El Rito, NM

El Rito is a high-desert community in Rio Arriba County on NM 554, about 18 miles northwest of Espanola and 15 miles northwest of Ojo Caliente. It sits at 6,875 feet in the northern New Mexico mountains, and its name means "the little river." Hispanic settlers from the Abiquiu area began moving here around 1808 to raise cattle and cultivate the land. San Juan Nepomuceno Catholic Church, built between 1827 and 1832, is one of the old landmarks that still marks the settlement's early history. Education and the arts are woven into El Rito's present-day character.

Northern New Mexico College began here in 1909 as the Spanish-American Normal School, created to train teachers for Spanish-speaking communities across the region. The El Rito campus remains in an historic park within the Carson National Forest, and local arts groups use the village for markets, studios, and workshops. The El Rito History site and public library add another layer of local memory. El Rito's local scoop is a mountain settlement where a church, a century-old teacher-training campus, and a living arts tradition share one small valley.