Every picture tells a story, don't it?

 

We see this somewhat stagey, somewhat spooky snapshot a lot out here.  Always in conjunction with a group known as Las Gorras Blancas.  But never with enough accompanying detail to fully explain the who, what, why, when and where of the scene being depicted.  So we looked further into it.

And it all begins in Las Vegas – New Mexico that is.  Not that glitzy, sin-city simmering in Nevada’s Mojave Desert.

The Spanish (1598-1821) and Mexican (1821-1848) governments of New Mexico made hundreds of land grants totaling millions of acres to groups and individuals as inducements to settle in the border regions of the colony.  Mexico created the 431,654 acre Las Vegas Grant in northeastern NM for subsistence settlers in the 1830s with the bulk of the land designated for the collective use of its owner-members.  That allotment was one of the most successful in attracting settlers.   

In spite of the recurring Indian raids what made the property so desirable was its proximity to the Santa Fe Trail, its good grazing land (Las Vegas means "the meadows,") and the available timber and water in its highlands.   In 1836, the town of Las Vegas was created by Hispanic settlers, many with families. After the 1848 U.S. takeover of New Mexico the establishment of U.S. Army Fort Union nearby in 1851 provided security and employment for residents plus a local market for Las Vegas products.  The Santa Fe Trail offered jobs, and the town prospered growing to over 1,000 people by 1860 – then quadrupling over the next two decades.

At las Golondrinas museum we sometimes talk about the “three W’s of New Mexico’s colonization – “wine, wool and wheat.”  Grapes thrived in southern part of the territory but not in the Las Vegas area.  Churro sheep just loved every part of New Mexico.  As did certain wheats.

During the 1860s, Las Vegas was the center of the territory’s sheep industry, with major operations like that of Don Jose Albino Baca, who owned 60,000 of New Mexico’s .5 million ovine.  The Santa Fe Trail provided the conduit for in transporting wool and weaving to eastern markets. Churro sheep brought by the first colonists in the 1500s were the predominant source.

 

“Sonora White” was the first wheat variety the colonists planted in 1599.  By the mid-1800s it was being widely grown – much in the Las Vegas area.

Along with wheat, the Spanish brought their small, horizontal waterwheel, stone-ground grist mills powered by an acequia (irrigation ditch) – aka known as “Norse wheels.”  Each village had one to supply its resident’s flour needs.

The demand for flour grew exponentially in 1846 with the arrival of the U.S. army.  More land was devoted to growing the crop, and large production mills using industrial-revolution technology started being built by 1849.   “These mills were designed to produce white flour … unlike stone mills, which retained the whole grain in the flour they produced.” (riograndegrain.org)  Good enough for its biggest customer, the military whose post in the Las Vegas area, Fort Union, became the supply depot for other bases throughout New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma.

“From 1861 to 1878, Fort Union ... funneled an unprecedented amount of cash to Hispanos of northern New Mexico [as] more than a thousand native New Mexicans worked … principally as laborers and teamsters, as well as in other capacities”  (Fort Union and the Economy of Northern New Mexico, 1860–1868)

Things were going pretty well for the grantees of Las Vegas and their descendants until the military bases in New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma were closed negating the need for Fort Union, which was shuttered in 1891.  Meanwhile in 1879 the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad replaced the Santa Fe Trail as the principal means of commerce.  But more importantly changed the look, feel and character of Las Vegas.

The AT&SF established a terminal and developed the land east of the Galinas River, creating a separate, rival “New Town” Las Vegas.   Which rapidly grew with modernities such as an electric street railway, “Duncan Opera House,” Andrew Carnegie Library, Harvey House Castañeda Hotel, and New Mexico Normal School (now NM Highlands University.)  With the available timber new residents constructed homes and buildings in Victorian and Queen Anne styles familiar to them – rather than emulating the “dirt” (adobe) constructs west of the river.   In 1881 the “new” and “old” communities were separately incorporated as a city and town, respectively. Then unified under one charter in 1970  – although distinct school districts have been maintained (Las Vegas City and West Las Vegas.) 

Meanwhile Las Vegas was also building a reputation for Wild West lawlessness – a hangout for outlaws, adventurers, and notable figures such as Jesse James, Bob Ford, and Doc Holliday who killed his first man for shooting up the Doc’s Vegas saloon in 1879.

But even before the arrivals of train-men and gunslingers American expansionism under the flag of Manifest Destiny was undoing the seemingly sacrosanct connection of the Hispano settlers to their land grant.

 

The 1836 Mexican Las Vegas Land Grant was premised on communal property rights, while Americans introduced a system of individual land ownership.  Moreover, “the boundaries of these grants were very indefinite, due to lack of good surveying instruments, and they caused much worry to the American surveyor general later.  [E.g.] ‘A pine tree nine inches in diameter, bears south twenty-five degrees, fifty-six minutes east, one hundred links distant, marked L.V.G.’” (New Mexico Historical Review)  Surveyor generals were the federal officials responsible for resolving property disputes.  Many were honest and hard-working.  Others inept.  Several easily corrupted. 

