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Sunday, September 19, 1999
Santa Fe: Spanning 400 Years
By Miguel Navrot
Journal Northern Bureau
Santa Fe was founded by 1610, 11 years after Spanish conquistador Don Juan de Oñate traveled from Compostela, Mexico, with 200 colonists, their wives and families, nine Franciscan priests, several hundred servants and thousands of head of stock.
The caravan had moved along the Rio Grande and stopped at Ohkay Owingeh, an Indian village near the confluence of the Rio Grande and the Rio Chama. The caravan renamed the village San Juan de Los Caballeros.
Months later, the Spanish moved to the west bank of the Rio Grande at the village of Yunque, which they renamed San Gabriel. The new settlement also served as the capital of New Mexico until Santa Fe was established.
In 1680, many Pueblo Indians had planned to revolt against the rule of the Spanish, who had established Catholicism. On Aug. 15 of that year, thousands of warriors converged on Santa Fe and cut off the water supply. The food supply also dwindled, and more than 400 colonists and 21 Franciscans were killed before the Spanish departed.
Spanish colonists returned 12 years later, this time under Gov. Diego de Vargas Zapata Luján Ponce de Leon. On Sept. 14, 1692, de Vargas retook Santa Fe in what is known today as the Bloodless Reconquest.
Santa Fe continued to grow, despite tribal raids on nearby pueblos and meager support from Spain.
The Spanish Empire lost its footing in North America after about 300 years when Mexico won independence in 1821. Mexico counted New Mexico as part of its republic, and liberalization of area trade laws ensued. Traders from the United States took advantage of that via the Santa Fe Trail.
The city was marked by the clashing cultures from Americans and isolation from the young Mexican government.
Mexico unsuccessfully tried to regain control of Santa Fe in 1836, when Albino Pérez was sent to assume governorship. Considered an outsider by the natives, Pérez's reign ended the following year when rebels captured and beheaded him. The rebellion later failed.
Bloodshed continued a few years later when the United States declared war with Mexico. U.S. Gen. Stephen Watts Kearney marched into Santa Fe in September 1846 and took the city. He appointed Charles Bent as territorial governor.
But Bent's term in office also met a violent end in 1847 when rebels unhappy with the United States' takeover killed him in Taos. U.S. soldiers eventually broke the insurrection.
The war with Mexico ended the following year with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
War returned to the New Mexico Territory in the 1860s. The Confederacy of the South set its sights on Santa Fe for the city's commerce and a route to the gold fields of Colorado and California.
In March 1862, Confederate soldiers from Texas advanced north to the capital with Union forces in pursuit. Gov. Henry Connelly and Fort Marcy soldiers, expecting an attack, evacuated Santa Fe for Las Vegas, N.M.
The Confederates eventually reached Santa Fe, and three weeks later suffered heavy losses at nearby Glorieta. Union troops, Colorado volunteers and New Mexico militia combined to fight the Confederates, who soon retreated to Texas after a raiding party destroyed their supply train.
Statehood came in 1912. The early decades of this century, even during the Depression, saw artists come to the Santa Fe area.
The city continued to grow, reaching about 20,000 by 1940. Newcomers poured in. Hippies came in the 1960s and '70s, and tourists followed in the '80s.
Santa Fe's lifestyle and old culture received national attention in several publications during the 1980s. The city's slower pace and pleasant climate attracted the well-heeled seeking a calm, easy life.
Many came and some stayed, bringing outside money and driving up the cost of living. Families with roots established in Santa Fe for centuries found themselves unable to afford the rising property taxes, driven up through a hot housing market.
Some newcomers also sought to preserve Santa Fe's history and culture -- despite changing the face of the city's citizenry. Anglos now outnumber Hispanos.
Today as the city readies to mark the turn of another century, it eyes another milestone in about a decade, its 400th anniversary. The wars have ended, government operates unabated, art is everywhere and newcomers continue to discover Santa Fe.
2000