Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers

Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers

Author: John L. Kessell

Publisher:

Published:

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9780608139159

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Download or read book Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers written by John L. Kessell and published by . This book was released on with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:


Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers

Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers

Author: John L. Kessell

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2015-11-01

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 0816533199

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The Franciscan mission San José de Tumacácori and the perennially undermanned presidio Tubac become John L. Kessell's windows on the Arizona–Sonora frontier in this colorful documentary history. His fascinating view extends from the Jesuit expulsion to the coming of the U.S. Army. Kessell provides exciting accounts of the explorations of Francisco Garcés, de Anza's expeditions, and the Yuma massacre. Drawing from widely scattered archival materials, he vividly describes the epic struggle between Bishop Reyes and Father President Barbastro, the missionary scandals of 1815–18, and the bloody victory of Mexican civilian volunteers over Apaches in Arivaipa Canyon in 1832. Numerous missionaries, presidials, and bureaucrats—nameless in histories until now—emerge as living, swearing, praying, individuals. This authoritative chronicle offers an engrossing picture of the continually threatened mission frontier. Reformers championing civil rights for mission Indians time and again challenged the friars' "tight-fisted paternalistic control" over their wards. Expansionists repeatedly saw their plans dashed by Indian raids, uncooperative military officials, or lack of financial support. Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers brings into sharp focus the long, blurry period between Jesuit Sonora and Territorial Arizona.


Book Synopsis Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers by : John L. Kessell

Download or read book Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers written by John L. Kessell and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2015-11-01 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Franciscan mission San José de Tumacácori and the perennially undermanned presidio Tubac become John L. Kessell's windows on the Arizona–Sonora frontier in this colorful documentary history. His fascinating view extends from the Jesuit expulsion to the coming of the U.S. Army. Kessell provides exciting accounts of the explorations of Francisco Garcés, de Anza's expeditions, and the Yuma massacre. Drawing from widely scattered archival materials, he vividly describes the epic struggle between Bishop Reyes and Father President Barbastro, the missionary scandals of 1815–18, and the bloody victory of Mexican civilian volunteers over Apaches in Arivaipa Canyon in 1832. Numerous missionaries, presidials, and bureaucrats—nameless in histories until now—emerge as living, swearing, praying, individuals. This authoritative chronicle offers an engrossing picture of the continually threatened mission frontier. Reformers championing civil rights for mission Indians time and again challenged the friars' "tight-fisted paternalistic control" over their wards. Expansionists repeatedly saw their plans dashed by Indian raids, uncooperative military officials, or lack of financial support. Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers brings into sharp focus the long, blurry period between Jesuit Sonora and Territorial Arizona.


These People Have Always Been a Republic

These People Have Always Been a Republic

Author: Maurice S. Crandall

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2019-09-06

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1469652676

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Spanning three hundred years and the colonial regimes of Spain, Mexico, and the United States, Maurice S. Crandall's sweeping history of Native American political rights in what is now New Mexico, Arizona, and Sonora demonstrates how Indigenous communities implemented, subverted, rejected, and indigenized colonial ideologies of democracy, both to accommodate and to oppose colonial power. Focusing on four groups--Pueblos in New Mexico, Hopis in northern Arizona, and Tohono O'odhams and Yaquis in Arizona/Sonora--Crandall reveals the ways Indigenous peoples absorbed and adapted colonially imposed forms of politics to exercise sovereignty based on localized political, economic, and social needs. Using sources that include oral histories and multinational archives, this book allows us to compare Spanish, Mexican, and American conceptions of Indian citizenship, and adds to our understanding of the centuries-long struggle of Indigenous groups to assert their sovereignty in the face of settler colonial rule.


