Since Adam and Eve, history has been consistent in its need to expand, control, and subjugate lands and its people by conquest. The many explorers that set out from the very beginning to discover unknown lands and places, related tales of great lands, unusual people, and great wealth. Those in power hatched plans to extract the wealth, and/or to extend their countries boundaries, and in many cases just to see what was out there. Speaking primarily about the Spanish Conquistadores that landed up in New Mexico territory, the exploration group usually consisted of adventurous explorers, Franciscan padres, soldados, administrators, trip financiers (not always), and various tradesmen. In the beginning, the riches of the new world were the enticement, and as this proved fruitless, settlement of the new lands became the impetus, as well as the conversion (to Catholicism) of the indigenous peoples they encountered. These early explorers were about acquiring new lands for the crown, establishing settlements, and converting natives. Though small in stature for the most part, the Spaniards were organized, resilient, and physically capable. There is no denying this. For instance, in Mexico, the Conquistadores were able to take down Montezuma for all of those reasons, and because the neighboring natives tribes approached the Spaniards to band together to end the Aztec raids on their villages. A brutal take down of the Aztec empire was the result of the banding together of Spaniards and the long-suffering victims of the Aztecs, (Blood Drenched Altars, Francis Kelley 1521-1821). No pretense here, history is what it is, and the Spaniards and the rest of the world were for the most part, the same. That time period was and is completely different than today. That is a fact! There is no amount of revisionist writing today that can change the past. Felipe, the subject of this post, was a descendant of the Conquistadores and probably had a fair amount of indigenous blood in him as well. It was 1865. New Mexico had gone from indigenous, to Spanish/Mexican/American control over a couple of hundred years. Felipe was a product of his time, and his actions reflected his ancestral roots. He was fiercely independent, was capable, and he had a distinct distrust of the American territorial administration. He is not without guilt, but when times are harsh, ruthless actions occur, and hard men react.
Felipe awoke early, around 5:00 AM on a midsummer day. He awoke to a cool morning, so he stoked the fire in the wood stove, served himself some water from the well bucket, and slowly drank as he looked upon his wife and children as they slept. Felipe’s home was a large one room adobe house that he had built with his brothers help. Not much, but it was home. Felipe looked out of the window nearest the front entry door. He focused on his modest land which consisted of 10 acres more or less, but it was his, and he prided himself on the crops he was able to raise, and on the modest herd of goats that he had raised. Now, all of this was being threatened by land grubbers from the territorial capital of Santa Fe. Luis had been granted the property by the Tierra Amarilla Spanish Grant, and it was now his land was in danger of being taken away by unscrupulous lawyers using the American law to strip land grant settlers of their land. Felipe was at first concerned, then as grantee’s started to be displaced, Felipe became angry, then enraged. As people lost their rights to the land, American settlers were buying parcels of land that had once belonged to members of his family, as well as friends. Felipe felt helpless as the elite class took over his relatives/friend’s property’s, selling at a profit all the hard work and hardship that they had endured over the years. This day was the day of reckoning for Felipe. It was only a matter of time before they would come for his land. He knew that he didn’t have the resources to fight them, there was no dissuading them, so there was only one thing left to do, create chaos and fear. Retribution inflicted on “them” as revenge for the wrongs committed upon the people. Thus, Felipe’s final destiny began.
