La Periodista Costilla shares the 2008 hay harvest in Costilla County in a photo essay.

While this month brought a victory for some Costilla County residents seeking access to La Sierra, formerly known as the Taylor Ranch, other residents are still fighting their way through the court system in an attempt to gain access to the mountain. Land Rights Council Inc. President Shirley Romero-Otero said more than 300 individuals from El Rito (also known as San Francisco) won a long-awaited court ruling this month to gain access to the mountain for purposes of grazing, firewood gathering and timber cutting.

Las Posadas, the nine-night Christmas ritual re-enacting Joseph and Mary's fruitless search for lodging that recently took place in San Francisco, is documented in a photo essay by La Periodista Costilla.

The four-decade effort by residents in southern Costilla County to regain access to the Taylor Ranch could be nearing an end. Members of the Land Rights Council hosted the Colorado-New Mexico Land Grant Conference Saturday to review the next legal steps in certifying who can use the property and provided an update on efforts to forge a management plan.

The religious piety and fervor that characterized Spain for centuries is alive and well - perhaps nowhere as much as in Colorado's San Luis Valley. San Luis Valley native Rick Vigil has captured and recorded some of that faith in a 24-minute documentary, "Spirituality and Its People - El Valle de San Luis." His film, shot between 2001 and 2005, features both religious leaders and laity from the communities of San Luis, Antonito, Capulin, Conejos, La Jara, San Antonio and San Francisco. The video costs $22, Available by writing: P.O. Box 1074, Alamosa, CO 81101. Nearly one-third of revenues will go to three San Luis Valley parishes.

"I'm not interested in painting a historic, romantic, mystical picture of this," said Bobby Hill, who has renamed the previously dubbed "Taylor Ranch", with the quaintly picturesque title of "Cielo Vista". 519 descendants of San Luis Valley homesteaders given legal permission in the past year - including 410 on July 26 - to return to that land that had been off limits for more than 40 years after the land had been illegally besieged from the Spanish settlers of the area. "We're abiding by the law of the land and trying to have a good attitude, but don't paint a smile on our face," says Hill.

A compromise appears possible that would satisfy both the owners of the Taylor Ranch, or La Sierra as locals call the 77,500-acre property, and the hundreds of Costilla County landowners with newly won rights to use the 77,500-acre tract. One of the first Costilla County landowners to exercise his court-affirmed rights to graze cattle on La Sierra that adjoins their small communities, is making full use of the unexpected boon. Photo of La Sierra behind Cerro de la Uta taken from across the valley by Jay Packer.

Land grant experts from both sides of the Colorado-New Mexico border will gather July 29 at Centennial High School in San Luis to discuss the best strategies for asserting historic legal rights to the Mexican land grants. This coincides with the ongoing process of certifying Costilla County landowners for access to the ranch thus far has opened the gates to some 100 individuals who can pasture their livestock and collect wood on the sprawling 77,500-acre ranch. More than 500 people may get their keys to the Taylor Ranch at a court hearing July 26 in San Luis.

Throughout the spring, the Land Rights Council is hosting public forums in the communities of El Rito, Chama, San Pablo-San Pedro, San Luis and San Acacio. The forums will help develop a La Sierra Sustainable Use Rights Management Plan, part of a court decree opening the 77,500-acre Taylor Ranch to Costilla County residents.

On an early Good Friday morning in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado, the white-capped mountains cast long shadows across the valley floor. The sun that sneaks between the cracks in the mountains bathes the valley in a soft yellow light. In the tiny hamlet of San Francisco, a steady stream of cars drops people off in front of St. Francis of Assisi Church. Dressed for winter, they congregate outside, rubbing their hands and shoulders for warmth. Their breaths freeze into white streams, telling them what they already know: it's cold.

Voices for restoring access rights to the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant land in southwestern Costilla County rang through the chilled afternoon air in front of a locked gate Sunday. "The next time people come to this gate they are going on the mountain," Pete Espinoza said.

Determined protesters braved a chilling wind Sunday to send a message to the owner of Taylor Ranch that, after 23 years, they will not return to the courts to assert their access rights to the 77,750-acre spread. Earlier this month, attorneys for current owner Lou Pai, a former Enron executive, filed a motion in Costilla County District Court asking to limit access to the land to only seven landowners who have continuously owned cattle in the area.

The Culebra River Villages of Costilla County is a richly detailed 73-page document available from the Colorado Historical Society's Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.

SLV Dweller is calling upon local photographers and videographers to submit content for on-line publication. Photographs may be contemporary or historic but must offer a unique and diverse perspective on the San Luis Valley, the land, it's people and the culture. Photos and/or video may be emailed to info@slvdweller.com. We hope you will share your unique perspective with the dwellers of the San Luis Valley.

This photo taken in 1962 of the Catholic Church in San Francisco shows a square tower with battlements and log and adobe buildings in decay. San Francisco is located south-east of San Luis. Photo courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, call number X-13516. view larger image