Eloisa Archuleta Nieto was the matriarch of a family that spanned six generations and numbered between 300 and 400 when she died Sunday at age 105.
The fourth of 15 children born to New Mexican land-grant ranchers Santiago and Petrita Archuleta, she was 19 when she married Juan Jose Nieto and moved to Denver.
Though Eloisa Nieto became the matriarch of a vast dynasty, only one child from her four pregnancies survived infancy. She also adopted a girl.
The two Nieto children, Isaias Nieto and Flora Nieto Montoya, begat 20 children of their own. Eloisa Nieto was 41 when her first grandchild was born.
After that, babies and children filled her home. The Nieto clan ate in shifts during family reunions and on holidays, beginning at noon and continuing through the night. Christmas dinner included 20 dozen tamales and an enormous vat of posole.
“The first thing we did when a baby was born in our family was bring her – or him – to my grandmother,” said granddaughter Bernadette Nieto.
Nieto – Paloma to her grandchildren – told them stories about growing up in New Mexico and Colorado.
The little ones tensed during recollections of the early 20th century years, when Colorado’s Ku Klux Klan party terrorized local African-Americans and Hispanics, immolating the cross that Nieto revered throughout her life.
Nieto’s Catholic roots were strong. Her grandfather and one of her brothers were members of Los Hermanos Penitentes, the strict Catholic order renowned for self-flagellation and other physical acts of penance.
At least once a year, she made pilgrimages to Santuario de Chimayo, collecting small bags of the earth she believed held healing powers. Tiny containers of Chimayo earth filled the shelves and windowsills of Nieto’s home.
Nieto was among the founders of St. Cajetan’s Catholic Church, built in 1926 for Denver’s growing Spanish-speaking community. Ten years later, when St. Cajetan’s installed Our Lady of Guadalupe as a mission church in northwest Denver, Nieto again was among the new church’s founders.
Over the years, Nieto referred to the priests at St. Cajetan’s and Guadalupe as part of her extensive extended family.
In turn, the priests saw her as an invaluable parishioner and volunteer. Her labor was rewarded in 1999, when she was named La Reina at the Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the annual December festival that commemorates Juan Diego’s vision of the Virgin Mary. It was the first time that the parish chose a female elder for the role normally given to young girls.
Survivors include 20 grandchildren; 60 great-grandchildren; 64 great-great-grandchildren; and 10 great-great-great- grandchildren. Her husband, son, daughter and 14 siblings preceded her in death.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