In the 1860s Ohioan Octavius Decatur Gass began acquiring land and ranching in the area.  Through the second half of the 19th century more American settlers and land speculators began to purchase and demarcate “their” land with barbed wire, undermining the communal property system and displacing Hispano residents who resisted through legal means, political activism – and acts of defiance.

A clandestine organization known as Las Gorras Blancas (“White Caps” because of the hoods they wore) led the resistance conducting acts of destruction against land speculators and cattle ranchers.  “By cutting fences and burning barns, the Raza [Hispanic] sheepherders of New México fought the advance of the cattlemen, as they had fought the invasion of the Texans in 1841 before the war against México.” (We Fed Them Cactus)  The photo shown above is used consistently to represent them in Google searches, PowerPoints, books and magazine articles.

Attempts to prosecute the vigilantes failed because no witnesses would come forward.  According to historian David Correia, “by the fall of 1890 every single fence that enclosed the Las Vegas Land Grant had been cut and none had survived reconstruction.”  The Blancas then became political joining Partido del Pueblo Unido (United People’s Party) and winning electoral victories in 1890 and 1892. 

The leaders of the White Caps were the Mexican-American Herrera brothers – Juan José on the left, Pablo in the middle, and Nicanor on the right.  Pablo was elected to the Territorial Assembly but resigned after one session and was then gunned down without cause by a deputy sheriff in Las Vegas. His death, along with continued denunciations and legal campaigns by territorial officials, merchants, and newspapers squashed the budding political movement.  By the mid-1890s, barbed-wire fences again enclosed communal lands, and many local subsistence ranchers became paid laborers as ranch hands or railroad workers, forever losing their rights to communal land.  Currently, only about 350 of the original 481,653.65 acres remain.

We could not determine if the Herreras were among the original 28 grantees in 1835.  (The answer is out there.  Just not digitally.)  Too bad.  That would have completed the circle of the Las Vegas story.  For all the difference it would have made.

As to the photo that started this  –

Hand-printed on the image are the words  “settlers taking the law in their own hands cutting 15 miles of the Brighton Ranch in 1885 Copy Right by S. D. Butcher Kearney Neb.”  The Old Brighton Ranch is near the South Loop River in Custer County, Nebraska.  And the Library of Congress website explains the likeness as “a theatrical reenactment staged by the photographer to illustrate a historical event for his PIONEER HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY[Nebraska].”   In that state’s “Barbed Wire Wars” large ranchers fenced off public land with the newly developed fencing material, which small ranchers and homesteaders would then often destroy.  Hispanos who were part of the larger Mexican-American population in Nebraska may have been affected by the changes in land ownership and grazing practices brought about by the use of barbed wire.  Las Gorras Blancas however was never active in the Cornhusker State.

There is nonetheless this extremely superficial New Mexican connection to the photograph.  Kearney, Nebraska where the lensman lived was named after General Stephen Watts Kearny who on August 15, 1846 entered Las Vegas, NM with his U.S. Army troops, and from a rooftop overlooking the town plaza proclaimed New Mexico as part of the United States.  The “e” in the town name was mistakenly added by postmen who misspelled it.  

“Every picture tells a story, don't it?” as the Rod Stewart song reminds us.  And some have even more than one to tell – not all equal in veracity or entertainment value.

Call the Curandera!

 

When Jim broke his elbow Marsha drove him to the emergency room at one of our local hospitals where the head nurse practitioner and her team x-rayed and “popped” the dislocated bones back into place.  Then next week an orthopedic surgeon refastened the torn ligaments and replaced the broken radial head. Then occupational therapy at a nearby out-patient rehab facility.  Pretty much what any of you would have done.

Of course out here in New Mexico we could just call the Curandera instead.

So you may ask, “¿Qué es una Curandera?”

 

“Found primarily in Latin America and also in the United States … a Curandera is a specialist in traditional medicine whose practice can either contrast with or supplement that of a practitioner of Western medicine. A Curandera is claimed to administer shamanistic and spiritistic remedies for mental, emotional, physical and spiritual illnesses.”  (wikipedia.com)  Following Spanish grammatical rules Curandera is female, Curandero male.

“Women with special knowledge of herbs, household remedies, human health, and faith, Curanderas have been an integral presence in Hispanic communities in New Mexico for centuries, trusted with childbirth and to treat real and imagined maladies, particularly where medical doctors and clinics are scarce … Because many Curanderas also became midwives, primarily women took on the special task of being a knowledgeable, caring healer.” (New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program)

 

 

From the Spanish “curar,” (to heal) the healing practice of curanderismo began with the Spanish colonization of Latin America.  The Spaniards came to Mexico in 1519 bringing their healing methods and traditions with them, some adapted from those of the North African Moors who had ruled their country for over 700 years.  In the New World these became further combined with the knowledge and practices of local Natives plus those brought in by African slaves.  The result was a mixed-bag of healing processes to resolve physical, psychological and interpersonal issues using herbs, remedies, and prayers – drawing upon the practitioners knowledge of the natural world together with Catholic, Indigenous and African beliefs and ceremonies.   The medical components of this practice reflected the state of knowledge of 16th century European medicine, which was based on the Greek Galenic humoral medicinal system of maintaining a balance between the four bodily humors – blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm.  This methodology was replaced during the Renaissance by a new paradigm for understanding the human body and disease involving the discovery of the cardiovascular system, the emergence of scientific methods, advancements in chemistry, physiology, and germ theory along with theories on disease transmission and epidemiology. 

