Nación Genízara: Ethnogenesis, Place, and Identity in New Mexico ed. by Moises Gonzales and Enrique R. Lamadrid (review)

Nación Genízara is a compendium of essays on the Genízaro phenomenon and sheds much-needed light on one of the most fascinating and complex cultural themes in New Mexico history. A myriad of authors, including scholars, enthusiasts, and avocational historians, address the many questions about the detribalized Indians called Genízaros that have arisen over time.

Constructed in the early 1700s, the term was applied to uniquely New Mexican people at the bottom of the frontier caste system that Spaniards devised to attempt to control the diverse peoples of the Spanish empire. No longer members of the tribes of their origins, and yet not completely Hispano, Genízaros occupied a cultural no man’s land wherein they were viewed with suspicion, yet relied upon for protection and guidance within terra incognito, the literal but unknown territories surrounding New Mexico. By the late eighteenth century, they made up a significant part of the local population, both in their own communities on the periphery of the New Mexican province, within Hispano communities, and even in the Pueblos. By the mid to late 1800s, with the advent of Mexican independence and then the U.S. occupation and annexation of New Mexico, the Genízaros had all but disappeared. Or had they?

Moises Gonzales and Enrique Lamadrid are our guides through this historical labyrinth. Like any historical subject of substance, there are many perspectives and truths to be considered and confronted. And many are represented in this volume. Ramón Gutiérrez challenges the reader to be open to his “work of historical imagination” (80). He postulates the growth of the Genízaro population in the 1700s as having fueled the Penitente movement, which, he suggests, is a sign of Genízaro identity flourishing. Gutiérrez leads us to postulate about who the Genízaros were in relation to New Mexico’s cultural and historical development. Renowned Indo Hispano photographer Miguel Gandert takes the reader on a journey through Genízaro cultural memory with images of people and places that are both familiar and exotic. Susan Gandert provides a personal family history that reminds us how complex our genetic and biocultural histories are. She remembers her German and Hispano antecedents, then takes the reader into the part of her family that is Genízaro, integral to making her the person she is today.

Charlie Carillo challenges the notion of Genízaros as merely detribalized Plains Indians, and puts forth the idea of significant Puebloan contributions to the overall Genízaro experience. This adds more spice to the already diverse, even convoluted caldo, or stew, of New Mexican ethnicity in the 1700s. But hasn’t that always been the challenge? Who are we? What are we? Spanish, Mexican, Puebloan, Chicano, Indo Hispano, Latino. And now Genízaro. There are multiple definitions in the book of what being truly Genízaro means, and in some instances, the more we know the less we know.

Reading each essay, one surmises that all of New Mexico was Genízaro by the end of the 1700s, that the whole province was a buffer between the expansionist British, French, and United States to the east and the Spanish mining districts to the south. Genízaros were outcasts in their communities and in that way New Mexico was a frontier that kept enemies at bay. It is doubtful Nación Genízara is the last word on such a fascinating subject, but for students of history and ethnic studies, it is an excellent place to start.