Other nearby land grants included the Elena Gallegos to the east, created in 1694 for Diego Montoya, it has developed as northern Albuquerque.
In 1598 under order of King Philip II of Spain, Don Juan de Oñate traveled northward on El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (based on a Native American trail used by various cultures from the earliest of times) fording the Rio Grande, or Río del Norte, at the present-day El Paso.
By the early 1600s, Spanish agricultural units dotted the 27 miles of previously unsettled Rio Grande Valley between the Sandia and Isleta pueblos.
With a converted Zia war captain, Bartolomé de Ojeda, one hundred Indian auxiliaries, sixty soldiers, seven cannons, and a Franciscan priest, he recaptured Santa Fe in 1692; he convinced the Native Americans to accept clemency and protection in exchange for sworn allegiance.
The grant totaled 41,533 acres extending west of the Rio Grande, in the area where Fernando's father Don Pedro had lived prior to the Pueblo Revolt.
[3] In 1768, the land grant was expanded by 25,958 acres further west and over the escarpment to the Rio Puerco, in order to accommodate the increasing Atrisco population, now greater than 200.
Article VIII of the Treaty honored existing land grants, ensuring the property rights of Mexican citizens living in the transferred territories.
However, despite these assurances, through interpretation and modifications of the Treaty, United States officials often failed to honor the property rights of Mexican citizens.
[4] In 1935 James M. Hubbell filed suit to determine all legal heirs for respective benefits and entitled shares of the land grant corporation.
The Board of Trustees of the Town of Atrisco refused to transfer title to grant lands to the company until overruled in 1969 by the Supreme Court of New Mexico.
In 1990, Barbara Page (Gallegos), president and chief executive officer of Westland, stated that, "We're going to be a very aggressive developer in the west end of the city.