HISTORY NOT HYPE |
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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following list of books is the Bibliography from which NEW MEXICO: A BRIEF MULTI-HISTORY by Rubén Sálaz Márquez was constructed. If you wish to contact the author his email is Saljustin@email.msn.com The first two items (not included in the MULTI-HISTORY) are full-length book reviews recently done by the Author. These two books are highly recommended whether you are “starting out” in History or if you have a strong background in it. The two are recent releases and copies can be found almost anywhere. The items mentioned in the Annotated Bibliography are a generally available bibliography for the reader interested in further study of things historical—American, Southwest, and New Mexico. Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: TOUCHSTONE (Simon & Schuster), 1995. This item is a must for anyone interested in American history. While the title implies that teachers did the lying, the real message is that textbook history as written in our society is more hype then historiography. But there is much food for thought in this book. For example, the author believes that other pre-Columbian explorers should be credited with discovery of the Americas. And one can always ask how the Vikings could be “credited” since their settlements, if that's what they were, did not endure except in the Norse Sagas. There are some more or less expected stereotypical observations: Christopher Columbus and “the Spanish” come in for their share of denigration. This is principally a rehash of the anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic bias that permeates so much of the English speaking world. Then there is the issue of the Indians, most of whom were exterminated in the Caribbean Islands. What isn’t mentioned in Lies is when information on Spanish atrocities got back to Spain a sincere effort was made to put an end to them by passing laws intended to preserve indigenous populations. These efforts, which didn’t exist in English or American occupied territories and which are usually ridiculed by English language writers today, enabled many Native American groups, like the Pueblo people of New Mexico, to survive. Aboriginal survival is a stark contrast to the situation in what was/is the USA, where Indians were targeted for exile or extermination until 1890, something that “textbook history” refuses to substantiate. It is also completely accurate to observe that Spanish society produced many defenders of the Indians, led by the herculean Bartolomé de las Casas, while no such thing happened in English or American society: the few like Roger Williams were silenced or neutralized so efficiently that their efforts were futile. (One can only wonder what would happen if society “woke up” and realized what “Americans,” made impersonal by use of labels like “the whites,” did to Native Americans over a period of almost three centuries. R.K. Andrist refers to it as The Long Death.) But unlike other writers, author Loewen also relates how the Indians were exterminated by England and the USA itself. Denigrating Spain is old hat but focusing on American Indian extermination by “Americans” would probably be considered revisionist history by the popular mind and the author would have been ostracized or even “run out of town” if he had championed American Indians any time before 1890. They did it to Roger Williams during Puritan times and they would have done it to author Loewen as well because neither English nor American society produced societal forces powerful enough to compete with English and/or American greed for money and land. Things that aren’t commonly written about but that Loewen relates is information like that the Puritans, typical products of an English society that didn’t believe in bathing, smelled so bad that Indians like Squanto tried to instruct them to bathe—to no avail. He debunks the popular hypistory concerning Betsy Ross creating the first flag at George Washington’s behest: he didn’t and she didn’t. The author informs us that Thanksgiving had next to nothing to do with the Pilgrims for it wasn’t even a celebration until 1863 when President Lincoln proclaimed it a national holiday and even the term “Pilgrims” wasn’t used until the 1870s. Loewen devotes much space to telling the truth about President Woodrow Wilson, the interventionist par excellance who also segregated the federal government and refused to put a stop to the lynchings of black Americans. He writes about why Helen Keller was truly great, which had much more to do with her social activism than “merely” being blind and deaf. I have always felt that History is the most dangerous subject that one can study in American society. If you disagree, see how you feel when Loewen writes: …Adolph Hitler understood how America treated its Indians. Hitler admired the American concentration camps set up for Indians in the West and often lauded them to his inner circle for the effectiveness of American aptitude for promoting starvation and unequal combat, which inspired him for his own extermination of Jews and Gypsies.
ZINN Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999. This work is quite a departure from standard American scriptography. While it begins in much the same way, denigrating Columbus and later “Black Legend” conquistadores like Cortés while utilizing the writings of reform-minded missionaries like Bartolomé de Las Casas, it often applies the same tenets to England and the USA. The latter is a rarity in English-language historiography while the former is standard procedure with the exception of H.E. Bolton and some of his students. Zinn quotes Albert Camus when describing his rationale in writing history: It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners. So his PEOPLE’S HISTORY is written from the perspectives of Indians, blacks, minorities, women, etc., not the conquerors nor the corporations. I believe Zinn makes the effort to tell both sides of the issue. For example, he says Spaniards came for gold, their “obsessive goal,” but he also states the Aztecs sacrificed thousands of people “to their gods.” He doesn’t mention that cannibalistic Aztecs sold the flesh in the market place after the sacrifices, thus helping to feed the population (nor does he draw a parallel between Spanish “obsession” for gold and unbridled American greed for money). Neither does he mention that surrounding Indian nations hated the cannibalistic Aztecs, a hatred that enabled the astute Cortés to conquer an area that had perhaps a million warriors under arms. Furthermore, Cortés didn’t exterminate the Indians of Mexico. Indeed, the Tlaxcalans proved such valuable allies that the great conquistador petitioned the King to exempt them from tribute or any form of slavery for all time, a petition that was granted. Zinn isn’t ready to delve that deeply into comparative history. But the author does write that “settlers” like the Puritans didn’t come onto vacant land. Indians lived everywhere and they were exterminated. He cites one person writing in 1972 that the Pequots in Connecticut now number “twenty-one persons.” America’s first labor shortage was solved by bringing in black slaves. There were huge profits involved so morality didn’t apply. England became the great slave runner of the “civilized” world because she came to dominate the high seas. Miscegenation was outlawed but apparently no rarity. It appears that one of the perks of being a slave master—8 of the first 12 American Presidents were—was sexual access to the black women he owned. Slaves came to represent wealth and status. This was true even after the American Revolution. James Madison reported that he could make about $257 on a Negro in a year and only spend about $13 on his upkeep. Punishments for “offending” slaves were brutal to the extreme, anything from whipping to branding to painful execution. Castrating males wasn’t uncommon. Zinn provides different perspectives for Bacon’s Rebellion (1676), indentured servitude, oppressive laws formulated by the rich, the abject fear of rebellion as much from poor whites, blacks, or Indians. In 1717 the English Parliament made it a law that people convicted of crimes could be sent to the colonies (English America) as legal punishment. He points out that from 1676 to 1760 there had been eighteen (18) uprisings intending to overthrow colonial governments, six (6) rebellions by black slaves, and forty (40) serious riots from New York to South Carolina. The American Revolution brought…freedom? Thomas Jefferson, one of the biggest slave owners of his day, proclaimed to the world that “all men are created equal.” Women were not included because they were more chattel than persons before the law. When the American Constitution was created it legalized slavery and protected property held by rich people. All this gets us through the first 102 pages. Then Zinn takes us to the contemporary scene, telling us (p. 658) that one percent (1%) of Americans own forty percent (40%) of American wealth. A People’s History of the United States runs to 702 pages. Howard Zinn tells it like it is. For example, what would you say is the basic characteristic of American (USA) history? Freedom!? Progress!? Zinn believes it’s RACISM. Study his book if you can handle differing perspectives.
