Death Comes for the Archbishop

A priest who travels to Santa Fe with Jean-Marie Latour, Father Joseph Vaillant “is short, skinny, and bow-legged from a life on horseback” (26). Whereas Latour is quiet and reserved, Vaillant is gregarious and social. He’s well-liked by all who meet him and is a strong advocate for the church and its interests partly because he’s so well-positioned to speak out on its behalf. Although Latour was excited to leave France, Vaillant had closer ties to his family and struggled more with the decision to become a missionary in the US. He remains connected to his family throughout his life in the New World and often exchanges letters with his sister Philomène. Vaillant loves good food and fine wine but doesn’t indulge in other forms of temptation (like Fathers Gallegos and Martínez do) and never drinks or dines to excess. He’s devoutly religious, and though his faith is less contemplative than Latour’s, the two men bond over their shared love for God and the church.

Charismatic and driven, Vaillant welcomes adventure and opportunity, and he ultimately moves to Colorado. The area is rapidly developing as a result of the Gold Rush, and Vaillant is keen to bring spirituality and discipline to a wild, indulgent population in dire need of God and His teachings.

An Indigenous man from Pecos Pueblo, Jacinto has a calm and circumspect temperament and is “never naif, never taken by surprise” (68). Fathers Latour and Vaillant employ Jacinto as a guide and quickly develop a deep and abiding respect for Jacinto’s knowledge of the region. He skillfully guides the two priests through terrain that is rugged and often difficult to traverse, and he shows Latour numerous places that are sacred to the various Indigenous people of New Mexico.

Thoughtful and intelligent, Jacinto shares with Latour many Indigenous names for area sites and landmarks, and the two often discuss their differing worldviews, the environment, and the history of Spain’s colonial project in the region. Through these discussions, Latour learns more about not only New Mexico’s Indigenous peoples but also his own beliefs and values as a white man of the cloth in the Americas. Jacinto teaches Latour that he sees the world through a distinctly European framework, and Latour is ultimately grateful to Jacinto for expanding his worldview. Jacinto’s character provides Indigenous history and identity in a book largely devoted to depicting Spanish and American settlement in the Southwest.

Real-life frontiersman Kit Carson was famous even during his lifetime for his work as a trapper, scout, guide, soldier, and influential man of frontier society in New Mexico. He helps Father Latour on multiple occasions, often “hurrying to the rescue” (98). An advocate for the downtrodden, he’s instrumental in the capture, trial, and execution of a murderer and spousal abuser. Mild-mannered, soft-spoken, and self-effacing, Carson is markedly uncomfortable with his fame. Like many other characters in the novel, he lives in and among Indigenous, Mexican, and white communities. His wife is Hispanic, and they live in the multi-ethnic and multicultural hamlet of Taos.

The novel’s depiction of Carson is accurate: Both his exploits and his humble nature are well-documented in New Mexico’s historical record. Christopher Houston Carson (known as Kit) was a famous American frontiersman. Like Cather’s fictionalized depiction, he was a wilderness guide, fur trapper, scout, army officer, and “Indian Agent.” Born in Missouri, Carson set off for the West at age 16. Initially a trapper, he spent considerable time among the Arapaho and Cheyenne nations and married into several Indigenous communities. He led a regiment of largely Hispanic soldiers from New Mexico during the Civil War, and after suppression of the Confederate threat, he remained with the army, supporting its efforts to subjugate various Indigenous tribes in the Southwest.

Carson would have been particularly relevant to period readers. Cather’s depiction of Carson is largely flattering and highlights his positive contributions to New Mexico society rather than the role he played in subjugating the area’s Indigenous populations while an officer in the US Army.

The priest at Taos, Father Martínez has a larger-than-life presence, and those with whom he comes into contact alternately hate, respect, and fear him. Although “not much taller than the bishop actually, he gave the impression of being an enormous man” (104). He’s one of the text’s corrupt clergy, contributing to the novel’s depiction of the fraught history of the Catholic Church in New Mexico. Martínez openly defies Rome’s and Father Latour’s authority. He’s rumored to have children all over the diocese and is known to exploit Indigenous parishioners. He argues that church doctrine has no place in far-flung outposts like New Mexico and that clergy should be allowed to marry. He capitalizes on Indigenous unrest and fights alongside Indigenous men against area authority, but his intentions are duplicitous, and he uses these insurrections to exploit Indigenous communities and steal their land. His tyrannical rule in Taos speaks not only to the negative aspects of church history but also to the role that the church played in the violent project of colonization and assimilation in Spain’s American conquests.

Father Gallegos is the social, gregarious priest in Albuquerque, the largest and most affluent city in Father Latour’s territory. He’s one of the first men of the cloth whom Latour visits upon his appointment to Santa Fe, and he immediately notices the man’s spirit of overindulgence. Gallegos enjoys dancing, drinking alcohol, and gambling, and it’s clear that he places great value in his appearance. He’s not particularly devout and pays little attention to religious doctrine and custom. His popularity among his flock reflects the general climate of decay that Latour finds in many corners of the diocese. Gallegos, like several other troubled and corrupt clerical figures in the novel, represents the troubled history of the Catholic Church in the Americas and the American Southwest in particular. Because of New Mexico’s remote location, many clergy had little contact with Rome, and behavior like Gallegos’s was common. Priests who lacked religious fervor (as well as those who exploited Indigenous populations and even fathered children with area women) were part of what led to incidents like the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and Latour devotes much of his work during his early days in New Mexico to rooting out men like Gallegos, ultimately replacing him with a more devout priest, and Gallegos’s reign ends in ignominy.