In New Spain medical education was available at institutions like the Royal University of México established in 1578.  The clash between science and folk medicine led to conflicts as the Spanish sought to impose their ways of doing things on the Native population – with the Inquisition sometimes investigating healers who were using “magico-religious” cures.   The religious court however was much more interested in prosecuting Jewish people, particularly those who had converted to Christianity (conversos) but were suspected of secretly maintaining Jewish practices.  Meanwhile in the background Curanderismo continued to expand.

 

So while the Renaissance unfolded in Europe, Mexico and New Mexico experienced it’s new ideas filtered slowly through its own development process, which was built around the integration of European and indigenous cultures.  So when a medical emergency struck in New Mexico it was time to call the Curandera.

Marsha said later that was actually her first thought.  But we didn’t have any in our IPhone contacts except former Nurse Practitioner and personal friend C – who sometimes portrays a Curandera at El Rancho de las Golondrinas living history museum.  Then Marsha realized that she probably doesn’t accept UHC Medicare Advantage, so off we went to Christus St Vincent Hospital where we (unfortunately) know that our med insurance is good.  

So what did “real” Curanderas treat and how did they treat it?

Curanderismo includes several main specialties: yerbera (herbalist,) partera (midwife,) Curandera espiritual (spiritual healer,) sobadora (massage/chiropractics) and huesero (bone setting and spinal alignment.)   The last two would have known how to realign dislocated elbows.  With less than perfect results by today’s standards – but still…   All specialities used some herbalism –  e.g. to prevent pain.

Nowadays books discussing most of the Curandera’s plants are readily available. (The “seminal” one, “Healing Herbs of the Upper Rio Grande,” was written by Leonora Curtin, mother of the eponymously named co-founder of El Rancho de las Golondrinas.)  In the 16th century some of that information (yerba mansa to stop bleeding, Mormon tea for skin itch and tanning animal hides, etc.) also would have been familiar to most people, probably from personal experience.  

 

But just knowing the botanics does not a Curandera make.  As the old jazz tune says, “Tain't What You Do (It's the Way That Cha Do It)  And that's what gets results.”  The complete treatment it is not just leaves, seeds and flowers.  It is the holistic blend of folk medicine, herbalism, and mysticism addressing the physical, emotional, social, environmental and spiritual aspects of an individual's well-being that effects the cure.  

“Curanderas do not first study to become healers but come to their vocation through a spiritual calling or family lineage, such as a mother Curandera passing the baton to a daughter.  God, or a higher power, is believed to grant them divine knowledge and skills to practice healing.  Once their calling is accepted and established, they develop their knowledge and skills through multi-year apprenticeships with practicing healers.” (Google AI overview)   Deeply rooted in faith and spiritual beliefs, the healers are seen as divinely inspired and chosen to serve their communities.  The vast majority are practicing Catholics who also rely on Indigenous spirituality.  This is not seen as incompatible by its practitioners or patients.

So with balancing the humors now replaced by more scientific healing methods – is curanderismo still alive in the 21st century?

In New Mexico, yes.

Our new home state had basically no medical doctors until 1904 – so Curanderas provided most of the health care for over 300 years.  Then the U.S. territory got its first part-time MD in Las Cruces – Edwin McBride, who also served on the staff of Hôtel-Dieu Sisters’ Hospital in El Paso, Texas.  (A hôtel-Dieu, “hotel of God,” was a hospital for the poor and needy, run by the Catholic Church.)  New Mexico’s census at that time was ≈ 196,000.  Today’s is 2.13 million and there now are 3,511 specialty physicians and 1,400 PCPs – with over 2,200 physician job vacancies.  These figures do not include Nurse Practitioners, Physicians Assistants, etc.   Better numbers than 1904 but 16% worse than the current national average.  The shortage is most acute in rural and frontier areas – about 38% of New Mexico’s residents.

Curanderisimo is legal here under 2009 “Unlicensed Health Care Practice Act.” And the University of New Mexico offers a course on the “history, traditions, rituals, herbs, and remedies” of the practice.  But not a certificate to practice.  We could not find the number of active Curanderas in the state.  There is no registry and many prefer to maintain a certain level of privacy, particularly if they are working with patients who seek traditional healing methods in addition to or instead of Western medicine.  

 

“Curanderas still play important roles in the distant, rural areas of New Mexico. Their presence has proven to be an excellent intermediary between modern medicine and the local community. For example, many Curanderas still serve an important role in births …  and many have received specialized training in childbirth ... through the University of New Mexico School of Nursing.” (nmhistoricwomen.com)  However Curanderas are equally likely to be called in in to counteract bad luck, or curses such as “el mal ojo,” the “evil eye.” 

