‘Cowboy’s cowboy’ Joe Torres dies
He was born, raised and died in Arroyo Seco, a community he loved. Joseph M. Torres died of complications from leukemia March 18 and was buried in the family cemetery following services at the village’s Holy Trinity Church on March 23.
Torres was born to Bernice and the late Luis Torres. After attending New Mexico State University in Las Cruces as an agriculture major, Joe returned and was hired as the agriculture and welding teacher at Taos High School. It was there he became familiar with many of the youth he would go on to help out.
David Torres said Joe was a middle child, his younger brother. “I remember him as this skinny guy, growing up on the ranch.” As an adult, Joe wound up managing his family’s Hacienda de Los Torres Ranch in El Salto where they raise llamas, alpacas, yak, sheep, cattle, bison, donkeys and horses. “He was a solid cowboy,” David said. “He was just passionate about everything, nothing insipid about him at all. He did everything with gusto. Everything he did was almost irrationally optimistic. He knew no barriers. Everything he wanted to do was doable.”
David said he was also extremely pragmatic. When David first got his pilot’s license he was excited and asked Joe if wanted to go up in his plane, to which Joe replied, “Thats great, now, we can go check on the cows.”
In a post from the New Mexico Club Calf Association, Torres’s family was offered condolences along with thanks “for your influence on youth in New Mexico.”
In an obituary at devargastaos. com, Joe was described as “quick with a joke, quick to debate, but also quick to help you. He was attentive to his family, and obliging to neighbors with anything they needed, from breaking horses to tending lambs.”
At Joe’s funeral, David said people would come up to him and state, “Joe fought for us.” Whether it was acequias or whatever issue was facing local farmers or ranchers, “Joe was one of those guys who did not shy away from a fight, backing people up. He was a champion for many people.”
Torres was also a member of the local Knights of Columbus Catholic fraternal organization and, since the 1980s, a member of the Taos County Sheriff’s Posse, which puts on the annual Rodeo de Taos.
Ron Salazar, captain of the Sheriff’s Posse, said Torres had been “an outstanding member. Anything on search and rescue, which we were called out many times by the state police, he was always one of the first ones to volunteer and go on every mission we were sent on.”
During the annual rodeo, which is planned to resume this June after a two-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Torres liked to help out with youth events involving the Junior Sheriff’s Posse or the 4-H Club, especially emphasizing to them safety and attention to detail.
David said Joe had a “rough and rugged exterior, but he loved kids.”
As a person, Salazar said Torres was “a go-getter. He was very lively, energetic, ready to do anything you asked of him. He was happygo-lucky.”
Salazar said during the pandemic, the posse lost three members, but not all to the coronavirus. They are Ruben Martínez, Tim Martínez and now, Joe Torres. He added that this year, as the rodeo gears up to happen once again, Torres will be especially missed
‘Joe was one of those guys who did not shy away from a fight, backing people up. He as a champion for many people.’
– DAVID TORRES
because he could often be counted on to bring in excellent sponsors. “That’s something other members will have to take up,” Salazar said.
He will be greatly missed, Salazar said. “He was a great asset.”
Joe Torres is survived by his mother Bernice, brothers Robert (Sara) and David (Kristen), son Jared, nieces Carrico Buschman and Shyann, nephews G. David, Austin, Brandon and Canyon.
Funeral services were entrusted to DeVargas Funeral Home in Taos.