Ruben Cobos, recorder, 1972
Item — Box: 2, CD: 125
Scope and Contents
Tito Modesto Rivera, b. 1899, Rainesville, NM. 1. Datos personales (states his father's name was Juan Ventura Rivera and his mother's Higinia Baca, that she died when he was eight years old, Tito went to first three grades in school, teachers were Spanish speaking, learned to read English from store catalogs listing various names of objects, personal information, language, education, at Grainsby, New Mexico, near Mora); 2. Trabajos (jobs had as a young man, cooked for cowboys, vaqueros, tells food he prepared for breakfast and other meals, says they had covered wagons, carros de camisa, went on trips to Oklahoma, conversation, employment); 3. Los caballos (relato, duermen a las tres o cuatro de la manana (while working for cowboys a watchman informs Tito that horses sleep in the early hours of the morning, they shut their eyes and stand very still, young colts will often lie down to sleep, ranching); 4. Trabajos (work in camp with the cowboys, vaqueros, branding was done by land, describes method of past branding, today branding is simpler than back then, using chutes, holding the horses still, etc., mentions Milnor Rudolph, who was Dutch, mother was Spanish speaking, Tito worked for Rudolph in Colorado, conversation); 5. La vida en Mora, NM (relato, lived in Mora County and had various jobs, selling medicines for the Rawley Company, health, sickness, and cutting wood to sell in Las Vegas, when county families moved Tito bought their lands, once had over fifteen hundred acres of land, Tito was a deputy sheriff, law enforcement); 6. Vida en el rancho (relato, life on the farm, ranch, in Mora county was very quiet, isolated, Tito ran a school bus for many years, and ran for county commissioner, never won a post, worked for Milnor Rudolph in 1947, who had cattle and thousands of sheep, herding, ranching); 7. El ermitano (relato, tells about a hermit that lived in the mountains near Las Vegas, New Mexico, Baldy, Hermits's Peak, that for the feast of the Holy Cross, the hermit put out many luminarias of the ground bonfire type; tells of Halley's comet of 1911, astrology, that presaged the Mexican Revolution; hermit made a solid gold church bell, which is at the Lucero Church now, it was once stolen but was returned); 8. Aurora Borealis (relato, while working as a watchman for Warren Shumaker of Watrous, NM, Tito saw red a greenish light toward the North, Northern Lights, covered the horizon from east to west in 1938, the lights announced the coming of World War II in 1939, astrology); 9. El tiempo y los astros (relato, discusses the weather and signs that show bad or good weather, mentions constellations, Spanish names, Milky Way, El Camino del Cielo, Big Dipper, El Carro, Las Tres Marias, Orion, Tres Reyes, Ojos de Santa Lucia); 10. Los indios (relato, Tito's grandfather, Juan Ventura Rivera, was a Native American Indian who was taken captive in battle, cautivo, probably by Apache); 11. Gavilla de Silva (relato, Vicente Silva, famous Las Vegas, NM bandit, de Silva was from Sapello, men used nicknames to avoid identification, Silva was de Rana or frog legs, was supposed to have been the leader of the infamous gang, 40 gang members all had nicknames, La lechuza noche, Gorras Blancas); 12. Bandits (relato, other bandits besides Silva in San Miguel County, NM, Tito tells of a blind man who was very resourceful, spoke of a pit where buried treasure was supposed to be located, San Miguel County); 13. La cruz (relato, an old woman tells Tito of a cross on the road, it is destroyed by the weather but it is still impressed on the grass where it was located, many French descendents in Mora county, Tito's grandmother was French); 14. Tesoro enterrado (relato, Tito sees a light shining one night, indicates buried treasure, tires to locate spot next day, but fails in his attempt, Tito hires a woman, Teresita Fergusson, of Taos, to go with her crystal ball to find the treasure, but no results either); 15. Black Jack (relato, hanging of train robber Black Jack Ketchum in Clayton, NM, his wife saw spot where treasure was supposed to be located, but not him, Tito figures that buried gold is held by the devil, no one gets it); 16. La gitana (relato, gypsies, women, Tito went to Rocky Ford, Colorado in 1941-1942, and hired a fortune teller to help find buried treasure on his lands, woman wanted $300 for it, he did not have money, comments on how banks were not lending money during 1942-1943, World War II); 17. La musiquita de boca (one night, as he gets off his horse, on ranch, he sees a light and hears harmonica type music coming from the hills nearby, figures he is listening to ghosts, horse does not react, Tito pays no attention to the incident); 18. Manuel Maes (death of Manuel Maes, a buffalo hunter who was killed accidentally in the Llano Estacado in 1873, Indita el Cerro ); 19. El Rio Colorado (place name in the Indita de Manuel Maes, Tito comments on the name and source of the Rio Colorado, Vermejo, river's name changes below Springer in Northern New Mexico, speaks of the insane asylum in Las Vegas); 20. El tiempo (about changes in the weather, before 1927 he remembers heavy snows in Mora County, from 1928 period of drought which brought the dust bowls of the thirties, Great Depression, mentions Billy the Kid looking for mines in Taos County, according to Tito, Thomas B. Catron stole a lot of land in New Mexico, conversation); 21. Autos y aeroplanos (first automobile, car, in Las Vegas, New Mexico was a Ford Model T, people were astonished and did not know what to make of it, the same happened with the first airplane, 1919, people were frightened); 22. La influenza (Tito did not experience any problems with the influenza, Spanish flu epidemic 1918, was working out in a ranch and the disease did not touch him, he did hear of many persons dying, Tito figures the influenza was a direct cause of the war, World War I; Cobos relates his memories of the 1918 flu epidemic); 23. Los blancos (his comments about Anglo American county commissioners, he says he is more of an American than most of the commissioners that call him to remove a mobile home he has put up for his son on his property on Willow Road NW, conversation).
Dates
- 1972
Language of Materials
From the Collection:
English, Spanish
Access Restrictions
The collection is open for research.
Extent
From the Collection: 13 boxes (12.25 cu. ft.)
Creator
- From the Collection: Cobos, Rubén (Person)
Repository Details
Part of the UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections Repository
Contact:
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451
cswrref@unm.edu
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451
cswrref@unm.edu