Pajarito Mesa, NM

Pajarito Mesa is a census-designated place in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, United States. The 2020 census counted 260 residents. Pajarito Mesa is part of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area. Pajarito Mesa is an informal settlement lacking basic services including electricity, running water, and formal roads, and existing largely outside of government regulation. Pajarito Mesa is zoned to Albuquerque Public Schools. Pajarito Mesa's local map joins its older history to the places and landscapes that still shape the town today, all within the wider New Mexico setting.

The local scoop is how Pajarito Mesa's history still shows up in the places people visit, work, learn, and meet. Pajarito Mesa does not meet the U.S. government definition of a colonia because it is more than 150 miles from the U.S.–Mexico border, but otherwise exhibits the same features as a colonia. Pajarito Mesa is located on a mesa between the Rio Grande and Rio Puerco valleys, about 10 miles southwest of central Albuquerque.