In this volume, Ida Altman, the well-known specialist in early colonial Mexico, presents the history of the conquest and the colonization of New Galicia, a vast region of northwestern Mexico, between the years of 1524 and 1545. The conquest of the Mexica Empire by Hernando Cortés and its army has been the subject of numerous studies. But northern New Spain has less attracted the specialist's interest. However, as Altman points out, “the surrender of Tenochtitlan and fairly uniform submission of the mostly Nahua peoples of central Mexico were in fact prelude to, rather than the end of, the conquest of Mexico” (2).

And indeed it was. After Altman's presentation of the overall context of the European invasion of the territory of New Galicia, she offers the reader original sources about this sanguinary episode translated into English. The majority of these sources are testimonies written immediately after the conquest campaign of New Galicia, and that makes them of an exceptional nature. They could well belong to the chronicle genre. Altman also points out how these sources differ from other written accounts of the Spanish conquest—for example, of Tenochtitlán—that were written decades after this event. In this sense, the accounts that Altman brings to the reader also differ from native accounts in Nahuatl, like the well-known Vision of the Vanquished, because Altman's accounts were written some decades after the Castilian conquest of Tenochtitlán, and with this war and with local agendas in mind.

The documents presented in this volume were written by conquerors, their Central Mexico indigenous allies, and indigenous people from what was named New Galicia. Thus the title of the first chapter, “Tenamaztle's Lament,” which mainly consists of a draft written by the Cazcan noble and traditional lord Don Francisco Tenamaztle, one of the main leaders of the so-called Mixtón War that by 1541 seriously jeopardized colonial Spanish domination. Don Francisco Tenamaztle describes the atrocities perpetrated by the conquerors, mainly by Nuño de Guzmán, and his unjust situation as a prisoner in Castile because of the defense he provided to his people. Tenamaztle proposes that Emperor Charles V of Castile order a peaceful entrance to the Occidental and northern territories of New Spain, with the friars as Nahuatlato (translators of indigenous languages) and intercultural negotiators. Another source presented by Altman was written by Cristóbal de Flores, one of the leading captains of Nuño de Guzmán's army; Flores vividly points out the brutal violence used by Nuño during his military campaign.

This volume also contains a well-selected collection of testimonies on the indigenous armed war against Europeans in 1541. Altman points out that this crucial indigenous uprising was a planned insurrection. This war was carried out by the Huachichil, Zacateco, and Cazcan people and their lords against the people from Castilla and their excessive tribute and labor demands. Spaniards stated that the Mixtón War was an indigenous messianic movement headed by native priests, who encouraged their people to end Spanish rule over their territory with promises of their ancestors’ return and the beginning of a golden age. Other testimonies were written by indigenous lords from Central Mexico who, obliged or not, accompanied Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza in his punitive campaign. One of these is from the Lord, or Tlatoani, of Tlalmanalco, Don Francisco de Sandoval Acacitli. His fascinating testimony, translated from Nahuatl, abounds on the role of indigenous allies to Spanish authorities and conquerors during the Mixtón War.

The last chapter of the book is devoted to Xalisco. Altman lucidly reconstructs what she rightly names the “microhistory” of the local indigenous people. These testimonies, many in Nahuatl, describe the humiliation and abuse suffered by the native inhabitants of Xalisco and its region from the time when they first allied with Spanish conquerors of the Western territories of New Spain to the unjust and endless demands made by their encomendero Cristóbal de Oñate. The sources of this volume were outstandingly selected by Altman, and her commentaries bring to light the little-known indigenous perspectives of the conquest and colonization of the New Galicia. This book is a very welcome addition to Mexico's conquest history.