Mosaic of New Mexico's Scenery, Rocks, and History

by Unknown

SPANISH CONTRIBUTIONS

This was the situation in the Southwest when the sixteenth century opened, but a new force was abroad which would grow and strengthen and leave a deep imprint on New Mexico. Beginning on the wild islands of the Caribbean and then fanning out into the heart of Mexico and the South American continent, this new force spread across the face of America. Europeans, more exactly, Spaniards, came bent upon conquest for its own reward, for the glory of God, and for gold. These sturdy men from the Iberian peninsula with weapons vastly superior to the Indians’, with the horse which made them highly mobile and devastating in battle, and with tactics and precision in warfare unknown among the Indians, were to sweep without serious setback across the great cultures of Mexico and Central and South America. By 1540, they were ready to take their next leap forward.

On the west coast of Mexico, at a place called Culiacan, a colorful host gathered. In their ears rang the words of the legend of the Seven Cities of Cibola, seven golden cities, a legend which had been popular in Spain for many generations. Mexico City had produced wealth, and the Spanish were ready to believe that other fabulous cities existed. One Spaniard had already crossed part of North America and had heard from the Indians tales of the rich cities. His name was Cabeza de Vaca, and the exuberance of his tales fired the imagination of the Spaniards.

The soldiers and adventurers gathering in Mexico, commanded by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, were the first Europeans to organize an expedition to the American Southwest. Leaving from Culiacan in 1540, they went up the west coast of Mexico into modern Arizona, then east into New Mexico. The seven golden cities turned out to be the pueblos around Zuni, New Mexico, and not golden at all. The expedition, although discouraged, marched into the Rio Grande Valley and visited most of the pueblos there. Still they failed to find the treasure they sought. In a final desperate attempt, they explored onto the Great Plains, eventually reaching central Kansas. Broken in spirit and body, they struggled back to the Rio Grande Valley, and then retraced their route to Mexico. In all, the expedition covered a two-year span. A failure? Yes, in terms of wealth and treasure found. Yes, in terms of conquest, for nothing had been conquered. No, in terms of human resources, for the Indians Coronado met were to be the incentive that would bring the Spaniard back to New Mexico. While the Spaniard did seek gold and glory, he also burned with a missionary zeal and sought souls for his deep-running religion, Roman Catholicism.

Mesa top pueblo

For fifty-five years after Coronado, interest in New Mexico and the Southwest was spotty. Other things occupied the Spanish—primarily silver discoveries in the central valleys of Mexico. But men did not forget New Mexico and saw there an opportunity for missionary activity and exploitation. Also, other nations of Europe were beginning to take an interest in the North American continent, and New Mexico began to look attractive to the Spanish as a frontier defensive outpost. The frontier line pushed ever northward from central Mexico. By 1595, the Spanish were ready to push a salient into New Mexico.

From among the mining communities of northern Mexico, a force of two hundred colonists was assembled by Don Juan Oñate who had a contract to colonize New Mexico. After countless delays due to politics and supply shortages, the Oñate expedition left Chihuahua in 1598. The route went north across the desert to the Rio Grande near El Paso del Norte (modern Juarez), thence up the Rio Grande into New Mexico. On August 18, 1598, they arrived at San Juan, and there founded the first capital of New Mexico, San Juan de los Caballeros. These lands of the Southwest so long colored by the Indian now received a new imprint, one that would alter the direction and flow of culture and change it from the Indian to the Spanish Southwest.

From San Juan, and later (1610) from Santa Fe, Oñate, his men, and his colonists brought New Mexico under the Spanish yoke. In co-operation with the Franciscan Order, which had been assigned the task of converting the Indian, Oñate supervised the building of missions and mission churches at many of the pueblos of New Mexico. At the same time, Spanish towns developed, the most important being the new capital at Santa Fe. By 1628, New Mexico was solidly in the hands of her new masters.

