Exploration, Disruption, Diaspora: Movement of Nuevomexicanos to Utah, 1776-1850 Linda C
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University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository American Studies ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 5-11-2019 Exploration, Disruption, Diaspora: Movement of Nuevomexicanos to Utah, 1776-1850 Linda C. Eleshuk Roybal Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/amst_etds Part of the American Studies Commons Recommended Citation Eleshuk Roybal, Linda C.. "Exploration, Disruption, Diaspora: Movement of Nuevomexicanos to Utah, 1776-1850." (2019). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/amst_etds/80 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in American Studies ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Linda Catherine Eleshuk Roybal Candidate American Studies Department This dissertation is approved and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: A.Gabriel Meléndez, Chair Kathleen Holscher Michelle Hall Kells Enrique Lamadrid i Exploration, Disruption, Diaspora: Movement Of Nuevomexicanos to Utah, 1776 – 1950 By Linda Catherine Eleshuk Roybal B.S. Psychology, Weber State College, 1973 B.S. Communications, Weber State University, 1982 M.S. English, Utah State University, 1997 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In American Studies The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May 2019 ii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my children and grandchildren, born and yet to be — Joys of my life and ambassadors to a future I will not see, Con mucho cariño. iii Acknowledgements I am grateful to so many people who have shared their expertise and resources to bring this project to its completion. First, I thank my dissertation committee, Professors A. Gabriel Meléndez, chair, American Studies; Kathleen Holscher, Religious Studies and American Studies; Michelle Hall Kells, English; and Enrique Lamadrid, Spanish and Portugese. They stayed with the project from inception to completion. I deeply appreciate their expertise and encouragement throughout. I am indebted to the residents of the villages of northern New Mexico who welcomed me in my journeys through the Tewa Basin, answered my questions, and shared their stories off the record with me, giving me a sense of place and belonging. I am especially grateful to the mayordomos of San José de Gracias Catholic Church in Las Trampas, NM, who included Ted and me in the preparation work for mudding the old church, a practice that has been ongoing for almost three centuries and, except for the use of some modern tools, is virtually the same now as it was at the beginning. Uncle Richard Roybal, formerly of Embudo, affirmed family narratives gleaned from cited memoirs in this study, corrected some of my misconceptions, and, over the course of many Monday morning breakfasts in Bernalillo, gave an off the record oral history. I hope one day we can go on the record with those magnificent stories that could not be included in this project. Professor Emeritus Anselmo Arellano of New Mexico Highlands University generously shared his knowledge and understanding of the people of Spanish descent who settled and continue to live in northern New Mexico’s villages through the project he spearheaded to collect their oral histories and personal narratives and to preserve them in iv the Carnegie Public Library in Las Vegas, NM. In reading the histories and narratives, and in conversation, Prof. Arellano opened for me the soul of northern New Mexico. I am grateful for his sharing both his time and this invaluable resource. I have heard it said that the professions make a living; the arts make a life. In New Mexico, in many cases, arts are both living and life. For teaching me the depths of Latino art and whose aid influenced this project, I thank Tey Marianna Nunn, Director of Visual Arts, and David Gabel, Chief Registrar, of the National Hispanic Cultural Center. For several summers, De Colores Galleria, owned by Dora and the late Roberto Gonzales, in Old Town Albuquerque, hosted an artist group where a number of New Mexico’s santeros, artists, writers, and musicians gathered on Saturday mornings to work together, comment on each other’s work, swap stories, and eat local food. The regular artists who participated in the artist group and influenced this project were Roberto and Dora Gonzales, santeros, Debbie Carrillo, potter; Charles M. Carrillo, santero; the late Gary Sanchez, painter; the late Ricardo Hooper, tin artist; Gustavo Pimentel, musician; Ray Michael Baca, author; Ernesto Salazar, santero and grand-student of Patricino Barela; and Ted Roybal, wood carver. My students were always welcome at these sessions and each spring semester class had a site visit to the De Colores Galleria courtyard where my students sat with and were taught by the masters, who also taught me. The late Ann Massmann provided research guidance to the Center for Southwest Research and help in my work there on