Spanish North America

Spanish North America
Neda Bezerra

David J. Weber. The Spanish Frontier in North America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992. xx + 579 pp.

John Francis Bannon. The Spanish Borderlands Frontier. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1979. x + 308 pp.

John L. Kessel. Spain in the Southwest: A Narrative History of Colonial New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. xvii + 462 pp.

Oakah L. Jones, Jr. Los Paisanos: Spanish Settlers on the Northern Frontier of New Spain. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979. xv + 351 pp.

In 1469, when Queen Isabella of Castile married Prince Ferdinand of Aragón, their kingdoms joined and the foundation of what would become Spain was then laid. A few years later, in 1493, with the stroke of his pen, Spanish Pope Alexander VI divided the non-Christian world into two zones between Spain and Portugal. That papal bull gave almost the entire area of what would be called the New World to Spain, giving Ferdinand and Isabella an opportunity to launch a crusade to spread Spanish culture and Catholicism to the far corners of the globe believing that God was their ally. With this belief in mind, Spanish conquitadores set out to the Americas to establish Spanish defensive outposts and to convert the indigenous population. As early as 1513, Spaniard Ponce de León led the first European expedition to North America, landing in an area that he named Florida. To serve God, their country and themselves, for next three hundred years, Spanish explorers and Catholic missionaries tried to transform the natives of North America into tax-paying Christians and control their world. Unknown to them, one of their most important weapons was the diseases they brought with them, which would wipe out at least one third of the native population that would come into contact with them.

Franciscan priests and friars embarked in this crusade and came to North America to minister to the indigenous people. Wearing no shields and carrying no weapons, the Franciscans accompanied expeditions hoping to save souls and reshape native culture. They lived among the natives and monopolized the missions from Florida to California. The Spanish Crown believed that these Catholic missionaries helped in its campaign to conquer this new and vast territory because they were able to pacify the Indigenous population in a much more effective way than the Spanish soldiers. Unfortunately, obedience to these men of God did not stop the pandemics and the native people continued to die. Later, their failure to intercede with God to help the natives overcome diseases, starvation and death as well as the missionary’s harsh treatment of the native population would lead to their failure.

Also, starting in the late seventeenth century, Spanish frontier settlements in North America started to feel the pressure of its imperial competitors – first France, England, and Russia, and later, after 1783, the United States. Slowly, with a declining metropolitan economy, outdated economic policies, and insistence on Christianizing the natives, Spain lost ground to their rivals, who saw North America not as an outpost, but as a commercial enterprise. By 1820, Spain had lost Florida to the United States, and a year later, it would lose the Northern provinces, from California to Texas, to the new independent nation of Mexico.
Three hundred years of Spanish enterprise in North America’s frontier left an enduring legacy. The Spanish Crown had planted their brand of Western civilization in the Northern rim of New Spain, in what would become the United States. Spanish frontiersmen also left their mark in the indigenous communities. By the end of the colonial era, Pueblo Indians, for instance, despite not completely losing their own language, religion, and cultural identity, had adopted, nonetheless, new crops and animals brought to their region by the Spaniards. They also adopted some aspects of Spanish culture that they had found useful. The horse, for instance, brought much transformation to the indigenous groups, enabling them not only to hunt more easily as well to be more independent from the Spaniards and other Europeans.

These four books currently under revision show how Spain was able to establish a transcontinental frontier’s settlement in North America. David J. Weber’s The Spanish Frontier in North America provides a complete and fresh overview of three centuries of Spanish occupation in what would become the United States. Weber gives us a clear narrative, heavily footnoted, and based on primary and secondary sources. He writes in the introduction that “across the southern rim of the United States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, aged buildings stand as mute reminders of an earlier Hispanic America that has vanished” (p. 1). Weber argues that less evident than the Spanish architectural style, are the cultural transformations that came with Spanish conquest and settlement to North America (p.3). He asserts that the arrival of the Europeans with “their zoological and biological imports changed the natural world beyond recognition” (p. 10). In this book, Weber seeks “to recreate the past with its own integrity and within its own terms of reference” (p. 9). In doing so, he contends that his narrative “must come to terms with the Indians, whose societies and cultures Spaniards transformed and who, in turn, transformed the frontier societies and cultures of the Spaniards” (p. 13). In 490 pages of narrative and footnotes, Weber lays out a most fascinating story, starting with a review of Spanish and Native American cultures prior to their encounter. He explains that the Spaniards “brought to the New World overheated imaginations, fired by the popular literature of their day”, which “extolled knight-errantry in exotic lands, where brave men found wealth and glory” and “exalted “courage, stoicism, and heroism, and glorified the warrior as the ideal of Spanish manhood” (p. 24). Besides reconstructing with much detail the history of Spanish occupation in North America, Weber reviews the legacy left by the Spaniards as well as the approach society and historians have taken to this chapter of American history.

