Sunshine and Shadows in New Mexico's Past, Volume 1: The Spanish Colonial & Mexican Periods, 1540-1848

Copyright © 2010, 2014 Historical Society of New Mexico

Published by Río Grande Books

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sunshine and shadows in New Mexico’s past / edited with an introduction by Richard Melzer.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-890689-24-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-936744-96-1 (ebook formats)

1. New Mexico--History. I. Melzer, Richard. II. Historical Society of New Mexico.

F796.S86 2010

978.9--dc22

2010003241

Cover: La Maravilla de las Montañas Sandias © Brent Jeffrey Thomas, 2010

To Carleen Lazzell and the late John P. Conron,

the guiding lights of

La Crónica de Nuevo México,

from which so much of this book is drawn.

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1: DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES ON SEVENTEENTH CENTURY NEW MEXICO

Retrograde Franciscans in New Mexico, 1625-52

Pueblo Revolts of the Seventeenth Century

CHAPTER 2: RACE RELATIONS

Intimacy and Empire: Indian-African Interaction in Spanish Colonial New Mexico

Shifting Ethnic Boundaries in Colonial New Mexico: Evidence from the Diligencias Matrimoniales

The Cruzate Grants of 1689 and Modern Pueblo Land Claims: Deciphering Land Fraud through the Centuries

CHAPTER 3: GENDER ROLES

Ana de Sandoval y Manzanares: A New Mexico Spanish Colonial Woman of Perseverance and Triumph

The Genealogy and Dowry of Doña Eduarda Yturrieta

CHAPTER 4: HISPANIC WILLS AND BURIALS

The Last Years of Francisco Cuervo y Valdés, 1707-1714

Rosa Bustamante, 1735-1815, A Santa Fe Woman

The Abominable Stench of Rotting Corpses: Protecting Public Health by Exiling New Mexico’s Dead, 1804-1850

CHAPTER 5: FARMING, RANCHING, AND HUNTING

Origins and Early Development of New Mexico’s Wine Industry

New Mexico’s Spanish Livestock Heritage

Ciboleros: Hispanic Buffalo Hunters

CHAPTER 6: THE MILITARY

The Presidio of Santa Fe

CHAPTER 7: THE MEXICAN PERIOD

New Mexico’s Navajo Wars, 1836-1839

The New Mexican Revolt and Treason Trials of 1847

Contributors

Suggested Readings

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Historical Society of New Mexico wishes to acknowledge all those who contributed to the publication of Sunshine and Shadows in New Mexico’s Past: The Spanish Colonial and Mexican Periods, 1540-1848. Don Bullis first suggested the project and assisted in its many stages. Reflecting his commitment to lead the historical society in exciting new directions, President Michael Stevenson supported the book from its inception to its conclusion. In her usual efficient manner, Henrietta M. Christmas helped prepare the chapters with the typing assistance of Patricia S. Rau and the proofreading assistance of Daniel Martinez and Armando Sandoval. Brent Jeffery Thomas contributed his superb painting, La Maravilla de las Montañas Sandías (The Majesty of the Sandia Mountains), to enhance the book’s cover. Finally, we thank our talented authors plus Carleen Lazzell and the late John P. Conron, the fine editors of La Crónica de Nuevo México, for whom this book is dedicated.

INTRODUCTION

On 15 December 1859, a small group of New Mexicans gathered in Santa Fe’s Palace of the Governors to found a new organization, said to be the first of its kind west of the Mississippi. The august assembly of judges, officers, businessmen, and politicians officially organized the Historical Society of New Mexico (HSNM). Within two weeks the industrious group had written a constitution, including a preamble, which read:

We…residents of the Territory of New Mexico, fully impressed with the vast field for historical research which surrounds; determined to devote our best energies to the elucidation of the history of this country, hitherto unwritten, and anxious to cooperate in combined effort, for this object, do now form an association and ordain for our government, the following [constitution].¹

A hundred and fifty years have passed since the founding members of the HSNM set this noble goal. True to their founders’ promise, later members of the society have consistently devote[d] our best energies to the elucidation of the history of this country with a long list of important projects, including:

• the creation of New Mexico’s first archives;

• the creation of New Mexico’s first historical museum;

• the creation of New Mexico’s first historical journal;

• the holding of annual conferences;

• the publication of La Crónica de Nuevo México;

• the granting of sundry awards, from teaching to preservation;

• the funding of valuable research conducted by individuals and member institutions;

• the support of local historical societies;

• the publication of dozens of historical monographs, often in conjunction with the University of New Mexico Press.

