They call him Ten Crows here in Abiquiu, but he is really an eagle. Most of his family members are eagles; the crows are from ‘‘la otra banda.’’ But he calls himself David Lopez, at least this was the name given to him by the people that baptized him. His father was Elfido Lopez y Valdes and his grandmother was Montes Vigil and Valdes, so he comes from a long lineage of people with Spanish surnames.

He says that in the area they are really proud of their Spanish ancestors but that their soul can’t be understood in the Roman Catholic sense brought by the first settlers; ‘‘our soul is on the ground and starts with water from our holy mountain. And that water, is what sustains us here and is where it all starts.’’