Review of the book by Antonio García de León (2017), Misericordia. the tragic fate of an Apache collar in New Spain

Abstract

The first contacts between Apaches and Spaniards took place at the end of the 16th century. In 1598 Juan de Oñate, a peculiar character, explorer and colonizer from New Mexico, took possession of the lands of New Mexico and ordered its populations to be divided in order to combat its multiple tribes. Later, Fray Francisco de Zamora was commissioned to evangelize the native peoples of transhumant hunters, farmers, and gatherers who lived in the extreme north of New Spain. Also, Juan de Oñate ordered to bring Christianized Aztec and Otomi indigenous peoples from the center of the New Spain provinces in order, with his example, to convince the insubordinate nomadic warriors of the inevitability of their submission. But the Apaches were not persuaded. The relationship of the Apaches with the Mexicans and Spaniards of the Viceroyalty of New Spain was increasingly violent.