanes, Jose Emiterio Macario, 30, 34, 39, 55, 56, 60, 67, 102, 115, 118, 124, 125, 165, 175; homesteading by, 72, 73; house of, 92, 102, 112; leadership of, 91 Arellanes, Maria, 115, 125 Arellanes, Olga, 115 Arellanes, Paublita, 115, 126, 127 Arellanes, Paula, 72, 73
258
INDEX
Arellanes, Rita, 115, 125, 126, 175 Arellanes, Rogelio, 67, 87, 89, 101, 102, 112, 118, 125,126, 137, 147 Arellanes, Rogelio (grandson), 126 Arellanes, ~ r s u l a l, 15 Arellanes family, 64, 70 Armenta, Jose, 33 Armijo, Antonio, 124 Armijo, Antonio E., 98 Armijo, Cristiano Benito, 93, 106, 107, 116, 118, 124, 125, 128; house of, 102, 111, 112; in Pueblo, 130 Armijo, Eleuterio, 98 Armijo, Emilia, 124 Armijo, Enrique, 105, 112, 118, 121, 122, 124, 125, 162 Armijo, Flora, 101 Armi jo, Gertrudis, 105 Armijo, Isidro, 101 Armijo, Jesus Maria, 67, 91, 116, 118, 123, 125, 130; house of, 102, 112, 127, 128 Armijo, Luis, 108, 114 Armijo, Manuel, 39, 46, 60, 61, 62, 64, 65, 91-92; house of, 92 Armijo, Maria Carmen, 103 Armijo, Maria Consuelo, 103 Armijo, Rosa, 124 Armijo family, 64, 84, 127, 138 Army Ordinance Depot (Pueblo Army Depot Activity), Colo., 123, 130, 134 Atkinson, Henry M., 82, 83 Baca, Felipe, 126 Baca, Fidel, 87 Baca, Fidencio, 127 Baca, Ignacia, 126 Baca, Juan, 126, 127, 127, 128, 128, 138, 140 Baca, Mabel, 126 Baca de Torres, Maria, 87 Baca family, 35 Baca y Ortiz, Faustin, 82, 83 Baca y Sandoval, Francisco, 214 Barela de Aragon, Mary, 142 Basin and Range Province, 6, 7 Bellas, Cirilia, 60; house of, 102 Bibb, Zela, 98 Bilello, Joseph J., 173 Bilingualism, 129, 135, 136, 149 Blea, Jose Albino, 26 Blea, Jose Rafael, 26, 36 Blea, Manuel, 26, 36 Blea, Maria Guadalupe, 22, 24, 26 Blea, Paula, 26 Blea, Santiago, 36 Blea, Tomasa, 32
Blea family, 26, 27, 32, 35, 160 Bless Me, Ultima (Anaya), 90 Borrego, Pablo, 21, 22, 32 Bottomland, 149 Bridges, 28, 49, 162, 167; with plaques honoring J. M. Quintana, 90, 91 Brito, Rafaela, 26 Buffalo hunters, 66, 66, 67, 70 Building materials and practices, 12, 13, 27-30, 51, 75,94, 162 Burns, John, 138, 140, 141, 146, 148-50, 154, 155,155,158, 159,160,162 Bustos, Anastacio, 60, 87, 91 Bustos, Apolonia, 27 Bustos, Cesario, 27 Callery, Catherine, 98 Campos, Elroy, 126 Canadian Escarpment, 7, 7, 36, 64 Canadian River, 6-7 Canadian Valley, 8 Cafion de Pefia (Canyon of Large Rocks), 46, 48, 49, 85, 86 Caprock Escarpment, 67 Cars and trucks, 153 Castillo, Julia Garcia de, 59, 75 Castro, Polo, 150, 162 Cattle raising. See Livestock raising CCC. See Civilian Conservation Corps C'de Baca, Jose Uoe) and Janet, 138, 140, 141, 149, 150, 154, 155, 155-58, 162; house of, 164 C'de Baca, Phillip and Irene, 140, 150, 154, 158 Chacon, Fernando de, 4, 81, 83 Chavez, Antonio, 27, 35 Chavez, Josk M., 32 Chavez, Maria Paz, 97 Chivez family, 35 Children and young people, 52, 136, 175; in 1940, 111, 114; of relocated villagers, 130, 135 Churches, 6, 27-28, 124, 162, 164, 174; Gonzales's altar screen, 171, 172 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 109, 118, 121,122 Coleman Report, 18, 83, 84 Colorado: migration and relocation to, 36, 123, 125, 129-30, 134-35; seasonal work in, 121 Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I), 134, 135 Colorado Springs, Colo., 129, 130 Commuting to work, 149 Conchas Ranch, 79 Conchas River, 64, 66, 79
INDEX
