Description: We all know of the Spanish explorers, soldiers, and missionaries who came north from Mexico into the American Southwest and then withdrew, leaving Christianized Indians, Spanish place-names, and sturdy adobe forts and churches. But little has been written about the colonists sent by Spanish authorities to settle the northern frontier of New Spain, to stake Spain's claim and serve as a buffer against encroaching French explorers. "Los paisanos", they were called -- simple country people who lived by their own labor, isolated, threatened by hostile Indians, and restricted by law from seeking opportunity elsewhere. They became permanent residents -- the forebears of United States citizens -as they developed their own society and culture, much of which survives today. In the preface to this paperback edition, Oakah L. Jones, Jr., updates the text with recent scholarship on the settlers.

"The value of this work rests upon its treatment of the lives of the people.... The food and drink, the dress, and the distinctive social customs are described in detail.... This is one of the better books on borderlands history to appear in many years". -- Warren A. Beck, Western Historical Quarterly.

"An excellent account.... It is a much needed, major contribution to the literature of the Southwest and should be required reading for all students in the field. It is well written and makes the life and times of the Spanish settlers in Santa Fe and San Antonio as vivid and real as those in Plymouth or Williamsburg". -- Ted J. Warner, Journal of American History.

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