Tortugas, New Mexico

Tortugas is located just south of Las Cruces. Many residents of Tortugas maintain customs and traditions of Hispanics and Indians of the El Paso area...combining these with more recent ideas from the interior of Mexico. The corporation known as Los Indigenes de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe keeps alive customs of Tortugas and preserves a traditional Pueblo organization.

Yearly a three-day ceremony honors Our Lady of Guadalupe. This major ceremony starts on the evening of December 10, and includes candelight processions, exhibition dancing, and shotgun blasts to ward off evil spirits. Next morning there is a climb up Tortugas Mountain (also known as "A" Mountain).