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Friendly Brief History of Corrales
For centuries before the Spanish settled permanently
in New Mexic 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.
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