Conchas Valley, 64, 66-67, 66, 69, 70 Congress, U.S., 82, 83, 84 Corrales, Elvira, 109, 110, 137, 141, 150 Crops, 40-43, 61, 63, 65, 116, 122 Dams, 38, 44-46, 155, 157, 159, 160, 162, 167 Dancing, 94, 96, 97, 122, 174 Defense plant workers, 118, 119, 121 Democratic Party, 1l 1 Denver, Colo., 123, 125, 142 Dice, Harry and Leona, 137 Diminutives, 53, 54 Ditch Association, 94, 116, 153-5 7, 159-61 Ditch day, 155-57,157,160 Divorce, 53 Dodd, Father, 114 Dominguez, Albino, 60, 63 Dominguez family, 64 Drinking, 96, 111, 121 Dry farming, 37, 75, 116, 122 Duran, Estevan, 44 Duran, Jesus Maria, 32, 91; house of, 92 Duran, Jose Tomas, 32 Duran, Juan, 32 Duran, Maria Antonia, 22, 24, 32 Duran, Maria Catarina, 24 Duran, Maria Teodora, 27 Duran, Pablo, 91; house of, 92 Duran, Pedro Luis, 32, 44, 45, 46, 52, 61, 63, 137 Duran, Petra, house of, 102 Duran de Torres, Isabelita, 126 Duran family, 32, 64, 84 Economic leadership, 90 Economic progress, 176; by relocated villagers, 130 Education. See Schooling El Barranco (the Precipice), 46, 47, 48 El Carricito (Dead Horse Ranch), 18 El Cerrito, N.Mex., 8, 139, 163; Anglicization of villagers from, 128, 129-30, 135; Anglo influx, 137-38, 140, 148, 171, 174; attachment to, 122, 129, 135, 142, 147, 176; Conchas Valley connections to, 64, 66-67, 66; cross sections of, 173; exodus from, 35-36,37, 109, 122-23, 125, 127-28, 142, 171, 176; feuds in, 64, 160-62; first landholding families of, 21-26; first nonlandholding families of, 26-27; first Spanish colonists in, 17; as fortified village, 27-30, 28; future of, 165; heyday of (1900), 168-71; historical preservation of, 166-68; leadership in, 90-92; natural environment of, 11-12;
259
newcomers in 2000, 148, 149; public works, 44-49; recent changes in, 161-62, 164; remoteness and inaccessibility of, 149, 152-53; site and layout of, 171; stone monument marking land grant, 86; village life in 1940, 111, 114-15 El Cerrito (hill), 8, 16 El Cerrito Mutual Domestic Water Consumers' Association, 159-60 El Cerrito Valley, 8, 9, 10 Electricity, 128, 153 El Gusano (South San Ysidro), N.Mex., 3, 8, 18, 19 El Pueblo, N.Mex., agricultural land distribution in, 19 Employment. See Work Encinas, Antonio, 70 Encinias, John, 154, 158 English-speaking people, 107-108, 111, 121, 149; relocated villagers, 130, 135, 136 EntraAosa (San Juan), N.Mex., agricultural land distribution in, 18, 19 Escudero, Epifanio, 98 Espafiola, 170 Esquibel, Ramon (Ray), 98, 1 0 1 4 , 106, 106 Esquibel family, 35 Estancia Valley, 66, 67 Estrada. See Variadero Estrada, Encarnacion, 64, 66 Estrada, Jose, 44 Estrada, Juan Sirnon, 21, 33 Estrada de Saiz, Maria Clementa, 33, 92 Estrada family, 32, 33 Exodus generation, 35-36, 37, 109, 122-23, 125, 127-28; Anglicization of, 129-30 Exotic rivers, 11 Families, 175 Farming: in 1850, 40; in 1860, 41; in 1870, 43; in 1880,61, 63; in 1885,64-65; in 1940, 116; agricultural fields, 37-43; in Anaya's novel, 90; climate and growing season, 11-12; farm families (ca. 1850), 31-35. See also Livestock raising Farm Security Administration (FSA), 121 Fayett, Juan Benito, 55 Firewood, 116, 153 Floods, 157 Flores, Isidro Antonio, 22, 24, 25, 33 Flores, Jose Antonio, 24 Flores, Maria Anastacia, 64 Flores, Melquiades, 34, 60, 63, 64 Flores, V. M., 98 Flores family, 64 Folk remedies, 114, 122, 130
260
INDEX
Food and diet, 111, 115 FSA (Farm Security Administration), 121 Funcion, 114, 122, 164, 170; in 2000, 161 Gallegos, Consuelo, 98, 100, 103 Gallegos, Fortunato, 19, 67 Gallegos, Perfecto, 100 Garcia, Antonio, 45 Garcia, Blas, 60, 87 Garcia, Eusebio Lorenzo, 22, 23, 25, 34, 36 Garcia, Jose Candelario, 24 Garcia, Jose Efren, 97 Garcia, Jose Julihn, 22, 23, 24, 54 Garcia, Jose Manuel, 40, 42, 44 Garcia, Jose Miguel, 45 Garcia, Jose P., 40, 44 Garcia, Jose Romhn, 22, 23, 32, 33 Garcia, Juan, 24 Garcia, Juan Cristobal, 21-24, 34, 54 Garcia, Luis, 126 Garcia, Maria Antonia Teresa, 22, 24-26, 31, 34, 40, 44, 45, 53, 54 Garcia, Maria Concepcion, 22, 24 Garcia, Maria Gregoria, 22, 24 Garcia, Maria Juana Nepomucena, 22, 24 Garcia, Maria Soledad, 