La Cañada - The Site

The first Spanish speaking settlement along the lower Santa Cruz river was known as La Cañada.

It probably evolved from encomiendas granted to men who either settled close to the natives they were supposed to be protecting or sent their agents to the area to collect tribute. Hernán Martín Serrano, the son of an encomendero, says he was living in La Cañada in 1632.

After the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, while the Spanish refugees were living in El Paso del Norte, Tano speakers from the Galisteo Basin had moved into the settlement, probably to escape attacks by nomadic tribes and to be closer to their kin at San Juan.

When Diego de Vargas agreed to lead the reconquest, he believed he needed more settlers than those who remained in El Paso and requested reinforcements. According to Angélico Cháves, one group of 67 families had been selected by the viceroy, assembled by Cristóbal de Velasco, and brought north by Francisco Farfán. The second group was “recruited in Zacatecas and the Mines of Sombrerete by Juan Páez Hurtado.”

Vargas arrived in Santa Fé with just the refugees to find so much destruction that housing was scarce. When Farfán arrived with his group, conditions were more congested. The arrival of the Zacatecans was imminent when he negotiated with the Tano speakers from San Lázaro and San Cristóbal to move west of the Río Grande, so he could place the overflow population in La Cañada.

On 21 March 1695, his lieutenant governor, Luis Pérez Granillo, and a sergeant related to Miguel Luján, Juan Ruiz Cáceres, inspected the site. To avoid the calamities of 1598, Granillo had been told to locate a place where:

“they may immediately be given a permanent settlement; lands to sow; grass, woods, water, and watering places; ejidos; pastures; and everything they need to raise every kind of cattle, sheep, and goats.”

Coming down from San Juan, they first came to the hacienda of Juan Luis, then the ruin requested by the Tano for relocation.

At the Luis boundary, they found the estancia of the Martínez, who Cháves has identified as Luis Martín Serrano, brother of the above Hernán.

They crossed the Río Grande and, in order, found the property of the following men along the south side of the cañada:

Miguel Luján - hacienda with “lands for agriculture and irrigation” and limited pastures, with a house.

Marcos de Herrera - “suerte and some agricultural fields.”

Nicolás de la Cruz - “lot and agricultural fields” with a house.

Melchor de Archuleta - land for one family, house in ruins.

Juan Griego - suerte large enough to support two families.

Sebastían González - hacienda that had had three tenants, including Alonso del Río

Francisco Javier - hacienda large enough for two families, the house in ruins and a small torreón.

Pedro de la Cruz - land and one-room house.

They then crossed an arroyo and returned back up the cañada where they found the lands of the following:

Bartolomé Montoya - hacienda with destroyed house.

Diego López - hacienda and torreón, but apparently no house.

Marcos de Herrera - hacienda, with the remains of a house destroyed by the arroyo.

Santa Clara Pueblo - suerte and convento.

Francisco Gómez - hacienda and house foundations.

Ambrosio Sáez - hacienda that could support two to three families with buildings in tact.

Augustín Romero - hacienda and fields.

In total he found land to support 20 families, and more than twice that were expected to arrive from Zacatecas. Some of the original owners no doubt would claim their lands, leaving space in the capital, but potential overcrowding would still exist in both Santa Fé and the soon to be decreed villa of Santa Cruz.

Notes: Cañada apparently referred to the sandy or dry second bottoms of a river, ejidos were common lands, a suerte was an irrigated field, a torreón was a small defense tower.

Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, revised 1992 edition.

Granillo, Luis. Report for 12 March 1695, included in Blood on the Boulders: The Journals of Don Diego De Vargas, New Mexico, 1694-97, volume 2, 1998, edited by John L. Kessell, Rick Hendricks, and Meredith D. Dodge.