New Mexico exhibits perhaps the greatest Spanish Colonial imprint of all the United States. It has by far the greatest number of Hispanic communities established originally under Spain’s rule. About half the population identifies as “Hispanic,” with a large portion able to trace their family history back to Spanish Colonial times and some to the original settlers coming in the late 16th century and 17th century. A unique characteristic of New Mexico society is the intermingling over centuries of Hispanic and native groups, particularly the Pueblos, while still maintaining distinct cultures and identities.
Sequences
The extraordinary Spanish traveler Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca likely came near the southern boundary of what is now New Mexico in the early 1530s and took back to the New Spain authorities stories of what he had seen in his journeys. The first European visitor inside the boundaries was Fray Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan sent in 1539 by the Spanish Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, to explore the territory in the north of New Spain, looking for legendary cities of great riches. An African man, Estevanico, who had been with Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, accompanied Fray Marcos up through what became Arizona and on to reach the large villages later known as Zuni. Estevanico, with some companions, went ahead of the friar and entered the villages. For whatever reasons, Estevanico was killed by the Zuni, and Fray Marcos likely at most only viewed the villages from a distance. Nevertheless he was enthralled with the idea of the magnificent cities that he reported to have seen and took his story back to the Viceroy. Mendoza was in turn impressed as were others in the City of Mexico and quickly authorized a subsequent expedition under Francisco Vázquez de Coronado.
Vázquez de Coronado’s large 1540 expedition also came up through Arizona and on to Zuni. Fray Marcos accompanied the expedition, but upon Vázquez de Coronado realizing the “Cities of Gold” were dirt villages, with no gold, he banished Fray Marcos back to Mexico. Vázquez de Coronado and his entourage moved on to Acoma Pueblo and then to the Tiwa villages in central New Mexico. They spent most of two years in the area while exploring to the north, west, and east, including reaching the plains of Kansas.
A few more mostly abortive small Spanish incursions into New Mexico occurred before the major colonizing expedition of Juan de Oñate in 1598, which established its first settlement at what he called San Juan de los Caballeros (see below) in the midst of a Tewa village in Northern New Mexico (what is now called San Juan Pueblo or, more properly to use the Pueblos’ name, Ohkay Owingeh). Some of these colonists moved on to establish the community of Santa Fe at least by 1607. Santa Fe was officially established as a villa in 1610 by Governor Pedro de Peralta (La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís). Santa Fe may not be able to claim the title of oldest European city in the U. S. (that honor belongs to St. Augustine, Florida (arguably, as Pensacola also has claims to this)), but Santa Fe does call itself, legitimately, the oldest state capital in the U. S.
Although Santa Fe provided a focal point for further Spanish occupation of New Mexico, civilian expansion was sparse for many decades. The 17th century influence of Spain in New Mexico developed initially through the founding in the Pueblos of at least 30 Franciscan missions before 1640. Santa Fe remained the only significant Spanish community during this time. However, Spanish encomenderos held sway over the larger Pueblos, often establishing their own large ranches, or estancias, using native labor extracted through the encomienda system. Unfortunately most of the records related to this did not survive the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
In 1680, most of the Pueblos, frustrated by the encomienda system and the missionaries, successfully revolted against the Spanish, with much bloodshed including the martyrdom of many priests. The Spanish were forced to leave New Mexico and remained in the El Paso area for 12 years. The temporary re-entry in 1692 of Spanish forces with Don Diego de Vargas was mostly peaceful; however, the subsequent resettlement beginning in 1693 was anything but. Sporadic fierce fighting between Vargas’ men and Pueblo insurgents continued through 1696, but the Spanish regained complete control. However, the system changed dramatically in that encomienda was not reinstated and the missionary churches, as they recovered and rebuilt, were much more accommodating to native customs and religion.
Santa Fe was resettled by some of its original settlers and new ones early on in this process, and the development of Santa Cruz de la Cañada some 20 miles north of Santa Fe starting in 1693 led to a settlement expansion in the north up the major valleys and including Taos. This expansion is discussed in detail in the accompanying page on the “Spanish Colonization of New Mexico.”
Our “Spain in North America” Google map, containing for now just New Mexico entries, provides a visual representation of the sequence involved in the Spanish Colonization of New Mexico. A snapshot of this Google map showing places in New Mexico is shown below.
This map shows the locations of significant and sustained Spanish presence in New Mexico, prior to 1822 (generally, the end of Spanish government rule in North America). There are color-coded layers on the map for the periods of before 1600 (gold), 1601-1700 (red), and 1701-1800 (blue), and 1801-1821 (green). Icons are used to represent missions (diamonds) , generally at indigenous villages, civilian communities and farming areas (squares), and presidios or other military occupations (circles). Each of these time periods can be selected interactively on the Google map so as to show the progression of Spanish presence. Below are static snapshots of the four time periods.
Places
The following entries are organized by place name and year of “founding”, with this designation often being fuzzy. Many other entries are in the data base but are pending, i.e., needing further work. For references noted, see the bibliography page here. Note that most of these entries were written originally at least 15 years ago and do not necessarily reflect historical information developed more recently.
Kuaua Pueblo (1540)
The Spanish expeditionary force of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, numbering a thousand or more of military men and their Mexican Indian allies, spent a good part of two years (1540-1542) in the vicinity of Kuaua Pueblo, now the Coronado New Mexico State Historic site near Bernalillo. This was one of twelve Tiwa villages in the area at the time, and the Spaniards depended on the Tiwas for food and shelter, using bloody force as needed to acquire what they needed during the bitter winter of 1540-1541 and later. Vasquez de Coronado and his Spanish soldiers took over several Tiwa pueblos and made them their residences (their Mexican Indian allies had to fare for themselves). The first of these was known as Coofor, thought to be Santiago Pueblo as later called. Although it is often thought that Kauau Pueblo was this village, that is not the current thinking, as Santiago Pueblo was about 2 miles south of Kuaua. Unfortunately the ruins of Santiago were almost entirely destroyed by the building of a housing development (search for “Santiago Way” on our Google map). It was from this area that Coronado and his men set out to the eastern plains in search of the mythical Quivira and its supposed riches. For more information on Kuaua, see the Coronado Historic Site website at www.nmhistoricsites.org. For the most authoritative history of the Coronado expedition to date, see Richard Flint’s “No Settlement, No Conquest,” (UNM Press, 2008). Also see the website by Dennis Herrick at http://dennisherrick.com/history-of-santiago-pueblo-by-dennis-herrick. Herrick is the author of “Winter of the Metal People,” a fictionalized, but historically based, story of the winter of 1540-1541 and the clashes between the Spanish force and the Pueblos.
