Market a link to San Luis' past

Now, unless an owner is found to carry on the family business, it may fall victim to the region's vast changes

Fernando Quintero, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 30, 2007 at midnight

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SAN LUIS - Colorado's oldest continuously operating family business in the state's oldest town has weathered the test of time for 150 years.

Locals say the geographic isolation of San Luis - near the New Mexico border in a vast scenic valley that bears its name - has kept competition at bay and the store alive all these years.

But inevitable change is threatening to end a family legacy.

Today, residents from miles around are expected to celebrate the founding of R&R Market by Dario Gallegos in 1857. The store is run by Felix Romero, 61, the founder's great-great-grandson.

But Romero, who took over the store with his father, George Romero, in 1969, says that he and his wife, Claudia, are ready to call it quits and retire. Neither of his two sons has expressed interest in the business, nor has any of the countless relatives who live in town or nearby.

"My hope is that someone from the family will step up, anyone remotely related, to take it over," Romero said. "Other than that, I'll lease it out to anyone who wants it."

Some say that the lack of interest is indicative of the erosion of family traditions in a town that was built on such close ties. Others say the store represents continuity in a place that, for better or worse, is on the cusp of social and economic change.

"My perception is we've been discovered," said Romero, a tall man with long, white hair but whose tinted eyeglasses and ponytail make him look years younger. "We're now being developed by land developers. All you need is to get Julia Roberts to buy one foot of land here, and it's all over. We'll become another Taos."

A spot rich in history

San Luis was founded April 5, 1851, in honor of a Catholic saint. It was settled by Mexican pioneers who had been migrating north from Santa Fe to the fertile San Luis Valley for decades.

After winning its independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico moved to settle the San Luis Valley with its own people to ward off colonization by the U.S. Land grants gave large tracts of the valley to people willing to live and work on the land. The largest, the Sangre de Cristo grant, was nearly a million acres, stretching along the Culebra range, south across the New Mexico border and west to the Rio Grande.

San Luis was modeled after the Spanish settlements farther south, with adobe homes built around a plaza or town square for protection. The town had a vega, or common grazing meadow, and acequia, a common irrigation ditch for the fields. The San Luis People's Ditch, dug in 1852, continues to operate to this day.

In 1851, Gallegos and a dozen others came north from Arroyo Seco, New Mexico, to settle along Culebra Creek. Six years later, Gallegos put down $452 for a mercantile store.

To bring in goods from outside the region, Gallegos would take a caravan to St. Louis - incidentally, the English name for San Luis - where he would barter wool and furs for the supplies he wanted to take back.

In 1874, Gallegos sold the store to Arcadio Salazar, his son-in-law, and the store has been passed down to family members ever since.

Romero is proud that the family business has endured so long, and he hopes that the celebration of the store's anniversary will bring about a greater understanding of the historical and cultural importance of San Luis.

"There is a lot of history here and a lot of traditions here that people don't know about," Romero said. "This is where Colorado got its start."

Tradition tempered by poverty

Located in Costilla County, the poorest county in the state, San Luis, population 740, has both benefitted and suffered because of its isolation.

"The economy of the valley is not the best. People struggle to make a living," said the Rev. Pat Valdez, a San Luis Valley native and the town's spiritual leader. "But being far away from everything has allowed us to preserve many of our traditions."

This includes adobe architecture and wood carvings of saints - all derived from its northern New Mexico origins. There's even the local Spanish dialect.

But the richness of tradition is tempered by poverty.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the median annual household income in Costilla County was less than $20,000. Less than half of residents 16 years and over were employed. San Luis is even poorer than the county as a whole.

The lack of work, coupled with the slow-paced life of the valley, discourages young people from staying and maintaining local traditions.

"Growing up here, everybody hates it," said Andrew Romero, 35. "You just want to get . . . out of here. You want the 9-to-5 job with the $50,000-a-year salary."

