Nación Genízara - (Querencias) by Moises Gonzales & Enrique R Lamadrid

About the Book

Nación Genízara examines the history, cultural evolution, and survival of the Genízaro people.

Book Synopsis

Winner of the 2021 Heritage Publication Award from the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division
Second Place Winner of the 2020 International Latino Book Award for Best History Book

Nación Genízara examines the history, cultural evolution, and survival of the Genízaro people. The contributors to this volume cover topics including ethnogenesis, slavery, settlements, poetics, religion, gender, family history, and mestizo genetics. Fray Angélico Chávez defined Genízaro as the ethnic term given to indigenous people of mixed tribal origins living among the Hispano population in Spanish fashion. They entered colonial society as captives taken during wars with Utes, Apaches, Comanches, Kiowas, Navajos, and Pawnees. Genízaros comprised a third of the population by 1800. Many assimilated into Hispano and Pueblo society, but others in the land-grant communities maintained their identity through ritual, self-government, and kinship.

Today the persistence of Genízaro identity blurs the lines of distinction between Native and Hispanic frameworks of race and cultural affiliation. This is the first study to focus exclusively on the detribalized Native experience of the Genízaro in New Mexico.

Review Quotes

"A historical shroud has long concealed the history and legacy of an important segment of the New Mexico population, Indian slaves known as genízaros. With the help of experts in many fields, Nación Genízara has removed much of this shroud, revealing a rich new layer of regional society and culture."--Richard Melzer, coauthor of A History of New Mexico Since Statehood

"Editors Moises Gonzales and Enrique R. Lamadrid have crafted a landmark volume on the history, culture, and contemporary valences of these peoples. . . . This impressive collection of essays brings us that much closer to understanding the often painfully complicated lives and richly complex heritage that grows ever more vital among the descendants of those children (of war)."--James F. Brooks, Journal of American Ethnic History

"The edited volume provides multi- and interdisciplinary approaches to the history, memorialization, cultural practices, art, language, socioeconomic status, and archaeology of Genízaros in New Mexico and southern Colorado from the eighteenth century until the present day. . . . Most importantly, the volume clearly shows that prior claims that Genízaro identity and culture were lost after 1821 are false and, instead, documents a complicated, and vibrant ongoing history and an active present-day community."--Rebecca Brückmann, H-Net

"This groundbreaking anthology brings together the latest scholarship on Genízaros, a uniquely New Mexican ethnic identity, which is the object of a burgeoning, multidisciplinary field of study."--Rick Hendricks, coauthor of Four Square Leagues: Pueblo Indian Land in New Mexico

"Underscoring the rootedness of place and the importance of resistance in the persistence and continuation of Genízaro cultural identity, this work stands at the forefront of Genízaro scholarship. Highly recommended."--G. R Campbell, Choice