Jesús F. de la Teja

St. James at the Fair: Religious Ceremony, Civic Boosterism, and Commercial Development on the Colonial Mexican Frontier

Every year a fair is held in the last days of September at which not only the inhabitants of Saltillo provision themselves for the entire year, but also those of the Kingdom of Nuevo León, Coahuila, Texas, and a great part of the colony of Santander as well. They come to sell wool, deer skins, salt, mules, and some other products that those places produce, and return with clothes, tanned hides, soap, saddles, and a variety of foodstuffs that come from Michoacán and Nueva Galicia, such as rice, sugar, chickpeas, and other commodities harvested in those lands. As a result, Saltillo has become a sort of warehouse, where the neighboring provinces provision themselves not only at fair time, but where they come between-times to stock themselves of those articles that they lack, which are considerable because of the impossibility of preserving them in such hot places.

'Buena gana tenía de ir a jugar’: The Recreational World of Early San Antonio, Texas, 1718–1845 [1]

Although a limited archival record prevents a full examination of sporting and recreational activities, the available evidence reveals that the people of early San Antonio entertained themselves in the same ways as people throughout the Spanish world. The record for any kind of organized sport is completely absent, and there are few references to ball games and childrens play, but well-documented are the dances, cockfights, and card games that were the most common recreational activities among adults. Holidays offered opportunities for horse racing, bullfights and other special entertainments. Although the authorities frowned on many recreational activities, especially dancing and card games, as morally corrupting, the population in general found in these entertainments an escape from the uncertainties of life on an isolated and often hostile frontier. Early San Antonio, then, was home to Hispanic frontiersmen whose recreational activities reflected the Spanish origins of much of New Spains popular culture.Although a limited archival record prevents a full examination of sporting and recreational activities, the available evidence reveals that the people of early San Antonio entertained themselves in the same ways as people throughout the Spanish world. The record for any kind of organized sport is completely absent, and there are few references to ball games and childrens play, but well-documented are the dances, cockfights, and card games that were the most common recreational activities among adults. Holidays offered opportunities for horse racing, bullfights and other special entertainments. Although the authorities frowned on many recreational activities, especially dancing and card games, as morally corrupting, the population in general found in these entertainments an escape from the uncertainties of life on an isolated and often hostile frontier. Early San Antonio, then, was home to Hispanic frontiersmen whose recreational activities reflected the Spanish origins of much of New Spains popular culture.

River of Hope: Forging Identity and Nation in the Rio Grande Borderlands by Omar S. Valerio-Jiménez (review)

Looking at the transnational popular music circuit that linked musicians, promoters, and the consuming public in the circum-Caribbean, Putnam argues that peripheral populations were not mere recipients of metropolitan culture but rather were “part of the culturally contiguous space within which the Jazz Age and its deeply cosmopolitan music and dance were created” (p. 157). Sure to spark new debates over etymology is the authors’ documentation of weekly “regge dances” held by West Indians in the Costa Rican port town of Limón in the 1930s, decades prior to the use of term reggay/reggae in Jamaica itself.

The Mexican Wars for Independence (review)

The majority of the book concerns the trial itself and the evidence presented. Weddle does a good job of unraveling the intricate proceedings, the overlapping accusations, and the eventual judgments. These still-extant records are translated here, including La Salles official reports, the charges themselves and Aigron s rebuttal, the transcription of the actual hearing, and the written arguments of complainants and defendants. Aigron apparently won his case. At the end of the work, Weddle recounts the search to find the Aimable at the bottom ofMatagorda Bay. While this search was unsuccessful, he hopes that new technology will be more effective in future searches.

Sanctuaries of Earth, Stone, and Light: The Churches of Northern New Spain, 1530-1821 (review)

relocation to the Rio Grande near contemporary Bernalillo, New Mexico, and die bitter winter (1539-1540) spent there; the march to the Texas Panhandle and beyond to the Arkansas River in present-day Kansas; and the retreat to the Rio Grande, followed by the expeditions subsequent wididrawal to Mexico City. What is different, however, makes this book a landmark study. Flint argues that Coronado and his men had much more nuanced motives than is generally accorded them. They primarily sought advanced indigenous communities wealthy enough to permit the granting of royal encomiendas (the right to collect tribute or labor from native polities), rather dian discovering easily exploitable gold and silver. Not finding such, they returned to Mexico deeply in debt. The author also emphasizes that virtually every Spanish expedition in the Americas relied heavily on Indian allies. These native auxiliaries should be given more credit for their role in Spanish exploration, including die Coronado entrada.