Pilabó was a former Piro

Piro Pueblo

Piro Pueblo : The Piros were a Native American Pueblo people that lived in a number of pueblos in the Rio Grande Valley around modern Socorro, New Mexico, USA. The now extinct Piro language was in the family of Tiwa languages...

 pueblo

Pueblo

Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...

 located on the site of the present city of Socorro, New Mexico

Socorro, New Mexico

Socorro is a city in Socorro County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It stands in the Rio Grande Valley at an elevation of . The population was 9,051 at the 2010 census...

. In 1598 Spanish explorers emerging from an inhospitable desert were given food and water by the people of the Teypana

Teypana

This Piro pueblo was located close to present-day Socorro, New Mexico. A reference from 1598 suggests Teypana was on the west bank of the Rio Grande, below the pueblo of Pilabó . Found in a partly flawed list of Piro pueblos, the reference is somewhat problematic, however, as there is no further...

 pueblo. The Spaniards renamed that pueblo “Socorro” which means “help” or “aid” in Spanish. Eventually Pilabó itself would take on the name "Socorro" in lieu of Teypana.