Albuquerque Celebrates La Herencia on Route 66
Hispanic heritage in Albuquerque is as old as roasting chile. Well, it might be a bit younger than roasting chile.
Postcard, Old Spanish Albuquerque, in front of San Felipe de Neri Church (est. 1793). Photo by Harvey Caplin, Curt Teich, Southwest Postcards. Center for Southwest Research (UNM), PICT-995-027.
There is the simplified version of this story: Hispanic heritage in Albuquerque dates back to the 1706 Spanish settlement now known as “Old Town,” and the rest is history. Then, there are the facts that complicate that simplicity. Many of the settlers in colonial Nuevo México were mestizo (mixed indigenous Mexican and Spanish), bringing cultural and linguistic traditions from the Mexican basin. For example, the Route 66 neighborhood, the Village of Atrisco (est. 1703, according to Spanish documents), gets its name from the Hispanicized Nahuatl word atlixco (“water surface”). El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the ancient trade route established by Ancestral Pueblo communities and later named by the Spanish crown, led the flow of commerce from Mexico City north to Ohkay Owingeh/San Juan Pueblo, past Santa Fe. The “royal road of the inlands” was an important site of cultural, culinary and commercial exchange, so much that its path from Santa Fe to Albuquerque would be rewritten as U.S. Highway 66 in 1926.
La herencia Hispana (Hispanic heritage) is entwined on Albuquerque’s Route 66. Many of the Mother Road’s Albuquerque stories would have been forgotten to time if not for documentation by local Hispanic scholars such as Emma Moya. Lowrider car clubs also played a major role in the preservation of Route 66’s memory on Central Avenue. The existence of lowriding in New Mexico alone is a manifestation of Hispanic migration history along Route 66: from California to New Mexico and back again.
Glenn Hood, Girls in tiered dresses sit on a convertible outside of San Felipe de Neri Church, ca. 1965, Albuquerque Museum, gift of Beryl Hood, PA1994.050.260.
Flamenco Works’ 2nd Annual Fiesta Flamenca Burqueña
In Albuquerque, traditions are honored through reimagination. A culture in motion is a thriving one, growing in different directions to adapt and reflect the moment. The Romani-Spanish art of flamenco is one of such traditions, brought from Andalucía, Spain to Albuquerque. Rhythms from Africa and the Americas, Middle Eastern scales and Spanish lyrics met in the performance developed by the Romani people of Spain in the mid-1800s. While its exact origins in New Mexico are unclear, it is understood that flamenco was practiced recreationally throughout Hispanic New Mexico and popularized in Santa Fe by the early 20th-century.
In 1950, Clarita Garcia de Aranda Allison opened a one-room studio in Albuquerque, Clarita’s School of Dance. Tap, ballroom and bailes mexicanos were taught, but flamenco was Clarita’s signature offering. She raised her daughter, Eva Encinias Sandoval, in that studio, where Eva perfected the art of flamenco. Eva would go on to be the first instructor of flamenco at the University of New Mexico, her alma mater, and work hard to develop an official curriculum for collegiate flamenco study.
Eva Encinias posing for a photo, c. 1970s. Courtesy of the National Institute of Flamenco.
Today, UNM is the only U.S. college that offers a Dance concentration and an MFA degree in Flamenco. Albuquerque is home to the National Institute of Flamenco, a premier repertory company and conservatory. Furthermore, the city boasts the largest and oldest annual flamenco festival outside of Spain, Festival Flamenco Alburquerque, a signature event with international acclaim. With so much investment and pride, it is little surprise that Albuquerque is now considered the Flamenco Capital of North America.
Cruising down Albuquerque’s Route 66 (Central Ave.), there is a little black building in Downtown bursting with talent. Welcome to Flamenco Works, Inc.: the brainchild of flamenco artists Jesús and Amalyah Muñoz. Jesús established his own flamenco company in Albuquerque in 2010, and has since co-founded Casa Flamenca and Flamenco Works, as well as the Albuquerque Latin Dance Festival. Read more about Jesús and Amalyah on the Route 66 Centennial website here.
Save the date!
Flamenco Works’ Fiesta Flamenca Burqueña, a Route 66 Cultural Crossroads event, will be held at Downtown Civic Plaza on September 28th, 2025, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. It is Albuquerque’s first free flamenco festival running for its second annual year– made possible through a labor of communal love for flamenco. This year, Flamenco Works welcomes legend Mercedes de Córdoba, all the way from Spain.
You can find Jesús and Amalyah sitting in the front row at Fiesta Flamenca Burqueña, admiring the artists as much as they did when the music first moved them years ago. That is the transcendent power of flamenco–performers do not merely stage human experiences; they channel it from the soul. The effect is tangible. Feel it for yourself on September 28th, 2025. Reserve your free tickets online today!
Hispanic/LatinX-Owned Restaurants on Route 66
Albuquerque’s culinary offerings off Route 66 are global. Experience global palates including North American, Central American, South American and Caribbean cuisines.
