Luis Lopez is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

in Socorro County,

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, United States. It lies between Socorro and

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

along the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

History

In 1667, Captain Luis López was '' alcalde mayor'' (mayor) of the

Piro Pueblo The Piro people are a Native American people in New Mexico. Today most of them live in Tortugas Pueblo or in the vicinity of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo in Texas. The Piro tribe were a group of Pueblo peoples who lived in New Mexico during the 16th ...

Senecú The Piro pueblo of Senecú was the southernmost occupied pueblo in New Mexico prior to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. It was located on the west bank of the Rio Grande within sight of the Piro pueblo of San Pasqual. Colonial Spanish documents consis ...

. It appears that he had a hacienda on the east bank of the

. During the 18th century, the estancia was mentioned in the journals of a few travellers, though it had been abandoned after the

Pueblo Revolt The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, also known as Popé, Popé's Rebellion or Po'pay's Rebellion, was an uprising of most of the Indigenous Pueblo people against the Spanish Empire, Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, larger t ...

of 1680. The village of Luis Lopez appears to have been founded by the early to mid 1830s. At that time, it was located on the west bank of the Rio Grande, just east of its present-day site. Luis Lopez has been listed in censuses every decade at least as recently as

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

since

1850 Events January–March * January 29 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the United States Congress. * January 31 – The University of Rochester is founded in Rochester, New York. * January – Sacramento, Ca ...

, except for

1870 Events January * January 1 ** The first edition of ''The Northern Echo'' newspaper is published in Priestgate, Darlington, England. ** Plans for the Brooklyn Bridge are completed. * January 3 – Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge be ...

. Since the village was not counted in that year, it is thought that it may have been abandoned for a short time and then relocated to its present position above the

flood plain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

. However, most of Luis Lopez remains in the flood plain, protected from the Rio Grande by levees. In May 1941, severe flooding required the evacuation of families in the floodplain. Luis Lopez was also listed in both the 1833 and 1845 New Mexico censuses, details of which can be found at Albuquerque Public Library, Main Library, second floor Genealogy Center. In 1952, the Luis Lopez School District was consolidated with the Socorro School District and the school was closed. However, the building continued to be used as a community center for some years. Today, the community of Luis Lopez consists of farms and a small suburb. New wells have brought growth to the community. The community is a suburb of Socorro.

Education

It is within Socorro Consolidated Schools. Socorro High School is the comprehensive high school of the district.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Socorro County, New Mexico Unincorporated communities in New Mexico 1667 establishments in the Spanish Empire Census-designated places in New Mexico Census-designated places in Socorro County, New Mexico