 

We ourselves are living in one of the three best areas in New Mexico for physician access.  So when Jim’s episode occurred we were able to quickly get the most up-to-date Western osteopathic treatment available.  Still we plan to make sure that C’s iPhone contact information is current, just in case. 

When it comes to pain, it never hurts to cover all your bases.

What's Past is Prolog

 

“What's Past is Prologue” Shakespeare tells us in The Tempest – events gone by set the stage for what is to come.  Even more so here in the Land of Enchantment.

“In New Mexico, history and culture are in your face. They’re not just things that happened 500 years ago or 100 years ago. People are still talking about it now, and they’re arguing about it now—as if it happened yesterday … We still feel the reverberations from those events. We feel them now.” (New Mexico State Historian Rob Martinez, New Mexico Magazine)   

For example, tradition mandates that New Mexicans must hold residents of the neighboring “Lone Star State” in disfavor.  Why?  In part because we still can’t get over the 1841 and 1843 invasions of our territory by what was then the independent Republic of Texas.  While wikipedia.com and other sources refer to these events “invasions,” they were actually takeover attempts.  In 1862 Confederate forces from Texas once again encroached on New Mexico as part of the Confederate attempt to gain control of the American West.  Many view this as the fourth takeover try.  We have a tour of that conflict’s Battle of Glorietta Pass scheduled for late May.  After which we will report more on New Mexico’s role in the War Between the States.  

But now we will limit ourselves to the 1840s incursions, starting with a quick recap of Texas history.

Unlike New Mexico (1598) Texas did not have a European settlement until 1681 when Spaniards and Native Americans from Isleta Pueblo hunkered down near present day El Paso after being driven out of Nuevo México by the Pueblo Revolt.  Eleven years later they reorganized, left their short-term resting place and reconquered their colony.  Meanwhile, thanks to the efforts of mission-minded Franciscan priests by 1862 Spanish settlements were established in El Paso del Norte, San Lorenzo, Senecú, Ysleta, and Socorro Texas.

In 1685 Robert de La Salle established a French colony near Matagorda, killed off by Native Americans after three years.  The mere presence of another European power however prompted Spain to establish settlements to keep their claim to the land – and several Roman Catholic missions were established in East Texas, all abandoned in 1691. So, concerned with the burgeoning French presence in neighboring Louisiana, Spanish authorities again tried to colonize Texas. 

Over the next 100+ years, Spain established numerous villages, presidios, and missions occupied by a small number of Spanish settlers, missionaries and soldiers.  (Among them was the historic mission and fortress compound in San Antonio known as the Alamo.)   After the Louisiana Purchase Spain signed agreements with colonists from the United States, which now controlled the land to Texas’s northeast.  When Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, Texas with a population of roughly 2,000 Hispanic citizens became part of the new nation. To encourage settlement, Mexico allowed organized immigration from the United States, and the Texas population grew to around 38,000, of whom 30,000+ were Anglos.  

In 1824 Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna dissolved the new country’s constitution, which along with other issues, turned the Anglos and Mexicans living in Texas towards revolution.  Santa Anna invaded the territory (“Remember the Alamo!”) and between 1835 and 1836, the “Texians” won their independence from Mexico and became the Republic of Texas.  

The anglicization continued.   “Beginning in the 1840s, a wave of social unrest in Germany began a flood of immigration to Texas. The Texas and German Emigration Company [aka] the Adelsverein, purchased more than 4,400 acres of land in Fayette County and then advertised the settlement opportunity to Germans. It worked. Some 5,257 Germans arrived in Texas between October 1845 and April 1846.”  (thestoryoftexas.com)  Many of these merchants, tradesmen and industrialists established brand-name businesses – Shiner beer, Pioneer flour, Gebhardt canned food, et al. – that lasted for generations.  As well as bringing biergartens, classical and opera music and creating a new dialect known as Texas German.  By 1860 the German population of Texas numbered nearly 20,000 people.

The boundaries of independent Texas were never formally documented. (Mexico refused to recognize the Republic, considering it instead a “breakaway state.”)  So Texas declared a southern and western border of the Rio Grande river – an area that included Santa Fe and most of the populated parts of the Mexican province of New Mexico.  

Why?  As Deep Throat purportedly advised during Watergate, “follow the money” – in this case straight to the Santa Fe Trail.

From 1598 to 1821 Spain controlled Mexico and New Mexico and did not allow trade with the United States or any entity other than itself.  On gaining self-rule in 1821 Mexico, which also “won” New Mexico, immediately opened what would become the Santa Fe Trail. It was an immediate success generating trade not only from the eastern side of the U.S. but also to that part of the country from enterprising Hispano entrepreneurs already in New Mexico and Anglo merchants who relocated to that territory.  Mexico, fearing a significant change in the composition of its residents, periodically closed its borders to immigrants from the U.S.

In 1841 powers-that-be in the Republic of Texas wanted in on that action. Which to some of them meant establishing ownership of the eastern part of New Mexico.  So that summer Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar sent a party of 270 men on an expedition to conquer and claim it as part of Texas.  