In The Spanish Borderlands Frontier: 1513-1821, Jesuit priest John Francis Bannon, who studied at Berkeley with Herbert Eugene Bolton, one of the most prominent authorities on Spanish American history, provides a provocative account of the Spanish borderlands. Bannon asserts that “the Spanish frontier in North America has been known as the Borderlands since the appearance, in 1921, of the little volume of Herbert Eugene Bolton in the Chronicles of America series, which bore that title – Spanish Borderlands: A Chronicle of Old Florida and the Southwest” (p. 2). In this book, Bannon shows that the northern rim of New Spain constituted an arduous challenge to the Spanish Crown, which advanced slowly northward from Mexico City, to establish outposts from Texas to the Bay of San Francisco. Bannon, like Weber, argues that, different from the Anglo-American frontier, the Spanish frontier was mainly a defensive frontier, an example of man’s strength for pioneering enterprise in unknown territory. The Spanish frontiersmen were a “curious breed of men, in many instances the product of a racial intermingling with the Native American” (p. 231), who proved to be a remarkable people. For Bannon, the story of these men and women who came to establish their home in this foreign land is a remarkable example of human pioneering. Bannon’s book, following the Boltonian tradition, is well organized and highlighted with interesting details, such as the story of the “Lady in Blue”, a Spanish nun, by the name of María de Jesús Agreda, who claimed to have spiritual journeys, as miraculous bilocations, to North America to prepare the Native population for Christianity. Besides intriguing stories, such as the one of Sister María, the author describes the travels of the conquistadores and the development of Florida, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, presenting an all-inclusive treatment of the Spanish Borderlands.

In Spain in the Southwest: A Narrative History of Colonial New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California, John L. Kessel tells the story of the large waves of Spanish exploration north of Mexico based on secondary and published primary sources. Kessel’s narrative encompasses over 350 years of Spanish exploration in North America, from Columbus arrival in 1492 to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which stripped Mexico of half its territory in 1848. Kessel recounts with formidable details interesting episodes of Spanish enterprise in North America, such as Cabeza de Vaca’s odyssey in the North American continent to the work of the Franciscans who labored as missionaries among the Natives, especially among the Pueblos of New Mexico. Kessel’s sweeping overview of Spanish North America comes with several illustrations depicting life in the frontiers as well important figures, such as, Don Diego de Vargas, who played an important role in the reconquest of the Pueblos after the revolts of 1680 and 1690. By showing how the Spanish Crown approached this far corner if its kingdom, Kessel helps explain the challenges that emerged from this grandiose enterprise.

In Los Paisanos: Spanish Settlers on the Northern Frontier of New Spain, Oakah L. Jones, Jr. provides a provocative account of Spanish settlements in the Northern frontier of New Spain. For Jones, these settlements were more than just military and missionary ventures. They were a vital part of Spanish expansion. Jones argues that the role of settlement of frontier communities “has been neglected, while historians have emphasized that of the explorers, missionaries, government officials, and presidial soldiers” (p. 237). In this book, Jones contends that “settlers and their communities were integral parts of the Spanish frontier experience” (p. 237). Jones approaches the history of the Spanish frontier in North America from a different angle, showing that the frontier’s citizens were not only “more numerous than member of military and religious establishments, but they contributed in many ways to the expansion and consolidation of Spain’s holdings in America” (p. 237). This book is a fascinating account of civil life in the northern rim of New Spain. Jones calls these settlers the paisanos (countrymen) because he thinks this term most accurately describes these settlers, who worked the land and made North America their home. This is a vivid account of the founding and organization of civil settlements in the frontier.

Authors Weber, Bannon, Kessel, and Jones present a clear and detailed account of Spanish settlement in North America. They agree that Spain changed the landscape and the lives of North Americans, leaving a permanent legacy in what would later become the United States. Weber summarizes the importance of Spanish presence in the United States when he points out to what Spanish scholar Miguel Romera-Navarro said: “the North Americans should not be able to forget that two-thirds of their country has been Spanish territory” (p. 354). Almost two hundred years after the Spanish occupation of North America, Spanish culture and heritage still survive and permeate people’s lives across the country.

Ferdinand and Isabella

The powerful personalities of Ferdinand and Isabella had a major impact on the societies and states of early Europe and America. They unified Spain under one government and established the new Inquisition in 1478; they affirmed the country¿s Catholic Christian identity by forcing Muslims and Jews to convert to Christianity and they sent Christopher Columbus to discover a ¿New World¿. Their influence has passed down centuries, providing political and cultural role models during the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

Powerful figures in history have generally achieved dominance as individuals, and have largely been male. This book is striking in being about a couple, not a single, dominant ruler. On the 500th anniversary of the death of Isabella, John Edwards provides a gripping and topical account of the dynamics of their power relationship and the religious controversies of their reign.

Psalm 91:14-16

¹⁴ "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him;  I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. ¹⁵ He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. ¹⁶ With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."

Prince Edward Island

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (Jerez de la Frontera, ca. 1490/1507 – Sevilla, ca. 1557/1559) was a Spanish explorer of the New World, one of four survivors of the Narváez expedition. He is remembered as a proto-anthropologist for his detailed accounts of the many tribes of Native Americans, first published in 1542 as La Relación (The Report), and later known as Naufragios (Shipwrecks).

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whoso would be a man, must be a non-conformist. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Santo Niño de Atocha

During the 13th Century, Spain was under Umayyad conquest of Hispanic by the Moors. The town of Atocha was lost to the Muslim invaders, and the Christians there were taken prisoners. The Christians were placed on strict punishments and prohibitions, and the devout prisoners were denied food by their captors. Eventually, only children under the age of 12 were permitted to bring them food. The women of Atocha knew that most of the people in the jails could not survive under such conditions. They were praying before the statue of Our Lady of Atocha, they pleaded for the Blessed Virgin Mary to ask her son Jesus Christ for help.
Reports began to spread among the people of Atocha that a child under the age of twelve had begun to bring food to childless prisoners. The child was dressed in pilgrim's clothing.
When the women of Atocha heard of the miraculous Child, they returned to Our Lady of Atocha and thanked the Virgin for her intercession. Looking upon the image of the Madonna, they noticed that the shoes worn by the Infant Jesus held by Our Lady of Atocha were tattered and dusty. The shoes were replaced but became soiled once again. The people of Atocha saw this as a sign that the Infant Jesus went out every night to help those in need. It is said that he does many miracles, especially to children.

El Senor de Esquipulas

The Chihuahua Trail

The Chihuahua Trail – a millennia-old corridor for human passage across the northern Chihuahuan Desert to the Southern Rocky Mountains – ranks among the most historic highways in North America. It has served as an avenue for commerce, conquest, warfare, migration, adventure, flight and ideological change.

Some 550 miles long, the trail connects Chihuahua, the capital of Mexico’s state of Chihuahua, with Santa Fe, the capital of the U. S. state of New Mexico. It devolved, during the 18th and 19th centuries, from the northern segment of the main artery of the old 1500-mile-long Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (the Royal Road of the Interior Land), a Spanish roadway which began at Mexico City and ended in northern New Mexico.


Historically, the south end of the Chihuahua Trail segment began near Chihuahua’s central plaza, at the front of the city’s large baroque-style cathedral. According to Max L. Moorhead in his New Mexico’s Royal Road: Trade and Travel on the Chihuahua Trail, it led northward for some 50 miles through an open desert valley, between a range of hills on the east and the Sierra de Nido (Shelter Mountains) on the west. It crossed the small, but historic, Sacramento River about 20 miles north of Chihuahua. It passed the Laguna Encinillas (Live Oak Lake), a shallow playa lake fed by springs and intermittent streams, at the northern end of the valley. It continued northward for more than 100 miles through basin and range country, reaching the 770-square-mile Samalayuca sand dune field just north of Laguna Patos (Duck Lake). Here, the trail split. One branch proceeded due north for some 60 miles, through the towering dunes then across desert brushlands, to a ford of the Rio Grande and the famous pass between the Juarez and Franklin mountain ranges—now the site of the border cities Juarez and El Paso. The other branch veered northeast for roughly 45 miles, across the dune field’s southeastern margin, to the south bank of the river. It followed the Rio Grande upstream some 35 miles to Juarez and El Paso and the ford—often called simply, "The Pass." Today, the original trail (except for the branch which skirted the Samalayuca sand dunes) from Chihuahua to The Pass lies beneath or beside Mexico’s Federal Highway 45.


