About a year ago we moved to Placitas, New Mexico. We had been in Austin, TX for decades but since I retired we began looking for a more suitable place. I would say we outgrew Austin but the truth is Austin outgrew us. Austin is a big city now. Gone is the funky little college town that charmed me so much in the 1980s.
We ended up here more by elimination than anything. We wanted someplace not too hot but not too cold. Inexpensive, since we were now retirees. Something interesting and, I’ll say “progressive”.
We have always liked this part of the world. We came here on our honeymoon and have been back several times. We even have a few friends in Santa Fe. So it all just sort of fell into place.
It took a while to sell the house in Austin and we figured we would buy the best house we could find after the sale, not wanting to move into a temporary place. We expected to be in Albuquerque but we did like Placitas. As fate would have it, the perfect house (for us) turned up right as we were starting our search. So here we are.
Placitas: Placitas seems to translate more or less to “the place”. It is between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, right on the I-25, closer to Albuquerque. It is also surrounded by Pueblos. More on that later.
Placitas seems to go back to a land grant by the Spanish. It is up against the Sandia Mountains to the east and the interstate to the west. I suspect the Western boundary is really the old rail line that goes from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. What is interesting is that this land does not come close to the Rio Grande River.
Placitas does not have a mayor or any elected government that I can find. It does have a library, fire stations and an elementary school, all attached to the county. Placitas seems to be run by the descendants of the original land grant familys, but I have not been able to turn up that information. Placitas seems to have been sparsely settled by Europeans on and off until the 1800s when a more permanent settlements were built. Placitas has a bit of a checkered past, involving numerous skirmishes with the native inhabitants. More recently it was home to hippie communes and illegal dope farms.
Today the eastern side in the foothills of the Sandias is a mix of older and newer places with a definite rural vibe. To the west, near the highway, are newer developments more reminiscent of Santa Fe. That is were we bought a house.
Bernalillo: across the highway is Bernalillo, a small farm community. Because it is really the only stop on the highway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, the part of Bernalillo near the highway is filled with gas stations and fast food places. But it isn’t really part of the town. That is south a few blocks on the old Route 66 and has all the usual small town churches, government offices, a feed store and even a bar and a very good diner. It could be any small town in New Mexico, or I suppose America.
Rio Rancho: Rio Rancho is the sprawling suburb to the west of Albuquerque that wraps around to touch Bernalillo. Its history is a huge land scam in the middle of the last century. I’m told it was the inspiration for the play Glengarry Glenn Ross by David Mamet. Roads can be seen deep into the desert with no houses or other buildings. Seems people still own this land, in small lots with no utilities, or really much of anything. It’s all just desert.
But the part of Rio Rancho near Albuquerque has all the usual big box stores and chain restaurants that make it look like any other American post-WW II suburb. We shop in Rio Rancho regularly.
The Pueblos: This part of the world has been continuously inhabited for thousands of years, and essentially by the same people. I find this fascinating, that in America several communities still exist that date back long before America, or even Europe for that matter.
They are generally referred to as “Pueblos” and not “reservations” although the formal government term seems to be “reservation”. The Rez. Except unlike other reservations, the people were not moved here from other places. They have always been here.
I’m told about a quarter of New Mexico is pueblo land. Nearly all of it arid and sparsely populated. I suspect that is why the original natives were able to hang on. There just isn’t so much to exploit here and the land can only support so many people.
In the general area of Albuquerque and Santa Fe there are 19 pueblos. They all have Spanish names and native language names. From my front door I can see the Santa Ana Pueblo, north of Bernalillo, which is called Tamaya by the people who live there. I can also see the San Felipe Pueblo, north of Placitas. It is also known by the people who live there as Katishtya, but I only recently heard that name. To the south there is Sandia Pueblo which borders Albuquerque and has a large casino.
There is a long and rich history of the Pueblos along the Rio Grande. The current situation leaves us here in Placitas (and I suppose Bernalillo) living in a sort of island surrounded by pueblo land.
Pueblo Languages: I was fascinated to learn that not only do all of these pueblos speak different languages, but that these languages go back thousands of years and are not connected to other modern languages. There aren’t many people left who speak these languages. The Keres language spoken by people in this area has only a few thousand remaining speakers. But I have heard it spoken and met people who are native Keres speakers. I’m not a linguist but it was interesting to read the somewhat technical description of Keres. Ideas are communicated in ways significantly different from English or other so-called Indo-European languages.
