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 20th Century Comes to Questa
Our story now becomes less detailed. The end of the Indian raids and of the gold rush changed life in Questa to a more cyclical


More Arrivals and Visitors in Rio Colorado
The presence of Francisco Laforet in Rio Colorado drew other trappers and traders to settle in this valley. One of the most colorful, and famous,

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.

Vecinos on the Northern Frontier
Don Francisco Laforet (his last name has many spellings, including La Forett, Laforee, Laforey, and Laport) is said to have come to live in the

The Cañon del Rio Colorado Land Grant
The first attempt for this grant was the June 12, 1836 petition for land filed by Antonio Elias Armenta, Jose Victor Sanchez, and Jose Manuel

Everyday Life in the 1920s to 1940s
Water was and is the basis of everyday life in this high mountain desert. Acequias were often built even before the houses or church in