On Saturday, Presidio residents braved cold and fog downtown to celebrate the 340th anniversary of the community’s founding. The event lasted long into the evening, with performances by local musicians, a craft sale, and a late-night dance party.
The festivities concluded a days-long celebration that included a reading by Lipan Apache poet Margo Tamez, an exhibition of local art, and a dinner honoring longtime Presidio teachers John Ferguson, Lucy Ferguson, and Laurie Holman.
Arian Velazquez-Ornelas helped to organize the events as head of the Presidio Convention and Visitor Bureau. Addressing the crowd, she noted that Presidio’s roots go back even farther than 1683 — Indigenous history in the La Junta region can be traced back thousands of years. Velazquez-Ornelas said the evening was an opportunity to honor Presidio’s multicultural past and present.
