The Americas

Dr. John L. Kessell, retired Professor of History at the University of New Mexico, is well known nationally as an authority of the history of the southwestern Spanish Borderlands in the colonial period (1540-l821). As a scholar, he has authored and edited more than ten major volumes of primary source works. Most recently in the past thirteen years he has been editor-in-chief for the six volumes of The Journals of Diego de Vargas.

Unlike his earlier words, the present one is a comprehensive study of the Spanish Southwest, written in readable narrative style. While some Spaniards may be well known to readers—e.g. Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, Alvar Núñez Cabeza [End Page 589] de Vaca, Diego de Vargas, Juan de Oñate, Juan Bautista de Anza, Fray Eusebio Francisco Kino, Fray Junípero Serra—others may not be.

It is notable that the author also introduces prominent Indians, such as Pope, Bartolomé de Ojeda, Juan Sabeata, and Lula Oacpicagigua (Salvador Palma).

The book consists of thirteen chapters organized chronologically. The first one sets the scene and established perspective about Spanish expansion from Cristobal Colón (Christopher Columbus) to major explorers, including Juan Ponce de León in La Florida, Hernando de Soto in the Southeast, and Vázquez de Ceronado in the Southwest. This establishes continuity for Spain's later activities and persons, which Spain in the Southwest discusses in the following twelve chapters. Each chapter, introduced by a colorful title and synopsis, then pertains to prominent events, persons, and developments in a designated period. Useful appendages include nearly one hundred illustrations of people, places, and events, ten maps, chapter notes, and bibliography. Of special note is the author's "Glossary" of translated Spanish terms to help those not familiar with the language. Discussing his sources, Kessell states that "this retelling is based in secondary and published sources, cited in notes and bibliography" (p.xvi). This disclaimer is not entirely true because the author occasionally cites from manuscripts, such as those from the Spanish Archives of New Mexico. Kessell demonstrates his bilingual capability, but cites only one Mexican source (Chantal Cramaussel) pertaining to the Spanish Borderlands of today's Mexico, a region that he introduces usually to trace the origins of explorers and colonizers from Nueva Vizcaya, Sonora, and Coahuila. An example of the author's familiarity with Spanish manuscripts is his explanation of a special ease in the Spanish Archives of New Mexico resulting in a rare public execution of two Keres women from Cochití Pueblo, New Mexico, in the Santa Fe plaza, 26 January 1779. Marina Josefa, the mother, and Maria Francisca, the daughter, were accused in 1775 of the murder of the younger woman's husband. Based upon two documents, Kessell traces and explains the Spanish legal system of justice between 1773 and 1779 (pp. 289-92).

One point of contradiction and another of needed amplification may be noted. First, Kessell's statement that "the Western borderlands—roughly New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California—never possessed a regional identity during the Spanish colonial period" (p. xiv) seems to contradict the unity of the Provincias Internas del Norte with the regions of northern New Spain after 1776 that Kessel himself discusses (pp. 270-2). Second, while the author mentions the Colnett-Martínez dispute between Great Britain and Spain leading to the first Nootka Sound Convention, he does not discuss Spain's occupation of Santa Cruz de Nootka (1790-85), the high point of Spanish expansion in North America and the first withdrawal from Spanish territory in the Americas.

In the tradition of Spanish Borderlands/Spanish Southwest studies of Herbert Eugene Bolton, John Francis Bannon, Lynn Perrigo, David Weber, and Iris Engstrand/Donald Cutter, Kessell has contributed a larger comprehensive, and up-to-date readable study of the Southwest, albeit more expensive than its predecessors. His concentration upon [End Page 590] actual individuals and knowledge of primary and secondary sources, along with his understandable prose, make this book a truly valuable and reliable study of interest to a variety of readers, including scholars, lay persons, and students.