Voces de Nuestro País ~ Voices of Our Place is a monthly storytelling gathering at the Questa Public Library celebrating local voices and culture. Featured guests share stories of family, history, love, adventures, and misadventures – all told by the people of our area. These stories are deeply enjoyed in person at the library and are also shared with online listeners afterward.
Each event is carefully recorded and released as a monthly audio and video podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube. Simply search for “Voces de Nuestro País.” By sharing these stories on virtual platforms, we hope to extend and
multiply the sense of community connection that is felt during the live gatherings. Please tell your friends and family.
Our fifth Voces de Nuestro País session took place on Jan. 24 and marked our first-ever Community Open Mic. We heard a wonderful variety of stories from community members Bob Jaramillo, Mark White, Betsy Peirce, and Wyman Edwards, with Michael Rael serving as host and participant. The stories ranged from funny to poignant, touching on themes of growing up and arriving in this place, a winter adventure on the Rio Grande, and memories of local communities and community members from years past.
Our sixth session, featuring Vito Trujillo Jr. and Vito Trujillo Sr., took place on Feb. 21, after this newspaper’s submission deadline. Look for highlights from that gathering in the April issue.
This month, Voces de Nuestro País will feature childhood memories and family stories from Cerro. Our seventh event will be held at the Questa Public Library on Saturday, Mar. 14, from 2–4 p.m., and will feature Kate Cisneros and her niece Corinne Montoya, both originally from Cerro. Their stories will reflect on their shared experience of being raised by a single mother and grandmother in Cerro, and the skills, adventures, and cultural teachings they continue to carry wit
h them. We look forward to gathering with community members in March to hear and share these meaningful stories.
Michael Rael serves as MC and curator for these monthly gatherings and podcast episodes, hosted in collaboration with the Questa Public Library and Voices of the Northern Rio Grande, a program of the local nonprofit Localogy. Audio recordings, videos, and images from Voces de Nuestro País events are also being added to a digital community archive — a local repository and resource established by Voices of the Northern Rio Grande and the Questa Public Library with support from the Manitos Community Memory Project. To learn more about the community archive and to listen to stories from community members, visit QuestaStories.org and QuestaLibrary.org.
If you have stories you would like to share, please reach out to Michael Rael. You can often find him at Rael’s Market, or you can email him at rael870@gmail.com.
Community members who shared stories during the first Voces de Nuestro País Community Open Mic Event. Left to right: Michael Rael, Bob Jaramillo, Mark White, Betsy Peirce and Wyman Edwards, image collage created by Dan Khuen from video stills, courtesy of Voices of the Northern Rio Grande.
