TAOS — Costilla native Valdemar DeHerrera, one of the last surviving New Mexico veterans who fought in the Battle of Bataan during World War II, has seen Northern New Mexico ebb and flow over the course of more than a century.

A crowd of friends and several generations of family gathered recently at 101 Bar and Grill in Garcia, Colo., to celebrate DeHerrera’s 104th birthday, which comes Oct. 8.

The veteran’s five daughters and one son talked about his life in days long gone in Costilla. According to daughter Cathy Taylor, before World War II, the community was a vibrant home to more than 3,000 residents, most of whom were ranchers. Today, the Northern New Mexico town has fewer than 100 full-time residents, according to U.S. census data.

As a boy, DeHerrera watched the town go from buggy to automobile when his father brought in the first Ford Model T, purchased with money made from a bar his father ran. At the time, it was one of several in the community, which also boasted a few grocery stores and a mercantile.

DeHerrera did not inherit the bar; daughter Juanita DeHerrera-Clements said he didn’t want to deal with drunkards.

When he was young, DeHerrera helped his father herd sheep, taking them to graze in the mountains nearby for months at a time. Meanwhile,

war was brewing in Europe, and a longtime military campaign in East Asia was still being led by its driving force, Japan. Recognizing the threat, the U.S. decided to send a small group of soldiers to the Philippines, a U.S. territory at the time.

DeHerrera was among them. They arrived with few supplies, little ammunition and a promise for their return in six months. But when Pearl Harbor was bombed, the tide changed. Japanese soldiers made their way through the Philippines.

After the Japanese invaded Bataan, DeHerrera was able to escape with some soldiers to Corregidor Island, but supplies ran out quickly. The troops were forced to use guerrilla tactics — they sharpened sticks into spears and made traps as Japanese soldiers closed in.

They were eventually

captured and brought to Japan as prisoners of war, along with many other soldiers who fought in Bataan, and were forced to work in factories under grueling conditions.

“We have a lot of telegraphs saying that he was lost; he was a prisoner. They didn’t know; they presumed him dead,” Taylor said. Her grandparents received payments of about $30 a month over four years and saved it “because they knew he was coming back,” she said. “The land that he built his house on was the land my grandfather bought for him when he found out he was coming home.”

It was on this property that DeHerrera raised his children with wife Consuelo DeVargas.

DeHerrera-Clements and Taylor both recalled their lives growing up on their father’s ranch, where they herded cattle and lived off the land. It was a life of hard labor. Before they went to school, the sisters had to move 50 bales of hay, even during the winter.

Later in his life, DeHerrera was president of the Rio Costilla Cooperative Livestock Association, the only functioning land grant in New Mexico. DeHerrera-Clements said he made sure it remained that way.

As the RCCLA president, he also assisted in planting trees after a wildfire in the mountains and monitored irrigation throughout the village.

“It’s been wonderful” watching DeHerrera live to be 104, Taylor said, noting his many daughters assisted in taking care of him.

DeHerrera said having people around is one of his favorite parts of life.