In 1719, Spanish Franciscan missionaries built a chapel here dedicated to Nuestra Señora de la Luz, Our Lady of the Light. The village’s name is also attributed to a will o’wisp light in the canyon, a perpetually burning lamp in an elderly woman’s home, and a signal fire left by the male settlers that prompted the female settlers to exclaim, "¡La Luz! Allá está la luz!, The Light, there is the light!" Settlement of the village did not begin until around 1860, when settlers arrived from other villages devastated by floods on the Rio Grande.