Cuentos de La Pintada: Stories of a Guadalupe County Village - Paperback

by Daniel B. Flores (Author)

Pintada, known by locals as "La Pintada," is located in the west central part of Guadalupe County, 8 miles south of I-40 and 24 miles west of Santa Rosa, on the north side of Ca on de La Piedra Pintada. During its heyday it had mercantile stores, a saloon, a church, and an elementary school. At one time was a farming and ranching community. Today it remains a ranching community and has also been discovered as a home to retirees. Early maps of the area show it as "El Ca on de la Piedra Pintada," literally the "Canyon of the Painted Rock." The Pintada canyon flows from an area south of Clines Corners towards the Pecos River at Agua Negra, a distance of some sixty miles. The name makes reference to the many Indian petroglyphs that are found among sandstone boulders all along the canyon. Several Pueblo Indian ruins lie in the area. Some of the mounds, the ruins of former Anasazi pueblos, are within the central part of the historic village of Pintada. They are located near where the La Sagrada Familia, Holy Family, Catholic church is located. Cuentos de La Pintada contains a series of cuentos, vignettes, that each tells a story about the rich and colorful past of La Pintada. Photographs are also used to help illustrate the cuentos. Though the main language for Cuentos de La Pintada is English, I have also included several Spanish articles from period newspapers, especially articles about enlaces, marriages, and defunciones, deaths. I believe they are important in helping to describe the local color of the area, especially since the early inhabitants of Pintada were all native Spanish-speakers.

Author Biography

Daniel B. Flores was born in Puerto de Luna, New Mexico in 1946, in the home of his paternal grandfather, Cipriano Flores. That is the same house where Billy the Kid ate his last Christmas dinner in 1880. In 1880 the house belonged to his maternal great-grandfather, Alexander Grzelachowski. Grzelachowski built the house in 1870. Grzelachowski's estate served as a combination residence and mercantile store. A large warehouse was also connected to the rear of the store, complete with a cellar. At the age of three, while living in Puerto de Luna, he was stricken with infantile paralysis, polio. He spent several weeks at the Carrie Tingley Hospital in Hot Springs (now known as Truth or Consequences). He eventually recovered and returned home to his parents in Puerto de Luna. He is the oldest of thirteen children. The Flores family lived in Puerto de Luna until they moved to Santa Rosa in October 1959. Flores attended public schools in Puerto de Luna and Santa Rosa. After graduating from Santa Rosa High School in 1964, he enrolled at the University of New Mexico. He received a BA degree from the University of New Mexico in 1969 and an MA degree in Educational Administration from New Mexico Highlands University in 1984. He returned to Santa Rosa after graduating from UNM in 1969 and was employed by the Santa Rosa Consolidated Schools for over forty years. After working as a teacher for fifteen years, he spent the last twenty-five years of his educational career as an administrator. He served as middle school principal for two years and then was high school principal for seven years. He retired from the school system in July 2009 after working his last sixteen years as the school district's superintendent. He was inducted into the New Mexico Activities Association Hall of Fame in 2002. He was named the New Mexico School Superintendent of the Year in 2007 by the New Mexico School Superintendent's Association. He married his wife, the former Lupita Campos, in 1966. He credits her for helping him complete his college education. They are the parents of Daniel, Jr., Steve and Stephanie. Daniel and Lupita are also the proud grandparents of Marcus and Hannah, the children of Steve and his wife, Tina. The Flores family also welcomed a new grandchild in November 2013, Henry Augustus Flores Boyd, the son of daughter, Stephanie, and Alex Boyd.