Patrick Trujillo, Española businessman and owner/operator of the Chimayó Trading Post has died.
Trujillo died in the early morning of Jan. 28.
He took over ownership of the Trading Post located at the corner of Paseo de Oñate and Riverside Drive in 2017, after his uncle Leopoldo Trujillo died earlier that year. Leopoldo Trujillo or “Polo,” as he was known by many of the store’s patrons, ran the trading post for 34 years.
Before that, Leopoldo Trujillo’s parents, Esquipula and Romanita Trujillo, began running the trading post in 1917, when they took over from his grandparents, Gavin and Ursulita Trujillo. They opened the Chimayó Trading Post in the late 1800s, at Rincon de Los Trujillos, located across from the Apple Shed in Chimayó. The store moved to it’s current location near the “Y” in 1924, however, the building burned down in 1939 and was later rebuilt.
In a 2017 Rio Grande SUN story about the trading post celebrating 100 years, Patrick Trujillo said the fire started because of a furnace in the basement and there was no fire department in Española at the time.
“When the fire department from Santa Fe got there, it was a day late and a dollar short,” he said in the story.
The current building has been in place since 1940.
Roberta Diaz, Patrick Trujillo’s sister, moved back to Española in June 2017 to help run the store and they both lived part-time in the home attached to the store that Leopoldo Trujillo lived in.
In addition to running the trading post, Patrick Trujillo wove rugs and blankets. His loom was located next to the register. He also put a mural on the side of the building in 2016 that reads, “Chimayó Trading Post Est. 1917,” to emphasize the history of the business.