The first press of New Mexico was imported overland from the United
States in 1834 to print _El Crepúsculo de la libertad_, a short-lived
newspaper supporting the election of its editor, Antonio Barreiro, to
the Mexican congress. It was operating at Santa Fe by August 1834 with
Ramón Abreu as proprietor and with Jesús María Baca as printer,[90]
the latter having learned his trade in Durango, Mexico.[91]
A broadside in the Library of Congress collections appears to be a
genuine copy of the earliest extant issue of this press. Entitled
_Lista de los ciudadanos que deberan componer los jurados de imprenta,
formada por el Ayuntamiento de este capital_, it lists, in accordance
with Mexican law, 90 men qualified to be jurors in cases of what
the law terms "denuncias de los escritos."[92] The broadside is
dated August 14, 1834, signed by "Juan Gallego, precidente--Domingo
Fernandez, secretario," and carries the Ramón Abreu imprint. This copy
must be one of 48 discovered in 1942 in a parcel marked "Benjamin
Read Papers" at the New Mexico Historical Society. Benjamin Read
(1853-1927) was an attorney who served in the New Mexico Legislature
and who published a number of works on the State's history.[93]
Before the find in 1942 only a single copy of the broadside was
located. The authenticity of these 48 copies has been questioned,
but in the opinion of the late collector Thomas W. Streeter they are
originals.[94] The Library obtained its copy by exchange from Edward
Eberstadt & Sons in May 1951.
The Library also has the only known copy of New Mexico's first book,
issued by the same press and dated 1834: _Cuaderno de ortografia.
Dedicado a los niños de los señores Martines de Taos._ A metal cut
on its title page, oddly depicting a moose, has been traced to
a contemporary Boston specimen book, which also displays a pica
type identical or very similar to that used in early New Mexican
imprints.[95] Authorship of the book has been attributed to Antonio
José Martínez (1793-1867), the parish priest in Taos, who arranged to
have the press and the printer move there in 1835. From 1826 to 1856
Martínez taught reading, writing, and arithmetic in his parish,[96]
and he undoubtedly had this work printed for the use of his own
pupils. It is divided into three sections: "De las letras," "De los
diptongos, uso de letras mayusculas, acentos y signos de institucion
para las citas," and "De la puntuacion de la clausula."[97] The copy
of this small book is soiled and worn from much thumbing. Penciled on
an inner page in an early, childlike hand is the name "Jesus Maria
Baldez." The Library purchased the book in 1931 from Aaron Flacks, a
Chicago bookseller, for $350 on the same day that it purchased its
earliest Wisconsin almanac (see p. 53, above) and likewise through the
intervention of Douglas C. McMurtrie.
[Illustration: (_Lista de los ciudadanos que deberan componer los
jurados de imprenta, formada por el Ayuntamiento de este capital_)]
[Footnote 90: See Roby Wentz, _Eleven Western Presses_ (Los Angeles,
1956), p. 11-13.]
[Footnote 91: See his obituary in _The Daily New Mexican_ (Santa Fe),
April 21, 1876.]
[Footnote 92: Quoted from _Coleccion de ordenes y decretos de la
Soberana junta provisional y soberanos Congresos generales de la
nacion mexicana_, vol. 4, 1829, p. 179.]
[Footnote 93: See obituary in _New Mexico Historical Review_, vol. 2,
1927, p. 394-397.]
[Footnote 94: See no. 61 in his _Americana--Beginnings_ (Morristown,
N.J., 1952).]
[Footnote 95: See _New Mexico Historical Review_, vol. 12, 1937, p.
13.]
[Footnote 96: Ibid., p. 5.]
[Footnote 97: It is reproduced in its entirety in Douglas C.
McMurtrie's _The First Printing in New Mexico_ (Chicago, 1929).]