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Some history of La Luz, Otero County, NM, southwest US
Villages along the Rio Grande Valley in the middle 1800's were often washed
out by floods. Around 1860, a group of Spanish-speaking pioneers, seeking
high ground free from periodic flooding, arrived in the area that is
today La Luz (The Light).
Some of the male pioneers pushed ahead of the group to seek the best spot
to settle, promising to light a signal fire so the women and children would
know a spot had been chosen. Seeing the light in the night, a pioneer women
exclaimed, "La luz! Esta bien!" (The light! All's well!). The new village
was thereafter called La Luz. Or...it could be that the name dates from
1719 when Spanish Franciscan missionaries built a chapel here dedicated
to Nuestra Senora de la Luz (Our Lady of the Light), one of many
names for the Virgin Mary.