When Jesus Came, The Corn Mothers Went Away. Marriage, Sexuality and Power in
New Mexico, 1500-1848. By Ramon A. Gutiérrez (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991.
Acknowledgements, contents, tables and figures, introduction, notes, bibliography, index.
$68.95 hardcover)
By using Jesus in the title of a book, an author might be attempting to convine his
audience that the contents will be spiritually reassuring. Not necessarily so when Ramon
Gutiérrez discusses Colonial Spain and its expansion into the American Southwest in his
celebrated 1991 work, When Jesus Came, The Corn Mothers Went Away. Marriage, Sexuality
and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1848. Gutiérrez does not use Jesus as the beginning of his
story; rather he spins the web of the world’s origin according to Pueblo Indian folklore and
then blends in the impact of Christianity and Spanish politics and culture on “one remote
corner” of Spain’s Kingdom in New Mexico. (xvii) In juxtaposition, the book’s subtitle
suggests that the forbidden pleasures of the flesh (by Catholic Church standards) have a
significant role in his study.
Recipient of several major historical association awards for this work, Gutiérrez has
arranged When Jesus Came into three parts, by century, from the sixteenth through the
eighteenth centuries. Individually the parts detail native culture, Spanish contact and
conquest, and the eventual assimilation of cultures, respectively. Gutiérrez dedicates “The
Sixteenth Century” to the Pueblo Indian world, opening a portal to the past through folklore
legends of origins, transgression, absolution, and redemption. The mortar for the masonry of
Puebloan society was sexual intercourse; it was synonymous with fertility and regeneration of
the earth and “united all the masculine forces of the sky with the feminine forces of the earth.”
(18)
Part Two, “The Seventeenth Century,” details Spanish exploration and contact with
native culture, including the events leading up to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. When Jesus
Came is also a study of misconceptions. Gutiérrez tells of the arrival of Spanish scout
Estevanico, whom the Puebloans mistook for the return of the katsina—“the beneficent rain
spirits that represented the ancestral dead”— which opened the door for Coronado’s arrival.
(10) The predictable imposition of Spanish politics and ideologies followed. Gutiérrez is
tireless at insisting that the Spaniards could not comprehend the key aspects of Puebloan
society: gift giving and reciprocity and, most revolting to the missionaries, the significance of
overt sexuality in Puebloan culture.
Gutiérrez uses Part Three, “The Eighteenth Century,” to address the effects of Spain’s
reconquest after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Gutiérrez also shifts his focus from the rural to
the urban setting and emphasizes marriage as a scheme of social stratification. Honor
becomes critical to the new society and Gutiérrez devotes much of this section to that honor,
with special regard to status, virtue, and the church. The chapter “Marriage—The Empirical
Evidence,” provides thorough statistics for the categorization of marriages by age, residence,
race, and previous marital and slave status.
Gutiérrez presents one chapter on the Bourbon Reforms, which attests to the lengths to
which Spain was willing to extend itself in securing its place in the American Southwest.
Gutiérrez outlines the economic, political, and religious aspects of the Bourbon Reforms,
relative to the region, including increased taxes and trade restrictions, crown-appointed
administrative officials, and the expulsion of the Jesuits from the area missions.
Gutiérrez’ encapsulates the Pueblo Revolt in ten pages, which some scholars assess as
an unforgivable oversight regarding this critical turning point in Puebloan history. We can
excuse his brevity, however, only after reading the entire work. Gutiérrez provides us with
such a comprehensive overview that we understand the Revolt is not focal to this study, rather
it is just one, albeit critical, incident in whole of Puebloan history.
Perhaps one-dimensional in his approach to gender (women as primarily sexual
beings, women having higher value as slaves due to their reproductive capabilities), When
Jesus Came could frustrate historians of women’s studies as Gutiérrez locks female Puebloan
roles in the crosshairs of his narrow scope. He attempts, nonetheless, to view Puebloan society
from a broad base of cultural factors, both pre- and post-Spanish influence. Gutiérrez
demonstrates the scope of his research with extensive notes and a bibliography, including a
“list of abbreviations.” However, the task of flipping pages to decode unfamiliar abbreviations
while reading becomes tedious.
Overall, When Jesus Came is a satisfying work that provides insight into pre-Spanish
conquest Puebloan society and how cultures can first collide and then, although sometimes
painfully, eventually blend. Gutiérrez has mastered the art of concocting a delectable feast of
appreciation for the rich and exquisite Puebloan culture, one that existed before the Spanish
added their contributions that forever altered the essence of an already perfectly balanced
banquet.