In another effort to devote our best energies to the elucidation of the history of this country the Historical Society of New Mexico has launched a new project, the society’s first anthology of essays written by society members, but never published in book form. In all, the historical society will publish three anthologies over the next three years. The current volume deals with the Spanish colonial and Mexican periods of New Mexico history. Volume 2 will focus on the U.S. Territorial period. And volume 3 will consider New Mexico’s statehood period since 1912.

Sunshine and Shadows in New Mexico’s Past has one main goal: to reveal the sharp contrasts in New Mexico history. As with all states, New Mexico has had its share of admirable as well as deplorable moments, neither of which should be ignored or exaggerated at the other’s expense. New Mexico’s true character can only be understood and appreciated by acknowledging its varied history, blemishes and all.

And now for what Sunshine and Shadows is not. The anthology makes no attempt to be a comprehensive history of each of New Mexico’s historical periods, no less New Mexico’s history as a whole. It has no underlying theme, no historical ax to grind, and no single perspective. Its essays are intentionally eclectic to reflect New Mexico’s celebrated diversity.

Combined, Sunshine and Shadows’ three volumes represent the Historical Society of New Mexico’s humble gift to New Mexico as the state celebrates its centennial year of statehood in 2012. New Mexico’s path to statehood was long and arduous. In fact, while many observers date the struggle for statehood from 1850, the year New Mexico became a U.S. Territory, it can be argued that the path to statehood began centuries before, as New Mexico evolved to become a territory that was first shunned and later welcomed as a state in the Union.

Sunshine and Shadows reminds us that New Mexico is far older and, in many ways, wiser than its younger peer states in the Union. The latter states kept New Mexico at bay for sixty-two years, but the territory displayed its determined character, forged by centuries of hardships and perseverance, when it finally achieved its statehood goal on 6 January 1912. Recalling their resolute identity, perseverance, and final statehood victory, New Mexicans should celebrate their proud history not only in 2012, but always.

Endnotes

1 The twenty-five signers were S.M. Baird, Kirby Benedict, Colonel W.H. Brooksi, G.H. Child, Charles P. Clever, J.L. Donaldson, Albert Elsberg, Louis Felsenthal, Samuel Gorman, John B. Grayson, I.A. Hill, D. Hood, Joab Houghton, Winslow J. Howard, D.B. Koch, William C. Rencher, Maurice Schwartz Kopf, Jesus María Sena y Baca, William J. Sloan, Zodoc Staab, William A. Street, O.G. Wagner, R.A. Wainwright, David V. Whiting, and John D. Wilkins.

CHAPTER 1: DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES ON SEVENTEENTH CENTURY NEW MEXICO

Retrograde Franciscans in New Mexico, 1625-52

Paul Kraemer

The Franciscan Order is almost eight hundred years old. In the entire history of the order, their efforts in seventeenth century New Mexico are historically unique. Never before or since has the Order enjoyed such a complete monopoly of their own brand of Christianity. And, after a brilliant beginning, never before or since has the Order suffered such a definitive repudiation and slaughter of its ministers as occurred at the end of the century.¹ While the causes of the Pueblo Revolt are complex, most historians concur that the revolt was basically a religious one. As Marc Simmons put it, the underlying cause can be found in the religious attitudes brought to New Mexico by the Franciscans and colonists. However, as Simmons also pointed out, problems did not really become evident until about 1650, that is, after about half a century of almost spectacular success.² Did the religious attitudes of the Franciscans then change or what? Jake Ivey’s work on the Franciscan tolerance of kivas being built in the church conventos after 1620, and the subsequent back-filling of these kivas after 1640, appears to be a clear demonstration of change in the religious attitudes of the Franciscans during the early pre-revolt period.³

The focus of this chapter concerns another aspect of the Franciscan attitudes during this early period. We call this aspect the retrograde Franciscans because a small group of friars did innovative outreach programs toward the south, instead of continuing the generally northward movement of the frontier of New Spain.

