The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 99, July 1995 - April, 1996 Page: 274

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

The Dominguez-Escalante undertaking was led by Fray Francisco Atanasio
Dominguez, with Fray Francisco Silvestra V1lez de Escalante serving as diarist. It
left Santa F6 on July 29, 1776, with the primary purpose of discovering and map-
ping a route from the capital of the New Mexico province to Monterey in Alta
California. In early October, near the present town of Milford, Utah, the expedi-
tion abandoned its goal of reaching Monterey. The onset of cold weather and
the observation that "all the sierras we managed to see in all directions were cov-
ered with snow" (p. 84) altered plans. Accordingly, the Dominguez-Escalante
party decided to return to Santa F6. In doing so, it traveled in a roughly circular
path, recording unique information about the people, plants, animals, and ter-
rain of the Four Corners area of contemporary New Mexico, Colorado, Utah,
and Arizona.
The Franciscan leaders of the expedition were much impressed with the
Native Americans of the Timpanogos (Utah) Valley. And having failed in their
primary objective, they promised to return within a year to teach the Gospel and
found settlements. A combination of circumstances-deteriorating conditions in
New Mexico and retrenchment "aggravated by the [1767] expulsion of the
Jesuits from the New World" (p. xv), which had necessitated the appointment of
replacement missionaries-frustrated hopes for a new area of religious prosely-
tizing. Thus, Warner argues in the introduction, Utah failed to share some of
the Hispanic traditions of New Mexico, Texas, and California.
The editing by Warner, a Spanish Borderlands specialist at Brigham Young, is
first-rate. His work is nicely complemented by translator Father Angelico Chavez,
New Mexico's gifted savant and man of letters, who can trace his Hispanic her-
itage through twelve generations. As a Franciscan, Chavez is especially attuned
to the ecclesiastical nuances of the journal and the stylistic peculiarities of eigh-
teenth-century Spanish. Accordingly, his expertise contributes to a smooth and
reliable translation. This inexpensive paperback is a welcome publication for
individuals and libraries who did not acquire the original version.
University of North Texas DONALD E. CHIPMAN
Hispanic Catholic Culture in the U.S.: Issues and Concerns. Edited by Jay P. Dolan
and Allan Figueroa Deck, S.J. (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame
Press, 1994. Pp. vii+455. Acknowledgments, introduction, conclusion. ISBN
0-26801-105-2. $32.95.)
For any group to study itself realistically is indeed a challenge, a challenge that
has been accomplished with clarity and veracity in this review of the problems
facing the Hispanic Catholic Church today. This is the third of a three-volume
set of the Notre Dame History of Hispanic Catholics and it provides an excellent
historical foundation for the changes which have taken place in the past and
some potential answers for the future.
The first three articles, by Joan Moore, David A. Badillo, and Anthony M.
Stevens-Arroyo, suggest that Latinos cannot be seen as one group but, frustrat-
ing though it may be for the church, each national group must be addressed

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