(Left) Rodney and (Right) Chris Arellano playing at Questa Farmers Market
Historias de la familia, amor, aventuras, y desventuras dichas por la gente de nuestro país
Voces de Nuestro Paίs ~ Voices of Our Place are monthly story gatherings at Questa Library. Featured guests share their stories of family, history, love, adventures, and misadventures as told by the people of our area. These stories are deeply enjoyed in-person at the library, but also by virtual listeners afterwards. Each event is carefully recorded and made available as a monthly audio and video podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music and Youtube; just search for “Voces de Nuestro País.” By sharing these stories on multiple online platforms, we hope to widen and deepen the community connection experienced at the in-person events. Please tell your friends and family!
To kick off 2026, we are offering two events in January: the fourth “Voces de Nuestro País” event at Questa Library will take place on Sat, Jan 10, 2 – 4 p.m., featuring Chris and Rodney Arellano, nationally acclaimed and locally beloved musicians from Costilla with deep roots in their community and musical family. On Sat., Jan. 24 come join us for our first Story-Sharing Open Mic; stories from all community members are welcome. Come sign-up; we can’t wait to hear your story!
Our third Voces de Nuestro País event took place on Dec. 13 and focused on the importance of service to one’s country and community with our featured guests, Louise Gallegos and David Cisneros. Louise Gallegos shared stories about a broad range of life experiences: being the first female Councilor and twenty years of service on the Questa Village Council; how her interest in politics started with her father who always took the family along with him to vote; about the restoration of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church; and stories of growing up in Questa with lots of time outside through the seasons including sledding with socks on her hands to keep them warm.
We also heard stories from David Cisneros, an unsung hero from Cerro who has lived a life of service. David shared stories of his twenty years in the Navy starting at just seventeen years old, including volunteering to serve during Vietnam and six months with the Turkish Navy. He shared stories of life at sea, through battles and some of his posts and experiences during his extensive global travel throughout Europe and Asia as well as Australia and New Zealand. He also shared stories of integrating into civilian life and choosing a career path in refrigeration and appliance repair, which he learned in San Diego, CA and has done for decades in Cerro and Questa and throughout Northern Taos County.
Michael Rael is MC and curator for these monthly gatherings and podcast episodes, hosted in collaboration with Questa Library and Voices of the Northern Rio Grande, a program of local nonprofit, Localogy. Audio recordings, videos, and images from “Voces de Nuestro País” events are also being added to our digital community archive, a local repository and resource established by Voices of the Northern Rio Grande and Questa Public Library with support from the Manitos Community Memory Project. Learn more about the community archive and listen to stories from community members at QuestaStories.org and QuestaLibrary.org.
Don’t miss our fourth and fifth “Voces de Nuestro País” events at Questa Library on Jan. 10 and 24, 2-4 p.m. Also, save the Date: Next month’s story-sharing event will take place on Feb. 21. We hope you can join us!
If you have stories you’d like to share, please let Michael Real know. You can often find him at Raels’ Market or email him at rael870@gmail.com.
