Ralph Harold Vigil - Spain and the Plains: myths and realities of Spanish exploration and settlement on the Great Plains

1994 by the University Press of Colorado

P.O. Box 849

Niwot, Colorado 80544

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State College, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College, Metropolitan State College of Denver, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, University of Southern Colorado, and Western State College of Colorado.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.481984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Maps for Spain and the Plains were prepared and produced by Brad Bays, Department of Geography, Northwestern State University (Louisiana), and are used by permission.

Map 3.1 Initial Spanish Exploration

Map 4.1 Coronado Expedition, 154042

Map 5.1 Llano Estacado

Map 6.1 Villasur Expedition, 1720

Map 7.1 Genzaros in Eighteenth-Century New Mexico

In April 1989 the Center for Great Plains Studies hosted the first-ever conference devoted to the Latino experience on the Great Plains. The symposium was part of the center's continuing commitment to encourage scholarship in areas previously ignored or untouched and to document the complex ethnic diversity of the Great Plains.

Essays presented at the symposium, including four found in this volume, were published in the Great Plains Quarterly. A special issue of the Quarterly, Number 10 (Spring 1990), was devoted to the Hispanic presence on the Great Plains, and it included an introduction by Miguel A. Carranza, associate professor of sociology and ethnic studies at the University of NebraskaLincoln, who also chaired the program committee for the symposium.

The editors of this volume wish to express their thanks to Dr. Carranza and members of the program committee of the University of NebraskaLincoln. The editors are also extremely appreciative of those who made conference presentations, including Jorge Bustamante (El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Tijuana, Mexico), Juan Garcia (University of Arizona), Estevan T. Flores (University of ColoradoBoulder), James Gunnerson (University of NebraskaLincoln), Louise Ao Nuevo Kerr (University of IllinoisChicago), Richard Santillan (California State Polytechnic UniversityPomona), Dennis Nodn Valds (University of WisconsinMadison), Philip Baker (South Dakota State University), Reed Anderson (Miami University), Jan Wahl (Nebraska Wesleyan University), Neil F. Foley (University of Michigan), Mario C. Compean (University of WisconsinMadison), Benjamin vila (University of NebraskaKearney), Ella Ochoa (Nebraska Association of Farmworkers), Laura Garza Kerzee (Nebraska State MexicanAmerican Commission), Richard W. Griffin (Pan American University), Anne B.W. Effland (Iowa State University), Robert Mossman (St. Gregory High School, Tucson, Arizona), Evelyn Haller (Doane College), Fred Pinnegar (University of Arizona), Michael W. Smith (Oklahoma State University), and Douglas Heffington (University of Oklahoma).