Pilar (formerly Cieneguilla) is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Taos County,

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, United States. It is located on the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

Etymology

The original name of Cieneguilla is derived from the Spanish word , which means "marsh" or "marshy place". The swampy ground is caused by several streams running across a small flood plain formed by a bend in the

. Because the area featured a flat plain with a constant source of water, it was long frequented by the Jicarilla Apache. The village's modern name of Pilar was adopted after its post office was incorporated in 1918. One story suggests that the name came from the daughter of the office's first postmaster, who was named for the Nuestra Señora del Pilar apparition of the Virgin Mary, which appeared on an old Roman pillar in Zaragoza, Spain. Another more commonly cited story suggests that the name was given to the post office in honor of an influential Native American (Hispanic-Ute) male who lived in the area by the name of José Pilar Vigil.

History

In 1694, the Spaniard Diego de Vargas burned the

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

village in the process of his re-conquest of

following the expulsion of the Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. In February 1793 the region was taken possession of by 20 persons who had received it as a land grant ( Cieneguilla Grant) from the

King of Spain The monarchy of Spain or Spanish monarchy () is the constitutional form of government of Spain. It consists of a Hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarch who reigns as the head of state, being the highest office of the country. The Spanish ...

Charles IV through his military governor in New Mexico, Don Fernando Chacón.Pearce, T,M, editor, ''New Mexico Place Names: A Geographical Dictionary'', The University of New Mexico Press, 1965. On March 30, 1854, the Battle of Cieneguilla between the Jicarilla Apache fighters and the U.S. 1st Cavalry Regiment was fought in the hills several miles from the town.

Notes

Unincorporated communities in Taos County, New Mexico Unincorporated communities in New Mexico {{NewMexico-geo-stub