Hidden History of Spanish New Mexico

This book help give credence and background to the traditions and verbal histories told and taught to me and practised by my Grandparents. Today as in the past Hispanos of New Mexico were told to be ashamed of our history. We were and still are told that we tortured and killed the native Indian people of New Mexico. We were taught by our parents not to speak our language but my Grandparents spoke and taught us our heritage and to have pride, tradition and the very old ways of our culture. This book reinforced the pride of our Spanish ancestery and contributions to Nuevo Espana.

Although I'm very pleased with this book, I found myself frustrated by the space allotted to European roots. But... I'd buy it again.

This small book packs a lot of information in its pages about early Mexico and New Mexico history. While I have already studied many other volumes about these locations, this book encourages me to research further. Until recently the exploration and settlement of New Mexico has been mostly overlooked and little discussed by schools and "historians". This Hidden History will help encourage people to read about the fascinating and important history of Mexico and south western United States. I highly recommend this book.

Will be for my library.

Not quite what I had expected, but nice read.

Was looking for early Spanish history of NM, and this appears to have what I needed.

I was very disappointed in this book. The title indicates that this book is supposed to be a history of the Spanish (European) culture which came to exist in New Mexico, instead, it's a long, rather dry, partially inaccurate and mostly amateurishly written overview piece about almost anything else. The author can't seem to decide whether he wanted to write a novel or a text book and succeeded at neither. The book is divided into three sections focusing on 1. the historic origins of the cultures of the Iberian Peninsula, 2. the Native American peoples inhabiting places as diverse as the Central Plateau of Mexico and Oregon, and 3. a mishmash section roughly touching on everything from curandera wise women to the Bataan Death March. Very little information pertaining to the stated subject matter (Spanish culture and history in New Mexico) is actually presented in the book. Not only is the book poorly written, it's littered with all sorts of assumptions such as when the author indicated that after the Revolution of 1821, the people of New Mexico 'considered themselves to be virtually independent of the Republic' - while possibly true, the author cited no references for this claim. Additionally, it contains several overt inaccuracies such as stating that ancient Phoenicia was located in North Africa rather than on the Eastern Mediterranean coast in what is now Lebanon and Israel. And it's also sexist, for instance, it states that when the European settlers came to New Mexico, they brought looms "which all of the women knew how to use" - while possibly true in some cases, this was an unnecessary and sexist statement. And, it even goes out of it's way to be dismissive and horribly biased against Native American cultures, for instance when talking about the Navajo people the author states that they "...eventually became self-sufficient with the skills they learned from the Spanish...". That statement is not only ignorant and bigoted but false - the author apparently isn't aware that the Navajo/Dine people had been a self sufficient people and culture for thousands of years before the Europeans arrived. This book is not worth the money I paid and I learned absolutely nothing from it except to be wary and do lots of research the next time I consider purchasing a book on this subject matter.

It came with a bundle. Didn't read the entire book. Interesting.