The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991 Page: 141

Book Reviews

from bank to bank to such a degree that it can only be crossed by pass-
ing over the ice, and this I state as an eyewitness" (p. 140). Most of the
documents alluded to conditions during the reestablishment period of
1694-1695, gradually accelerating the suspense for the violence that
erupted the following year.
As in the previous insurrection of 168o, Spanish officials learned of
imminent danger from reliable informants in the Christian Indian
communities. Unlike the earlier debacle, however, a major difference
in the 1696 rebellion was that Governor Vargas and his lieutenants
heeded the missionaries' counsel and bolstered the perimeter of His-
panic defenses. Another variant in the second uprising was that not all
of the pueblos united in common cause, allowing Vargas to concentrate
punitive action against the five most powerful enemy alignments (the
Jemez, Acoma, Cochiti, Picuris, and Taos), a strategy by which the mili-
tary eventually restored peace throughout the riverine center of the
province.
Admittedly sympathetic to Diego de Vargas and the host of problems
that confronted the New Mexico governor, Espinosa meticulously ar-
ranged his materials into two main sections, historical introduction and
the letters and documents. Then he subdivided the latter into seven
units, extending from Vargas's reconquest of 1692 to the restoration
and expansion of the Franciscan missions following the suppression of
the conflict. The fifth section, comprising the core of the volume, con-
tained approximately fifty letters replete with warnings and petitions
from the missionaries requesting military protection. Altogether, as a
source of reference, The Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1696 and the Franciscan
Missions in New Mexico is a noteworthy addition to Spanish borderlands
historiography.
University of Texas at San Antonio FALIX D. ALMARAZ, JR.
Let There Be Towns: Spanish Municipal Origins in the American Southwest,
i6io-i8io. By Gilbert R. Cruz. Foreword by Donald C. Cutter.
(College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1989. Pp. xvii+ 236.
Foreword, preface, maps, illustrations, graphs, appendices, notes,
bibliography, index. $24.95.)
Let There Be Towns is essentially five narrative essays on municipal be-
ginnings in the Borderlands coupled with two thematic chapters deal-
ing with settlers and municipal government functions on the frontier.
The towns discussed-Santa Fe, New Mexico; El Paso, Laredo, and San
Antonio, Texas; and San Jose and Los Angeles, California-are, ac-
cording to the author, "representative of other Spanish municipalities
in the northernmost provinces of New Spain" (p. xv).