The first edition of the poem was produced in an octavo text, consisting of 287 leaves of verse. The poem gained little notoriety and very few copies of the original exist today. In 1900, a facsimile reprint was published by the Museo Nacional de México; however, because the text was in Spanish, little academic attention was paid to it. In 1933 a translated, English version was produced by Gilberto Espinosa; since then the reputation of the poem has shifted and more admiration is paid to Villagrá's efforts, style, and historical contents. Historia de la Nueva México is now considered a valued part of colonial literature.