Land, River & Hispanic Settlements
Tierra, Río, y Asentamientos Hispanos

Introduction

The mountains and valleys of the Río Grande region of New Mexico are dotted by communities that date back to the early settlement of New Mexico and southern Colorado by the Hispanic people. Their names reflect the Spanish identity of their founders: Santa Fe, Santa Cruz, Albuquerque, Belén, Tomé, Las Trampas, Río Chiquito, La Cienega, Algodones and Atrisco. In many of these communities, the rhythms of the past can still be heard, seen, felt and tasted. The acequias still flow abundantly with water, the traditional crops of corn, beans, chile and squash are still grown, and the animals which the Spanish brought - horses, cows, sheep and goats - still mingle in the pastures.

An agricultural valley of the Río Grande in Velarde, New Mexico, noted for its apple crop, situated at the foot of the Jemez peaks, a volcanic range. El valle agrícola de Velarde conocido por sus manzanas al pie de los Jémez, una cordillera de orígen volcánico.

Folk artists continue to work in much the same way as did their ancestors a hundred or two hundred years ago weaving woolen blankets, carving wooden santos, images of saints, assembling pieces of pine furniture, speaking the old Spanish dialect, building structures in adobe, burning piñon wood for fuel, and baking corn for chicos (parched corn that is hung to dry) in adobe hornos or dome-shaped ovens. For all of New Mexico, the persistence of the Hispanic folk culture is a source of pride, strength and inspiration. The folklife of New Mexico is also a powerful connective force that binds its people with other traditional people throughout the world, but especially, those from Mexico, Latin America and Spain.

The survival of many of these folklife traditions is partly owed to the fact that many of these practices grew out of this area's indigenous past. When the Hispanics settled in New Mexico, they adopted numerous Native American ways that helped them adapt to their new surroundings. They also found much that was familiar in the New Mexican environment that reminded them of their homeland in Spain and in Mexico.

Young Hispanic women from New Mexico performing a Mexican folkloric dance. Jóvenes hispanas de Nuevo México bailando un baile folklórico mexicano.

The Spanish encountered permanent Indian communities along the Río Grande, which they called "pueblos" because they resembled the compact villages of southern Spain. The mountains, mesas, valleys, canyons, rivers, deserts and plains all had their equivalents on the Iberian Peninsula and in Mexico. The settlers soon realized that the majority of plants and animals from their homeland could safely be transplanted to this region and survive. They introduced cattle and horses, sheep and goats, chicken and pigs as well as wheat, barley and oats; and apples, pear, apricot, peach, cherry and plum trees; melons, watermelons, grapes, asparagus, lettuce, cucumbers, chile from Mexico, and numerous other plants and vegetables.

Early Explorations

Beginning with the Coronado expedition of 1540, the Spanish repeatedly visited the region of the Río Grande in search of precious metals. Every effort to locate mineral wealth, however, met with failure because New Mexico, unlike Mexico, lacked significant deposits of gold or silver. After an unsuccessful attempt by Juan de Oñate to establish a permanent settlement at San Gabriel near present day San Juan Pueblo, Santa Fe was founded in 1607. In 1610, it was established as capital by Governor Pedro de Peralta.

Ruins of 18th century church at the Pecos National Monument. Remnants of pre-historic pueblo in the foreground. Las ruinas de una iglesia del siglo 18 al Monumento Nacional de Pecos. Los restos de un pueblo pre-histórico en el primer plano.

Instead of the pursuit of precious metals, the religious conversion of the native Pueblo Indian people by the Spanish stimulated the further conquest and colonization of the Río Grande basin. Within a short time after the founding of Santa Fe, the Spanish people enlisted the Pueblo Indian people in the building of huge mission churches in each of their many pueblos. The Franciscan mission church and convento (living and working quarters for the friars and their Indian staff) at Acoma Pueblo and the mission ruins at Pecos National Monument as well as at Abo, Quarai and Gran Quivira National Monuments near Mountainair testify to the tremendous influence that these institutions exerted on the New Mexican landscape.

Made of timber, stone and adobe, the mission churches were located within Pueblo communities. Attached to the church and arranged around a central patio were the conventos. To one side of the convento and church were the mission gardens, vineyards and orchards which provided the mission with food.

These structures were built through a system called repartimiento, in which selected Spanish people, members of the clergy included, were allowed to force the Indian people to work for them. The Indians were supposed to be compensated for their labor, but the system was frequently abused.

