Join us to learn more about Las Cruces history with Carlos Melendrez, an author whose work often focuses on local history and stories, particularly in the Southern New Mexico area. His connection with local history is more than academic – it’s personal. Carlos Melendrez is the great, great, grandson of Pablo Melendres, one of the original settlers of this area.

I Know Where the Bodies are Buried delves into historical stories and questions from the 1840s when this part of New Mexico was under Mexican rule. In 1843, Pablo Melendrez was one of the first settlers of the over 35,000 acres certified by the Mexican government as the Doña Ana Bend Colony. Pablo was appointed alcalde (mayor/justice of the peace) by the Mexican government in 1844 and the governed Doña Ana through the Mexican vs. American War. After the Treaty of Guadalup Hidalgo was signed, because the village was becoming overcrowded, he petitioned the US troops in Doña Ana to survey and lay out a new town to the south, leading to the establishment of Las Cruces in 1849.

Carlos Melendrez’s 2014 book also grappled with the complexity of historical legacies, in that case, the legacy of Geronimo, who has been viewed in so many ways over the years.