The undertaking was ill-conceived, poorly prepared, badly organized and plagued by Indian attacks and a lack of supplies and fresh water.  Captured without incident by a 1,500 man detachment of the Mexican Army sent out by NM governor Manuel Armijo they were marched 2,000 miles to Mexico City, released and returned to Texas in 1842.  The embarrassing fiasco cost the republic a lot of money and riled up a bunch of resentment on both sides.  Two years later Texas tried again – twice.

As in 1841 the main mission of each expedition was to establish control of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande.  This time they also were allowed to raid and rob any Mexican commerce on the Santa Fe Trail.  

The initial party was organized by Charles A. Warfield, fur trapper and officer in the Republic of Texas army.  He planned on a force of 800-1,000 men recruited from Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri.  By March 1843 he had assembled a band of 24, mostly mountain men.  Warfield’s “army” killed several Mexican traders on the SF Trail plus several civilians near the town of Mora, NM creating apprehension by both the United States and Mexico about “men of desperate character.”  And resulting in U.S. military escorts for some wagon trains headed toward New Mexico.  They also killed five Mexican soldiers and took then subsequently released 18 captives.  The next day they were ambushed by Mexican troops.  Warfield escaped, but five of his men were apprehended and most of the remainder decided to return to Texas.  

While Warfield was organizing his invasion, Jacob (“old Jake”) Snively, another Texas Army officer, was attempting to raise his own force to attack New Mexican traders.  He received permission for “an expedition [of not more than 300] for the purpose of intercepting and capturing the property of Mexican traders who might pass through territory claimed by Texas on the Santa Fe Trail” – proceeds to be divided between Snively, his men and the government.

In June the 150 man “Battalion of Invincibles” marched to Kansas where they were joined by Warfield and his remaining men.  Snively’s group attacked a Mexican military unit, killing 17 and taking 82 prisoners with no losses.  Soon after, however, dissension broke up the group with half of them leaving.  The remainder were apprehended by U.S. Army Captain Capt. Philip St. George Cooke, their weapons confiscated and escorted to Missouri.  Snively and Warfield considered attacking a Mexican trade caravan, but decided to go back home instead disbanding on August 6.

The sport of baseball has a term for this – “Oh-fer, [rhymes with “gopher”] descriptive of a batter who fails to get a hit in any number of at-bats in a game or series of games. The term is created from ‘0 [zero] for,’ as one would say when speaking of an ‘0 for 3’ game.” (Dickson Baseball Dictionary)  

Texans still today “remember the Alamo” with a heartfelt and powerful intensity.  And probably will til the end of time.  Likewise New Mexicans recall the “Oh-fers” of the 1840s with the same degree of fervency.  And will continue to do so forever and ever, amen.

“It takes a little while for these numbers to shake out, but in 2021 an estimated 17,000 Texans moved to New Mexico – the largest source of new residents (besides births).” (kfmx.com)  Why?  Less expensive homes, lower property taxes (enough to offset the NM state income tax,) climate, culture and politics (“New Mexico feels like a more even-handed State.”)

They probably all are very nice people who should be warmly welcomed.  Our next door Texas neighbors and our longtime Santa Fe resident/UT Longhorn friend certainly are.  Lone Star tourists – not so much.  Nonetheless an “Oh-fers” real estate surtax might not be a bad idea for the NM state legislature to consider.

Tradition!

 

And the answer is ... the Moors!

After eight years of living in New Mexico and learning about its history and culture we have come to this realization – the answer to most questions about the state’s past and practices includes the phrase “the Moors.” 

Q. What’s with all the dirt houses?

A. Its called adobe and it is a mixture of dirt, sand, straw and water.  The Spanish learned it from the Moors and brought the concept with them to New Mexico – where they discovered that the local Pueblo Indians used the same building material.

Q. What are those small beehive-shaped adobe structures that look like dog houses? 

A. They are outdoor ovens called “hornos” – and also started with the Moors.  The Spanish introduced them to the Puebloans.  

Q.  What’s that slender rounded rod with tapered ends that’s used to spin fiber into yarn?

A.  It called a “malacate” – and likewise originated with the Moors.  The Pueblo and Navajo Indians have their own versions. 

So the other day we were having lunch at “Little Anita’s” in Albuquerque after visiting that city’s Art Museum.   It is one of our favorite restaurants and possibly the one we have frequented the most in the 43 years we’ve been visiting/living in New Mexico.  In 1993, our second trip, we decided to spend our initial night in ABQ rather than driving to Santa Fe immediately after flying all day.  Our hotel was on the edge of the city’s “Old Town” – a Spanish plaza with centuries-old adobe houses that are home to New Mexican eateries and tiny artisan shops selling jewelry, rugs, pottery, art... – all watched over by 18th-century San Felipe de Neri Church.  

As we walked from our hotel to the plaza we passed a restaurant that looked local, not too fancy, not too expensive and not too crowded and decided to try it for dinner on our way back.  It became our traditional first-night-in-town dining spot.  As their website says “you had me at chips and salsa.”  We would add, “and sopapillas,” which come unbidden as a side dish and/or dessert. 