numerous occasions and also gave guest lectures to classes I taught on main campus and at UNM-Gallup to help students accomplish their v own research. Students found her eminently approachable and helpful in completing their work, as did I. Merlin and the late Donna Cheney, retired Weber State English professors; Kathryn MacKay, history professor at Weber State University; Justina Parsons- Berenstein, Heritage and Outdoor Education Resources Coordinator for the State of Utah; and Christine Jensen Sundstrom, recently retired Director of the Graduate Writing Center at the University of Kansas, followed this project from the beginning and have provided information and encouragement throughout. I am sorry that Donna did not live to see its completion. Monte Ogden, retired economics professor, and David Iverson, retired from the U. S. Forest Service and one of the designers of FORPLAN, an historical and analytical study of Forest Service planning models, shared their knowledge of economic history, theory, and practice, and suggested a course of reading in the subject, which informed this project. Among them, Karen Roybal, Carmen Samora, Judith Long, and Ted Roybal read the entire document. They asked pertinent questions, suggested improvements, challenged me, laughed with me, and celebrated over many meals. I will forever be indebted to them for their contributions and for so much more. Much of what is good in this project is to their credit. Errors of omission or commission in this study are mine and mine alone. I am grateful to Sandy Rodrigue and Mercedes Nysus, Department Administrators in succession for American Studies, who helped this project begin and without whom it vi might not have come to fruition, for guiding me through the graduate maze, and for so much more, a thousand thanks, which is not enough. It also helps to have encouragement from outside of academia when one works on something as big as a dissertation. I thank Marianne Maurer, my roommate from the first trip through college at the University of Wyoming; Utah high school teaching colleagues Amy Walker, Elaine Jensen, the late Amelia Hernandez, my teaching mentor who retired from teaching high school to finish her PhD, and Kirk Whiting, who followed this work in progress. In New Mexico, Barb Hively and Rubi and Kevin Lozoya kept me supplied with the best cookies and New Mexico cuisine, respectively. Utah neighbors who monitored progress on the project and took care of my Utah home for the duration are Mona and the late David Stratton, Betty and the late Richard Gillihan, and Joe and Jean Baca, who lived the New Mexico diaspora and shared their experiences of that time and since. I thank the Rev. Don Hope for his prayers and encouragement at the beginning and the Rev. Erik Richtsteig, who remembered his own recent dissertation experience, for guidance in surviving the dissertation process, and for prayer. The Rio Rancho Veterans Coffee Group and the informal Ogden Coffee Group expected regular reports on my progress. When they were concerned about whether I would be able to finish, coffee drinkers of the Ogden Coffee Group offered to pay my tuition. Although appreciative, I refused that kindness. I am grateful to my family of origin: Mom, Dad, Grandma Ruth, Grandma Mary, Grandpa Jake, Teresa, Steve, Joseph, Charles, and Ruth, and their spouses and young people, our nieces and nephews, they brought into the family. The narratives of my familial elders taught me the value and sacredness of story. vii And to mi familia: Theodore (Ted), my spouse of more than four decades, our sons Roger, Thomas, David, our daughters in love they brought into our family, Claire, Roxanne, and Vanisha, and our perfect grandchildren. Thank you for your love and support. This project could not have been accomplished without you. viii Exploration, Disruption, Diaspora: Movement of Nuevomexicanos to Utah, 1776-1950 by Linda Catherine Eleshuk Roybal B.S. Psychology, Weber State College, 1973 B.S. Communications, Weber State University, 1982 M.S. English, Utah State University, 1997 PhD. American Studies, University of New Mexico, 2018 ABSTRACT Nuevomexicano villages of northern New Mexico have experienced disruptions throughout their existence. This dissertation is a study of what occurred in early disruptions leading to the great departure of the 1940s, during World War II and immediately following, known as the New Mexico diaspora, where a number of villagers moved out of New Mexico to other states, including Utah, most expecting to settle for a time with hopes of return to their home villages. The study asks what happened especially during the great disruption, discourses of disruption and movement, what Nuevomexicanos carried with them in movement, whether they returned to their home villages, and what transpired in Utah. In the great disruption of the 1940s and early 1950s, many New Mexicans left but few returned, stretching, and in some cases breaking, ties between home villages and the branch of the regional community that grew in Utah.