National Register Listing

Holy Child Church

Off I-40, Tijeras, NM

The building known as Holy Child Church, an excellent example of a New Mexico Hispanic village chapel, has served the small mountain community of Tijeras intermittently for over sixty years. Until recent times the isolation of most early New Mexico settlements, the difficulties of travel and the importance of Roman Catholic ceremonies in Spanish culture, made the church the traditional center of community activities. Today the original chain of hamlets along the cañon extending from Primera Agua on the east to Carnué on the west have become satellites of the Albuquerque metropolitan area and have almost lost their identity. Although a few houses and barns constructed in traditional styles remain, the church with its greater importance is now recognized by the present descendants of the original residents as having added significance in recalling the area's Hispanic heritage.


Archeological evidence demonstrates that Tijeras Cañon was utilized by pre-historic Indians as early as 8,000 to 9,000 years ago and that permanent occupation by Pueblo Indian peoples, took place between 1000-1100 AD and was maintained until about 1450. During the 17th and 18th centuries the cañon was frequently used as a campground. by marauding bands of Apaches making their way into the Rio Grande Valley to raid the Pueblos and, later, Spanish settlements located there. Shortly before his death in 1704 General Diego de Vargas, Governor of New Mexico, gathered a punitive force at Bernalillo which attempted to recover livestock stolen by Apaches from Spaniards Fernando Durán y Cháves and Miquel Garcia. The expedition marched south 4 leagues (about 12 miles) where a company of Pueblo Indian scouts was sent forth to reconnoiter "the watering place of Carnué" where, after a brief skirmish, the Apaches retreated from the area leaving the stolen stock, most of which had been killed.

The first attempt at permanent Spanish settlement in the region was made February 6, 1763 when New Mexico Governor Tomás véles Cachupin authorized a land grant of four square leagues in the cañon to a group of 19 landless settlers. Designated as San Miguel de Laredo but commonly known as San Miguel de Carnué, the new community was laid out in the traditional Spanish defensive plan with the house lots clustered around a central plaza. Unrelenting Apache pressure forced the abandonment of this early settlement, however, and in 1771 Governor Pedro Fermín de Mendinueta annulled the original grant and ordered that all structures "be leveled to the ground." Three years later a request for a regrant in the cañon was rejected by Mendinueta because of the continuing Apache danger.

Almost 45 years passed before changing conditions led to a new attempt to colonize the Carnué area. In October, 1818 Governor Facundo Melgares was petitioned by a number of Albuquerque residents for a new grant to the same area and, although no immediate action was taken on this request, on January 23, 1819 a group of 27 petitioners led by Juan Ignacio Ta foya were awarded the grant. This time two settlements were made because of the large number of applicants, one on the original site of San Miguel de Carnué and a second several miles northeast at the present village of San Antonio. After placing the settlers in possession, the alcalde mayor of Albuquerque, Josef Mariano de la Peña, described the boundaries of the entire grant including both plazas as extending "from the entrance of the Cañon de San Miguel de Carnué to La Tijera, the width of the Cañon from west to east...," the first official mention of "La Tijera" as a place name. Although licenses for chapels in both plazas were issued by the Bishop of Durango in 1823, no church buildings were erected at either location until the 1830s.

Exactly when the present village of Tijeras became a separate community is not clear but soon after U.S. occupation of New Mexico in 1846 a place named "Tegera" appeared on the first map of the area made by Lieutenants J.w. Abert and w. G. Peck, U.S. Topographical Engineers, on orders from Brigadier General Stephen Watts Kearny, commander of U.S. forces in New Mexico. During the first years after the U.S. takover, the trail through Tijeras Cañon was sometimes used by California-bound "49ers," crossing New Mexico from eastern points via Santa Fe and the San Pedro placer mines headed for the Rio Grande and a junction with the well-known route across southern New Mexico and Arizona. The cañon was also used by military parties traveling from Albuquerque to southeastern New Mexico garrisons such as Fort Stanton. In testimony given in 1885 before the Surveyor General regarding land titles at Tijeras, Henry Carpenter, one of the first Anglos to establish himself in the area, stated that in the 1850s the village had a population of 100 families.

During the Civil War the cañon, still referred to in official dispatches as "Cañon de Carnué," was the scene of considerable marching and countermarching in the spring of 1862 by units of both armies. Following the Confederate victory at Valverde on February 20-21 in the Rio Grande Valley, a Southern contingent under Lt. Col. W. R. Scurry passed through the cañon proceeding towards the Galisteo Basin while another column marched north from Albuquerque to capture Santa Fe. On March 26-28 the combined forces were defeated by Union troops at Glorieta Pass east of the capital forcing the Confederate withdrawal from New Mexico. Meanwhile Union troops under Col. Edward R. S. Canby, contained at Fort Craig since the Valverde battle, moved north to Albuquerque but avoided a confrontation with retreat ing Southern forces by withdrawing eastward into the cañon under the cover of darkness. There Canby was reinforced by both regulars and Colorado volunteers who were marching south. The united army then bombarded the Confederates at Peralta and continued to harass the retreating column as it moved down the Rio Grande towards El Paso.

Although Roman Catholic services were held at chapels in the cañon settlements such as San Miguel de Carnué, San Antonio and San Antonito beginning in the 1830s and continuing through the rest of the 19th century, it was not until the early 1900s that the church acquired property at Tijeras. In February, 1906 Rev. Camilo M. Capilupi, S. J. purchased a 4-acre tract from Juan Gutierrez and his wife Juanita Samora de Gutierrez for $340.00. Capilupi in turn immediately sold most of the land to Mrs. Jessie Keleher of Albuquerque, retaining only that portion containing a four-room adobe house, a stable and corral which was probably used by priests traveling from Albuquerque to conduct services at cañon villages.

Six years later Mrs. Keleher deeded her part to A. M. Mandelari, S.J., pastor of the Immaculate Conception Church in Albuquerque, and on this site the Tijeras Holy Child Church was erected.

In April, 1930 title to the property reverted to Mrs. Keleher by means of a quitclaim deed from the Most Reverend A. T. Daeger, O.F.M., Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, although the reasons for discontinuing use of the building are unclear. The transaction was unknown to the villagers, however, who refurbished the empty church building circa 1935. Five years later Tomas Gonzales was elected mayordomo by the Tijeras church members and it was under his direction that the present sanctuary and sacristy were added. It was not until 1963 that the property was returned to the archdiocese by Margaret Keleher, a daughter of Mrs. Jessie Keleher. The building is now owned by the New Mexico State Highway Department but due to the concern of the residents to preserve it, highway officials have expressed a willingness to lease it to the village of Tijeras for $1.00 a year.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1978.