Ad
FBI returns stolen colonial map of Santa Fe to Mexico
Published
Modified
A stolen map, dating from the 1700s, was recently recovered by the FBI and returned to the National Archives of Mexico at a ceremony in Albuquerque on Tuesday.
Speaking at the Consulate of Mexico, Justin A. Garris, FBI special agent in charge of the Albuquerque field office, said, “It is an honor for me to return this historic artifact to the people of Mexico.”
“This is not simply ink on paper,” Garris continued. “This document carries a voice from the past.”
The “Villa de Santa Fe” map depicts Santa Fe as an important northern center on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, a 1,600-mile trade route that operated between 1598 and 1882.
“This document not only enriches our collective memory but also strengthens the ties that unite us with New Mexico through a shared history,” said Patricia Pinzón, head consul of Mexico in Albuquerque.
Two distinguished local scholars, Manuel García y Griego and Joseph P. Sánchez, gave PowerPoint presentations detailing the significance of the map within a larger story of cultural exchange and shifting borders. Both scholars have used images of the “Villa de Santa Fe” map in their research and teaching.
“This map shows the vast territory of New Mexico historically, which even today is larger than Mexico’s largest state of Chihuahua,” García y Griego, associate professor of history at University of New Mexico, said.
Sánchez, the emeritus director of the Spanish Colonial Research Center at UNM, concurred. During his presentation, Sánchez showed other historic maps from when New Mexico extended as far north as Yellowstone and the Great Plains.
Alan Webber, the mayor of Santa Fe, arrived at the consulate just before the ceremony was set to begin. In his opening remarks, Webber joked that he had arrived late because he was using “a bad map.”
Webber called the formal handover ceremony “a moment of history, friendship, culture and community.”
Ad
“I don’t think you can be a mayor of Santa Fe, or even a resident of Santa Fe, and not care deeply about history and culture,” he said.
Three FBI agents who attended the ceremony said they were not at liberty to discuss who stole the map, how it was recovered or whether a criminal investigation was ongoing.
“That’s information we only share with our international partners,” agent Bill Walton said. “But obviously, it was a multi-year effort to coordinate the return of the document.”
“Villa de Santa Fe” was identified as missing in 2011 and located in New Mexico five years later. It took another nine years to complete the investigation and coordinate the map’s return.
“That process involved verification of ownership and review of the archives, so it was a bit of a drawn-out process,” Walton said. “We have an agent in the office who’s on the FBI International Art Crime team, so she coordinated that verification and archival research before we were able to return it.”
Pinzón emphasized that the return of the stolen map was part of a larger project of cultural repatriation. Thousands of artifacts have been returned to Mexico in recent years.
“The return of the ‘Villa de Santa Fe’ map is a symbol of Mexico’s commitment to the preservation of its historical and cultural heritage, as well as the value of binational cooperation,” she said.
