Salinas Valley – Off Center & Not Even

Quarai is about 10 miles straight north of Abó, and about 20 miles from Abó by taking Hwy 60 east to Mountainair, and then Hwy 55 north to Quarai. Quarai was a thriving village when the Spanish arrived at the end of the 16th Century, and was the seat of the New Mexico Inquisition during the 1600’s. Records show that the Inquisitioners in New Mexico at that time were fair and compassionate, and used the sophisticated Spanish legal system to protect the Indian’s civil and property rights.

Like Abó, the church at Quarai was oriented on a north/south axis and there is a Kiva on the east side of the church. Unlike Abó, the Kiva is square. The design of the church at Quarai has a traditional layout, but still had a flat roof. Its ruins look very much like a castle standing on the east side of the church, looking toward the west. The last photo is of a sketch on the site that depicts what the Pueblo would have looked like in the 17th Century.

The Spanish came into the Salinas Valley to the east of the Rio Grande Valley in what is now central New Mexico in 1581. The Franciscans began Christianizing the residents of Abó in 1622 and built their first church in the last half of the 1620’s. The remains of the second church built at Abó (pictured) have a sophisticated buttressing to stabilize the high walls that was very unusual for architecture in this area in the 1600’s. Abó was abandoned between 1672 and 1678 after a series of disasters struck the Salinas Valley.

A couple notable features about these ruins are 1) the church is oriented north and south instead of the east/west orientation commonly found in old and new Catholic churches in New Mexico. 2) There is a kiva on the east side of the church. Kivas are used by the Pueblo Indians for rituals and spiritual ceremonies generally associated with the Kachina belief. While the Spanish christianized the residents, they also let them practice their own rituals and spiritual ceremonies.