New Mexico's state archives offer a rich collection of documents from the Spanish, Mexican, and Territorial periods. Robert J. Tórrez has mined this collection to produce a series of thirty-six articles that give us an idea of the stark reality of everyday life: what ordinary people went through to feed and protect their families, keep warm, worship their God, deal with government bureaucracies, and enjoy a few of life's pleasures. Previously published in periodicals with small local circulation, these essays are now available to the broader audience they deserve.
The essays are divided into five groups. Part 1, "Glimpses of Daily Life," includes such topics as arranged marriages, conflicts over taxes and water, and weaving in New Mexico. Part 2, "Indian Relations," shows us visits and battles with Navajo, Ute, and Pueblo people. Part 3, on "Crime and Punishment," comprises essays on hangings, poisonings, and outlaws. "The Territorial Topics" gathered in Part 4 is a mélange of entertainment, travel, and government matters, from the oddity of "UFOs over Galisteo," in which a Chinese balloon seems to have made its way to New Mexico in 1880, to the arrival of stagecoaches, telegraphs, and a circus. Part 5 presents biographical sketches of seven famous and not-so-famous New Mexicans.
"In an extraordinary case from 1744, Juana Martín, the wife of Joseph de Armijo, accused him of carrying on an affair with Getrudes de Segura. When the investigation was concluded, the offending couple was found guilty and Getrudes sentenced to exile at El Paso del Norte for four years. Armijo was allowed to remain in Santa Fe, but was assessed the expenses of Getrudes's trip to El Paso. The formal sentence pointed out Armijo's failure to live up to his responsibilities as a husband and ordered him to live amicably with his wife during Getrudes's period of exile."--from UFOs Over Galisteo and Other Stories of New Mexico's History

UFOs Over Galisteo and Other Stories of New Mexico's History

History

Tórrez, Robert J.

Americas

University of New Mexico Press

The haunting specter of hanging trees holds a powerful sway on the American imagination, conjuring images of rough-and-tumble frontier towns struggling to impose law and order in a land where violence was endemic. In this thoughtful study, former New Mexico State Historian Robert Tórrez examines several fascinating criminal cases that reveal the harsh and often gruesome realities of the role hangings, legal or otherwise, played in the administration of frontier justice.
At first glance, the topic may seem downright morbid, and in a sense it is, but these violent attempts at justice are embedded in our perception of America's western experience. In tracing territorial New Mexico's efforts to enforce law, Tórrez challenges the myths and popular perceptions about hangings and lynchings in this corner of the Wild West.

Myth of the Hanging Tree: Stories of Crime and Punishment in Territorial New Mexico

The Teacher Guide Book on CD for use with A History of New Mexico Since Statehood, will help in structuring lessons, tests, and student activities.

A History of New Mexico Since Statehood, Teacher Guide Book

Children's Books

Melzer, Richard

Mathews, Sandra K.

Rio Arriba: A New Mexico County Rio arriba. In Spanish, the lower case rio arriba stands for the "upper river," that portion of northern New Mexico that straddles the Rio del Norte, the historic name of the Rio Grande. In the upper case, they stand for Rio Arriba County, a geopolitical entity that constitutes a small portion of the historic rio arriba. The words define a vast portion of New Mexico that extends from the historic villa of Santa Fe north into the San Luis Valley of today's southern Colorado. Former New Mexico State Historian Robert J. Tórrez, Robert Trapp, long-time owner and publisher of Española's Rio Grande Sun, and eight additional authors have come together to examine the long and complex history of this rio arriba. Rio Arriba: A New Mexico County reviews the history of this fascinating and unique area. The authors provide us an overview of its primordial beginnings (that left us the fossilized remains of coelophysis, our official state fossil), introduce us to the Tewa peoples that established the county's first permanent settlements, as discuss the role the Navajo, Ute, and Jicarilla Apache played in the region's history. As the history unfolds, the reader learns about the Spanish conquistadores and later-arriving Americans, their often contentious relations with the Native American peoples, and how the communities they established and the institutions they brought with them helped shape the Rio Arriba County of today.

Rio Arriba: A New Mexico County

Trapp, Robert

Rio Grande Books

Voices From the Past: The Comanche Raid of 1776 &amp; Other Tales of New Mexico History is an exploration of the vast treasure of untold and forgotten stories found in New Mexico’s Spanish, Mexican, and Territorial period archives. Based on a monthly column the author has published since 1992, the stories in this volume will examine some of the accomplishments, triumphs, and tragedies experienced by individuals we probably did not learn about in history class. Learn about the Comanche raid of 1776 and what the historical record can tell us about victims of the raid; read about the devastation inflicted by the dreaded virguela, the smallpox epidemics that swept though entire communities in the eighteenth century and of how the smallpox vaccine was introduced to New Mexico in 1805; of Apache captives sold into slavery in the early eighteenth century; of New Mexican’s struggle to prove their loyalty to the United States during the Spanish American War; of a stern frontier judge who could condemn a convicted murderer to hang and then write romantic letters to his wife; of the devastating Las Vegas fire of 1880; and of a “Chicago gangster” who hid out in northern New Mexico. These and four dozen additional “voices from the past” provide the reader with fascinating and little-known details about New Mexico history.
Robert J. Tórrez was born and raised in the northern New Mexico community of Los Ojos and received his undergraduate and graduate education at Highlands University in Las Vegas and the University of New Mexico. He served as the New Mexico State Historian from 1987 until his retirement in December 2000. In addition to his monthly column Voices From the Past on New Mexico history, he is the author of five books on various aspects of New Mexico history and has contributed chapters to more than twenty books and anthologies, including a recent textbook for use in New Mexico schools.

Voices from the Past: The Comanche Raid of 1776 & Other Tales of New Mexico History