Book Synopsis These People Have Always Been a Republic by : Maurice S. Crandall

Download or read book These People Have Always Been a Republic written by Maurice S. Crandall and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2019-09-06 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spanning three hundred years and the colonial regimes of Spain, Mexico, and the United States, Maurice S. Crandall's sweeping history of Native American political rights in what is now New Mexico, Arizona, and Sonora demonstrates how Indigenous communities implemented, subverted, rejected, and indigenized colonial ideologies of democracy, both to accommodate and to oppose colonial power. Focusing on four groups--Pueblos in New Mexico, Hopis in northern Arizona, and Tohono O'odhams and Yaquis in Arizona/Sonora--Crandall reveals the ways Indigenous peoples absorbed and adapted colonially imposed forms of politics to exercise sovereignty based on localized political, economic, and social needs. Using sources that include oral histories and multinational archives, this book allows us to compare Spanish, Mexican, and American conceptions of Indian citizenship, and adds to our understanding of the centuries-long struggle of Indigenous groups to assert their sovereignty in the face of settler colonial rule.


Hispanic Arizona, 1536–1856

Hispanic Arizona, 1536–1856

Author: James E. Officer

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2015-11-15

Total Pages: 489

ISBN-13: 0816533490

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The history of the American West has usually been seen from the perspective of American expansion. Drawing on previously unexplored primary sources, James E. Officer has now produced a major work that traces the Hispanic roots of southern Arizona and northern Sonora—one which presents the Spanish and Mexican rather than Anglo point of view. Officer records the Hispanic presence from the earliest efforts at colonization on Spain’s northwestern frontier through the Spanish and Mexican years of rule, thus providing a unique reference on Southwestern history. The heart of the work centers on the early nineteenth century. It explores subjects such as the constant threat posed by hostile Apaches, government intrigue and revolution in Sonora and the provincias internas, and patterns of land ownership in villages such as Tucson and Tubac. Also covered are the origins of land grants in present-day southern Arizona and the invasion of southern Arizona by American “49ers” as seen from the Mexican point of view. Officer traces kinship ties of several elite families who ruled the frontier province over many generations—men and women whose descendants remain influential in Sonora and Arizona today.


Book Synopsis Hispanic Arizona, 1536–1856 by : James E. Officer

Download or read book Hispanic Arizona, 1536–1856 written by James E. Officer and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2015-11-15 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of the American West has usually been seen from the perspective of American expansion. Drawing on previously unexplored primary sources, James E. Officer has now produced a major work that traces the Hispanic roots of southern Arizona and northern Sonora—one which presents the Spanish and Mexican rather than Anglo point of view. Officer records the Hispanic presence from the earliest efforts at colonization on Spain’s northwestern frontier through the Spanish and Mexican years of rule, thus providing a unique reference on Southwestern history. The heart of the work centers on the early nineteenth century. It explores subjects such as the constant threat posed by hostile Apaches, government intrigue and revolution in Sonora and the provincias internas, and patterns of land ownership in villages such as Tucson and Tubac. Also covered are the origins of land grants in present-day southern Arizona and the invasion of southern Arizona by American “49ers” as seen from the Mexican point of view. Officer traces kinship ties of several elite families who ruled the frontier province over many generations—men and women whose descendants remain influential in Sonora and Arizona today.


Juan Bautista de Anza

Juan Bautista de Anza

Author: Carlos R. Herrera

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2015-01-14

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 0806149620

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Juan Bautista de Anza arrived in Santa Fe at a time when New Mexico, like Spain’s other North American colonies, faced heightened threats from Indians and international rivals. As governor of New Mexico from 1778 to 1788, Anza enacted a series of changes in the colony’s governance that helped preserve it as a Spanish territory and strengthen the larger empire to which it belonged. Although Anza is best known for his travels to California as a young man, this book, the first comprehensive biography of Anza, shows his greater historical importance as a soldier and administrator in the history of North America. Historian Carlos R. Herrera argues that Anza’s formative years in Sonora, Mexico, contributed to his success as a colonial administrator. Having grown up in New Spain’s northern territory, Anza knew the daily challenges that the various ethnic groups encountered in this region of limited resources, and he saw both the advantages and the pitfalls of the region’s strong Franciscan presence. Anza's knowledge of frontier terrains and peoples helped make him a more effective military and political leader. When raiding tribes threatened the colony during his tenure as governor, Anza rode into battle, killing the great Comanche war chief Cuerno Verde in 1779 and later engineering a peace treaty formally concluded in 1786. As the colonial overseer of the imperial policies known as the Bourbon Reforms, he also implemented a series of changes in the colony’s bureaucratic, judicial, and religious institutions. Charged with militarizing New Mexico so that it could contribute to the maintenance of the empire, Anza curtailed the social, political, and economic power the Franciscans had long enjoyed and increased Spain’s authority in the region. By combining administrative history with narrative biography, Herrera shows that Juan Bautista de Anza was more than an explorer. Devoted equally to the Spanish empire and to the North American region he knew intimately, Governor Anza shaped the history of New Mexico at a critical juncture.


