Johnny Jaramillo at the Gate of Abiquiú's Oldest Cemetery

At the Gate of Abiquiú's Oldest Cemetery

A former land grant board member, Johnny Jaramillo often visits the gravesides of his wife and two sons. Now in his 80s, he remembers riding as a young man with his grandfather on a horse-drawn wagon up to his farm on the mesa within the Abiquiú settlement. There, his grandfather tended his crops. Today, Jaramillo maintains a cattle pasture and herds his cattle by horseback on the same mesa. “We need to preserve our unique heritage and cultural ways for future generations,” Jaramillo says. “We need to harness our history into opportunity.”

Photo by Russel Albert Daniels