Efigenia Durán y Chávez

Information provided by Joseph H. Sanchez, 6th great grandson

Data gathered from New Mexico History sites.

Her grandfather Fernando Duran y Chavez ll was the founder of the Atrisco land grant.

In the 1760's Atrisco sheepherders ranged far to the west, setting up corrals and ranches much beyond the generous boundaries of the original land grant of 1692. Atrisquanos also availed themselves to the wood from the Bosque Grande on the Puerco River, about a league and a half from San Fernando. Such movements so disturbed the people of San Fernando that they finally drove the Atrisquanos out by force. Thereupon the powerful Sanchez and Duran y Chaves families joined in petitioning the governor for redress and official expansion of Atrisco's land holdings, the action brought principally through the instrumentality of Dona Efigenia Duran y Chaves de Sanchez and Jose de Mendoza her son in law. In 1768 the land grant was expanded by 25,958 acres further to the west and over the escarpment to the Rio Puerco in order to accommodate the increasing Atrisco population, now greater than 200.

Within the ranks of the De Vargas volunteer army was a native New Mexican, Don Fernando Duran y Chaves ll. In 1692 De Vargas awarded Don Fernando an 82,000 acre land grant on the land his father Don Pedro once lived on the north side of the Rio Grande. This land became known as the Atrisco Land Grant. Are Sanchez family left this area in the early 1800's to settle in Valencia, New Mexico.

Settlers in the Atrisco valley built their haciendas along the Rio Grande. The village was highly reliant upon the resources of the land for survival. The native grasses were critical for grazing sheep and cattle. Lands were cultivated and irrigated and used to grow corn, chilies, wheat, squash, alfalfa and beans. The land grant settlers relied on grazing sheep and other livestock for food and clothing.