Juan Bautista De Anza: Basque Explorer in the New World, 1693-1740 (The Basque Series)

The first biography of an eighteenth-century Basque immigrant who became a silver miner, a cattle rancher, and commander of the cavalry in Sonora, Mexico. The name of Juan Bautista de Anza the younger is a fairly familiar one in the contemporary Southwest because of the various streets, schools, and other places that bear his name. Few people, however, are familiar with his father, the elder Juan Bautista de Anza, whose activities were crucial to the survival of the tenuous and far-flung settlements of Spain's northernmost colonial frontier. For this first comprehensive biography of the elder Anza, Donald T. Garate spent more than ten years researching archives in Spain and the Americas. The result is a lively picture of the Spanish borderlands and the hardy, ambitious colonists who peopled them. The name of Juan Bautista de Anza the younger is a fairly familiar one in the contemporary Southwest because of the various streets, schools, and other places that bear his name. Few people, however, are familiar with his father, the elder Juan Bautista de Anza, whose activities were crucial to the survival of the tenuous and far-flung settlements of Spain's northernmost colonial frontier.

For this first comprehensive biography of the elder Anza, Donald T. Garate spent more than ten years researching archives in Spain and the Americas. The result is a lively, vividly drawn picture of the Spanish borderlands and the hardy, ambitious colonists who peopled them.

Anza was born in the Basque Country in 1693, a poor boy in a typical Basque village. Like so many of his contemporaries, he made his way as a young man to America, where he joined many of his Basque compatriots as part of Spain's colonial establishment. After working for a few years as a miner in Sonora, he became a soldier and spent the rest of his life protecting a vast and turbulent territory covering much of present-day Sonora and Arizona, as well as parts of Chihuahua, Texas, and New Mexico, struggling to maintain order among the settlers, establish trade routes, and pacify the numerous hostile Indian peoples.

Anza's career exemplifies the vital role played by Basques in the settlement of Spanish America. Upon arrival in Mexico, he became part of a vast ethnic network of Basques who were finding in the colonies the opportunities for professional and economic advancement denied them in their crowded and poverty-riddled homeland. Basques participated in large numbers in the colonial economy, military, and Church and significantly shaped the development of Spain's American empire, leaving a lasting imprint on the history of the Western Hemisphere. Anza's brief but eventful career was part of this Basque contribution to the settlement of the Americas, and represented the adventurous life of an authentic frontier hero.

Donald T. Garate is deeply involved in research and preservation of Spanish history in both Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, and has brought attention to new material concerning the Basque influence in that history. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Basque Studies and the Journal of Arizona History. He is the chief of interpretation/historian at Tumacácori National Historical Park in Arizona.

"The name of Juan Bautista de Anza the younger is a fairly familiar one in the contemporary Southwest because of the various streets, schools, and other places that bear his name. Few people, however, are familiar with his father, the elder Juan Bautista de Anza, whose activities were crucial to the survival of the tenuous and far-flung settlements of Spain's northernmost colonial frontier." "For this biography of the elder Anza, Donald T. Garate spent more than ten years researching archives in Spain and the Americas. The result is a lively, vividly drawn picture of the Spanish borderlands and the hardy, ambitious colonists who peopled them." "Anza was born in the Basque Country in 1693, a poor boy in a typical Basque village. Like so many of his contemporaries, he made his way as a young man to America, where he joined many of his Basque compatriots as part of Spain's colonial establishment. After working for a few years as a miner in Sonora, he became a soldier and spent the rest of his life protecting a vast and turbulent territory covering much of present-day Sonora and Arizona, as well as parts of Chihuahua, Texas, and New Mexico, struggling to maintain order among the settlers, establish trade routes, and pacify the numerous hostile Indian peoples."--Jacket. The first biography of Juan Bautista de Anza, the eighteenth-century Basque immigrant who became a silver miner, cattle rancher, explorer of the West, and commander of the cavalry in Sonora, Mexico. For this comprehensive biography of Anza, Garate spent more than ten years researching archives in Spain and the Americas. The result is a striking and important account of the Spanish borderlands and the hardy, ambitious colonists who populated them. The Basque Series Anza in antiquity Life in Hernani The New World The cavalry of the frontier Apaches, livestock, politics, and Jesuits The final years.