The Rio Grande: The thing that has made all of this possible is the Rio Grande River. Since most of the land between Santa Fe and Albuquerque is pueblo, the areas along the river are completely undeveloped. There are trails and open space and you can easily walk up to the river. Normally you would expect agriculture to be along such a river, but there seems to be almost no direct access to the Rio Grande by farms. Instead a series of canals, often running parallel to the river, provide all water for settlements. These canals are called acequias.
Acequias go back over 3,000 years in this region, but they were significantly enhanced by the Spanish using techniques borrowed from north Africa.
Water in the desert is a potential source of conflict, especially a river such as the Rio Grande serving tens of thousands of people across hundreds of miles. While there are laws and committees, the control is usually local with a person declared the “mayordomo” mostly in control. It’s a system that is still more or less in place and has worked for centuries.
Coronado and the Spanish: The Coronado Historic Site is just across the river from here. I can see it from my front door. It is perhaps ill-named for Coronado, the Spanish explorer who arrived here in around 1540 looking for gold. He arrived with a large, ill-equipped group that made such a nuisance of themselves that it led to the first hostilities between Europeans and native Americans in the New World. It became known as the Tiguex War. After large losses on both sides, Coronado headed for what is now the US Midwest. The local Tiwa returned to their settlements where they did not hear from the Spanish for another half a century.
In the early 1600s the Spanish returned, but in smaller numbers. As the number of Spanish arriving increased, so did conflicts. The Spanish were notably brutal leading to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. At the time there were 46 pueblo towns. All but four cooperated in the Pueblo Revolt. Because the Pueblos had different languages and could not generally understand each other, Spanish was used as the language to plan the revolt.
The revolt resulted in large losses on both sides, but the Spanish were again sent packing. When the Spanish returned again in 1692 it was with a peace accord that left the Pueblos generally alone. For this reason the Pueblos or “reservations” here aren’t places where native tribes were relocated, as in much of the rest of the United States. This is the original land still inhabited by the same people continuously for thousands of years.
The Spanish would continue to exert influence, often via the Catholic Church, but the Pueblos would be transferred (if that is the correct word) to the United States as territories in 1848, after various hostilities imcolving Spain, Mexico and The Republic of Texas and the expanding United States. The Wiki page of the History of New Mexico gives lots of details on this part of history. What is perhaps most shocking is the decrease in population of the native peoples after 1600 when the Spanish first arrived.
The Future: today the Pueblos look like small farming communities, often with a casino attached. The Sandia Casino on the north side of Albuquerque is large and has an attached hotel and golf resort. Santa Ana north of Bernalillo has a smaller casino, but still a hotel and golf course. The Black Mesa Casino about ten miles up the I-25 is basically a truck stop, but I’m told it has an excellent diner. There is Isleta south of Albuquerque and the pattern is the same across the remaining pueblos as best I can tell.
There seems to be a sort of prosperity to these communities, at least relatively, and at least for now. There are small new residential developments on pueblo land and even a very nice community center near here. There also seems to be commercial development, but it appears the tribes buy adjacent land and build retail there. The one exception is a Tesla store near the Santa Ana casino up the road. It seems it was a deal to help sidestep some auto dealership laws in New Mexico.
Things seem to change slowly here. We laugh at the 80s restaurant chains that you can still find here. If you like Fuddruckers, for instance, there are several here. Also lots of local restaurants and small chains. There is no booming tech scene like Austin, but there is a large Intel packaging plant in Rio Ranch that has survived the recent cuts at that company.
Two major government labs, Sandia Labs and Los Alamos Labs are both near here and related to the nuclear bomb development during WW II, but it has led to surprisingly little in the way of a technology scene. I suppose the news here is that there isn’t much news here.
New Mexico is a large state, fifth largest in the United States. But it has only a bit over 2 million residents, making it number 35 in population. It was settled by Europeans in the mid-1600s, about the same time as the East Coast was being settled by other European immigrants. Given the lack of water and the climate, it’s not likely New Mexico will see a boom like neighboring Texas, Arizona or even Colorado.
But you never know. The push toward renewable energy may make New Mexico a future energy producer the way, I suppose, Texas was in the oil and gas era. I’m told Arizona already buys lots of wind generated electricity from the state. There is also a good bit of solar. Wind and sun aren’t lacking here. It will be interesting to see what this all means for New Mexico.
Steven A. Guccione 