This article,
by New Mexico State Historian Robert J. Torrez, appeared
in the Official New Mexico Blue Book, Cuarto Centennial
Edition, 1598-1998. It has been reprinted here with permission
of the author. The New Mexico Blue Book is free, published
by the Office of the New Mexico Secretary of State, and
may be ordered by calling 1-800-477-3632.
For a detailed account of
the founding of New Mexico, we recommend The
Last Conquistador: Don Juan de Oñate and the Settling
of the Far Southwest, by Marc Simmons, University
of Oklahoma Press. |