Introduction
During the past thirty-plus years a number ofviejitos (old-timers) from various parts of northern New Mexico have shared stories with me on a variety of misfortunes. In fact, a chapter titled“Their Tragedies” was included in my first book on oral history,Recuerdos de los viejitos:Tales of the Río Puerco (University of New Mexico Press, 1987), no longer in print. Those tragedies, which dealt with topics like accidental drownings, influenza, murder, and feuds between Hispanos and Indians, brought to light many years later the idea of publishing a work on a subject hitherto not widely known to the general public except for snippets found in history books and ballads. Hence,Fe y tragedias: Faith and Tragedies in Hispanic Villages of New Mexico was born.
In putting together the present work, the old-timers’ voices came alive with sufficient stories on incidents that occurred in Hispanic villages during the first half of the twentieth century to justify an opus on tragedies and faith. The intent is not to engage the reader in the doom and gloom aspects of country life. On the contrary, the overriding purpose is to acquaint and educate readers on how ordinary and humble folks living in isolation, in most cases far removed geographically from urban life, dealt and coped with tragedy and despair with faith at their lap. The net psychological effect on the human psyche, as one can imagine, was profound.
Tragedy, in its broadest and fundamental sense according toWebster’s New World Dictionary, 2ndCollege Edition, is“a very sad or tragic event” that evokes grief or sorrow. Throughout the ages tragedy has been part of the history of mankind. Today reports of tragic events are aired daily on television and printed on the pages of newspapers, magazines, and books in civilized nations like ours. The perverse nature of this phenomenon is vividly embedded in our national consciousness.
At home history teaches us that New Mexico throughout the centuries has not been immune from tragedy. Conflict between the Spanish conquistadores and indigenous groups during the colonial period or squabbles involving newcomers—the Americans—from the States following the opening of the Santa Fe Trail in 1821 attest to sad episodes in our history. The exile of the Diné people to Bosque Redondo in 1863 under the leadership of U. S. Army Brigadier General James H. Carleton is another poignant reminder of tragedy in our state. The Lincoln County War, the Tierra Amarilla courthouse raid of 1967, or the violence personalities like William Bonny (alias Billy the Kid),Élfego Baca, Jesse James, and Butch Cassidy provoked is testimony to the Wild West syndrome.
When someone is affected directly, not vicariously as may be the case in reading about historical incidents or figures, tragedy pacts its own punch and assumes its own meaning, nuances, and proportions. A host of emotions, including pain and anxiety, comes into play. But any tragedy, irrespective of its breadth and scope, especially illnesses, is deemed by most devout Hispanic old-timers to come about because of God’s will (el bien de Dios). Some may indeed question why misfortune befell them, their family members, or their friends, but they are careful not to unduly criticize God’s judgment. To do so would be blasphemous and outside the boundaries of human reasoning and soul searching.
The old folks believed without equivocation that there was no better substitute or anointment to soothe the soul and comfort the heart in the midst of or following a crisis than to rely on their faith. Their unwavering trust and reliance in God was—and to a large extent still is—paramount. These precepts were lodged in the person’s religious free will, not forced upon him or her, but embraced as an extension of the virtues espoused and practiced by their parents and grandparents. Faith and tragedy are as dissimilar as oil and water; yet on the other hand, they are mutually as compatible as hand in glove. Tragedy, after all, yields to faith and faith in turn enables victims of tragedies to survive and go on with their lives.
A few stories in the ensuing collection express an overt sense of faith; other times the unspoken word may be just as telling. Eremita García-Griego de Lucero in“Siempre estaba Dios con nosotros” (God’s Was Always with Us”) is one of the rare cases in which God is acknowledged openly. An expression of faith and hope in God through the eyes and presence of the mother is seen in Samuel Córdova’s
