Studies of seventeenth-century New Mexico have largely overlooked the
soldiers and frontier settlers who formed the backbone of the colony and
laid the foundations of European society in a distant outpost of Spain's
North American empire. This book, the final volume in the Coronado
Historical Series, recognizes the career of Juan Domínguez de Mendoza, a
soldier-colonist who was as instrumental as any governor or friar in
shaping Hispano-Indian society in New Mexico.
Domínguez de Mendoza served in New Mexico from age thirteen to fiftyeight as a stalwart defender of Spain's interests during the troubled
decades before the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. Because of his successful career,
the archives of Mexico and Spain provide extensive information on his
activities.
The documents translated in this volume reveal more cooperative
relations between Spaniards and Pueblo Indians than previously