The editor and a distinguished group of twelve collaborators re-interpret New Mexico's history through biography. Profiles of fourteen notable, complex characters provide a unique view into New Mexico's development from prehistoric times to the present. Here are lives of men and women that illustrate memorable events: from Pope and the Pueblo Revolt to Spanish colonisers Juan de Onate and Diego de Vargas; from Hispanic widows exercising their property rights to Billy the Kid and the shoot-out in Lincoln; from Mabel Dodge Luhan and her avant-garde, idealistic salon to Senator Dennis Chavez and his exercise of Hispanic political power on a national level. By emphasising the links between important New Mexicans and their times, this book makes history a personal story of drama and pathos played out within a larger context of pivotal events and formative ideas.