Guava Tree Café, 118 Richmond Dr. NE
Guava Tree Café is just a right turn off of Central Avenue on Richmond Drive in historic Nob Hill. Open since 2010, Guava Tree specializes in Central American-Caribbean fusion cuisine, offering Venezuelan arepas, cubanos, ajiaco stew, yucca fries and sweet plantains. Guava Tree Café is the brainchild of Diego Barbosa and Maricarmen Pijem Barbosa (from Colombia and El Salvador respectively), inspired by their eight years living in Costa Rica where the pair met and fell in love.
Eric Williams, Guava Tree Café, exterior, ericwphoto.com.
Gobble This, 308 San Felipe St. NW
Chef Nestor Lopez is a first-generation Salvadoran-American. Though he has a certificate from the Cordon Bleu of Hollywood, his first mentor was his mama, who was always cooking traditional Salvadoran meals for family and friends. Chef Nestor moved to New Mexico to cater film productions. In 2015, he opened Gobble This on historic San Felipe Street in the Old Town Plaza. Try Nestor’s mother’s famous El Chumpe sandwich with specialty spiced, roasted turkey.
Gobble This, exterior, from their official website. https://www.gobblethis.biz/
Olo Dessert Studio, 3339 Central Ave. NE, Suite #C
Tucked away in Nob Hill, Olo Dessert Studio proudly serves frozen yogurt, cakes and pastries made in-house. What makes Olo unique is its focus on healthy dessert options – beginning with the frozen yogurt craze in 2010. In 2019, Camilla Dominguez and family purchased the beloved yogurt shop and transformed it into a “dessert studio,” expanding options to baked goods and non-dairy treats. The frozen yogurt flavors are inspired by New Mexican place names, Dominguez’s querencia: her love and sense for her homeland. The Dominguez family has lived in New Mexico since Spanish settlement and owned a variety of food businesses over the last century.
Display case inside Olo Dessert Studio.
Sueños Coffee Company, 101 Broadway Blvd. NE
One of the newest cafés in Downtown, Sueños Coffee Co. is a discreet hangout tucked on the corner of Broadway Avenue and Central Avenue where one can “sip the dream.” Sueños began as New Mexico’s first walk-in coffee and dessert food trucks, stemming from teenager Genesis Hernandez’s passion for baking. Sueños was formed by parents Norma and Al Hernandez’s dream to bring quality coffee and pastillas directly to their community, fostering economic growth where their roots lay. At Sueños, you can order a coffee flight: a tasting tray of four selected beverages from the café’s seasonal menu. Don’t drink coffee on an empty stomach – there are fresh-baked muffins, cookies and banana nut bread!
Barelas Coffee House, 1502 4th St. SW
Go south on 4th Street from Central Avenue and find yourself in Barelas, home to the National Hispanic Cultural Center and Albuquerque’s oldest neighborhood on paper (est. 1662). Barelas Coffee House was established in 1978, a couple blocks down from the equally-mouthwatering El Modelo (if you’re in a rush and there’s a long line at the coffee house, I highly recommend a burrito from El Modelo). The coffee house’s menus and signage claim Barelas to be the “Land of Mi Chante”: chante is a New Mexican Spanish colloquialism for “home.” One certainly feels the comfort of home sitting at the skylit patio, the smell of chile wrapping around you like a warm hug.
Street view of Barelas Coffee Shop.
Arepas El Pana, 317 Central Ave. NW
This cute bistro in the urban Downtown corridor serves up delicious Venezuelan arepas (flatbread made from ground corn, cooked until crispy and stuffed with meat, veggies or cheese), empanadas and espresso drinks. Sit outdoors in the sunshine next to historic Route 66 or inside their vibrant, cozy space. Be sure to order a side of yucca fries with aji verde, a spicy cilantro mayonnaise sauce.
Café es Amor, 2209 Central Ave. NW
A short walk from the Old Town Plaza, Cafe es Amor brings love and flavor from across the border into your coffee cup. Technicolor talavera pottery and sunny walls evoke the warm hospitality of a Mexican home. We recommend their signature beverages: La Bandera, a juicy iced matcha latte with a thick red layer of strawberry syrup; or the Café de Olla, a traditional Mexican coffee in a clay pot, sweetened with canela (cinnamon) and piloncillo (brown cane sugar). If you’re feeling adventurous, try a coffee flight paired with miniature conchas (a sweet pastry shaped like a shell).
Loyola’s Family Restaurant, 4000 Central Ave. SE
Founded by Loyola Baca more than 30 years ago and currently owned by her daughter Sarah Cordova, this restaurant is a landmark on Route 66. It’s open only for breakfast and lunch and offers favorites such as huevos rancheros (eggs on a tortilla and smothered with cheese and chile) and posole (a stew made with hominy, pork and chile). You might recognize Loyola’s as a filming location for “Breaking Bad,” “Better Call Saul” and “In Plain Sight,” among other shows.
Valerie Bromann, Loyola's Family Restaurant, exterior, for Silly America. https://sillyamerica.com/blog/loyolas-family-restaurant-in-albuquerque-new-mexico/#google_vignette
