good times, the herder could prosper by
building up his own flock; in bad times, the
herders fell into debt, unable to pay back
their advances.
Another class distinction resulted
from the system of buying or capturing
Native American children, often in mili-
tary campaigns justified as defensive, and
baptizing and raising them as servants.
When they grew to adulthood, these
genizaro, detribalized Indians, were
released, but they generally carried the
mark of their low status throughout their
lives.
Social tensions in New Mexico
peaked in the rebellion of 1837, when
many Pueblo people participated in a
revolt against an unpopular governor,
Albino Pérez. Not a New Mexican, he
represented higher taxes and the despised
new centralist regime, incurring so much
enmity that upon capturing him the rebels
cut off his head and played with it as a
football. A New Mexican leader, Manuel
Armijo, suppressed the revolt and became
governor for most of the rest of the
Mexican period, without easing the social
inequities that had contributed to the
revolt.
Despite the frontier existence and
social unrest, there were amusements to be
had in New Mexico. Most notable was the
fandango, a traditional Spanish dance per-
formed at balls that were themselves some-
times called fandangos. The fandango was
marked by fast movement and close per-
sonal contact between men and women,
unlike the more staid dances that pre-
vailed in the United States. The appeal of
the dance was enhanced by the outfits
favored by New Mexican senoritas, gener-
ally more revealing than those of young
women in the United States: a low-cut,
short-sleeved blouse, a colorful shawl, and
a skirt shockingly short by American stan-
dards of the time. Said a Missouri trader
visiting Santa Fe, “The fandango is a las-
civious dance, partaking in part of the
waltz, cotillion, and many amorous move-
ments.... It is the national dance. In this
the governor and most humble citizen
move together, and in this consists all
their republican boast.”
The Californios
Like Nuevomexicanos, Californios saw
changes during the period when Mexico
ruled California. Free trade brought the
same influx of new goods and new faces as
it had brought in New Mexico. Unlike
their New Mexican counterparts,
Californios were relatively used to for-
eigners; the ships of American, Russian,
British, and French smugglers had all
regularly traded contraband in Spanish
coastal settlements. But now the ocean
traffic greatly increased, with Boston
shipping firms coming to dominate the
trade, as California hides and tallow were
exchanged for all sorts of goods, from
clothes to violins. And for the first time,
overland trade was opened from the east,
with American trappers and traders flow-
ing in along the Spanish Trail from Santa
Fe and the Oregon Trail from Missouri.
Some Americans traded and went home,
but others settled there, many in the
Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys,
despite Mexican policies that generally
sought to discourage them. By 1840 sev-
eral hundred American settlers lived in
California, along with several thousand
Californios.INDEPENDENCE IN THE NEW WORLD 79Stephen Austin (Library of Congress)