Allport, Gordon W. The Nature of Prejudice. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison‑Wesley Publishing Company, 1979. This classic study of the sickness of prejudice is indispensable and has been used widely in college‑level courses. Allport discusses practices that are almost startling: “official morality” is what is espoused in the Declaration of Independence but day‑to‑day reality includes the psychology that motivated the Dred Scott Decision; to meet a Jewess or a Negress (a condescending label that works to deprive an individual of basic human worth because some other factor is being emphasized) in literature isn’t rare but when was the last time we met a Protestantess? Allport doesn’t discuss the term Anglo, the linchpin for racism in New Mexico, but he does describe the forming of “in‑groups/out‑groups” represented by the label because, while Hispanics are the largest ethnic group in the State, the many other ethnic/racial groups “club together” to call themselves Anglos in order to become the “majority” in‑group. Ethnocentric history, which I refer to as “scriptography” or the “White Legend” because it is generally underscored by exaggerated larger‑than‑life achievement, morality, heroics, etc., of someone who represents a favored “in‑group,” is a product of “official morality.” Allport doesn’t provide a label for someone in a targeted group who tries to “curry favor” from a dominant or “in-group” (“Uncle Tom” to some African-Americans) but perhaps fawner will do.
Alperovitz, Gar. The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the Architecture of an American Myth. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. This most disturbing volume documents that Japan was ready to surrender, that the atomic bomb was unnecessary, that censorship played an enormous role to conceal the heinous brutality from the American people after two bombs were used on Japanese civilian, not military, populations.
Anaya, Rudolfo A., Ortiz, Simon J. (eds.). Ceremony of Brotherhood. Albuquerque: Academia, 1981. This anthology was compiled in observance of the anniversary of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. Its weakness is implying this revolt against European people was the first of its kind, thereby ignoring the earlier revolts against the English on the eastern seaboard. Its pages do celebrate the blend of cultures in N.M. but the English extermination of Indians is ignored while “harsh” Spanish rule is emphasized despite the historical fact of Amerind survival under Hispanic sovereignty. Anaya, part of “Generation C,” can be credited with helping many writers to get published with works like this. His first novel, the classic Bless Me, Ultima, had to go out of N.M. to find a publisher.
Andrist, Ralph K. The Long Death‑-The Last Days of the Plains Indians. New York: Macmillan Company, 1964. Andrist documents how the USA brutally destroyed Indians of the plains. He exposes the atrocities of leaders like General Custer and Reverend Chivington to the point that one understands that only in an Orwellian society replete with “Doublethink” can these types be hailed as heroes. We can also begin to clarify why the Spanish in North America are made out to be “cruel villains” where Indians are concerned: after initial atrocities, Hispanics preserved Indians living under Spanish rule, as in N.M., while no original aboriginal settlement exists east of the Mississippi due to English and USA extermination/removal policy. Arias, Bishop David. Spanish Roots of America. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 1992. This work approaches Hispanic history in a positive way and is thus open to charges of apologist for the more popular “Black Legend” of “cruelty, greed, fanaticism,” attributed to Spanish/Hispanic people. Serious students should be knowledgeable in both camps so Arias is worth reading.
Bancroft, H.H. History of New Mexico and Arizona. Albuquerque: Horn and Wallace, 1963. Bancroft is often but not always a reliable English‑language source for history of the Southwest. He isn’t as culturally biased as some historiographers who are more aptly described as scriptographers because they promote “official morality” instead of documented scholarship. It takes courage to tell the truth and scriptographers posing as historians prefer the primrose path.
Bandelier A. The Delight Makers. This is a fictional account of Precontact people who, as the story emerges, are human beings who functioned in their society just like everybody else. Bandelier, from Switzerland, doesn’t promote the cultural bias that is so popular in some quarters.
Bannon, John Francis. Herbert Eugene Bolton: The Historian and the Man, 1870‑1953. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1978. _____. (ed.) Bolton and the Spanish Borderlands. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964. These excellent volumes tell us about the man, the archivist, the teacher, the student of the Spanish borderlands and its personalities, the scholar who stands with the greatest of American historians. Perhaps, from a native Southwestern point of view, he stands alone for writings like “The Epic of Greater America” in Borderlands which heightens appreciation of a more complete understanding of the human experience in the Western Hemisphere.
Baxter, John O. Las Carneradas. University of New Mexico Press, 1987. Sheep were the cash crop of Hispanic New Mexico and Carneradas is perhaps the best study of sheep husbandry. Much needs to be done in uncovering more information on New Mexico’s many sheep kings and this basic New Mexican industry..
Beck, Warren A. New Mexico: A History of Four Centuries. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961. This work, in its seventh printing when I bought it, libels many aspects of Hispanic New Mexico and is often an example of scriptography. It makes observations like: Hispanics vote three or four times in every election, N.M. is in the U.S. but not of the U.S., etc., Spaniards like Vargas were more foolhardy than brave, etc. It is a wonder how such a work ever got published or how the author and/or the publisher haven’t been slapped with a class action libel suit.
Becker, Thomas M. (ed., et al.). Racial and Ethnic Patterns of Mortality in New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993. Anyone targeted as a “minority” in N.M. will be very disturbed when s/he sees documentation on who suffers the most from various diseases and untimely death. The work is also a bit unique in that it doesn’t use “Anglo” to group ethnic groups that aren’t Amerind or Hispanic. (Use of Anglo is the linchpin of racism in the Land of Enchantment, encouraging ethnic/racial groups from the rest of the world to be the “Anglo majority” and make Hispanics, the largest ethnic group in the State, a “minority.”) Bertlitz, Charles, and Moore, William L. The Roswell Incident. New York: Berkley Books, 1988. This is an interesting “documented” account of the nation’s most famous UFO incident that officially “never happened.”
Bolton, H.E. Coronado: Knight of Pueblos and Plains. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1949. Bolton approaches his subjects with marvelous documentation and an open mind that is quite unique among English‑language historiographers. Because he isn’t biased against Hispanics he has been criticized for not promoting the Black Legend but to my knowledge no one has ever refuted his documentation. He seems to have genuine respect for subjects like Coronado, Kino, Anza, etc. The students he trained in historiography have often followed in the master’s footsteps. The Bolton school is generally the opposite of the KGD cycle of Hispanophobic English‑language writers. It is possible that more than 90% of English‑language writers are Hispanophobes who lace their work with popularly accepted cultural bias.