Book Synopsis Juan Bautista de Anza by : Carlos R. Herrera

Download or read book Juan Bautista de Anza written by Carlos R. Herrera and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2015-01-14 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Juan Bautista de Anza arrived in Santa Fe at a time when New Mexico, like Spain’s other North American colonies, faced heightened threats from Indians and international rivals. As governor of New Mexico from 1778 to 1788, Anza enacted a series of changes in the colony’s governance that helped preserve it as a Spanish territory and strengthen the larger empire to which it belonged. Although Anza is best known for his travels to California as a young man, this book, the first comprehensive biography of Anza, shows his greater historical importance as a soldier and administrator in the history of North America. Historian Carlos R. Herrera argues that Anza’s formative years in Sonora, Mexico, contributed to his success as a colonial administrator. Having grown up in New Spain’s northern territory, Anza knew the daily challenges that the various ethnic groups encountered in this region of limited resources, and he saw both the advantages and the pitfalls of the region’s strong Franciscan presence. Anza's knowledge of frontier terrains and peoples helped make him a more effective military and political leader. When raiding tribes threatened the colony during his tenure as governor, Anza rode into battle, killing the great Comanche war chief Cuerno Verde in 1779 and later engineering a peace treaty formally concluded in 1786. As the colonial overseer of the imperial policies known as the Bourbon Reforms, he also implemented a series of changes in the colony’s bureaucratic, judicial, and religious institutions. Charged with militarizing New Mexico so that it could contribute to the maintenance of the empire, Anza curtailed the social, political, and economic power the Franciscans had long enjoyed and increased Spain’s authority in the region. By combining administrative history with narrative biography, Herrera shows that Juan Bautista de Anza was more than an explorer. Devoted equally to the Spanish empire and to the North American region he knew intimately, Governor Anza shaped the history of New Mexico at a critical juncture.


Spain in the Southwest

Spain in the Southwest

Author: John L. Kessell

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2013-02-27

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13: 0806189444

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John L. Kessell’s Spain in the Southwest presents a fast-paced, abundantly illustrated history of the Spanish colonies that became the states of New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California. With an eye for human interest, Kessell tells the story of New Spain’s vast frontier--today’s American Southwest and Mexican North--which for two centuries served as a dynamic yet disjoined periphery of the Spanish empire. Chronicling the period of Hispanic activity from the time of Columbus to Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821, Kessell traces the three great swells of Hispanic exploration, encounter, and influence that rolled north from Mexico across the coasts and high deserts of the western borderlands. Throughout this sprawling historical landscape, Kessell treats grand themes through the lives of individuals. He explains the frequent cultural clashes and accommodations in remarkably balanced terms. Stereotypes, the author writes, are of no help. Indians could be arrogant and brutal, Spaniards caring, and vice versa. If we select the facts to fit preconceived notions, we can make the story come out the way we want, but if the peoples of the colonial Southwest are seen as they really were--more alike than diverse, sharing similar inconstant natures--then we need have no favorites.


