New books for NM Research

(For a peek at the cover, see http://www.nmgs.org/SANM_reprint.htm).


SPANISH ARCHIVES OF NEW MEXICO RELEASED IN NEW EDITIONS BY SUNSTONE PRESS CELEBRATING STATE'S UPCOMING CENTENNIAL

Santa Fe, NM - In 1914, Ralph Emerson Twitchell published in two volumes The Spanish Archives of New Mexico, the first calendar and guide to the documents from the Spanish colonial periods. These geographic, political and cultural mappings have served scholars, policy-makers, and activists for generations and are now once again available from Sunstone Press in its Southwest Heritage Series, devoted to the celebration of New Mexico's upcoming Centennial.

Published in both hardcover and softcover editions, the pair has a new foreword by State Historian Estevan Rael-Gálvez. In his foreword, Rael-Gálvez refers to these volumes as "the doors to a house of words and stories," some 4,481 documents, "that open to a time of
kings and popes, of inquisition and revolution. Like any house, New Mexico's archive has a tale of its own origin and a complex history. Although its walls have changed many times, its doors and the encounters with those doors hold stories known and told and others not yet revealed."

Many of these documents were given a number by Twitchell, small stickers that were appended to the first page of each document, an act of heresy to archivists and yet these stickers have now become part of the artifact. The collection consists of civil land records of the Spanish period governments of New Mexico and materials created by the Surveyor General and Court of Private Land Claims during the process of adjudication. It includes the original Spanish colonial petitions for land grants, land conveyances, wills, mine registers, records books, journals, dockets, reports, minutes, letters, and a variety of other legal documents. The bulk of the records accentuate the amazingly dynamic nature of land grant and settlement policies. While the documents reveal the broad sweep of community settlement and its reverse effect, hundreds of last wills and testaments are included in these records, that are scripted in the most eloquent and spiritual tone at the passing of individuals into death. These testaments also reveal a legacy of what colonists owned and bequeathed to the next generations.

Estevan Rael-Gálvez concludes his foreword by saying: "Let this effort and the key provided by Twitchell in his two volumes open the doors wide for knowledge to be useful today and tomorrow." Sunstone Press hopes the reissue of these significant books will further appreciation for New Mexico's colorful history.

Volume One:
Hardcover, 620 pages, ISBN: 978-0-86534-683-3, $65.00
Softcover, 620 pages, ISBN: 978-0-86534-647-5, $45.00

Volume Two:
Hardcover, 764 pages, ISBN: 978-0-86534-684-0, $65.00
Softcover, 764 pages, ISBN: 978-0-86534-648-2, $45.00

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: CARL CONDIT / (505) 988-4418 OR
orders@sunstonepress.com.

SUNSTONE PRESS
Box 2321
Santa Fe, NM 87504-2321
USA
(505) 988-4418
(505) 988-1025 fax
www.sunstonepress.com