New Mexico History

In Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West. He takes us from John Jacob Astor's fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush. He shows how the migrants' dreams drove them to feats of courage and perseverance that put their stay-at-home cousins to shame - and how those same dreams also drove them to outrageous acts of violence against indigenous peoples and one another. El Dorado was at least as elusive in the West as it ever was in the East.

Nueva España era un territorio gigantesco, comprendía de lo que ahora es el sur de Estados Unidos hasta Nicaragua. Contrario a las aburridas lecciones escolares sobre la época virreinal, lejos de los héroes y villanos de monografía, estas minutas nos recuerdan que, entre la llegada de Cortés y la Independencia proclamada por Miguel Hidalgo, existió un mundo complejo y contrastante que apenas se mantuvo en precario equilibrio. Ecos de Nueva España es una apasionante y colorida travesía por los siglos que moldearon nuestro tiempo.

This classic collection of nonfiction essays about life in New Mexico by the great Tony Hillerman remains a must listen for anyone looking to understand the state's unique charm. The engaging pieces in The Great Taos Bank Robbery unveil the life and magic one experiences in the Land of Enchantment.

Loyal Americans marched off to war in 1861 not to conquer the South but to liberate it. So argues Elizabeth R. Varon in Armies of Deliverance, a sweeping narrative of the Civil War and a bold new interpretation of Union and Confederate war aims. Northerners imagined the war as a crusade to deliver the Southern masses from slaveholder domination and to bring democracy, prosperity, and education to the region. As the war escalated, Lincoln and his allies built the case that emancipation would secure military victory and benefit the North and South alike.

Charles Bowden writes, “this book is not about how the world ends but how a new world is being born.” Murder City explores this new world, focusing on the idea that Mexico is collapsing into a permanent culture of violence. Bowden focuses on Ciudad Juarez, which lies just across the Rio Grande from El Paso. Infamously known as the place where women disappear, last year alone 1,607 people were murdered, a number that is set to accelerate in 2009.

Abrán González always knew he was different. Called a coyote because of his fair skin, the kid from Barelas found escape through boxing and became one of the youngest Golden Gloves champs. But the arrival of a letter from a dying woman turns his entire life into a lie. The revelation that he was adopted makes him feel like an orphan and sends him on a quest to find his birth father.

On the edge of the Isleta Indian Reservation in the foothills of New Mexico lies the Decalogue Stone, a giant boulder inscribed with the Ten Commandments in Phoenician Hebrew characters. The Indians, Spanish and Americans knew of its existence, and the nearby Crypto-Jewish community of Los Quelites venerated it, building a secret altar that the Spanish Inquisition smashed and destroyed.

From the 1880s to the 1950s, the Harvey Girls went west to work in Fred Harvey's restaurants along the Santa Fe railway. At a time when there were "no ladies west of Dodge City and no women west of Albuquerque," they came as waitresses, but many stayed and settled, founding the struggling cattle and mining towns that dotted the region. Interviews and historical research help recreate the Harvey Girl experience. The accounts are personal, but laced with the history the women lived.

At the End of the Santa Fe Trail is a book by Sister Blandina Segale about her fascinating experiences as a young Catholic nun in the southwestern United States from 1872 to 1892. At a time when lawlessness and brutality were the norm, Sister Blandina displayed courage, tough-mindedness, and a deep religious faith in service to the less fortunate. Sister Blandina's well-written account tells of working with immigrants, Hispanics, and Native Americans who were losing their land to swindlers.

After a childhood spent on Hollywood film sets, Meghan Markle fought hard for stardom. But even when she landed her breakthrough role on Suits, her dream of worldwide celebrity remained elusive until she met the man who would change her life—Prince Harry. Their whirlwind romance culminated with Meghan’s ultimate fairy tale ending: their 2018 wedding at Windsor Castle. Finally, the world was her stage. It seemed that the dizzying success of the wedding between the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex marked the beginning of a fresh era for the British Royal Family.

