Estremaduran Geohistory

The Iberian peninsula began as a terrane off the north coast of Gondwana some 650 to 550 million years ago during the Late Neoproterozoic era. The Central Iberian island arc undergirding Estremadura merged with the Ossa-Morena and South Portuguese arcs to form what is today western Spain and Portugal.

In the early Paleozoic, sometime from 542 to 488 million years ago, sediments were deposited that hardened into gneisses, schists, quartzites and slates. Volcanoes elsewhere on the planet warmed the Ordovician climate that followed. Sea life left calcium compounds that became limestones.

During the Silurian era, the united group broke away from Gondwana and joined the Amorica terrane. Over the course of millennia Amorica alternated between the northern landmass of Laurussia and the southern Gondwana until those two merged to form Pangaea in the Early Permian period, about 270 million years ago.

The collision that formed Pangaea initiated a period of mountain building. In the Estremadura, molten granite rose through limestone walls that precipitated silver, gold and tin. As they cooled, the minerals were deposited in existing veins of quartz.

About 200 million years ago, in the early Jurassic, the Pangaean supercontinent began breaking up. The Bay of Biscay opened about 126 millions years ago in the Early Cretaceous. The Iberian nucleus rotated counterclockwise to Europe and came back under the influence of Africa during the Cenozoic.

The Alps formed during the Paleocene. Oaks began to differentiate themselves within the beech family about 60 million years ago in that same epoch. They eventually became the characteristic flora of the Estremaduran region.

Tectonic movement stopped in the mid-Eocene and the Pyrenees arose. In the Late Oligocene the peninsula resumed moving with Eurasia. The Tagus basin formed from sediment eroded from the mountains. Tin, silver and gold washed downstream. Limestone now overlays ochre-colored clay and silt.

Today, the two continental plates abut each other under the Mediterranean. The Eurasian continues to pull east away from its boundary with the North American plate under the Atlantic. The African plate is moving northeast about an inch every three years. Less than nine miles separates the surfaces of the two at the Straits of Gibralter.

Judging from current seismic activity, João Duarte Fonseca believes a "continental block formed by Iberia and northern Morocco is being pushed west wards by the convergence."

Notes: João F.B. Duarte Fonseca, Seismicity and Regional Tectonics of the Estremadura, Southwestern Portugal, dissertation abstract, 1989.

Spanish Geography

If one wants to understand the origins of Massachusetts Bay Colony, one looks at East Anglia on the eastern English coast. If one wants to understand the sources for the American south, one looks to the west of Bristol. It does no good to study the midlands.

Likewise, if one wants to understand the origins of Santa Cruz, one doesn’t bother with Madrid or Seville or Barcelona. One looks at Estremadura in Spain and Zacatecas in México. The first was home to Hernán Cortés, conqueror of the Aztecs in 1520. The other was founded by Cristóbal Oñate and two other Basques in the 1540s.

Today, Estremadura is divided into two provinces, Cáceres in the north, Badajoz to the south. The one includes the towns of Guadalupe and Trujillo. The other has Albuquerque, Herrera del Duque, and Talavera la Real.

The founders of Zacatecas also used familiar names. Francisco de Ibarra called the area Nueva Vizcaya, after one of the three modern Basque provinces, Biscay. The others are Álava and Gipuzkoa.

Spain sits on a peninsula surrounded by the Mediterranean on the east, the Atlantic on the west, the Bay of Biscay on the north, and the Straits of Gibralter on the south. It’s dominated by the westward sloping Meseta Central of Castile. Today, the plateau is ringed by the Sistema Ibérico to the northeast, the Cordillera Cantabrica to the northwest, and the Sistema Penibético of the Betic range to the southeast.

The Iberian mountains contain the headwaters of the west flowing rivers, the Duero, the Tagus and the Guadiana. The Ebro flows east. The Sistema Central range separates the Duero from the Tagus, and Estremadura from Castile and León to the north. The mountains continue into Portugal where Serra da Estrela defines the western boundary of the Estremaduran geographic province north of the Tagus.

