XIITravelers

Below you will find a bit of history on each Traveler and what they represent to the history of the Southwest. Not all are ready for placement, and some must still pass through the conceptual phases. The more support received by the XII Travelers the faster we can move each project through the necessary phases of development. Upon request members of the Twelve Travelers can provide some personalized or tailored educational briefings on the project, the art or its processes, and the historical significance of one or all of the Twelve Travelers. You may contact  info@12travelers.com to request a contact or presentation to your class or civic group.

Forthcoming Travelers

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and Estebanico The Black

Early European Exploration of the Southwest, 1528 – 1536

Along with two other Spaniards and a Black Moroccan, they arrived at the Pass of the North in 1535 after eight years and 6,000 miles of wandering with an escort of Native Americans in the first recorded transcontinental crossing North America. They defended Indian rights and stopped slave raids in the Yaqui Indian country

Estebanico later led the Fray Marco’s de Niza expedition to the Pueblo country.

Cabeza de Vaca, became Governor of Paraguay and was returned to Spain in chains when Spanish settlers resented his just treatment of the natives.

Governor Juan Moro and War Capitan Bartolo Pique

The Pueblo Rebellion and the Arrival of the Tiguas at The Pass of the North, 1680

The Tigua Indians came to the Pass of the North in 1680 under their leadership following the Pueblo Rebellion of New Mexico. Their arrival gave new impetus to the settlement of the El Paso area. Ysleta del Sur Pueblo is the oldest community in the State of Texas.

Juan Bautista de Anza

Late 18th C. Exploration West and Presidios along the Frontier of New Spain

He was a presidio captain of one of the sixteen presidios constructed along the Frontier of New Spain to protect settlements and prevent their abandonment during a time of increasing resentment among Native Americans in the late 18th century.

He later organized an important expedition of exploration to California. Upon his return he served as governor of New Mexico for ten years.

Lozen

The Apache Wars and the Struggle for Survival, 1870’s – 1880’s

The courageous and gifted Lozen was born to the Warm Springs band of Chiricahua Apaches in New Mexico around 1840.

A close relative of the great chief, Victorio, who described her as “his wise counselor and his right hand …who had the strength of a man and was a shield to her people.” She fought with him and Geronimo against the combined armies of U.S. and Mexico and civilians in New Mexico and Arizona Territories.

Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper

The First Black West Point Graduate, A Buffalo Soldier Following the Civil War, 1856 – 1940

Born in Georgia under slavery in 1850 and he was appointed to West Point in 1873. As a 2nd Lieutenant he served frontier duty in the Southwest with the famous all Black regiment known as the Buffalo Soldiers.

He was unjustly court marshaled for “embezzlement and unbecoming conduct”, eventually acquitted of embezzling but “dismissed” from the service. He received a full pardon from President Clinton on Feb. 19, 1999.

John Wesley Hardin

The Lawless West of the Late 19th C, 1853 – 1895

The gun slinging outlaw Hardin typifies the wanton lawlessness of the old west. He who was born in Bonham, Texas in 1853 to a Methodist preacher.

He came to El Paso in 1888, after prison, where he was killed by a shot in the back of the head by one of his own hired gunmen.

His murderous reputation of having killed more than 30 men was disputed by his friends who claimed, “he was a always gentleman…and never killed anyone who didn’t need it”.

Pancho Villa and La Adelita

The Mexican Revolution of 1910, 1878 – 1923

Doroteo Arango Arámbula, later known as Pancho Villa, was born on June 15, 1878 in San Juan del Río, Durango, Mexico.

Villa became the leader of the Revolution in Chihuahua but it also involved him with the ambitions and betrayals of the time. When President Wilson withdrew his support for Villa, the Caudillo invaded Columbus, NM, which in turn provoked the unsuccessful Punitive Expedition commanded by General John J. Pershing.

He is widely hailed as a revolutionary Robin Hood by some and vilified as a bandit and murderer by others. He was assassinated in Parral, Chihuahua in 1923

La Adelita was the archetype of a woman soldier (soldera), famous in the corridas of the period and an inspiration to the armies of the Revolution.

Teresa de Urrea

A Charismatic Precursor of the Mexican Revolution and Unrest South of the border, 1873 – 1906

A paradoxical and mystical leader born in La Cabora, Sinaloa, Mexico under the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz of an Indian servant and a liberal hacendado.

As a child she was deeply affected by the friendship and guidance of by a curandera named Huila. After recovering from a protracted coma Teresa assumed her vocation as an inspired and charismatic healer of the oppressed Indian and Mestizo populations, which gave her ministry both a political dimension and broad popular appeal.

Her unorthodox and anti-government views likewise aroused official concern and when leaders of Tomochic protected her from a pursuing posse the entire village was massacred in retaliation.

Her name (like that of Jean d’ Arc) inspired rebellions across this northern region of Mexico and heralded the coming revolution of 1910. The fearful Diaz dictatorship forced Teresa to flee across the border into Arizona, where she died just four years before the Revolution.