Settled atop the Continental Divide, this New Mexico village went from isolation to tourist spot

Editor’s note: The Journal continues “What’s in a Name?,” a once a month column in which Elaine D. Briseño will give a short history of how places in New Mexico got their names.

Cuba, New Mexico, has a long history and to those not from the state, it can cause quite confusion when people realize you aren’t talking about the island in the Caribbean.

Initially called Nacimiento, meaning birth, the village was settled on the banks of the Rio Puerco by Pedro Barela, Jacinto Barela, Jose Sanchez and Juan Garcia, according to the Jemez Springs Public Library history series.

In 1769, Spanish Gov. Pedro Fermin de Mendinueta created the San Joaquin del Nacimiento land grant at the request of 36 families. The new settlement was located east of Cuba’s current location on “a rocky hill between Rito del Nacimiento and Rito de la Leche,” according to the library essay. The town was walled and had “three watch towers and two entrances and a common acequia running through it.”

Cuba native Esther V. Cordova wrote about the town’s history in her 2011 book “Antes: Stories from the Past.” It focuses on the time period from 1769 to 1949. It was born from a series of articles she wrote for the Cuba News beginning in 2007.

At the time, Nacimiento was the very northwestern edge of the Spanish colonial empire.

“It was isolated and the people who eventually settled Cuba seldom traveled to other areas due to the lack of roads and the distances between settlements,” Cordova wrote. “Isolation was simply something the people of Cuba accommodated and endured.”

The community is nestled within the Santa Fe National Forest at 6,900 feet and sits atop the Continental Divide. It’s a popular destination spot for hikers and those looking to escape city life for the day.

However, the Spanish settlers were not the first people to inhabit the area. The Apache, Navajo and Pueblo people had used the regional wilderness area since the 11th century. It’s located within the Navajo Four Sacred Mountains.

Its isolation, Cordova said, allowed the community to maintain its traditions and practices for decades, including preservation of local languages. Modern society would eventually make its way there but not until after World War II when soldiers returned and longed for conveniences they had found out in the world, according to Cordova.

Meanwhile, the initial settlement did not last. Raids by frontier American Indian tribes most likely caused the settlers to abandon the community, according to Robert Julyan, author of “The Place Names of New Mexico.”

However, people would come again to resettle it. Over the next 100 years, people trickled back and by 1887, 238 families were living on the grant land. It was officially renamed Cuba in 1887 when the post office was established.

Cuba can be translated from Spanish to trough or tank but also sink or draw, according to Julyan. However, there is a possible local Native connection to the name, according to Julyan.

“The Navajo name (Na’azísí Bito) for Cuba means ‘gopher water’ and is said to come from the name of an elderly Navajo chief called Hastin Na’zisih who lived by a spring where there were many gophers,” according to the book.

One of the first community structures, according to the library, was a Presbyterian church built in 1889. It burned down in the early 1920s, but by that time the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception had built a church on Main Street followed by a three-story convent and school.

Cordova grew up there and her ancestors, going back at least five generations, lived there or in nearby communities. While in college, she received a grant from Mills College to do an oral history project of Cuba. Armed with this knowledge, she began her series that eventually morphed into her book.

She talks of a pre-mid-century community made up of mostly herdsmen and farmers who had limited resources and very little to no money. The economy before WWII looked very different than it does today. Farmers and ranchers survived by bartering with their neighbors and local American Indians.

“In those days, this was not a money economy,” she said. “There was very little money held by families or individuals, and there were very few means by which to earn money.”

That meant most of the houses in Cuba during that time period were built a little at a time.

“As one looks around Cuba at some of the older houses, of which there are many, one can trace the evolution of these landmark buildings by looking at the various types of building materials used for each addition attached to the original one-room module,” she wrote.

They also had unique foundations made of whatever residents could source nearby, including cut stone and packed sand. They were built on high ground to avoid flooding during the mountain’s spring runoff. Adobe was too time-consuming, so many used logs instead for the first stage of their houses, she said. It was then, when sheltered from the elements, they could begin making enough adobe bricks for the second stage.

The homes built in the late 1800s, in Cuba, all had flat roofs. However, the arrival of the railroad in Albuquerque around that time changed that. They were then able to obtain corrugated metal roofing and framed windows. The pitched roofs meant better ventilation and added storage. It also meant better supplies in the tiendas, or stores, that began popping up in town.

Merchandise included steel-bladed knives, axes, saws, nails, hammers, cast iron stoves, pots and pans, scissors, clocks, medicine and dry goods, according to Cordova.

Cuba was incorporated in 1964 and still serves as a stopping point for goods in the area. But no longer is it just the local residents looking to stock up at home. The town now welcomes campers, hikers, tourists, scientists and historians, all drawn to the area not for settlement, but enjoyment and education.

Curious about how a town, street or building got its name? Email columnist Elaine Briseño at ebriseno@abqjournal.com as she continues the monthly journey in “What’s in a Name?”