South Valley

As much as I complain about NM and Albuquerque, I was reminded last night that I do like the area I live in, the South Valley.

Most people in Albuquerque don't like the South Valley. It had a past reputation of being a rough part of town. That was some time ago, though. Now, It has a rather low crime rate. At least equal to the rest of the city and lower than some other areas.

The thing I like most about it is the contrasts you can see here. Some neighborhoods are all upper class or all poor. All developed or all rural. Here, you see an amazing mixture. A nearly condemned shack may sit next to a near mansion. Next to that may be a horse ranch or a farm. A house that doesn't look like much outside may have a true Spanish courtyard. (True Spanish courtyard, considering the local history.) 

All over the South Valley are irrigation aqueducts. The roads pass over or next to them. These are over 300 years old, built under Spanish rule. They still function and provide irrigation water to many farms and ranches during spring through autumn. 

There is a lot of history, mostly forgotten, going back decades, generations, centuries, maybe millennia.  The Isleta tribe has lived here for many centuries. Most of the area became agricultural or ranch land under the Spanish and some plots still serve in the same capacity today. Roads curve through neighborhoods following the old routes which once marked property lines of large ranches and farms. Isleta Blvd behind my house was the original Route 66 before it was changed to Central Ave. there are still a few old businesses which were built at that time, including the battery shop across Isleta from my back yard. The dance studio adjacent to my back yard was once a church dating back at least as far as the 1930's and I suspect there may have been an older church which stood there before that time. Sadly, local history was not well documented between the time of Spanish rule and incorporation into the US and even for a long time after that. Most history was passed in oral tradition and then forgotten along the way. Maybe because of superstition, cameras have had sparse use until maybe the last 30 years, at best. 

Many old roads have names which display their history. Names of original ranches and properties. Isleta goes to the Isleta reservation. Rio Bravo means brave river and was a river crossing for the Spanish trade route, Camino Real. Bridge was one of or the first bridge across the Rio Grande in the city. I have tried to find out where Tower got the name but have not as yet. Gun Club did once lead to the Albuquerque Gun Club. My own street, Aaron Ct I don't know about. That's much like the street I grew up on in San Antonio, Tx, named Jim street. Nobody knew where the name came from, it had just always had that name. In each case, one can imagine one person of that name owning the only standing structure to have stood on that land in some distant past. In each case, I am suspicious that I have lived in the residence of the namesake. Each house has shown signs, though renovated, of being the oldest structure in the area. I don't consider that a bad thing. Just a stronger history.