Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria

Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria did not have a resident priest but was instead a “visita”. In the early years of the church a priest would visit the church from Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe mission in present day Juarez, Mexico. After the Mexican American war broke out and the village of Mesilla was created, the resident priest from the new San Albino church in Mesilla would travel to Doña Ana once a month to perform mass in Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria. Later on, when Las Cruces was created, the resident priest from Santa Genoveva (Saint Genevieve) would come to Doña Ana to give mass inside the church. In the early 1900’s under the watch of the French Reverend Andres Eschollier, Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria was remodeled. During the remodeling of the church the bell tower was added along with a brick coping along the parapet. The windows of the church were enlarged and the round window in the front of the church was added. In the interior of the church a drop ceiling was added to cover up the vigas and latillas. A choir loft was also added along with wood pews and a new alter. The purpose of the remodeling of the church was to make it have a more European look. By the early 1980’s Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria was in bad shape structurally. Cement plaster had been applied to the church instead of the traditional lime plaster and concrete slabs completely surrounded the church. All the cement and concrete caused moisture to get trapped inside the adobe walls which damaged the adobes. By 1983 the church was deemed unsafe and was no longer being used. Mass and other church functions were moved to the parish hall. There had been discussions in Doña Ana since the 1970’s about restoring the church which gained momentum once the church was abandoned. Throughout the 1980’s the community worked on a plan to restore the church. It wasn’t until the 1990’s that restoration of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria really gained momentum. Mary Jane Garcia, a State Senator at the time and the founder of the Doña Ana Village Historic Preservation Committee, was able to get funding for a Summer Youth Training program in Doña Ana. Mary Jane also contacted Cornerstones, a non-profit organization out of Santa Fe that had worked on restoring several adobe churches throughout Northern New Mexico. Cornerstones was able to secure private funding and the Summer Youth Training program transformed into a year-round job training and educational program for Doña Ana youth. Under the guidance of Cornerstones employee, Pat Taylor, Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria was fully restored using traditional earthen architecture techniques. The restoration of the church was completed in 1999.