San Gabriel/San Juan de los Cabelleros/Ohkay Owingeh (1598)
Although there were occasional Spanish forays into New Mexico in the later 16th century, the first major colonizing expedition was that led by Don Juan de Oñate, which arrived in New Mexico in the summer of 1598. It included at least 560 settlers according to David Snow (quoted in Riley 1) or as many as 800 (Esquibel 1, 146), many of them soldiers with their families. They first resided at a Tewa village Oñate called San Juan de los Cabelleros on the east side of the Rio Grande just above its confluence with the Chama River. For more on this story, see Simmons 2, 109-111. The name “San Juan Pueblo” is still attached to this village, although the “Ohkay Owingeh” Tewa name is more properly used. Within a few weeks after arriving the Spanish occupiers built the first church, San Juan Bautista (eight Franciscan friars and two lay brothers had accomanied Oñate). By the summer of 1599 the Spanish had moved to what they called San Gabriel del Yungue, across the Rio Grande at Ohkay’s companion village, Yungue Owingeh. The Tewa had vacated this village and “donated” it to the Spanish settlers. Here the Spanish built a second and larger church (Simmons 1, 148-149). They were joined by another 90 or so settlers in 1600, including 25 servants (Esquibel 1, 147). Many of the soldiers and settlers returned south to Mexico in 1601 leaving behind perhaps as few as 25 soldiers and their families (Riley 1, 84-85) It was these who formed the bulk of the group that moved to the new villa of Santa Fe at least by 1610, leaving San Gabriel to the people of Ohkay Owingeh.
Taos Pueblo (1598)
Coronado’s lieutenant Alvarado and some of his men visited the Tiwa village they called Yuraba in 1540 (Jenkins 1 86), later to be called Taos Pueblo. The first missionary for Taos, Fr. Zamora, was appointed by Governor Juan de Oñate in 1598, although there was resistance by the Puebloans, and whatever mission Zamora may have established was likely abandoned from time to time until the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Scholes and Bloom (Scholes 2) believe that Fr. Pedro de Ortega was moved to Taos in 1621 or 1622, and Gerhard also notes the establishment of the mission as in 1622 (although as discussed by Jenkins there were likely missionaries there before that time). As reported by Jenkins, Fr. Benavides noted that in 1627 the missionary priest at the time, Fr. Tomás Carrasco, was building a church. Taos Puebloans killed their priest, Fr. Miranda, and nearly all other Spanish people in the vicinity and destroyed the church in 1640. They then fled the area, and their return is not recorded as being until about 1660. At the beginning of the Pueblo Revolt in 1680, led from Taos Pueblo by the San Juan Pueblo native Popé, they again killed their priests and about 90 Spanish settlers. After the Spanish reoccupation of New Mexico the mission was again briefly reestablished in 1695, then more permanently in 1706, when the church was rebuilt. This church was largely destroyed in the Taos Rebellion of 1847; its ruins are still visible near the new church of San Gerónimo built in 1850.
Teypana Pueblo/Plaza Montoya (1598)
The location shown on the Google map is in the vicinity of what was Teypana Pueblo, visited by Oñate and his northbound party of colonizers in 1598. According to Sanchez 1, the natives provided the party with maize and provided “succor”, with the Spanish then calling the pueblo “Socorro”, a name also applied to the pueblo of Pilabo a few miles to the north. Apparently, Teypana did not have a mission established at it, and in the 1620s the occupants may have relocated, perhaps under Spanish pressure, to Pilabo. See Michael Bletcher, “The Long and the Short Road to Socorro: A Piro Pueblo and Settlement Cluster in the Contact and Early Colonial Period, c. 1540-1640”.
Kewa (Santo Domingo) Pueblo (1600)
Two Franciscans, Alonso de la Oliva and Damián Escudero, were at Santo Domingo as early as 1600, and Fr. Juan de Escalona was there in 1604 and remained until he died in 1607 (Scholes 1). Santo Domingo became the ecclesiastic center for the Franciscan effort in New Mexico for most of the 17th century. The first church was almost completely destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 (one wall may have remained), and a new, but insubstantial structure rebuilt in the 1690s after the Spanish reentry. A more massive church was built by Fr. Antonio Zamora in the mid-1700s, perhaps finished by 1754 (Kessell 3, n. 4, 134). This church was destroyed in a flood in the 1880s and a new church, still in use, was built by the villagers away from the river and a few hundred yards from the location of the earlier churches.
San Ildefonso Pueblo (1601)
A mission church was likely built at the Tewa Pueblo of San Ildefonso by 1601, with Fr. Francisco de San Miguel in charge (Scholes 1), Cash says that the first church was built in 1617 under the direction of Fr. Cristóbal de Salazar (Cash 1 32). In any case, this first church was destroyed in the revolt of 1680, as was a second church in the conflicts of 1696 built shortly after the Spanish reoccupation of New Mexico in 1693. A new church was built by Fr. Juan de Tagle in 1711, and this church lasted until 1904 when it was replaced by a smaller barn-like structure. The present church, constructed in 1968, was designed after the 1711 church (Kessell 3 76-81). One story, which may be apocryphal, is that the interior of the St. Francis Auditorium in the New Mexico Museum of Art, built in 1917, was modeled after the 1711 San Ildefonso church. Then when the Pueblo people decided to tear down the 1904 church because of its non-traditional appearance, they looked to the St. Francis Auditorium for the design as they had no records or drawings of the 1711 church.
Agua Fria (1603)
The area of Aqua Fria (”cold water”) was noted for its springs and was a stopping site on the Camino Real. A Pueblo village, perhaps Tewa speaking and deserted before Spanish occupation of the area , was near the site of the later Hispanic community of Agua Fria, a little more than one league down the Rio de Santa Fe from the Santa Fe plaza. The historian Hilario Romero, a former New Mexico State Historian and resident of Aqua Fria, said in a September 2016 article in “Chronicles of the Trail,” that the earliest (1603) documented Spanish settlers in Agua Fria were members of a Madrid family. One of these (13 years old at the time) was Francisco de Madrid, who was reported as living in the village of Quemado (later Agua Fria), with his family in the 1640s. Roque de Madrid, a son of Francisco born in 1644, reported to Don Diego de Vargas in 1693 that his parents and grandparents had lived in the area before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 (Snow 2). Barrett (Barrett 1 210, map 6) shows Roque de Madrid as a 17th century landholder in the Agua Fria area, along with Juan Ruiz de Cáceres, Gerónimo Pacheco, Cristóbal Nieto, José Telles Jirón, and Antonio Gutiérrez de Figueroa. Fray Atanasio Dominguez in his 1776 report noted the “pueblo quemado”, or burned village, at the site (Adams 1 41). Excavations in the 1930s of what was called Pindi Pueblo because of the extensive turkey pens found (see Snow 2) showed that the pueblo had been burned. Snow believes that Pindi Pueblo gave rise to the village ruins later seen by Dominguez in 1776. The current church, dedicated to San Isidro, the patron saint of farmers, was built in 1835 (Cash 1 4).
Santa Fé (1607)
Santa Fé likely had at least one Spanish settler, Juan Martínez de Montoya, and likely several more by at least 1607. Martinez had been one of the settlers at Juan de Oñate’s village of San Gabriel but took the initiative to establish a new community called Santa Fe.. Oñate may have helped to plan and begin establishing the new capital away from San Gabriel (Simmons 2), but it was Martinez who is believed to be the leader of the first group to move to the new town. It was then in 1610 that La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asis was officially established by the new Governor, Pedro de Peralta (Noble 3, 27-28). Construction of the government buildings, the Casas Reales , including what became the Palace of the Governors, began in 1610 or soon after. After the abandonment of New Mexico by the Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, Santa Fé was occupied for 13 years by Tano and other Puebloans. These new Santa Feans built their own Pueblo on top of and extending out from the Spanish Governor’s house (the “Governor’s Palace”) and what became the Santa Fe Plaza. With the temporary reentry into New Mexico in 1692 of the new Governor, Don Diego José de Vargas Zapata y Lujan Pónce de Leon y Contreras, there seemed to be the possibility of a peaceful resettlement of the Spanish. However, when Vargas returned in 1693, the Puebloans occupying Santa Fe were not ready to give up what was their new home. It required a pitched battle before the Spanish retook the town. With further pacification efforts and an, albeit smaller, revolt in 1696, also put down with considerable bloodshed by Vargas and his soldiers, it took several years before Santa Fé once again became a Spanish town and New Mexico a Spanish province. For a good online description of these events, see an article by James (Jake) Ivey at http://commonplace.online/article/uncertain-founding-santa-fe/. Another good narrative of this history is by David Weber in “Jamestown, Quebec, and Santa Fe: Three North American Beginnings” (Smithsonian Books, 2007). It is somewhat remarkable that these three seminal European communities had beginnings almost simultaneously.
