Atencio Land

The owner of the Arrow Motel was the estate of Mela Atencio. [1] José de Atienza Alcalá y Escobar along with his sons Juan de Atienza and José de Atienza Sevillano were recruited by Francisco Farfán in Mexico City in 1693 to move north with the Reconquest. [2] Juan was a weaver. [3]

Farfán’s group was assigned land along the Santa Cruz river by Diego de Vargas. At some time, descendants affiliated with Capilla de Santo Niño, [4] and claimed the last arable land to the west. Beyond, their holdings, the land dropped several feet to the flood plain of the Río Grande that was part of the Santa Clara grant.

Donna Roy said the family restaurant originally was located in a stable tack room. [5] The associated residence may have been the territorial farmhouse that stood between the old Long John Silver building and El Paragua.

After the house was torn down in 2015, its lot has been used for parking by the restaurant.

The border land became valuable after the road from Santa Fé to Taos was upgraded. The construction would have involved creating a grade from the bottom lands to drier uplands gentle enough for trucks of the period. The extension to the Arrow Motel was built along that grade.

On the other side of the road, the developers of the 78 Plaza Shopping Center built a retaining wall and filled the area from it to the Chimayó road to create a level lot. The picture below shows the land sloping both to the south and the west. The truck bed gives an idea of the high of the drop; the buttresses may have been added when the weight of the building put too much pressure on the soft foundation land.

I suspect the land just north of the Arrow Motel that was used by Larry’s Auto Sales once was part of the family holdings. Wild pink roses grew in front of the used car dealership and the motel. I’ve found the continuity of plants often signifies older land ownership patterns.

Larry Martinez’ land was level and graveled, with only a small office building. Such barrenness on a busy road usually means something has been torn down. By the front sidewalk he had a cemetery grave enclosure. I assume he either made them himself or represented the welder-craftsman who did. His business disappeared 2017 during the time the city was negotiating with Atencio’s estate to have the fire damaged laudromat building removed.

Photographs
1. Territorial farm house from south side facing road to Chimayó, 30 March 2014.
2. Territorial farm house from north side facing back of Long John Silver, 30 March 2014.
3. Wall seen in # 1, 19 August 2018.
4. Arrow Motel addition, 30 March 2014.
5. 76 Plaza retaining wall, 4 August 2018.
6. Cemetery grave enclosure, Larry’s Auto’s, 28 February 2016.

Notes
The Arrow Motel was discussed in the post for 3 October 2018. The fire damaged Speedway Laundromat was featured in the most for 30 September 2018.

1. Santa Fe County Assessor’s Office. Attachment to City of Espanola Resolution No. 2017-18.

2. Farfán, Francisco. "List of New Mexico Colonists, Mexico City," on or before July 1693. 245. In John L. Kessell, John L.Rick Hendricks, and Meredith Dodge. To the Royal Crown Restored: The Journals of Don Diego de Vargas, New Mexico, 1693-1694, 1995.

3. Kessell. 320.

4. Donna Roy. "In Española, a Restaurant and a Tradition Are Reborn." The Santa Fe New Mexican. 26 July 1992. 9.

5. Roy