Event Details

The Friends of Coronado & Jemez Historic Sites offer a free monthly lecture series at the Martha Liebert Public Library in Bernalillo, NM. 

Matthew J. Barbour, Deputy Director of New Mexico Historic Sites, will present a very entertaining lecture on the universally hated and maligned Conquistador, Pedro de Alvarado. This presentation follows the brutal conquistador from his initial forays in Cuba to his massacre of festival goers in Tenochtitlan, through his campaigns against the Maya, and ending with his death at the hands of rebellious Caxcanes.

Matthew J. Barbour holds BA (2002) and MA (2010) degrees in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico and has worked for the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs since 2002. Throughout his 22-year career, he has published more than 200 non-fiction articles and monographs. His popular and well-researched lectures range from pre-colonial African empires to New Mexican archaeology digs to turkeys. In 2012, and again in 2014, Barbour was awarded the City of Santa Fe Heritage Preservation Award for Excellence in Archaeology. In 2018, under Barbour’s management, Coronado Historic Site received an Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History. Then in 2019, with Barbour as manager, Jemez Historic Site received the Archaeology Heritage Preservation from New Mexico Historic Preservation Division.

This lecture takes place at the Martha Liebert Public Library, 124 Calle Malinche, Bernalillo (Behind the Town Hall at 829 Camino del Pueblo). Masks are discretionary, refreshments will be served and there is an elevator to the event meeting room located on the 2nd floor. This event is free to the public.