Below the Tagus, Serra d’Ossa defines the southern part of the western boundary in Portugal. Sierra Moreno divides the Guadiana from the Guadalquivir and Estremadura from the lands controlled by the Moors in Spain.

Notes:
Bas de Jong, "Topographical map of Spain," Wikipedia Commons.

Local Land Grants

Land Grants in Río Arriba County or near Santa Cruz

Types
A Community land grants identified through original grant documentation
B Community land grants identified by grant heirs and others
C Community land grants issues to Indian pueblos
D First mention is Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Date, Grant Name, Grant Type, Other Names for Grant
1689 Pueblo of San Juan (C)
1695 Santa Cruz (A) Juan Salas
1699 Pueblo of Santa Clara (C)
1705 Sebastián Martín N (B)
1707 Bartolomé Sánchez (B)
1710 Juan de Ulibarri (B)
1714 Antonio de Salazar (B)
1724 Chamita (B)
1725 Embudo (B)
1734 Bartolomé Trujillo (A)
1735 Barranca (A) Gerónimo Martín
1739 Plaza Colorado (B)
1743 Black Mesa (B) Medina
1754 Abiquiú (A)
1754 Nuestra Señora del Rosario, San Fernando, y Santiago (A) Isabel Jaramillo de Romero, Rancho Las Truchas
1754 Francisco Montes Vigil (B)
1763 Cañada de Santa Clara (C)
1766 Polvadera (B) Juan Pablo Martín
1768 José Ignacio Alarí (B)
1780 El Rito
1793 Ojo Caliente (A) Antonio Joseph
1806 Cañon de Chama (A)
1807 Juan Bautista Valdez (A)
1807 Vallecito de San Antonio (A)
1824 Vallecito de Lovato (town) (A) José R. Zamora, José Salazar y Ortiz, S. Endicott Peabody
1832 Tierra Amarilla (A)
1836 Petaca (A) José Antonio García
1840 Río del Oso (B) José Antonio Valdez
1842 Los Conejos (A)

Date confirmed and not listed above
1893 Piedra Lumbre (D) Casa de José Riano, Pedro Martín Serano
1897 Angostura (D) Juan José Gallegos

Notes:
United States. General Accounting Office. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Definition and List of Community Land Grants in New Mexico, 2001.

Santa Cruz Leaders, 1695-1713

Red are the monarchs of Spain
Bold are the viceroys of New Spain
Regular type are the governors of New Mexico
Italics are the alcaldes of Santa Cruz

Habsburg Dynasty, 1665-1700 Charles II
1688-1696 Gasper de Sandoval Silva y Mendoza, Conde de Galve
Diego de Vargas (1691-)

1696-1701 José Sarmeinto Valladares, Conde de Moctezuma y de Tula Grande de Espana
Diego de Vargas (continues to 1697)
1696 Miguel Ladrón de Guevara
1696- José Trujillo
Pedro Rodríguez Cubero (1697-)

Bourbon Dynasty, 1700-1724 Philip V
1701-1714 War of Spanish Succession
1701 Juan de Ortega y Montanez, Arzobispo de Mexico
1701-1711 Francisco Fernandez de la Cueva Enriquez, Duque de Alburquerque y Marques de Cuellar
Pedro Rodríguez Cubero (continues to 1703)
Diego de Vargas (1703-1704)
Juan Páez Hurtado (1704-1705)
Francisco Cuervo y Valdés (provisional, June 1705-August 1707)
Jose Chacón Medina Salazar y Villaseñor (1707-)
Continues José Trujillo
1711-1716 Fernando de Alencastre Norona y Silva, Duque de Linares
Jose Chacón Medina Salazar y Villaseñor (continues to 1712)
Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollon (1712-1715)
Continues José Trujillo
1713 Jacinto Sánchez de Iñigo


Note: Alcaldes from Angélico Chávez, Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition

Viceroys from Wallace L. McKeehan, "Viceroys, Commandantes, Governors & Presidents," DeWitt Colony, Texas website

Rest from Wikipedia