TECOLOTE MOUNTAIN [HERMIT'S PEAK] AND ITS RARE INHABITANT
EDITOR OF THE NEW MEXICAN:
Sir: Neither curiosity nor deceit move us to occupy a column in your esteemed newspaper; but rather, we are induced by the idea of revealing to the literary world the rare and mysterious life of the hermit Juan María Agustini in its normal uniqueness; wherefore, we request that you publish the following article. We remain your humble servants.
Tecolote Mountain lies north of the town of Las Vegas, county seat of San Miguel County, Territory of New Mexico; its geographic position allows it to rival the elevation of the majestic mountains of the city of Santa Fe. It lies on the eastern flank of that range, full of thickets and mountainous, making it extremely obscure and difficult to scale. Its roads consist of two new and scant pathways cut through the forest with axes. The path on the north side of the mountain facilitates passage on horseback, since its natural slope provides a gradual climb; two deep canyons which begin abruptly at the foot of the mountain, because of their immediate position, form a precipice or gorge, which makes the trip extremely dangerous; but one can make it on horseback as far as the lower crags of the peak. The other path is extremely perpendicular, a circumstance which makes the climb on horseback impossible, and even dangerous for those who go on foot, this path being on the northeast side of the mountain.
We quote from the Valparaí so Messenger [Chile]: "The solitary hermit, dweller of the deserts, carries the baptismal name Juan María, and family name of Agustiniani--a native of Italy, from the Province of Navara in Lombardia, of an honorable family--and he has studied in various colleges and universities. "This rare hermit left his country as a pilgrim and traversed almost every sanctuary and mountain in Europe and after many years of wander-lust, he embarked for the Americas, crossing oceans, conquering deserts, and penetrating mountains. Finally, he has arrived in our Territory, choosing the Serro del Tecolote as his abode, bringing only a sack containing his library. His residence on the mountain dates from this period when he made a new life among ice crags and ruggedness, until the people from the area helped him build his huts. His age does not go below sixty-five years. He is of small stature; plump and well-proportioned body; fair complexion; blue eyes; long and graying, venerable beard; a somber and imposing expression commanding respect from all who see him; instructive conversation; devout countenance; and a hospitable and frank nature which makes him amiable, as he shares his frugal nutrients with whoever visits him. He himself, is always willing to prepare a corn meal gruel with water and salt, clean and well cooked; his table is a rock slab loosened from the same crevice and is well situated under the porch of his small cabin; courteous without ceremony, he invites his guests without formality or commotion. This rare man involves himself in a mysterious life, which causes some persons to form rash impression, others compassionate ones, and finally, all to preoccupy themselves with the hermit and his life of solitude. His exercise consists of meditation and prayer; he begs from no one, nor does he visit anybody, but he ill accept invitations with modest courtesy, and as in our case, they serve a purpose, such as to cure a sick person, instruct a family, or carry out some other pious duty, on which type of visits he rarely sits; he works to furnish his sustenance; and he is very much given to study. We are amazed with everything we have related about the life of the recluse Agustini; the Nineteenth Century cannot present us another hermit as rare and mysterious, and we are certain our account will likewise surprise the reader; but we can assure you that we have witnessed this experience for the past three years. And furthermore, one must also express admiration knowing that the hermit Agustini has led this life since the age of twenty-five (at an age which our human nature constantly finds itself fiery and indomitable, and when those extremely strong passions drown most of our virtuous and moral zeal). He has received titles and honors from many ecclesiastical and civil dignitaries which confirm what you have read, these being so many and so varied, that if bound in a book the letters and documents would form a big volume; these certificates are found signed, sealed and countersigned by conceding authorities who leave no room for doubt.
Whatever way it may be, the life of the hermit Juan Maria Agustini in itself is rare in our times.