23 Garcia, Monica, 124 Garcia, Rito, 126 Garcia de Castillo, Julia, 75, 78 Garcia de Quintana, Rita, 79 Garcia family, 23-24, 25, 35 Garcia y Gonzales, Juan, 98 Gardens, 42, 75, 111, 116, 149 GarduAo, Aniseto, 34, 54 GarduAo, Jose Crestino, 34, 91; house of, 92 Gardufio, Jose Gregorio, 34 GarduAo de Madrid, Francisca, 87 GarduAo family, 25, 32, 64 Gauna de Tapia, Alyce, 132 Genizaros, 4, 25 Geography, values based on, 176 Glorieta Mesa, 6, 7 Gonzales, Jose Gracia, 171, 172 Gonzales, Samuel Leo, 36 Gonzhlez, Antonio, 60 Gonzhlez, Estevan, 44 Gonzhlez, Juana, 27 Gonzhlez, Luis, 21 Gonzhlez, Luis Maria, 26-27, 40, 44, 45 Gonzhlez, Manuela, 53 Gonzhlez, Manuel Albino, 27 Gonzhlez, Maria Antonia, 26 Gonziilez, Miguel Albino, 27 Gonzhlez, Trinidad, 26 Gonzhlez de Aragon, Raquel (Rachael), V, 150
Gonzhlez de Quintana, Maria Agneda, 108, 126, 127, 141, 142,147 Gonzhlez family, 27, 35 Great Depression, 123, 176 Greater New Mexico (in 1900), 168, 169, 170 Great Plains Province, 6, 7 Griego de Mhrquez, Apolonia, 3 Gritzner, Charles F., 12, 13 Guadalupe Hidalgo, Treaty of, 81, 82, 83 Guru16 family, 35 GutiQrez, Eufemia, 98 Gutierrez, Manuel Antonio, 27, 40, 42, 44 GutiQrez, Pablo, 44 Gutierrez de Quintana, Balbina, 74, 79 Gutierrez de Quintana, Jesucita, 134 Gutierrez de Sena, Rosaura, 87 Gutierrez family, 35 Haas, Sherry L., 8 Hall, G. Emlen, 86 Hall, Wendell V., 18, 20, 83, 84 Hays, Domingo, 219 Health care, 114-15; of relocated villagers, 130 Heffington, J. Douglas, 13, 14, 15, 16, 30, 106 Hippies, in El Cerrito, 137 Historical preservation, 166-68 Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), 139 Homestead Act of 1862, 70 Homesteading, 69-70, 72-73, 75-77, 79, 170, 176; by Luis Aragon, 116; near El Cerrito, 84-90,85, 88 House lots, 140, 149, 151; nonresident owners of, 141, 150, 153 Houses, 12, 27, 30, 167, 174; in 1900, 92; in 1925, 102; in 1940, 111, 112, 113; in 1956, 127; in 2000, 162; of Epitacio Quintana, 5 1; homesteaders, 75; nonresident owners of, 141, 150, 153; in Pueblo, Colo., 130; Territorial style, l64 Hunting and gathering people, 16 Hurtado (Urtado), Benito, 21, 22 Ilfeld mercantile house, 91, 120, 137 Illegitimate births, 114 Income sources: in 1940, 118-19; in 2000, 149 Indians. See Native Americans Infant mortality, 52, 54, 60 Inheritance practices, 54, 116 Irrigation agriculture, 42, 116, 122 Irrigation ditches, 12, 16, 28, 38, 40, 4446, 47, 49, 117, 137, 157, 158, 162, 167, 174; disputes concerning, 160-6 1. See also Ditch Association
INDEX
Jaramillo, Desiderio, 25, 54, 61, 94 Jaramillo, Jose Antonio, 23 Jaramillo, Juan, 61 Jaramillo, Juan de Jesus, 54, 60, 61, 64, 65 Jaramillo, Mariano, 23 Jaramillo, Miguel, 23 Jaramillo, Rosa, 23, 25 Jaramillo, Salvador, 23 Jaramillo de Alari, Maria Manuela Antonia, 17, 22, 23, 25, 30, 32-35, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 53, 54, 61 Jaramillo family, 23 Jimknez, Quirino, 45 Jimenez de Tenorio, Francisca, 53 Jose, as given name, 53 Julian, George W., 82, 83
261
Kendall, George W., 29
Long lots, 38, 39, 40, 117, 174 Loomis, Charles P., 89, 90, 96, 97, 108, 111, 113, 114,116-17, 121-23,125-27, 130, 136-38,138, 160,161, 176 Loomis, Mrs. Charles P., 161 Lopez, Cecilia, 98 Lopez, Francisco, 101 Lopez, Isidro, 55, 56, 67 Lopez, Lucy, 103 Lopez, Pablo, 55, 67 Lovato family, 35 Lucero, Delfina, 74, 79 Lucero, Isidoro V. (I. V.), 137, 139, 140, 141, 147 Lucero, Juan, 46, 50, 61, 63 Lucero, Maria, 98, 101, 101, 108, 111, 114 Lucero, Pablo (Paul), 67 Lucero family, 35
