Being raised in a community where your history connects to every part of your present, it is difficult to find the courage to leave. It is similarly difficult to forge a path and stay. Questa del Rio News is committed to highlighting different members of our community, both those who have created their paths and planted their own roots in the community that raised them, and those who have pursued lives outside of the community—through our Representando series. This series is dedicated to those who are Representando communities in northern Taos County, in various facets of life.
Over a cup of fresh coffee and a slice of coffee cake at his home in Questa, Flavio Cisneros is a living bridge between the village’s past and present. A conversation with him is like being transported back in time, to a Questa of dirt roads, home remedies, and community bonds that shaped his life and many others.
Flavio Cisneros was born in 1941, one of 11 children to Francisco (Frank) and Corina Cisneros. Flavio currently resides in a home adjacent to the one he grew up in off Kiowa Road. His roots run deep in Questa, with his great, great, great-grandfather, Fransisco Lafore arriving from Montreal, Canada, in 1815. Remnants of his past are scattered throughout his house. From the glass butter churn that was his mothers to the letters from his father asking for his mothers hand in marriage.
Flavio described Questa during his youth as a quiet village where social life revolved around school and church. The main store in town was Rael’s Market, but there were others, too—the Ortega Store by St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, a store where the Monte Carlo is now, and the Velasquez store where locals would go for kerosene and turn in bottles for a refund of two cents.
Growing up, farming, ranching, and gardening were the way of life on their 35-acre family farm. His father worked as a carpenter and farmer, and his mother was the family’s caretaker. Flavio and his family reaped the benefits of the harvest season with plums, wheat, barley, alfalfa, peaches, and apples they collected from D.H. Lawrence Ranch and Pilar. “My father would take our wheat to San Luis to get milled,” Flavio said. He also remembered his mother filling a bag with wheat and putting it in a ditch to sprout, which would eventually be used for panocha (a traditional dessert made from sprouted whole wheat flour). “I learned how to can foods and cook from my mother and eventually learned to replicate her recipes when I got older,” Flavio shared.
The family had a Jersey cow, which provided milk, cream, and butter all of which he recalled his mother selling along with eggs from their 300 hundred chickens. “With the money we’d get from selling eggs, my mother would order some things out of a catalog. I remember ordering my first pair of shoes from a Montgomery Ward catalog and they were $2.50. For Christmas my mother used to order buckets of candy and oranges from the catalog and that was a treat.” He added that going to Taos wasn’t a common thing and that a lot of people traded and bought on credit at the time. He recalled a movie place and a dance hall which was located where the Questa Visitors Center is now. “I remember one of the first movies I saw there was called The Iron Mask. I went to see it and it cost 25 cents,” he said. “We would walk to church every day to pray the rosary,” Flavio shared “and when we couldn’t we’d say it at home at my mothers bedside. One time my brother thought he’d make a kneeler to be more comfortable and when my mother saw it she threw it outside and it landed on the roof,” Flavio laughed.
Healthcare was different then. The local clinic, located where the food pantry is today, was reserved for emergencies and he recalls getting his vaccinations there as a child. “People only went when they had to,” Flavio explained. Instead, they relied on ‘remedios’ or remedies from yerbas (herbs). He recalled his father’s aunt, Cleofus Romero, who was an expert in herbal medicine at that time and also served as a midwife, delivering Flavio himself. “She made it a point to know what herbs helped people,” he noted.
For many families at the time, holiday traditions were built around family recipes and gathering in the kitchen. “During the holidays we would all gather around the table and watch my mom make empanaditas (fried pies filled with meat or pumpkin) and biscochitos,” he recalled. “If someone came over my mother always served hot coffee and something sweet. If they stayed she could whip up something in no time,” Flavio says with a smile. Flavio didn’t learn his mothers recipes until later in life. “I never really paid attention to how these things were made. It was when my parents both passed away that I realized I had a craving for these things and started making them on my own. It was my taste that told me if they were right or wrong.”
After graduating high school in 1960, Flavio was working in Red River when he impulsively went to Highlands University on registration day. It wasn’t long before he realized that he wasn’t quite ready for college life and returned home. After a brief time in California for work and time in Questa, he enlisted in the Air Force in December 1963 and was assigned to Germany. “I was 22 and I didn’t know anything,” he admitted, “but it was a tremendous experience and it was while living in Germany I realized I wanted to go back to school.”
He worked as a diesel mechanic and shop secretary for three years, all while pursuing his education. He attended the University of Maryland’s European Campus on a temporary duty assignment, where he studied history and German, becoming fluent in the language. He credited one of his professors for having a profound impact on him. After completing his studies, he became an interpreter, working mainly with World War II veterans. “I learned a lot from those men,” he said.
His time in Europe brought history to life. “Everything I had been studying in world history I could see and touch. It was a wonderful experience,” he explained. He traveled to Bavaria, where he learned to ski, and visited France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. He returned home in 1967.
Upon his completion of military service with two years of college under his belt, Flavio enrolled at Western New Mexico University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in both History and Spanish in 1970, followed by a master’s degree in 1974. He continued his academic pursuits with post-graduate work in History and Political Science at several prestigious institutions, including Eastern New Mexico, Westminster College in Pennsylvania, and Cornell University in New York, during 1983 and 1984.
His passion for history and teaching led him to a career in education. He was part of the Future Teachers of America program in high school and began teaching World History at Taos High School. In 1970, he was enticed to work at Questa High School with a slight pay raise and the promise of an $8,000-a-year salary. In 1982, he and his wife at the time, Carol, adopted their daughter, Jessica. “I fell in love with her immediately,” he said. His life was further enriched by the birth of his grandson, Ernesto, in 2000. At his college graduation, Ernesto wore a special cord, telling Flavio it was for him, for “being there for him through the years.” Flavio retired from teaching in 1992, using his military time toward his retirement.
After retiring, Flavio spent some time in Colorado before making his way back to Questa. He has been involved with community engagements his whole life, serving as a church mayordomo several times, participating in village elections for over 40 years, and volunteering as a cook at the Friendship Circle and with the food pantry. He is also a member of the Questa Creative Council, a program that seeks to strengthen and sustain community enrichment and economic opportunities through arts, culture, history, and education.
Through the Questa Creative Council, Flavio is excited to be part of a cooking class on November 8 at the Living Word Ministries kitchen, where he and others will teach attendees how to make traditional dishes. “All is not lost—we can still share these things that are part of our past and teach others,” he said.
Today, Flavio lives with a strong sense of gratitude and pride for his hometown. He reflects on his life with grace and wisdom. “I live in my memories. They are very important in my life and important to who I became,” he said. “I cannot complain. I have been beyond blessed. I love history and I love my community above all things. I’m so proud of being part of it currently and proud to be part of its past.”
