Riverside is a former village, now a suburb of Espanola, in

Rio Arriba County Rio Arriba County is a county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 census, the population was 40,246. Its county seat is Tierra Amarilla. Its northern border is the Colorado state line. Rio Arriba County comprises the Española, N ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

, in the southwestern United States. It is located in north-central New Mexico, on the left bank (east side) of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

across the river from Española proper. It is on

NM Route 68 New Mexico State Road 68 (NM 68) is a state highway in northern New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States. NM 68 is known as the "River Road to Taos", as its route follows the Rio Grande. A parallel route to the east is NM 76, which is ca ...

just north of U.S. Route 285 and just south of the former village of Santa Niño. To the southeast is the former village of San Pedro.

History

As early as 800 A.D. the area was being intensively farmed by the

pueblo people The Puebloans or Pueblo peoples, are Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Currently 100 pueblos are actively inhabited, among which Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Zun ...

. In 1598 when Capitán General

Juan de Oñate Juan de Oñate y Salazar (; 1550–1626) was a Spanish conquistador from New Spain, explorer, and colonial governor of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in the viceroyalty of New Spain. He led early Spanish expeditions to the Great ...

arrived in northern New Mexico, the area was occupied by the

Tewa The Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo Native Americans who speak the Tewa language and share the Pueblo culture. Their homelands are on or near the Rio Grande in New Mexico north of Santa Fe. They comprise the following communities: * ...

Ohkay Owingeh Ohkay Owingeh ( Tewa: Ohkwee Ówîngeh ), known by its Spanish name as San Juan de los Caballeros from 1589 to 2005, is a pueblo and census-designated place (CDP) in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico. Ohkay Owingeh is also a federally recognized tribe ...

(San Juan Pueblo). The Riverside lands remained as irrigated farm lands while over the next 300 years ownership became intermingled between puebloans and others until The Pueblo Lands Act of 1924, when a decision of the Lands Board set, or identified, the present southern border of San Juan Pueblo just north of Santa Niño. In 1941, the Oñate Bridge was built across the Rio Grande connecting Española and Riverside, which afterwards was annexed by Española.

References

Villages in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico {{NewMexico-geo-stub