When Lorenzo was about five years old, he was captured by Indians. His playmates ran to the fields to tell his father, Jesus, who immediately grabbed a horse and galloped off to the Indian encampment. Jesus reined in at the teepee of the chief, who happened to be a longstanding friend. Together the two men rushed to the place where Lorenzo was tied and waiting to be tortured. The boy was freed and taken back home by his father.
By the time of the 1870 U.S. Census, Lorenzo was listed as being 8 years old. His mother seems to have already died, and the housekeeping duties had been taken over by a 20-year-old woman named Manuela, who was probably either Lorenzo's sister or his father's new wife. Ten years later, the census-taker found only three bachelors in the household, all three of them working as laborers: 58-year-old Jesus, 20-year-old Lorenzo and 12-year-old Jose.
On the first day of March 1883, Lorenzo married Tomasa de Herrera, the daughter of Martin and Maria (Lucero) de Herrera. The ceremony took place in the nearby town of Mora. The marriage record reads: "Mora, Mar 1 1883, Lorenzo Tafoya s/ Jesus Tafoya and Maria Sylveria Espinosa, deceased from Le Cebolla, with Tomasa de Herrera, d/ Martin de Herrera and Maria Epimena Lucero, from La Cebolla, wit/ Damasio Tafoya and Doloritas Cordova."
Tomasa, or Tomasita as she was commonly known, was only 15 years old when she was married to her 21-year-old neighbor, Lorenzo Tafoya. The newlyweds settled down in Morphy Canon in the mountains above Ledoux. Over the years Tomasita bore Lorenzo a daughter named Lionides and five sons named Ciriaco, Brigido, Juan Bautista, Jesus, and Jose Benito. After the birth of each child she planted another apple tree in the back yard.
Tomasita was always a very thin woman, but she had the courage of one twice her size. While she lived in the La Cebolla district, Indians still roamed the New Mexico mountains. On one occasion a band of famished braves entered her house and demanded food. Nonplussed, Tomasita handed them the stack of tortillas she had just made for dinner. After the Indians left, she calmly set about making more tortillas to feed her own hungry family. Tomasita's husband, Lorenzo, died prematurely in either 1903 or 1904, when still in his early forties. After his death, Tomasita continued to live in the family home at El Morphe with her children and her aging parents. According to the 1910 U.S. Census, all of the Tafoya children still remained at home with their mother, except for 20-year-old Juan, who was living by himself just down the road. Ten years later, the household numbered only Tomasita, her daughter Lionides and her youngest son Benito. Sometime during the 1920’s, Tomasita moved to Las Vegas, New Mexico. There she supported herself by taking in washing and ironing, and fabricating rag rugs. She seems to have remained in Las Vegas the remainder of her life.
In August of 1929, Tomasita traveled to Berthoud, Colorado, to visit her son Juan. Juan later took his mother to visit the Montoyas, who were working on a farm about eight miles from town. Of this visit Max Montoya later wrote: "Juan Tafoya's mother's name was Tomasita, and she had been widowed for many years. She was very thin, but of a pleasant disposition. She did housework to barely exist. At that time there were no pensions. In August of that year she came to visit her son and family. They came over to visit us."
Tomasita died on January 15, 1943, at the age of seventy-six.
