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Another Time in This Place

Tessie Rael de Ortega and Judith Cuddihy

Soap was made from the fat of lambs or pigs. The fat was mixed with lye and crushed rosebuds were added to give it a

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

There were no lunch boxes; we just used an empty pail from jam or syrup.

…they made the coffins from pine wood and covered them with a nice material.

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

…a posse of eight men… went up Red River canyon… caught Conelly in a cabin and brought him down to the justice of peace.

There on the outskirts of the village of Questa, by the side of Cabresto Creek just south of Highway 38, under a cluster of old

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

The Colonial Period

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.