Along a windy two-lane highway in Northern New Mexico just south of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range lies a small rural village with a store that has been in this bloodline for more than a century.
Daniel Torrez’s family opened the Villanueva General Store in 1912 in this farm-rich valley carved by the Pecos River. Founded in 1808 and originally called La Cuesta, which is Spanish for hill or slope, this colonial village was one of the communities located within the San Miguel del Vado Land Grant. Spanish colonists granted land to government and military personnel as rewards for service, encourage settlement, and create buffer zones between colonies and tribes. Villages in the Pecos Valley defended against Apache raids going into Spanish villages established in the Rio Grande Valley.
La Cuesta was later renamed Villanueva after a prominent family. According to state records, a petition to open a U.S. Post Office in the village contained more signatures from the Villanueva family.
The general store now provides food and some essential goods for the town of about 200-plus residents, and is the only store in about a 30-mile radius. Las Vegas, N.M., is located about 25 miles north of the village, with Santa Fe about 50 miles away and Albuquerque at more than 90 miles. Over the decades the store has also added fishing and camping supplies to serve visitors going to Villanueva State Park adjacent to the Pecos River.
The restaurant is named after Mr. Torrez’ mother’s family. Josie Lucero Torrez ran the store after husband passed.
Doug Viltz and Danny Torrez
“It’s interesting being from a small community,” said Torrez, who was a retired probation officer in Rio Rancho before taking over the store from his mother, Josie, who ran the store until 2012, just a few years after his father passed away. “They know you and they like you or don’t like you, but understand your personality … It feels like family.”
Torrez, who now has a partner, Doug Viltz, added an eatery and ice cream shop in November 2023, utilizing space adjacent to the store that once was used for storage. La Cocina Lucero restaurant, named after his mother’s maiden name, offers comfort meals of Frito pies, burritos, tacos, burgers and chicken tenders with New Mexican red or green chile. Viltz, a transplant from Southern California, is creating a business using family recipes. Doug’s Old Fashion Ice Cream makes the sweet treats by hand using fresh ingredients and will eventually offer 50 flavors and a variety of ice cream sandwiches. Sundays at the restaurant get so crowded after church with patrons staying for hours to visit that the partners have to sometimes ask them to leave.
With two employees, a partner and a community that has supported the Villanueva and Torrez families for decades, things are looking good for Villanueva General Store.
Torrez, who has sought loans and lines of credit over the years, says though there haven’t been a lot of conversations with The Loan Fund in between requests, it doesn’t mean they haven’t been a partner in this process.
“They’ve been supportive when we’ve needed it,” he said.
Find La Cocina Lucero on Facebook.
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