2013 Speakers Program @ Special Collections

To follow up on our 2012 Centennial Speakers Program, the Special Collections Library has assembled a new series of presentations on historic Spanish neighborhoods for 2013. Presentations are scheduled on the second Saturday of the month in Botts Hall, 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

We are pleased to partner with Oasis-Albuquerque to bring these events to a wider audience.  We are also indebted to the Bureau of Reclamation, Upper Colorado Region, Albuquerque Area Office, for the tremendous maps and graphics. 

 The year-long series describes the settlers, history, culture, and identity of the original Spanish settlements from North to South along the Rio Grande and how those local identities differ from and complement our contemporary notion of “Albuquerque”. Each speaker will offer a brief history of the neighborhood, its geography, genealogy,land grants, and culture. Presenters are familiar with their specific neighborhoods, and some are descendants of Alburquerque founders.

Brian Luna Lucero, the Digital Repository Assistant at the Center for Digital Research and Scholarship at Columbia University, gave the first presentation on January 12th. While he was compiling oral histories, Luna Lucero noticed different ways people from the area now thought of as Albuquerque identified their hometown. His interested culminated in an article, "Old Towns Challenged by the Boom Town: The Villages of the Middle Rio Grande Valley and the Albuquerque Tricentennial,"[ New Mexico Historical Review 82, no.1 (Winter 2007): 37-69].

Luna Lucero’s thesis is that the New Town of Albuquerque that developed as a result of the railroad’s arrival in 1880 is not identical to the Villa de Alburquerque that was founded in 1706. The evidence he finds in baptismal records, census records, post office records, histories, and interviews makes a compelling argument that Albuquerque’s New Town boom initially had little impact on Alburquerque’s Old Town tradition, population, and economy or its linguistic and cultural identity. “Old Town” wasn’t annexed to “New Town” until 1949, arguably the birth of the political and geographic entity celebrated in the 2006 Tricentennial. 

 

Mary Davis continues the series at Special Collections on February 9^th with her presentation on Corrales. Future topics include: Ranchos de Alburquerque; Alburquerque 1540-1846; Barelas; and Los Padillas y Pajarito.  For a complete program listing, visit the schedule guide. A printable version of the schedule is included, as well as some fascinating maps.

You can find more items about Alburquerque in the library catalog. Special Collections also has vertical files about many Albuquerque neighborhoods, such as South Valley, Los Griegos, Martineztown, and Huning Highlands, for use within the library. Vertical files include miscellaneous clippings, photos, and brochures.