page_title: Erinea Garcia Gallegos
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Erinea Garcia Gallegos / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: The Plaza de San Luis de la Culebra Historic District, which includes the town of San Luis, Costilla County, Colorado.
context_page_description: Erinea Garcia Gallegos was an American educator and postmistress. Born in Conejos, Colorado, her family had deep roots in the region, being among the first settlers of the San Luis Valley that overlaps southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. She taught in elementary schools before her marriage and afterward served as postmistress of San Luis for nearly four decades. She was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2012.
context_section_description: For 12 years, Garcia worked as a teacher in elementary schools in Conejos, San Luis, and other towns in the San Luis Valley. She also was a school principal. In 1932 she married and left her job to raise a family. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her postmistress of San Luis.
  She and her husband moved into a Gallegos family-owned house adjacent to the post office building on Main Street in San Luis. Dating from the early 1860s, this house had been part of a farm and grain mill complex owned by Nasario Gallegos, Ceran St. Vrain, and Harvey Easterday. Known as the Gallegos-Easterday House, it is part of the Plaza de San Luis de la Culebra Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. A post office permit had been requested by Easterday in 1860 so the grain mill would have its own mailing address. When Garcia Gallegos and her family arrived, the post office building was also owned by the Gallegos family.
  Garcia Gallegos was the postmistress of San Luis for nearly four decades. During World War II and other battles which saw local men stationed overseas, she assisted post-office patrons with writing and translating letters, and issued money orders. Upon her retirement in 1976, her daughter took over as postmistress.
caption: Plaza de San Luis de la Culebra Historic District
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