Voces de Nuestro Pais ~ 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 multiply the community connection experienced at the in-person events. Please tell your friends and family!

Our fourth Voces de Nuestro País session took place on January 10 with songs and reflection from nationally acclaimed and locally beloved musicians, Chris and Rodney Arellano of Costilla. At the event, they played traditional and original songs written by Chris and their late musician father, Jake Arellano. They shared stories from their journey as musicians and about the song-writing process, as well as their commitment to sharing their passion for nurturing the next generation of musicians through various teaching experiences and the annual Summer School of Rock music camp in Questa and Nuevo Americana Music Festival. The fifth Voces de Nuestro Pais event was an open Mic Story-Sharing and took place on Jan. 24. Look for an update on that event in March.

This month, Voces de Nuestro País continues its exploration of music, family and community. The sixth event in the ongoing series will take place at the Questa Public Library on Saturday, February 21, from 2 to 4 p.m. featuring Taos musicians Vito Trujillo Sr. and Vito Trujillo Jr. This conversation highlights a multigenerational northern New Mexico musical legacy shaped by mentorship, collaboration, and award-winning artistry.

The Trujillos have deep roots in northern New Mexico’s music scene. Vito Jr. is an award-winning musician, producer, and DJ, mentored by his father, Vito Sr. a longtime musician who performed in the duo Vito and Alan with the late Allen Vigil and alongside many other artists. We look forward to sharing their music and stories with community members at the Questa Public Library in February.

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 the 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 a

nd listen to stories from community members at QuestaStories.org and QuestaLibrary.org.
Don’t miss our Sixth “Voces de Nuestro País” event at Questa Library on Feb. 21, 2 to 4 p.m. We hope you can join us!
If you have stories you’d like to share, please let Michael Rael know. You can often find him at Rael’s Market or email him at rael870@gmail.com.