Boorstin, D.J. and Kelley, B.M. A History of the United States. Lexington, Mass.: Ginn and Co., 1986. It is difficult to encounter a public school textbook that doesn’t promote official morality because it won’t get published if the truth is told. So we have nonsensical hypistory that promotes Orwellianisms like Spanish women didn’t come to the New World with their men thereby pandering to prejudices like the idea that Hispanics are “inferior halfbreeds” with no rights anyone has to respect as per the Dred Scott Decision.
Boyle, Susan Calafate. Los Capitalistas: New Mexican Merchants and the Santa Fe Trade. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997. Before this introductory work was published many people had the impression the Santa Fe traders were mostly from the States. Calafate Boyle shows that Hispanics controlled more than half of the trade because of their numbers and abilities. Much needs to be brought out on this subject.
Briggs, Charles L. The Wood Carvers of Córdova, New Mexico. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1980 (UNM, 1989). Sculpting in wood is one of the talents of some New Mexicans and Córdova was and is the center of the art. Other cultural and historical items come forth at the same time.
Briggs, Charles L. and Van Ness, John R. (eds.). Land, Water, and Culture: New Perspectives on Hispanic Land Grants. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987. Not very many writers have had the intestinal fortitude to bring forth documented studies on the land. These authors have the abilities to expose land grant history and put it in a true light.
Bryan, Howard. Wildest of the Wild West. Santa Fe: Clear Light Publishers, 1991. _____. Incredible Elfego Baca. Santa Fe: Clear Light Publishers, 1993. Former newspaper man Howard Bryan has been one of New Mexico’s treasures and as a writer he is quite dependable to going where the documentation leads him. For example, he is one of the few to describe how Mexican citizens who fought against the U.S. invasion in 1846 were hung for treason against the U.S. Such revelation smacks of “treason” in the minds of scriptographers.
Bunting, Bainbridge. Of Earth and Timbers Made. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1974. Buntings work isn’t in the Orwellian genre and worth studying. New Mexican architecture was universally criticized by English‑language observers but then it became “fashionable” with certain of their cultural descendants to the point that one author now claims the “Santa Fe Style” of architecture was really created by “Anglos.”
Campa, Arthur L. Hispanic Culture in the Southwest. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979. Campa is one of the icons of Southwestern historiography. As a member of “Generation B” he was in the crucible of acculturation pressures but he produced writings that are valid to this day. He also has the courage to refuse to get on bandwagons; for example he believes the term Chicano is political, not ethnic, that Chicanos lauding their “Indian” past would have been targeted by raiders during New Mexico’s frontier era right along with those who used the term “Hispano.”
Cather, Willa. Death Comes for the Archbishop. New York: Vintage Books, 1971. This is said to be the most widely read book in the history of New Mexican publishing. It slanders Hispanic New Mexicans like Father Martínez, Manuel Antonio Chaves, etc., as well as its women who are portrayed as believing that Marriage to an American was coming up in the world. A fictional pair of French priests, thought to be patterned after Lamy and Machebeuf, are portrayed as moral champions who are there to lead the immoral and ignorant New Mexicans out of their miseries now that a progressive country dominates New Mexico. Manuel Antonio Chaves is portrayed as anti‑American and despoiler of the Indians while heroic Kit Carson, of whom Chaves is totally jealous, leads the destruction of the Navajo Nation only because he has been duped. People like Mary Austin didn’t like the book and it’s a wonder that Cather’s estate hasn’t been sued for all its worth. From the native New Mexican point of view this Orwellian work doesn’t deserve anything but negative plaudits.
Cave, Dorothy. Beyond Courage: One Regiment Against Japan, 1942‑1945. World War II was the USA’s most popular war and much has been written about it. This work is worth studying because of the many New Mexicans who served their country as Americans.
Chávez, Fray Angélico. But Time And Chance: The Story of Padre Martínez of Taos, 1793‑1867. Santa Fe: The Sunstone Press, 1981. _____. Origins of New Mexico Families. Santa Fe: William Gannon, 1954. _____. My Penitente Land. Museum of New Mexico Press, 1974. _____. Très Macho‑‑He Said. Santa Fe: William Gannon, 1985. Fray Angélico is New Mexico’s distinguished man of letters, certainly one of the most talented writers in our history. As a part of “Generation B” he had to achieve publication of the classic New Mexico Families through pre‑publication subscriptions which goes far to document that Hispanic writers aren’t sought out by tax supported State presses like UNM Press and the Museum of N.M. Press (to my knowledge there has never been an Hispanic director of a State‑funded press) until one is a super‑star who can’t be ignored as in the case of Rudy Anaya. Generation B was pressured with subtle pitfalls like “If they were all like you there wouldn’t be any problem” and I don’t know that Chávez was ever able to help his fellows get published. (Being “published” is crucial because it is a form of “self determination.”) His Penitente Land is perhaps the best work ever written on N.M. but it is beyond the scope of most general readers. One can only wish Angélico had written a documented or popular history of the N.M. he loved so much. But he did leave a most impressive body of work. that will survive and he appears to have recognized the plight of Hispanics in Très Macho.
Chávez, Dan D. Soledad Chávez Chacón, A New Mexico Political Pioneer, 1890‑1936. This monograph explodes the myth that Hispanic women were kept at home, “chained” to cooking and child bearing. While New Mexico was undeniably dominated by males it must be observed that, unlike their sisters east of the Mississippi, Hispanic women could own land within the law and Soledad proves that women were also involved in politics.
Commager, Henry Steele (ed.). Documents of American History. New York: Appleton‑Century‑Crofts, Inc. 1958. This popular volume is a wealth of information that reflects the true history of the USA.
Coulter, Lane, and Dixon, Maurice. New Mexican Tinwork, 1840‑1940. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. Like sculpting in wood, tinwork became one of New Mexico’s distinguishing arts. It became more widespread after the American takeover of the Southwest because tin became more readily available.
Crow, John A. The Epic of Latin America. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1946. This standard classic is still a treasure house of information on Latin America. Among other things, Crow isn’t shy about stating that Columbus’ discovery of the New World was/is the most
Cummins, Light Townsend. Spanish Observers and the American Revolution, 1775‑1783. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 1991. This book is a good introduction to the role of Spain in achieving American independence. After the use of “Observers” in the title is explained, Cummins shows that Spain, its money, diplomats, and soldiers were an integral factor of George Washington’s final victory at Yorktown.
Cutter, Charles R. The Protector de Indios in Colonial New Mexico, 1659‑1821. University of New Mexico Press, 1986. This marvelous short item documents how Native American groups, especially the Pueblos, were protected through the Hispanic legal system. And it proves the Pueblos were excellent students in learning how to protect themselves.
Davis, W.W.H. El Gringo, or New Mexico and her People. Santa Fe: Rydal Press, 1938. Davis, the first U.S. Attorney, disappeared from New Mexico after he was charged with embezzlement. However his “Black Legend/White Legend” book is read to this day despite the fact that it says more about Davis and American racism than New Mexico. The embezzlement charges have more validity than many of his impressions, most of them based on his own omniscient ignorance, of Hispanic New Mexicans.
