New Mexico Struggles To Maintain History, Culture In Crumbling Adobe Churches

Residents of New Mexico are struggling to maintain aging churches that have been standing since they were built by invading Spaniards centuries ago.  With congregations dwindling and villages emptying out, maintaining hundreds of historic adobe churches – made with mud and straw centuries ago – is a daunting challenge across rural New Mexico. Community leaders who are the churches’ caretakers in the absence of regular clergy are trying to save them because they represent a crucial center of faith, family and cultural traditions for their struggling hamlets. But as youth leave in droves, their ranks are thinning, putting a unique faith and social culture under threat.