Joaquín Rivaya-Martínez
Associate Professor
Office: TMH-218
Email: jr59@txstate.edu
Research Interests:
Ethnohistory, Borderlands, Captivity, Latin American History, American History
Dr. Joaquín Rivaya-Martínez is an associate professor of History at Texas State University. He holds a B.A. in History from the Complutense University of Madrid and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in anthropology from UCLA. He was a postdoctoral fellow at SMU’s Clements Center for Southwest Studies in 2007-2008. Dr. Rivaya-Martínez is an ethnohistorian specialized in the indigenous peoples of the US-Mexico Borderlands and the southern Great Plains during the 18th and 19th centuries. His research has been funded by numerous institutions, including the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, the Newberry Library, the Philips Fund for Native American Research, the University of California Institute for Mexico and the US (UC MEXUS), UCLA’s Institute of American Cultures, and Mexico’s CONACyT. Dr. Rivaya-Martínez’s scholarship combines extensive archival research in Mexico, Spain, the United States, and France, with the use of ethnographic, archaeological, linguistic, and environmental evidence, as well as interviews with contemporary consultants, paying attention to indigenous voices and perspectives. He conducts his research in close contact with members of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma. Dr. Rivaya-Martínez is the author of numerous scholarly presentations and essays. He is currently pursuing three lines of research: Comanche captivity, Spanish-Comanche relations, and the presence of US-based Indians in independent Mexico. He welcomes the opportunity to work with graduate students interested in indigenous history, captivity, or the US-Mexico Borderlands.
Select Publication
forthcoming “Trespassers in the Land of Plenty: Comanche Raiding across the U.S.-Mexican Border, 1846-1853.” In These Ragged Edges: Histories of Violence along the U.S.-Mexico Border, edited by Andrew J. Torget and Gerardo Gurza-Lavalle. Chapel Hill: North Carolina University Press.
forthcoming “Territorialidad y territorio entre los nómadas del norte de Nueva España y México. El caso comanche.” Memorias de la Academia Mexicana de la Historia.
2020 “Los establecimientos de ‘bárbaros’ en el norte de Nueva España. Una revisión historiográfica.” In El gran norte novohispano-mexicano. Ensayos historiográficos, edited by José Refugio de la Torre Curiel, 57-101. Zapopan: El Colegio de Jalisco.
2020 “‘Bárbaros’ en la cartografía de Nueva España. El caso comanche.” In El gran norte novohispano y mexicano en la cartografía de los siglos XVI-XIX, edited by José Refugio de la Torre Curiel and Salvador Álvarez, 104-134. Hermosillo - Zapopan: El Colegio de Sonora - El Colegio de Jalisco.
2018 “Progresarán infinitamente en civilización: el efímero asentamiento comanche de San Carlos de los Jupes, 1787-1788.” In Fronteras étnicas en la América colonial, edited by Patricia Gallardo Arias and Cuauhtémoc Velasco Ávila, 63-93. Mexico City: INAH, 2018.2016 “Tras la huella de los bárbaros: Itinerarios comanches a través de México, 1821-1875.” In Los caminos transversales. La geografía histórica olvidada de México, edited by Chantal Cramaussel, 189-216. Zamora, Michoacán: El Colegio de Michoacán, Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango.
2016 “De ‘salvajes’ a ‘imperialistas’. Una revisión crítica de la historiografía sobre los comanches durante el período anterior a la reserva (1700-1875).” In Visiones del pasado. Reflexiones para escribir la historia de los pueblos indígenas de América, edited by Ana Luisa Izquierdo, 153-192. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.2014 “A Different Look at Native American Depopulation: Comanche Raiding, Captive Taking, and Population Decline.” Ethnohistory 61 (3; Summer 2014): 391-418.
2014 “The Captivity of Macario Leal: A Tejano among the Comanches, 1847-1854.” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 117 (4; April 2014): 372-402.
