Melinda Romero Pike

Honored November, 2004

Melinda Romero Pike

"A favorite daughter of the Agua Fria community." That phrase is essential to the tribute paid by friends and neighbors to Melinda Romero Pike. As much or more than anything else, this small and distinct township on Santa Fe’s western edge has shaped the person she is—and few people have ever given back more.

An amateur historian, she has diligently learned the story of Agua Fria, and spoken and written about it many times. She has fought to preserve the unique identity of Agua Fria, where she has lived all her life. She has traced her own family’s history back through six generations, and has kept alive the legacy of her great-uncle Celso—"Tio Celso"—a simple and devout man who carved wooden images of saints and is now renowned as one of New Mexico’s greatest artists. She was the first woman to serve on the parish council of the village’s San Isidro Church, and was instrumental in raising funds to build for it a new multi-purpose center, and in acquiring the land on which it was constructed.