Crossroads of Culture
    Camino Real Traces Route of Spanish Settlement

Just as the Rio Grande was the central corridor of Pueblo culture, it also provided a route northward for the first  Spanish explorers from New Spain (as Mexico was then called).  Coronado led an expedition into central New Mexico in 1540, searching for the fabled golden cities of Cibola.  Over the next 300  years, New Mexico became first a Spanish colony, then a Mexican colony – a period punctuated by the Pueblo revolt in 1680 and eventually ending in 1848 when  the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded much of the region to the United States.  Throughout those three centuries, the Camino Real (royal road), which generally paralleled the Rio Grande, was the vital link between Santa Fe in northern New Mexico and the Mexico City to the south.

Albuquerque, now New Mexico's largest  city, was founded in 1706 along the Camino Real.  Today, the original site of this small settlement can be visited in "Old Town," the plaza around the San Felipe de Neri Church.  Albuquerque's population grew to  over 1000 by the early 1800's and became an important stop on the Old Chihuahua Trail, the southern extension of Santa Fe Trail.  However, Santa Fe has remained the  capitol of New Mexico from its establishment in 1609 (more than ten years before the Pilgrims founded the Plymouth Colony).  Perhaps because of its romantic image  in the heyday of early American trade  along the Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe epitomizes the Hispanic culture in New Mexico for much of the world.

Top: The Rio Grande, looking north from Avenida Cesar Chavez in Albuquerque.
Bottom: San Felipe de Neri Church in Albuquerque's Old Town.

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