The Oñate expedition into New Mexico in 1598 crossed the frontier of the middle corridor near Santa Barbara, and the settlement of New Mexico left an uncontrolled gap of some eight hundred miles.⁴ The gap was not only military and governmental, but also reflected Franciscan organization. In 1604, the entire northern frontier except New Mexico came under the jurisdiction of the independent Franciscan Province of Zacatecas.⁵ These friars of the Zacatecas Province were relatively few in number, and they could make little progress in filling the gap.⁶ By 1630 the frontier of New Spain had only advanced a few miles, to be stalled at Parral.⁷ By contrast, the friars of New Mexico remained under the jurisdiction of the Holy Gospel Province headquartered in Mexico City. By 1630 they had established missions and churches in some thirty pueblos.⁸ They had recently received a new contingent of thirty friars and were soon budgeted for a total of sixty-six friars.⁹ Their famous publicist, Fray Alonso Benavides, who served as their custodian from 1626-1629, made their efforts famous throughout the Catholic world.¹⁰ It seemed that they were poised to achieve even more challenging conversions.

Their outreach program was basically inspired by Benavides and continued by their next custodian, Fray Estevan Perea. The program was extremely ambitious and involved a very large area that was about six hundred miles wide. The program was directed at the numerous non-Pueblo Native American groups that had been skipped when the Franciscans came to the lands of the Pueblo Indians. The overall scope and timing of the effort including deep penetration into Texas and Sonora, have been largely ignored.

Figure 1 illustrates the known locations of the targeted groups during the early 17th century. The Jumano Indians were perhaps the first of the non-Pueblo groups to attract the serious attention of the friars. As early as 1613 when Fray Juan Salas founded the mission at Isleta Pueblo, large groups of Jumano Indians would come every summer to trade. Salas was able to develop firm rapport with these nomadic traders, and they invited him to come with other friars to their homeland, which was in what is now central Texas.¹¹ At that time there were too few friars available for such a venture. Later Benavides, as custodian, took a personal interest in converting the Piro and Tompiro Pueblos south and east of Isleta. At the Tompiro Pueblo, now known commonly as Gran Quivira, he found many Jumanos living adjacent to the Pueblo people. Together with another friar, Father Francisco Letrado, he established the mission of San Isidro, and named the double community Pueblo de las Jumanas.¹² By that time more friars were available, and, in 1629, Benavides dispatched Father Juan Salas and another friar, Diego López to accompany some Jumano Indians on an evangelical mission to the Jumano homeland on the plains of central Texas.¹³

Figure 1. Tribal groups targetd by the retrograde Franciscans.

Various Jumano locations have been postulated as home base for these itinerant traders in this time period.¹⁴ The destination of the Salas expedition was probably near the Rio Nueces in north central Texas. While the entrada produced only ambiguous converts, it yielded the famous story of the miraculous Lady in Blue who wandered among the Indians preaching to them in their own languages.¹⁵ Further efforts to convert the Jumanos of Texas were made in 1632, when two friars, Pedro Ortega and Ascencion Zarate, penetrated even further into central Texas, two hundred leagues from Santa Fe.¹⁶ After this, however, Jumano attitudes toward Franciscans became unfriendly and the Jumanos refused to return to the mission at San Isidro. Interestingly, commercial relations with the Spanish colonists of New Mexico continued and even expanded for many years after 1632.¹⁷

