Coronado's Land

Book excerpt: At last available in paperback, the twenty-five essays collected here re-create everyday activities of the Hispanic people of colonial northern New Mexico. What people wore, when they shopped, how they amused themselves these are but a few of the commonplace activities considered here. In reconstructing the daily routines of domestic life and work habits Simmons captures the precariousness of lives threatened by drought, crop failure, Apache raids, and accidents. Simmons's essays permit us to imagine what people long ago thought and felt, which is a considerable accomplishment. But he doesn't stop there: the final section of this volume offers a glimpse of the historian at work. Entitled "Reading History," these essays introduce three late eighteenth-century documents and provide readers with a primer in understanding economic and social problems of the past.