Thursday night, many of us Abiqueños and neighbors met at the Rural Events Center to hear a presentation by W. Azul La Luz, the newly arrived director of Tres Semillas Foundation, formerly Bienvenidos or Gateway to Abiquiú.
It is not clear what might sprout from these three seeds, but the reason for the discord at the meeting is evident. Tres Semillas is a planned development on twelve acres nestled at the foot of Abiquiú Pueblo on land formerly part of the Merced de Abiquiú, the only genizaro land grant in New Mexico. This project did not arise in response to community demand for the proposed list of businesses and services that might be built (laundromat, art gallery and art center, restaurant, hardware store, title company, day care center run by a still-to-be-formed women’s cooperative, the relocation of Las Clinicas del Norte from across the highway, public park and arbor).
Helen Hunt and others bought the disputed land two years ago, then initiated meetings as Bienvenidos to figure out what the community might want to be built there. Building nothing was not an option in the plans.
If you lived on the Abiquiú mesa top, you and your ancestors would have enjoyed about 250 years of spectacular views and the rhythm of a quiet community life, your fields and gardens encircled by the dwellings. Today, you can walk over to Santo Tomas Church or cross the Abiquiú plaza to visit Pueblo de Abiquiú Library. Tourists often stop there, eager to find the house of painter Georgia O’Keeffe, then ask, “Where’s the town?”
“It’s here,” we reply. The subtlety of the settlement is the reason, of course, for O’Keeffe’s long residence. So how will it feel to live perched above the bustling Tres Semillas development? Will there be night lights in the parking lot blotting out the starry night; car fumes and heat rising from the asphalt; the voices of shoppers or the occasional ambulance siren drifting among the adobe houses lining the plaza?
Toward the end of the meeting, Abiqueña and Library director Isabel Trujillo asked a question. “Georgia O’Keeffe was a philanthropist in the village. We have been wondering, is Helen Hunt a philanthropist or an entrepreneur?”
Sabra Moore
Board President
Pueblo de Abiquiu Library