Our beloved adobe church dates from 1844 and has always been the heart of Doña Ana. Our Committee was created in the 1970s in an effort to save and restore our historic church. By the early 1980s the church was no longer in use as church officials felt the building was no longer safe. A partnership between our Committee and  Cornerstones Community Partnerships developed into a training program for Doña Ana youth who worked on the restoration of the church while also attending GED classes and individual and group counseling sessions. The restoration of our beloved church was completed in 1999 and our Committee continues to work on maintaining the church. 

The Doña Ana Plaza was founded on January 25, 1844 but was never developed. It remained a dirt lot which was used as a parking for the church and we used  it for making adobes during the restoration of  Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria.  Once the church restoration was completed, we turned our attention into creating an actual plaza for the community. State Senator Mary Jane Garcia was able to allocate Capital Outlay funds to purchase the property from the Catholic church and develop the Plaza. We continue to make improvements to the plaza, in 2022 we applied for and were awarded a T-Mobile Hometown Grant to purchase metal benches and decorative trash receptacles for the Plaza. 

The buildings that make-up the De La O Visitors Center date from the late 1840s and were at one time home to a saloon, general store, post office,  and several generations of Doñaneros. We caught wind of a plan to raze several of the buildings to build a parking lot in the mid 1990s. Once again we went to work saving and restoring the buildings. State Senator Mary Jane Garcia was able to allocate Capital Outlay funds to purchase and restore the buildings. We now host community events throughout the year at the De La O Visitors Center .

The historic Doña Ana cemetery has burials dating from the 1840s and contains burials of military veterans from the Mexican/American War, Civil War, and "Indian" Wars. We have worked for decades to clean and maintain the cemetery and in the 1990s local youth working on the restoration of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria also cleaned and mapped all the burial sites in the cemetery. We have hosted several volunteer clean-up days at the cemetery and continue to maintain the property. Our work on the old cemetery is far from complete and this ongoing project will continue for years to come.

La Herencia in New Mexican Spanish typically refers to ones heritage but it is also Spanish for inheritance.  The youth will inherit what have worked hard to preserve and it is important that they learn their history so they can better appreciate their heritage.  We teach local elementary students the history of Doña Ana and the region during a walking tour of  historic sites in the village. The students also learn about the manmade changes to the local environment that has completely changed the habitat around Doña Ana since its founding. The students then get to create art pieces based on their tour of  Doña Ana. Their artwork is displayed in the historic De La O Visitors Center as part of an art show for the students, their families, and the community.

Querencia in New Mexican Spanish typically represents a place where one feels at home or longs for.  That place for us and many families is Doña Ana. This project aims to help Doña Ana families save and restore their family homes, some of which have been in their families since the 1840s. We work with the families to teach them how to restore and properly maintain their properties using traditional building materials and techniques that have been lost over the years.  The knowledge we acquired during the restoration of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria is shared so that we can save more of our historic buildings in Doña Ana. We educate the families on historic preservation laws, help them raise funds, and organize volunteer workdays to help stabilize these properties.

The Orgullosamente Doñanero project aims to reinvigorate the cultural pride within the residents of  Doña Ana. The project does this by breathing life into some of our traditions that have been dormant for years and also by starting new traditions.  We hold culturally significant events throughout the year for the community in the Doña Ana Plaza and De La O Visitors Center. We also host educational events with guest speakers that discuss the history of our community. Our Committee's core mission is the preservation of historic properties in Doña Ana but we know it is a combination of the people, historic properties, and culture that is la querencia for Doña Ana that keeps us motivated to manage all these projects.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro project is a collaboration between our Committee and the National Park Service. El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro is a designated National Historic Trail that passes right through the heart of historic Doña Ana. Many of the historic properties we have saved and restored were standing when the trail was still in use. The aim of this project is to tell the story of historic sites along the trail's route through Doña Ana with signage and through the creation of digital media software that allows users to access historic photos and in-depth information on each historic site through an App on their phone.