Sandia Pueblo (1610)
It is likely that Sandia was one of the “Tiwa Pueblos of the middle Rio Grande” assigned in 1598 to one (Fray Francisco de San Miguel) of the missionaries with Oñate; however, according to Scholes and Bloom there is no documentation indicating Fray San Miguel actually ever visited the Tiwa Pueblos. Similarly, there may have been missionary activity there during the period of massive baptisms in New Mexico around 1608, but this is only inferred by Scholes and Bloom. Fr. Estevan de Perea did establish a mission at Sandia in 1610, where he resided at least until 1626 (Scholes 1). There was a convento and a chapel dedicated to St. Anthony built early on, which Governor Otermín reported burned or demolished upon his temporary reentry in 1681 after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 (Kessell 2 135). Diego de Vargas found the Pueblo deserted in 1692, but mentioned that the church and some houses “may be repaired.” According to Kessell, the Pueblo was resettled in 1748 with Tiwas who had gone to Hopi during the revolt, and a few Hopis may have come with them. Fr. Juan Miguel Menchero supported the resettlement, but found it impossible to rebuild the old church. His new church, built in 1752, became unusable when its roof fell in in the 1770s. This was replaced by 1784, but this church itself was in ruins starting in the 1860s, and a new church was built by 1864 a few hundred yards east of the 1700s church. The 1860s church, much renovated, is still in use.
| Santo Domingo Pueblo 1601 Escalona, Fr. Juan de Two Franciscans, Alonso de la Oliva and Damián Escudero, were at Santo Domingo as early as 1600, and Fr. Juan de Escalona was there in 1604 and remained until he died in 1607 (Scholes 1). Santo Domingo became the center for the Franciscan effort in New Mexico for most of the 17th century. The first church was almost completely destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 (one wall may have remained), and a new, but insubstantial structure rebuilt in the 1690s after the Spanish reentry. A more massive church was built by Fr. Antonio Zamora in the mid-1700s, perhaps finished by 1754 (Kessell 3, n. 4, 134). This church was destroyed in a flood in the 1880s and a new church, still in use, was built by the villagers away from the river and a few hundred yards from the location of the earlier churches. Sandia Pueblo 1610 Perea, Fr. Estevan de It is likely that Sandia was one of the “Tiwa Pueblos of the middle Rio Grande” assigned in 1598 to one (Fray Francisco de San Miguel) of the missionaries with Oñate; however, It is likely that Sandia was one of the “Tiwa Pueblos of the middle Rio Grande” assigned in 1598 to one (Fray Francisco de San Miguel) of the missionaries with Oñate; however, according to Scholes and Bloom there is no documentation indicating Fray San Miguel actually ever visited the Tiwa Pueblos. Similarly, there may have been missionary activity there during the period of massive baptisms in New Mexico around 1608, but this is only inferred by Scholes and Bloom. Fr. Estevan de Perea did establish a mission at Sandia in 1610, where he resided at least until 1626 (Scholes 1). There was a convento and a chapel dedicated to St. Anthony built early on, which Governor Otermín reported burned or demolished upon his temporary reentry in 1681 after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 (Kessell 2 135). Diego de Vargas found the Pueblo deserted in 1692, but mentioned that the church and some houses “may be repaired.” According to Kessell, the Pueblo was resettled in 1748 with Tiwas who had gone to Hopi during the revolt, and a few Hopis my have come with them. Fr. Juan Miguel Menchero supported the resettlement, but found it impossible to rebuild the old church. His new church, built in 1752, became unusable when its roof fell in in the 1770s. This was replaced by 1784, but this church itself was in ruins starting in the 1860s, and a new church was built by 1864 a few hundred yards east of the 1700s church. The 1860s church, much renovated, is still in use. Galisteo Pueblo 1612 According to Gerhard (Gerhard 1), the mission church of Santa Cruz Galisteo was begun at Galisteo Pueblo, near the location of the present village of Galisteo, in 1612 (Scholes, p. 333, says it was sometime between 1610 and 1612) but abandoned during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. It was reinstated as Nuestra Señora de los Remedios in 1706 as a visita of Santa Fé. Zia Pueblo 1613 Quirós, Fr. Cristóbal de During the Oñate period Fr. Andrés Corchado was assigned to Zia (along with Acoma, Zuni, and Hopi), but may not have missionized there (Scholes 1). Scholes and Bloom note the inference of Zia as being one of the possible areas missionized during the first decade of the 17th century because of the large number of baptisms claimed by the friars in 1608. The first convento is mentioned in 1613 and was probably founded by Fr. Cristóbal de Quirós who was there until 1617. Gerhard (1 319) notes that the mission was reestablished in 1694 after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and the subsequent reoccupation of New Mexico by the Spanish in 1693. According to Kessell (3 174-180), only a temporary chapel was available until the present church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Zia was built, begun by 1706. This church was built either using the walls (which Don Diego de Vargas said were still standing on his visit in 1692) or at least the foundations of the pre-Revolt church. Nambé Pueblo 1613 Haro de la Cueva, Fr. According to Scholes and Bloom (Scholes 1), a convento at Nambé Pueblo was established by Fr. Haro de la Cueva at least by 1613, and he was in residence there until perhaps 1633. The mission church of San Francisco Nambé was abandoned during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and, according to Gerhard, reinstated in 1694. A new church was built by Fr. Pedro Esquer and dedicated in 1725 (Kessell 3). This church lasted until the late 1800s and was replaced about 1910 by a barn-like structure. This in turn was replaced in 1974 by the present church. San Lázaro Pueblo 1613 Perguer, Fr. Andrés Fr. Andrés Perguer was in residence at a convento here at least by 1613 and was replaced by Fr. Agustín de Burgos in 1613 (Scholes 1). The convento atSan Lázaro was abandoned sometime between 1614 and 1621, according to Scholes and Bloom (Gerhard says “by 1620”) but still serviced as a visita of either Galisteo or San Marcos for some time (Scholes 1). Isleta Pueblo 1613 Salas, Fr. Juan de Fr. Salas was at Isleta probably by 1612 and remained there until 1630 (Scholes 1 334). The mission church of San Agustin de la Isleta dates from 1613 and lays claim to being the oldest still standing church in New Mexico. Although the church is much restored, some of the foundations and walls are indeed from the original building (Kessell 3 215). Many of the Isletans abandoned their village and went with the Spanish to the El Paso del Norte area during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Don Diego de Vargas found the walls of the main nave of this church in good condition upon his first reentry into New Mexico in 1692 (Kessell 3 216). Chililí Pueblo 1614 Peinado, Fr. Alonso de Fr. Peinado began his mission at the Tiwa Pueblo of Chililí at least by 1614 and served there until his death in 1622 or 1623 (Scholes 1 335). Although Gerhard says the mission church of Natividad Chililí was begun in 1614 and abandoned by 1644, Scholes and Bloom report friars at the mission through at least 1672 (Scholes 2, n. 87, p. 64). San Felipe Pueblo 1615 Quirós, Fr. Cristóbal