George I. Sanchez’s FORGOTTEN PEOPLE: A Study of New Mexicans [SOLD]

FORGOTTEN PEOPLE: A Study of New Mexicans by George Isidore Sánchez (1906–1972)

Publisher: Calvin Horn Publisher, Albuquerque

Second Edition, paperback, first printing 1967, 98 pages, 24 illustrations

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I.    Fruits of Conquest

II.   Stepchildren of a Nation

III.  The New Mexican Today

IV.   The Taoseños

V.    Land and Community Resources

VI.   Education

VII.  Government and Public Service

PREFACE to the first edition

“This volume is offered as an interpretative study of the social and economic conditions faced by that sector of the population of New Mexico that is of Spanish extraction.  These people are descendants of the Spanish colonials who settled this region in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.    Today this group of people constitutes more than half of the population of the state and, in other studies, has been variously designated as Spanish-Americans, Mexican, Spanish-speaking, and by similar terms.  In this volume, these people will be generally referred to as New Mexicans, and, occasionally, to avoid confusion when other sectors of the population of New Mexico are under discussion, as Spanish-speaking people.

“Taos County has been chosen as an area which typifies the situation faced by New Mexicans generally and the study revolves around the people and the conditions of that area.  In order that the problems may be viewed in their proper setting, however, it has been deemed wise to devote the first part of this study to ‘Backgrounds and Perspectives,’ dealing with New Mexicans as a whole.  In the second part, ‘Taos,’ the historical background and the current status of the taoseños (people of Taos) is interpreted.  Lastly, ‘Prospect,’ suggests how the problems set forth in the preceding chapters might be met.

“In making the study, an attempt has been made to gather all pertinent facts and to make objective evaluations of the conditions they represent.  However, it is a major assumption of this study that cold facts alone do not portray a society.  The hopes and aspirations of a people cannot be put on a graph. Statistical treatment does not reveal the pathos of cultural defeatism.  With this in mind, the author has sought to go behind and beyond the facts in an attempt to achieve subjective identification with the New Mexican and to give life to the facts and color to their portrayal.”       

-George I. Sanchez, Albuquerque, January 1940

Condition: very good condition with some wear to cover and spine