PADRE MARTINEZ AND BISHOP LAMY

      “The relationship between Padre Martinez and Bishop Lamy has long been recognized as a contentious one. Yet both men were important in the development of the Southwest. Each had the idea of improving the lives of people, and they each had a vision of what they could and should do for the people they served. Bishop Lamy, while he had the best intentions, was hampered by a lack of understanding of the native cultures of the area. Padre Martinez was a champion of the poor, an early advocate of literacy and human rights. He would have been an activist in the 1950s. He wanted to see things done and done now. Lamy followed regulations and church rules. It was inevitable that the two men would not be able to see eye to eye. De Aragon puts the story in its true historical perspective. As a historian and a master santero, his interest is in the preservation of the Spanish Colonial heritage of the American Southwest.”
     
      —Marcia Muth, “Book Chat,” Enchantment