Summary The Gadsden Purchase expands Latour’s diocese into Western New Mexico and Arizona, prompting Rome to send Vaillant to a conference of Mexican Bishops of Chihuahua, a journey of 4,000 miles on horseback. It is 1858, and Vaillant is gone for nearly a year. He contracts malaria and is not […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 7: Chapter 1Summary and Analysis Book 6: Chapter 2
Summary Olivares’s brothers claim that Isabella is too young to be the mother of Inez. Vanity prohibits Isabella from admitting her true age. Vaillant and Latour try to persuade her to admit her age, to ensure that she and her daughter receive their inheritance. They are also concerned because Olivares […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 6: Chapter 2Summary and Analysis Book 6: Chapter 1
Summary Latour is determined to build a cathedral in Santa Fe. He is encouraged by Don Antonio Olivares. Olivares’s second wife, Dona Isabella, has Europeanized her husband, entertains lavishly, is a devout Catholic, and irritates her in-laws. Quick-spirited, vain, gracious, younger than her husband, and still physically attractive, she inspires […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 6: Chapter 1Summary and Analysis Book 5: Chapter 2
Summary Latour returns after nearly a year with four young French priests and a Spanish priest, Father Taladrid, whom he sends to Taos. At the Bishop’s request, Martinez resigns but continues to run the parish. Taladrid and Martinez are soon in conflict. Latour supports Taladrid, prompting Martinez and Lucero to […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 5: Chapter 2Summary and Analysis Book 5: Chapter 1
Summary Latour and Jacinto visit Padre Martinez in Taos. Kit Carson has warned Latour that Martinez holds a dictatorial power over the native priests of New Mexico and is a powerful, hostile man who is more than likely implicated in the Bent massacre. Through deceit, Martinez convinces the seven Indians […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 5: Chapter 1Summary and Analysis Book 4: Chapter 2
Summary Latour and Jacinto set out at four in the morning. By afternoon, the travelers are in the midst of a blizzard. Jacinto leads Latour to a cave. Jacinto tells the bishop that the cave is a secret ceremonial place and that the bishop is to forget about it after […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 4: Chapter 2Summary and Analysis Book 4: Chapter 1
Summary One month after Latour’s visit to Gallegos, Latour formally suspends him and replaces him with Vaillant. Vaillant immediately changes the tone of the parish from revelry to devotion, which is initially received with hostility by the Albuquerque Catholics. By Christmas, however, the parishioners join in Vaillant’s religious zeal. Latour […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 4: Chapter 1Summary and Analysis Book 3: Chapter 4
Summary Friar Baltazar Montoya was a priest at Acoma in the early 1700s. He loved food and insisted that the Indians tend his gardens and carry up water and fresh earth so that he could grow an impressive garden. Food was his only sensuality, and no effort was too great […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 3: Chapter 4Summary and Analysis Book 3: Chapter 3
Summary The following morning, Latour and Jacinto head off across the flat sand, out of which rise rock mesas, each with an accompanying cloud formation. They eventually see the Acoma and Enchanted mesas. Jacinto tells Latour of the Enchanted Mesa. A village had once existed there, where Indians protected themselves […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 3: Chapter 3Summary and Analysis Book 3: Chapter 2
Summary En route to Laguna, Father Latour and Jacinto travel through desert country, which is cold, sandy and inhospitable. Laguna lies in yellow sand dunes. The people of Laguna have been told by Father Jesus that the Bishop is coming, and they welcome him. Latour says Mass and baptizes the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 3: Chapter 2