Labor. See Work La Centinela (mesa), 30, 161, 162 La Cuesta (Villanueva), N.Mex., 8, 19, 21, 25, 94,97,123,152,152, 153, 164, 174 La Garita, N.Mex., See Variadero (La Garita, Estrada), N.Mex. Lamar, L. Q. C., 82, 84 Land grants, 3, 17-19, 20, 21, 70. See also San Miguel del Vado Grant "Land Stealing in New Mexico" Uulian), 82 Land tenure, 176; in 1824, 22; in 2000, 149, 157,158 Land use, 176; in 1940, 116, 118, 119 Language, culture and, 136 Lanstra, Jack and Heidi, 137, 138, 140, 141, 14546,146, 148, 149, 150,154,158, l62 Laramide Uplift, 6 Larafiaga, Margarita, 98 Las Mulas (North San Ysidro), N.Mex., 18, 19 Las Vegas, N.Mex., 123, 149, 153, 170 Las Vegas Grant, 36 Las Vegas Plateau, 6-7, 7 Latino immigrants, after 1900, 174 Laws of the Indies, 27, 171 Leadership, 90-92 Leonard, Olen, 30, 67, 89, 90, 96, 100, 104, 108, 111, 112, 113, 114, 116, 119, 121-23, 125, 137, 138,138, 176 Life zones, and building material availability, 13 Literacy, 94, 107, 171 Livestock raising, 40-43, 51, 61, 63, 64, 65, 67, 79, 86, 89, 174; in 1940, 116-22; in 2000, 149; in Anaya's novel, 90 Llano Estacado, 6, 7, 8, 66, 67
McGee, Margaret (Meg), 147, 148 Madrid, Federico, 86, 87 Madrid, Jose Antonio, 26 Madrid, Jose Antonio Rafael, 26 Madrid, Juan, 26 Madrid, Juan P., 87 Madrid, Maria del Refugio, 26 Madrid, Rafael Antonio, 26, 35 Madrid, Roque, 32 Madrid family, 26, 27, 35 Maes, Maria Andrea, 33 Maes, Maria de la Luz, 26, 33, 36 Maes, Maria Magdalena, 26-27 Mail and postal service, 152 Manzanares, Albino, 34, 64 Manzanares, Crescencio, 64 Manzanares, Dolores, 34, 64 Manzanares, Jose Melquiades, 34 Manzanares, Luis Maria, 33, 34, 35, 63, 65; children of, 52; wealth of, 44, 45, 46, 61, 64 Manzanares, Maria Juana, 34 Manzanares family, 32, 34, 35; house and barn of, 92; Quintanas' feud with, 64, 160; wealth of, 64 Mares, Juan, 45, 46 Mares, Maria Antonia, 22, 24, 25, 34; wealth of, 45 Mares, Maria Dolores, 22, 23, 34 Mares de Manzanares, Maria Agapita, 34, 35, 52, 53, 64; house of, 92 Maria, as given name, 53 Mhrquez, Anastacia, 33, 87 Mirquez, Barbara, 60 MBrquez, Jose Pedro, 3, 45 Mhrquez, Josk Rafael, 32, 33, 44, 45
262
INDEX
Marquez, Juan, 83, 84 Marquez, Julian Lorenzo, 32 Marquez, Lorenzo, 3, 4, 5, 16, 19, 81-84 MQrquez,Maria ~ r s u l a 33 , Marquez, Sylvester, 84 Mdrquez family, 32-33 Marriages, 52-53, 55-57, 111, 114, 174; of Quintana family, 54-57, 60; of relocated villagers, 135 Martin, Manuel, 61 Martin, Maria Antonia, 26 Martin, Maria Dolores, 21, 52 Martin, Maria Francisca, 34, 52, 54 Martin, Maria Gertrudis, 27, 31, 33-34, 35, 51, 54, 64, 72, 97; children of, 56-57, 94 Martin, Maria Isabel, 34, 54 Martin, Maria Luciana, 22, 23 Martin (Martinez), Remigio, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65 Martin, Santiago, 26 Martin family, 35 Martinez, Delfino E., 98 Martinez, Dionicio, 64, 65, 204 Martinez, Elvira, 98 Martinez (Martin), Jose Pablo (Francisco),22, 24-26, 31,34, 54 Martinez, Josie, 98, 103 Martinez de Arellanes, Manuelita (Mela), l15 Mayordomo (ditch foreman), 46 Meatpacking plant, 134 Medical care, 114-1 5; of relocated villagers, 130 Melgares, Facundo, 21, 83 Merchants, 91-92, 137 Mesa lands, 116, 149, 176 Messec, Don, 137 Messec, Harry and Mary, 137, 141, 150, 154, 158 Mestas family, 35 Mexican immigrants, after 1900, 174 Migrations, 18-21, 36, 37 Military service, 109, 125, 137 Mink, John H., 63,200 Missions, l64 Mondragbn, Dolores, 25 Mondrag6n family, 35 Montano, Stelanda, 106 Montoya, Juana, 23 Montoya, Juan Antonio, 35 Montoya, ~ r s u l a61 , Montoya, Vicente, 45 Montoya de Duran, Maria Juana, 32 Montoya family, 64 Moonshine, 96, 121-22 Morton, Levi P., 83, 84 Moya, Maria G, 44
