Antonio José Martínez
Antonio José Martínez | |
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Antonio José Martínez (January 17, 1793
Spanish period
Martínez was born Antonio Jose Martinez in
American period
In 1841, the newly formed Republic of Texas recognized the difficulties New Mexico was facing and decided to take advantage of them by sending an expedition to invade New Mexico and possibly annex the territory. The invasion failed, and the Texans were captured by Manuel Armijo. This event, in addition to the numerous Americans already living in New Mexico, led many to believe that New Mexico had weakened and become ready for invasion. The Mexican–American War began in 1846. Stephen W. Kearny led 1,700 American troops into Santa Fe without encountering any resistance. Before the invasion, Martínez had witnessed the animosity towards Native Americans and Mexicans displayed by the Anglos living in New Mexico. He encouraged his students to study law and it was to them he delivered his famous quote, "The American government resembles a burro; but on this burro lawyers will ride, not priests."[6]
Within a year of the American occupation, the
Bishop Lamy
With the new government came new leadership, both political and religious.
In early 1856, Martínez offered his conditional resignation, but admitted his parishioners in
Death and legacy
This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2020) |
Father Antonio José Martínez died on July 27, 1867. Infirm and aged beyond his years, Martínez lived the last ten years of his life estranged from
In 1826, he established a coed elementary school; in 1833 a seminary from which 16 men were ordained to the priesthood; and in 1846 a law school that graduated many of the earliest lawyers and politicians of the Territory of New Mexico.
He produced a speller for the children of his family members, and later obtained the first printing press in New Mexico. In 1838, he published his autobiography on his press, and the following year published the first book printed in New Mexico, a bilingual ritual—Latin and Spanish. He published only six issues of the newspaper called El Crepúsculo de Libertad; published religious/devotional tracts and texts for his elementary school, seminary, and law school.
Martínez was a licensed attorney turned politician, and served five times under the Republic of Mexico on the legislature of the Departamento de Nuevo Mexico, and six times for the Territory of New Mexico under the United States.[citation needed]
He was married before he became a priest; his wife died in childbirth, and his daughter died at the young age of 12. Even after ordination, Martínez had other children that he recognized as heirs in his Last Will and Testament. His eldest was Santiago Valdez (b. 1830) who wrote his 1877 biography, and the second to the youngest was Vicente Ferrer Romero (b. 1844) who became an effective evangelizer for the Presbyterian Church.
Martínez has been accused of instigating the
After his tension and controversies with Bishop Lamy, it seems he flirted with becoming an Anglican.[citation needed] However. he remained staunchly Roman Catholic as his Last Will and Testament testifies.[citation needed]
In his Last Will, Martínez expressed a desire not to have a public ceremony, nevertheless there was a large funeral ceremony for him. Martínez requested to be buried in his Oratorio, dedicated to La Purísima Concepción, contiguous to and on the west-side of his residence. This request was honored[by whom?], and so he was buried in his own Oratorio that he had built on his property. A quarter century later in 1891, his body was moved about two miles east the American Cemetery. The land, originally owned by Martínez, was deeded to Theodora Romero, and then came into possession of the Kit Carson park and cemetery in Taos.
Inscribed on the Martínez tombstone are the words La Honra de su País ("The Honor of his Homeland"). Martínez's peers in the Territorial Legislature pronounced this encomium in 1867, the year of his death. Sculptor Huberto Maestas of San Luis, Colorado sculpted the larger than life-sized bronze memorial of Martínez unveiled at Taos Plaza on July 16, 2006.
Controversy
Revolution of 1837
When Santa Anna became the President of Mexico in 1833, he intentionally began to centralize and departmentalize the Mexican government. Santa Anna also began to impose harsher taxes in New Mexico, which sparked a
American merchants and traders within New Mexico were uncomfortable about the new government and funded a Mexican army led by
Penitentes
Following
Quotes
His greate name deserves to be written in letters of gold in all high places that this gaping and ignorant multitude might fall down and worship it, that he has and done condisend to remain amongst and instrkut such a people.
— Thoughts on Padre Martínez and the people of New Mexico in a letter by Charles Bent[9]
Charles Bent's statement about the "greate literary Martinez" and similar comments are sarcastic. Bent felt a strong antipathy toward Padre Antonio José Martínez who opposed his ambition to acquire the Guadalupe-Miranda (Beaubien) Land Grant / Maxwell Land Grant. Padre Martinez insisted that the extremely large territory, over 1.7 million acres including what is today Philmont Scout Ranch, remain common grazing grounds the inhabitants of New Mexico since time immemorial used for their cattle.