Steven Romero, 33, got out. He attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs and taught in that city for a short time before returning to San Luis in 2002.

He surveys the land from his vantage point off the side of a road that runs between San Luis and Chama. Deep green fields of alfalfa stretch across the horizon and lend a sweetness to the cool summer breeze. Blue mountain ranges tower above, still holding on to patches of snow.

"This generation is completely alienated from this land. We had to go away and come back before we really learned to appreciate it. We're trying to tell these kids, you don't have to go away to appreciate what you have in your own backyard," he said. "I don't have to spend a day in traffic. I don't have to answer the phone. I can create the most beautiful landscape on earth. I think I'm pretty rich."

Like Steven, his aunt, Diana Cortez, left home to go to college. She went on to teach bilingual education in Colorado Springs, was elected president of the teacher's union, became a bilingual education administrator in Utah and served on the board of trustees for Weber State University in Ogden.

Thirty years after she left San Luis, Cortez, 55, returned.

"I think it does take going away and coming back to really appreciate this place," she said. "We take this place for granted, but then we finally come around."

Cortez agreed with Steven that young people don't value tradition and family in the same way as they do, and as their ancestors did before them.

"My children don't care about this place," she said. "They say, 'Preserving traditions is your responsibility, Mom.' They think we're strange coming back here.

"I think I always knew I would come back. Your heart never leaves this place."

Keeping culture alive

Cortez is a member of one of Costilla County's prominent families. She is the superintendent of schools. Her father, Felix, is head of the county economic development council. Her cousin, Joe Gallegos, is a Costilla County commissioner who lives on the same farm established by Dario Gallegos.

"We were considered well to do, even though we had an outside toilet," she said. "But we were descendants of Dario. We were well aware of that."

In 2004, Cortez came back to take over the school system.

"I asked myself, 'Do I want to return?' I got to thinking about the children, and how our language and culture was getting lost."

So she decided to do something about it.

With the help of her family and other locals, Cortez revamped the school district's curriculum to include local customs and traditions.

She has started an agricultural vocational program to teach youths Hispanic farming traditions. Students are studying traditional arts, including wood carving, adobe brick making and mariachi music. Students are encouraged to speak Spanish at school.

"This community was neglected for so long, it created a poverty mentality," Cortez said. "There was incredible apathy and complacency. We had to change things around before we got to a point of no return."

But it's a work in progress.

Cortez said that bad schools and a poor economy, among other factors, have led to problems with drugs and alcohol. San Luis Police Chief Greg Brown said that this year, he has taken 26 people to the nearest detox center, in Alamosa.

"That's more than all of last year," he said.

Town Clerk Paul Batz said that most of the problems involve cocaine and alcohol.

"We figure 80 percent are good people," he said. "The other 20 percent are the same kids causing problems over and over again. They're the kids who have dropped out of school and stayed here. The good kids move out and go to Denver."

Still, Felix Romero said that there is a new sense of excitement and energy over recent efforts to improve the area's economy.

The county courthouse is getting a makeover, a new nursing center is under construction, and a self-help housing project is cropping up north of town.

Studies are under way on a biodiesel fuel initiative that would involve soybeans. There are also plans for an organic farming cooperative.

"We've been farming organically for many years. We can't afford the chemicals to put on them," Felix Romero said.

There are also efforts to designate San Luis a National Heritage Area, which could bring in more federal dollars for area improvements.

Then there's the Stations of the Cross Shrine, a series of bronze sculptures that represent scenes in the Passion of Christ. The sculptures are placed several hundred feet apart along a steep path that leads to the top of a mesa overlooking the town.

The shrine has drawn up to 30,000 people a year.

Felix Romero said it's only a matter of time before the local economy takes off.

But son Steven said that bringing economic development to the valley while maintaining cultural traditions and customs will be a delicate balancing act.

"How can you create economic opportunities while creating a sustainable environment that keeps culture and traditions alive?" he said. "That is the challenge before us."

quinterof@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5250

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