By Dwight T. Pitcaithley In 2011, this nation began a four-year-long commemoration of the American Civil War. Few who participate in the activities of that event will pause to consider the importance of New Mexico’s central role in the coming of the war. Few will be aware that the…
Las Vegas Daily Optic, August 18, 1890 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I coincide with both speakers who have preceded me. This meeting has a two-fold object, to devise means to stop the wrongdoing, and do the right. The people are to rise in their might and squelch the land…
By Lauren Gray Coinciding with the end of World War I in 1918, the Spanish Influenza rapidly spread across the globe and devastated populations world-wide. The pandemic reached New Mexico in late fall of 1918; by October 26, 1918, fifteen thousand New Mexican residents had been struck ill and…
By Michael Miller In the year 2010, New Mexico’s rich Hispano literary tradition reached the four-century mark. Beginning with the publication of Historia de la Nueva Mexico in Spain in the year 1610, publishing in and about Nuevo México has flourished and endured over the centuries. This vibrant and…
Governor Francisco Martínez de Baeza, 1634-1637 By Rick Hendricks Not much is known about the early life of Francisco Martínez de Baeza, although it seems probable that he was from the city of Seville. He departed Mexico City on 4 July 1634 and arrived in New Mexico in late…
5 14 1910 By Rick Hendricks Eleanor Burnham Adams was born on 14 May 1910 in Cambridge Massachusetts. Charles was a Provincetown Adams, that is, the Adamses who fought on the losing side of the American Revolution. Her…
Wine Production in El Paso and the Grapevine Inventory of 1755 by Rick Hendricks Wine production in colonial El Paso had its roots farther north in New Mexico. Before he came to El Paso to found the mission Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe to serve the Manso Indians, fray García…
Suma Rebellion-1711 by Rick Hendricks During the first week of November 1711, General Antonio de Valverde y Cosío, captain of the presidio of El Paso and alcalde mayor of its jurisdiction, received a delegation of local Indians at his headquarters in El Paso. Their leader, the Suma cacique, Felipe,…
Founding of the Presidio of Elizario presidio Founding of the Presidio of San Elizario – 1789 by Rick Hendricks In 1765 Charles III sent José de Gálvez to New Spain with the title of inspector general and with authority to administer reform of the viceroyalty. As part of the…
By Rick Hendricks When death overtook Capt. Bernardo Antonio Bustamante y Tagle, lieutenant governor of New Mexico during the administration of Governor Juan Domingo de Bustamante, at the presidio of Guajoquilla at eight o'clock on the night of 15 January 1773, it set in motion a struggle over the…
