46th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2003

RECOGNIZING GASPAR PEREZ DE VILLAGRA FOR HIS EPIC POEM, HISTORIA DE LA NUEVA MEXICO, AND FOR HIS CONTRIBUTION TO PRESERVING THE HISTORY OF THE EARLY SPANISH SETTLEMENT OF NEW MEXICO.

WHEREAS, in 1555, Gaspar Perez de Villagra was born in Nueva Espana, was educated in Europe and graduated from the university of Salamanca; and

WHEREAS, Villagra returned to New Spain and joined Don Juan de Onate's entrada, one of the last territorial expansions of the Spanish empire; and

WHEREAS, Villagra, who was one of Onate's captains, later wrote the first published history of New Mexico after he returned to Spain in 1610; and

WHEREAS, his experience of the entrada became the subject of his epic poem, Historia de la Nueva Mexico; and

WHEREAS, the poem recounts the 1598 expedition and the establishment of the first permanent European settlement in what is today New Mexico; and

WHEREAS, Historia de la Nueva Mexico precedes Captain John Smith's General History of Virginia by at least fourteen years; and

WHEREAS, the poem is written with passion and thousands of documents available in Spain and Mexico verify its historical accuracy;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that Gaspar Perez De Villagra be recognized for his epic poem, Historia de la Nueva Mexico, and for his contribution to preserving the history of the early Spanish settlement of New Mexico.