Mula (moonshine), 96, 121-22 Music, 96 Mussey, Dollie, 98 Names, 53, 54, 175 Native Americans, 3, 4, 12-13, 16, 19, 21, 30 New Deal agencies, 121 New Mexico: landforms and rivers of, 7; migrations and relocations in, 18-21, 36, 37, 123; Spanish subcultures, 174; well drilling program, 128 New Mexico Highlands University, 138 New Mexico school lands, 75, 79, 86, 88, 89 Nicholas, Cora, 98 Northern Arizona University, 156 North San Ysidro (Las Mulas), N.Mex., 18, 19 Nuestra Seiiora de 10s Desamparados, 28, 114, 164 Ocana, Anna Maria, 44 Ocate, N.Mex., 170 Ocate Mesa, 6, 7 Oklahoma, University of, 106, 156, 156, 157, 157 Orchards, 12, 42, 116, 117, 122 Orona, Cruz, 150 Ortega, Nicolas, 87 Ortiz, Antonio Jose, 4, 83 Ortiz, Gary, 164 Ortiz, Nicholas, I, 21 Ortiz, Nicholas, 11, 21 Ortiz, Nicholas, 111, 21 Ortiz Bustamante, Maria Josefa de Jesus, 22, 23 Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, Villanueva, N.Mex., 164 Padilla, Antonia, 46 Padilla, Cruz, 46 Padilla, Diego, 17, 19, 21, 83 Padilla family, 35 Pagan, Bertha, 98 Parciantes, 153-54, 155, 159 Parker, Mrs. N., 98 Park Plateau, 6 Pecos, N.Mex., 8, 31, 165 Pecos River, 6-8, 7, 9, 11, 16, 44-46, 47, 48, 49,152, 157,159 Pecos Valley, 3, 4, 6, 8, 17-19, 67, 152; Quintana family at, 3 1 Pelham, William, 82, 83 Peninsula, the. See Ancbn, the Penitente Brotherhood, 174 Perea de Quintana, Elsie Maria, 150 Perez, Demetrio, 43, 94, 196
INDEX
Petroglyphs, 16 Pino, Pedro Bautista, 4, 81, 82, 83 Pifion nuts, 1l 6 Plaza: of El Cerrito, N.Mex., 27-30, 28, 29, 162; of San Jose del Vado, N.Mex., 30 Plaza (fortified settlement), 4 Plaza (open space), 6 Point bars. See Ancones Politics, 90-9 1, 111, 170; and schoolteaching, 99,100 Ponderosa pine, 12 Population of El Cerrito, N.Mex.,: in 1841, 32, 177-82; in 1841-1885, 52; in 1850,35, 183-86; in 1860, 190-93; in 1870, 194-96; in 1880, 197-200; in 1885, 201-204; in 1900,205-209; in 1910, 210-214; in 1920,215-19; in 1940, 112, 122; in 1956, 125, 126; in 1968-69, 128; in 1980, 141-42, 145; in 1988, 148; in 2000, 148-50 Population of Greater New Mexico, Spanish people (1900), 168, 170 Population of San Agustin, El Cerrito families (1850), 187-89 Post, Stephen S., 13, 14, 16 Pottery, 16 Precipice, the. See El Barranco Preston Beck Jr. Grant, 79 Private Land Claims, Court of, 82, 83, 84 Prohibition era, 121 Protestant converts, animosity to, 36 Pueblo, Colo., 123, 127, 129-30, 131, 134-35, 142,149 Pueblo Indians, 16 Quintana, Abraham (Abran) Reynaldo, 141, 142, 148,150, 161, 162, 175 Quintana, Adan, 60 Quintana, Agapito, 96, 97, 112, 118, 123, 124, 125 Quintana, Agapito, Jr., 126, 127 Quintana, Albinita, 105, 108, 128, 137, 141, 142,144,167 Quintana, Andreita, 87, 89 Quintana, Antonio, 105, 126, 127 Quintana, Arturo, 104, 126 Quintana, Brigido, 92, 142 Quintana, Casimiro, 87, 112, 118, 125 Quintana, Cliofes, 75, 79, 105, 106 Quintana, Cosme, 95, 124 Quintana, Eduardo E., 58, 71, 79, 87, 89, 101, 105, 106, 120, 130, 132, 134, 134 Quintana, Eugenio, 126 Quintana, Evaristo, 101 Quintana, Fernandes (son of Luciano), 142, 146
263
Quintana, Fernando (Fernandes),27, 30-35, 40-46,51,54,61,63-65,97, 147; education of children of, 94; homesteading by, 72, 73; marriage and children of, 54-57 Quintana, Fernando (son of Epitacio), 60, 69, 70, 72, 73, 75, 79, 80, 121, 126, 127, 128, 174; house of, 102 Quintana, Florencio, 67, 92, 105, 108, 112, 118, 124, 125, 126, 127, 141, 142, 143, 147,175 Quintana, Florencio, Jr., 124, 135, 141, 147, 154,158 Quintana, Francisco, 33 Quintana, Gabriel, 71, 100, 101, 106, 108, 112, 116, 118, 120, 125, 130 Quintana, George, 126 Quintana, Gloria, 150, 162 Quintana, Grace, 101 Quintana, Heliodoro, 72, 73, 79, 96, 104, 105, 112, 116, 118, 120, 121, 123, 125, 130, 141,147 Quintana, Hipolito, 79, 87, 89, 112, 114, 118, 120-22, 125 Quintana, Ignacia, 75, 105 Quintana, Jesus Maria Acencih, 34, 39, 55, 56, 60, 79, 