Santiago and San Acacio: Slaughter and Deliverance in the Foundational Legends of Colonial and Postcolonial New Mexico

In the bloody siege of the natural citadel of Acoma Pueblo in January 1599, Don Vicente de Zaldívar and a few score of soldier colonists from the expedition of Don Juan de Oñate miraculously prevailed against hundreds of desperate warriors defending their homes. Two hundred fifty-four years later, in the spring of 1853 in San Acacio, a pioneer settlement of the San Luis Valley, the descendants of the Spanish Mexican settlers of New Mexico faced an even more hopeless situation. As a sizable army of well-mounted and armed Muache Utes charged in battle formation toward the unarmed villagers, the warriors suddenly stopped in their tracks and rode away in retreat. In both situations, divine forces unseen to the Hispanos saved the day. When the dust settled, both defeated and undefeated Indians reported seeing apparitions attributed to Santiago and the Virgin at Acoma, and San Acacio at the town that today still bears his name. Time again, through the divine intervention of saints, the colonizing project is rescued, and the "people of God" are delivered.

The political and cultural strategies of the Nuevo Mexicanos in their relations with Native Americans shifted over time from conflict and subjugation, as inscribed in a discourse of power, to respect and coexistence, as narrated in a discourse of survival and resistance. Hagiography and iconography also register this evolution. The sword, shield, and white warhorse of the ferocious Santiago give way to the cross and crown of thorns of compassionate San Acacio, as over many generations the colonists become indigenous to the Upper Río Grande.¹

As we shall see, the same events, in the colored light of history, are narrated from the perspective of victors rather than vanquished. The dominions of Spain in the 16th century are United States territory in the mid-19th century, and the fortunes and stories of the people are ultimately tied to the powers that be.

Foundational Miracles

Whether sung, recounted, or read, foundational poetry (as in the epic) and foundational narrative (as in chronicle or legend) articulate a social and moral charter for emerging and evolving societies. Cultural tradition and identity are negotiated and endowed with value and prestige by tracing the origins of the group back to a loftier, even supernatural vision of initial events (Bakhtin 1981:45). Thus are the foundational histories of Nuevo México linked to miracles through the hagiographic narrative practices so deeply rooted in the Iberian imagination (DeMarco 2000:163).

Whether inscribed in literature or performed in the oral tradition, the legends of divine intervention in the military affairs of conquest or reconquest are so conventional in the far-flung corners of Christendom that they are listed with their own numbers in the motif index of Antti Aarne and Stith Thomson (1973): V229.7, Invaders miraculously defeated by saints, and D435.1.1, Transformation: statue comes to life. A related motif that often joins the narrative clusters is V232, Angel as helper in battle.²

The saints assist the colonists in defeat as well as victory. At the fall of Santa Fe in the great Pueblo Revolt of 1680, a statue of La Virgen del Rosario traveled south to El Paso with the refugees, then returned with the Reconquest of 1692-93, for which she is credited and renamed "La Conquistadora" (Chávez 1974:177, 190-191). Across the upper Río Grande region, there are many other stories of deliverance. At Isleta Pueblo where Hispanos and their Pueblo allies defend the church in a siege, it is San José who appears and scares off the horses of the invaders by hitting them with his staff. One of the attackers later identifies him from a painting in the church (Robe 1980:520-521). At San Antonio and Tularosa, Matachines dancers at saints fiestas are perceived as mystical soldiers by attacking Apaches, who retreat in fear (Works Progress Administration 1936). The character of the Hispanic peoples and their relations with Native Americans emerge clearly in all these stories. But we shall return to Acoma and...