DeBuys, William. Enchantment and Exploitation: The Life and Hard Times of a New Mexico Mountain Range. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1985. This work is a bit unique in that the author speaks well of the Forest Service in northern New Mexico. And he doesn’t believe returning the land to its rightful owners is feasible, though his presentation of the Las Trampas land grant swindle appears to be historically accurate. The historical overview is written as if from Mt. Olympus and other items seem like essays.
DeMark, Judith Boyce (ed.). Essays in 20th Century New Mexico History. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1994. These informative essays have to do with a variety of items like family farm life, groundwater, mining, military impact, labor, tourism, etc.
Dickey, Roland F. New Mexico Village Arts. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990. Dickey reviews the arts but he also feels the need to throw in hypistory like the misinformation that New Mexicans became citizens of the USA because General Kearny so decreed. The work is seriously weakened because of such forays though it was published by the scholarly UNM Press, of which Dickey was once Editor.
Dobie, J. Frank. The Mustangs. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1952. _____. Coronado’s Children. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1930. _____. The Longhorns. New York: Bramhall House, 1941. Much information on Hispanic plainsmen (llaneros) can be gleaned from the inimitable Dobie, especially in the Mustangs volume, certainly one of his best efforts. It must also be pointed out that Dobie is a product of his era, attested to by the title of one of his mining tales, “The Lost Nigger Mine,” in Coronado’s Children. He also writes that Comanches distinguishing “Texans” from other “whites” is something to be proud of. Perhaps he is confident that no one will learn the “distinction” is based on Texan treachery at the Council House Massacre of 1840 when the Texans gunned down their Comanche guests who had been invited to come in and talk peace. Dobie’s pride might be an example of Orwellian “Ignorance is Strength.”
Drumm, Stella M. (ed.). Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico: The Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin, 1846‑1847. Magoffin’s impressions of N.M. and its people are interesting reading because young Susan isn’t plagued by as much igug mentality which characterizes so many of her countrymen during the era of world‑conquering Manifest Destiny.
Ebright, Malcolm. Land Grants and Lawsuits in Northern New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1994. _____. The Tierra Amarilla Grant: A History of Chicanery. Santa Fe: Center for Land Grant Studies, 1980. _____. Spanish and Mexican Land Grants and the Law. Journal of the West, 1989. If one is interested in the history of land ownership in N.M. there is no one more crucial than Ebright. My grandparents and their generation, individuals coming of age around 1900 and whom I refer to as “Generation A,” knew they had been swindled out of their lands but they couldn’t prove it. Ebright’s documentation does. His Land Grants and Lawsuits is a classic, certainly one of the best books ever done on N.M.
Encinias, Miguel; Rodríguez, Alfred; and Sánchez, Joseph P. (trans. and eds.). Historia de la Nueva México by Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1992. This annotated, bilingual edition is certainly the best rendition of Villagrá’s epic founding chronicle of N.M. and the first historical account of the entire USA. Villagrá’s unique (the only one of its kind in world history) epic is all but unknown, reflective of New Mexico’s Hispanic history. Espinosa, Gilberto and Chávez, Tibo. El Río Abajo. Portales: Bishop Publishing Co. (No date.) This popular history provides many interesting stories that need to be investigated further because they could be very important with additional documentation.
Espinosa, J. Manuel. The Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1696 and the Franciscan Missions in New Mexico. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988. This volume is well documented and provides much information for that period in our history. While it wasn’t their intent, the missionaries’ correspondence demonstrates their heroic stature. Due to cultural bias, these knights of Christendom aren’t often portrayed as the heroes that many of them actually were.
Etulain, Richard E. (ed.). Contemporary New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, 1994. Writing contemporary history has many pitfalls but these essays on politics, economics, ethnicity, and culture are informative and not intended to be the last word on any issue.
Faulk, Odie B. Arizona: A Short History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970. Official morality is the key to understanding this work.
Florian, Sister M. O.S.E. The Inexplicable Stairs. The “miraculous stairway” is one of New Mexico’s most enduring tourist attractions. This monograph provides a very basic introduction to the stairs.
Forrest, Suzanne. The Preservation of the Village. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989. This is an excellent study of Hispanic N.M. and the New Deal but it also perpetuates the racism that people who aren’t Indian or Hispanic are “Anglo,” i.e., one ethnic or racial group, thus projecting the majority/minority fallacy. The use of “Anglo” is the linchpin for racism in N.M.
Frank, Larry. New Kingdom of the Saints: Religious Art of New Mexico, 1780‑1907. Santa Fe: Red Crane Books, 1992. This is one of the best, if not the best item on the religious art of N.M. An introductory note on the dust jacket refers to New Mexico’s Spanish pioneers as “immigrants” (as if somehow the “real” settlers were yet to arrive?) but the book itself is a beautiful, informative creation that is indispensable to anyone serious about santero art and the religiosity it symbolizes.
Frazer, Robert W (ed.). New Mexico in 1850: A Military View. Col. George Archibald McCall. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968. McCall’s reports to the Secretary of War (now called the Secretary of Defense) are dry but they present an unvarnished picture of the ineffective military in N.M. Frazer’s introduction and general guiding hand is excellent.
Friedenberg, Daniel M. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Land: The Plunder of Early America. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1992. This is an excellent introduction to the nature of American land greed, fraud, and swindles later perpetrated on New Mexicans. Friedenberg writes that fraud, treachery, and deceit rule supreme when it comes to American land history. Fulton, Maurice G. History of the Lincoln County War. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1968. The violence of the Lincoln County War has always attracted interest because of personalities like Billy the Kid. Fulton’s narrative includes information on the Hispanic personalities who took part in the conflict whereas most writers have a predilection for ignoring them. This episode in New Mexican history still needs to be done from the Hispanic point of view.
Gallegos, Bernardo P. Literacy, Education, and Society in New Mexico, 1692‑1821. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992. This short volume dispels the hoaxistory that Hispanic New Mexico relied basically on oral skills instead of the written word. Not only were the missionaries highly literate, the study shows many people owned books and read various magazines when available in a basically frontier society. Many Indian youngsters, called doctrinarios and trained by missionaries, were also literate in the Spanish language.
García, Nasario. Recuerdos de los Viejitos: Tales of the Río Puerco. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987. This collection of stories and reminiscences from people who lived in western N.M. rings true because they have the grass roots flavor of oral history. The Río Puerco area was once described as the garden spot of N.M. and most of its history and culture has yet to be told.
Garrard, Lewis H. Wah-To-Yah and the Taos Trail. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955. Young Garrard, perhaps 17 years of age, is generally considered a primary source for the era when the U.S. took N.M. and the Southwest from Mexico. He is a reflection of his society but he doesn’t deny he is swept up in the evils of aggressive warfare.