de San Felipe, at the time on top of a small steep-sided mesa overlooking the Rio Grande, is first mentioned in 1615 as a visita of Santo Domingo (Scholes 1 334), and by 1621 it had its own convento (Scholes 2 65) serviced by Fr. Cristóbal de Quirós who remained there until his death in 1643. A new church was built in 1706 after the pueblo moved down from the nearby mesa to its present site on the river. This church was torn down and the present church was built in 1736 (Kessell 3). Cicuye (Pecos) Pueblo 1619 Zambrano Ortiz, Fr. Pedro In the fall of 1540 Coronado´s Capt. Hernán de Alvarado and a small party were the first Europeans to visit what they called Cicuye, an impressive fortress village. In 1583, the Antonio de Espejo group also went by Cicuye before departing down the Pecos River. Castaño de Sosa and his men “conquered” Pecos in 1591 and were the first to use that name, evidently having heard it from the Keres to the west. Oñate visited in 1598, and Fray Francisco de San Miguel was assigned to Pecos and at least visited there in that year and likely started a church (Kessell 2 84). The next documented mission activity was in 1619 when Fr. Zambrano Ortiz founded the mission of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles de Porciuncula de los Pecos (this may have occurred as early as 1617) and likely built a new but temporary church. Sometime in the 1620s a more permanent and massive church was built, probably begun under the guidance of Fr. Pedro de Ortega, who replaced Zambrano Ortiz by 1621, and finished by Fr. Andrés Juárez. This monumental church was destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The mission was reestablished in 1694, and a new church, built on the ruins of the larger 17th century structure, was built in 1716-1717. It is the impressive ruins of this fourth (perhaps) church that can be seen at Pecos National Historic Park. Pecos Pueblo was abandoned in the 1830s, with many of the last residents moving to Jemez Pueblo. San Cristóbal Pueblo 1621 Vergara, Fr. Pedro de According to Scholes and Bloom (Scholes 1) missionary work was started at San Cristóbal Pueblo at least by 1621, and Fr. Vergara was in residence there in that year. A convento was evidently at the site by 1626, and Fr. Alonso de Estremera was there in 1628. Gerhard notes that it was served until 1630 when it became avisita of Galisteo. Some of the walls of what was likely the stone convento can still be seen among the Pueblo ruins. Guisewa Pueblo (Jemez) 1622 Zárate Salmerón, Fr. Gerónimo de Fr. Alonso de Lugo was assigned to the Jemez Indians shortly after the Oñate party reached San Juan/San Gabriel in 1598, and he likely spent some time with them, although perhaps at San Diego to the south rather than Guisewa, where he may have built a church (Scholes 1). Lugo left New Mexico in 1601, and there was probably not much mission activity in the Jemez valley until much later. Fray Gerónimo de Zárate Salmerón is credited with founding the mission at Guisewa in 1621 or 1622 (Scholes 2 67). Fray Zárate Salmerón, by his own claim, baptized over 6,000 Jemez Indians. He also directed the building of the huge San José de Guisewa de Jemez church (Zárate Salmerón 1) by about 1627, the massive ruins of which can be seen at Jemez State Historic Site (formerly Jemez State Monument) near Jemez Springs. The mission was abandoned by 1630. Picurís Pueblo 1622 Arvide, Fr. Martín de The mission of San Lorenzo de Picurís was founded by Fr. Martín after he was assigned there in 1621 or 1622. He was forced to abandon the mission, but Fr. Andrés de Zea, and not long after, Fr. Ascensio de Zárate refounded the mission in 1628 (Scholes 2). After the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, what may have been the third church was built or restored by Fr. Duque de Estrada, according to his own claims (Kessell 3). Comanches attacked the mission in 1769 and the remains of the old church were leveled afterwards by order of Governor Pedro Fermín de Mendinueta. A new church was built beginning in 1776; it still stands, although much restored (Kessell 3). Jemez Pueblo (San Diego) 1622 Zárate Salmerón, Fr. Gerónimo de Fr. Alonso de Lugo was assigned to the Jemez Indians shortly after the Oñate party reached San Juan/San Gabriel in 1598, and he likely spent some time with them and may have built a church, probably at the San Diego location rather than Guisewa up the Jemez valley (Scholes 1). Lugo left New Mexico in 1601, and there was probably not much mission activity until much later. Fray Gerónimo de Zárate Salmerón is credited with founding the San Diego de la Congregación mission, probably near the location of the present Jemez Pueblo, several miles to the south of his earlier mission at Guisewa (Scholes 2 67) and shortly after its founding. San Diego was abandoned for a time after 1623, but refounded a few years later by Fr. Martín de Arvide, who was killed in 1632. After the abandonment of San José de Guisewa in the 1630s or earlier, San Diego became the only mission center in the Jemez Valley area. Abó Pueblo 1622 Acevedo, Fr. Francisco de Juan de Oñate´s Zaldívar nephews visited Abó in 1598 while the Oñate colonizing expedition was on its way north (Sanchez 1 46) to colonize New Mexico. There was mission activity at Abó at least by 1622 and building of the church and convento may have begun about that time, although Fr. Francisco de Acevedo, who arrived in 1629, may deserve credit for building them (Scholes 2 68-69). Abó was the center for missionizing work at other Tompiro villages including Tenabó and Tabirá. Quarai Pueblo 1625 Gutiérrez de la Chica, Fr. Juan Fr. Juan Gutiérrez de la Chica was “guardian of the convent” at Cuarac (Quarai) of Nuestra Señora de Purisma Concepción de Quarai by at least 1628 (Scholes 2 73). Gerhard also dates its founding (Concepción Cuarac) to 1628 with abandonment in 1675. Socorro (San Miguel) Pueblo 1626 The Oñate expedition of 1598 stopped at a place they called “Socorro” because the natives of the pueblo of Teypana, just south of the current boundaries of the modern town of Socorro, New Mexico, there provided them “much maize” (Sanchez 1 45). The mission of Nuestra Señora de Perpetuo Socorro was begun as early as 1626, probably with Fr. Martín de Arvide being one of the first friars stationed there (Scholes 2 78-79). Gerhard also places the mission as beginning in 1626 and being served until the Pueblo Revolt when it was moved south to the El Paso del Norte area (see Socorro, Texas). Tenabó Pueblo 1626 Acevedo, Fr. Francisco de There was mission activity at Tenabó perhaps by at least 1626 since a “Penabo” is mentioned in a document of 1626. Fr. Francisco de Acevedo, who arrived in 1629 may also deserve credit for a mission at Tenabó (Scholes 2 68-69). Abó Pueblo was the center for missionizing work at other Tompiro villages including Tenabó. Santa Clara Pueblo 1628 Benavides, Fr. Alonso Fr. Alonso de Benavides, father custos of New Mexico, established a convento at Santa Clara in the summer of 1628 (Scholes 2 73). A church was in existence before the Revolt of 1680, and a post-Revolt church built in 1706 (Adams 1 114), but this had completely deteriorated by the 1750s. Fr. Mariano Rodriquez de la Torre (Kessell 3 76-81) then built a long, narrow church that lasted until the early 1900s, when it fell under the weight of a new, pitched roof. Fr. Rodriguez also saw to the building of a convento. A smaller church was then built by 1918. In his 1776 report, Fr. Dominguez (Adams 1 119), notes in his section on Santa Clara Pueblo that there were 69 Spanish-speaking families (nine of which were landless