The Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire "[burned] down a way of life that’s lasted hundreds of years,” according to Rob Martinez, New Mexico's state historian, who referred to a number of rural, isolated Hispanic communities, settlements, and family homesteads whose history in the state stretches back centuries to when the region was the northern periphery of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. Hispanic people account for approximately 80% of the population in both San Miguel and Mora Counties.
