New Mexico Books

I love this book, it is beautiful, inspirational and the story is well written. I would highly recommend this book, I am sure that you will fall in love as well.
Este libro es de los mejores que he leido, te inspira y es una hermosa historia. Lo recomiendo.

This book is an interesting read for those wanting to know about the beginnings of Santa Fe as an art mecca.

~Pam T's "look inside this paper"~ opening paragraph...

"EARLY in the eighteenth century French voyageurs, chasseurs, and traders of Louisiana and Canada looked with covetous eyes toward New Mexico. To the adventurer it was a land promising gold and silver and a path to the South Sea; to the merchant it offered rich profits in trade. The three natural avenues of approach to this Promised Land were the Missouri, Arkansas, and Red rivers. But there were two obstacles to expeditions bound for New Mexico. One was the jealous and exclusive policy of Spain which made the reception of such Frenchmen as might reach Santa Fe a matter of uncertainty ; the other was the Indian tribes which stood in the way. The Red River highway was effectually blocked by the Apache, mortal enemies of all the tribes along the lower valley; the Arkansas and Missouri River avenues were impeded by the Comanche for analogous reasons. It was not so much that the Apache and Comanche were averse to the entrance of French traders, as that the jealous enemies of these tribes opposed the passage of the traders to their foes with supplies of weapons. It is a matter of interest that in the nineteenth century the American pioneers found almost identical conditions in the same region."

~ End of Pam T's "look-see"~

In this paper Professor Bolton is simply at his best as he describes how the Spanish disinterest in the fine fur trade contributed to their loss of New Mexico. His writing is crisp and his storytelling is in fine form as he spins an interesting narrative that connects people, places, and politics.

Despite the years stated in the title, Bolton actually begins his narrative in 1718 with La Harpe's building of Cadodacho on the Red River. He then goes on to talk about other traders who extended the range of the French voyageurs ever closer to Spanish lands. As 1749 approaches, the narrative slows and the author begins to delve more deeply into the sources that describe the difficulties faced by the various parties involved: the French (to get access to the pelts and trade); the Spanish (to keep the French out of their lands); the Native Americans (to get access to the trade while keeping other tribes excluded).

What makes this a Five-Star read, in my opinion, is the manner in which personal stories are interwoven into the overview. It is positively striking to see how matters henge, not on the actions of distant kings or imperious administrators, but on the deeds of common men 'stumbling' through life.

I wish it were possible to list the many individuals and tribes that are discussed, but there are simply too many. In the category of voyageurs, the paper talks about the likes of La Harpe, DuTisne, Satren, Febre, Riballo, Sandoval, the Mallet brothers, and a German, amongst others. Major sections also deal with the politics of the Comanche, Apache, Pawnee, and Jumano tribes. Likewise French officials are not left out.

Five Stars :::
This paper originally appeared as a chapter (pg. 389 - 407) in "The Pacific Ocean in History: Papers and Addresses Presented at Panama-Pacific Historical Congress Held at San Francisco, Berkeley and Palo Alto, California; July 19-23, 1915". The book was edited by H. Morse Stephens and Herbert E. Bolton, and published by MacMillan Company of New York. The Amazon description is thus in error.

This is one of the best essays by Bolton's that I have read. The narrative is clear and yet dense with information. If one is interested in the Southwest and New Mexico, with or without fur trade, I can't think of a better, more concise source to begin with. Bolton outlines politics, peoples and places in a very lively manner.

New materials come from Spanish sources: "Autos fhos sre averiguar."

For more recent scholarship you might consider David J. Weber's, "Spanish Fur Trade from New Mexico, 1540-1821". This paper originally appeared in "The Americas" Vol. 24, No. 2. (Oct., 1967), pp. 122-136. Spanish fur trade from New Mexico, 1540-1821

(From Planeta.com Journal) - Subtitled "Architecture and Landscape across the Mexico-United States Border, this book is tour-de-force that gives visual explanations of the great changes at the heart of the US/Mexico Borderlands. The book is expertly illustrated with maps and black-and-white photos, but the majority is space has been crafted by the author. It's a wonderful medley of observations, historical anecdotes and interviews with the architects themselves. Highly recommended.

In his book From Coronado To Escalante:The Explorers of The Spanish Southwest Dr. J.M. Morris told the story about Don Francisco Vazquez de Coronado's journey of 1540 to the present-day Southwest, and skillfully depicted the origins of this expedition. He used the accounts of the previous Spanish conquistadores like Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro who before Coronado organized their "entradas" and subjugated the mighty Aztec and Inca empires. The author has also drawn the images of the people who participated in these adventures by portraying their ethnic and social status, and what motivated them to endure hardships such as fatigue, thirst, cold, and heat in the terras incognitas. As Dr. Morris followed every footstep of the Coronado conquistadores across the vast territories of Northern Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Kansas, he educated the reader about the types of landscape they encountered. The author not only pointed out the geographical terms of the landscape such as the Continental Divide, the Great Canyon or the rivers of Sonora, Pecos and Rio Grande, but he also linguistically enhanced the characteristics of that environment by providing the terms used by the Spanish explorers themselves like despoblados,"desolate, cactus-strewn wastelands", and the Llano Estacado, "Staked Plains",a part of the plateau streching across Northern New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle, to name just a few. The author introduced the reader to a variety of Indian cultures that the Coronado expedition encountered in its way. "The Zunis, the Opatas, the Hopis, the dwellers of the pueblos in the Rio Grande Valley, the Querechos of the buffalo plains, the Teyas of the barrancas and the Wichitas of Kansas" provide evidence of a diverse world of the America's indigenous population. Besides this ethnic diversity, Dr.Morris exhibited various attitudes of how Europeans were perceived by the Indians. The title From Coronado To Escalante is a timeline during which the power of the Spanish conquistadores declined (since gold was not found to be abundant) and the ascent of the Catholic Church missionaries began. Where the magic and attraction of the riches were gone, the abundance of the Indian pagan souls prevailed. Friar Silvestre Velez de Escalante and his small group in 1776 opened a new era in mapping the landscape of the Southwest that resulted in creation of more missions in that area, the monuments to the legacy of the Catholic Church of Spain. Dr. J. M. Morris book provides a focused, comprehensive narrative that makes the reader open the map of Mexico and the present-day Southwest in order to plot Coronado's trail as he or she reads about the Spanish explorers' adventures in search of gold, glory, and fame.