During his four years in New Mexico, Benavides demonstrated a great interest in the conversion of the Apache and Navajo peoples. He claimed he converted several chiefs and he sent missionaries to the Gila Apache and Navajo areas.¹⁸ But little came of these efforts. Benavides also wanted to expand directly south where the backward Manso and Suma Indians were strategically located straddling the Camino Real. Soon after Benavides left New Mexico in late 1629, his efforts at the Piro Pueblos near present day Socorro served as a base for efforts to convert the Manso and Suma. These early efforts were largely due to two Barefoot Friars that had come to New Mexico with the returning custodian, Estevan Perea, in 1629. The Barefoot Friars were members of the autonomous, hyper-zealous order of Discalced Franciscans, who had a single province in New Spain, the Province of San Diego. The two friars were Father Antonio Arteaga and his companion, a lay brother named Juan Garcia de San Francisco.¹⁹

Both were assigned to the Piro Pueblos and soon ran the three missions that were near present day Socorro. The northern one, Sevilleta, is still on current road maps near La Joya. The Socorro mission at the Pueblo of Pilabo is thought to have been situated at or very near the present church, San Miguel, in Socorro. Senecú is thought to have been located on the east side of the Rio Grande river across from San Marcial.²⁰ The two friars labored for about ten years, with occasional preaching tours to the Manso and Suma tribes which were the better part of two hundred miles further south. There may have been other friars that participated. Sometime before 1640, they preached to Indians in the Janos/Casas Grandes area, south of present day Columbus, New Mexico.²¹ But progress was slow, as had been the case with the Jumano. What the Franciscans had to offer was simply not wanted. In 1639, Father Arteaga and his companion went back to New Spain, Arteaga to accept leadership of all Barefoot Friars of the San Diego Province.²² However, before he left, he participated in the Sonora effort, as we shall see. Juan Garcia de San Francisco went back to take orders and become a full-fledged priest. He then returned to New Mexico and continued the work, ultimately to become an important mission leader. But it would be many years before missions would be established for the Manso and Suma Indians.²³

When the efforts at the San Isidro Mission started to turn sour, and the people at the Pueblo de las Jumanas became unfriendly to Father Letrado, he asked to be transferred to the Zuni Pueblos. This transfer took place sometime in 1631.²⁴ As it turned out, the Zunis were not happy with Father Letrado either. They told him of other tribes far to the south of Zuni, who they called the Cipias and the Ipotlapiguas. In fact these tribes were Opata who lived in northern Sonora.²⁵ Father Letrado requested permission to attempt their conversion, but was refused. Instead, Father Martín Arvide was selected. Arvide walked to Zuni and then in early February 1632 started out walking south on the old trade trail. The Zunis picked this time to kill Father Letrado, then tracked down Father Arvide and killed him also.²⁶ In addition to the predictable retaliation of Spanish soldiers against the Zuni, these events increased Franciscan interest in the Cipias and Ipotlapiguas. But not by the Zuni route. Later in 1632, Father Tomás Manso (his name has no relationship to the Manso Tribe) had a different plan. As the new manager of the mission supply service, his interest was both religious and commercial. In fact, as historians Rick Hendricks and Gerald J. Mandell have detailed, the Manso family managed to combine religion, business, political office, and even slave trading into an impressive entrepreneurial web on the seventeenth century northern frontier.²⁷

In late 1632 then, Father Manso, probably with Father Arteaga’s help, revitalized an old trail to Sonora through Suma country. This involved using the ancient pass over the Sierra Madre, established by the prehistoric Paquimé complex at Casas Grandes and then used in 1535 by Cabeza de Vaca and in 1565 when Francisco Ibarra and his army crossed from Sonora.²⁸

This then became the route to Sonora from either New Mexico or Parral, and connected to the Camino Real. The first friars other than Tomás Manso to visit the northern Sonora area evidently did not make the trip until 1638, at which time our friar from the Jumano work, Juan Salas, was the custodian. He sent a group of four friars, with Father Arteaga as leader, with an expedition that included forty soldiers and Governor Luis Rosas. Arteaga later complained that the governor plainly did not regard the expedition as an evangelical one, and it is not clear that any friars remained in Sonora at that time.²⁹ In 1642, however, when Father Tomás Manso was custodian, a group of five New Mexico friars, including Juan Salas and twelve New Mexican citizen/soldiers, made the trip. They were recruited by the acting governor of Sonora, Pedro Perea. While the circumstances of the expedition were unusual, it is well documented that active evangelical work began in earnest. It is also likely that other New Mexico friars came between 1642 and 1650.³⁰