Gates, Zethyl. Mariano Medina, Colorado Mountain Man. Boulder: Johnson Publishing Co., 1981. This work emphasizes the fact that little has been done on mountain men who are not considered “Anglo.” Racism has perverted historiography into scriptography so the popular mind hasn’t been exposed to accomplished individuals like Mariano Medina.
Gavin, Robin Farwell. Traditional Arts of Spanish New Mexico. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1994. This is a beautiful but short item. New Mexican arts and crafts have received much attention while items like the Santa Fe Ring and the Court of Private Land Claims swindles are ignored.
Gibson, Arrell Morgan. The Santa Fe and Taos Colonies: Age of the Muses, 1900‑1942. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1983. This is an excellent work to learn about all the artists who came into N.M. to enhance their artistic abilities. It all but ignores the native people of the State so the work must be described as ethnocentric but it is loaded with information on the newcomers. _____. The Life and Death of Col. Albert Jennings Fountain. University of Oklahoma Press, 1965. Fountain was a real hero who stood up to the entrenched villainy of New Mexico’s Territorial period. The era should be researched and studied but most writers steer clear of the Santa Fe Ring and its manipulation of American democracy. Gonzáles‑Berry, Erlinda (ed.). Pasó por Aquí: Critical Essays on the New Mexican Literary Tradition, 1542‑1988. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989. These scholarly, magnificent essays are of utmost interest. Their only weakness is that they are written for academics, not the masses of readers, so circulation is hindered. They need to be published in popular culture magazines so that more people can be aware of New Mexico’s rich history and culture.
Gonzáles, Edward & Witt, David L. Spirit Ascendant: The Art and Life of Patrociño Barela. Santa Fe: Red Crane Books, 1996. This book is a work of art in and of itself. The contents, replete with marvelous color photos and a very realistic text, are also exceptional. For example, Ernest Blumenschein, Laurie Kalb, Mabel Dodge Luhan, etc., are unmasked. I am surprised that Vernon Hunter is portrayed with such a light hand. It is also disappointing that America’s greatest wood sculptor is portrayed through his “pidgin English.” Spanish, not English, was his native language. But the authors do appear to consider Barela, one of America’s greatest sculptors and perhaps the greatest wood sculptor, as representative of the burdensome plight of Hispanics in the USA.
Gonzáles, Phillip B. “Spanish Heritage and Ethnic Protest in New Mexico: The Anti‑Fraternity Bill of 1933.” New Mexico Historical Review: October, 1986. This article exposes the racism and discrimination that has been part and parcel of the University of New Mexico’s history. While such behavior is strictly prohibited by the State constitution, UNM has been able to flaunt the law with astounding success. Dr. Gonzáles is among the younger generation of highly prepared and respected scholars.
Gregg, Josiah. Commerce of the Prairies. (Edited by M.L. Moorhead.) Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954. This “White Legend” work is usually referred to as the “classic” account of the Santa Fe Trail and Trade. While full of detailed information that all investigators relish it must be pointed out that even the generally reserved Fray Angélico Chávez considered Gregg a racist bigot. I feel Gregg is generally unreliable when discussing the Hispanic and/or Indian people of N.M.
Griswold del Castillo, Richard. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: A Legacy of Conflict. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990. The treaty that took almost half the country of Mexico and made it “American” is studied and analyzed. The plight of Hispanics who remained in the conquered lands is also touched upon. The work is an excellent beginning to a situation that most authors studiously avoid.
Gutiérrez, Ramón A. When Jesús Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991. This controversial work is as powerful as it is vicious. For example, the paladin missionaries are referred to as “fools for Christ” because they often suffered martyrdom. Kendall, Gregg, and Davis have nothing on Gutiérrez.
Hackett, C.W. Revolt of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Otermín’s Attempted Reconquest, 1680‑1682, (two vols.) Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1942. These volumes are acknowledged to be the most complete study of the Pueblo Revolt but unfortunately they are accessible only in Special Collections of certain libraries. Hammond, G.P and Rey, A. Don Juan de Oñate, Colonizer of New Mexico, 1595‑1628. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1953. (two vols.) This is the classic study of Oñate and the colonization of N.M. but available only in Special Collections of large libraries. The authors report the punishment for ambushing Acoma rebels was to have a foot cut off but contemporary researchers maintain it was toes and was even that sentence actually carried out? Paleography is no simple task. (A popularly accepted mistranslation is “Staked Plains” for llano estacado which in reality is “stockaded” or “palisaded plains.”)
Hanke, Lewis. The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of America. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1965, p. 151. _____. All Mankind is One: A Study of the Disputation Between Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda in 1550 on the Intellectual and Religious Capacity of American Indians. DeKalb, Ill.: Northern Illinois University Press, 1974. Hanke’s scholarship is magnificent and not marred by cultural bias. These items should be part of the groundwork for anyone who wishes to study Hispanic America or Hispanic N.M.
Handlin, Oscar. Truth In History. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1979. This marvelous item is for professionals and serious students of history. There is much here with which to agree or disagree: the continent was “all but empty” when the English landed; American history is a discipline in crisis because it has slipped into “the hands of propagandists, politicians, dramatists, novelists, journalists, and social engineers;” American history is generally written within the framework of a grand mission (progress, freedom, democracy) and conflict between heroes and villains, etc. He mentions that Jared Sparks “took the liberty” of improving the grammar in George Washington’s personal letters which is to me symptomatic of the “crisis” I refer to as scriptography.
Henderson, Alice Corbin. Brothers of Light: The Penitentes of the Southwest. Henderson wrote about the Penitente Brotherhood with the sensitivity and understanding of the poet she was. It is doubtful anyone has penned a better portrayal.
La Herencia del Norte. This popular quarterly provides many articles on a wide variety of topics and issues.
Hill, Gene. Americans All/Americanos Todos. Albuquerque: Añoranza Press, 1997. This bilingual effort relates historical anecdotes on Hispanic contributions to America. It can be used to good advantage in the schools but wide dissemination will be a problem.
Hilton, Conrad. Be My Guest. New York: Simon & Schuster (Fireside Book), 1994. Hilton’s autobiography shows a man of faith, business acumen, family ties, and ultimate “American dream” success.
Hoffman, Virginia, and Johnson, Broderick H. Navajo Biographies. Rough Rock, Arizona: Dine, Inc., 1970. Biographies are always interesting and those of Navajo leaders are not generally encountered so this is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the various cultures of the Southwest. Holmes, Jack E. Politics in New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1967. Politics are a passion in N.M. and, while a bit dry, this is perhaps the best study to date. Holmes also has the courage to assert that peonage wasn’t a form of slavery, quite a contrast to most writers.
