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Corrales’ oldest recurring fiesta, honoring the community’s patron saint, San Ysidro, will return May 14-15. Saint Ysidro is known as the patron saint of farmers. A procession accompanying a statue of the saint from the Old Church to the new Catholic Church on Corrales Road will follow a 10 a.m. outdoor mass in front of the Old Church that Sunday. The procession along Old Church Road and Corrales Road will be led by the colorful Matachines dancers.
The fiesta that follows at the parish hall behind the church will include traditional food, music, a 50-50 raffle and a cake-walk referred to as a “sweets-walk.†An online silent auction fundraiser for the church will be conducted at sanysidroparish.org. Among the many items to be auctioned are: a chainsaw carved chair, silver candlesticks, a belt buckle, a bow and arrow wall hanging, a clock and several gift certificates. Admission to the fiesta is free and open to the general public.Saturday events are highlighted by bingo and fiesta food arranged by the Knights of Columbus.
Corrales’ first Catholic church was built around 1750 at a site north of Dixon Road, well east of what is now Corrales Road. That adobe-terrón structure was destroyed by a flood from the Rio Grande in 1868. It was replaced by what is now known as the Old Church, well west of Corrales Road, which was, in turn replaced by the current San Ysidro Church on Corrales Road in 1962.
As in most past years, the Sunday procession will be led by dancers from the Bernalillo-based Matachines de San Lorenzo which has performed for more than 300 years. The dance is thought to have originated in Spain in the mid-1600s to enact the classic battle between good and evil, or more specifically, between Christianity and non-Christians.