I am always deeply saddened when I hear people tell me that New Mexico History is boring. I used to teach the subject at the middle school level, and I confess that the textbook was, indeed boring. Fitting thousands of years of history into a book involves leaving out all the details that makes the story exciting I strived to tell those stories in my classroom, and the result was that a lot of kids found that history wasn’t just a list of names, dates, treaties and battles. History was the story of people who were trying, just like my students, to do the best they could under whatever circumstances they were given. These four novels to a good job of giving the history of New Mexico a human face.
Dennis Herrick’s Winter of the Metal People: The Untold Story of America's First Indian War (Sunbury Press, 2013, ISBN-10 1620062372) tells the story of Spanish conquistador Francisco Coronado's 1540-1542.expedition into New Mexico and his occupation of a pueblo near what is now Bernalillo, on the banks of the Rio Grande. The site, which may be at what is now called Coronado Monument, Told from both a Spanish perspective derived from the chronicles the explorers left behind and from the (largely conjectured) perspective of the Puebloans, this well researched novel depicts the Tiguex War, the first battle between Europeans and Indians on what was to become American soil.
Loretta Miles Tollefson’s There Will Be Consequences: A Biographical Novel of Old New Mexico (Palo Flechado Press, 2022, ISBN 1952026059) tells the story of a very tumultuous time in New Mexico history. New Mexico, the distant and neglected area on the wild edge of the Spanish New World, had long been left to its own devices. The Spanish, busy with European wars and other colonies, had provided little, and expected little in return. New Mexicans had expected the same kind of negligence from the Mexican government when it revolted against Spain and established its own government. However, by 1837, Mexico had decided to exert more control over New Mexico, appointing governors from beyond its territory and demanding taxes that had long been waived. The northern half of the territory responded with a rebellion that left the Governor and key members of his administration dead, and a local man with indigenous ancestry and a set of local alcaldes set up in their place. In this well researched novelization of the events, Tollefson tells the story of this rebellion through the eyes of twelve of its participants and witnesses. Anyone who’s read anything of the period will recognize names such as Albino Pérez, José Angel Gonzales, Gertrudes "Doña Tules" Barceló, Father Antonio José Martinez, and Manuel Armijo. But Tollefson isn’t just reciting names and events. Her narrative makes the people in it come alive.
Mary Armstrong’s The Mesilla: Two Valleys Saga: Book One (Enchanted Writing Company, 2021, ASIN B093CPZ71B) tells its story through the eyes of fourteen years old, Jesus ‘Chuy’ Perez Contreras Verazzi Messi, who is apprenticed to his by his uncle, the noted Las Cruces attorney and politician, Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain. Bronco Sue, Oliver Lee, and Frenchy Rochas are among the historical figures that appear in this novel that takes place in the territorial period, when the area was struggling with range wars and trying to appear legitimate and worthy of statehood. It is filled with courtroom drama and the kind of background stories that spice up history and make the characters come alive. The first in a trilogy, this novel sets up the events that may have led to the unsolved murder of Fountain ten years later.
Finally, I am pleased to share that my own novel A Blaze of Poppies (Thin Air Publishing, 2021, ASIN B09HG16WBX) recently won the 2022 New Mexico Book Award in the category of New Mexico Historical Fiction. This novel tells the story of a young, female rancher in Southern New Mexico who is determined to keep the Sunrise Ranch in the family. Threatened first by Pancho Villa’s raid on nearby Columbus, New Mexico and by her own mother’s refusal to support her, Agnes Day becomes a nurse and serves behind the trenches in World War I France that are occupied by members of the New Mexico National Guard.
New Mexico has a vibrant history made all the more interesting because of the mix of people who have inhabited a difficult to conquer landscape. Try one of these books and see for yourself.
New Mexico has a vibrant history made all the more interesting because of the mix of people who have inhabited a difficult to conquer landscape. Try one of these books and see for yourself.
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