Albuquerque: History of Foodways

Pueblo communities first farmed in the Rio Grande Valley, growing the corn, beans, and squash that formed the basis of Native Americans’ diet. By the 1500s, Spaniards established their earliest settlements near Santa Fe. In 1706, the Villa de Albuquerque was founded by Spanish settlers as a colonial farming settlement in the Rio Grande Valley. During the 1700s, Albuquerque’s Spanish families settled around the central plaza, now the heart of Albuquerque’s tourist center. Each household owned farming land adjacent to irrigation ditches, where families grew vegetable crops, including corn, beans, melons, and grapes.