This project is the story of the Hispanos in New Mexico who were caught within the maelstrom of American colonization, of complex peoples with their own power structures who occupied a space in the path of a burgeoning empire. More specifically, this is the tale of how an ethnically distinct, religiously different, and politically and economically savvy people endured the process of American colonization. My focus is 1837 to 1853, and I examine the relationship between Hispanos and incoming immigrants; first from Mexico and later from the United States. I seek to challenge previously held notions about how the process of territorialization played out in Santa Fe County and New Mexico more broadly during both the Mexican and American periods. I argue that the New Mexican “elites” were in actuality Mexican caudillos: local strongmen who utilized their vast kinship networks and wealth to dictate regional policy – providing protection to the local population when it was in their best interest, exploiting and intimidating them when it was not.
My approach considers multiple variables, such as class, race, economy, criminality, resistance, and accommodation, as well as how each of these variables influenced the strategies and actions of multiple social groups – New Mexican landholders, poor vecinos, Anglo settlers, and the territorial authorities in Santa Fe County. I utilize quantitative methodologies to analyze the criminal court documents and census data from Santa Fe County. At the same time, I use qualitative sources, such as written and oral historical testimonies, to examine the intersection between class and race in Santa Fe County and New Mexico more broadly. I focus on both the Mexican and early American territorial periods and seek to decipher how territorialization played out along class and ethnic lines among a heterogeneous society experiencing regime change. By centering my study on the vecinos in relation to the New Mexican caudillos and the assortment of recently arrived Anglo settlers, I move away from focusing too heavily on elites, empires, flags, politicians, and soldiers. Instead, my enquiry is concerned with the community itself and how the process of territorialization impacted the majority of New Mexico’s population.