Horgan, Paul. Lamy of Santa Fe. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975. _____. Great River: The Río Grande in North American History. Wesleyan University Press, 1984. _____. The Heroic Triad. University of New Mexico Press, 1970. _____. Conquistadors in North American History. University of Texas at El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1982. Though Horgan wasn’t born in N.M. he is considered one of the State’s most brilliant men of letters. His abilities are beyond question yet it appears he is ever a proponent of Manifest Destiny, evil or not. In Triad he writes of “Anglo‑American Sons of Democracy” as if he had never heard of the USA’s extermination of Indians or African‑American slavery. (Use of “Anglo” in this fashion is typical of New Mexican racism; when a group sponsored a Town Hall meeting on the subject of Education a flyer listed an ethnic checkoff list with the following choices: Anglo, Hispanic, Native American, African American, Asian American, Other...Acknowledged “minorities” are therefore targeted while ethnicities from all over the world are the “Anglo” majority, i.e., dominant group.) He never mentions realities like the Santa Fe Ring, which was the State’s introduction to “democracy.” Bishop Lamy is heroicized by denigrating New Mexican Hispanics a la Willa Cather. In Conquistadors (“pidgin English” for conquistadores) he states that all Acoma men were sentenced to having a foot cut off when in reality it was toes of 24 warriors, if the sentence was actually carried out. Horgan perpetuates the Black Legend against Hispanics and the White Legend for anyone considered part of the “sons of democracy” and his society has honored him with various literary prizes. Perhaps that’s what it takes? A comparative study of the lives and careers of Horgan and Angélico Chávez would be most interesting.
Jacobs, Wilbur R. Francis Parkman, Historian as Hero: The Formative Years. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991. From the title one would think this would be a laudatory work about an American icon but it might be safe to say it is almost opposite. While Parkman made history more popular he also believed Indians to be racial inferiors and he fought against women’s suffrage because he harbored a deep‑rooted belief they could never handle the responsibility. The book is a must for anyone interested in the basics of how American history is written by people like Parkman, Turner, Bancroft, Beard, etc.
Jenkins, Myra Ellen, and Schroeder, Albert H. A Brief History of New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1974. This short volume is a general introduction to the history of N.M. Jenkins, the State archivist, also wrote Guides to the Spanish and Mexican Archives of N.M.
Johnson, Byron A. and Sharon P. Gilded Palaces of Shame: Albuquerque’s Redlight Districts. Albuquerque: Gilded Age Press, 1983. Fans of the KGD cycle of writers won’t be pleased to learn that organized prostitution entered N.M. with the railroad, according to this short study.
Jones, O.L. Pueblo Warriors and Spanish Conquest. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966. This excellent volume explores the military alliance between Hispanic and Pueblo people of N.M. It also documents that the Pueblos were masterful warriors when the situation demanded.
Josephy, Jr. Alvin M. 500 Nations: An Illustrated History of North American Indians. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994. Josephy is usually reliable when writing about Native Americans and this item is no exception. Further, he describes how the English enslaved the coastal Indians in such a brutal manner that it resulted in their extermination, which is why there is no Indian base in those areas today. Spanish atrocities aren’t ignored but it is rare for an English‑language writer to focus on how the English brutalized then exterminated the Indians and how the USA followed in their footsteps.
Kalb, Laurie Beth. Crafting Devotions: Tradition in Contemporary New Mexico Santos. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, 1994. This book about contemporary santeros is informative and beautiful but marred by an ethnocentric fixation on things “Anglo.” It is almost as if there would be no santeros or santero art if it wasn’t for “Anglo newcomers, Anglo patrons, Anglo writers, Anglo artists, Anglo scholars, Anglo museums, Anglo ‘modes,’ Anglo control, Anglo marketing techniques, Anglo notions, etc.” It would appear that everyone who came through Ellis Island automatically becomes an “Anglo” in New Mexico. Perhaps the author and/or publisher are promoting “Ellis Island Anglos”? Someone should tell them the term is akin in usage to Hitler’s “Aryan” super race, therefore more racist than ethnic.
Keleher, William A. Turmoil in New Mexico, 1846‑1868. Santa Fe: Rydal Press, 1952. _____. Memoirs: 1892‑1926 A New Mexico Item. Santa Fe: Rydal Press, 1969. _____. The Maxwell Land Grant. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1942. _____. The Fabulous Frontier. Twelve New Mexico Items. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1945,1962. Attorney Keleher has been described as an “amateur historian” but his works are generally well done and worthy of study. He had much experience with land grants because of his law practice and he met many celebrities like Elfego Baca during his long career. His perspectives are still of interest to the general reader. Keleher’s research is generally strong but it is obvious he prefers to write in a positive vein, whatever his subject.
Kenner, C.L. A History of New Mexican‑Plains Indian Relations, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969. This item is a must for anyone interested in llaneros (Hispanic plainsmen) like ciboleros and comancheros. It is one of the most important books ever written on N.M.
Kern, Robert (ed.). Labor in New Mexico: Unions, Strikes, and Social History since 1881. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983. This study of labor is also an investigation of its people. It is amazing how those in power often managed to brand their enemies as “communists and troublemakers” and win the day, indicating the thought control of an Orwellian society. It is also interesting to see how ethnic groups were set against each other in order to neutralize both.
Kessell, John L. Kiva, Cross, & Crown: The Pecos Indians and New Mexico, 1540‑1840. Tucson: Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, 1987. _____. Letters from the New World. Edited by John L. Kessell, Rick Hendricks, Meredith D. Dodge. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992. Dr. Kessell’s contribution to New Mexico and the Southwest has been enormous. Kiva is a classic so can Mission of Sorrows or Missions of New Mexico or Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers be far behind? Kessell’s documentation is always superb and his writing brings subjects to life. His work and that of his associates Hendricks and Dodge on the Vargas Project are of utmost interest and enthusiasm. Kiva is perhaps the best history of Spanish colonial N.M.
Klaits, Joseph. Servants of Satan: The Age of the Witch Hunts. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985. Klaits considers the “witch craze” to be the deadliest instance of mass persecution in Western history before the 20th century. That it was directed mostly against women leads him to believe it had misogyny as a base. While the Spanish Inquisition and its Inquisitors have often been written about very little is publicized concerning the Witch Finder General and the witch trials. A documented historical comparison of these two institutions would be most interesting.
Kolchin, Peter. American Slavery 1619‑1877. New York: Hill and Wang, 1993. This documented study reveals much about the “peculiar institution” and the mentality that sought to preserve it. It is sobering to learn how pervasive and brutal it was: eight of the first 12 American Presidents were slave owners; punishments for slaves included castration [in New Mexico Hispanophobes make much of Oñate ordering that puntas de pies, toes, be cut off for punishment after the Acomas ambushed a trading party] and it was against the law to teach a black slave to read or write. Contrary to impressions in popular entertainment like the movie “Amistad,” England dominated the business of trafficking in slaves with many of the leading families of England and New England getting richer because of it.
