New Mexico Book Co-op

New Mexico in 1801: The Priests Report
by Rick Hendricks

In 1801 the Catholic clergy of New Mexico wrote a series of reports on the towns and Indian pueblos of the province. The reports were made in response to an inquiry from the Consulado, or Merchant Guild, of Guadalajara, which was seeking information about the “state and circumstances of agriculture, industry, and commerce” of the vast area that fell within its jurisdiction with the aim of fostering economic growth. In addition to reporting on the current condition and size of the communities in their charge, the priests were asked to suggest crops or industries that might be successfully introduced in New Mexico. They were queried what raw materials were exploited and which ones were unused. The consulado also asked about the state of roads and bridges. The twenty-six reports that the New Mexican clergy produced are presented in fully annotated English translation. In addition, there are biographical sketches of all twenty priests, eleven of whom were European Spaniards and nine were born in New Spain. Of the twenty, nineteen were Franciscans and one was a diocesan priest.
Rick Hendricks received a B.A. in Latin American History from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. in Ibero American History from the University of New Mexico where he was an editor on the Vargas Project, a long-term, historical editing project dedicated to the transcription, translation, annotation, and publication of the papers of Governor Diego de Vargas. Hendricks is currently employed at New Mexico State University where he works in the Archives and Special Collections Department and teaches classes in Latin American history in the History Department. The author or co-author of sixteen books and more than seventy articles and book chapters, Hendricks most recently published The Witches of Abiquiu: The Governor, the Priest, the Genízaro Indians, and the Devil with Malcolm Ebright. He is currently at work on two projects related to Church history: a biography of Antonio Severo Borrajo, a Spanish priest from Galicia who accompanied Jean Baptiste Lamy to New Mexico and later settled in the El Paso del Norte area and a study of the ecclesiastical visitation of Juan Bautista Ladrón del Niño de Guevara to New Mexico in the second decade of the nineteenth century.

New Mexico in 1801: The Priests Report
by Rick Hendricks

In 1801 the Catholic clergy of New Mexico wrote a series of reports on the towns and Indian pueblos of the province. The reports were made in response to an inquiry from the Consulado, or Merchant Guild, of Guadalajara, which was seeking information about the “state and circumstances of agriculture, industry, and commerce” of the vast area that fell within its jurisdiction with the aim of fostering economic growth. In addition to reporting on the current condition and size of the communities in their charge, the priests were asked to suggest crops or industries that might be successfully introduced in New Mexico. They were queried what raw materials were exploited and which ones were unused. The consulado also asked about the state of roads and bridges. The twenty-six reports that the New Mexican clergy produced are presented in fully annotated English translation. In addition, there are biographical sketches of all twenty priests, eleven of whom were European Spaniards and nine were born in New Spain. Of the twenty, nineteen were Franciscans and one was a diocesan priest.
Rick Hendricks received a B.A. in Latin American History from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. in Ibero American History from the University of New Mexico where he was an editor on the Vargas Project, a long-term, historical editing project dedicated to the transcription, translation, annotation, and publication of the papers of Governor Diego de Vargas. Hendricks is currently employed at New Mexico State University where he works in the Archives and Special Collections Department and teaches classes in Latin American history in the History Department. The author or co-author of sixteen books and more than seventy articles and book chapters, Hendricks most recently published The Witches of Abiquiu: The Governor, the Priest, the Genízaro Indians, and the Devil with Malcolm Ebright. He is currently at work on two projects related to Church history: a biography of Antonio Severo Borrajo, a Spanish priest from Galicia who accompanied Jean Baptiste Lamy to New Mexico and later settled in the El Paso del Norte area and a study of the ecclesiastical visitation of Juan Bautista Ladrón del Niño de Guevara to New Mexico in the second decade of the nineteenth century.