Former New Mexico State Historian Robert J. Tórrez draws from the marvelous treasure trove of primary documentation in New Mexico's Mexican-era archives to bring to light this little-known but crucial period in the state's history.

In a broadside dated August 27, 1821, addressed to "Amados Compatriotas" (his "Beloved Compatriots"), Alejo García Conde, the Commanding General of the Internal Provinces of the West, advised New Mexicans that Mexico's long and difficult struggle for independence from Spain was over and called for the unity that would be needed to sustain and nourish their newfound liberty.

García Conde's message opens with the archival collection that constitutes the Mexican Archives of New Mexico, 1821?1846, a documentary treasure that tells us much about the brief but defining twenty-five years during which New Mexico transitioned from being part of the Spanish Empire to a short-lived nascent Mexican Republic before the territory was conquered by the armed forces of the United States of America in 1846.

In more than sixty broad-ranging essays, the author mines the administrative, military, judicial, and financial records, correspondence, and reports of governors, myriad government officials, military leaders, and citizens to explore the details of governance and bring to life the agricultural practices and commercial activities by which New Mexicans made their living and supported their families. These stories explore the often-contentious relations New Mexico had with the Native peoples that inhabited and surrounded the beleaguered territory while struggling to deal with the impact and influence of trappers, adventurers, entrepreneurs, and traders that made their way to New Mexico over the Santa Fe Trail as soon as independence was achieved.