Kutz, Jack. Grassroots New Mexico, A History of Citizen Activism. Albuquerque: The Inter‑Hemispheric Education Resource Center, 1989. _____. Mysteries & Miracles of New Mexico. Corrales: Rhombus Publishing Co., 1988. Grassroots is an account of citizen activism probably inspired by the civil rights movement and of great interest because of its perspectives. These items aren’t found in standard textbooks. Mysteries is engaging for anyone who enjoys folklore.
Lambdin, William. Doublespeak Dictionary. Los Angeles: Pinnacle Books, 1979. The entries are often humorous but one can understand much “American history” by going through this volume. It’s a good companion to Lutz’ Doublespeak below.
Larson, Carole. Forgotten Frontier: The Story of Southeastern New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993. Larson writes basically about the people, mostly Texans and their Southern heritage, who entered southeastern N.M. after the Civil War but especially in the 1880s. She describes these newcomers as courageous Anglo pioneers, giving the work its fatal flaw of ethnocentrism because, among other things, Ft. Stanton, established in 1855 and not mentioned by Larson, was already in the area for protection of the “courageous pioneers.” Somehow, the European Hispanic people who settled there before the 1880s aren’t “the pioneers” of the area. Such is the way of scriptography.
Larson, Robert W. New Mexico’s Quest for Statehood, 1846‑1912. University of New Mexico Press, 1968. This is the classic study of how N.M. was kept in colonial status so long as Hispanics had a good opportunity to control powerful elective office such as the Governor’s chair, etc., and nationally the Senate and House of Representatives. This work attests to the fact that studies could be made of the Santa Fe Ring, the Court of Private Land Claims, and colonialist attitudes that encourage the use of N.M. as the place for the country to dump its nuclear waste.
Lecompte, Janet. Rebellion in Río Arriba, 1837. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1985. While this is an informative volume the author appears to have unabashed admiration for writers in the KGD (Kendall‑Gregg‑Davis) or White Legend cycle which I believe are mired in racism, bigotry, and ignorance. Embracing these igug perspectives weakens the overall impact of the work.
Lederer, William J. and Burdick, Eugene. The Ugly American. New York: Fawcett World Library, 1958. This work “unmasks” official morality to expose opportunism, deceit, incompetence, etc., in the diplomatic corps and in the character of so many people. It inspired the “igug” label to describe the “ignorant and ugly” personality convinced of its own superiority.
Leonard, Olen E. The Role of the Land Grant in the Social Organization and Social Processes of a Spanish American Village in New Mexico. Albuquerque: Calvin Horn Publisher, Inc., 1970. This work is often referred to as a gem but I found it quite ordinary, accepting biases of the day, bringing out aspects of surface culture, jumping to established conclusions. For example, when his research turns up not a single instance of intermarriage with the Indians, Leonard says, without documentation to verify his opinion, the mixture occurred in Mexico before his subjects came to N.M. This implies Leonard can’t verify the situation in 1940 but he can do so for 1598.
Lister, Robert H. and Florence C. Those Who Came Before. Southwest Parks & Monuments Association. This is for individuals who want to begin the study of precontact civilizations in N.M. and the Southwest. The pitfall in such studies is that human beings are investigated as anthropological specimens.
Loomis, Noel M. and Nasatir, Abraham R. Pedro Vial and the Roads to Santa Fe. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967. This well‑documented account of the Southwest’s most accomplished trail‑blazer is flawed by ethnocentricity, which one might expect from the author of The Texan‑Santa Fe Pioneers. Despite the authors’ use of sources like Gregg and Davis one can glean a wealth of information about Vial and his times so long as the reader can handle Orwellian speculation and approval of “restless,” hard driving “Anglo American pioneers” who were ready to dispossess people of their land for freedom and democracy.
Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: TOUCHSTONE (Simon & Schuster), 1995.
This item is a must for anyone interested in American history. While the title implies that teachers did the lying, the real message is that textbook history as written in our society is more hype then historiography. But there is much food for thought in this book. For example, the author believes that other pre-Columbian explorers should be credited with discovery of the Americas. And one can always ask how the Vikings could be “credited” since their settlements, if that's what they were, did not endure except in the Norse Sagas.
There are some more or less expected stereotypical observations: Christopher Columbus and “the Spanish” come in for their share of denigration. This is principally a rehash of the anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic bias that permeates so much of the English speaking world. Then there is the issue of the Indians, most of which were exterminated in the Caribbean Islands. What isn’t mentioned in Lies is when information on Spanish atrocities got back to Spain a sincere effort was made to put an end to them by passing laws intended to preserve indigenous populations. These efforts, which didn’t exist in English or American occupied territories and which are usually ridiculed by English language writers today, enabled many Native American groups, like the Pueblo people of New Mexico, to survive.
Aboriginal survival is a stark contrast to the situation in what was/is the USA, where Indians were targeted for exile or extermination until 1890, something that “textbook history” refuses to substantiate. It is also completely accurate to observe that Spanish society produced many defenders of the Indians, led by the herculean Bartolomé de las Casas, while no such thing happened in English or American society: the few like Roger Williams were silenced or neutralized so efficiently that their efforts were futile. (One can only wonder what would happen if society “woke up” and realized what “Americans,” made impersonal by use of labels like “the whites,” did to Native Americans over a period of almost three centuries. R.K. Andrist refers to it as The Long Death.)
But unlike other writers, author Loewen also relates how the Indians were exterminated by England and the USA itself. Denigrating Spain is old hat but focusing on American Indian extermination by “Americans” would probably be considered revisionist history by the popular mind and the author would have been ostracized or even “run out of town” if he had championed American Indians any time before 1890. They did it to Roger Williams during Puritan times and they would have done it to author Loewen as well because neither English nor American society produced societal forces powerful enough to compete with English and/or American greed for money and land.
Things that aren’t commonly written about but that Loewen relates is information like that the Puritans, typical products of an English society that didn’t believe in bathing, smelled so bad that Indians like Squanto tried to instruct them to bathe—to no avail. He debunks the popular hypistory concerning Betsy Ross creating the first flag at George Washington’s behest: he didn’t and she didn’t. The author informs us that Thanksgiving had next to nothing to do with the Pilgrims for it wasn’t even a celebration until 1863 when President Lincoln proclaimed it a national holiday and even the term “Pilgrims” wasn’t used until the 1870s. Loewen devotes much space to telling the truth about President Woodrow Wilson, the interventionist par excellence who also segregated the federal government and refused to put a stop to the lynchings of black Americans. He writes about why Helen Keller was truly great, which had much more to do with her social activism than “merely” being blind and deaf.
I have always felt that History is the most dangerous subject that one can study in American society. If you disagree, see how you feel when Loewen writes: …Adolph Hitler understood how America treated its Indians. Hitler admired the American concentration camps set up for Indians in the West and often lauded them to his inner circle for the effectiveness of American aptitude for promoting starvation and unequal combat, which inspired him for his own extermination of Jews and Gypsies.
