LEONORA CURTIN WETLAND PRESERVE
SUNDRY PIECES OF HISTORY - PART 1
Bill Baxter

In the land of little rain, the place with water is the focus of life. A wetland, or ciénega in Spanish, is a place where water oozes to the surface, gathering as a growing trickle to nourish a profusion of plants and animals and which in turn attracts people. This is the essence of the Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve on the eastern bank of Arroyo Guicú (Tano for above, beyond).

Before there was history there were people, both ancestors and adversaries of the Puebloans. Though we can only guess at their stories, the land is thick with their footprints.

In not so ancient times this wet and rich ciénega, the name by which the area is generally known today, was the borderland between two of the great Pueblo peoples, the Keresans to the south and west, and the Tanoans to the north and east. The pueblo of La Ciénega [LA 3], Tziguma in the Tano language (meaning Alamo Solo), was identified by the Spanish in 1581 as the home of the “Keres de las Ciénega.” It ceased to be occupied after the Revolt of 1680. A dozen years later, Vargas led the Spanish back and repopulated the abandoned Pueblo of Cieneguilla [LA 16] with Tanoans.

The Europeans had come to stay. Their lifeline and connection to the support and supplies of Chihuahua and Mexico, el Camino Real, passes a short distance to the west of the LCWP. It was only natural that colonists, so often in transit through this well-watered arroyo, would establish a ranchito, a hacienda, and a paraje. (A paraje was a way station for travelers on el Camino.) Las Golondrinas (the Swallows), five leagues or five hours on foot from Santa Fe, was well situated as the very first station, or the very last, of a very very long journey. The bluff of black rock next to las Golondrinas, called Peñasco Blanco, was so named because of the markings from its nesting swallows.

In time there came to be a number of Spanish land grants in the area.

A short distance south of the LCWP the Márquez Hacienda [LA 20000], a paraje of La Ciénega built prior to 1630 and abandoned with the 1680 Revolt, was the site of a great and little known early Spanish New Mexican saga. It centered on the comely wife of young and rising Gerónimo Carvajal , who later became alcalde mayor of all Tano Pueblos, including La Ciénega.

Margarita Márquez de Carvajal, daughter of Diego Márquez (of the hacienda) and wife of Gerónimo, was also the mistress of Governor Juan Manso de Contreras, and bore him at least two children. In 1656 Governor Manso contrived first a fake baptism and then later a mock funeral, performed at La Ciénega by Fray Miguel Sacristan of Analco (Santa Fe), so his illegitimate son could be spirited to Mexico to be raised as Manso. The Inquisition ultimately discovered the sacrilege, which led to Fray Miguel’s suicide, and more.

Diego Márquez (Margarita’s father) was executed in 1643 for his part in the murder of Governor Rosas. One of his sons-on-the-side, Alonso Catití of Santo Domingo, became one of the greatest Pueblo leaders in the 1680 Revolt.

Visit www.santafebotanicalgarden.org to learn more about how Santa Fe Botanical Garden celebrates, cultivates and preserves the rich botanical heritage and biodiversity of the region.