Children of Conquest
Sustaining Community Relations
in a Mixed Cultural Society
Tomás Romero

August 19, 1846:
La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís.

It was to be another beautiful warm summer day. The sun rose crisply over the mountain, shedding its warming glow over the Villa and the outlying fields. There was nothing that would suggest anything other than a peace and quiet, permitting the townspeople to toil in their fields or at their tasks in the shops and offices that were to open in the Plaza.

But there was something in the air. Most had been up before dawn and many were congregating around the Plaza in small groups, huddled over intense discussion, individuals fleeting from group to group, groups coming together then drifting apart as the intensity of discussion quelled or new subjects surged in other areas around the public square. There was only one topic. In the last few days word had come from the outlying community of San Miguel del Vado that a military contingency of the Estados Unidos had taken the village of Las Vegas four days before. Today, under the command of Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny, the army units would descend on Santa Fe.

It was almost unthinkable that such a situation would occur. Over the last twenty-five years, since this territory had come under governance of the Mexican
Republic, Santa Fe had become a key center of trade traffic, as much with the Estados Unidos from the east, as with the center of Mexico to the south. Some from Santa Fe had established trade routes to the east, some had even learned English, but the majority of the population retained the language, customs, and living traditions that had prevailed in this area for the last 237 years. They were Spanish, integrally tied to Mexico, and deeply Catholic.

Today, they were the enemy, about to be conquered. The territorial governor, Manuel Armijo, had already fled to the south. He had made the decision that our local militia was not armed enough to hold off the advancing troops. There was to be no battle, but there was to be a defeat!

An American staff officer described the reaction of the Mexican population to the army’s entrance into the capital city:

“Our march into the city… was extremely warlike, with drawn sabers... From around corners, men with surly countenances and downcast looks regarded us with watchfulness, if not terror... As the American flag was raised, and the cannon boomed its glorious national salute from the hill, the pent-up emotions of many of the women could be suppressed no longer… the wail of grief arose above the din of our horses’ tread, and reached our ears from the depth of the gloomy-looking buildings on every hand.”