Behind the legal progression of the investigation into witchcraft instigated by Leonor Domínguez, there were the events that led to her formal accusation. The chronology is confused because many witnesses denied their roles during the official investigation. As near as I can tell, this is what happened.
She and Miguel Martín were married in October 1707. She was 21, he 20. Nothing in the record indicates where they were living in 1708, but it may have been the rancho north of San Juan that Sebastían Martín had received the year before from the widow of his cousin, Matías Martín.
Leonor’s disquiet began when two members of her family told her Miguel was having intimate relations with native women.
One report came from her cousin, Alonso Rael de Aguilar, the son of her mother’s sister Josefa García de Noriega. He told her Miguel had bragged he had two women in Taos and one in San Juan. He claimed the last was Angelina Pumazjo, daughter of Catarina Rosa.
The other report was less reliable. The Domínguez family, like the Martín Serranos, had two layers, legitimate offspring and the half-recognized. María Domínguez, aged 23, had married Pedro de Ávila. He had come from Zacatecas in 1693, and was commonly referred to as El Piojo, the louse.
María told her about the woman at San Juan when the two were grinding corn. When questioned, she denied the conversion, but agreed they had ground corn together. She added what may have been half-remembered gossip. She said, Miguel Martín had brought her some beans, which she refused to eat because they came from "the house of his mistress."
Leonor then asked Miguel if the reports of adultery were true. He claimed he had said it as a joke.
Later, Leonor asked Miguel to take her to the San Juan home of Catarina Luján to get some lime. Instead, he took her to the home of Catarina Rosa. Leonor believed she was being tricked. He said she had changed her mind in route.
When they got there, Catarina Rosa offered her some meat and bean cakes. She refused because she was fasting. While they were there, Martín Fernández, age 25, entered and told her to eat. He says Leonor nearly fell trying to climb out, but refused to lie down. He made her eat some of the food.
Miguel’s behavior aggravated her fears. Sometime he returned from San Juan with his hands and arms so swollen he couldn’t eat. He told investigators he had fallen while "trying to mount to the house."
When he was asked if it were true his sister-in-law had been bewitched, he answered he’d been away at the time, and hadn’t heard anything after he returned. Nothing was said about his activities. Circumstantial evidence suggest it was more he likely he was working for one of his relatives who had land near Taos than it was he was away on militia duty.
The critical incident occurred on Holy Thursday, April 5. She attended mass with Casilda Contreras, wife of Francisco, another of Miguel’s brothers. She was wearing a mantle owned by Ana María de la Concepción Bernal.
In church, Leonor noticed some native women she thought were talking about her. She moved closer to hear, and said one touched her on the back. At the time, she thought the woman was trying to steal buttons from the mantle. Then she thought the woman was Catarina Rosa.
Catarina claimed she had gone to mass on Resurrection Sunday and seen Leonor then. She said she was home on Holy Thursday, because her grandchild was dying. Miguel’s brother Sebastían was at San Juan at the time.
When Leonor left church she saw her husband and slapped his face, accusing him of adultery. He told her not to be a fool. He later agreed the incident occurred on Holy Thursday.
Leonor turned to Casilda, who told her, "You are foolish to stay where you are; you will see they will do you harm." She later agreed she was there on Thursday, but denied saying anything.
Leonor returned to the church that night when "the agonies seized upon her." She had to be restrained by Juana Martín and Petrona Domínguez. Juana was Miguel’s sister and married to Felipe Arratia. Petrona was a sister of Leonor’s father. She had married Simón Martín, who was a son of Miguel’s uncle Cristóbal Martín.
After that Leonor was confined in the home of her sister, Antonia Domínguez de Mendoza, with the "violent pain of the disease newly acquired" and a "horror" of the church. Her sister had married Tomás Jirón de Tejeda, a painter from Mexico City.
Leonor filed her complaint on May 13. The depositions were taken in the homes of Tomás Jirón and Sebastían Martín. The investigators agreed she was ill, but only specified "in bed, ill and suffering" or "in bed, ill with many ailments."
What happened next is conjecture. Official sentencias were flexible according to Charles Cutter, and sometimes relied of subtle devices like humiliation. Leonor’s goal had been to stop any adultery on her husband’s part. Before she filed her denuncio, the women in the family had tried to dissuade her.
After the juicio plenario process began, and members of Miguel’s families were questioned, one suspects the men began to exert some pressure on him to at least be discrete. The brother and two cousins related to Leonor may have been prodded to act, or one of his many uncles may have talked to him, or some of his many brothers or cousins may have teased him into conformity.
All we know is she and Miguel appeared together in the church record in 1718 as witnesses for a marriage between María Martín and Luis Archuleta. No mention is made of children, but church records don’t exist for Santa Cruz between 1728 and 1751.
Notes:
Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition.
_____. New Mexico Roots, Ltd, 1982.
Cutter, Charles R. The Legal Culture of Northern New Spain, 1700-1810, 1995.
Esquibel, José Antonio. "Descendants of Hernán (I) Martín Serrano in New Mexico: An Authoritative Account of the Five Generations," 2013, available on-line.
Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. Spanish Archives of New Mexico, two volumes, 1914.
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