90-91, 94, 170, 175; homesteading by, 70, 72, 73, 86, 87; house of, 92, 102; plaques honoring, 90, 91 Quintana, Jose Anastacio (Tacho), 30, 54, 56, 60, 61, 72, 73, 91, 103, 106, 118, 125; house of, 102, 112 Quintana, Jose Antonio, 33, 56 Quintana, Jose Epitacio (Pitacio), 39, 46, 51, 53-56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 67, 90, 91, 100, 170; children of, 94, 103, 174; homesteading by, 70, 72, 73, 86, 87; house of, 92, 102, 138, 162, 174 Quintana, Josefa, 60, 103, 104 Quintana, Jose Lino, 79, 101, 106, 120 Quintana, Jose Luciano, 39, 55, 56, 60, 72, 73, 91, 92; house of, 102 Quintana, Jose Manuel, 79, 81, 136, 175 Quintana, Jose Miguel Antonio, 31 Quintana, Jose P., 100, 112, 118, 122, 125, 137 Quintana, Joseph Uoe) Albert, 92, 141, 142, 144, 148, 149,150, 154,158 Quintana, Juan (brother of Fernando), 31, 61 Quintana, Juan N., I, 69, 70, 72, 73, 74, 77, 79, 80, 94, 121 Quintana, Juan N., 11, 79 Quintana, Leandro (Lalo) Candido, 124, l 4 1, 150, 154,158 Quintana, Luciano, 142 Quintana, Luis M., 39, 64, 69, 72, 73, 86, 87, 89, 89, 91, 114, 117, 118, 120, 124, 125,
264
INDEX
175; house of, 102, 112, 137, 147; schooling of, 94, 104 Quintana, Lydia, 126 Quintana, Maria (Mary), 102-104, 110, 126, 149,150, 153,162 Quintana, Maria Agapita, 33, 56 Quintana, Maria Antonia de 10s Dolores (Dolorita), 34, 55, 56, 58, 60, 72 Quintana, Maria Cesaria (Cesarita), 55, 56 Quintana, Maria Norberta (Norbertita), 55, 56 Quintana, Maria Simona (Simonita, Chatita), 60, 72, 165 Quintana, Miguel, 31, 39, 61, 112, 118, 124, 125 Quintana, Miguel V., 87 Quintana, Napoleon, 75, 79, 106 Quintana, Pedro, 45, 60, 61 Quintana, Perfecto Arthur, 109, 110 Quintana, Placido, 72, 73, 89, 120 Quintana, Ramon, 61 Quintana, Ricardo (Rick) Patricio, 30, 137, 141, 147,148, 149, 150, 154,157; and Well Association, 159 Quintana, Rita, 101, 105, 106 Quintana, Robert, 150, 164 Quintana, Rosa, 100-101 Quintana, Rumaldo, 126, 141, 150 Quintana, Sostenes, 118, 125 Quintana, Vibiin, 61, 64, 67, 69-70, 71, 72, 73, 79, 80, 93, 103, 120; house of, 102, 138; schooling of, 94 Quintana, Vidal, 104, 126, 150, 162 Quintana Cabin, 137 Quintana de Aragon, Estefana (Estefanita), 116,124, 126,128,160,161 Quintana de Aragon, Linda Louise, 141, 142, 145,145 Quintana de Arellanes, Maria Simona (Simonita, Chatita), 34, 51, 55, 56, 60 Quintana de Armijo, Margarita, 93, 98, 100, 100, 103, 104,105, 107 Quintana de Chacon, Erminda (Erma), 89 Quintana de Gonzales, Andrellita, 175 Quintana de Montoya, Florencia, 126, 127, 128, 142 Quintana de Sena, Maria Cleofas (Cleo), 62, 96,104 Quintana family, 25, 31-35, 64, 90, 170; Aragons' rivalry with, 160-6 1; cattle ranches of, 67, 79, 80; homesteading by, 69-70, 72, 73, 77, 79; Manzanareses' feud with, 64, 160; marriages of, 54-57, 60; schooling of, 94, 103 Quintana Vigil, Jesus Maria, 30, 87; house of, 102
Rael, Abenicio, 78, 87, 122 Rael, Anastacio, 77 Rael, Eleuterio, 45, 46, 60, 64 Rael, Francisca, 24 Rael, Maria Tomasa, 22, 23, 24 Raitl family, 33 Raisz, Erwin, 7 Ramirez, Maria Antonia, 22, 25 Ranchos de Taos, 170 Recreation, 94, 96, 97; of school children, 106 Relief and welfare, 119, 121, 130 Religion, 111, 114, 122, 171; reorganization of church, 164 Republican Party, 90-91, 100, 170 Retirement, 134, 135, 142, 149, 153 Ribera, Adela, 75 Ribera, Chavela, 100 Ribera, Maria Antonia (Tonita), 55, 56, 60, 75 Ribera, Venerana, 103 Ribera de Quintana, Cleofas, 71, 72, 93, 103, 107, 111, 112, 125; land, livestock, and income of, 118, 120, 121 Rincon, the, 21, 37, 38, 39, 42, 46, 48, 116, 117, 157,158, 160, 162 Rio de la Baca (Cow Creek), 18, 19 Rivera, Benito (nephew of Rogelio Arellanes), 102,103,104,115 Rivera, Manuel, 21, 