New Mexico’s Tri-Centennial.

The city was founded in 1706 based “on a lie”… it’s the 15th largest Hispanic market in this country and the highest metropolitan city on the U.S. mainland … many of its important civic leaders first came as tuberculosis patients… it’s a leader in high-skill employment, supporting public art, care of zoo animals and non-profit blood banking… and it’s home to the world’s biggest hot-air balloon festival.

These facts and many more facets of Albuquerque’s unique characteristics and fascinating history are covered in Albuquerque, ¡Feliz Cumpleanos! Three Centuries to Remember” by Dr. Nasario Garcia (assisted by freelance writer Richard McCord). The publisher, La Herencia, has released the book this month to honor Albuquerque’s Tri-Centennial celebration.

Garcia’s 224-page work weaves together the multiple strands of Albuquerque’s complex fabric which – in addition to tuberculosis and the hot-air balloons – includes the impacts of Spanish conquistadors, native warriors, adventurous Anglos, covered wagons, the coming of the railroad, writers, artists and dreamers, nuns and missionaries, frontier photographers, All-American athletes, doctors, and “The Mother Road,” Route 66. It is lavishly illustrated with 250 photographs taken between 1864 and 1990, many of which arguably have never been published before.

Garcia is a retired professor of Spanish literature who taught at colleges and universities in New Mexico, Colorado, Illinois and Pennsylvania. Considered a leading folklorist in the state, he is the author, editor and translator of seventeen previous books. Co-author Richard McCord is a freelance writer who came to New Mexico from New York in 1971, and three years later founded the weekly newspaper Santa Fe Reporter.

La Herencia, owned by Ana Pacheco, has been publishing a quarterly magazine of the same name about the history and culture of New Mexico and the southwest since 1994. Dr. Garcia’s work is the company’s third book project; the first was a cookbook of traditional New Mexico recipes, and the second was a biography of 95-year-old New Mexico Grande Dame Concha Ortiz y Pino de Kleven.

Albuquerque, ¡Feliz Cumpleanos! Three Centuries to Remember,” which includes a Spanish-language summary at the beginning of each chapter, retails for $24.95 and is available for purchase on La Herencia’s website, http://www.herencia.com.