Looking east past the foothills of Chimayó toward the Truchas Peaks, New Mexico's tallest mountains. Una vista de los cerros de Chimayó y las montañas de Truchas, entre las más altas del estado.

Pueblo Revolt In 1680, the Pueblo Indian people revolted against the Spanish church and government because of the suppression of native beliefs and the imposition of tithing and exploitive labor policies. In a carefully planned attack, the Pueblos rose up in rebellion and either killed or drove south to El Paso del Norte (present day Júarez, Mexico) the Spanish in the northern Río Grande. Having driven the Spanish out of the area, the Pueblo Indian people were free to return to their native beliefs and practices.

It was not until after the reconquest of New Mexico by Don Diego de Vargas in 1692-93, that the Spanish speaking population of the Río Grande region succeeded in forging a sustainable relationship with the land and with the Pueblo Indian people. Luckily for them, the Pueblo Indian people, in most cases, had managed to preserve their age-old reciprocal relationship with the land which to a large degree was adopted by the Spanish Mexicans who returned.

Among the villas or towns established during that period were Santa Cruz and Albuquerque followed by the villages or placitas of Abiquiu, Tomé, Villa Nueva on the Pecos River, Truchas and Trampas and eventually Taos. Over the centuries people from these centrally located communities ventured in several directions and eventually established communities in areas as widely separated as the Llano Estacado, (staked plains) of eastern New Mexico and the mountain valleys of Southern Colorado.

Hispanic men celebrating the Spanish conquest and recolonization of New Mexico in Santa Fe's annual fiesta in September. Hombres hispanos celebrando la reconquista y recolonización de Nuevo México por los españoles durante la fiesta anual de Santa Fe en septiembre.

The Blending of Cultures The early Hispanic communities, however, were located close to the Indian pueblos and they lent each other a hand in the defense of the Río Grande Valley from attacks by nomadic Indian groups. Eventually they came to marry, often shared the same Catholic religion, the Spanish language, the Spanish legal system and a set of folkways which included common building materials, common foods, and even common songs and dances. Some new settlements were populated by genízaros - detribalized Indian people mostly from nomadic groups - who also adopted the Spanish language and Spanish ways.

It was from the Pueblos that the Hispanic people learned a great many important lessons regarding survival in this generally harsh environment, including the identification and use of innumerable medicinal herbs as well as foodstuffs native to the region. On the other hand, the Pueblo Indian people learned carpentry and metalwork from the Spanish, and learned to build with the adobe brick. Domesticated cattle, sheep, horses and pigs were introduced along with many fruits and vegetables previously unknown to the Pueblos.

It is believed that the Río Grande Pueblo Indian people are descendants of the ancient Anasazi people who left the area of the Four Corners (Northern New Mexico, Arizona, Southern Utah and Colorado) after a sustained drought in the twelfth century. They established their villages along the Río Grande and its tributaries. A reliable source of water for domestic and agricultural needs was undoubtedly an important factor in this move. Traditionally, the Pueblo Indian people made their living by hunting and gathering as well as by cultivating corn, beans, squash and native cotton. They also kept domesticated turkeys as a source of food and feathers for cloaks and blankets.

Built from ledge stone, adobe and wood, their multistoried pueblos consisted of many small dwellings, generally organized around a plaza where ceremonial dances and other events took place. Clan members met in kivas or underground chambers often located in the plaza area to perform rituals aimed at maintaining balance and harmony throughout the universe.

The multistoried apartment house complex at Taos Indian Pueblo. Doors and windows are definite Spanish influences on Pueblo architecture. Una casa de apartamentos de varios pisos en el pueblo indígena de Taos. Las puertas y ventanas muestran la influencia española en la arquitectura pueblo.

Beyond the village lay the fields and beyond these, the vast hunting grounds of the mountains, deserts and plains. The four directions of this spiritual landscape were marked with shrines and sacred landmarks like mesas and mountain peaks. The Pueblo people made cooking utensils and pottery from locally available clay deposits. They wove their clothing from native cotton and blankets from strips of rabbit fur and turkey feathers. Animal skins provided the leather for moccasins, arrow quivers and the surfaces for drums. Baskets and sandals were woven from yucca fibers and rushes. Weapons and tools were fashioned from wood, stone, obsidian and animal bones.

In New Mexico, as indeed throughout most of the Americas, the incoming Spanish built their villas or towns based on the Roman garrison plan with a central plaza and one or two entrances that could be blocked off in case of attacks by nomadic Indian groups. The whole design was quadrangular and rather spacious so that the life of an entire town could continue within its walls if need be.

