In 1598, twenty-two years before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Don Juan de Oate led a group of Spanish explorers to the banks of the Rio Grande near what is today the town of Espaola and established a permanent settlement north of Mexico. 400 years later, Richard Peck traces the great sweep of history from the Anasasi civilization to todays Land of Enchantmenta compelling and wonderful trip.
Chapters touch all aspects of a tumultuous past, from the pre-Columbian era and the Pueblo peoples to the explorers and missionaries, from the territorial days of outlaws, cowboys, and capitalists, to the nuclear scientists at Los Alamos and the high technology of Albuquerques Silicon Mesa.
But The New Mexico Experience is not a history, the author says. Its really a sampling of stories Ive heard, and read, and recall; the glimpses of landscapes and people who define in unique ways the New Mexico I call home. Its certainly not everyones New Mexico, he writes in the introduction, but it is someones New Mexico. I hope it resembles yours.
