Los Griegos continues to be a center of community

The culture and traditions in the North Valley are not only a nod to Albuquerque’s history, but the names of its streets and neighborhoods remind us of the first families to settle along the city’s Rio Grande corridor.

The area has long provided a lifeblood for settlers because of its proximity to water. Most of the communities there today did not spring from the mind of a developer, but came into existence organically. The narrow streets that are its major corridors and the mishmash of commercial establishments next to old and new homes alike are evidence of that.

One such neighborhood is the old, agricultural community of Los Griegos. Today Los Griegos is a mix of people who have lived there for generations and others who are new to the North Valley’s charms, but it remains steeped in culture and religion.

Only someone living under a heap of Albuquerque’s lava rock hasn’t encountered the name Griegos. In addition to the neighborhood association, there’s a street, an elementary school and an abundance of New Mexicans bearing the name Griegos.

But, what is a Griegos?

It’s the Spanish name for Greek, or in this context, a Greek man. A very specific Greek man named Juan Griego who came to New Mexico as a soldier in Juan de Oñate’s army in the late 1590s and served in the Villa de Santa Fe. As part of his roll call, he indicated he was from the Greek island of Candia, now known as Crete, and the son of Lazaro Griego. Given his origins, many believe Griego was most likely not his given name.

In the fall 2008 edition of La Herencia magazine, genealogical researcher and historian José Antonio Esquibel laid out Greigo’s history.

Many of the soldiers who came with Oñate eventually abandoned New Mexico, but Capt. Griego stayed with his wife Pascuala Bernal. It is their descendants who spread across New Mexico setting down roots. One of those places was the North Valley in 1706, which was part of the land granted to the Griego clan and would become modern-day Los Griegos.

Griego arrived in Mexico City prior to 1597 and was already married to Bernal, an Indian woman who had acclimated to Spanish society. According to Esquibel, she came from one of the tribes in the valley of Mexico that spoke Nahuatl. They had seven children: Juan Griego, Lázaro Griego, Francisco Bernal, Isabel Bernal, Catalina Bernal, María Bernal and Juana Bernal. As was custom back then, some of the children took their mother’s surname.

The Griego-Bernal clan grew to be one of the three most prominent families in 17th century New Mexico, according to Esquibel. But forces moved against them in an effort to dilute their social and economic power. The wife of Juan Griego II and his mother-in-law were accused of being hechiceras – women who bewitched people with potions and enchantments. They were implicated in the unexplained illness of several people and the mysterious death of at least one. Inquisitors investigated, collecting testimonies from numerous residents, but found little merit in the accusations. The women were never arrested and did not stand trial.

A Sunday, Aug. 26, 1894 article in the Chicago Tribune discussing various tribes in Mexico, mentions a tribe of “aristocratic Indians called ‘Los Griegos,’ the Greeks” living in a mountain village about a day’s ride from Mexico City. The article describes the majority of them as having a light complexion with blue eyes and light hair.

Many had pianos and other fine furnishing in their homes. However, they had no commercial or social connections with other Indian tribes, mostly keeping to themselves and marrying within their own tribe. They raised their own food, manufactured their own goods and had their own churches, schools and social institutions.

The article makes no mention of the New Mexico Griegos, but considering Juan Griego’s origins and the family’s continued ties to Mexico, it’s not completely implausible that these mountain Griegos could have also descended from his family line.

There aren’t many written records detailing the life of the North Valley Griegos during the 1700s, but the prolific establishment of newspapers in the 1800s offers more of a glimpse. It provides a peek into a clash of cultures between old settlers and the newer wave of mostly European immigrants who came to New Mexico in the late 1800s, via other parts of the United States, seeking opportunity.

Los Griegos was once home to Los Hermanos Penitentes, a secretive Catholic brotherhood centered around intense penance that can include self flagellation while its members reenact the events leading up to the crucifixion of Christ during Lent.

Newspapers sensationalized the Penitentes’ activities during the late 1800s, treating them as a spectacle. A March 25, 1883 The Las Vegas Gazette with the headline “Los Griegos Lunatics” discusses the Lenten ritual, calling it “atrocious religious tortures in progress five miles from Albuquerque.” It said 2000 “fanatic Mexicans” would submit to self-punishment to purify their souls of sins.

The men, according to the story, walked in a procession down the streets of Los Griegos. They carried wooden crosses weighing 250 pounds each while walking barefoot over cactus, enduring whippings and a spike occasionally “thrust into the flesh.”

A blurb in the Saturday April 24, 1886 Albuquerque Journal talked about a “large crowd” coming to witness the penitentes ritual in Los Griego, but had “returned to town disappointed” when the ceremonies did not take place.

The streets of Los Griegos no longer feature processions at Easter time of men bearing heavy crosses, but evidence of the community’s long history remains, including centuries-old buildings, acequias and street names bearing the names of its first settlers.

The federal government designated Los Griegos a National Historic District in 1984. The neighborhood spans from Griegos Road south to Candelaria Boulevard and is bordered on the east by 12th Street. It spans west almost to Rio Grande Boulevard. The nomination packet describes the area and its history.

The census of 1790 listed 109 residents in Los Griegos hailing from 25 households. Of those six men were farmers, one was a day laborer and nine processed wool. It had two tailors and one shoemaker.

“Since Los Griegos was a small Spanish subsistence farming community, it was not required to have a plaza,” the nomination packet said. “Rather, it took a linear form, stretching along the road between the river and the main irrigation ditch. Farmland stretched north and south from the houses to contra (private ditches) … Even with recent infill and modern subdivision of property, this traditional settlement pattern is still evident in Los Griegos.”

Editor’s Note: The Journal continues “What’s in a Name?,” a once a month column in which Elaine Briseño will give a short history of how places in New Mexico got their names.

Curious about how a town, street or building got its name? Email columnist Elaine Briseño at ebriseno@abqjournal.com as she continues the monthly journey in “What’s in a Name?”