Figure 2, adapted from an article by Charles W. Polzer, indicates the communities in which the friars worked. They claimed that they baptized about seven thousand people, and they apparently built at least three churches. In one sense, these seventeenth century Franciscans closed the frontier gap in Sonora. That is, they were deeply resented by the northward advancing Jesuits who promptly and effectively complained to authorities in Mexico City. An agreement between the two orders was signed in Arizpe in 1650, in which the Franciscans agreed to limit their activities to the small northeast corner of their Sonora mission territory.³¹

Actually this corner was the territory of the Ipotlapiguas, the original group targeted in 1632. However, even this arrangement didn’t last for long. Although the agreement was supposed to be forever, by 1652 the Jesuits somehow convinced the Franciscan Provincial in Mexico City to order all friars to go home to New Mexico. They didn’t take Juan Salas home; he had died and was buried at Bavispe in 1650 at the age of sixty-eight. He had seen the whole story since his early work at Isleta Pueblo that he began in 1613.³²

Figure 2

What can we say in general about these retrograde ventures? From an evangelical viewpoint apparently very little was accomplished and the religious efforts seem to be almost quixotic. It could, of course be argued that a long term religious goal was initiated by these early attempts. It must also be recognized that the Franciscans of New Spain and New Mexico openly served the goals of Spanish imperialism. Benavides was quite frank in his promotion of mining and agricultural interests for Spanish settlers.³³ In this context, the Franciscans opened up opportunities in all of the areas we have reviewed. This included commercial ventures in the Jumano country, haciendas in the Manso/Suma homelands, and silver mining by the New Mexican Perez Granillo family in Sonora.³⁴ Almost all Franciscan ventures were accompanied by soldiers and the alleged conversions were probably not often based solely on religious motives. To the Jesuits that did not make any difference. True changes in belief systems could come later according to the Jesuit strategy.³⁵ It seems, however, that 1652 was the end of an expansionist era for the Franciscans in New Mexico. With the exception of further efforts in the El Paso area, they never again recovered their early momentum.

Endnotes

1 Comprehensive histories of the Franciscan Order include: Herbert Holzapfel, The History of the Franciscan Order, Antonine Tibesar and Gervase Brinkmann, trans. (Teutopolis, Illinois: St. Joseph Seminary, 1948); Raphael M. Huber, A Documented History of the Franciscan Order (Milwaukee: The Nowiny Publishing Apostolate, 1944); Fray Lazaro Iriarte, Franciscan History: The Three Orders of St. Francis of Assisi (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1982); John Moorman, A History of the Franciscan Order from Its Origins to the Year 1517 (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1988); Lino Gómez Canedo, Franciscans in the Americas: A Comprehensive View in Franciscan Presence in the Americas, ed. Francisco Morales (Potomac, Maryland: Academy of American Franciscan History, 1983). A valuable series of articles published in the New Mexico Historical Review by France V. Scholes covers much of the Franciscan story in seventeenth century New Mexico before the Pueblo Revolt. Some of these articles include: The Supply Service of the New Mexican Missions in the Seventeenth Century, vol. 5 (January 1930): 93-115; (April 1930): 186-210; (October 1930): 386-404; Civil Government and Society in New Mexico in the Seventeenth Century, vol. 10 (April 1935): 71-111; The First Decade of the Inquisition in New Mexico. vol. 10 (July 1935): 195-242; Church and State in New Mexico, 1610-1650, part 1, vol. 11 (January 1936): 9-76; part 2 (April 1936): 145-78; part 3 (July 1936): 283-94; part 4 (October 1936): 297-349; part 5, vol. 12 (January 1937): 78-106; France V. Scholes, and Lansing B. Bloom, Friar Personnel and Mission Chronology, 1598-1629, New Mexico Historical Review, vol. 19 (October 1944): 319-36, and vol. 20 (January 1945): 58-82. A comprehensive resource for the Pueblo Revolt is: Charles W. Hackett, ed., Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Otermín’s Attempted Reconquest, 1680-1682, 2 vols. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1942).