Book Synopsis Spain in the Southwest by : John L. Kessell

Download or read book Spain in the Southwest written by John L. Kessell and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2013-02-27 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John L. Kessell’s Spain in the Southwest presents a fast-paced, abundantly illustrated history of the Spanish colonies that became the states of New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California. With an eye for human interest, Kessell tells the story of New Spain’s vast frontier--today’s American Southwest and Mexican North--which for two centuries served as a dynamic yet disjoined periphery of the Spanish empire. Chronicling the period of Hispanic activity from the time of Columbus to Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821, Kessell traces the three great swells of Hispanic exploration, encounter, and influence that rolled north from Mexico across the coasts and high deserts of the western borderlands. Throughout this sprawling historical landscape, Kessell treats grand themes through the lives of individuals. He explains the frequent cultural clashes and accommodations in remarkably balanced terms. Stereotypes, the author writes, are of no help. Indians could be arrogant and brutal, Spaniards caring, and vice versa. If we select the facts to fit preconceived notions, we can make the story come out the way we want, but if the peoples of the colonial Southwest are seen as they really were--more alike than diverse, sharing similar inconstant natures--then we need have no favorites.


Salvation Through Slavery

Salvation Through Slavery

Author: H. Henrietta Stockel

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press

Published: 2022-09-15

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 0826343260

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Stockel examines the brutal history of forced conversion and subjection of the Chiricahua Apaches by Spanish priests during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.


Book Synopsis Salvation Through Slavery by : H. Henrietta Stockel

Download or read book Salvation Through Slavery written by H. Henrietta Stockel and published by University of New Mexico Press. This book was released on 2022-09-15 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stockel examines the brutal history of forced conversion and subjection of the Chiricahua Apaches by Spanish priests during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.


Massacre at the Yuma Crossing

Massacre at the Yuma Crossing

Author: Mark Santiago

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2016-12-15

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 0816536856

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The quiet of the dawn was rent by the screams of war. Scores, perhaps hundreds, of Quechan and Mohave warriors leaped from concealment, rushing the plaza from all sides. Painted for battle and brandishing lances, bows, and war clubs, the Indians killed every Spaniard they could catch. The route from the Spanish presidial settlements in upper Sonora to the Colorado River was called the Camino del Diablo, the "Road of the Devil." Running through the harshest of deserts, this route was the only way for the Spanish to transport goods overland to their settlements in California. At the end of the route lay the only passable part of the lower Colorado, and the people who lived around the river, the Yumas or Quechans, initially joined into a peaceful union with the Spanish. When the relationship soured and the Yumas revolted in 1781, it essentially ended Spanish settlement in the area, dashed the dreams of the mission builders, and limited Spanish expansion into California and beyond. In Massacre at the Yuma Crossing, Mark Santiago introduces us to the important and colorful actors involved in the dramatic revolt of 1781: Padre Francisco Garcés, who discovered a path from Sonora to California, made contact with the Yumas and eventually became their priest; Salvador Palma, the informal leader of the Yuman people, whose decision to negotiate with the Spanish earned him a reputation as a peacebuilder in the region, which eventually caused his downfall; and Teodoro de Croix, the Spanish commandant-general, who, breaking with traditional settlement practice, established two pueblos among the Quechans without an adequate garrison or mission, thereby leaving the settlers without any sort of defense when the revolt finally took place. Massacre at the Yuma Crossing not only tells the story of the Yuma Massacre with new details but also gives the reader an understanding of the pressing questions debated in the Spanish Empire at the time: What was the efficacy of the presidios? How extensive should the power of the Catholic mission priests be? And what would be the future of Spain in North America?


