Daniel B. Flores

Cuentos De La Pintada: Stories of a Guadalupe County Village Daniel B. Flores

Pintada, known by locals as ?La Pintada,? is located in the west central part of Guadalupe County, 8 miles south of I-40 and 24 miles west of Santa Rosa, on the north side of Cañon de La Piedra Pintada. During its heyday it had mercantile stores, a saloon, a church, and an elementary school. At one time was a farming and ranching community. Today it remains a ranching community and has also been discovered as a home to retirees. Early maps of the area show it as ?El Cañon de la Piedra Pintada,? literally the "Canyon of the Painted Rock." The Pintada canyon flows from an area south of Clines Corners towards the Pecos River at Agua Negra, a distance of some sixty miles. The name makes reference to the many Indian petroglyphs that are found among sandstone boulders all along the canyon. Several Pueblo Indian ruins lie in the area. Some of the mounds, the ruins of former Anasazi pueblos, are within the central part of the historic village of Pintada. They are located near where the La Sagrada Familia, Holy Family, Catholic church is located. Cuentos de La Pintada contains a series of cuentos,vignettes, that each tells a story about the rich and colorful past of La Pintada. Photographs are also used to help illustrate the cuentos. Though the main language for Cuentos de La Pintada is English, I have also included several Spanish articles from period newspapers, especially articles about enlaces, marriages, and defunciones, deaths. I believe they are important in helping to describe the local color of the area, especially since the early inhabitants of Pintada were all native Spanish-speakers.