Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Alcalde, NM

Alcalde is a census-designated place in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, on New Mexico State Road 68 in the Rio Grande valley north of Española.

Alcalde is Spanish for 'mayor,' and the community's Tewa name is Anųbúuˀú.

The 2020 census counted 310 people in Alcalde, up from 285 at the 2010 census.

At the 2000 census, Alcalde had 377 people in 121 households, and about 89 percent of its residents were Hispanic or Latino.

The CDP covers only about half a square mile (0.52 square miles) at an elevation of roughly 5,693 feet, giving it a population density of about 600 people per square mile.

Alcalde has its own post office, ZIP code 87511, which opened in 1890.

The Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Center in Alcalde — until 2017 the Oñate Monument and Visitor Center — stands on Highway 68.

A 12-foot bronze equestrian statue of conquistador Juan de Oñate by Reynaldo Rivera stood outside the center from 1994 until Rio Arriba County removed it in June 2020 amid nationwide protests; in 2023 it was re-erected in Española.

The statue's right foot was cut off by protesters in the late 1990s, in reference to Oñate's 1599 punishment of the men of Acoma Pueblo.

Just north of Alcalde, the Los Luceros historic site preserves an 18th-century hacienda complex begun in 1703 on Sebastián Martín Serrano's land grant along the Rio Grande.