Duke City's past a wild West tale

by Daniel V. Garcia

Daily Lobo

Albuquerque is a wild place, past

and present.

Howard Bryan writes about

some of the crazier moments in his

history of the Rio Grande Valley in

Albuquerque Remembered.

For example, a lawyer comments

on a public execution rather

nonchalantly.

"Gentlemen, this is one of the

nicest hangings I have ever seen.

Everything went off beautifully,"

said Albuquerque's famous lawyer

and lawman Elfego Baca after

the execution of an inmate in Old

Town on May 16, 1913.

Reading Bryan's book is like

watching a time-lapse movie of a

wild-Western town as it springs

into life. Police fi ght with criminals

who fi ght with newspapers that

publish their antics. The book's

pacing and entertainment value

are high enough to make it a page turning

read that seldom becomes

mired in unnecessary details. Its

nonacademic nature is informal

enough to engage the casual reader

and informative enough to please

the budding historian.

The book begins with the ancient

past and spends a brief amount of

time discussing the early American-

Indian presence in the Rio

Grande Valley area. It quickly

moves on to the Spanish invasion

of the area and the colonial conquests

of the indigenous peoples.

Thankfully, Bryan does not

gloss over important details from

this time, like the Pueblo Revolt of

1680. Throughout, he maintains

a journalistic distance

from the subject matter

and doesn't editorialize

about historical

injustices such as the

Long Walk of the Navajos

and Apaches, which

Gen. James Carleton

imposed in 1863.

Political corruption

is discussed in a

nonpartisan fashion.

It's humorous to read

about how Republicans

and Democrats mutually

succumbed to bribes,

particularly in the early

days of New Mexico's

statehood.

"The first New Mexico

state Legislature convened in Santa

Fe on March 11, 1912. Within

four days, four of the legislators

were in jail on charges of accepting

bribes," Bryan writes.

Bryan utilized the archives of

local news publications as he prepared

for his book. This allowed

him to gather colorful stories about

editors in jeopardy because of material

that had been printed or was

scheduled to be printed. Particularly

outstanding is the account

of a woman who didn't want her

daughter's infidelities published.

"Don't make a durn bit of difference

what you kin allow or what

you can't. I say that piece ain't

goin' in the paper," he quotes. "If

I see a word in the paper about me

or Mandy, I'm comin' back here

and then thar'll be weepin' and

whalin' and smashin' of teeth, as

the Scriptures says."

There is a question as to how

many Spanish sources were cited

in the production of the book. One

is not sure if Bryan can read in

Spanish, but he seems to have been

heavily reliant on the publication

of English-language materials in

the production of his volume. This

would of course skew his access to

historical facts that would have given

the book additional perspective.

There are also omissions of incidences

of racial tension, like Richard

Martin Page's infamous racism

survey of 1933 that he put forth

while researching at UNM. Inclusion

of events like this would have

rounded out what is otherwise a

pleasant read.