Lecture: What a Price a Human: Indian Captives in New Mexico

Former State Historian, Robert J. Torrez, will give a presentation, "What a Price a Human: Indian Captives in New Mexico” at Los Luceros Historic Site on the history of slavery in New Mexico with a special focus on the Genízaro, or detribalized Indigenous people in colonial New Mexico. Torrez will share his knowledge about the practice of incorporating Indian captives into Hispano households in Spanish, Mexican, and Territorial-era New Mexico. He will review the process by which Indian captives were acquired and how they were valued—ranging from those who were regarded as adopted children to those who were consider chattel to be purchased, sold, and given away as inheritances or for commercial trade.

Robert J. Torrez was born and raised in northern New Mexico and received his undergraduate and graduate education at New Mexico Highlands University and the University of New Mexico. He served as the New Mexico State Historian from 1987 until his retirement in December 2000. In addition to the more than 300 columns he has published under his “Voices from the Past” byline in Round the Roundhouse, he is also author of dozens of scholarly and popular articles in regional and national publications. He has contributed to nearly two dozen anthologies, including a recent New Mexico history textbook for use in New Mexico schools. He has a special interest in the judicial systems of Spanish, Mexican, and Territorial-era New Mexico, Spanish-Indian relations, and land grant issues. He is an award-winning author of UFO’s over Galisteo; New Mexico in 1876-1877: A Newspaperman’s View; Rio Arriba, a New Mexico County (with co-author Robert Trapp); Myth of the Hanging Tree: Stories of Crime and Punishment in Territorial New Mexico; and Voices from the Past: The Comanche Raid of 1776 and Other Tales of New Mexico History.

Presented by the Amigos de los Luceros. Tickets to the lecture can be purchased at the event and are $15 for non-Amigos and free for Amigos members. Site admission is free with ticket purchase. For more info email amigoslosluceros@gmail.com.