The Atrisco Land Grant (merced) of 1692 is one among many Spanish land grants in New Mexico. It is in the Atrisco Valley (Valle de Atrisco) south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The grant was established during the New World expansion of the Spanish Empire, as part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Nueva España).
The Atrisco land was given to individuals who intended to found a settlement. Other grants were made to individuals, or to communal groups establishing settlements, or to Pueblo peoples for communal lands that they already occupied, such as the Pueblos of Sandia to the north of Atrisco, and Isleta to the south. Other nearby land grants included the Elena Gallegos to the east, created in 1694 for Diego Montoya, it has developed as northern Albuquerque. The Alameda was granted in 1710 to Francisco Montes Vigil to the north and extends west of the Rio Grande; the Carnuel was granted to the residents of Cañon de Carnué (Tijeras Canyon) to the east; and the Pajarito to people in the south. In the 18th century, the Crown granted land to genízaros, at the request of missionaries.
Many land grants were also made by Mexico following its independence from Spain in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. Many land grant claims were challenged after the United States took over the territory in 1846 and grantees in New Mexico eventually lost 98 percent of their land, mostly to Anglo speculators. Some achieved legal ownership of their land under US authority. In the late 20th century, heirs to grantees of the Atrisco Grant voted to set up a company to manage their land grants together as stockholders. It is one of the few areas of metropolitan Albuquerque that has the potential for development, as the city in other directions is limited by natural features.
History through 19th century
In 1598 under order of King Philip II of Spain, Don Juan de Oñate traveled northward on El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (based on a Native American trail used by various cultures from the earliest of times) fording the Rio Grande, or Río del Norte, at the present-day El Paso. He claimed all of the northern frontier beyond the river for colonization by Spain. By the early 1600s, Spanish agricultural units dotted the 27 miles of previously unsettled Rio Grande Valley between the Sandia and Isleta pueblos. In 1632 a Spanish settlement had developed at the site of present-day Old Town in Albuquerque. In 1706 the Villa de Albuquerque was established, to include a presidio (military garrison).
The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 resulted in the expulsion of Spanish settlers from the area south to El Paso. In 1688 Diego de Vargas was appointed Spanish Governor of the New Spain territory of Santa Fe de Nuevo México and arrived to assume his duties in 1691. With a converted Zia war captain, Bartolomé de Ojeda, one hundred Indian auxiliaries, sixty soldiers, seven cannons, and a Franciscan priest, he recaptured Santa Fe in 1692; he convinced the Native Americans to accept clemency and protection in exchange for sworn allegiance. He had taken 12 other towns in a similar manner and proclaimed a formal act of repossession to complete the "bloodless" Reconquest (Reconquista). Although two more major uprisings occurred, including the Second Pueblo Revolt attempt of 1696, the Spanish had regained control of their settlements.
Fernando Duran y Chaves II was one of the New Mexicans of the volunteer army in this successful campaign. In 1692 he was granted land in the Albuquerque area by de Vargas, on the condition that he personally settle it, as well as developing it with other settlers. The grant totaled 41,533 acres extending west of the Rio Grande, in the area where Fernando's father Don Pedro had lived prior to the Pueblo Revolt. Having met the conditions of the grant, Durán y Chaves gained formal possession of the land in 1703. In 1768, the land grant was expanded by 25,958 acres further west and over the escarpment to the Rio Puerco, in order to accommodate the increasing Atrisco population, now greater than 200.
Due to Apache and Navajo attacks, the settlers were limited in land they could use for grazing. The Atrisqueños were forced to stay near the Río Grande valley until the later nineteenth century. With the United States, defeat of the Navajo at Armijo Lake in 1864, the security of the expanded pasture lands was finally achieved.