Felipes wife knew of his anger towards the interloper’s, but was totally unaware of any plans Felipe had to exact revenge on anyone associated with the land grab. When Felipe rode off to his brother’s property, she assumed that they were going to tend to the goat herd in the meadow lands south of their ranchito. Little did she know that Felipe and his brother, Vivian were on a mission to eradicate the “gringo’s” that were settling in the lands that had once belonged to his relatives and friends. Hard-headed and resolute, nothing short of death was going to stop the brothers from exacting revenge on others for the pain, and suffering they were experiencing. Their ride would be their last, and they would be remembered in history as, “The Bloody Espinosa’s”.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that” ( The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King)
Felipe and Vivian rode north into Colorado territory and proceeded to slaughter 32 American settlers. Innocent people all, the killings caused fear, suspicion, and panic in Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado. Newspapers reported on the killings, and eventually Felipe and Vivian were identified as the culprits responsible for the killings. In time, the US Army, and a famous tracker friend of Kit Carson, Tom Tobin, ran down Felipe, Vivian, and a cousin (Jose) that had joined them, and killed them. Their efforts brought them notoriety, and had exposed the issues of the complicated land grant question, and it also made apparent, the corruption of the day. Sadly, it also exposed the fragility of the two brothers in addressing the reality of their predicament. I cannot say that I lived in the that time, so I cannot speak to the two brother’s motivation for the murders. History is a record of the past, arranged chronologically, and is sometimes muddled by conjecture. Felipe and Vivian had a legitimate cause. To this day, the land grant issue triggers heated discussion amongst the ancestors of the displaced grantees. The cause was just, the method that Felipe and Vivian utilized to address their grievances was criminal. I wish that I could get into their head to find the answers to my questions. Like I said, I wasn’t there. However, I do feel that they were concerned about an uncertain future were they to lose their terrano’s. Feeling helpless and hopeless, Felipe and Vivian struck back at the territorial government, and the innocent settlers, in a wrongfully murderous manner. I can’t and won’t justify their actions, but when Law is sparse, is biased, and is blind, men act out and take matters into their own hands. Such was the early American West during the brother’s time. History is not being used to improve us today. It is sometimes used to divide us instead! Felipe and Vivians heads were cut off and paraded around the territory for many days. I guess that it was viewed as a triumph of some sort by those in power. Eventually, Manifest Destiny won out, and our great nation was formed.
“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones “. (William Shakespeare)
The present time has many parallels to the story of Felipe and Vivian. The history of New Mexico, Colorado, and other states, especially during the Manifest Destiny era between 1812-1867 is rife with stories of property disputes and the men that took advantage of opportunities, and of those that opposed them. Many of these disputes ended up in bloodshed. The story is really about people taking advantage of people that cannot fight back, feel helpless, and when pushed too hard, strike out at their perceived oppressors. Felipe may have been one of those people. We have no way of knowing. Whether it is the loss of having a say in a matter, losing property, or being made to feel little, some people will eventually stop being afraid, and will take action to support their individuality. The two brothers reacted with violence, killing innocent people, and causing much harm. Could they have not handled the threat by gathering the people, and approaching the territorial governor in a united front? This may have not been possible. It’s possible that the people may have been so confused, and cowed by lawyers, and the US Army presence, that they became compliant to laws and mandates that they didn’t understand. I just don’t know, I wasn’t there!
“Freedom in any case, is only possible by constantly struggling for it”. (Albert Einstein)
2022 is a different time. Felipe and Vivian would have flipped out in our present world. It is the most confusing time of my life. Take my religion for instance. I am one befuddled Catholic !? I have a church that seems to be embracing socialism, brings idols to the altar of St. Peter, is saying things that sound like heresy, bishops that are embracing sodomy, sex crime victims being paid off with the tithing that parishioners donate, and preaching that is about nice things only, It’s about the environment, immigration, the alphabet, and the economy. Nothing about Salvation, Repentance, or most importantly, the Eucharist (Sacraments). The government, local, state, and federal), dictates to me daily that I have to follow this regulation, edict, mandate, or else. I can’t raise my voice to protest anything unless it fits the narrative, and I must conform because I’m an idiot. I pay more for everything, I have trouble finding some goods, I see war looming, I’m surrounded by lying politicians, police officers are viewed as collateral targets, babies are slaughtered in the name of freedom, criminals are arrested and released immediately without prosecution. The homeless are literally at our doorsteps, my love, Seattle is in shambles, good people are vilified, news media lie, and on and on! Many are fed up with the many dictates of the day. Nothing makes sense anymore. I see social media as a gage of sorts. FaceBook, and other media give me information that I need to sort out the material for my blog. I feel the anger that people have, which is really a reflection of their disappointments in life, and I sometimes see that we are not acting out as individuals, but as dependents on somebody else’s dime. When we are let down, or we are told often enough that someone is a bad person, it becomes our own. We have become moral judges in God’s world. We are truly at a crossroad. If we work together, we can accomplish a turnaround. There is no reason to go to where Felipe and Vivian went. We can be Americans to one-another, and we which can change our country back to where it once was. A place of Hope and Opportunity for all !
“Aclarar los Hechos, es Obtener la Verdad” (Aurelio Martiniano Espinosa Jr.)
Note: This story is based on true events. I have taken license with the blog to illustrate the human side of then and now.