The purpose of Voices of the Northern Rio Grande, is to encourage and celebrate connection to place, culture, history and each other through sharing and archiving lived experiences and stories. As a collection point for these stories we honor those that give them voice; sharing respectfully is important to us. We are creating an audio-visual story archive for North Central New Mexico, particularly for Questa, Cerro and surrounding communities, from Arroyo Hondo and Arroyo Seco to the South, to Costilla and Amalia to the North and just over the border into Colorado, Garcia, San Luis etc.
Taking inspiration from both traditional oral history and ethnographic approaches, as well as more informal events, conversations, the StoryCorps interview model, photography, video and the scanning of precious photographs and documents, the hope is to facilitate the recording and archiving as well as revitalization of local stories and traditions through meaningful conversations that link generations and encourage cross-pollination of ideas, perspectives, experiences and understandings.
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Gathering Memory: Sound, Object, Photo and Story, July 8, 2018, Questa VFW HallThe general public and community members, from the Questa area - La Lama to Amalia and beyond, were invited to a community workshop: Gathering Memory: Object, Photos, and Story, on Sunday, July 8, 2018, at the Questa VFW Hall. The event was organized and hosted through a partnership between Questa History Trail (a project of Questa Creative Council, QuestaCreative.org) and Questa Stories. Over 100 people attended the event. This is the collection of audio files and images of community members telling stories about the objects and photos they brought to share. -
StoryBox Collection from Questa StoriesThe files in this collection/item set are stories gathered through the use of StoryBox, and our (QuestaStories.org) documentation of these story gathering events. -
Women’s Tea: a story sharing afternoon in Questa, November 16, 2019On Saturday, Nov 16, 2019, Questa Stories hosted a “Women’s Tea: a story sharing afternoon” event from 2:00 - 4:00 PM at La Sala in Questa, NM. We collaborated with Esther Garcia as our event co-host; she is an active community member and former Mayor of Questa. (Although we had envisioned an event similar to this for some time, it was Esther who initiated it in this instance). Together, we selected a guest list that represented a variety of backgrounds and ages from within our community and created an appealing invitation. We then delivered them by hand, and by email and also made phone call invitations to women with this prompt: “tell a story about a moment, experience, or person that changed or shaped your life.” We introduced the gathering as part of Questa Stories and the Manitos Community Memory Gathering Project and explained the digital archive. Recording their stories was optional, but encouraged, and most women wanted to be recorded. We asked all present to sign release forms allowing us to record their voices, take their photo taken and for both to be uploaded to the digital archive and Questa Stories website (QuestaStories.org). The stories shared at the event were heartfelt and personal and united us as a group and also connected us to each other as individuals in a significant way. In some cases women in attendance were close friends, other acquaintances, and some met for the first time. This mix was intentional. We all left with a small but significant sense of connection to one another as a result of the gathering. One participant has since noted that since the event, when she has seen other women who were at the event in other contexts that she feels closer to them and gets the sense that they feel closer to her as well.
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Portrait of Kate Cisneros in her KitchenPortrait of Kate Cisneros in her Kitchen, June 14, 2018 -
Story Sharing and Discussion: Martha Rael Nimon - Grandfathers Horse; Monica Ortega and Irma Cisneros Sledding AdventureStory Sharing and Discussion from Martha Rael Nimon about how she used to ride her Grandfather's Horse and Monica Ortega and Irma Cisneros recount a childhood sledding story they were told by school Grandmothers Tessie and Grandma Tina.
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Story-sharing and discussion at Questa Women's Tea: Loveida Cisneros, Monica Ortega, Judy Rutledge, Esther Garcia, Martha Rael Nimon and Maria GonzalesStory-sharing and discussion at Questa Women's Tea, November 16, 2019: Loveida Cisneros - Woodcutting and picnic lunch; Monica Ortega – they had a way of sharing lessons without saying it directly; Judy Rutledge – details of stories important to share with our youth; Esther Garcia – Winter Bus Rides with Felix Quintana; Martha Rael Nimon – Memories of Esther’s dad driving the bus; Maria Gonzales – Memories of her Grandmother
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Esther Garcia: lessons learned from her father about land and waterEsther Garcia: lessons learned from her father about land and water, importance of youth involvement and water scarcity. Stories and discussion took place at the Questa Women's Tea, November 16, 2019.
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Portraits of Judy Rutledge, Women's Tea, Questa, November 16, 2019Portraits of Judy Rutledge, Women's Tea, Questa, November 16, 2019 -
Portrait of Carrie Leven and Monica Ortega, Women's Tea, Questa, November 16, 2019Portrait of Carrie Leven and Monica Ortega, Women's Tea, Questa, November 16, 2019, both participants in this first women's memory gathering event hosted by Questa Stories. -
Portrait of Carrie Leven, Questa Women's Tea, November 16, 2019Portrait of Carrie Leven, Questa Women's Tea, November 16, 2019. At this event, Carrie shared the experience that peaked her interest in archaeology and eventually led her to a career in the field. -
Maria and Amalia GonzalesMaria Gonzales and Amalia Gonzales (daughter of Maria) at the Questa Women's Tea, November 16, 2019 -
Women's Tea Invitation, Questa, November 16, 2019Invitation to the first Questa Stories Women's Tea Invitation, November 16, 2019 -
Photo of Martha Rael NimonPortrait of Martha Rael Nimon, participant at the November 16, 2019 Questa Women's Tea, photo taken at July 8, Memory Gathering Event at Questa VFW -
Story about Irene Gomez Rael (Paternal Grandmother of Martha Rael Nimon)Story illustrating the grit and tenacity of Irene Gomez Rael (paternal Grandmother of Martha Rael Nimon) and one of the dichos that impacted Martha that her grandmother used to tell her.
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Orchard of farmer at Dixon, New MexicoOne of several Farm Security Administration photos taken in Dixon.