Culture Change in 18th-Century New Mexico
Rick Hendricks, Ph.D., New Mexico State Historian
December 18, 2018
Eighteenth-Century Governors
of New Mexico
• Enrique de Olivade y Michelena (1736–1738)
• Gaspar Domingo de Mendoza (1739–1743)
• Joaquín Codallos y Rabal (1743–1749)
• Tomás Vélez Cachupín (1749–1754)
• Francisco Antonio Marín del Valle (1754–1760)
• Mateo Antonio de Mendoza (acting, 1760)
• Manuel Portilla Urrisola (1760–1762)
• Tomás Vélez Cachupín (1762–1767)
• Pedro Fermín de Mendinueta (1767–1777)
• Francisco Trebol Navarro (acting, 1777)
• Juan Bautista de Anza (1778–1788)
• Fernando de la Concha (1789–1794)
• Fernando Chacón (1794–1804)
• Diego de Vargas (1691–1697)
• Pedro Rodríguez Cubero (1697–1703)
• Diego de Vargas (1703–1704)
• Juan Páez Hurtado (1704–1705)
• Francisco Cuervo y Valdés (interim, 1705–1707)
• José Chacón Medina Salazar y Villaseñor (1707–1712)
• Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollon (1712–1715)
• Félix Martínez (acting, 1715–1716)
• Antonio Valverde Cosío (acting, 1716)
• Juan Páez Hurtado (acting, 1716–1717)
• Antonio Valverde Cosío (interim, 1718–1722)
• Juan Domingo de Bustamante (1722–1731)
• Gervasio Cruzat y Gongora (1731–1736)
Why Restore
New Mexico to Spanish Empire?
• Dramatic increase in military spending after 1700
• Military governors replace purchasers of office
• Defense of empire replaced evangelism
• Conde de Galve
• French
• English
• Russian
• Professionalization
• Presidios replace encomenderos
o El Paso (1681)
o Santa Fe (1693)
Land
• Vargas’s resettlement plan
o Recruit in heartland of New Spain
o Incentives of land, status, and opportunity
o Small landholders
o Five hundred families
o Adequate funding
• Land grants
o Pre-Revolt land grants?
• Hispanics
• Indians
o Smaller
• Large estancias not regranted
• Pueblo league
Colonists
• Returning refugees (1693)
o Colony-in-exile in El Paso
• One hundred “Spanish soldiers”(1693)
o Mining districts of northern New Spain
• Velasco-Farfán recruits (1694)
o Mexico City and Puebla
• Artisans
• Juan Páez Hurtado expedition (1695)
o Zacatecas and Sombrerete
Pueblos
• Vargas, Vélez Cachupín, Anza: personal diplomacy and compadrazgo
• Modus vivendi with Hispanic neighbors
• Common cause against Apaches, Comanches, Navajos, and French
• Permanently fixed geographically
Vargas’s Lieutenants
• Juan Páez Hurtado (1704-1705, 1717)
• Antonio de Valverde Cosío (1717-1722)
• Félix Martínez (1715-1717)
Military Expeditions,
1705-1720
• Navajos
• El Cuartelejo
• Apaches
• Comanches
• Pawnees (French?)
• Madrid, 1705
• Ulibarrí, 1706
• Páez Hurtado, 1715
• Valverde Cosío, 1719
• Pedro de Villasur, 1720
Spanish Expeditions, 1741-1780
• Hopi
• Junta de los Ríos, Upper Gila
• Utes and Paiutes/Teguayo
• Teguayo/California
• Comanches
• Pino and Delgado, 1741
• Menchero, 1746-47
• Rivera, 1765
• Domínguez-Vélez de Escalante, 1776
• Anza, 1779
• Anza, 1780
Catholic Church
• Franciscans
o Spiritual and sacramental monopoly
o Military chaplains
o Franciscans Divided Against Themselves
• Criollos and Hijos de Provincia v. Peninsulars
• Diminished power vis-à-vis the State
• Civil-Military Authorities trying to Subjugate Church
o Marriage Pragmatic of 1776
• New Mexico becomes more secular
o Diocese of Durango
o Diocesan clergy in El Paso and Santa Fe
o Episcopal visitations
Secularization Attempts of Bishop Olivares y Benito
1797-1803
• All the Bishop's Men: The Interim Priests of New Mexico's Villas
o Gregorio Olidén
o José Bibián de Ortega
o José Ignacio Suárez
o Juan Manuel de Aganza
The Diocesans’ Failure
• Hostile Reception from Franciscans
o Secular v. Regular Rivalry
o Peninsular v. Criollo
o Racial Overtones
• Hostile Reception from Citizens
o Financial Burden on Parishioners
o Dislike of Change
Economic
• Pottery Seldom Mentioned
• Maize was Most Important Crop
• Subsistence Agriculture
Population
• Population of Non-Indians was increasing while that of Indians was decreasing
• Laguna
o 1700, New Population Center or Growth of Pueblo
• San Miguel del Bado, major ford on Pecos
o 1794 by Lorenzo Marques and Genízaro Families
o 1744
o El Paso: 613 families (3678)
o Northern New Mexico: 505 families (3030)
o 1752
o Northern New Mexico: 3,402 (non-Indian)
o 1760
o El Paso: 2,479
o Northern New Mexico: 4,614
o 1790
o El Paso: 5,244
o Northern New Mexico: 25,709
o Santa Fe: 3,733
o Albuquerque: 5,959
o La Cañada: 8,895
Disease Episodes
• 1733
• 1748
• 1763, typhus
• 1780, smallpox
Social Relations
• Growing use of Genízaro as Ethnic Identity
• Compadrazgo and neighbors
• Lingua franca
o All Indians Spoke Spanish, but Many Played Dumb
o Ute
Legal
• Litigious society
• Pueblo League