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It is 1580. Virtually no Spaniards have returned to New Mexico or the American southwest since the return of the remnants of the Coronado and Soto expeditions in 1542. Neither had found a third great indigenous civilization to conquer, or even more than scant evidence of precious metals. By 1580 most of the survivors of those expeditions had died, and the narratives produced in their aftermath would have been known to very few people. The most durable legacy of those expeditions would have been the rumors of gold, which always persist long after the actual facts are gone from living memory. So it was that circa 1580 various aspirational conquistadors set to scheming for a return to the region that some were now dreaming of as “New Mexico.” These new Spanish probes into the American southwest were minor affairs and of relatively little consequence, except insofar as they stirred up the Indians living in the Pueblos of the region and generated a new round of propaganda that would lead to the colonization project of Juan de Oñate y Salazar in 1598. That would be of surpassing significance, for Oñate would stay for twelve years, kill a lot of Indians, found Santa Fe just before he departed, and establish the foundation of Spanish society in the southwestern United States.
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Selected references for this episode
George P. Hammond and Agapito Rey, The Rediscovery of New Mexico, 1580-1594 (Coronado cuarto centennial publications, 1540-1940)
Stan Hoig, Came Men on Horses: The Conquistador Expeditions of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and Don Juan de Oñate
John L. Kessell, Pueblos, Spaniards, and the Kingdom of New Mexico
J. Lloyd Mecham, “Antonio de Espejo and His Journey to New Mexico”, The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, October 1926
This is an excellent episode. Great work Jack!
Jack, great episode this week (last week actually). I download these and listen to them at work.
I grew up in New Mexico and the Spanish influence is everywhere, almost as much as the Pueblo cultural. In Albuquerque (and yes, I spelled that from memory, as any good former resident is supposed to) there is a very long metal series of sculptures of the Don Juan de Oñate “entrada” (as you called it). Spans several blocks in a park near downtown.
A couple of items, no mention of how Albuquerque got its name or for that matter how “New Mexico” got its name before “Mexico”. That would be a good story (there maybe more than one, but I have what I think is correct). In fact, a lot of the Names of the Natives tribes are derived in some way from the Spanish. That would be a good sidebar to go over how some of these names came about.
One other item, pronunciation of some of the names of places and peoples left me chuckling, the Acoma is most often pronounced Ah-ca-ma and Pecos is Pey-cos. There are others, the Ohkay Owingeh no one pronounces the “kay” part. I think that has something to do with Spanish, how they don’t pronounce the letter “J” (comes out as an H sound).
I don’t live in the Land of Enchantment anymore, I left for service in the Navy (of all branches being land locked and all). I settled down after extensive sea duty in Pennsylvania (and yes, I had help spelling that) which a predict may have a turn in the history barrel once you get there.
Keep turning these out, I love listening to them (usually more than once). Thanks!!!
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