David was born in Española, located in the Rio Arriba County in New Mexico. He feels fortunate to be living in the house where his mother and her 13 siblings were born, in the mountain village of Cundiyo where he has been established 26 years.

He doesn’t know much about the Roybals’ history but he believes that the first one came with Don Diego de Vargas, who claimed Santa Fe for Spain in 1692 after the Pueblo Revolt. His ancestors settled down along the Rio Grande in 1710, near what today is the San Ildefonso pueblo.