LAS VEGAS HISPANOS DURING THE 1880s
ANSELMO F. ARELLANO
The cultural collision which occurred on the Las Vegas Land Grant following the arrival of the railroad in 1879 provides a foundation for the study of the effects of cross-cultural interaction between the dominant American society and the culture and society of the Hispanic occupants of the land grant. The Anglo Americans immigrating to New Mexico during that period were part of America's maturing industrial society whose economy was based on material acquisition, competition and profit. The prevailing national American character was contrasted by the pastoral, agrarian culture of the residents of the land grant. In contrast, they depended on a self-sufficient economy, which had been eked out in a harsh environment.
Many changes occur within a society whenever cultural borrowing takes place. People have to adjust to new institutions and material innovations which are introduced by the dominant and more technologically advanced culture. The impact American culture made on the land grant during this transitional period created a state of cultural change which altered and uprooted the social, economic and political institutions of the established native population. The cultural interaction which occurred on the land grant during this period was concentrated in the community of Las Vegas due to its location and the potential it offered for economic growth. The community was transformed from a rural community into one of the leading urban centers in New Mexico. The remaining villages on the land grant adopted many elements from American culture, but they retained their pastoral, agrarian character.
Both societies grew as a result of the cultural borrowing which occurred during this period, but the biggest infusions-both material and non-material-were made by the dominant American culture. Diverse patterns of behavior and adjustment emerged among the land grant residents as a result of the cultural borrowing and the social, economic and political institutions they were exposed to.
During its early history after 1835, Las Vegas received cultural and economic infusions from the United States through the thriving commerce of the Santa Fe Trail. Some prominent Hispanos moved to Las Vegas to take advantage of the profit trade with the Americans promised. Some who accumulated fortunes through trade caravans they established were individuals like Francisco Lopez and Miguel and Manuel Romero. Some of the Anglos who established trade relations with New Mexico settled in Las Vegas, and many inter-married among the natives, comfortably accommodating themselves in Mexican society. After the American occupation of 1846, a greater influx of Anglos arrived in Las Vegas an by 1860 the Anglo and foreign-born population consisted of thirty persons among the 735 families living in the community. By 1870 the census shows eighty Anglo residents, most being merchants, clergy, carpenters and bookkeepers. Although a minority in numbers, the outside population which had settled in Las Vegas gave the community a cosmopolitan flavor. Immigrants who lived in Las Vegas by 1870 were born in the United States, France, Germany, Canada, England, Bohemia, Italy, Poland and Ireland. A few Blacks also lived in Las Vegas at this time.
The first major clash between the Anglo and Hispano culture of the Las Vegas Land Grant occurred when the railroad reached Las Vegas in 1879. The railroad brought with it many technological innovations and economic institutions which radically altered the livestock raising and farming society of the Las Vegas Land Grant. The continual pressures of Americanization which followed during the 1880s had varying cultural, socioeconomic and political effects on the Hispano. During the transitional decade of the 1880s, an ethnic consciousness emerged among the people, and an educated middle class developed among them during that relatively short period of time.
In 1876, long before the railroad arrived in Las Vegas, the Jesuit editors of the Revista Católica (Catholic Digest) forewarned the people of the changes the "iron horse" would bring:
We have high hopes that before long we will be benefiting from this new branch of progress. But we again caution the Mexicans that the railroad will surely increase outside immigration which will try, without a doubt, to obtain possession of the best lands of our Territory. There are many among the Mexicans, and we can say a great majority, who have no documents on their land, and others that don't own a yard of land. We strongly recommend, and we shall repeatedly recommend, that you try to obtain clear title to your lands.
The railroad created a big boom which immediately affected both Hispano and Anglo residents of Las Vegas. The railroad's arrival drew much attention from merchants and residents because it bypassed the Town Plaza, since it was being established one mile east, across the Gallinas River. The Anglo and Hispano merchants were especially upset because they had expected to see the Old Town grow and prosper economically. On the contrary, a new boomtown, known eventually as the City of Las Vegas, emerged on the east side of the river along the railroad. The railroad launched a new era in which both combined communities--known as Las Vegas--prospered economically and achieved national prominence as a western boom town and railroad center.
