Cultural Lifeways

Albuquerque's South Valley is a thriving community shaped by deep history and cultural traditions, with families who have lived there for at least five generations or more. The rural South Valley has long been a historical, commercial, and cultural crossroads along the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, a main trade route between Mexico and New Mexico. Past residents experienced an abundant commercial way of life, especially through the sheepherding industry, and community members valued foods grown with the help of the acequias and prepared by themselves. Agriculture continues in a different manner, with flower and vegetable gardens and small amounts of livestock as household staples, while some still grow crops for family consumption and some produce enough to sell locally. Commerce evolved from wagons full of goods traded along the Camino Real to stores where people shopped and gathered to visit. Children played hopscotch, baseball, football, jump-rope, and played in the acequias and the rio, moving safely about the community. Families continue to prepare and enjoy traditional foods such as rice pudding, chile, enchiladas, posole, frijoles, tamales, and other traditional Indo-Hispano foods. Many homes in the South Valley still display grottos and capillas to continue a belief system connected to the antepasados and to thank the Creator, reflecting religious and spiritual beliefs and sustaining this traditional way of life.

South Valley, New Mexico · United States