Los Chaves, NM

Los Chaves is a Valencia County CDP on the west side of the Rio Grande Valley, close to Los Lunas and the Albuquerque metro. The county's comprehensive plan lists it as one of the recognized unincorporated communities and identifies it as the largest of the county's older rural places by population. Its map spreads across roads, homes, irrigated fields, schools, and small businesses, with the community's daily life distributed across the valley.

Los Chaves sits in a part of central New Mexico where Spanish colonial land patterns, acequia irrigation, and newer subdivisions meet. Valencia County planning documents place the community among the places that need their own land-use, water, transportation, and public-service decisions while remaining under county government. The name keeps a local identity inside a wider valley network tied to Los Lunas, Belen, Interstate 25, and the Rio Grande. It is a valley-edge community whose present growth still sits on older agricultural ground. Irrigated fields still shape the view between homes and newer roads.