A model of the Hispanic village of Santa Cruz with its typical plaza, church and flat roofed homes and compounds. Un modelo de Santa Cruz, un pueblo hispano con su plaza típica, su iglesia, sus casas de techo plano, y caserios.

Governmental, municipal and commercial buildings, and churches and private homes generally flanked the sides of this quadrangle. In the central plaza, the people frequently met for social exchange or occasionally for spectacles that ranged from fiestas to executions. An acequia, or irrigation ditch, carried water from a spring into the town. Fields given over to the cultivation of grains and vegetables, as well as orchards, were developed on river bottom lands and were irrigated by intricate acequia systems whose technology was first introduced into Spain by the Arabs in the eighth century. (Pueblo cultures had developed their own system of irrigation as well, based on the use of diverted run off water, planting near arroyos, or river beds, the creation of "waffle" gardens, and the use of mulching and of gravel for storage of moisture.)

The Spanish government deeded out mercedes or land grants to family groups with the intended purpose of establishing new villages and communities in remote mountain areas. These lands were used for the pasturage of sheep, cattle and goats, and as a source for game, timber, clay, stone, medicinal herbs and firewood.

Camino Real

Many items were obtained arduously through the slow moving trade along the Camino Real, a commercial route that linked New Mexico to Mexico City, where products from Spain and other parts of the world including China and the Philippines could be obtained. However, Hispanic villagers, like the Native Americans, were dependent upon the natural environment for the majority of their material needs. Here they found the raw materials with which to fashion the majority of their functional items. The earth provided the basic building block of adobe from which dwellings, churches and other structures were made. It also supplied the clay from which kitchen utensils were made. The pastoral activity of sheep herding provided both meat and the wool essential for textile production. Furniture and the religious figures of saints or santos were made from locally obtained woods such as pine and cottonwood. Pigments and medicine came from the local vegetation.

American Occupation

Long before the occupation of New Mexico in 1846, people from the United States began to exert their influence on the culture and natural environment of the Río Grande via the Santa Fe-Missouri trails. The Santa Fe Trail, which opened in 1821 connecting Santa Fe with St. Louis, Missouri, was responsible for the introduction of new goods and technologies. To the east, the past slaughter of the great buffalo herds created a large market for cattle which the government brought to feed the defeated Indian tribes. In New Mexico and southern Colorado, cattle-raising gradually eclipsed the herding of sheep. Commercial aniline dyes replaced native plant dyes, and the introduction of large quantities of tin provided material for creating household items such as frames and sconces. Newly introduced saw mills produced milled lumber which facilitated the construction of new buildings and altered the design of windows, doors and interior furnishings, giving them a more finished look.

Twentieth Century New relationships between people and the environment were forged by Anglo American settlers. The Land Grant Act of 1851 reverted all property without appropriate deeds to the U.S. Government. As a result, many of the Hispanic people of this region lost their lands, as had the Native Americans before them. Huge estates that once belonged to the Hispanic people were converted to cattle raising, logging, mining and recreational operations. Similarly, many of the Hispanic people lost their generations-old water rights.

Towns along the Camino Real from Mexico City to Santa Fe.

New Mexico experienced changes similar to those occurring in other rural areas in the 20th century. The introduction of electricity, plumbing and paved roads; legislation subsidizing free public education; statehood in 1912, and, finally, the establishment of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratories in the early 1940s, all stimulated population growth and economic development. But these changes also put a great strain on traditional rural life styles, as they had all over the country.

Despite, or perhaps in reaction to the changes in population, industry and economy of the 20th century, many of the Hispanic folk traditions endure today. The Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration helped to stimulate production of traditional Hispanic arts and the civil rights movements of the early seventies, which included the Chicano (from the word Mexicano, or Mexican), made many people aware of the abiding value of their culture and way of life.

Young Hispanic man splitting piñon wood. Un joven hispano partiendo leña de piñon.

Others outside the Hispanic culture have also long appreciated the unique character of New Mexico. Early in the century both museums and private organizations took an active interest in collecting and preserving the State's Hispanic arts. This interest led to an expanded market for artists that continues to grow. Often, practitioners of a given folk art have chosen to continue in the occupation of their forefathers or to leave more lucrative careers in favor of something that is more culturally based. After losing population in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, many small Hispanic communities are being repopulated by younger generations who have chosen to return to their traditional way of life.

The Santa Fe Trail opened in 1821, from Franklin, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico.