In the winter of 1637, Luis de Rosas, a tough, two-fisted soldier, stood outside the convent door beating on its staves with a gloved hand. Appointed to the governorship of New Mexico, he had petitioned the viceregal authorities for permission to set out from the city of Mexico for Santa Fe in advance of the regular supply caravan. While he was initially obliged to curb his restlessness, he could wait no longer. He wanted the supply wagons loaded and for Fray Tomas Manso and the men of his escort to hit the trail. Who could know that, in his impatience to begin his long journey and thus assume his responsibilities as captain-general of the New Mexico Kingdom, he was merely hurrying toward a lengthy confrontation with New Mexico's recalcitrant soldier-colonists and priests, and ultimately to his own demise? This book forms the centerpiece of Lucero's trilogy about New Mexico's colonial history. It tells the story of his Baca, Gomez, Marquez, and Perez de Bustillo forebears in their bitter conflict with Rosas, the most interesting governor to serve prior to the Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1680. Because of Rosas's cruel tyranny, Lucero's ancestors become tragically entangled in the insanity of colonial affairs. Based on a true story, the book sets out the particulars of Church and State relations in New Mexico during the period 1637 – 1641 that led to the assassination of its governor and the beheading of the eight citizen-soldiers who were responsible for his death.
The land to the south of the villa of Santa Fe was a series of ridges, like ripples in the earth. Indians standing on the roofs of the casas reales in the pre-dawn hours of December 16, 1693, could see across the ruins of the village to the hills beyond. The sun was just beginning to light the mountains to the east. Across the snowy hills came a winding army of men, wagons, and stock riding up from the south. The army, as warlike in appearance as any that ever marched to meet an opposing force, came slowly, a long beige snake spiked with muskets, horse snaffles, and lances glinting in the sun. The colonists’ first sight of the large, fortress-like casas, the former government buildings and the residence of the Spanish governor, was marked by an outburst of extraordinary fervor. After the agonies of the past two-and-one-half months, the Army of Reconquest had finally reached its goal. The Indians and colonists observed each other across a great expanse as the army approached the city’s walls. Colonized in 1598 and driven into exile in 1680, the Spaniards were aware that theirs might be the first colony to be defeated by an indigenous people. They had made several previous attempts at reconquest, but each of these attempts had failed. The Spaniards were finally successful in 1692 in achieving a bloodless, but only ritual repossession. The actual occupation and resettlement of the New Mexico Kingdom, however, would prove to be a deadly affair. This book completes Lucero’s trilogy—Voices in the Stillness—regarding New Mexico’s colonial history. It provides an account of the better than 20 ancestral families—his forebears—that returned with the Army of Reconquest. Based on a true series of events, the book sets out the particulars of the Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1680 and its aftermath, as told from the viewpoints of the Lucero de Godoy and Gomez Robledo families and some of the other New Mexico colonists who experienced it. Author of several books regarding the New Mexico colony (The Adobe Kingdom, A Nation of Shepherds, The Rosas Affair, all from Sunstone Press), Dr. Lucero meticulously retraced the colonists’ deadly retreat, as well as the trails of their several attempts at reconquest, as part of his research for this book.
The land to the south of the "villa" of Santa Fe was a series of ridges, like ripples in the earth. Indians standing on the roofs of the "casas reales" in the pre-dawn hours of December 16, 1693, could see across the ruins of the village to the hills beyond. The sun was just beginning to light the mountains to the east. Across the snowy hills came a winding army of men, wagons, and stock riding up from the south. The army, as warlike in appearance as any that ever marched to meet an opposing force, came slowly, a long beige snake spiked with muskets, horse snaffles, and lances glinting in the sun. The colonists' first sight of the large, fortress-like "casas," the former government buildings and the residence of the Spanish governor, was marked by an outburst of extraordinary fervor. After the agonies of the past two-and-one-half months, the Army of Reconquest had finally reached its goal. The Indians and colonists observed each other across a great expanse as the army approached the city's walls. Colonized in 1598 and driven into exile in 1680, the Spaniards were aware that theirs might be the first colony to be defeated by an indigenous people. They had made several previous attempts at reconquest, but each of these attempts had failed. The Spaniards were finally successful in 1692 in achieving a bloodless, but only ritual repossession. The actual occupation and resettlement of the New Mexico Kingdom, however, would prove to be a deadly affair. This book completes Lucero's trilogy-"Voices in the Stillness"-regarding New Mexico's colonial history. It provides an account of the better than 20 ancestral families-his forebears-that returned with the Army of Reconquest. Based on a true series of events, the book sets out the particulars of the Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1680 and its aftermath, as told from the viewpoints of the Lucero de Godoy and Gomez Robledo families and some of the other New Mexico colonists who experienced it. Author of several books regarding the New Mexico colony ("The Adobe Kingdom," "A Nation of Shepherds," "The Rosas Affair," all from Sunstone Press), Dr. Lucero meticulously retraced the colonists' deadly retreat, as well as the trails of their several attempts at reconquest, as part of his research for this book. DONALD L. LUCERO is a former resident of Las Vegas, New Mexico. He received his undergraduate degree at New Mexico Highlands University. He holds graduate degrees from the University of New Mexico and the University of North Carolina. Dr. Lucero, a licensed psychologist, conducts a private practice in psychology in Raynham, Massachusetts.
The land to the south of the villa of Santa Fe was a series of ridges, like ripples in the earth. Indians standing on the roofs of the casas reales in the pre-dawn hours of December 16, 1693, could see across the ruins of the village to the hills beyond. The sun was just beginning to light the mountains to the east. Across the snowy hills came a winding army of men, wagons, and stock riding up from the south. The army, as warlike in appearance as any that ever marched to meet an opposing force, came slowly, a long beige snake spiked with muskets, horse snaffles, and lances glinting in the sun. The colonists’ first sight of the large, fortress-like casas, the former government buildings and the residence of the Spanish governor, was marked by an outburst of extraordinary fervor. After the agonies of the past two-and-one-half months, the Army of Reconquest had finally reached its goal. The Indians and colonists observed each other across a great expanse as the army approached the city’s walls. Colonized in 1598 and driven into exile in 1680, the Spaniards were aware that theirs might be the first colony to be defeated by an indigenous people. They had made several previous attempts at reconquest, but each of these attempts had failed. The Spaniards were finally successful in 1692 in achieving a bloodless, but only ritual repossession. The actual occupation and resettlement of the New Mexico Kingdom, however, would prove to be a deadly affair. This book completes Lucero’s trilogy—Voices in the Stillness—regarding New Mexico’s colonial history. It provides an account of the better than 20 ancestral families—his forebears—that returned with the Army of Reconquest. Based on a true series of events, the book sets out the particulars of the Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1680 and its aftermath, as told from the viewpoints of the Lucero de Godoy and Gomez Robledo families and some of the other New Mexico colonists who experienced it. Author of several books regarding the New Mexico colony (The Adobe Kingdom, A Nation of Shepherds, The Rosas Affair, all from Sunstone Press), Dr. Lucero meticulously retraced the colonists’ deadly retreat, as well as the trails of their several attempts at reconquest, as part of his research for this book.
In the winter of 1637, Luis de Rosas, a tough, two-fisted soldier, stood outside the convent door beating on its staves with a gloved hand. Appointed to the governorship of New Mexico, he had petitioned the viceregal authorities for permission to set out from the city of Mexico for Santa Fe in advance of the regular supply caravan. While he was initially obliged to curb his restlessness, he could wait no longer. He wanted the supply wagons loaded and for Fray Tomas Manso and the men of his escort to hit the trail. Who could know that, in his impatience to begin his long journey and thus assume his responsibilities as captain-general of the New Mexico Kingdom, he was merely hurrying toward a lengthy confrontation with New Mexico's recalcitrant soldier-colonists and priests, and ultimately to his own demise? This book forms the centerpiece of Lucero's trilogy about New Mexico's colonial history. It tells the story of his Baca, Gomez, Marquez, and Perez de Bustillo forebears in their bitter conflict with Rosas, the most interesting governor to serve prior to the Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1680. Because of Rosas's cruel tyranny, Lucero's ancestors become tragically entangled in the insanity of colonial affairs. Based on a true story, the book sets out the particulars of Church and State relations in New Mexico during the period 1637 – 1641 that led to the assassination of its governor and the beheading of the eight citizen-soldiers who were responsible for his death.
Yearning for his roots and for a return to the land of his birth, Lucero follows two families across 12 generations, from their entry into New Mexico at "La Toma del Rio del Norte," in 1598, to their achievement of statehood in 1912 and beyond.
Driven into exile from Carmena, Spain, in 1577, to escape the threat of death by the Inquisition, the Robledo family immigrates first to New Spain and then joins the Onate colonial expedition in 1596 to New Mexico. Set against the historically accurate backdrop of the colonial enterprise, and conveying a sense of New Mexico's vast wilderness, freshness, beauty, and soul, the novel brings to life a courageous and devoted family bent on establishing a new homeland. Here is the true story of the Robledos' tragic year of 1598 in which they suffer the deaths of two family members: Pedro Robledo the elder, from a prolonged illness and the rigors of the trail; and his son, Pedro Robledo the younger, as the result of an Indian attack at the Pueblo of Acoma in which eleven Spanish soldiers are killed. The difficulties of maintaining the colony during an era which would later become known as "The Little Ice Age" are revealed in intimate detail. Lacking adequate harvests, and semi-dependent upon their Pueblo Indian neighbors into whose villages the Spaniards have moved, the colonists are eventually reduced to eating roasted cowhides even as the Indians are eating dirt, coal, and ashes. In the end, some family members return to New Spain in 1601. DONALD LUCERO, who traces his ancestry to 16 adult members of the Onate expedition, grew up in northern New Mexico where an indelible mark was left on him by the region's historical past. His study of this 350-year history resulted in his first book, The Adobe Kingdom, a 12-generational study of two colonial families. Described by one reviewer as "superbly researched and written," it was recently showcased at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque. Dr. Lucero was educated in the Las Vegas schools through college where he received his B.A. in history from New Mexico Highlands University. He holds graduate degrees from the University of North Carolina and the University of New Mexico where he received his doctorate in 1970. He now lives in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, with his wife, Beth, where he is a psychologist. A Nation of Shepherds is his first novel.
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