2 Marc Simmons, The Pueblo Revolt: Why Did it Happen? El Palacio, vol. 86 (Winter 1980-81): 11-5.

3 James E. Ivey, Convento Kivas in the Missions of New Mexico, New Mexico Historical Review, vol. 73 (April 1998): 121-52.

4 Peter Gerhard, The Northern Frontier of New Spain. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982): 3-9, 313. For a very readable account of the expansion of the middle corridor of the northern frontier of New Spain, see Philip Wayne Powell, Soldiers, Indians, and Silver: The Northward Advance of New Spain, 1550-1600 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1952).

5 Marion A. Habig, The Franciscan Provinces of Spanish North America, The Americas, vol. 1:88-96, 215-30, 330-44; vol. 2: 72-92, 189-210, 335-56, 461-81 (1944-1946).

6 José Arlegui, Cronica de la Provincia de N.S.P.S., Francisco de Zacatecas reprint of 1737 ed. (Mexico: Complide, 1851): 43.

7 Gerhard, Northern Frontier, 217.

8 Lansing B. Bloom, Fray Estevan de Perea’s Relacion, New Mexico Historical Review, vol. 8 (July 1933): 211-35.

9 Scholes, Mission Supply, (January 1930): 93 95; (April 1930): 193.

10 Fray Alonso Benavides, The Memorial of Fray Alonso Benavides, 1630, trans. by Mrs. Edward E. Ayer (Albuquerque: Horn and Wallace, Publishers, 1965); Fray Alonso Benavides, Fray Alonso de Benavides’ Revised Memorial of 1634 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1945).

11 Benavides, Memorial of Fray Alonso Benavides, 1630, 58; Benavides, Fray Alonso de Benavides’ Revised Memorial of 1634, 92.

12 Benavides, Memorial of Fray Alonso Benavides, 1630, 20; Benavides, Fray Alonso de Benavides’ Revised Memorial of 1634, 77.

13 Benavides, Memorial of Fray Alonso Benavides, 1630, 58; Nancy Hickerson, The Jumanos: Hunters and Traders of the South Plains (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994): 86-102.

14 Hickerson, Jumanos, 64-74.

15 Benavides, Fray Alonso de Benavides’ Revised Memorial of 1634, 92-106, 135-49.

16 Hickerson, Jumanos, 107-09.

17 Ibid., 111-14.

18 Benavides, Memorial of Fray Alonso Benavides, 1630, 16, 39-57 Benavides, Fray Alonso de Benavides’ Revised Memorial of 1634, 80-92; Frank D. Reeve, Seventeenth Century Navaho-Spanish Relations, New Mexico Historical Review, vol. 32 (January 1957): 40-2.

19 Benavides, Memorial of Fray Alonso Benavides, 1630, 52-3; Paul Kraemer, San Pedro Alcántara and the Barefoot Friars in New Mexico in Seeds of Struggle/Harvest of Faith, Thomas J. Steele, S.J., Paul Rhetts, and Barbe Awalt, eds. (Albuquerque: LPD Press, 1998): 69-80; Fidel Lejarza, Origenes de la Descalcez Franciscana, Archivo Ibero-Americano, vol. 22, nos. 85-6 (1962): 15-131.

20 Michael P. Marshall, and Henry Walt, Rio Abajo, Prehistory and History of a Rio Grande Province (Santa Fe: New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, 1984).

21 Annie E. Hughes, The Beginnings of Spanish Settlement in the El Paso District, University of California Publications in History, vol. 1 (1914): 304; Fray Baltazar de Medina, Chronica de la Santa Provincia de San Diego de Mexico de Religiosos Descalzos de N.S.P.S. Francisco en Nueva España (Mexico: Juan de Ribera, Impressor, 1682): 169; Arlegui, Cronica, 104.

22 The biography of Arteaga is included in Medina, Cronica, 168-81.

23 The later career of Garcia de San Francisco is summarized in Kraemer, San Pedro Alcántara, 75.

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