Square or triangular in shape and accompanied by honey, sopapillas are a light, airy, puffed-and-hollow-centered fried bread made from a simple leavened dough of flour, baking powder, salt, and water or milk.  From that first bite back in ‘93 they became our favorite New Mexican food.  They differ slightly from eatery to eatery.  Little Anita’s are, to our taste buds, among the best.

And you guessed it.  It’s history involved the Moors.

Like many ethnic terms, “Moors” has taken on various meanings across the ages. Shakespeare’s Othello is referred to as “the Moor” because of his dark skin color.  As used in this essay it refers to a Muslim army of Arabs and North African Berbers (many fair-skinned) sent in 711 A.D. by the governor of the Maghreb region of northwest Africa to seize control of the Iberian Peninsula – at the time controlled by the Catholic Visigoth kingdom.   

 

The takeover ended Christian rule and established Muslim control of the territory, which they renamed Al-Andalus.  It stayed that way until 1492 when the Moors ceded the city of Granada to Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon whose “dynastic union” in 1469 formed the foundation for the unification of Spain.  This surrender solidified the de facto consolidation of Spain under the Catholic Monarchs.

So, in addition to the above, what types of changes did the Muslim Moors introduce?

They established numerous schools and universities (Córdoba and Toledo e.g.) and made education widely accessible leading to a period of significant scientific and intellectual development. Instituted the concept of a structured medical profession and developed new surgical instruments.  Introduced important mathematical and astronomical knowledge such as the use of Arabic numerals and the astrolabe.  Brought in new crops like oranges, lemons, and cotton grown using advanced irrigation and agricultural techniques.  And built a sophisticated urban infrastructure with paved, lit streets and public baths.

As to religion – during the Visigoth era (415-711 AD) Muslims were not a significant presence, while Jews were initially tolerated then increasingly persecuted after the Visigoths converted to Catholicism in the late 6th century.  Under Muslim rule Jews were initially considered a protected minority (“dhimmi,”) allowing their culture, philosophy, and science to flourish.  Many held influential positions in the government and participated in trade.  Catholics likewise were “dhimmi,” but not allowed as much social and economic freedom as the Jewish population.   Resistance to the Muslim occupation began almost immediately and as Catholics regained territory the Moorish rulers imposed harsher restrictions on both religions – who in turn sought refuge in the reconquered Christian areas. 

The period of Muslim rule is sometimes referred to as the “age of convivencia,” suggesting a coexistence, but it was actually characterized by a strict social hierarchy rather than true equality.  And it became even less convivial after the completion of the Reconquista in 1492.  

 

 

Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand were extremely devout Catholics who saw religious uniformity as a sacred duty and the key to political power.   Jews and Muslims were given the choice to convert to Catholicism, be expelled from Spain or face harsh penalties such as enslavement or even death.  Jewish converts were known as “Conversos,”  Muslims “Morescos.”  Those changing from Islam enjoyed a greater degree of social mobility compared to those leaving Judaism – although both still still faced suspicion and discrimination.  A good number left the country.  Others chose a feigned conversion – living outwardly as Catholic while secretly retaining the practices and rituals of their real faith.  Many of these “Crypto” (“concealed”) Jews/Muslims migrated to the New World hoping that different surroundings and people unfamiliar with them would make it easier to maintain their disguised dual religiosity.  

The principal purpose of the Spanish Inquisition was rooting out and punishing these non-converts and sham Catholics.  Thus the tribunal set up a New World branch office in Mexico City.  “The courts of the Inquisition published lists of suspected Jewish practices to encourage others to report them …  ‘observing Sabbath, wearing clean clothes on Friday, eating kosher food, fasting on Jewish holidays, burning hair/nail clippings, washing hands before prayer, celebrating Passover … drinking kosher wine...’” (jlifenj.com)  Punishments ranged from imprisonment to confiscation of property to public execution, often by burning at the stake.

No one was immune.  In 1662, the ecclesiastical tribunal arrested New Mexico Governor Bernardo López de Mendizábal and his wife, Teresa de Aguilera y Roche, on suspicion of Crypto-Jewery.  The charges were fabricated by Franciscan priests with whom he had political differences.  The couple was jailed in Mexico City where he died and she was eventually released due to a lack of credible evidence.   In 1671 his case was formally dropped.

 

Most Crypto Jews however were never discovered – even by their descendants.  Aided by organizations such as the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies, some surprised families in New Mexico today are finding their real religious roots.

“One of the ways Jewish traditions were kept alive through the centuries was in the women’s cooking and baking. Many of the dishes prominent in New Mexico’s cuisines are strikingly similar to Jewish dishes passed down through the centuries. Case in point: biscochitos, New Mexico’s state cookie. ‘My Catholic family used to make them for Christmas,’ [said Crypto-Jew descendent Isabelle Sandoval.]  ‘My mother used butter, not lard. I use Crisco.’ 

“Many recipes of the Crypto-Jews … are preserved in a fascinating cookbook, ‘Drizzle of Honey: The Lives and Recipes of Spain’s Secret Jews’ by Dr. David Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson, who use actual trial testimonies of the Inquisition, including recipes, to reveal how Crypto-Jews retained their Jewish practices in the home while seemingly leading a Christian life on the outside.” (jlifenj.com)

So, are there Crypto-Kosher sopapillas?

