Because of the importance of water to plant and animal production, the history of the Los Luceros New Mexico State Historical Site is closely connected to its location on the Rio Grande. Los Luceros was once the site of a seasonal Tewa farming and fishing village, P’o yege, that was one of the outlying communities associated with the larger Tewa pueblos at Ohkay Owingeh, on the east side of the Rio Grande, and Yungue Owingeh, on the west side.

In 1598, the Spanish arrived. They first settled in Ohkay Owingeh, which they named San Juan de los Caballeros. A few months later they moved their base to Yungue Owinge, which they named San Gabriel. Some of these settlers established a ranch at Los Luceros during the 1600s but details of this ranch are not available.

In 1680, Pueblo Indians from twelve different Pueblos led by Popay rebelled and killed three-hundred and eighty Spaniards, including women and children. The Revolt was successful in driving the Spaniards south to El Paso del Rio del Norte, present day Juarez, Mexico. More than three hundred Indians were killed in this conflict. Twelve years later, in 1692 and 1693 the Spanish led by General Don Diego de Vargas reconquered New Mexico.

Around 1703, General DeVargas and the Spanish government granted royal possession of approximately 50,000 acres in the Espanola valley to Captain Sebastián Martín-Serrano and his brother, Antonio, to acknowledge their military service in New Mexico. As in many land grants, the Martín-Serranos were required to improve the property. At the site of Los Luceros, Sebastián Martín-Serrano built what became his twenty-four room Plazuela and constructed irrigation channels to bring water to adjacent land. The irrigation channel eventually became the Los Luceros/Alcalde acequia, which extends downriver before rejoining the Rio Grande at Ohkay Owingeh. It is believed that the Martín-Serrano home of the early 1700’s remains as a portion of the Hacienda of today. During his time at Los Luceros, Sebastián Martín-Serrano attained fame as an Indian fighter, primarily against the Apaches. In 1714 he was appointed the Alcalde (Mayor) for the settlement of Santa Cruz.

In 1923, Mary Cabot Wheelwright, a wealthy heiress from Boston, purchased the main casa and then adjacent property. During her tenure, she undertook the refurbishing of the “Hacienda” and other buildings on the property including the chapel. Ms. Wheelwright lived at Los Luceros until she died in 1958. The major portion of Rancho Los Luceros was willed to the Wheelwright Foundation and the minor portion of the land was willed to Mary Chabot, a longtime friend of Ms. Wheelwright. Both pieces of land were in turn sold to Charles and Nina Collier. The ranch was not competitive in producing dairy products, so they ventured into the orchard business. A 1976 appraisal of the property reported that seventy acres of apple trees and three acres of peach trees had been planted, an estimated 1,700 fruit trees in all.

Nina and Charles Collier

In the ensuing years ownership of the property changed many times. In 1982, Malcom Grimmer, a Californian, bought Los Luceros and was instrumental in getting the “Hacienda”, the Chapel and two other buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1986 the First Interstate Bank and the Land Bank foreclosed on the property and sold it to the American Studies Foundation headed by Truman Futch and Ann Young. They remained on the property for three years until it was repossessed by the Foundation. The court-appointed receiver sold the property to Fred Segal, a California businessman. In 1993, Mr. Segal built the “River House”, a two-story building that overlooks the Rio Grande. Subsequently, the property went through various owners who did little to improve or refurbish the buildings and the land.

In 1999, the property was purchased by the Los Luceros Foundation. The Foundation was funded by Frank and Ann Cabot. Ann Cabot was the granddaughter of Mary Wheelwright. Restoration work began in earnest on the property and on the “Hacienda”. It was rumored that the Cabots spent about $3.5 – 4.0 million to restore the property in addition to the purchase price rumored to be $2.5 million. The restored chapel, built around 1850 was originally deeded to and remains the property of the Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe. It also was completely restored with funds provided by the Cabots.

The orchards were brought back into production along with the annual planting and harvesting of chile, corn, squash, other vegetables, and forage crops like alfalfa.

