Economic Growth and the Creation of the Vecino Homeland in New México, 1780-1820

Abstract

Much of the literature on the history of New México assumes that the region is culturally distinctive, while missing the true historical source of its uniqueness. This essay argues that nuevomexicanos emerged from late colonial New México as a distinctive group of Vecinos largely due to a system of long-distance trade that expanded rapidly after 1786 until the outbreak of violence in México in 1810. The dynamic vitality of Vecino culture, and many of its distinctive elements, proceeded directly from an era of economic activity in New México at the end of the eighteenth century.