Well, it's complicated.

The Spanish Jews in Al-Andalus already had something quite similar to New Mexico sopapillas called Sephardic bimuelos in their stash of recipes.  Another fried dough pastry called sopaipa (from Mozarabic “xopaipa,” meaning “bread soaked in oil”) was popular among the Moors.  Spanish colonists (including conversos and cryptos) brought this Moorish recipe to the Americas and adapted it for local ingredients and tastes resulting in the sopapilla we know today.  After the Inquisition both dishes became associated with Jewish heritage, with families making either or both of them for Hanukkah and other holidays – served with honey.  

Secret family recipes have probably been around since the beginning of humankind. Today the Food Network has a multi-generational home-cooking competition that celebrates them. BUSH'S® Baked Beans uses their “spokes dog” Duke to hype theirs.  And dear reader it is likely that your ancestry boasts (perhaps only in private) of at least one such culinary item.  Ours does.

They all were good – or else why would they have lasted through multiple generations?  Some were very good.  And here in New Mexico a few, literally, were “to die for.”

Place-authenticity

In the Netflix series “Grace and Frankie” Lily Tomlin's character, Frankie derisively describes Santa Fe, NM – our home town – as a “woo-woo” city with an overabundance of “crystal shops and chakra alignments.”

While Google AI says it “is a hub for spiritual exploration, offering numerous centers, retreats …  workshops, and unique sites … for self-discovery, blending Native American, Spanish, and New Age traditions … everything from shamanic journeys, energy-healing, yoga, meditation, to retreats focused on mindfulness, creativity, and ancestral wisdom.” (Google AI)   

Not our kind of place.  Right?  But we’ve just self-discovered something that may explain the reason we are living in that “woo-woo” town.  As well as why other locales exert a similar magnetism for us.  And it’s real science – a psychological principal used in urban planning and design.  We both have a form of topophilia known as place-authenticity.  

The first indication should have been our eagerness to view the Smithsonian traveling exhibition “Jamestown, Québec, Santa Fe … first permanent English, French, and Spanish settlements in the New World” at the Albuquerque Museum in 2008.   

We’d vacationed in Santa Fe for 16 years and visited Quebec City the previous February for the destination wedding of the son of some our dearest friends.  The temperature where Fahrenheit and Celsius scales meet is -40 degrees.  While exploring the Canadian town we saw that number on an outdoor thermometer.  Still we loved it there.  In addition to the wedding, et al., the architecture – rectangular stone houses, thick walls, small-paned windows, steep snow-shedding roofs  – and “European French atmosphere” made us feel warm and at home.  Not to mention the pea soup, pâtés and poutine.  A place we definitely could comfortably spend much more time in.

As to to Santa Fe, America's oldest state capital, we’ve lived there since 2017 and visited for 25 years prior to that – initially to see what inspired Georgia O’Keeffe’s abstract landscapes.  (Hint – they’re not abstract.)  

We’ve never been to Jamestown.  But for 50 years lived as a couple (Marsha one decade before that) in Wethersfield – Connecticut’s first permanent English settlement.  Olde enough for us.  (New Englanders can be quite narrow-minded.)   Yet we knew little of our hometown’s past prior to retiring in 2005 and joining the local historical society.

British colonization of America began on Roanoke Island, NC with 117 colonists in 1587.  Three years later they all had vanished, leaving only the word “CROATOAN” carved into a post and inspiring America’s initial conspiracy theory.  The earliest successful settlement was Jamestown, VA (1607) – then Plymouth, MA and Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629.

Plymouth was run by the Puritans.  And Puritan rules and regs were, well, Puritanical.  John “Mad Jack” Oldham was one of several who became exasperated by these strictures and was banished in 1624 for creating conflict and slandering leaders like Miles Standish.  He moved to Watertown in Massachusetts Bay Colony becoming a successful trader yet still still seeking more autonomy and opportunities. And finding it in the fertile lands of the future Wethersfield, which he briefly named Watertown.   Along with Oldham in 1634 came Nathaniel Foote, Abraham Finch, Sr., Robert Seeley. John Strictland, John Clarke, Andrew Ward, Robert Rose, Leonard Chester and William Swayne – Wethersfield’s “Ten Adventurers.”  

Two years later Oldham was killed by Indians at Block Island, RI.  The others built homes near the “Great Meadow” along the “Great Tidal [Connecticut] River” that attracted their late leader – learning to cultivate beans, squash, peas, and maize from local Natives.  Per the British colonization template they acquired land and established separate communities while discouraging intermarriage and cultural blending with uncivilized, inferior Indigenous.  And waged wars (e.g. Pequot and King Philip's,) which along with European diseases devastated Native populations. 

Other settlements were established in Windsor, and Hartford forming Connecticut Colony in 1637.   By decade’s end the Indians were crushed and pushed off ancestral lands into smaller, fragmented communities, while the Colony continued to grow.