genizaros) located on a set of ranchos scattered three leagues (about 8 miles) up the Chama River north of its junction with the Rio Grande. These settlements were divided into four sections, each with its own name, although he says these names were “nothing but a whim, for it all continues without a middling break between place to place.” These names might have included such current community names as Hernandez, La Chuachin, El Duende, and Chili. Hawikuh (Zuni) Pueblo 1629 Marcos de Niza, Fr. Fr. Marcos de Niza at least approached the “seven cities of gold” in 1539, and his companion, Estevan the Moor, was likely killed at Hawikuh. The Coronado expedition reached Zuni in 1540, assaulted and took Hawikuh, and visited the other villages. A convento was founded at Hawikuh in 1629 (Scholes 2 81), but apparently abandoned after Apache attacks in 1673 (Kessell 3 206-214). Acoma Pueblo 1629 Oñate, Juan de The “great rock” of Acoma was first visited by Coronado’s lieutenant Hernán Alvarado in 1540, then conquered by Juan de Oñate´s nephew Vicente de Zaldívar in 1598 in an astounding assault and bloody, cruel battle that Oñate believed was necessary both to avenge the death of Vicente’s brother Juan de Zaldívar and other Spaniards at Acoma and also to establish the military strength of the Spanish in the minds of the Pueblos (Simmons 2). The battle and its aftermath virtually destroyed the Pueblo, but it survived. In 1629 Fr. Juan Ramírez founded the mission of San Esteban del Rey de Acoma (Scholes 2 81) and began building its church, which was finished by at least 1641 (Kessell 3). The Acoma Puebloans did not destroy their church in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, although they killed their priest, and, as Kessell says, today it appears “to contain more of the original seventeenth-century fabric than any other in the United States” (Kessell 3 198). Las Humanas (San Isidro) Pueblo 1629 Letrado, Fr. Francisco de First called “Xumanas” by the Spanish, the mission of San Isidro was first established in 1629 by Fr. Francisco de Letrado who built the first church and convento. This mission was abandoned shortly thereafter and not refounded until about 1660, when a new church, San Buenaventura de las Humanas, adjacent to the ruins of the earlier church, was built by Fr. Diego de Santander (Scholes 2 74-75). This mission was abandoned by 1672, according to Gerhard. Halona (Zuni) Pueblo 1629 Marcos de Niza, Fr. Fr. Marcos de Niza at least approached the “seven cities of gold” in 1539, and his companion, Estevan the Moor, was likely killed at Halona’s companion village of Hawikuh. The Coronado expedition reached Zuni in 1540, assaulted and took Hawikuh, and visited the other villages. The mission of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de Zuni was probably founded at Halona in 1629 (Scholes 2 81) . The mission was abandoned during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 , but Fr. Juan de Garaycoechea built the present church (now extensively modified after much rebuilding) beginning in 1699, probably on the ruins of the pre-Revolt church (Kessell 3). Tabirá Pueblo 1629 Acevedo, Fr. Francisco de Fr. Francisco de Acevedo, who arrived in 1629 may deserve credit for a mission at Tabirá (Scholes 2 68-69). Initially, Abó Pueblo was the center for work at other Tompiro villages including Tabirá, but by the 1660s it was a visita of San Buenaventura de las Humanas, today’s Gran Quivira National Monument (Scholes 2 75). Senecú Pueblo 1629 Arteaga, Fr. Antonio de The farthest south of the Rio Abajo missions, the mission of San Antonio de Padua was established at Senecú Pueblo by Fr. Arteaga by 1629 and a convento built. Fr. Argeaga and the lay brother Fr. García de San Francisco were both there for nine years (Scholes 2) and Fr. García remained until about1659. At this time, he evidently established a new mission among the Manso and Suma Indians near El Paso del Nórte that became a refuge for Senecú Puebloans after the New Mexican Senecú was abandoned in 1675 due to Apache raids. The El Paso area mission was then renamed San Antonio de Senecú (Habig 1). Tajique Pueblo 1635 There may have been a mission at Tajique Pueblo by 1629, but it was first mentioned in a document of 1635 (Scholes 2 74). Gerhard notes that the mission church of San Miguel Tajique was begun in 1635 but abandoned by 1675. Cochití Pueblo 1637 Although Cochití was likely visited by missionaries from nearby Santo Domingo from at least 1614, the mission of San Buenaventura de Cochití did not have its own convento until as late as 1637 (Scholes 2 66). The present church may have been completed in the 1700s on the ruins of an earlier church, but when Fr. Domínguez visited it in 1776 he was not impressed (Kessell 3 155). Gerhard dates San Buenaventura Cochití to “from 1706.” San Marcos Pueblo 1638 Cuellar, Fr. Agustín de The first recorded missionary at San Marcos Pueblo may have been Fr. Cuellar in 1638 (Scholes 1), although Gerhard say the mission at San Marcos was begun in 1621. It was served until the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. Pajarito 1638 According to NMOSH 16, the earliest known reference to Pajarito is 1643 “when the resident priest at Isleta acquired Pajarito as a small ranch”. Barrett notes that the Pajarito estancia might have been developed on Isleta Pueblo lands in the 1620s, “perhaps by the Pueblo’s missionary” and that by 1638 it belonged to Andrés López de Gracia (Barrett 1 25). Whoever owned the estancia before the revolt, it was abandoned and perhaps retaken by Juan Fernandez in 1711 (NMOSH 16). Luis Lopez 1667 Lopez, Luis Captain Luis Lopez was the alcalde at Senecu Pueblo in 1667 and may have had an hacienda on the east bank of the Rio Grande (Wikipedia). This location is very near the site of Teypana Pueblo, the “Socorro” of the 1598 Oñate colonizing expedition (Harden 1). Pojoaque Before 1680 Salas, Antonio de Antonio de Salas was an encomendero at Pojoaque Pueblo, where he lived with his wife and family, before the Pueblo Revolt (Chavez 1 100 and Barrett 1 24). One of his step-daughters, Petronila de Salas, and her several children were all killed at Pojoaque in 1680. In 1701 a Sebastián de Salas, born in Spain, sold some land in Pojoaque, but Fr. Chávez does not link him to the Antonio de Salas family. Sebastián de Salas was also one of the officers and settlers of Santa Cruz de la Cañada to the north of Pojoaque (Esquibel 2 15) and sold some land there in 1702, so may not have lived in Pojoaque. El Rancho Before 1680 There was likely at least one seventeenth-century Spanish landholder, Bartólome Romero de Pedraza, in this area prior to the 1680 Pueblo revolt (Barrett 1 211, map 7). Fray Dominguez in his 1776 report notes that there were six ranchos, with 14 families and 70 people, between San Ildefonso Pueblo and the Spanish settlers near Pojoaque Pueblo (Adams 1 71). The current church of San Antonio de Padua was built in 1938, although there was a much earlier church (Cash 1 30). Ciéneguilla 1693 Anaya Alamazan, Francisco de According to Snow, Francisco Anaya Alamazan I and Cristóbal Anaya Alamazan were both encomenderos at La Ciénega and perhaps San Marcos Pueblo before the Pueblo Revolt. This area likely included the later Cieneguilla. Cieneguilla, with its nearby springs, was also a paraje on the Camino Real along the Rio de Santa Fe “four leagues below Santa Fe” (NMOSH 1). Juan Candelaria (NMOSH 1) said the area was first settled as a community in 1698. Nine Spanish families resided there in 1782. Santa Cruz de la Cañada 1695 Vargas, Diego de The Santa Cruz River valley was a home for Spanish ranchers and