The period from 1628 to 1680 was one of internal conflict and isolation for New Mexico. It lay far out on the frontier, alone and distant from its source of supplies. It lacked many of the items necessary for frontier life, particularly hardware and clothing. Its population was small, and in constant fear of Indian uprising, and its officials were too weak to act with vigor. Finally, there was a lack of genuine interest on the part of the central authorities. All these problems led to internal conflicts between soldier and colonist; between colonist and Indian; between colonist and official; and, perhaps most bitter of all, between church and state. This latter conflict would erupt time after time, openly, and with bitterness and denunciation from both sides. Governors were excommunicated as heretics; Franciscans were accused of all sorts of crimes and improper behavior. This, plus the other conflicts, gave rise to growing disrespect by the Indians for their European conquerors. The superiority of Christianity was questioned by the Indians as they watched the attacks and counterattacks made by priest and governor. The whole system of Spanish rule seemed a mockery. In 1680, the Indians decided their way was best after all and rose in rebellion.

Led by Po-pé from Taos, the various pueblos banded together in a mighty effort to remove the Spanish from traditional Indian lands. For the first time the pueblos came together, united by a single purpose. There were two exceptions; Isleta, just south of Albuquerque, and the Piro villages farther south (Socorro) remained loyal to the Spanish. Up and down the Rio Grande Valley, the Spaniards fell before the pent-up anger of the Indians. Survivors gathered at Santa Fe, but their water supply was cut, and they were forced to retreat south. At Isleta and later at the Piro villages, they received aid before continuing south to El Paso del Norte. With them went their Indian allies from Isleta and Socorro. It was a total defeat for the Spanish, and the Indian again was master of New Mexico.

But not for long, for at El Paso there gathered a force dedicated to revenge for their comrades who had died before the Indian onslaught. Ably led by Diego de Vargas, this expedition moved into New Mexico in 1692. The Indians, who had achieved such unity for the moment in 1680, were again badly divided. De Vargas, instead of having to subdue an alliance, had only to deal with one pueblo at a time. Very quickly New Mexico was returned to a mission area and frontier military post. The Pueblo Indians became permanently subjected to European domination. Their one and only attempt at unity had, in the final analysis, failed.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, New Mexico was the heart of the Spanish empire in the Southwest. Only in southwestern Arizona, western Texas, and California did the Spanish hold any land other than in the upper Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. During these centuries, this valley complex played out its dual role of mission area and military outpost. Its only connection with the resources and ideas of the world was a long hazardous road that stretched from Santa Fe to Chihuahua City and then south to Mexico City. This was New Mexico’s Royal Road, and over it moved everything needed by soldier, priest, and civilian. The trade was dominated by the merchants of Chihuahua, and New Mexico suffered. The tale of New Mexico during this period was one of poverty, hardship, and warfare. And several vital forces moved across the land.

One of these forces had long been in the Southwest, but latent. The Spanish adopted an Indian word meaning enemy to describe it—Apache! The Spanish brought with them domesticated animals which quickly adapted to conditions of the New World and became available to the Indian. Most important was the horse, at least as far as the Apache was concerned. By the early eighteenth century, the Apache, and other groups on the plains, had adapted to the use of the horse. While dangerous as foot soldiers, the Apache became vastly more dangerous as mounted warriors. Whereas they had been satisfied with minor raids against the pueblos and the Spanish holdings prior to 1700, they exploded on a wave of terrorism during the eighteenth century which very nearly drove the Spanish from the frontier. Late in the century, the conflict between the Apache and the Spanish became increasingly bitter. The history of the Southwest became the history of incessant Indian incursions and Spanish attempts to control the raiders. The missions declined and in many instances gave way entirely to the presidio or fort. In New Mexico the military came to dominate the missionary, and only through the heroic efforts of the meager force at the Presidio of Santa Fe did the Spanish manage to hold New Mexico from total collapse. A poor province became poorer, population declined, both among the Spanish and Indian, and the future looked dark indeed.

