In the Days of Billy the Kid: The Lives and Times of José Chávez y Chávez, Juan Patrón, Martín Chávez, and Yginio Salazar Hardcover – May 30, 2025

The legend of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War remains prominent in the annals of American frontier history, but for men like José Chávez y Chávez, Juan Patrón, Martín Chávez, and Yginio Salazar, it was merely one famous epoch in a much broader struggle. The Hispanos of frontier New Mexico spent decades engaging in various forms of resistance against the corruption, exploitation, and violent oppression that frequently plagued their homeland following the conclusion of the Mexican-American War in 1848. James B. Mills, author of the award-winning Billy the Kid: El Bandido Simpático, provides readers with a wealth of new information in his quest to tell the Hispano side of things in a history largely centered around the lives of lawman-turned-outlaw José Chávez y Chávez, intellectual prodigy Juan Patrón, conservative journeyman Martín Chávez, and resilient vaquero Yginio Salazar. A study that extends far beyond the Lincoln County War and into the twentieth century, In the Days of Billy the Kid also explores the Horrell War, the arrival of the railroads, the rise of the Herrera brothers and Los Gorras Blancas (The White Caps), the people’s movement in San Miguel County, and the infamous Vicente Silva and his Sociedad de Bandidos (Society of Bandits). Mills also casts some light on lesser-known bandidos like the dangerous Nicolas Aragón, the repentant Germán Maestas, and perennial jailbird Porfirio Trujillo. Providing readers with fresh perspective, a wagonload of untapped history, and more than a hundred photographs, In the Days of Billy the Kid is an unprecedented study of Nuevo México in frontier times and the early twentieth century that belongs on the bookshelf of any American West aficionado. Read more