However, Mora was formally founded as a Hispanic farming community – after Mexican independence from Spain – upon a land grant issued September 28, 1835, by Centralist Republic of Mexico Governor of Nuevo Mexico Albino Pérez, It provided title to a strip of Mora Valley land to each of dozens of families willing to settle there. Despite fanciful stories about subsistence on berries ("mora" means 'mulberry' in Spanish), the valley, the river, the town, and eventually the county appear to have taken their name from the family name Mora, borne by several of the settlers. While mulberry trees are found in the area, they are not native to the Americas and thus were brought by Spanish or later settlers.