“I BEG GOD FOR MY MEMORY,” begins the Spanish ballad “Corrido de Plácida Romero.” On August 8, 1881, Romero was captured at her home near Grants, in one of the last Apache war raids into the territory. A.E. “Bob” Roland’s The Ballad of Plácida Romero: A Woman’s Captivity & Redemption (Museum of New Mexico Press) details her ordeal and eventual escape. With reflections from folklorist Enrique Lamadrid and writer Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo), this well-researched book illuminates not only the truth of Romero’s capture—which involved murder, kidnapping, rape, and enslavement—but the long life of her legend.
Read more: Manifest Destiny fueled a war the Apache people could only lose.