About this Event
In 1861, New Mexico Territory lost its northernmost area when the U.S. Congress established the Territory of Colorado. With no vote of the people 7,000 residents, bound to New Mexico by ties of ancestry and a common language, system of law and religion, were displaced into a new Protestant, English-speaking territory. Within two years, these settlers petitioned to be returned to New Mexico. In this presentation, author Virginia Sánchez introduces new research and examines the dynamic history and the challenges these nuevomexicanos and their elected Hispano legislators faced, and how New Mexico worked to restore her people and the region that had long been a part of her soil.
Join us in the museum's auditorium during First Friday Art Walk for this engaging presentation. Admission is Free!
About Pleas and Petitions: Hispano Culture and Legislative Conflict in Territorial Colorado
Pleas and Petitions: Hispano Culture and Legislative Conflict in Territorial Colorado, University of Colorado Press (2020), explains how in 1861, the U.S. Congress took the northern part of New Mexico and displaced 7,000 nuevomexicanos. This book sheds new light on the political obstacles, cultural conflicts, and institutional racism they and their elected Spanish-speaking Hispano legislators experienced in the wake of the establishment of the Territory of Colorado.
About Virginia Sánchez
An author, public historian, and independent scholar who lives in Denver, Virginia Sánchez's ancestry is deeply rooted in New Mexico, back to 1598 with the expedition of Juan de Oñate. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1976 from the University of Wyoming and a Master of Technical Communication degree in 1988 from the University of Colorado at Denver.
Her articles have appeared in the Annals of Wyoming, New Mexico Magazine, New Mexico Historical Review, New Mexico Genealogist, and Colorado Heritage, and her most recent book is La Cebolla Valley: A History.
Event venue & nearby stays
New Mexico History Museum, 113 Lincoln Avenue, Santa Fe, United States
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