Belen

Belen is the second most populous town in Valencia County, New Mexico, United States, after its county seat, Los Lunas. The population became 7,152 in 2015 census statistics. Belen is Spanish for Bethlehem but won the nickname "The Hub City". The town is geographically near the middle of New Mexico and has been a full-size transportation hub for vital New Mexico that consists of get entry to to rail, the interstate highway and air at Valencia County's only public airport. Belen is on the southern give up of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area. The metropolis is located 35 miles south of Albuquerque. Belen become based in 1740 as Nuestra Señora de Belen by using a set of colonists led via Diego Torres and Antonio Salazar, who had obtained permission to settle the tract of land called the Belen Grant.

The early settlers inside the Belen grant included several genizaro families. The geniizaros, American Indians with origins as slaves and servants of the colonists, were critical inside the frontier protection of New Mexico. For the genizaros, relocation to Belen and other frontier settlements changed into a way of obtaining land. Their settlement in Belen became set up to guard the southern border of the colony from Apache raiders. Belen was the primary of what might be many genízaro settlements and, by way of 1744, forty households have been in residence. Spanish and mestizo households have been additionally settled in Belen.