Lopopolo, Carlos. Foundations. Los Lunas: Cincar Publishing, 1995. Lopopolo’s works, based on painstaking research, are indispensable to historians and genealogists alike. They will become classics to people attracted by culture and documented historical awareness. He isn’t intimidated by tenets of popularly accepted racism and will explore wherever the documentation takes him.
Lucero, Donald L. The Adobe Kingdom: New Mexico 1598‑1958 as experienced by the families Lucero de Godoy y Baca. Pueblo: El Escritorio, 1995. While the general focus is on specific families there is also much valuable historical information in this popular history.
Lummis, Charles F. A New Mexico David. _____. The Land of Poco Tiempo. Lummis is one of the Southwest’s most engaging personalities. He was genuinely impressed with the native people of New Mexico, for which he has been criticized as merely trying to promote the area. While he took prohibited pictures of Penitente rituals and such, Lummis remains a bright light in the firmament of America’s grandeur and maturity. A “Lummis Reader” should be created and published.
Lutz, William. DOUBLESPEAK. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1989. This popular work gives example after example of how language is manipulated to distort and subvert in order to sell this or that. Only the details are new if one is a student of American history. George Orwell has been alive and well long before and after 1984.
Madariaga, Salvador de. The Rise of the Spanish American Empire. New York: The Free Press (Macmillan Co.), 1947. Don Salvador, the incomparable bilingual scholar of Europe and the Americas, is read by Europeans and Americans alike because most of his works are classics. He has been described by a few critics as the “apologist” for the Black Legend and Spanish history because they have difficulty with his documentation and abilities which are phenomenal. The writings of Madariaga, professional in every sense of the word, are vital to understanding America’s Hispanic people and the age‑old cultural bias that affects them to this day.
Major, Mabel (et al.). Southwest Heritage ‑ A Literary History. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1948. It would have been more accurate to name this otherwise interesting work “Anglo‑American Southwest Heritage Literary History” because the authors ignore most of what hasn’t been written in English or available to them in English translation. Perhaps they can’t be blamed for being ignorant of what was in the archives all along but it must be pointed out that in the introduction the authors crow that where matters of language and civilization are concerned “...the dominant strain seems clearly to be Anglo‑American, with its ever increasing tendency to spread its influence and to absorb its competitors.” I don’t know if this is condoning ignorance but no one can deny the authors are products of their era and their scholarship is skin-deep.
Mallo, Jerónimo. España: Síntesis de su civilización. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1957. Esta obra breve resulta de los cursos creados por el Profesor Mallo durante su carrera de enseñanza. Se concierne de los temas fundamentales y predominantes de la historia y cultura española.
Marks, Paula Mitchell. And Die in the West: The Story of the O.K. Corral Gunfight. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989. This is a prime example of the White Legend in action: the heinous buffalo slaughter was “hunting;” prostitution paid much better than doing laundry; violence at the base of society makes for “interesting” reading; etc. The work is quite a contrast to the tenets of how Hispanic New Mexican history is generally written. The 15‑second gunfight at the OK is often considered the most “famous” in the West but then the popular mind probably has never heard of Elfego Baca.
Meketa, Jacqueline Dorgan (ed.). Legacy of Honor. The Life of Rafaél Chacón, A Nineteenth‑Century New Mexican. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986. This good work needs better organizing. The study of biography is certainly a step in the right direction and Meketa usually has the moral courage to confront entrenched cultural bias.
Meléndez, A. Gabriel. So All Is Not Lost: The Poetics of Print in Nuevomexicano Communities, 1834‑1958. University of New Mexico Press, 1997. Destined to be a classic, this volume identifies and documents the Spanish‑language literary tradition as exemplified in newspapers. It explodes the igug myth that Hispanics are heirs only to oral literature. Typos, which indicate editorial problems and usually not found in books released by a scholarly press, mar this fine, hard-hitting work. It is one of the best books ever written on N.M.
Mera, H.R. Spanish‑American Blanketry. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press, 1987. I grew up with the “Río Grande blanket” in my grandparents’ abodes but I never knew it was a New Mexican creation. I’m probably typical so this work is most interesting on several planes.
Meyer, Doris. Speaking for Themselves: Neomexicano Cultural Identity and the Spanish Language Press, 1880‑1920. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996. Like the Meléndez book, this wonderful volume is destined to be a classic because it fills in aspects of New Mexican culture that nefarious forces have tried to suppress. Meyer sometimes tends to “argue” with her sources but the book should be studied by anyone interested in N.M. culture.
McKay, John P (et al.). A History of Western Society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991 This work is used as a text at the university level.
McNitt, Frank. Navajo Wars: Military Campaigns, Slave Raids, and Reprisals. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1972. This well‑documented work is important because it presents information on western N.M. and the Navajo Nation. He talks about Cebolleta, uses sources like scornful Thomas James and so labels him, talks about Manuel A. Chaves, provides much information on Cebolla Antonio Sandoval, etc.
Moorhead, Max L. New Mexico’s Royal Road: Trade and Travel on the Chihuahua Trail. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958. _____. (ed.) Commerce of the Prairies. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954. While Moorhead’s works are well documented he is just too ethnocentric to accept much of what he writes. For example, the purpose of the Texan‑Santa Fe Expedition of 1841 was to invite Mexicans to “share in the blessings of Texas freedom” though history shows Texas was a slave republic and inimical to “Mexicans.”
Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Oxford History of the American People. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965. This is a well‑known history found in most libraries. When dealing with “things English,” the work is suspect due to propaganda like “the energy and gallantry of the English nation” or “striking proof of English capacity for self government....” Perhaps the unreliability of much English‑language historiography stems from this legacy? Because of the power of scriptography, the popular mind has it that the English came to America for freedom but the reality is that they came, often forced, to make money for stockholders. Many didn’t want to migrate to the Americas at all and had to be kidnapped. That’s the psychology loosed on the Indians.
Morris, Richard B. (ed.). Encyclopedia of American History. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1965. This standard reference work is found in most libraries. It has an excellent chronological structure.
Morris, Roger. The Devil’s Butcher Shop: The New Mexico Prison Uprising. New York: Franklin Watts, 1983. The hideous brutality of the USA’s most violent prison uprising is emphasized in this well‑documented book.
Motto, Sytha. More Than Conquerors: Makers of History, 1528‑1978. Albuquerque: Adobe Press, 1980. Motto is the only writer of my acquaintance to reject the slanders that have long been leveled against Manuel Armijo, New Mexico’s last Mexican governor before the American conquest. The book contains much interesting information that needs to be investigated professionally.
Myrick, David E. New Mexico’s Railroads: A Historical Survey. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1970 and 1990. The book supplies basic information on railroads in our State.
New Mexico Blue Book. The Blue Book provides a compilation of State facts.
New Mexico Historical Review. (See Vol. X, April, 1935; Vol. XII, Jan., 1937.) This publication specializes in scholarly articles. |