The Witches of Abiquiu: The Governor, the Priest, the Genízaro Indians, and the Devil (review)

2007Book Reviews247 and reminiscences, to recreate the attitudes about race on campus. Her manuscript sheds light on a curious development: While many students and faculty members worked to make integration a reality at the Austin campus, administrators, regents, and legislators were among those unwilling to accept an integrated University of Texas. Goldstone calls this a "policy of limited integration" (p. ix). Although after Sweatt African American students could enroll and attend classes at the University of Texas, questions arose over whether they could shop at the bookstore, attend movies, live in dormitories, and eat in the dining halls. The story she unravels is not favorable toward Texas's flagship university. The specter of racism was frequendy unseemly, and some ofthe renowned names associated widi UT during the period were not on the side ofintegration. For example, she discusses how die way historians have viewed UT head coach Darrell Royal has changed over the years. Although she refrains from passingjudgment on Royal, she notes that his "reluctance to recruit African Americans [into the athletic program] solidified the black community's image of him as a racist" (p. 131), but she acknowledges that Royal's place in history has improved in recent years. Today, she points out that African American athletes comprise half the football players, although blacks account for only 4 percent of the student body. Goldstone's book makes a wonderful companion to Almicar Shabazz's Advancing Democracy: African Americans and the StruggleforAccess and Equity in HigherEducation in Texas (2004), as well as older volumes on the struggle for educational desegregation , including William Henry Kellar's Make Haste Slowly: Moderates, Conservatives, and School Desegregation in Houston (199g), and Robyn Duff Ladino's Desegregating Texas Schooh: Eisenhower, Shivers, and the Crisis at Mansfield High (1997). Her book and the others mentioned above have changed the way historians view post-World War II Texas and the intent of the civil rights movement within the state. Not only will this well-written monograph be a valuable addition to any library, it is perfect for a course reading list. University ofHouston-DowntownGene B. Preuss The Witches ofAbiquiu: The Governor, the Priest, the Genizaro Indians, and the Devil By Malcolm Ebright and Rick Hendricks. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006). Pp. 360. Acknowledgments, note on style, illustrations, epilogue, appendices, notes, glossary, works cited, index. ISBN 0826320325. $21.95, paper.) Authors Malcolm Ebright and Rick Hendricks have produced a comprehensive study ofthe events surrounding the 1756-1766 witchcraft investigations atAbiquiu, New Mexico, in this interesting book. Ebright and Hendricks use these events to further explore eighteenth-centuryNewMexico, including relations between church and state, Indian-Spanish warfare and diplomacy, and the complexity of religious belief and practice in a society neither wholly Catholic nor indigenous. The book begins with background on Abiquiu, the genizaros (members of various indigenous groups who had been captives or servants) and their 1 754 land grant, the Franciscan priest, and die governor. The second half of die book is direcdy concerned with 248Southwestern Historical QuarterlyOctober the witchcraft proceedings, particularly frayJuan José Toledo's reports and relationship with the accused, the investigation of the alcalde, ideas about die devil, curanderos, and idolatry, exorcisms, and the actions of the governor to end the craze. Throughout, comparisons are made to both the seventeenth-century Salem witchcraft outbreak, as well as campaigns against sorcery and idolatry in other areas of colonial Latin America. The events at Abiquiu were caused by a number of factors, including resistance to Christianity, crackdowns on indigenous dances and healing practices, and a climate offear brought on by continuous warfare and social dislocation. The authors provide great detail about the proceedings, based on extensive archival research. For Ebright and Hendricks, Gov. Tomás Veléz Cachupín is the hero of the story. He distinguished himself as "a man of action who preferred to be direcdy involved in the solution of problems" (p. 197), whether the problems were securing peace with die Comanche and Ute, setding frontier territory through the awarding ofland grants, or handling the witchcraft outbreak. Although they make a strong case that Veléz Cachupín is underappreciated, his story is detailed at die expense ofsome ofthe other...