Font ResizeSun-News report
DO A ANA - Guadalupe and Roman De La O would be surprised at what their saloon turned out to be. But hopefully, they'd be proud, too.
The village of Do a Ana's new visitor center, on El Camino Real historic trail, held its official ribbon-cutting Saturday, celebrating the first full restoration of a building in the oldest settlement in southern New Mexico.
"Do a Ana, I think, is really going to start coming alive," said Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, a next-door neighbor to the revitalization and a member of the extended De La O family, on Saturday. "We have seen a lot of changes in Do a Ana ... This is my life. I've lived this history."
The Democratic state senator, a resident of Do a Ana, has invested years in the historical preservation of the village, seven miles north of Las Cruces, founded in 1842 and settled by Mexicans, French, German and Jewish immigrants and Indian and Japanese rail workers.
The $225,000 Nuestra Se ora de la Candelaria church plazuela, surrounding a sculpture of the lady Do a Ana pouring water into a pair of clay jars, opened in 2005. Thanks to another $1 million Garcia snagged in 2007, the restoration of the Herman Werthein mercantile and home and the De La O Saloon - placed on a list of "Most Endangered Places" by the New Mexico Heritage Preservation Alliance in 2009 - followed.
A computer lab for youth is planned for next door, and future restoration projects could include the old cemetery, its Acequia Madre canal
