Father Gutiérrez’s book is the third in a projected series of volumes on “the work of the men who pioneered (roturaron) the northwest of our country” (xxii). Two of the volumes, Mártires Jesuítas . . . and Historia de la Compañía . . ., have been written by Father Gerardo Decorme, and Father W. Eugene Shiels’s well-known Gonzalo de Tapia appears in Spanish as the fourth in the series.
Father Hernando de Santarén’s biography is presented in twelve short chapters, several of which are based on Francisco Xavier Alegre’s Historia de la Compañía. . ., and on Andrés Pérez de Rivas’s Historia de los triunfos. . .. The opening chapter, “Años de Preparación,” is a fragmentary account of Santarén’s early life in Spain; Chapter II, “Dificultades,” and Chapter III, “Sinaloa,” sketch the beginning of Jesuit activities in New Spain. In the following four chapters, “En el Corazón de la Sierra,” “Topia y San Andrés,” “Revuelta en la Montaña,” and “Consolidación y Progreso,” Santarén emerges as the protagonist, while the final chapters, “El Santo,” “Espíritus y Diablos,” “Última Conquista,” “Raza Rebelde,” and “Holocausto,” deal mainly with Indian unrest in the mountains, which led to the rebellion of the Tepehuanes and the martyrdom of Father Santarén in November, 1616.
“At last,” writes Father Gerardo, “we have a seriously documented biography of one of our grandest missionaries of the Company of Jesus in the missions of north Mexico . . .” (ix). True, but one would like to believe that there are many more documents in the archives relating to the life of Santarén than have been used by Gutiérrez. Santarén and his companions in the mountains of Sinaloa and Durango still await their Bolton or Father Dunne.
The bibliography, in addition to a list of published secondary works, contains a rather detailed description of unpublished materials. There is also an onomastic index; but a general index, though it is listed in the table of contents, has been omitted. Finally, three maps help the reader in matters of geographical orientation.
