Bud & Rebecca Colligan
Artist: Staff Member
Family Story: Bud and Rebecca Colligan / Nestor Armijo House, Las Cruces, NM
The Nestor Armijo House represents the history of Las Cruces, NM, and Bud’s family history specifically but also, more generally, the blend of cultures that pervaded the entire southwest, including California. In fact, the Rancho San Andres Castro Adobe in Watsonville has many architectural similarities to the Armijo house in Las Cruces. Both areas were once part of Mexico and share Mexican influences.
The Armijo House is particularly significant to me since both sides of my family have Armijo heritage. My grandmother, Josephine, was born and lived in the Armijo house until her death in 1977. She raised my mother, Dolores, in this house, along with three sons. On my father’s side, there is Armijo family lineage going back to my paternal great-grandmother, who was my last ancestor to carry the Armijo name on that side of the family. My father’s side of the family migrated to California in the early 1900s, and my mother came to California after WWII to study at USC. While there, she met my father through distant family relatives, and they married in 1950. Together they had six children. My five siblings and I spent most summers in Las Cruces, visiting my grandmother and my great-aunt Nina, who also lived there.
The Nestor Armijo House represents the historical Spanish/Mexican immigration to the region and the cultural influence of the people who came. Nestor Armijo was an entrepreneur and representative of generations of immigrants who come to the United States full of hope and seeking opportunity. A merchant and freighter, Nestor traded widely throughout the young, growing west and forged paths his descendants continued to travel. His was an exciting time of the gold rush era along trading paths west to California and north and south on the Santa Fe Trail.
In 1877 Nestor Armijo bought the house, later named for him, from Bradford and Marcita Daily, remodeled it extensively, and the house remained in the Armijo family for one hundred years and through six generations of Armijos. It was reportedly the first house in Las Cruces to have electricity and to be a 2-story structure. The property originally had corrals, vineyards, and orchards to the south. Built around 1866-67, the architecture of the house is one of the finest examples of an adobe home built in the 19th Century. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
My mother and father both took a strong interest in the preservation of the Nestor Armijo House. It was first restored in 1983 by Pioneer Bank, and then restored again in 2017 through efforts of local friends, our family and the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce, which now calls it home. There are two rooms of the building dedicated to the history of Las Cruces, the house and our family, with many photos and furniture donated by us.
Watsonville Brillante was a perfect vehicle to honor our relationship to the Nestor Armijo House and to celebrate our family’s Spanish/Mexican heritage shared so richly in Watsonville and throughout the southwestern region of the United States.