In the early 1830s Charles Bent, together with his brother William, founded a fort on the Arkansas River (the Spanish called it Rio Napiste) in what is today's southern Colorado. The river marked the southern boundary between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Spain since the Otis-Anin Treaty of 1819. A couple of years later—after Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821—the river became the northern boundary of the Republic of Mexico with the United States. Bent's Fort was, therefore, located at a very strategic place for international commerce. It became a headquarters for French Canadian and American fur trappers and traders who—through the American Fur Company—successfully exported beaver pelts, in the form of top hats, to the salons of Paris and London.
In the spring or early summer of 1846, during the time of US-Mexican War, Charles Bent visited Colonel Stephen W. Kearny, leader of the Army of the West at Forth Leavenworth, Kansas. Together with a large contingent of his army, Kearny gathered at Bent's Fort by the end of June in preparation to march on Santa Fe on behalf of the Government of the United States to take possession of New Mexico that belonged to the Republic of Mexico. Padre Martinez, the priest of Taos, had been a Mexican nationalist. He had been ordained a priest in Durango, Mexico a year after Mexican Independence, and considered Padre Miguel Hidalgo (Father of Mexican Independence) a hero and mentor. At the same time, he considered George Washington as another of his hero-mentors. Padre Martinez appreciated the ideals spelled out in the American Constitution and Bill of Rights. Although Padre Martinez had resisted U.S. encroachment into New Mexico since the early 1840s, he eventually came to believe that New Mexico would be better off under the flag of the United States. Before coming into Santa Fe, Kearny was aware that Padre Martinez was the main religious and political leader in northern New Mexico and throughout the whole region. Kearny, ironically, dispatched Captain Bent with a dozen soldiers to escort Padre Martinez and his brothers from Taos to Santa Fe in order to pledge allegiance to the American Flag. Because of their convictions, and in order to attempt avoiding bloodshed in the civil transfer of power, they willingly complied, thus becoming the first inhabitants of New Mexico to become citizens of the United States. Moreover, Colonel Kearny asked Padre Martinez to borrow his Ramage printing press on which the Padre had published New Mexico's first book, a newspaper, as well as religious and educational materials. The Padre lent the press to the Colonel soon-to-be promoted to Brigadier General, and Kearny used it to publish his Code of Laws.
You can say that the teachings of the American Government represent a burro, and this burro can only be mounted by lawyers and not the Clergy.
— Padre Martínez to seminary students in September 1846 when transitioning his Taos seminary to law school[citation needed]
The quote attributed to Padre Martinez about the clergyman/attorney riding the burro is from an 1877 unpublished manuscript by Santiago Valdez in Spanish belonging to the Ritch Collection housed at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, near Los Angeles: Biografia del Presbítero Antonio José Martínez, Cura de Taos. Padre Martinez made the statement in September 1846, a few weeks after General Stephen Watts Kearny had, on August 18 in the name of the United States of America, occupied Santa Fe and all of New Mexico.
See also
Citations
- ^ Etulain 2002, p. 107.
- ^ Etulain 2002, p. 127.
- ^ Etulain 2002, p. 111.
- ^ Martínez, Vicente M. "The Progeny of Padre Martinez of Taos". Fundación Presbítero Don Antonio José Martínez. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
- ^ a b c Etulain 2002, p. 112.
- ISBN 0-313-29548-4.
- ^ "New Mexico Office of the State Historian : Taos Rebellion-1847". dev.newmexicohistory.org. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
- ^ Etulain 2002, p. 116.
- ^ Etulain 2002, p. 119.
References
- Etulain, Richard W. (2002). New Mexican Lives: Profiles and Historical Stories. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-2433-7.
Further reading
- Fray Angelico Chavez (c. 1981). But Time and Chance. Sunstone Press, Santa Fe. ISBN 0-913270-95-4.
- Susan A. Roberts & Calvin A. Roberts (1989). New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0-8263-1145-8.
- Rev. Juan Romero (2006) [1976]. Reluctant Dawn, A History of Padre Martinez-Based on 1877 Biography (Second ed.). ISBN 1-4243-0810-0.
- Pedro Sánchez (1978) [1903]. Memorias Sobre la Vida del Presbítero Don Antonio José Martínez / Recollections of the Life of the Priest Don Antonio José Martínez. translation by ISBN 0-89016-045-7.
- Thomas J. Steele, S.J. (1997). New Mexican Spanish Religious Oratory 1800-1900. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0-8263-1768-5.
- Santiago Valdez (1993) [1877]. Biografia del Presbitero Antonio Jose Matinez, Cura de Taos. Translated by Romero, Juan.
- Authors include E.A. Mares & Thomas J. Steele (c. 1985). New Perspectives from Taos. Millient Rogers Museum of Taos. ISBN 0-9609818-3-7.
External links
- Cuaderno de Ortografia From the Collections at the Library of Congress