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NEW MEXICO 



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penitente activity. Shortly after 1740, civil authorities 

 in Santa Fe attempted to settle colonists along the 

 Chama River in order to create a buffer zone between 

 marauding Indians to the northwest and Spanish and 

 Pueblo villages on the Rio Grande (Figure i). This 

 constant threat of annihilation produced self-reliant 

 and independent-minded settlers. 



Unorthodoxy appeared early in the religious history 

 of Abiquiu. By 1744, settlers had installed Santa Rosa 

 de Lima as their patroness in a little riverside plaza 

 near modem Abiquiu. After a decade, several colonists 

 from Santa Rosa were moved to the hilltop plaza of 

 Abiquiu, where the mission of Santo Tomas Apostol 

 had been established. In his 1776 visit to Abiquiu, 

 Dominguez noted, however, a continuing allegiance to 

 the earlier patroness: ". . . settlers use the name of 

 Santa Rosa, as the lost mission was called in the old 

 days. Therefore, they celebrate the feast of this female 

 saint [August 30th] and not of that masculine saint [St. 

 Thomas the Aposde, December 21]."" Loyalty to 

 Saint Rose survived this official protest, and village fes- 

 tivals have persisted in honoring Santa Rosa to this day. 

 It is, therefore, not surprising to find her image in the 

 earlier east morada of Abiquiu. 



A disturbing influence in the religious life of Abiquiu 

 were semi-Christianized servants [genizaros) , who had 

 been ransomed from the Indians by Spaniards.-" Often 

 used to establish frontier settlements, genizaros came 

 to be a threat to the cultural stability of Abiquiu. For 

 example, in 1762, two genizaros accused of witchcraft 

 were taken to Santa Cruz for judicial action. After the 

 trial. Governor Cachupin sent a detachment from 

 Santa Fe to Abiquiu to destroy an inscribed stone said 

 to be a relic of black magic. -^ Similar incidents with 

 genizaros during the next generation prolonged the 

 unstable religious pattern at Abiquiu. In 1766, an 

 Indian girl accused a genizaro couple of killing the resi- 

 dent priest. Fray FelLx Ordofiez y Machado, by witch- 

 craft." And again in 1782 and 1786, charges of 

 apostasy were entered against Abiquiu genizaros.-^ 



Another disturbing clement in the religious historN' 

 of Abiquiu was the disinterest of her settiers in the 



Paso del Norte 



A 



A 



m 30 40 50 60 I 



Figure i. Mid- 19th-century New Me.\ico, showing pertinent 

 geographical features, Indian pueblos (indicated by solid tri- 

 angles), and Spanish villages cited in text. 



19. Domi'nguez, Missions, pp. 121 (ftn. i), 200. 



20. AASF, Patcntes, 1700, forbids friars to buy genizaros 

 even under the excuse of Christianizing them since the result 

 would likely be morally dangerous. 



21. H. H. Bancroft, History of Arizona and New Mexico 

 (San Francisco, 1889), p. 258. 



22. Domi'nguez, Missions, p. 336. 



23. .A.\SF, Loose Documents, Mission, 1782, no. 7. 



PAPER 63: THE PENITENTE MORADAS OF ABIQUIU 



127 



