I’ve already covered in the first Corporate History of Tres Orejas the various real estate corporations that bought and sold lots here starting with the original subdivider, The Great Southwestern Land Company, in the early 1960s and continuing into the early 1980s. The second covers a non-profit corporation founded by several residents of Tres Orejas in 1994, “The Tres Orejas Neighborhood Association or TONA, an alternative community”. It’s articles of incorporation were notarized on August 22, 1994 with one incorporator’s signature, Jean Louis Bourgeois. They were then filed with the state along with an initial list of 5 directors and a set of bylaws and a corporate certificate was granted on September 19, 1994. At the time, the Taos County Planning department was encouraging rural areas of the county to form neighborhood associations to participate in the county planning process and the TONA was one of many neighborhood associations formed at that time. The articles of incorporation are generic with the purpose of the corporation being the vague and generic statement: “To represent the mutual interests of the association membership”. It was incorporated as a 501c4 (Civic League) non-profit. Of the 5 initial directors, two are still alive in 2025. The bylaws filed follow a template in format but are fairly democratic in content. Membership for resident owners cost $2 per year, a 30% quorum of members was required for a valid vote with written proxy allowed, there are 5 directors and 3 officer-directors, President, Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer. There was supposed to be an annual members meeting in June. I don’t recall any such meeting actually happening. What TONA actually did after incorporation I have no written record of but I do remember them having meetings in the 1990s and they likely did meet with county planning as part of the overall planning process happening at the time. Participation waned with the years and by the early 2000s, TONA was no longer holding meetings or functioning in any capacity. It’s corporate certificate was permanently revoked in 2007. What I feel are the reasons why are in the next paragraph.

In looking over the corporate papers of the original TONA, the reasons it didn’t succeed are obvious to me. It was basically the baby of Jean Louis Bourgeois who, at the time, was by far the wealthiest resident of Tres Orejas. The articles and bylaws look like they were written with the help of an attorney or other hired professional with no outreach to the actual community the neighborhood association was going to represent. No effort was made in 1994 to inform the rest of the residents here that a neighborhood association was being formed. I knew all the directors listed in the corporate filing and none of them ever told me about TONA and I didn’t find out about it until much later when they sent out a survey. The survey had questions like, “should building be restricted to parcels of 2 or 4 lots”. That survey set off alarm bells and the first impression I had was “Who do they think they are and what makes them think they have the power to impose this kind of restriction on who can build here?” I attended a couple TONA meeting afterwards to inform them of how I felt about this and I wasn’t the only one as I remember. I don’t doubt Jean Louis was well intentioned in forming the TONA. He had a long track record both in our community and in New York City of supporting all kinds of causes with his money. Here in Tres Orejas he bought a tract of neighboring land to preserve it from development. Outside of Tres Orejas he did things like give a building in New York to a native american tribe and contributed financially to the Dakota pipeline protest and Occupy Wall Street. At the same time, from seeing who was involved, I see a slant in the original TONA towards representing the interests of the more well off people in Tres Orejas at the time who had the means to acquire as many lots as they wanted and not the less well off who owned one or two lots. And even among the well off residents of Tres Orejas in the 1990s, there are many I know who didn’t participate in the neighborhood association. So, in conclusion, it lacked relevance to the community and slowly faded away. Jean Louis moved back to New York City after the death of his wife Carollee and I think that also contributed in large part to the demise of the original TONA as he was obviously its prime mover and more than likely kept it going financially.

So, in regards to reestablishing the TONA, with two community meetings so far and a third scheduled, we are far ahead of the original TONA in what it failed at, community outreach and participation. Tres Orejas was a lot smaller in the 1990s and everybody really did know everybody else back then so this lack of outreach is even greater in proportion.

The only historical documents I have for this article are what the State of New Mexico has in its archives. If you have any memories of the original TONA and what it did in the 1990s, please share them in the comments.