During the early years which followed the arrival of the railroad, some of the prominent Hispanos in Las Vegas formed economic and political alliances with newly-arrived easterners. Some of the Hispanos had achieved positions of wealth and prominence as merchants on the Santa Fe Trail, in mining enterprises around Santa Fe, or they had held political positions within the Mexican administration. Many Hispanos were seeking mergers which would ensure positions of wealth and influence for them. These economic partnerships also provide evidence of the accommodation of Hispanos to the new American society.
Some of the new business ventures competed for the natural resources on the land grant. One was a sawmill owned by Trinidad Romero and a Mr. Wooten of Las Vegas. An apparent arson set fire to the mill in which forty thousand feet of lumber were burned. The business was not insured, and the consequent loss was set at $11,000.00. In another business venture, a mercantile store was established by L. P. Browne and F.A. Manzanares known as Browne and Manzanares. They sold everything from groceries and clothing to farm machinery. Eugenio Romero and F.A. Manzanares were among the Hispano stock-holders who were elected t the Aqua Pura Company board of directors. Aqua Pura was a water works company in East Las Vegas. Eugenio was one of five Romero brothers, sons of Don Trinidad, who were among the wealthiest Hispanos in Las Vegas. As strong political leaders in the Republican party, they perhaps formed the most influential political family Las Vegas has known.
During late 1881, a group of Las Vegas investors met to form the "El Dorado Town Company," with the prominent and wealthy Lorenzo López being elected president. Lorenzo was the son of Francisco López, one of the early merchants of the Santa Fe Trail. The concern had a capital stock of $1,000,000 and was incorporated as a mining company whose object was "the construction and operation of wagon roads, the construction of irrigation ditches, acquiring and improvement of lands, etc., etc." Another group, which consisted basically of the same Anglo and Hispano investors, established the San Miguel Stock, Agricultural and Fair Association. Lorenzo López was also president of this association whose main concern was to promote the cattle and sheep industry as well as agriculture.
The direct and indirect contributions of the railroad to the economic boom in Las Vegas during the 1880s were manifold. Las Vegas was established as a division headquarters for the railroad, and as a result, hundreds of employees maintained their residence in the growing community. The company soon built a depot on the main line and a spur line to Hot Springs, which was developed as a resort area. A hospital for railroad employees was built north of Old Town, and soon after, a brick, nine-stall roundhouse was built at the south end of East Las Vegas. Close to it, the company located a tie and timber preserving works for thousands of ties, which were cut in the surrounding mountains. Facilities were also constructed for loading thousands of cattle and sheep raised on the ranches of northeastern New Mexico.
A working class of laborers simultaneously emerged with the economic boom, which hit Las Vegas. Many of these men were employed to fill the jobs created by the various business enterprises. Hispanos who resided on the land grant many times competed for jobs with Anglos and other Hispanos who immigrated to Las Vegas. Some Mexicans cut railroad ties and mine props independently on the land grant reserves and sold them to the railroad. Others worked for major contractors and lumbermen such as Eugenio Romero. Romero, the largest tie contractor, one day had a payroll of $15,000 in 1881. After filling out his tie contracts, Romero had 60,000 ties valued at $40,000 left over. The Las Vegas Gazette reported that the large outlay by the tie company would be felt during the winter months when the workers would be unemployed.
In education, Las Vegas already had an educated class of young adults by the 1880s. They consisted not only of the wealthier Hispanos on the land grant, but many youth from some of the poorer families as well. Some of the older residents such as Francisco Manzanares had been educated in the school Father Antonio José Martinez had established in Taos prior to the American Occupation. Others had been educated in the parochial schools, which were open through the efforts of Bishop J.B. Lamy. He brought the Sisters of Loretto and the Christian Brothers to New Mexico during the 1850s and 1860s to open Catholic Schools. They opened schools in some of the larger communities such as Taos, Mora, Las Vegas, Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Socorro and Albuquerque. The Catholic schools were established as pay schools, but in some cases provided gratis instruction for poor children.
