A Brief History of Corrales

Mary Davis

For centuries before the Spanish settled permanently in New Mexico in the late 1600s, Corrales was home to several Indian pueblos. These pueblos were abandoned well before the Spanish settled in this area. The Alameda Land Grant (which included present day Corrales) was given in 1710 to Francisco Montes Vigil, a soldier in the Spanish army. Vigil was unable to settle on his grant as required by Spanish law, so sold it in 1712 to Captain Juan Gonzales Bas who was then living in Bernalillo. Fray Francisco A. Dominguez in his 1776 report on the missions of New Mexico stated that Corrales was divided into Lower and Upper Corrales: Lower Corrales, a farming village, was located "above Atrisco to the north" and Upper Corrales, site of the present center of Corrales, is described as opposite the mission of Sandia, on "not very good lands." Existence was precarious, but the hardy population multiplied and the land was divided among the descendants of Juan Gonzales and his relatives into long, narrow strips, stretching from the river to the sandhills. The more fertile and irrigable land in the river bottom was used for raising chile, corn, beans, fruits and vegetables, while the sandhills were used in common for the pasturing of sheep, cattle and horses.

Little is recorded of Corrales during the first 150 years of its existence since it was not on the major trade routes along the river from Santa Fe; even by 1870 the census records only 141 households with 687 residents. Nearly all were farmers, ranchers or laborers. For generations, the bell of the little adobe church of San Ysidro had called people to mass throughout the week and neighbors had gathered to help each other and to enjoy themselves at the annual fiesta de San Ysidro in May. European immigrants, mainly from France and Italy, settled in the Village after 1879; many grew grapes and Corrales became known for its vineyards. By the late 1930s most of the vineyards were gone, replaced by acres of orchards.

After World War II, Corrales began to attract a share of Albuquerque's population boom. Many of the newcomers were artists attracted by the village's slower pace, old adobes, and verdant landscape. The newcomers were active in creating a volunteer fire department and a municipal library and joined with some of the long time residents to incorporate the Village in 1971. Corrales has grown three fold in the last 30 years and residents continue to work and plan to retain the assets of the village's long history and balance these with the demands of rapid growth.