The University of New Mexico

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Media Contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627

April 14, 2006

UNM Libraries Lecture to Explore 18 th Century Witchcraft Outbreak in New Mexico

It was 1754, when Vélez Cachupín, governor of the area that is now New Mexico granted 60 families the right to build homes and graze in a valley at the very edge of the area of Spanish influence. It was a place of unease, far from the mainstream of Spanish life, close to the range of passing Indian war parties and soon after the land grant families moved in to the valley, Fray Juan José Toledo began to complain to the governor about “being bewitched.”

This is the background for “The Witches of Abiquiu: The Governor, the Priest, the Genízaro Indians, and the Devil.” Authors Malcolm Ebright and Rick Hendricks will discuss their non-fiction book, and the drama of the last major outbreak of witchcraft on the North American continent on Friday, April 21, 2006 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Willard Reading Room of Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico main campus.

The book explores a little known incident in New Mexico's history and shows the tensions between the Spanish settlers, the Genízaro Indians who were living on the fringes of Spanish society, and the Catholic Church. The case was taken seriously by the Spanish authorities who sent it to the Office of the Inquisition in Mexico City.

Malcolm Ebright is director of the Center for Land Grant Studies in Guadalupita, New Mexico. He is also the author of “Land Grants and Lawsuits in Northern New Mexico” published by UNM Press. Rick Hendricks is an historical consultant to the Rio Grande Historical Collections at New Mexico State University. He is also the author of “The Navajos in 1705” and was an editor of the six-volume Vargas Project.

The event is free and open to the public, and is sponsored by the Center for Southwest Research and the Office of the State Historian. Books will be available for purchase and will be signed by the authors.

Contact: Beth Silbergleit  bsil@unm.edu 505-277-0060 or Dr. Dennis P. Trujillo  dennis.trujillo@state.nm.us  505-476-7998.

 


The University of New Mexico is the state's largest university, serving more than 32,000 students. UNM is home to the state's only schools of law, medicine, pharmacy and architecture and operates New Mexico's only academic health center. UNM is noted for comprehensive undergraduate programs and research that benefits the state and the nation.

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