The highway through San Fidel became part of Route 66 when it was commissioned in 1926, and traffic increased significantly in the coming years. It was only later, as Anglo migration to the area increased, that Fidel learned to speak English. ![]() It is not known what business, if any, occupied the site of the small mercantile building during these years, but in any case it remained standing.Īs a Roman Catholic, Fidel fit well into the cultural milieu of rural New Mexico, and quickly learned Spanish to better communicate with his neighbors and customers. Within a few years he opened a larger adobe structure at the western edge of the town, which also served as his family’s primary residence. Thus, once he had acquired the means to do so, Fidel moved to Ballejos (now San Fidel) to open the small mercantile store in the town of about 100 souls. With the sparse population around Laguna and Acoma, this would have been doubly important. Within the Lebanese community, competition was limited by an unwritten rule that allowed only one Lebanese-owned business per town. Following a common pattern in the American West, and one not restricted to Lebanese, Narciso was a “pioneer” emigrant who, once established, attracted several others, usually blood relatives or residents of the same home village, to join him. Fidel initially settled in nearby Seboyeta, where he stayed with Narciso Francis, Sr., probably the first Lebanese to come to the area. ![]() Given New Mexico’s low total population, however, the Lebanese community, approximately two hundred strong in 1920, was not insignificant, especially in the realm of trade. Fidel had immigrated to New Mexico from Lebanon, part of what was in sheer numbers a small contingent of Lebanese emigrants to the newly-founded state. The north and west sides are neatly coated in white stucco, while the eastern wall is mostly of exposed adobes, showcasing the original construction.Ībdoo Fidel originally opened a small mercantile business in the building, which he likely designed and constructed himself. A metal-roofed porch faces the highway, supported by four simple wooden posts. While such blending is common in roadside vernacular architecture, this particular combination is quite unusual, especially in New Mexico, and adds to the appeal of what is one of the few rural curio shops remaining along Route 66 in the state. But unlike so many other adobe buildings in the Southwest, it also features a false front more common to mining boomtowns, making it a very rare blend of two distinct architectural styles. Most likely built in 1916, in what was then called Ballejos, the Acoma Curio Shop is constructed of adobe bricks. ![]() An abandoned building in a small, quiet town does not cry out tourist attraction to everyone, but behind the quiet façade of this humble building is a little known and important story of Lebanese immigration and mercantilism along historic Route 66.
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