Book Synopsis Massacre at the Yuma Crossing by : Mark Santiago

Download or read book Massacre at the Yuma Crossing written by Mark Santiago and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2016-12-15 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The quiet of the dawn was rent by the screams of war. Scores, perhaps hundreds, of Quechan and Mohave warriors leaped from concealment, rushing the plaza from all sides. Painted for battle and brandishing lances, bows, and war clubs, the Indians killed every Spaniard they could catch. The route from the Spanish presidial settlements in upper Sonora to the Colorado River was called the Camino del Diablo, the "Road of the Devil." Running through the harshest of deserts, this route was the only way for the Spanish to transport goods overland to their settlements in California. At the end of the route lay the only passable part of the lower Colorado, and the people who lived around the river, the Yumas or Quechans, initially joined into a peaceful union with the Spanish. When the relationship soured and the Yumas revolted in 1781, it essentially ended Spanish settlement in the area, dashed the dreams of the mission builders, and limited Spanish expansion into California and beyond. In Massacre at the Yuma Crossing, Mark Santiago introduces us to the important and colorful actors involved in the dramatic revolt of 1781: Padre Francisco Garcés, who discovered a path from Sonora to California, made contact with the Yumas and eventually became their priest; Salvador Palma, the informal leader of the Yuman people, whose decision to negotiate with the Spanish earned him a reputation as a peacebuilder in the region, which eventually caused his downfall; and Teodoro de Croix, the Spanish commandant-general, who, breaking with traditional settlement practice, established two pueblos among the Quechans without an adequate garrison or mission, thereby leaving the settlers without any sort of defense when the revolt finally took place. Massacre at the Yuma Crossing not only tells the story of the Yuma Massacre with new details but also gives the reader an understanding of the pressing questions debated in the Spanish Empire at the time: What was the efficacy of the presidios? How extensive should the power of the Catholic mission priests be? And what would be the future of Spain in North America?


Landscapes of Power and Identity

Landscapes of Power and Identity

Author: Cynthia Radding

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2006-01-18

Total Pages: 457

ISBN-13: 0822387409

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Landscapes of Power and Identity is a groundbreaking comparative history of two colonies on the frontiers of the Spanish empire—the Sonora region of northwestern Mexico and the Chiquitos region of eastern Bolivia’s lowlands—from the late colonial period through the middle of the nineteenth century. An innovative combination of environmental and cultural history, this book reflects Cynthia Radding’s more than two decades of research on Mexico and Bolivia and her consideration of the relationships between human societies and the geographic landscapes they inhabit and create. At first glance, Sonora and Chiquitos are quite different: one a scrub-covered desert, the other a tropical rainforest of the greater Amazonian and Paraguayan river basins. Yet the regions are similar in many ways. Both were located far from the centers of colonial authority, organized into Jesuit missions and linked to the principal mining centers of New Spain and the Andes, and then absorbed into nation-states in the nineteenth century. In each area, the indigenous communities encountered European governors, missionaries, slave hunters, merchants, miners, and ranchers. Radding’s comparative approach illuminates what happened when similar institutions of imperial governance, commerce, and religion were planted in different physical and cultural environments. She draws on archival documents, published reports by missionaries and travelers, and previous histories as well as ecological studies and ethnographies. She also considers cultural artifacts, including archaeological remains, architecture, liturgical music, and religious dances. Radding demonstrates how colonial encounters were conditioned by both the local landscape and cultural expectations; how the colonizers and colonized understood notions of territory and property; how religion formed the cultural practices and historical memories of the Sonoran and Chiquitano peoples; and how the conflict between the indigenous communities and the surrounding creole societies developed in new directions well into the nineteenth century.


Book Synopsis Landscapes of Power and Identity by : Cynthia Radding

Download or read book Landscapes of Power and Identity written by Cynthia Radding and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2006-01-18 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Landscapes of Power and Identity is a groundbreaking comparative history of two colonies on the frontiers of the Spanish empire—the Sonora region of northwestern Mexico and the Chiquitos region of eastern Bolivia’s lowlands—from the late colonial period through the middle of the nineteenth century. An innovative combination of environmental and cultural history, this book reflects Cynthia Radding’s more than two decades of research on Mexico and Bolivia and her consideration of the relationships between human societies and the geographic landscapes they inhabit and create. At first glance, Sonora and Chiquitos are quite different: one a scrub-covered desert, the other a tropical rainforest of the greater Amazonian and Paraguayan river basins. Yet the regions are similar in many ways. Both were located far from the centers of colonial authority, organized into Jesuit missions and linked to the principal mining centers of New Spain and the Andes, and then absorbed into nation-states in the nineteenth century. In each area, the indigenous communities encountered European governors, missionaries, slave hunters, merchants, miners, and ranchers. Radding’s comparative approach illuminates what happened when similar institutions of imperial governance, commerce, and religion were planted in different physical and cultural environments. She draws on archival documents, published reports by missionaries and travelers, and previous histories as well as ecological studies and ethnographies. She also considers cultural artifacts, including archaeological remains, architecture, liturgical music, and religious dances. Radding demonstrates how colonial encounters were conditioned by both the local landscape and cultural expectations; how the colonizers and colonized understood notions of territory and property; how religion formed the cultural practices and historical memories of the Sonoran and Chiquitano peoples; and how the conflict between the indigenous communities and the surrounding creole societies developed in new directions well into the nineteenth century.


