New Mexico Books

Rio Arriba, meaning New Mexico north of Santa Fe, one of the poorest areas in the United States revolted against foreign rule in 1837, 1847 and 1967. The 1837 rebellion is interesting because it casts light on the causes of the Texas Rebellion and the Mexican American War.

In 1835, Santa Anna appointed himself dictator of Mexico and abolished the constitution. His new government consolidated power and wealth in the Valley of Mexico. Far flung provinces New Mexico, California and Texas were left out in the cold politically and financially. Governors were appointed by Santa Anna and rejected. Texas and Rio Arriba went into open rebellion. New Mexico ended up with a local as self-appointed governor. California ended up with two governors, one appointed by the central government and one who appointed himself. When the US accepted Texas into the Union, only New Mexico wasn't in open rebellion. Mexico exercised very little real control. All three appeared anxious to be free of Mexico.

Lecompte details the rebellion step by step. She goes through its phases and personalities showing the inability to form a government or agree on their demands. The dissatisfaction was real and unbearable. It was the only thing they could agree on. Padre Martinez of Taos foments rebellion, then changes sides, just as he did again in 1847. Greedy Armijo steps in to quell rebellion and skim everything that passes through his fingers. The story is a forecast of New Mexico politics for the next hundred years.

Janet LeCompte is a wonderful and very readable author presenting documented history.

The Civil War, you might think, belonged to the South, and to the North--but never to the West.
But the Civil War did make it to the West, and it made it to New Mexico, and one Confederate soldier in that war kept a journal.
Don Alberts has done fans of New Mexico's history an enormous favor by editing those journals into this insightful book--"Rebels on the Rio Grande"--a book that brings the war alive in all its fear, violence, tension, stress, and boredom.
From the days of fighting, to the men who led them, to the days of waiting around for something to happen, this book has it all, and is an essential purchase for any New Mexico (or Civil war) historian, whether amateur or professional.
Also, for residents of New Mexico's Sandia Mountains, this book is indispensable, as it contains firsthand 1862 accounts of what the communities of Tijeras and San Antonio (in Bernalillo County) were like, as well as a nice little sketch of what San Antonio used to look like.
It's great.

If you are looking for a copy of this item, please contact me at P.O. Box 612, Lewistown, MT 59457

This is an amazing gem. I couldn't put it down. Capt. French managed to live through more wild times and adventures than I would have thought possible. Truly the 'wild west'. Written in an understated tone, with a sense of humor. Some great wild animal encounters/stories in addition to the usual cowboys, Indians, cattle rustlers, train and stagecoach robberies, etc.

I am usually skeptical about collections of poems on a single theme, but Gill's varied perspective and voice have given us something fresh on evey page. Her incisive wit and profound psychological insight are presented with such sublety, power, and seemingly effortless precision, the reader is continually drawn forward into the next poem. Gill's ability to transform hypothetical ideals into tangible personal experience is nothing short of inspirational. This is what poetry should be - philosophical, psychological, and real. This is a work that can truly stand the test of time.

The best of the American Indian myths are works of art, blending form and content into an organic whole that interweaves the great themes of human experience. John Bierhorst's brilliant selection of sixty-four tales - each significant and interesting in itself - present a comprehensive view of a world that will be both familiar and vastly different for "Western" readers.

Over forty cultures, including Navajo, Aztec, Iroquois, and Eskimo, are represented. In addition, John Bierhorst's introduction offers a framework for interpretation according to Freud, Jung, Frazer, and Levi-Strauss, plus an analysis of mythic narrative as a key to reading traditional literature.

The Red Swan is valuable both for its scope and for the superb quality of the stories themselves.
--- from book's back cover.

Jackson's book uses the community of Cochabamba as a case study to examine life in rural Bolivia from colonial times to the present. Relying on archival materials from Cochabamba to develop his analysis, Jackson challenges the tendency to portray Andean natives as hapless victims of modernity. His examination of agrarian, economic, political, and demographic history clearly demonstrates that peasant natives of Bolivia have played, and continue to play, an active role in that nation's development.

Much like Nils Jacobsen's excellent book, Mirages of Transition: The Peruvian Altiplano, 1780-1930, Jackson's book depicts a highly resilient peasant population that continues to flourish despite centuries of exploitation and displacement. This book is an example of how to do research using rural archives. It is a must-read for students of Bolivia and the Andes generally in addition to those interested in demographic or economic history.

Architect Thomas L. Lucero and scholar Thomas J. Steele, S.J. present Religious Architecture in Hispano New Mexico, a slender yet detailed study of the structure and architecture of churches. Setting forth a classification system that can prove most helpful when comparing distinct types of Hispanic religious architecture in New Mexico, Religious Architecture in Hispano New Mexico is filled with black-and-white diagrams and photographs as well as extensive text description, historical summaries, and more. A thoroughly researched and invaluable guide for architecture students, designers, and scholars seeking to better understand the form, purpose and function of Hispanic New Mexican places of worship.

Roque Dalton met Miguel Marmol in Prague in 1966. Marmol had survived a firing squad in 1930 after being arrested along with 18 other Communists suspected of organizing the rebellion of poor peasants in western El Salvador. Over ten thousand peasants were killed by the El Salvadoran military in putting down the uprising. One of the persons killed by the military was Farabundo Marti. A later group of rebel guerillas in El Salvador named itself after him. One of the government death squads during the civil conflict in El Salvador in the 1970s and 1980s named itself after the general who was president in 1932 directing the brutal reaction to the rebellion which became known as "Matanza," the massacre.

The three authors on university faculties investigate the development, use, and effects of political symbols in the historical events of El Salvador. The military which had seized power in El Salvador only two months before the uprising held on to its power for another fifty years. After the journalist and poet Dalton wrote a book on Marmol from a series on interviews, Marmol, along with the executed Marti, became a symbolic focal point for the domestic and the international opposition to the tyrannical military rule in El Salvador. Dalton's 500-page work on Marmol first published in Costa Rico in 1972 was "one of the earliest examples of testimonial literature, a genre of international proportions that emerged primarily out of Latin America during the civil conflicts of the 1970s and 1980s." Parts of Dalton's book based on the Marmol interviews, other writings of Dalton's, and documents from other authors and sources are recorded in the appendix of about 100 pages.

The work is not basically one of historical fact-finding. For the facts of the Matanza are well-known, and are not disputed by either side of the long-running civil conflict in El Salvador. The authors interest is how each side came to view the 1932 insurrection as it did. Each side developed opposing interpretations; which interpretations were rationales and justifications for its actions during the long conflict. The anti-government forces of the Communists and others found inspiration and encouragement in Marmol's story as written by Dalton. This especially calls for attention since it is not the "official" record. The government forces would as soon have had the rebellion and massacre covered up and forgotten about. But the memory was kept alive by survivors and strengthened years later when Marmol's memoir written by Dalton was published. Though the two met by chance in Prague, as these coauthors show, the resulting memoir along with the memory of the deadly events which had been kept mostly in silence played a key role in eventually ending El Salvador's military dictatorship.

The writings of Diego de Vargas, commander of the re-conquest of New Mexico after 15 years of terror following the revolt of 1680 are now available in English. This book is a must for anyone interested in New Mexico history. This is history straight from the source through the eyes of the man who created the history.