estancieros well before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Juan Lopez claimed to have been living in “La Cañada” in 1601 (Barrett 1 23), making this perhaps the first settlement outside of San Gabriel. In 1695 Santa Cruz de la Cañada was founded by Don Diego de Vargas as a plaza town and the second New Mexico villa after Santa Fé. A small church was built by 1706 and rebuilt in a much larger version by the mid-1740s. This large church, much modified, along with Las Trampas, are the only churches north of Santa Fé still standing that were built before Fr. Dominguez wrote his description of New Mexico missions in 1776 (Picurís was under construction in that year). (See Kessell 3 81-89). Bernalillo 1695 As many as eight Tiwa Pueblos were in the general vicinity of what is now the Bernalillo community as late as the 1560s when Chumuscado visited the area. Bernalillo had Spanish settlers prior to the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. Bernalillo was resettled in 1695, mostly on the west side of the Rio Grande, shortly after the reentry of the Spanish under Vargas in 1693 on lands occupied by the Bernal family before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 (Riley 1 306). A plaza and church were built in 1695 (NMOSH 7). Cerrillos 1695 The “Cerrillos Hills,” near San Marcos Pueblo and north of the present community of Cerrillos, were used for galena (lead ore) and turquoise mines by Pueblo Indians for at least hundreds of years before the Spanish, and there was Spanish interest in the mines even before the Oñate colonizing expedition of 1598. There was a Spanish ranch in this area before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The Real de los Cerrillos mining settlement was established in 1695, making it the oldest European mining settlement in the western United States. Tesuque Pueblo 1695 Diez, Fr. José Tesuque Pueblo, on the outskirts of today’s Santa Fé, undoubtedly was served as a visita of Nambé or Santa Fé early on, even though this is not mentioned in Scholes and Bloom (Scholes 1). The original church of San Lorenzo de Tesuque was likely built before 1630 (Cash 1 22). According to Kessell 3, Fr. José Diez built the first post-Revolt church in 1695. This church survived until 1745 when it was rebuilt. This church, in turn, was rebuilt in the 1880s (Kessell 3, but Cash 1 22 indicates 1877). This nineteenth century church was badly burned by vandals in 2002 and subsequently demolished pending the building of the current church. Santa Ana Pueblo 1696 Santa Ana is mentioned as a visita of Zia Pueblo as early as 1614 (Scholes 1 334), but there is no evidence of a separate convento there before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 (Scholes 2). When Don Diego de Vargas came through in 1693, the people of Santa Ana were living on top of a mesa, and he persuaded them to move down nearer the Jemez River a few miles west from its confluence with the Rio Grande. In 1696, Vargas noted that there was a convento already built at the new site (Kessell 3). A new convento, incorporating the first, was finished by 1717 and an even newer one, the present one, begun along with a new church (the present one) in 1734 but not finished until 1750. Most of the people of Santa Ana now live in a new village on the east bank of the Rio Grande some miles from old Santa Ana. Laguna Pueblo 1699 Miranda, Fr. Antonio Laguna Pueblo formed in 1699 after the Spanish reoccupation of New Mexico under Don Diego de Vargas, perhaps led by Fr. Miranda gathering refugees at this site. The mission church of San José de Laguna, still present, was built by 1706. Jacona 1702 Roybal y Torrado, Ignacio de The lands around what became the Spanish settlement of Jacona were occupied until the second Pueblo Revolt in 1696 by Tewas, who abandoned Jacona Pueblo at about that time. After that, Jacinto Peláez was given a small grant within the Jacona Pueblo area, although there is no documentation of his official possession of the grant (Ebright 2 249). Ignacio de Roybal y Torrado was a young soldier, born in Galicia, Spain, who came to New Mexico with Vargas in the 1693 reentry (Chávez 1) and received a grant of nearly 7,000 acres in Jacona in 1702 (Ebright 2). He bought other lands from Juan de Mestas east of the Jacona grant and also received a grant, probably for grazing (Ebright 2 250) for other lands “across from San Ildefonso Pueblo” (Salazar 1 (96)). Roybal’s house, likely built sometime shortly after 1700, still stands adjacent to what was the old Jacona Pueblo plaza, and, according to the owner, contains some old coursed adobe walls thought to be remnants of Jacona Pueblo. Atrisco 1703 Mendoza, Juan Dominguez de Juan Domingo de Mendoza had an hacienda on the west side of the Rio Grande in “the jurisdiction that is called Atrisco” prior to the 1680 Pueblo Revolt (NMOSH 6, Twitchell 1). Fernando Durán y Chávez, formerly of Taos, was given the Atrisco grant in 1692 but his official possession did not take place until 1703. Actual occupation may not have taken place until 1706 along with the establishment of La Villa de Alburquerque across the river. Soledád 1705 Martín Serrano, Sebastian After settling in Santa Cruz de la Cañada, where he was Alcalde, Sebastian Martín Serrano, a descendant of Hernan Martín Serrano who came with Oñate in 1598, developed his large grant north of San Juan Pueblo into what might be called the only true hacienda in the Río Arriba area of colonial northern New Mexico. The grant was originally made in 1705 and then reconfirmed in 1712 (Ebright 1, n. 3, p. 83). Martín Serrano built a chapel at La Soledád that was mentioned by Fr. Dominquez in 1777. This is now part of the Los Luceros State Historic Site. Plaza del Cerros 1706 Lopez, Luis Although there were probably estancias in the vicinity before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the first documented Hispanic settlement in the vicinity of the Plaza del Cerros (now part of the village of Chimayo) is the grant of Luis Lopez in 1706. Alburquerque 1706 Cuervo y Valdez, Francisco By the time of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, there were perhaps 20 Spanish farms and ranches scattered along the Rio Grande from Sandia Pueblo in the north to Isleta Pueblo in the south. The earliest of these was the estancia of Diego de Trujillo in the vicinity of what is now Albuquerque’s Old Town (Albuquerque 1). Although stretching the King’s rules somewhat, Governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdez certified the founding of La Villa de Alburquerque de San Francisco Xavier del Bosque in 1706, claiming that 35 families, likely an exagerration, were already in residence. Mártin Hurtado was the first alcalde mayor and the commander of the small military squadron stationed in Albuquerque. The settlers evidently moved into the houses and onto the land occupied pre-Revolt by Spanish farmers along a two to three mile stretch on the east side of the Rio Grande. Some of these, including Fernando Duran y Chávez and Baltazar Romero, moved down river from Bernalillo to reoccupy the farms they had abandoned during the Revolt. The church of San Felipe de Néri may have been started about this time, and settlers gradually began accumulating, perhaps first with second homes, about the plaza in front of the church, today’s Old Town. Los Griegos 1708 Griego, Juan Now a neighborhood in Albuquerque’s North Valley, Los Griegos traces its history to a 1708 land grant to Juan Griego. Alameda 1712 Vigil, Francisco Montes de The Hispanic community of Alameda was settled on the west side of the Rio Grande (the river later moved