New Mexico Politics

Governors were a new world innovation within the Spanish governmental hierarchy created to handle frontier settlements too far from Mexico City for direct supervision by the viceroy. According to Charles Cutter, they had military, administrative, fiscal, and judicial responsibilities similar to those of alcaldes in Mexico City and Zacatecas.

Community expectations for governors may have fueled the conflict between Diego de Vargas and the man who followed him in power, Pedro Rodríguez Cubero. He had been appointed governor on 6 June 1692, but did not assume office until 2 July 1697. Legally, de Vargas was the military leader, and maintained his position through conventions of martial law.

The event that may have persuaded Cubero to accept the governorship was a change in leadership in Mexico City. The viceroy who had sponsored de Vargas, Gaspar de la Cerda, resigned on 26 February 1696. His successor, José Sarmeinto Valladares, didn’t take office until 18 December 1696. The Bishop of Michoacán, Juan Ortega y Montañés, served in the interim.

Cubero restored the civil authority of the cabildo in Santa Fé. It responded by charging de Vargas with failing to fulfill his public functions during the famine of 1696 by not supplying enough corn. In Mexico City and Zacatecas cabildos were responsible for procuring and distributing the food supply. In extraordinary circumstances, like the famine in Mexico City in 1697, Cubero’s viceroyal patron became active.

When de Vargas returned as governor in November of 1703, the cabildo charged Cubero with neglecting his duty to protect the people by abandoning the frontier post of Santa Cruz. It said, "there were very large houses and a plaza with a chapel and convento, all behind a door and parapets" when Vargas settled the villa. Now, it said, the settlement was "laid waste and ruined, with the wood and adobes removed and only the foundations remaining."

De Vargas believed the northern outpost must remain compact to be defendable, and populated to serve its defense function for the colony. He also believed peaceful relations with the pueblos depended on keeping them separated from the españoles.

Cubero acquiesced to the desires of the people de Vargas had settled in Santa Cruz. Some wanted more land to sustain themselves, others wanted to return to the more urbanized Santa Fé.

The only land grants in the Santa Cruz area that survive in the archives from the time of de Vargas, were small. The half fanega he gave Tomás de Herrera y Sandoval near Chimayó in 1695 was three-quarters of an acre, enough to plant half a fanega of corn seed. That would support one adult and maybe a small child for a year, with some left for seed.

Cubero approved larger grants, and allowed many to move near pueblos. In 1698, he granted eight fanegas of wheat land to Juan de Archuleta near San Juan. He also granted land to Juan de la Mora Pineda.

The next year he ceded a rancho and lands to Francisco Guerrero de la Mora. In 1700, he granted lands on the Chama river to Diego Trujillo and Catalina Griego, and lands between Santa Clara and San Ildefonso to Mateo Trujillo. He also let José Trujillo have the lands near the Black Mesa that had belonged to Francisco Jiménez and Ambrosia Saenz before the Revolt, and granted land to Luis Martín.

Few records of private land transfers exist for the time de Vargas was in control. Gertrudis de Barreras y Sandoval sold half a fanega of land in 1695 to Mateo Trujillo.

As soon as Cubero arrived, Juan de Archuleta began acquiring land from people in Santa Cruz. In 1697 he received a rancho from Manuel Vallejo González, and the next year a rancho from Tomás Jirón de Texeda that had belonged to Alonzo del Río. His widow, Isabel González, consolidated his holdings in 1698 with land that Pedro de la Cruz had conveyed to Manual Vallejo.

In March of 1703, Diego González and Ambrosio Fresqui filed a denuncia, or statement of criminal activity, notifying Cubero that Felipe de Arratia had fenced off a section of the road to Chimayó. His actions forced carters to use a narrow, muddy road near the Santa Cruz river. They appealed to Cubero’s fiscal responsibilities when they noted "the camino real should remain open because it is royal property."

Cubero asked his lieutenant alcalde mayor, Matías Madrid, to determine the facts. All the witnesses agreed the traditional road limited Arratia’s ability to grow crops. They also agreed the road by the river was hazardous for oxen bringing vigas down from Chimayó. One even suggested it would be a good place for an Apache ambush.

The governor’s responsibilities as judge required him to give precedence to community harmony, equidad, over those of individuals. Madrid persuaded Arratia to reopen the road. Despite bickering in Santa Fé, the rudiments of civil law were functioning in Santa Cruz.

Notes:
Cutter, Charles R. The Legal Culture of Northern New Spain, 1700-1810, 1995.

Fat Knowledge. "How Many People Can the Earth Support?, 30 November 2008 blog posting. He calculates a "bushel of corn can support a person for 52 days at 2,400 kcal/day with 25.4kg/bushel)," or 7 bushels a year. I reduced that number, since nutritional values may be greater today.

Gibson, Charles. The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule, 1964. He calculates the corn yield in a good year would have been 75 to 125 fanegas for one sown, with 11 fanega or 17 bushels an acre. That would mean .75 acres would produce 12.75 bushels.

Rowlett, Ross. "How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measure," 2001, website. He says, "one fanega of land grows one fanega of corn seed." It was standardized to 1.59 acres in 1801, or .75 acres for a half fanega.

Santa Fé Cabildo. Certification, 2 December 1703," included in A Settling of Accounts, edited by John L. Kessell, Rick Hendricks, Meredith D. Dodge, and Larry R. Miller.

Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. Spanish Archives of New Mexico: Compiled and Chronologically Arranged, volume 1, 1914. When entries with the same names appear in different years, it’s hard to determine if they are separate transactions or continuations of the same.