After crossing The Pass, which became a focal point for settlement, commerce, transportation and the military post Fort Bliss, the trail bore northward, up the Rio Grande valley for some 55 miles. It passed the Franklin and Organ mountain ranges to the east. Just north of the small range called the Robledo Mountains, on the west side of the valley, the trail veered away from the river, which followed a westward-bending arc through a heavily dissected landscape before it resumed its north/south course. The trail itself "strung the bow," intercepting both ends of the river’s arc. The 90-mile segment, which lay east of the Caballo and Fra Cristobal ranges and lacked any dependable sources of water, became known as the "Jornada del Muerto," the "march of the dead," or "dead man’s journey." It became the most notorious and fearful passage in the entire Chihuahua Trail. Rejoining the river, the trail followed the valley northward for 150 miles, through the region of the historic pueblos which greeted Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. It passed at the foot of that brooding, lava-capped mesa called "Contadero." It skirted the western edge of a sprawling and biologically rich marshland called the "Bosque del Apache." Hewing to the Rio Grande, it passed Albuquerque and the western flanks of Manzano and Sandia mountain ranges, then it began the ascent from the desert or, the Rio Abajo, or the Lower River, to the Southern Rocky Mountain foothills, and the Rio Arriba, or the Upper River. At the San Domingo Pueblo, the trail veered away from the Rio Grande again, following its Canada de Santa Fe tributary for roughly 30 miles into the community of Santa Fe and the main plaza, the north end of the trail, which stood surrounded by single story adobe buildings. Today, with the exception of the Jornada del Muerto passage, the corridor parallels Interstate Highway 10 from El Paso to Las Cruces and IH 25 from Las Cruces to Santa Fe.

The Chihuahua Trail’s near coincidence with modern highways, both in Mexico and the United States, speaks to the route’s natural and historic place as a roadway for human travel.

El Santuario de Chimayo

El Santuario has been called the "Lourdes of America". No one seems to know exactly how this came about. However, there are testimonies that the extraordinary has occurred. Fr. Sebastian Alvarez in his letter to the Episcopal See of Durango, dated November l6, l8l3, expressed his feelings of the people coming from afar to seek cures for their ailments and the spreading of the fame of their cures, induced many more faithful to come in pilgrimage. He did not mention any specific fact, but something was there. El Santuario has been a place of worship from the beginning - a place to pray, to thank, to ask, to meditate and to experience peace of mind as well as of body.

In time, the mass media paid attention to the little Shrine in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Newspapers from Chicago, Denver, New York and Los Angeles, Time and Newsweek magazines have all taken it upon themselves to inform the public about the Shrine. This has resulted in a considerable flow of mail requesting information about the Shrine. People come to the Santuario in the thousands, close to 300,000 a year. They come to worship the Almighty, to ask for peace in the world and in their hearts, to fulfill a promise, to feel the healing touch of God.

El Santuario (The Shrine) was built between l8l4 and l8l6. The "miraculous" crucifix of Our Lord of Esquipulas was found around l8l0. There is no written testimony concerning the apparition of Our Lord in the Chimayo area. What we have is tradition passed from one generation to another by the people of El Potrero. Here is one account of a "true" story as told by the storyteller.

One tradition recalls that during Holy Week on the night of Good Friday, Don Bernardo Abeyta, who was a member in good standing of the Hermandad de Nuestro Padre Jes6s el Nazareno (Penitentes) was performing the customary penances of the Society around the hills of El Potrero. Suddenly he saw a light springing from one of the slopes of the hills near the Santa Cruz River. Don Bernardo went to the spot and noticed that the shining light was coming from the ground. He started to dig with his bare hands, and there he found a Crucifix. He left it there and called the neighbors to come and venerate the precious finding. A group of men was sent to notify the priest, Fr. Sebastian Alvarez at Santa Cruz.

Upon hearing the extraordinary news, the priest and people set out for Chimayo. When they arrived at the place where the Crucifix was, Fr. Sebastian picked it up and carried it in a joyful procession back to the church. Once in the church, the Crucifix was placed in the niche of the main altar. The next morning, the Crucifix was gone, only to be found in its original location. A second procession was organized and the Crucifix was returned to Santa Cruz, but once again it disappeared, The same thing happened a third time. By then, everyone understood that El Sefior de Esquipulas wanted to remain in Chimayo, and so a small chapel was built.