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Yes, there are plenty. Some still manage the large properties they received as land grants. Others live in their ancestral home in the hills on the east side of Santa Fe. Some live in Albuquerque. Every year they organize a re-enactment of the conquistadors' arrival in Santa Fe. They're hard to miss.
Not anymore! That was discontinued a couple of years ago after protests on Santa Fe Plaza.
No, they haven't. The ones in a high leadership capacity have maintained their European bloodline. That's the whole point of organizing quinceanera debuts for their daughters; to present them to "society", which means--the appropriate class of people. It took years, decades for the Spanish to get established in New Mexico, and they did so only after having to make several retreats back south, due to starvation, harassment by the Native peoples, illness, and other difficulties.
It's a myth that they are pure Spanish. They certainly have some Spanish bloodlines, but they also have native ones that they are unaware of. Recent DNA testing has proven this. New Mexicans who believed themselves to be pureblooded Spanish find out consistently that they are about 20-25% Native American through genetic testing.
It's a myth that they are pure Spanish. They certainly have some Spanish bloodlines, but they also have native ones that they are unaware of. Recent DNA testing has proven this. New Mexicans who believed themselves to be pureblooded Spanish find out consistently that they are about 20-25% Native American through genetic testing.
There is an interesting debate on the existence of a caste system in colonial New Spain and perhaps a broader application into Spanish South America. Whether or not it had any official administrative application, it had some social importance and apparently the church records would make reference to degrees of mixed heritage. Wikipedia has an interesting entry on the "Casta" system and the historical debate. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casta]
One of the first towns reestablished after the reconquest following the 1680 Pueblo Revolt was Santa Cruz in northern New Mexico. The place was named: La Villa Nueva de Santa Cruz de los Españoles Mejicanos del Rey Nuestro Señor Carlos Segundo (The New Town of the Holy Cross of Mexican Spaniards under the King Our Lord Charles II). That is interesting because the use of the term "Mejicanos" is a possible reference to the Mejica, or Aztec Empire. New Mexico is named after the Aztec Empire, not the country that wasn't formed until a couple centuries later.
I live near a town established before the Pueblo Revolt and reestablished in 1693. Tha older family names point back to the earliest days of Spanish settlement and the families consider themselves to be Spanish. Some of those that have traced their ancestry will have roots going back to Spanish settlers from Zacatecas. The notorious Spanish conquistador and brutal first governor of Nuevo Mexico was Juan de Oñate who was born in Zacatecas in 1550. Oñate awarded land to the first settlers in 1598. He was later tried, convicted and banished for brutality toward the Pueblo population. He died in Spain in 1626.
Given the history of New Mexico first being apart of Spanish empire and later Mexico I was wondering if there are any descendants of these Spanish conquistadores, meaning not the typical neomejicano mestizo but full blooded spaniards.
Also regarding the Hispano population are there much culture differences to a neomejicano, spaniard living in NM, tejano, californio, chicano, or recent latino migrant?
Yes to both questions. Not so much now in the 2020's but in 1960, I grew up in a village that was originally a Spanish colony. The people spoke old conquistador spanish and used english words for truck and telephone.
I'll also add that the conquistadores reported to Spain there were two native tribes in the southwest that they did not want to tangle with, and that was the Comanche and Apache. They were "war like". I'm not sure if those two tribes were located in New Mexico or not. Conquistadores main motive was gold and silver, and perhaps saw little potential in that area. On the other hand, conversion was the other motive, in which the Jesuits saw a future, and in fact became prosperous in cattle and horses.
The first ones they had trouble with was Acoma Pueblo people. Did you not learn about the massacre in history class. The Spaniards were war like, they loved to have apache to fight with. What do you think Conquistador means?
Anthony Bourdain's series Parts Unknown aired an episode in 2013 filmed in New Mexico. Part of this episode dug into the topic of people of original Spanish heritage and their "old world" Spanish that is still spoken by a relatively small number. I don't recall the exact location but it was on a ranch in rural northern NM. It was probably one of his better episodes that were filmed in the USA.
I am going to have to look that up, having lived there! I was never really into Bourdain, but I like him now.
If one is truly interested in the history of New Mexico there are a couple of authors that are really good. The Centuries of Santa Fe by Paul Horman, and New Mexico: An Interpretive History by Marc Simmons. I think both of these books were recommended to me by fellow posters here.
For entertainment (belly laughs) and getting a flavor of the people, The Milagro Beanfield War is great for gaining an understanding of some of the locals and how they feel about their land (the movie was ok, obviously had to skim over a lot).
The author John Nichols has lived in and around Santa Fe and is somewhat of a local legend. The fiction by author Michael McGarity is also very good. I got started with Hermits Peak because I lived so close to it. He has a new book out. I love his stories because they take place in northern New Mexico and you learn so much about the area. He writes mysteries. All of these authors are very interesting people with great stories to tell.
The Milagro Beanfield War is at or near the very top of my favorite books of all time. Read it when it first came out and everybody and his brother was reading it on the BART and MUNI in San Francisco. Never thought I'd live very close to there, but it was quite an experience to do so.
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Never thought I'd live very close to there, but it was quite an experience to do so.