In the 1700s Wethersfield became the hub for the booming trade of its eponymous red onions grown in the Great Meadow.  “Onion Maidens” were the primary cultivators and sellers shipping millions of onion ropes down the Connecticut River to the West Indies, Europe, and beyond – earning Wethersfield the sobriquet “Oniontown.”  

By the mid 1800s Wethersfield had changed from bustling maritime port to strong agricultural community – “the bread basket of Hartford” – and pioneering commercial seed producer, selling throughout the country.  The 1900s saw a transition from farming to a “bedroom suburb” of Hartford.  

Through all of this growth and change Wethersfield preserved its architectural heritage and today boasts over 100 17th, 18th, and 19th century houses – at least 50 built before 1776.  The late 17th century town-owned “Cove Warehouse” is maintained by Wethersfield Historical Society, which pays its annual rent in traditional red onions. 

We also knew little about Santa Fe until we began docenting at El Rancho de las Golondrinas living history museum.  (Interestingly another volunteer is a descendant of Wethersfield founder Nathaniel Foote – though she’s never lived there.)

New Spain began in 1521 with the fall of the Aztec Empire to Hernán Cortés – and was formally established as the Viceroyalty of Nueva España in 1535.  Exploration of New Mexico began 1540 with Francisco Vázquez de Coronado searching for the legendary gold mines of Gran Quivira but finding Pueblo Indian villages instead.  (They’d found gold around Mexico City and assumed there had to be more, hence “New” Mexico.)  The first permanent settlement was established by Don Juan de Oñate in 1598 across the Rio Grande from Okay-Owingeh Pueblo near present-day Española – 25-30 miles north of Santa Fe. 

Ten years later Oñate had not discovered gold and his colony was divided between “militarists” who believed more pressure on the Natives would reveal its whereabouts and others like Juan Martinez de Montoya who lobbied the Viceroy of New Spain for Oñate’s removal.  The Viceroy wrote King Philip III, “this conquest is becoming a fairy tale.”   

Some settlers and Franciscan priests planned to establish another “villa” (“town”) in what is now Santa Fe.  The King replaced Oñate with Pedro de Peralta and ordered him “to settle or found the villa in question,” as the seat of government.  In 1610 Peralta formally established “La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís.” 

Unlike English settlers the Spanish were interested in “God, gold and glory”  – Catholicising Natives and acquiring gold – thus glory.  Indians were souls to be saved and bodies to be exploited – forcing them to work in mines and on large estates (haciendas) under harsh conditions while suppressing Native religious practices and forcibly assimilating them into Christianity.  This led to multiple clashes, most notably the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, which drove the Spanish out of New Mexico for 12 years.

 

A rigid social hierarchy developed with as many as 40 “castas” – Spanish-born at the top, Natives at the bottom.  Intermarriage was not discouraged but the hierarchy remained strict even as the multi-generational racial percentages became more complex.

New Mexico in the 1700s was a “closed empire” with trade restricted to the mother country.   The 1,500 mile El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro from Mexico brought Spanish and Mexican pottery and other goods, while trade with outsiders was prohibited.  Meanwhile settlers, soldiers, and missionaries co-existed with, and sometimes oppressed, the local Pueblo Natives.

Commerce was opened up in 1821 with the inclusion of New Mexico in the newly independent country of Mexico and its opening of the Santa Fe trail bringing American traders plus other diverse people, and commerce.   (Mexican ethnicity itself is a complex blend of Indigenous Meso-American and Spanish ancestry, with African and various other immigrant groups.)  New Mexican Spanish and Pueblo Native cultures continued intermixing – now adding Mexican and Anglo to the blend.  The 1848 change in governance from Mexico to U.S. plus the arrival of the railroad in the 1880s and the beginning of art colonies further complicated the societal situation.

New Mexico became the 47th state in 1912.   Santa Fe, its capital,  established itself it as a major art center and sought to be an important tourist destination.  This led to a codification of “Santa Fe Style” and Spanish-Pueblo Revival architectural renovations that defined the city's look.

Business Insider magazine describes Santa Fe today as “like wandering through an open-air museum … low-slung adobe buildings, soft curves, and natural colors are rooted in the traditions of Pueblo and Spanish Colonial architecture [reflecting] centuries of Native American, Mexican, and Spanish history in its language, art, food, and even street names.”  To which we topophiliac Santefesinos say, “amen!”

So what is place-authenticity?  It refers to the unique essence, history, and character that makes a location feel genuine, meaningful, and deeply connected to its roots – which in turn fosters a feeling of belonging and personal connection for individuals.  We discovered it here in Santa Fe.  But it’s also what made Québec and Wethersfield so special to us.

So that’s the “what.”  But why were we interested in these places in the first place?  On the face of it Quebec was due to friendship.  Wethersfield – family.  And Santa Fe – O’Keeffe.  

But the way we reacted –  it was more than just coincidences.   Karma?  Predestination?  Old souls revisiting past lives?  Some other psychic agency?   Would we even be considering these things if we weren’t living where we are now?  Best to end this digression before it gets too “woo-woo.”