Another Time in This Place
Historia, Cultura y Vida en Questa, New Mexico, USA
Tessie Rael de Ortega and Judith Cuddihy
An Introductory Note
…first-person accounts of Rio Colorado [Questa] have been included to give a first-hand view of what life was like here over the years.
Table of Contents
Front Matter From Our Hearts and Minds From the Record The Cycle of Birth, Life & Death Everyday Life in the 1920’s to 1940’s Appendix
The Ortega Family
Ortega Family Juan De Jesus Ortega—great grandfather Jose Dolores Chavez—great grandfather Margarita Trujillo De Ortega—great grandmother Maria Antonia Gonzales DeChavez—great grandmother Agapito Ortega—grandfather Teodorita Chavez
The Railroad Comes to Northern New Mexico
The 1870s brought more surveyors for the railroad that would come eventually through just north of Rio Colorado. By 1876, rail for the narrow-gauge Denver
Baptism
When a baby was taken to be baptized, the Padrinos of the baby would say to the parents of the baby after they came back
The Founders of Questa, by J.P. Rael
J.P. Rael’s poem Los Pobladores de Questa (The Founders of Questa) is probably the first written history of Questa.
The Indian Threat Ends
For almost a century, settlers in Rio Colorado had been subjected to the raids of Indian tribes. By the end of the 1870s, these raids
The End of the Trail for Horse and Buggy—J.P. Rael
Bad roads were an obstacle to the industry. Every time a Model T went over this road on its way to Taos it made an awful racket.
Additional Reading
Abert, Lieutenant James Willian. Expedition to the Southwest: An 1845 Reconnaissance of Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1999 Arny, W.F.M.
Customs for betrothal and marriage
The “Alwasiles” sheriffs were very strict. If they found a girl or a boy talking to each other out in public they would take them