The Catholic Church also established St. Michael's College in Santa Fe in 1859. In Las Vegas the Jesuits opened a boys school in 1874 and in 1877 the Jesuit College, the first bona fide college in the territory. It soon acquired the reputation of being one of the leading colleges in the Southwest. The Presbyterians also started a Mission and school in Las Vegas in 1869, through he leadership of Reverend John Annin. Also private schools which provided instruction for wealthier families were soon established. The evidence of different schools being established demonstrates that Las Vegas was already territorial leader in education prior to thc railroad's arrival in l879. The majority of the children and youth attending the schools were from the Hispano community, which was an overwhelming majority during the early period.
The parochial schools were highly disciplined and their course offerings were comprehensive. As early as 1865, St. Michael's College in Santa Fe taught "Reading, Writing, Grammar, Arithmetic, Geography, the Use of Globes, History, Bookkeeping, Algebra, Geometry, Menstruation, Surveying, Drawing, Logic, Latin, Greek, French, Music, vocal and instrumental, etc." Other courses were added later on. The school taught Spanish also, but the teachers placed emphasis on English instruction, requiring the students to speak it at all times, even during recreation hours.
Las Vegas also became New Mexico's frontrunner in the area of public education, and the local residents established New Mexico's first school soon after the first public school law was passed in 1860. In 1869 Lincoln County was claming to have established New Mexico's first public school through the efforts of Juan Patron, a Nortre Dame-educated Hispano. Las Vegans soon challenged the claim and proved that a society of Hispanics in Las Vegas had indeed been New Mexico's first leaders in public education. The lack of an adequate revenue plan created a big struggle for New Mexico's early public schools, but by 1881, however, the San Miguel County School Commissioners boasted of having a public school teacher in twenty-nine of the voting precincts. This, of course, did not include teachers in the parochial and other schools. Twenty-four of the public school teachers in the county were Hispano. Those who taught both English and Spanish were paid $45.00 per month, while the ones who taught in Spanish only received $35.00 per month.
The Spanish-language news media, which expanded to many communities in New Mexico during the 1880s, provided the biggest vehicle for the conveyance of new ideas and cultural change among the Hispano. Some Spanish newspapers existed prior to 1880, but during the ten years that followed, close to forty emerged throughout New Mexico. Many of these newspapers focused on the emerging needs and development of Hispanos as they continued to merge with the dominant society. Most were partisan in political party affiliation, but they all covered social, economic, educational and other concerns, which related primarily to the Spanish-speaking.
A special feature of the Spanish press was the literary sections, which carried poetry and other works of writers, scholars and poets from Mexico, Latin America and Spain. Translated works of American, English and European authors were very common also. The appearance of these outside authors in New Mexico's newspapers gave rise to a native New Mexican literary movement. Eventually, countless poems and corridos
(ballads) and prose fiction written by native New Mexicans appeared in the literary columns, alongside the poetry and literature of renowned authors. This emerging tradition of published popular verse was many times encouraged by the newspapers themselves. Editorial staff would write poetry and solicit verses from the community. The resultant poetic expression was highly popularized, although some of it had little artistic, poetic style.The growth of the Spanish press in New Mexico during the 1880s also gave the Spanish language new vitality as the emerging class of educated and literate people grew. The media helped to preserve and engender the fluency of the language among the people throughout the territorial period. On the other hand, the Spanish press also prompted the adoption of English vocabulary by the Spanish speaking. The language exchange was reciprocal when both cultures first met, but it eventually shifted to a unilateral process as the dominant English began to be more imposing and influencing on the Spanish-speaking population. This resulted in the gradual accumulation of Anglicisms (English words which have been Hispanicized through pronunciation, form and meaning and incorporated into the Spanish language) by the Spanish speaking.
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