Beyond the Devil’s Road

Beyond the Devil’s Road

Author: Jeremy Beer

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2024-09-17

Total Pages: 499

ISBN-13: 0806194995

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The explorations of Francisco Garcés, an intrepid Franciscan friar of the eighteenth century, led to the opening of the first overland route from Mexico to California, produced new knowledge of unmapped terrain and unknown peoples, and revived dreams of Spanish imperial expansion. Beyond the Devil’s Road tells, for the first time, the full story of this extraordinary man’s epic life and journey and his critical place in the history of the American Southwest. From the moment he took up residence at the lonely mission of San Xavier del Bac in 1768, Garcés stood out among his fellow Spaniards for both the affection he showed the region’s Native peoples and his bravery. Traveling thousands of miles through modern Arizona, California, and Nevada to gather information for his superiors and preach to the unbaptized, he engaged the Indians of the Southwest with a respect for their ways and customs unprecedented among his peers, presaging a new—and better—model for cultural encounters. Along the way, he contacted more Indigenous groups than any other missionary of his time, often as the first European to do so. Garcés also paved the way and served as a guide for the famous expeditions of Juan Bautista de Anza in 1774 and 1775–76, bringing the first Spanish settlers to California—before the road he’d helped to open led to his death in the Quechan uprising of 1781. Consulting archives on three continents, including previously untapped sources and Garcés’s extensive diaries and letters, long obscured by unyielding language and handwriting, Beer crafts a nuanced and thoroughly engaging account of this incomparable explorer, groundbreaking missionary, and central actor in New Spain’s final sustained effort to expand its dominion into the lands that would become the American Southwest.


Book Synopsis Beyond the Devil’s Road by : Jeremy Beer

Download or read book Beyond the Devil’s Road written by Jeremy Beer and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2024-09-17 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The explorations of Francisco Garcés, an intrepid Franciscan friar of the eighteenth century, led to the opening of the first overland route from Mexico to California, produced new knowledge of unmapped terrain and unknown peoples, and revived dreams of Spanish imperial expansion. Beyond the Devil’s Road tells, for the first time, the full story of this extraordinary man’s epic life and journey and his critical place in the history of the American Southwest. From the moment he took up residence at the lonely mission of San Xavier del Bac in 1768, Garcés stood out among his fellow Spaniards for both the affection he showed the region’s Native peoples and his bravery. Traveling thousands of miles through modern Arizona, California, and Nevada to gather information for his superiors and preach to the unbaptized, he engaged the Indians of the Southwest with a respect for their ways and customs unprecedented among his peers, presaging a new—and better—model for cultural encounters. Along the way, he contacted more Indigenous groups than any other missionary of his time, often as the first European to do so. Garcés also paved the way and served as a guide for the famous expeditions of Juan Bautista de Anza in 1774 and 1775–76, bringing the first Spanish settlers to California—before the road he’d helped to open led to his death in the Quechan uprising of 1781. Consulting archives on three continents, including previously untapped sources and Garcés’s extensive diaries and letters, long obscured by unyielding language and handwriting, Beer crafts a nuanced and thoroughly engaging account of this incomparable explorer, groundbreaking missionary, and central actor in New Spain’s final sustained effort to expand its dominion into the lands that would become the American Southwest.