to the west of Alameda) near and to the south of the site of the ruins of a Tiwa Pueblo abandoned in 1681, soon after the 1680 Pueblo Revolt (Twitchell 1 114). The Alameda land grant of about 106,000 acres was given to Francisco Montes de Vigil then of Santa Fe (and a native of Zacatecas) in 1710. The U. S. Court of Private Land Claims confirmed the grant for about 89,000 acres (NMOSH 5). La Ciénega 1715 Anaya Alamazan, Francisco According to Snow, Francisco Anaya Alamazan I and Cristóbal Anaya Alamazan were both encomenderos at La Ciénega Pueblo and perhaps San Marcos Pueblo before the Pueblo Revolt. The Pueblo was abandoned during the 1680 revolt and never reoccupied. In 1715 16 families were given the La Ciénega grant in an area that had been the pre-Pueblo Revolt site of the Keres pueblo. Taos (Don Fernando de Taos) 1715 Chavez, Fernando Franciscan Fray Francisco de Zamora was assigned to Taos and Picuris Pueblos in 1598 but was not successful in missionizing these Tiwa Pueblos. Spanish settlers were in the Taos valley during the pre-Pueblo Revolt years, and by 1680 there were about 70 living in scattered farms or ranchos in the area (Weber 3 19), one of whom was Don Fernando de Chávez, who escaped the revolt although his family was killed. Chavez did not return after the Spanish re-occupation of New Mexico. The 1680 revolt hit the Taos Hispanics hard; all in the area at the time were killed, and it was not until 1715 that they began to reoccupy the Taos valley. Cristóbal de la Serna was granted lands in the valley in 1710 that had been occupied before the revolt by Fernando de Chávez, but Serna was not able to occupy them until 1715. The large Serna grant extended from the south edge of the original Taos Pueblo Grant to the south-southwest for several miles, including Ranchos de Taos, and Serna Grant lands still take up several thousand acres south-southwest of Ranchos de Taos (Shearer 1 34) . Other Hispanic settlers, such as Diego de Romero and his family were in the Taos area at least as early as 1714, but living close to or in the Pueblo itself. By the 1740s the Romeros, occupying land on the Río de los Trampas (at the later Ranchos de Taos), were the only settlers not living very close to the Pueblos. During the 1750s all Hispanic settlers in the valley moved into the Taos Pueblo because of intense Comanche raids, where many stayed until the 1780s when peace with the Comanches was achieved by Governor Anza. At that point, many began squatting on Pueblo lands about three miles south of the Pueblo, and in 1795 63 families were awarded the Don Fernando de Taos grant, taking up part of the original Pueblo Grant by Governor Chacón, which became the present town of Taos. Ranchos de Taos 1715 Romero, Diego According to Jenkins, the area on the Río de las Trampas (or Río Chiquito) that became Ranchos de Taos, a few miles south of the later Don Fernando de Taos, was part of the Francisca Antonia de Gijosa grant of 1715, now extending southwest of Ranchos de Taos almost to Pilar (Shearer 1 34). It is not clear who, if anyone, occupied the grant until members of the large Diego Romero family, some of whom had been living in Taos Pueblo, settled at San Francisco de las Trampas in the early 1730s. Also, the Cristóbal de la Serna grant of 1710, which included what became Ranchos de Taos and still takes up thousands of acres to the south-southwest of Ranchos de Taos and south of the Gijosa grant, was occupied by Serna in 1715. In 1744 there were four ranches and ten families reported living in all of the Taos valley outside of the Pueblo, and Jenkins suggests these were probably all Romeros. Even the Romeros were probably forced by Comanche raids to move into the Pueblo periodically during the 1760s and 1770s. The massive church of San Francisco de Asís in Los Ranchos was built beginning in the early 1800s. According to Cash, the small village of Llano Quemado across the Río Chiquito south from Ranchos was settled at least by 1787, based on church records. Medenales 1724 Mestas, Juan de Juan de Mestas received a grant in 1724, the first in the Chama Valley, at the confluence of the Río Chama and the Río del Ojo Caliente. Shortly thereafter Cristóbal Torres received a grant to the west of Mestas, including the vicinity of the present community of Medenales. Abiquiú 1724 Torres, Cristóbal Several locations and communities are associated with the early settlement of the area around the present community of Abiquiú. The first settlement began with a grant made in 1724 to the then alcalde mayor of Santa Cruz, Capt. Cristóbal Torres, extending from near the present community of Medenales to about five miles west of the present Abiquiú (Quintana 1). Torres likely established his home and the rancho of San José de Gracia near the confluence of El Ríto Colorado and the Río Chama, several miles east of what later became the community of Abiquiú. According to Poling-Kempes, Miguel Martín Serrano, the son of Sebastián, “co- founded the communities of Tierra Azul and Santa Rosa de Lima in 1734,” also downstream from Abiquiú. There may have been two early locations for the community and chapel of Santa Rosa de Lima, including that of the present chapel ruins near Bode´s Store, about three miles east of Abiquiú (Boyer 1). The Abiquiú mesa itself was first settled as the plaza of Santo Tómas de Abiquiu in the 1740s by genizaro families. Then in 1750 thirteen genizaro families, probably Hopi, were brought by Juan José Lobato, the alcalde mayor of Santa Cruz at the time, to resettle the plaza of Santo Tómas de Abiquiú after abandonment in 1747 (Poling-Kempes 38). Gov. Cachupin later awarded a grant to 34 genizaro families to resettle the Abiquiu mesa after abandonments subsequent to the resettlement of 1750 (Poling-Kempes 42-43). A first church of Santo Tómas de Abiquiú was built in 1774, but the current church was built in the 1930s on a design by John Gaw Meem (Cash 1 82). Pueblo Quemado 1725 There was a land grant given in the Pueblo Quemado area by 1725, but it was evidently abandoned and not resettled until perhaps1748 (Nostrand 1 42). In that year, the residents petitioned to be allowed to leave the area because of Indian attacks, but by 1750 they were back (Ebright 2 145). Cundiyó 1725 Balasco, Diego de Diego de Balasco was granted lands in the Cundiyó valley in 1725, but the grant was revoked in 1738 by Governor Olavide y Michelena (Salazar 1 71). It was later resettled by 1754 (Ebright 2 145). Embudo 1725 Martín, Francisco The San Antonio del Embudo grant was made by Governor Juan Domingo de Bustamante in 1725 to eight families led by Francisco Martín, Juan Márquez, and Lasaro de Córdova. San Antonio del Embudo was a plaza community with two torreons, the remains of which can still be seen. Ojo Caliente 1735 Martín-Serrano, Blas Poling-Kempes says that “Blas Martín-Serrano founded and settled the community of Ojo Caliente…in 1735.” The area was abandoned due to Comanche attacks in 1747 and remained that way for most of the time until Governor Juan Bautista de Anza achieved peace with the Comanches in 1786 (DeBuys 1 65). El Ríto/Las Placitas 1735 García de Noriega, Juan Esteban The alcalde mayor of Santa Cruz at the time, Juan Esteban García de Noriega, received a grant in 1735 for lands encompassing the present twin communities of El Ríto and Las Placitas, about two miles apart along El Ríto Colorado northeast of Abiquiú. Although he likely built a few structures to support his sheep ranching activities somewhere in the vicinity, he lost his grant shortly thereafter and it was not until 1751 that he apparently regained it. Quintana and Snow believe it is