Far from New Mexico, other forces were stirring which would have a profound effect on the province and the Southwest. Spain and the Spanish empire were in trouble. Spain had failed to develop the supply capability to keep her colonies alive and was forced to spend her wealth in other areas of Europe. After two and a half centuries, the cumbersome and inefficient colonial administrative machinery was breaking down. While Spain’s star was descending, other European nations were on the move. England, France, Holland, and Russia were contesting with Spain for control of the New World. England and France were digging in on the east coast of North America; Holland was penetrating the islands of the Caribbean, and Russia was pushing down the Pacific Coast from Alaska. The weakness of Spain and the failure of her colonial government, plus help from Napoleon by way of his invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 1808, brought about the collapse of the Spanish empire. In America, patriots, inspired by the earlier success of the American Revolution and afire with the ideas of the French Revolution, struck out at the remnants of Spanish rule. By 1825, all the Spanish colonies but the islands of the Caribbean were free and independent nations. New Mexico and the Southwest became part of the Mexican state.

Almost immediately, Mexico, without leaders, without a political heritage to lead it to stability, and torn by power struggles large and small, was plunged into a period of political anarchy and civil war which would last for half a century. The problems and dangers of a far-flung frontier were lost in the din of conflict, and New Mexico became a forgotten province. Its claims as a mission area were so weak as to be almost nonexistent. It was no longer needed as a military outpost, for the danger to Mexico was not external, but internal. Its reasons for being were forgotten, at least for the moment, and New Mexico had to survive on her own initiative. But for one very important fact, the Spanish salient into the Southwest might have collapsed under the weight of poverty and Indian attacks. That fact was the opening of the Santa Fe Trail in 1821, a trail which linked the Spanish world with the Anglo-Saxon world then pushing its frontiers out from Missouri. This trail, so rich in lore and adventure, so much a part of the history of both the American west and the Spanish north, was the door through which passed the characters for the final act in the history of the Southwest.

Before the final act, however, it is vital and necessary to set down the contribution of two hundred fifty years of Spanish occupation and rule. The coming of the Spaniard to the Southwest began a mixture of white and red races which resulted in a new mixed race. The first generation of those who came up from Mexico were Caucasians; their descendants were usually not. They came seeking wealth and security, but there was neither wealth nor security in New Mexico, and they remained poor, very poor. The society that evolved was to be based upon farming and stock raising, and its organization was to be feudal in nature. There would be no education; hence, there could be no intellectual advance. The world began to go ahead of the people of New Mexico. Only in the house of the rico was there any sign of the wealth and grandeur of Spain; everywhere else was poverty. Farming was left in the hands of the Indian, while the Spaniard chose to be a man on horseback, a cattleman, an aristocrat. In the final analysis, Spanish New Mexico would not develop as democratic and agricultural, but aristocratic and feudal. The hacienda was a part of old Spain in exile. The rico tried vainly to hold to his idea of chivalry and to a decorum suitable to his position. But what chance was there in the face of the increasing poverty, the constant danger to life and property, and time that did not move? While individual courage of the upper class remained, discipline and industry died. When the American army marched into the Southwest, the sons of the conquistadores could offer no armed resistance. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the society of the ricos in New Mexico was that it failed to contribute any lasting monument. It left no art, no music, no great highways, no adequate governmental system.

But many elements of Spanish culture were to persist, and these arose from the collective consciousness of the people of New Mexico. Around the great haciendas were small villages with their artisans and workers. It was among these people that the heritage of Spain clung to this land. Many of these towns yet remain and are not much different from those of two hundred years ago. To a large degree, their Spanish culture seems hidden and undiscovered, but the people, their loves and hates, pleasures and hopes, beliefs and fears, are governed by tradition, a tradition that finds its roots deep in the soil of Spain.

Old mission church at Isleta Pueblo

Today, when we look at the cultural scene in New Mexico, we can see direct evidence of Spanish occupation. The language of half the people in the state is Spanish, in some areas still the Spanish of the sixteenth century. Roman Catholicism, of which the Spanish were the most Catholic, dominates the religious scene. The Spanish heritage in political attitudes, in building and architecture, and in the legal tradition of the state is apparent. New Mexico, of all the states in the United States, is the only one that can claim a truly Spanish heritage.