El Cerrito, New Mexico: Eight Generations in a Spanish Village

El Cerrito, New Mexico captures the essence of a village that, despite cultural and economic disintegration, sparks the passion of a small number of inhabitants who want to keep it alive. Richard L. Nostrand opens a window into the past of the upper Pecos Valley, revealing the daily life of this small, isolated Hispanic village whose population waxes and wanes in the face of family feuds, settlement struggles, and the ever-encroaching modern world. Nostrand identifies the challenges and opportunities facing eight twenty-five-year generations. Using primary sources from government, census, and church records, as well as from burials, homestead documents, and extensive interviews with sixty Cerritenos, Nostrand details village happenings from its 1824 founding to the present day. This unique study weaves historical evidence with physical data from soil analyses, topology, and geology to explain how the land itself shaped life in El Cerrito. Previous community studies pinpoint a particular time in which to assess kinship and social organization, but this volume examines those factors over two centuries to reveal a more complete picture of a town and its people. Lavishly illustrated with photographs and maps, El Cerrito, New Mexico explores how one village has preserved traditions and community lifeways that have survived for more than a century.