The first press of New Mexico was imported overland from the United States in 1834 to print El CrepÚsculo de la libertad, a short-lived newspaper supporting the election of its editor, Antonio Barreiro, to the Mexican congress. It was operating at Santa Fe by August 1834 with RamÓn Abreu as proprietor and with JesÚs MarÍa Baca as printer,[90] the latter having learned his trade in Durango, Mexico.[91]

A broadside in the Library of Congress collections appears to be a genuine copy of the earliest extant issue of this press. Entitled Lista de los ciudadanos que deberan componer los jurados de imprenta, formada por el Ayuntamiento de este capital, it lists, in accordance with Mexican law, 90 men qualified to be jurors in cases of what the law terms "denuncias de los escritos."[92] The broadside is dated August 14, 1834, signed by "Juan Gallego, precidente—Domingo Fernandez, secretario," and carries the RamÓn Abreu imprint. This copy must be one of 48 discovered in 1942 in a parcel marked "Benjamin Read Papers" at the New Mexico Historical Society. Benjamin Read (1853-1927) was an attorney who served in the New Mexico Legislature and who published a number of works on the State's history.[93] Before the find in 1942 only a single copy of the broadside was located. The authenticity of these 48 copies has been questioned, but in the opinion of the late collector Thomas W. Streeter they are originals.[94] The Library obtained its copy by exchange from Edward Eberstadt & Sons in May 1951.

The Library also has the only known copy of New Mexico's first book, issued by the same press and dated 1834: Cuaderno de ortografia. Dedicado a los niÑos de los seÑores Martines de Taos. A metal cut on its title page, oddly depicting a moose, has been traced to a contemporary Boston specimen book, which also displays a pica type identical or very similar to that used in early New Mexican imprints.[95] Authorship of the book has been attributed to Antonio JosÉ MartÍnez (1793-1867), the parish priest in Taos, who arranged to have the press and the printer move there in 1835. From 1826 to 1856 MartÍnez taught reading, writing, and arithmetic in his parish,[96] and he undoubtedly had this work printed for the use of his own pupils. It is divided into three sections: "De las letras," "De los diptongos, uso de letras mayusculas, acentos y signos de institucion para las citas," and "De la puntuacion de la clausula."[97] The copy of this small book is soiled and worn from much thumbing. Penciled on an inner page in an early, childlike hand is the name "Jesus Maria Baldez." The Library purchased the book in 1931 from Aaron Flacks, a Chicago bookseller, for $350 on the same day that it purchased its earliest Wisconsin almanac (see p. 53, above) and likewise through the intervention of Douglas C. McMurtrie.