Few locations in New Mexico are as iconic as the view from Highway 68 just outside Taos, with the Rio Grande Gorge sprawling out to the mountains. Here, at the Horseshoe Rest Area, is a marker dedicated to the “Captive Women and Children of Taos” and María Rosa Villapando. The first description reads, “In August 1760, around sixty women and children were taken captive in a Comanche raid on Ranchos de Taos. That raid is an example of living on New Mexico’s frontier during the 17th and 18th centuries, for Hispanic and Indigenous communities alike raided each other and suffered enormous consequences. Thousands of women and children were taken captive. Most were never returned.” The side shown here reads: “One known captive of this raid, María Rosa Villapando, was traded to the Pawnees and, after ten years, was ransomed by her future husband, a French trader from St. Louis. She was reunited with her New Mexican son, Joseph Julian Jaques in 1802. Her grandson, Antoine Leroux, returned to Taos and married into the Vigil family, making her the ancestral matriarch of several prominent Taos families.”