Greatest Mystery of the Southwest USAPerhaps the most fascinating chapter in Southwest history is the tale of the mysterious, “vanished” Anasazi Indians. Their tremendous achievements can be found in many places, including the spectacular cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde National Park. But the crest of the Anasazi wave was in Chaco Canyon, a shallow, windswept wash in northwest New Mexico. Here, 1,000 years ago, strange and unexplained events unfolded, events which continue to intrigue scientists and visitors today. In this book, you'll delve into the mystery: Why choose inhospitable Chaco...

When New Mexico became part of the United States, the territory contained 295 land grants, the largest of these being the Maxwell Land Grant. The size and boundaries of the grant were disputed, with some believing that much of the land was public domain. Settlers on this land were fought not only by the land grant owners but also by a group of corrupt politicians and lawyers— known as the Santa Fe Ring (most notably Thomas Catron and Stephen Elkins)—who tried to use the situation for personal profit and land acquisition.

“A gritty, engrossing, and concise account of a boxer’s meteoric career and tortured personal life.”—Kirkus Reviews "If I wake up, I know I'm a success. The day I don't wake up, I know I'll be home. I have one foot on this earth and one foot has crossed over. I didn’t just die, I lived.”—Johnny Tapia ...the ghost of Johnny Tapia lives on. ”Mi Vida Loca” (My Crazy Life) was Johnny Tapia’s nickname and his reason for being. Haunted by the brutal murder of his beloved mother when he was a child, fighting and drugs gave him the escape he craved—and he did both with gusto. ...

From 1910 to 1919, New Orleans suffered at the hands of its very own Jack the Ripper-style killer while two innocent men nearly paid for one of his crimes with their lives. The story has been the subject of websites, short stories, collections of true crime, novels, a graphic novel, and the FX television series American Horror Story. But the real story of the Axeman of New Orleans has never been written - until now.

Immediately following the events detailed in the novel ACT OF CONTRITION, Trent Carter, former state policeman and Colfax County Sheriff's Department detective, has finally retired to peacefully live out the remainder of his days with his new wife, Maggie, on her horse ranch east of Raton, New Mexico—or so he thinks. But when he responds to an urgent call for assistance from his former boss Ben Ferguson, who is investigating an unusual murder at the historic ruins of a stagecoach stop on the old Santa Fe Trail, Trent is swept into a convoluted mystery involving political assassination, a ...

Author William S. Kiser reshapes the history of the Southwest, underlining the role of the military not just in obtaining territory but in retaining it.

The Spanish word cimarron, meaning "wild" or "untamed," refers to a region in the southern Rocky Mountains where control of timber, gold, coal, and grazing lands long bred violent struggle. After the United States occupation following the 1846-1848 war with Mexico, this tract of nearly two million acres came to be known as the Maxwell Land Grant. When Cimarron Meant Wild presents a new history of the collision that occurred over the region's resources between 1870 and 1900.

The most thorough account ever written of southwestern life in the early seventeenth century, this engaging book was first published in 1630 as an official report to the king of Spain by Fray Alonso de Benavides, a Portuguese Franciscan who was the third head of the mission churches of New Mexico. In 1625, Father Benavides and his party traveled north from Mexico City to New Mexico, a strange land of frozen rivers, Indian citadels, and mines full of silver and garnets.

Elected for two-year terms, frontier sheriffs were the principal peace-keepers in counties that were often larger than New England states. As officers of the court, they defended settlers and protected their property from the ever-present violence on the frontier. Their duties ranged from tracking down stagecoach robbers and serving court warrants to locking up drunks and quelling domestic disputes.

Past misdeeds, including murder, lead to suspense, threats and another murder in the next Vincent Malone novel. It begins with a Santa Fe visiting mystery book author claiming she is being followed. Private Investigator Vincent Malone volunteers to find out what is going on. From there everything starts to go downhill. The author’s fist book details a murder that took place forty years in the past with specific information few knew. How did she get this information; the dead man’s son wants to know. This tale involves the long dead man’s grown son, the author’s grandfather, a bully ...