reasonably likely that after 1751 García built and occupied El Rancho de Santa Bárbara del Ríto Colorado at what is now an unexcavated site within the current community of El Rito. In any event, the modern communities of El Ríto and Las Placitas began to be populated in the early 19th century. In 1808 a descendant of Juan Esteban García sold land that became the first plaza of El Ríto, and by 1815 the first church of San Juan Nepomuceno was built in El Ríto (Quintana 1). The current church, much restored, was built beginning about 1827 and was completed in 1832 (Cash 1 97). Tomé 1739 In 1739, on lands occupied by Tomé Domínguez de Mendoza and his family before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, a group of settlers from Albuquerque established the community of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción de Tomé. The church, which is still present, was completed by 1754 but for many years served by Franciscans from Isleta, Belén, or Albuquerque. Belén 1740 Torrez, Diego de The community of Belén was begun by a group of 32 settlers, including Diego de Torrez and Antonio de Salazar and 30 others, most from the Albuquerque area, who received the Nuestra Señora de Belén community land grant in 1740. Belén was a visita of Isleta for many years, but it became a separate parish in 1793 and the church of Nuestra Señora de Belén built. This church lasted until 1855 when it was destroyed by flood waters, and a new church was built by 1860 on the west side of town, much farther from the river. This church was torn down and a completely new church built on the same site in about 1970 (McDonald 1 195-206). Valencia 1740 Francisco de Valencia and his family had a large hacienda in this area as early as 1630 and were there until the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. A group of genízaro settlers from Albuquerque established the community of Valencia starting in about 1740. The Sangre de Christo church may have been built originally not long after that, but the current church was probably built about 1800. Peñasco 1744 Martín, Jasinto There were Spanish settlers living in the area of Picurís Pueblo, probably on Pueblo lands, by at least 1744, since there were a number of mining claims in the area by that time (Salazar 1). Jasinto Martín and others petitioned for land near Picurís in 1744 (Salazar 1 36), leading to what is still a scattered community. Los Lentes 1744 Ente, Matias el Part of the San Clemente Land Grant given to Felix Candelaria in 1716, La Plaza de San Antonio evolved as a village from land transactions made by Matias el Ente and others, perhaps genizaros, from Isleta Pueblo starting in 1744 (NMOSH 10). The village church, La Capilla de San Antonio, was apparently built in the late 18th century and still survives. This chapel sits on the site of a southern Tiwa pueblo abandoned in the early part of the 17th century, but well after Spanish contact. Another Tiwa pueblo, Be-jui Tu-ay, was nearby and likely abandoned about the same time as Los Lentes Pueblo, both of whose residents likely were absorbed by Isleta Pueblo (NMOSH 10). Las Trampas 1751 Arguello, Juan de There was a grant made to a Joseph Bázquez at or near Trampas in 1727, but this was later revoked (Salazar 1 6), and it was in 1754 that a new grant was made. Las Trampas, like the nearby community of Truchas to the south, was founded as a defensive outpost under the direction of Governor Cachupín. There were 12 families, led by Juan de Arguello, included in the grant petition to Gov. Cachupín. The Trampas grant included acreage donated by Sebastián Martin on the east side of his large grant (Ebright 2). Trampas was formed as a plaza community, Santo Tomás Apóstol del Río de las Trampas, and featured the church of San José de Gracia , completed in the 1760s (Kessell 3), that still stands and has been called “the most perfectly preserved Spanish Colonial church in the United States (Ebright 2, quoting Bainbridge Bunting in New Mexico Architect, Vol. 12, No. 38, 1970).” Santa Bárbara 1751 Santa Bárbara, later Rodarte, may have been first occupied by 1751 by Spanish farmers coming up the Río Santa Bárbara from Peñasco (Nostrand 1 41). San Fernando 1753 Montoya, Bernabé Manuel As discussed by López, in 1753 12 families led by Bernabé Manuel Montoya were given the Nuestra Señora de la Luz de San Fernando y San Blas grant, known now as the Montaño grant (most of which is now on the northern part of the Laguna Pueblo Reservation), on the Middle Rio Puerco. The families settled on the grant but were forced to abandon the area by 1780 due to Navajo attacks. The area was not resettled until the 1860s, but was later abandoned again. Communities that developed in the area either during the first period in the 1700s or the later period in the 1860s and 1870s included La Cueva, San Francisco, Duran, Poblazon, San Fernando, and San Ignacio (Widdison 1). Widdison (N. 24, p. 260) suggests that San Fernando itself was not resettled in the 1800s as were the others, with the possible exception of Poblazon. Truchas 1754 Romero, Nicolas After building acequias and planting crops for two summers (Noble 1 218), Nicolas Romero and a group of settlers from Santa Cruz and Chimayo were granted land (about 20,000 acres in the Nuestra Senora del Rosario San Fernando y Santiago grant) in 1754 by Governor Tómas Velez Cachupin. The Truchas community in the grant was settled as a fortified plaza to defend the northeast of the Rio Arriba against Comanche attacks. In 1894 the United States Court of Private Land Claims confirmed the grant as originally given (NMOSH 4). Carnué 1763 Baca, José Antonio In 1763 a land grant was given to nineteen families, led by José Antonio Baca, in the Cañon de Carnué (the present “Tijeras Canyon” east of Albuquerque). After the initial settlement of the area it was abandoned in 1771 due to Apache attacks. Settlers came back temporarily on urging of Governor Mendinueta but abandoned Carnué again in 1772. The area was finally resettled in 1819 with two plazas being established, San Miguel de Carnué, today’s Carnuel community, at the western outlet of the canyon and San Antonio de Padua at the eastern end in the vicinity of the present community of Cedar Crest. Cañada de los Alamos 1785 Marques, Lorenzo This small community about 15 miles of Santa Fe on “Old Santa Fe Trail,” was originally established following a land grant in 1785 to Lorenzo Marques. The present beautiful small church was built in 1922 (Cash 1 24). Cañones 1807 Valdez, Juan Bautista The Cañones area had been ranched by, first, José de Riano y Tagle, who first held the Piedra Lumbre grant in the 1730s, second, the Montoya family, who abandoned the area in 1745, and, later, the Martín Serrano family, who may have had ranchos in the Cañones valley in the 1760s. The placita of Cañones came into being after 1807 when Juan Bautista Valdez was awarded the Cañones grant. Arroyo Hondo 1815 Sisneros, Neris The community of Arroyo Hondo is within the bounds of a land grant given to Neris Sisneros and others in 1815, with the formal act of possession taking place in 1820. In the 1830s, the American Simeon Turley built a grain mill on the grant and later a distillery. The grant was confirmed in 1898 but reduced from 30,000 to 20,000 acreas (NMOSH 3). La Cuesta (Villanueva) 1819 Villanueva was originally called La Cuesta (or La Cuesta del Bado) and was part of the San Miguel del Bado land grant. Ebright (NMOSH 21), referencing Julyan 1, says that “La Cuesta is said to have been founded in 1808, (but) the first appearance of a baptism from La Cuesta in the Pecos baptismal books was in 1819.” |