In 2001, the Historic Los Luceros was opened to the public six months out of the year. It averaged around three to four thousand visitors a year.

The elegant “Hacienda” originally built in the 1860’s was the center piece of Historic Los Luceros. It was completely restored and furnished to represent the Wheelwright era. It housed a complete collection of period antiques from the Spanish Colonial periods to the 1920’s and the 1930’s. An information and visitor center, art gallery, restaurant and dining facilities were also constructed to create a small informal plaza reminiscent of an early Spanish Colonial village compound.

In 2005, Historic Los Luceros was put on the market by the founders of the Luceros Foundation. Many people, organizations, and businesses expressed interest in the property, but it remained unsold. During this time, it looked like Espanola’s Northern New Mexico College was the most interested. NNMC had plans to use the property in various ways, including a conference center to host workshops in Film, Fine Arts, Languages, and Photography.

NNMC’s president, Dr. Jose Griego, and the Chair of the NNMC Board of Regents, Mr. Mike Branch, attempted unsuccessfully to get funds appropriated for the purchase of Los Luceros. They succeeded in securing a little over half of the monies, one point five million dollars, from the Federal EDA. Still lacking one million dollars to complete the purchase of Los Luceros, they reached out to the Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson. He agreed that the state would provide the money to complete the purchase. But an unauthorized press release announcing the purchase of Los Luceros suggested the new owner was considering selling the water rights and this possibility raised the ire of the Acequia Associations and land developers in the area. They complained to the Governor and soon after he rescinded the offer to provide Northern New Mexico College with the funds to complete the purchase of Los Luceros.

The property remained on the market until the State’s Film Office and the State of New Mexico purchased Historic Los Luceros in February of 2008. The intent was for the property to become a hub of creativity through various forms of media. A center for film and environment was to be established under the direction and guidance of film icon, Robert Redford. In May of 2009, Governor Richardson and Robert Redford announced that a film Institute would be headquartered at Los Luceros. This new initiative was named “Milagro at Los Luceros”. According to Redford, the film institute would concentrate on “exploring news ways to enable under-represented voices within the Native American and Hispanics cultures, creating a vehicle to tell their stories in their own way on their own turf”. Numerous workshops in film, directing and screen writing were held on the property.

The site at Los Luceros shortly thereafter underwent additional renovation and construction. Two new buildings were constructed, one of the buildings is a meeting room and the other building has a bath and shower facility. A commercial kitchen was added. This restoration was completed in November 2011.

Numerous workshops in film, directing and screenwriting were held on the property. Even though a memorandum of understanding existed between the State of NM and Redford’s Milagro non-profit organization, the workshops became less frequent, and Los Luceros was closed in 2008 by Governor Susana Martinez’s administration due to the economic downturn in the country.

In the 2012 NM Legislative session, State Representative Nick Salazar from Rio Arriba County and Senator Mary Pappen from Dona Ana County introduced Memorials requesting that Historic Los Luceros be open to the public. In 2013 the NM Cultural Affairs Office signed a contract with Albuquerque’s Consensus Planning, Inc. to do a study to find the highest and best use for Los Luceros. Another study was also conducted in 2014 by the Arrowhead Center in Las Cruces. Both studies can be downloaded by going to https://nmhistoricsites.org/los-luceros/publications

At that time there were three groups that were interested in the operation of Los Luceros: A charter Montessori School located at the Onate Center in Rio Arriba County; A group led by Father Brannon (formally of San Juan Church) that was endorsed by Christus-St. Vincent Hospital, which wanted to establish a rehabilitation center on the property; and “Los Amigos del Rancho Los Luceros (The friends of the Luceros Ranch)” that was organized in the fall of 2012 to actively work to keep Los Luceros open to all the residents of New Mexico and to assist the State or any other entity in the operation of this magnificent historic site. Partly because of their efforts, Los Luceros was established as a New Mexico State Historic Site in 2018 under the administration of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. The current Amigos del Rancho Los Luceros is this entity and, in 2024, contains members of the original group. Los Luceros is now being run as a farm and as a place for people to enjoy seeing some New Mexico history.