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
Floyd Hamblen
The boy that grew up in Questa, who was an integral part of the community, merchant, farmer and a prosperous business man. – by J.P. Rael
Holidays
They had valerios for the dead and they would sing hymns called “Alavados.” Also velarios for the Santos. These alavados were a little different. When
The San Antonio del Rio Colorado Land Grant
A second group of settlers petitioned for a land grant on the Rio Colorado early in 1841, essentially for land that is now Questa proper.
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.
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
Old Questa Murders
…a posse of eight men… went up Red River canyon… caught Conelly in a cabin and brought him down to the justice of peace.
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
A New Frontier
By 1840 San Antonio del Rio Colorado was well established and new settlers were continually arriving and more houses were being built all along the
Our Water
In the 1920s to 1940s, very few people had wells. They drank water from the the Red River, Cabresto Creek, or the ditches, whichever was