The Hispanic woman in New Mexico has lived in a changing rural environment that has urbanized only recently. This paper examines the comments of modern Hispanic women in eastern New Mexico to document their beliefs about change and stability in their lives. Ten women, ranging in age from 23 to 93 and spanning 4 generations, answered questions about their educations, families, religious training, and work. The lives of these women reflect many of the themes of previous research. Family structures and other social institutions have been similar across the generations. Hispanic women's value systems have not changed drastically from the early 1900s to the present, with a continuing emphasis on hard work, discipline, religion, and a supportive extended family. Although families have always encouraged girls to remain in school, women's access to more advanced education opened up only in the 1930s and 1940s. Increased education and career opportunities in the last few decades have, in turn, delayed the ages at which Hispanic women marry and bear children. This paper provides an overview of the history of New Mexico's women from the Spanish Conquest to the 1970s. This paper contains 18 references. (SV)