Charles Montgomery's narrative traces the history of the upper Rio Grande's modern Spanish heritage, showing how Anglos and Hispanos sought to redefine the region's social character by glorifying its Spanish colonial past. This book demonstrates that northern New Mexico's 20th century Spanish heritage owes as much as to the coming of the Santa Fe railroad in 1880 as to the first Spanish colonial unprecedented challenge to Hispano wealth and political power. Yet, unlike their counterparts in California and Texas, the Anglo newcomers could not wholly displace their Spanish-speaking rivals. Nor could they segregate themselves or the upper Rio Grande from the image, well-known through the South-West US, of the disreputable Mexican. Instead, prominient Anglos and Hispanos found common cause in transceding the region's Mexican character. Turning to olonial symbols of the conquiastor, the Franciscan missionary, and the humble Spanish settler, they recast northern New Mexico and its people.