Editing Española, New Mexico (section)

===Spanish settlement===
Tewa people have lived in the area since the 13th century. They built towns in the area, now called 'pueblos', four of which still exist: Ohkay Owingeh, Pojoaque, Santa Clara and San Ildefonso.<ref name=HisSpa>{{cite web |url=http://www.cityofespanola.org/History.html |title=History of Spanish settlers |publisher=Cityofespanola.org |access-date=August 3, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130074706/http://cityofespanola.org/History.html |archive-date=November 30, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The upper reaches of the Rio Grande region were explored by the Spanish in 1540. [[Don Juan de Oñate]] was the first to bring settlers here in 1598. His group stayed at Ohkay Owingeh for a time (calling the Tewa town '''San Juan de los Caballeros'''), before settling in an abandoned Tewa village which he renamed '''San Gabriel'''. San Gabriel, close to modern Española, can thus be seen as the first capital city founded by people of European racial descent in what is now the United States.<ref name=HisSpa/>

Oñate arrived in the Española area on July 11, 1598, at the confluence of the [[Rio Chama (Rio Grande)|Chama River]] and the Rio Grande, where he established a camp at a place then called Yunque-Yunque.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

Almost a century later, near the same region, [[Don Diego de Vargas]] established his villa at [[Santa Cruz, New Mexico|Santa Cruz]].<ref>Simmons, Marc, ‘’The Last Conquistador: Juan de Oñate and the Settling of the Far Southwest’’, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1991 p. 108-108</ref>