City Market marks the passage of time in San Miguel

A century-old Remington cash register and 80-year-old Estella Borunda continue making history at City Market in San Miguel. For 100 years, the Borunda family has served that community with the kind of traditional corner store at which memories are made.

City Market has marked the passage of time in that community. Eulogio Borunda went into business on S. NM Highway 28 in 1925, and today, his daughter, Estella, carries on the family legacy as the store celebrates 100 years in business.

Estella is the store’s lone employee, greeting customers Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from behind the counter, using the original cash register that has marked the passage of time.

The market sits on the site of the Borunda family home, where Estella and her two brothers were born with the former Riverside Dance Hall, another of Eulogio’s business ventures, which was built in 1936. Eulogio, affectionately known as Lofie by patrons, married Pilar, in 1928, and the two of them ran City Market together until 1993, when Estella took over due to her father’s health.

Now, the store serves many of those loyal customers as well as travelers looking for a place to stop for a snack when traveling NM 28.

“I guess that you could relate it to a little convenience store, so it has a lot of little grocery items,” said Estella’s granddaughter, Marisa Reynolds. “Anything from sodas to cheese to tortilla chips, anything you might forget at the store, you can come by and my mom would probably have it.”

Eulogio enjoyed being in business, so even though there were three other similar locations in town in 1925, he opened the store.

“He liked the retail business, and he was really good at it,” Marisa said. “He loved the customer contact, loved socializing with the people that came in here. People still call it Lofie’s because of him.”

At one point, the store had a gas station and carried kerosene, but while those things have come and gone, the basic necessities available inside remain very much the same.

The dance hall came later and became another community gathering place. It hosted quinceañeras, live bands, and church dances from 1936 to 1999, the year Pilar died. Eulogio preceded her in death a year earlier, living into his 90s.

Estella is still going strong with the family business. She turns 81 Dec. 26, which is the day the family has chosen to host the market’s 100-year anniversary event. She loves coming to work every day.

“I guess it keeps me going,” Estella said. “People come by to catch up on the news, or on the community gossip, I guess.”

Business is not what it used to be 10, 20, or even 50 years ago, especially with all the bigger stores around. The other markets are gone, but Estella has kept her family’s legacy intact.

“I don't know if it's a loyalty because it belonged to my grandparents,” Marisa said. “I think sentimental value is the biggest reason she likes to come every day. My grandfather's from San Miguel, and she and her two brothers were all born in this house because the house is actually attached to the store.”

It’s still a place where customers stop to do more than shop. It’s a community gathering place. It’s not just the cash register that has stood the test of time; the cabinets, the candy case have also been around as part of the history.

“I would say it's the relationships with the people,” Marisa said. “I'm telling you there's people that come in here and they can sit and visit with my mom for an hour, an hour and a half. They'll come in and buy a Coke, and they'll just sit and visit with her for most of the day, which my mom really enjoys.”

Marisa and her husband ran the store for six months recently while Estella was recovering from some health problems.

“The whole town has been praying for her and now she's doing really well so it just feels good to have that kind of support from the entire community,” Marisa said.

Estella and Marisa don’t know for sure how long City Market will keep going, but Estella has no intention of shutting it down or even slowing down. She doesn’t feel like she needs to rest, and jokes about having had six months of rest already.

She gets up every morning, opens the store at 10 a.m., and has just one thought on her mind.

“I just hope I have more customers,” Estella said.