2014 “La expansión comanche en la frontera norte de Nueva España durante el siglo XVIII.” In La frontera en el mundo hispánico: Tierras de convivencia y espacios de confrontación (siglos XV-XVIII), edited by Porfirio Sanz Camañes and David Rex Galindo, pp. 339-369. Quito: Abya Yala.
2014 “Reflexión historiográfica sobre los genízaros de Nuevo México, una comunidad pluriétnica del septentrión novohispano.” In Familias pluriétnicas y mestizaje en la Nueva España y el Río de la Plata, edited by David Carbajal López, pp. 271-308. Guadalajara: Universidad de Guadalajara.
2013 “De la civilización a la barbarie. La indianización de cautivos euroamericanos entre los indios comanches, 1820-1875.” In La indianización. Cautivos, renegados, «hommes libres» y misioneros en los confines de las Américas, s. XVI-XIX, edited by Salvador Berbnabéu Albert, Chritophe Giudicelli, and Gilles Havard, pp. 107-136. Seville: Doce Calles and École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.
2012 “Becoming Comanches: Patterns of Captive Incorporation into Comanche Kinship Networks, 1820-1875.” In On the Borders of Love and Power: Families and Kinship in the Intercultural American West, edited by David Wallace Adams and Crista DeLuzio, pp. 47-70. Berkeley: University of California Press.
2011 “Diplomacia interétnica en la frontera norte de Nueva España. Un análisis de los tratados hispano-comanches de 1785 y 1786 y sus consecuencias desde una perspectiva etnohistórica.” Nuevo Mundo, Mundos Nuevos, Debates, 2011 [published online on November 30, 2011]. URL: http://nuevomundo.revues.org/62228.
2011 “San Carlos de los Jupes. Une tentative avortée de sédentarisation des bárbaros dans les territoires frontaliers du nord de la Nouvelle-Espagne en 1787-1788.” Recherches amérindiennes au Québec, 41 (2-3; 2011): 29-42.
2010 “Incidencia de la viruela y otras enfermedades epidémicas en la trayectoria histórico-demográfica de los indios comanches, 1706-1875.” In El impacto demográfico de la viruela en México de la época colonial al siglo XX, edited by Chantal Cramaussel, vol. 3, pp. 63-80. Zamora, Michoacán: El Colegio de Michoacán.
Courses Taught
Graduate Seminars
History 5309D | Early Modern Spain
History 5314 | Ethnohistory
History 5350 | The Frontier in American History
History 5353 | Greater Southwestern History
History 5361 | Historiography and Methods
Undergraduate Courses
History 1310 | History of the U.S. to 1877
History 3329 | Spanish Borderlands
History 3368 | Introduction to Ethnohistory
History 4318O | History of Modern Spain
History 4318Q | Early Modern Spain
History 4318R | Ancient and Medieval Spain (developed; not yet taught)
History 4300 | Senior Seminar
History 4371 | American Indian History
Selected Awards
Medalla de Acero al Mérito Histórico "Capitán Alonso de León," Sociedad Nuevoleonesa de Historia, Geografía y Estadística (2017)
CONACyT Grant for the collective research project El gran norte novohispano-mexicano en el tiempo y el espacio: estudios sobre poblaciones y territorios en perspectiva comparada (2016-2019)
Jesse H. and Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Southwestern Studies (2015-present)
Research Enhancement Grant, Texas State University (2008-2009)
Bill and Rita Clements Research Fellowship for the Study of Southwestern America (2007-2008)
UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship (2005-2006)
Wenner-Gren Foundation Research Grant (2004-2005)
UC MEXUS Dissertation Research Grant (2004-2005)
American Philosophical Society - Philips Fund Grant (2004-2005)
American Philosophical Society Library Research Fellowship (2004-2005)
Newberry Library Research Fellowship (2004-2005)
American Philosophical Society - Philips Fund Grant (2003-2004)
UCLA Institute of American Cultures Predoctoral Fellowship (2002-2003)
Smithsonian Institution Visiting Student at the National Museum of Natural History Award (2000-2001)