11 26 1858 By Corinne P. Sze Katharine Drexel was born shortly before the American Civil War to a deeply religious, Roman Catholic family distinguished by material success, philanthropy, and recurrent tragedy. She was the second of three daughters born to Francis Anthony Drexel, a banker of international renown…
4 10 1910 By Suzanne Stamatov On 10 April 1910 Fabián Chavéz and María Nicolasa Roybal de Chávez welcomed the birth of their first child, Manuel Ezequiel Chávez, in the small northern town of Wagon Mound, New Mexico. The family, which would eventually include ten children, briefly left New…
by Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint Although neither fray Francisco Atanasio Domínguez nor fray Francisco Silvestre Vélez de Escalante spent much time in New Mexico, they both left historical legacies of importance for understanding the Spanish colony. Both were Franciscan friars, and both were sent to New Mexico…
1602 Maria de Jesus de Agreda by Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint In 1602, in the small town of Ágreda on the northeastern edge of the Kingdom of Castile in Spain, a remarkable little girl was born, María Fernández Coronel y Arana. From a very young age, she…
1578 by Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint Some of the most detailed documentary information about the Spanish province of New Mexico in the early decades of the 1600s comes from reports written by fray Alonso de Benavides. Fray Alonso was resident as custos, or superior, of the custody…
By Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint Without the work of fray Marcos de Niza, there may never have been a Coronado expedition. It was evidence provided in his 1539 report that triggered launch of the expedition the following year. Had Marcos\'s report been less glowing in its descriptions…
Terry Moody and Clarence Fielder The African-American Experience African-Americans have been significant to the history of southern New Mexico since the 1860s. The earliest African-Americans to spend more than a short period of time in the New Mexico Territory were troops of black soldiers—the famous “Buffalo Soldiers”—sent by the…
