The Pedro Armendaris Grant No. 33 by Michael Miller Pedro Ascue de Armendaris was the collector of tithes and was the former First Lieutenant at the garrison in San Elizario. In 1819, he petitioned for the first of three land grants in the southern part of Nuevo Mexico. …
Elena Gallegos, daughter of Antonio Gallegos and Catalina Baca, was one of the Hispanic colonists of New Mexico who was present at the time of the Pueblo Revolt. Gallegos was a child in 1680, and fled south with her family, returning sometime after the Spanish re-occupation of New Mexico in…
Judge A. A. Freeman Opinion: Ellis vs. Newbrough and Howland The opinion of Judge Freeman, issued by the New Mexico Supreme Court 19 August 1891 defies easy summary. Lee Priestly probably did the best job, calling it “ten rollicking pages of ridicule.” Transcript: JESSE M. ELLIS, Appellee, v. JOHN…
Testamento del finado Manuel Martínez (1775-1842) Transcribed from copy of original document by Vicente M. Martínez and Elena Nápoles Goldfeder, PhD. En el nombre de Dios Todopoderoso y de nuestra Señora la Virgen María concebida sin mancha de pecado original desde el primer instante de su ser Purísima, Amen….
WPA Writers Project Interview with Elfego Baca By Janet Smith for the WPA Writer's Project "I never wanted to kill anybody," Elfego Baca told me, "but if a man had it in his mind to kill me, I made it my business to get him first." Elfego Baca belongs…
For centuries, the Spanish measured using la vara. This practice carried into Mexico, Nuevomexico, and Pueblo cultures. When the Anglo-American form of government took over in New Mexico, more things changed than just a unit of measurement. Author Michael Miller's insight to the difficulties of land titles, outcries of…
An essay about the Abiquiu Land Grant written for the Center of Land Grant Studies. The Abiquiú Genízaro Grant The Abiquiú Genízaro Grant is the only grant made exclusively to genízaro Indians, that is Plains Indians and Navajos who were captured and sold to Spaniards mainly for use as…
Federal Presence in New Mexico, 1890–1940 The author, David V. Holtby, Ph.D., was a recipient of a Fellowship awarded by the Office of the State Historian, funded through the State Records Center and Archives in 2009. Dr. Holtby is extensively published in New Mexico history and focuses on the…
An overview of the history of boxing in New Mexico. By Chris Cozzone There is no other sport like boxing that tells the story of New Mexico. Though oftentimes virtual underdogs in its cyclical battles with the law, public opinion and racial tension, the sport has paralleled the state’s…
Land, Violence and Death: The Bartolome Baca Grant. by Michael Miller In 1819, Bartolome Baca petitioned Governor Facundo Melgares for a grant covering a tract of land situated east of the Abo mountains near a place called Torreon. He described the boundaries to the governor in this way: “On the north,…