83 Roads and streets, 149, 153, 162, 168 Robinson, James D., 33, 35, 36, 40, 186, 189 Rocky Ford, Colo., 109, 123 Rocky Mountain Province, 6, 7 Rodriguez, Josit, 22, 24, 60 Rodriguez, Juan Ignacio, 22, 24, 33 Roman Catholic Church. See Churches; Nuestra SeAora de 10s Desamparados; Religion Romero, Maria Ysabel, 26 Romero de Arellanes, Josefa, 126 Rural Electrification Administration, 128 Rusinow, Irving, 94, 95, 101, 115, 117, 120, 124, 161, 162 Saiz, Antonio, 26 Saiz, Joaquin Andres, 26 Saiz, Jose Alajandro, 24, 26, 33 Saiz, Juan de Jesus, 26 Saiz, Librada, 61 Saiz, Manuel, 26, 33, 40, 41, 44, 45, 46, 61, 63 Saiz, Maria Manuela, 26 Saiz, Melquiades, 9 1 Saiz family, 26, 33, 35, 64 Salas, Juan, 22, 25, 33, 34 Salas, Ramon, 25 Salazar, Diego, 46
INDEX
Salazar, Juan J., 36 Salt flats (salinas), 67 Salz, Jose Alejandro, 22 Samora, Julihn, 130 San Agustin, 27, 35-36,37, 187-89 Shnchez, David, 154 Shnchez, George I., 94, 95 Shnchez, Jose Severiano, 22, 24-25, 26, 34, 40, 44 Shnchez, Luciano, 98 Shnchez de De Blassie, Geraldine, 100, 105 Shnchez family, 35 Sandoval, Juan, 44 Sandoval, Julihn, 83, 84 Sandoval, Vidal, 141, 150, 154, 158, 162 Sandoval de Torrez, Rose, 150 Sandoval family, 35 Sangre de Cristo Mountains, 6, 7, 8 San Jose del Vado, 4, 6, 18, 30 San Miguel County, 90-91, 99-100 San Miguel del Vado del Rio Pecos, 3, 6 San Miguel del Vado Grant, 4-6, 5, 36, 83, 85; adjudication of, 54, 81-84; agricultural land distribution, 17, 18, 19, 21; Alari's grant, 17; geology and geography of, 6-10; homesteads in, 69, 84, 85; privatized lands (1901), 20; public lands, Spanish people's recovery of, 86; Tract 1, stone monument marking, 86 Santa Fe, N.Mex., 4, 149, 168, 170, 175 Santa Fe, N.Mex., Archdiocese of, 164 Santa Fe Railroad, 121, 123 Santillanes, Maria Catalina, 22, 23, 25 Schafer, Jack W., 139 School boards, 99-100 School districts, 91, 99 Schoolhouse, 94, 95, 96-97, 97, 99, 140, 162, 174 Schooling, 54, 106, 108, 171; of newcomers to El Cerrito (2000), 149; of relocated villagers, 129, 130, 135; students, 101, 103-104,105, 106-107 Schoolteachers, 93, 94, 98-103, 108, 118, 137, 171 Seasonal work. See Work, seasonal Segura, Juana Paula de Jesus, 32, 33 Seis Varas Ditch, 46, 157, 158 Sena, Andalecio, 98 Sena, Joe, 150 Sena, Nestor, 107, 209 Sena de Quintana, Maria Josefa, 31 Serafina, 152, 152 Shaw, John, 5, 82,83 Sinaco, Antonio, 44 Small holding claims (SHC), 85, 86
265
Smith, Guy-Harold, 7 Social Security, 118, 121, 130 Solano de Tapia, Librada, 130 Solar energy, 168 South San Ysidro (El Gusano), N.Mex., 3, 8, 18,19 Spanish cultural values, 174-76 Spanish-speaking people, 94, 107-108, 111, 149, 170; in Greater New Mexico (1900), 168, 169; homesteads near El Cerrito, 88; relocated villagers, 135, 136 Spanish subcultures, in New Mexico, 174 "Staked Plains," derivation of, 67 Stern, Jay, 171 Stock raising homestead entries (SRHE), 70 Sugar beet fields, seasonal work in, 121, 123 Superstitions, 114, 122 Supreme Court, U.S., 82, 83, 84 Surveyor General for New Mexico Territory, 82,83 Taos, N.Mex., 170 Tapia, Amalia, 124 Tapia, Ambrocio, 58, 124, 126, 141; house of, 102 Tapia, Andres, 72, 73, 112, 118, 120, 125, 126, 127,132 Tapia, Andres (grandson of Andres and Cruz), 132 Tapia, Antonio Abhn, 55, 56 Tapia, Benjamin, 87, 129, 130, 132 Tapia, Beverly, 132 Tapia, Eugene, 132 Tapia, Jerri, 132 Tapia, Maria de la Cruz (Crucita), 55, 56, 59, 60, 72 Tapia, Pablo (Paul), 58, 94, 124, 132, 135, 136, 141, 150; Anglicization of, 129 Tapia, Paul (son of Pablo), 132 Tapia, Roberta, 132 Tapia, Salvador, 21, 83 Tapia, Tamara, 132 Tapia, Valerie, 132 Tapia de Vigil, Maria Lucinda, 124, 126, 127, 142 Tapia family, 70 Telephones, 153 Television, 153 Temporales (seasonally-farmed fields), 37, 42 Tenants in Common, 138, 140 Tenorio, Esquipula, 94, 98 Tenorio, Francisco, 25, 44 Tenorio, Josef Eduardo, 25 Tenorio, Jose Manuel, 22, 25, 27 Tenorio, Maria Casilda, 25
