Ray Gallegos
Drum Maker

The following are Rays own words about himself and his craft!

My name is Ray Gallegos. I’m going to tell you a little about myself, and how I learned the art of drum making.

My great-grandpa was a farmer and “heishi”maker. My grand-pa was Luciano Gallegos. Luciano was well educated and he used to work for the school system. He became principal and also superintendent of the schools. He also used to help the people write up sale deeds. Luciano was married to Feliciana, and they raised six children. They had land that they would farm along the Rio Grande. Grandpa started a mercantile and trading post close to the church at Cochiti. The store carried about everything Cochiti and the neighboring villages needed. At that time there were hardly any cars in the villages. My grandpa lived to be eighty-nine years old.

My dad, Eloy, purchased the house and store from grand-pa, which my parents still reside in today. The people from Cochiti and surrounding villages started going to the big cities, like Santa Fe, looking for work. They started to do a lot of their shopping in the big cities, which finally made it hard to make a living from our mercantile store. My dad worked many different jobs. As he was growing up he learned the art of drum making from an old drum maker named Diego. Diego would pay my dad five cents to help him make the drums. My father taught me the art of drum making at a young age.

Cochiti has always been known for their drum making. I saw that there was a good future in the art of drum making so I decided to make them and sell the drums wholesale to the trading posts. I advertise myself as Cochiti Rays Drums. I am known for my hand crafted, free form (odd shaped), coffeetable drums. The drums that I make are all shapes and sizes. My drums are being enjoyed all over the United States. I also have some sons and daughters who hopefully will be the third generation of drum makers