I totally feel engaged by Alarcon's poems. I thank him for including poems about social issues and for including some many poems in nahuatl, a language I love although I do not speak it. All the poems are bilingual and were translated into English by the author.

This is a beautiful book portraying the lives of people, places, and situations. The poems written by Francisco Alarcon are exquisite, evocative and full of passion. I loved the poems in nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. My favorite poem is called: "Mexican is not a noun" which is a poem dedicated to "students and faculty professors who were arrested for showing solidarity with two thousand cannery workers who were mostly women ". "Mexican is not a noun or an adjective, Mexican is a life long low-paying job, a check mark on a welfare police form, more than a word a nail in the soul but it hurts, it points, it dreams, it offends, it cries, it moves, it strikes, it burns, just like a verb".


This is a phenomenal book for class discussion, for working in small groups and as a piece of literature that should be present in very house.

This is a great modern update of migrant workers from the days of Dorthea Lange. There is such a closeness that is acheived between the photographer and the family. The friendship that developed over eight+ years really comes out in this book and the photographs. Truly great documentary work. You should read this book!

The author has been writing about the New Mexico Rangers for well over thirty years, and this book is a culmination of his long immersion into this subject. What writers like Bill O'Neal and Robert Utley have done for the Arizona and Texas Rangers respectively, Hornung has now done for the New Mexico Rangers. With research into official records and personal papers, interviews with ranger descendents, and a passion for having these men remembered accurately, Hornung has shown how the Rangers helped to make New Mexico a secure state for settlement.

The Foreword to this book is a treasure that will stand by itself, a 1969 letter written to Hornung by the last surviving New Mexico Territorial mounted policeman, Fred Lambert. Lambert was a living repository of stories of the various rangers the author writes about in the book, and the old Ranger has pithy comments about them, about the "tough business" of law enforcement in his day, and the need for a lawman to have a "quick trigger finger." Movingly, Lambert conveys his pride in having been a New Mexico Ranger. He ends by giving Hornung some good old-fashioned advice about looking men in the eye. He asks Hornung to tell the unvarnished truth, with no dime novel heroics, and to tell how those early policemen had a job to do, and "just done it."

Fullerton's Rangers is about the origins and especially the initial year, 1905, of the New Mexico Mounted Police. The early chapters of the book provide geographical and historical context for the Mounties' story. He tells of New Mexico Territory's reputation as a lawless land, its vast mountains and its unforgiving deserts. He writes the role of women in the era, about relations between the Anglo and Hispanic communities, and of its political factions and violent history. The passage to statehood was not easy. Nor was the enactment of the Mounted Police Bill that constituted the force that changed New Mexico's lawless image.

Fullerton, Governor Miguel Otero, and each of the original members of the force are sketched at length as to their history, character, and accomplishments. Fullerton, who became the leader of the Rangers, was a complex figure of considerable strengths and weaknesses. He suffered a political meltdown, costing him his job. He was replaced in 1906 by Fred Fornoff, a former Rough Rider, at a time when ex-Rough Riders were being promoted by President Theodore Roosevelt for such jobs.

Hornung writes with great care and passion about the hardships and accomplishments of each individual ranger. The longest chapter is a narrative of manhunts and arrests, successes and failures, and dangers faced by each individual ranger who served under Fullerton. There are sections on uniforms, weapons, badges, even use of the then new-fangled Gillette safety razors. The author writes about what seems an incredible miserliness and penny-pinching by the state fathers, and about conflicts between the rangers and resentful local law-enforcement authorities. Yet somehow Fullerton made it work. He got the most out of his hard living, hard drinking force, hard fighting force, suppressing the plague of cattle rustling and other crimes. It seems hard to argue with the Hornung's conclusion that Fullerton's Rangers have been misunderstood and underrated, and that they fearlessly blazed a trail of law enforcement for the men in the motorized flivvers who followed, and their successors today.

Convenient size. You can take it with you when you travel to New Mexico and see the lands that inspired a truly remarkable woman. The black and white photographs and the simple design of the book would please Ms. Okeeffe, I feel. I have been to Ghost Ranch and it really is amazing to see some of the changes and similarities that the pictures present. The photographer John Loengard has produced a compelling insight into the private life of a very intriguing woman.

I really liked this. Lots of color reproductions of O'Keeffe's paintings, including several "fold-out" double pages. Covers her early mid and late periods. This is also a book about the museum devoted to her in New Mexico, The size of the book is nice too. A bit smaller than "coffee-table" huge dimension. A book you can browse through. Can be an introduction to Georgia O'Keeffe's art and life for somebody just learning about her, or can be extra fun for a real O'Keeffe fan.