266
INDEX
Tenorio, Maria Dolores, 32, 52 Tenorio, Maria Luisa (Luz), 22, 24, 25 Tenorio, Santiago, 46 Territorial style house, 164 Texan-Santa Fe Expedition (1841), 137 Threshing ground, 42 Torres, Celestino, 124 Torres, Faustin, 112, 119, 122, 125 Torres, Faustin Lorenzo, Jr., 99, 140, 141 Torres, George, 97 Torres, Jesus (Jess)Gilbert Castillo, 149, 150, 158, 162 Torres, Jose, 39, 97, 101; house of, 102 Torres, Jose A., 104 Torres, Lucillo, 91 Torres, Lucio, 126, 127; house of, 102, 112 Torres, Macario, 105 Torres, Rafael, 126, 127 Torres, Rosalia, 126 Torres, Ruben, 97 Torres, Teresita, 104 Torres, Ultimia, 101 Torres family, 97 Torrez, Macario (Mac), 91, 92, 135, 141, 149, 150,154,158, 162 Torrez, Marty Lynn, 150 Torrez, Willie, 137, 141, 149 Tractors, 153 Troncoso, Antonia, 22, 23 Trujillo, Elauterio, 142 Trujillo, Guadalupe, 98 Trujillo, Isabel (Isabelita), 60, 61, 62 Trujillo, Josefina, 123 Trujillo, Moses, 130 Trujillo de Arellanes, Manuelita Eloisa (Eloise), 165, 166 Trujillo de Quintana, Maria Margarita (Margie), 104, 126, 141, 142, 148, 149, 150,161, 164 Trujillo de Quintana, Maria Refugio (Refugita), 55, 56, 60-61, 142 Ulibarri, Bernardo, 21, 34 Ulibarri, Jose Francisco, 34, 36 Ulibarri, Pedro, 34, 87 Ulibarri, Victoriano, 21, 34, 45, 46, 52, 54, 63 Ulibarri family, 25, 32, 34, 64 United States Geological Survey (USGS) bench mark, 11 Upper Sonoran natural vegetation life zone, 12 Urioste, Juana Antonia, 61 Urioste, Maria Casilda, 22, 24 Urtado (Hurtado), Benito, 21, 22
USGS bench mark, 11 Usner, Don, 27 Valdez, Raymundo (Ray), 140, 150, 154 Vallejos brothers, 36 Variadero (La Garita, Estrada), N.Mex., 66, 67, 121, 123; homesteading near, 69-70, 72-73, 75-77, 76, 79, 80, 120; plaques honoring J. M. Quintana at, 90, 91 Veeder, John, 84 Vernon, Charles and Anita, 140 Vidal, Father, 145 Vigil, Agustina, 106 Vigil, Anes, 124 Vigil, Crisostomo, 84, 87, 112, 123, 125 Vigil, Cruz, 72 Vigil, Felipa (Felipita), 55, 56, 60, 106 Vigil, George, 92; house of, 102 Vigil, Gertrudis Margarita, 142 Vigil, Ignacia, 92, 123 Vigil, Juan, 34, 39, 46, 55, 56, 58, 60, 72, 91, 92, 124; house of, 92 Vigil, JuliBn Josuk, 182 Vigil, Lucio, 119, 125 Vigil, Ramon, 39, 72, 73, 119, 123, 125; house of, 102, 112 Vigil, Ramon Benito, 60 Vigil, RomBn, 132 Vigil, Santiago, 72, 73, 119, 120, 125, 142; house of, 102, 112 Vigil, Tile, 124 Vigil de Armijo, Felipita, 124 Vigil de Quintana, Felipita, 124 Vigil de Tapia, Cruz, 132 Vigil de Torres, Ignacia, 112, 118, 124, 125 Vigil de Torres, Lucianita, 87 Vigil family, 64, 70 Villanueva (La Cuesta), N.Mex., 8, 19, 21, 25, 94,97, 123, 152, 152, 153, 164, 174 Vrendenburg, April, 148, 150 Water management, 153; on bottomland, 149; dispute over, 64, 116; Ditch Association, 153-5 7, 159-60; Well Association, 159-60; well drilling program, 128. See also Irrigation ditches Watson, Cullum B., 137, 147 Wealth, 35, 44, 45, 46, 51, 54, 60-61, 64 Weddings, 114, 145 Well Association, 159-60 Wesche, Charles Emil, 36, 193 Whitman, Walt, 175 Whitmore, James E., 200 Wilder, Laura Ingalls, 36
INDEX
Women, 52-54, 111, 114; education of, 103, 104; leadership of, 92; literacy of, 107; schoolteachers, 93, 99; surnames of, 53, 54, 175; wives of relocated villagers, 134 Wool production, 40, 41, 42 Work: in 1900, 171; in 1940, 111, 116-22;
and exodus from El Cerrito, 109; in Pueblo, 130; seasonal, 121, 123 Work Projects Administration (WPA), 118, 119, 121, 122 World War 11, 109, 123 Wright, Chad, 49
267