Book Description:
This book is a compilation of stories about the daily lives of the people of northwestern New Mexico, especially the Hispanic people. The people communicated orally, and very little is left in writing. Much of the material for these stories came from listening to people tell their stories and from old timers who shared their memories. People in the Spanish and Mexican colonial periods were struggling to survive, tending their small farms and livestock and focusing on the church, not on schools. This book provides a look into the life of the village. The people you meet are real people. The stories fill a void and provide a window into the past, not only in C bola County, but in northern New Mexico and throughout the Southwest where Hispanic people settled with similar customs and traditions. This book consists of four parts, each highlighting the people in the region: Villages, Villagers, Ranching, and Change Comes to the Villages. Within each part are stories of people, culture, and customs. This book is intended to teach everyone from children in the primary grades, to the life long learner about the daily lives of the people of C bola and northwestern New Mexico. The stories in large part tell about the people who came from Spain to Mexico and their descendants, who traveled north to colonize this beautiful region of the United States, inhabited by American Indians and known today as America's Land of Enchantment. Abe Pe a writes about the people of San Mateo and other nearby places from the 1920s to 1950s. Pena, who lives in Grants, grew up on a sheep ranch near San Mateo, immersed in the traditional Hispanic culture of west central New Mexico. He ran the family ranch for many years before serving 12 years in Latin America in foreign service positions. Pena writes about traditional events such as Los Pastores, the shepherds' pageant performed at Christmas time. He remembers Spanish speaking Lebanese immigrant children who proudly proclaimed, 'Yo soy Mexicano, casi' (I'm Hispanic, almost). He tells of villagers who in a drought paraded a statue of their patron saint in hopes of rain. When hail fell instead, they took him out of the church again to show him 'the mess he made.' 'Pe a has a good ear for a story,' says historian Marc Simmons, who wrote the book's introduction. 'The engaging men and women who walk so freely through his pages seemed infused with the elixir of southwestern air and landscape and with the tonic of their own vibrant cultural history.'
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