81Book Reviewsin the drama that was played out in New Mexi.docx

81Book Reviews
in the drama that was played out in New Mexico during his life.
Miera y Pacheco comes across as a sycophant who–because he
was a Peninsular and a
paisano of several of the governors–was given opportunities
that were beyond his abilities.
Although he had no experience for the position, he self-
promoted himself with King Carlos
III, asking to be made “commandant general” (130). He begged
Commandant Teodoro de
Croix to find him a position, “resorting to flattery that today
seems excessive” (132). His
neighbors soon got his number, complaining that he had “undue
influence…” (138).
A renaissance man possesses knowledge and skills in a variety
of fields. Aside from art
and cartography, in which he was capable, Miera y Pacheco had
no other proficiencies. This
conclusion is clearly drawn from Kessell’s own account.
Early in his career Miera y Pacheco tried his luck at being a
miner but the silver mine
he purchased proved unproductive (12). He tried farming and
failed. He tried being a debt
collector but “could not deliver” (30). He proved better as a
debtor, having to spend a number
of days in jail for non-payment of merchandise (31-32). He
volunteered to repair some can-
nons but “had to admit…the cannons wouldn’t work” (45). His

experience as a municipal
administrator (alcalde mayor) met with disfavor with his
constituents who complained “every
day he is planning things, all of them of great harm to the
kingdom.” He volunteered as a
dam builder but the dam was washed away (147).
While Kessell credits Miera y Pacheco with “unrivaled
knowledge of the kingdom’s human
and physical geography,” he at the same time cites numerous
instances where this knowledge
was lacking. On one occasion Pacheco had to apologize to Croix
for “failing to discover a
more direct route” between El Paso and Sonora (152). On a
number of occasions his maps
were several degrees off in longitude or latitude. His artwork
was certainly noteworthy but he
was hardly the only artist in the province and Fray Andrés
García was “best known and most
prolific” (75). In sum, Kessell’s central theme is unsupported by
his own research.
Still this work is an important contribution to the study of the
Spanish influence in the
American Southwest. The author’s descriptions of the
contributions of the various governors
and provincial leaders are both extensive and significant. His
accounts of the various native
tribes and their activities vis-à-vis the Spanish interlopers is
also a valuable addition to the
growing scholarship in this area of historical research. Finally,
Kessell provides a worthwhile
narrative on the role the Church played in Spain’s efforts to
colonize and convert the native
populations.

Alfredo E. Cardenas
Corpus Christi, Texas
Matthew Liebmann. Revolt: An Archaeological History of
Pueblo Resistance and Revitalization
in 17th Century New Mexico. Tucson: University of Arizona
Press, 2012. Pp. xv, 287. $30.00
paper.
In Revolt we have an effort to take the story of the Pueblo
Indians’ 1680 rejection of
Spanish rule in a new direction, part of a recent effort to give
indigenous peoples (which the
social science literature increasingly refers to as subalterns)
increased agency. Unlike previous
studies, which essentially tell the story of the events of 1680
and then skip to the “reconquest”
of 1692, Matthew Liebmann attempts to fill in the missing story
of what happened in the
Pueblo world in the decade in between and what it should mean
for us today. He attempts
82 Catholic Southwest
to make the events more of a Pueblo and less of a Spanish story.
The first part of the book does a solid job of explaining the
causes and events of
the revolt. Drought led to famine, greed led to exploitation, and
cultural chauvinism led to
frustration; and they all combined to result in a revolt. As
explained by Liebmann, the Fran-
ciscans bore considerable responsibility for the uprising. Forced
to renounce their ancient

religious and cultural practices, forced to labor for the
missionaries, forced sometimes even to
relocate in new settlements for easier conversion, the Pueblos
became increasingly resentful
of the Spaniards and their God. This new god did not seem to be
doing them much good in
the face of crop losses, depredations from mounted Plains
Indians, and the exploitation of
colonizers. Consequently, the author emphasizes the religious
aspect of the revolt: the killing
of 23 missionaries, the desecration of churches and religious
objects, and the mockery of
things Catholic. Although the allegiance of some Pueblos to
individual friars is acknowledged,
little attention is paid to this aspect of the revolt.
Where the book breaks new ground is in using the tools of post-
NAGPRA archeology.
Liebmann relies on a non-invasive approach based on ground-
penetrating radar and surface
remains (in order not to disturb human remains) to make a case
for a new way of combining
archeological evidence with historical records with oral
tradition. His findings, he claims, help
to explain some of the mysteries and seeming contradictions in
the historical record. New
settlements established after the revolt recreated the pre-
Spanish, moiety-based social patterns
of some of the Pueblo people. The adoption of certain ceramic
types was part of an effort
to construct an indigenous material culture. The retention of
Catholic symbols and Spanish
crops and animals was either an effort at inverting the colonial
order or natural adaptations
that took on new meaning and value. During the revolt,
Liebmann claims, the indigenes

created a Pan-Pueblo identity that, although it broke down by
the late 1680s, nevertheless
changed the rules of the game when the Spaniards returned and
remains an influence even to
today. Best of all, whether you accept everything he is saying or
not, Liebmann does not allow
the considerable social theory (or jargon) he relies upon to
obscure what he is trying to say.
Catholic readers will be uncomfortable with a considerable
amount of what Liebmann
offers up. On the other hand, when the Spaniards returned to
New Mexico in the 1690s,
they knew enough not to repeat the mistakes of the first period
of Spanish rule. Tellingly,
Liebmann quotes Fray Francisco de Jesús María Casañas’s
comment on the abortive second
revolt of 1696, “I did not come to seek death but rather the lives
of these miserable ones” (216).
Jesús F. de la Teja
Texas State University
Timothy Matovina and Jesús F. de la Teja, eds., Justin Poché,
collaborator. Recollections of a
Tejano Life: Antonio Menchaca in Texas History. Austin:
University of Texas Press, 2013. Pp.
x, 190. $55.00.
This meticulously researched and annotated volume of José
Antonio Menchaca’s remi-
niscences gives scholars new insights into the political and
social world of Tejanos during the
tumultuous period surrounding the Texas Revolution. While a
portion of Menchaca’s recol-
lections were published in the early twentieth century, Timothy

Matovina and Jesús F. de la
Teja have uncovered a previously unknown section of the
document. This new publication,
then, is the only complete version of San Jacinto veteran
Menchaca’s reminiscences.
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