While strolling along the Animas River Trail in Durango in fall 2011, Carla Chirigos reminisced about her childhood and all the memories the city has blessed her with.
Though the 59-year-old Chirigos is not a Durango native and currently lives in Albuquerque, much of her maternal ancestry lies within city limits.
Chirigos came to Durango often in her youth to visit her grandparents, Hipolito and Feliciana Roybal, who raised 13 of 14 children in Durango.
The two-bedroom Roybal family home still stands on east Second Street in South Durango.
In partnership with the Durango Botanical Society, Chirigos made plans to pay tribute to the Roybal family by constructing a memorial in October 2012 facing the Animas River behind the Durango Public Library.
Chirigos is the daughter of Genevieve Quintana, 89, who is honored in the memorial. Quintana lived in Durango until she was 22, then moved to Pojoaque, N.M., and currently lives in Albuquerque.
The Durango Botanical Society prompted the construction of the Book Case, and Chirigos saw it fitting that the Roybal family was memorialized within this structure. Chirigos was able to personally help with the design process of the Roybal section in the Book Case.
The botanical society designed the garden behind the library and used the back wall to create the Book Case, which is designed to represent the relationship that the society and library have with each other, as well as a symbol of community support, said Cindy Smart, the society’s founder and executive director.
“The wall seemed like a lost opportunity,” Smart said.
The Book Case also serves as funding for maintenance. Anyone can purchase one of the 210 spaces available in the Book Case, and memorials are not the only engravings on the stones.
These stones can have up to 25 letters and likely will host first and last names of families who are a part of the current Durango community and the surrounding area, she said.
Stones still are available and can be purchased for $250, she said.
The stones that make up the structure are locally produced, hand-cut and hand-engraved, Smart said.
The Roybal family had a particularly rich and interesting history in Durango, making a memorial of them fitting for the Book Case.
J. Hipolito Roybal spent his time in Durango working at coal mines and as a sheepherder to support the family, while his wife, Feliciana, stayed home to raise the children.
Though Chirigos doesn’t have many memories of her grandfather – he died when she was just 5 years old – those of her grandmother are strongly ingrained even after so many years.
“We would go (to Durango) every year for a week and visit her,” she said. “She made bread every Saturday.”
Communication was hard between grandmother and granddaughter, as Feliciana Roybal spoke only Spanish and Chirigos only English, but Chirigos remembers her grandmother as a beautiful woman with radiant blue eyes.
The Roybals’ memorial consists of two foundation strip stones lying flat, with J. Hipolito and Feliciana’s names, and upright spines stacked on top denoting the birth order and names of the Roybal children, beginning with Olympia in 1908 and ending with Victor in 1931.
“I wanted something to honor them and something to symbolize them coming back as a family,” Chirigos said.
The Roybals leave behind their legacy to 53 great-grandchildren, 80 great-great-grandchildren and 30 great-great-great-grandchildren.
“One of the best things that has come from building the memorial is reconnecting with family,” Chirigos said.
The memorial serves as a meeting ground for family members and a tribute to the memory of the Roybals.
Six of the eight Roybal sons served in various branches of the armed forces during World War II.
Dale Roybal, one of those sons, paid for an additional memorial in Greenmount Cemetery recognizing the service of the soldiers in his family.
Whenever visiting Durango as a child, Chirigos spent time at Greenmount, where many of her ancestors are buried, with her grandmother honoring the family, she said.
Not all of the Roybal children stayed in Durango, but those who did leave memories behind.
Louis, a son, was a familiar face to downtown Durango. He often was found sitting on a bench outside First National Bank lending a friendly smile and making conversation with passers-by.
When he wasn’t spending time socializing or weeding his lawn, everyone knew where to find him – at Greenmount Cemetery, where he carefully tended to the graves of his mother, father and sister.
Another sibling, Olympia Sanchez, lived in the same home in Durango for 61 years, at 457 East Fifth Ave. She worked at COD Laundry and then with F.W. Woolworth Co. for 16 years until retirement.
A single Roybal descendant continues to live in Durango: Bill Burrell, grandson of Olympia, but the lack of local family hasn’t stopped other members from making their yearly visits.
The Roybal section of the Book Case serves as a means to contact cousins, who not only contributed money to help build the memorial but also supplied information and photos for completion of the family tree.
Bill and Diane Burrell donated money to help with the construction, he said.
Burrell didn’t have a large role in the construction or the design of the structure; that was all taken on by Chirigos, he said.
The Book Case has brought awareness of the family history and brings more family members together, Burrell said.
Carla and Michael Chirigos visit Durango often, but this year marked a special visit.
Michael came to Durango last weekend to participate in his 20th Iron Horse Bicycle Classic and rode in honor of Guadalupe “Vangie” Sanchez, a cousin to Carla who recently died and daughter of Olympia, a former Roybal.
Emily Griffin, a summer intern at The Durango Herald, is a Fort Lewis College student. Email her at egriffin@durangoherald.com.
