Roque de Madrid’s Religion

Four traditions influenced religious beliefs in Santa Cruz.

Leonor Domínguez married into a family whose faith was a compound of Puebla and Hapsburg beliefs. It was a dangerous world ruled by the devil who worked through witches. As mentioned in posts for 30 March and 6 April 2014, Juan Griego’s wife, Pascuala Bernal, was a Nahuatl speaker probably from the Puebla-Veracruz area who brought herbal traditions with her. Her son married the daughter of Beatriz de los Ángeles, a Mexican native accused of sorcery.

Roque de Madrid may have been the grandson of another Mexican native, Francisca Jiménez, but his beliefs came from his grandfather, Francisco de Madrid, who was a capitán and member of the Santa Fé cabildo before the Revolt. Roque’s older brother, Lorenzo, used to call himself "the oldest Conquistador" in the colony.

Madrid evoked the Asturian legend that the disciple James aided Ramiro I in the battle of Clavijo against the Emir of Córdoba in 834. He named one place "with excellent grazing and many cienegas and springs" the Valle de Santiago. When they entered battle with the Navajo, he invoked "the name of our lord Santiago."

Instead of witches, Madrid fought infidels. He used the word entrada to describe his 1705 campaign against the unchristianized Navajo and named his first camp site in the Sierra Florida for Nuestra Señora de Covadonga. She had blessed the first battle of Spain’s Reconquest in 722. When his horse stumbled and he fell down a slope, he said "only by a miracle from La Conquistadora did I escape with my life."

His Lord was the miracle worker of the gospels. Madrid gave thanks whenever he found good pasturage or decent passage. One time he said: "God saw fit that after a little more than one-fourth of a league, I came out to a country that was somewhat easier of passage." Another time, he told his troops he had located water. "They all rejoiced and gave thanks to God."

After they crossed the Continental Divide into the arid lands south of the Navajo River, their horses were "staggering and dizzy from thirst." Madrid recorded:

"Thus, it was that our horses went among the rocks sniffing and neighing in such a way that it seemed that they understood and were asking God for water with their cries. In the midst of this affliction, our chaplain began to clamor to heaven, asking for relief; all my companions and I joined him. Our exclamations reached Heaven, and suddenly a small cloud arose giving a little rain, but it was not enough to wet our cloaks."

Instead, the small cloud dropped its load upstream. A dry arroyo turned into "a great flood" where they watered the animals. Madrid said:

"We praised God, thanking him for this miracle. Then He sent rain in such abundance that all the fields turned into lagunas. In the hour and a half that the rain lasted, the water gave us no place to halt."

The priest, Augustín de Colina, preached a sermon on the Saturday before their first assault on the Navajo. Madrid said the Franciscan reminded the men they must treat the enemy justly, and to do so they needed "to be in God’s grace." He spent the day listening to confessions "from all those who wanted to prepare themselves and enter into battle in a state of grace." The following day he celebrated the "Holy Sacrifice of the Mass."

The concern with grace probably came from the same Biblical source as Jean Calvin’s. In both cases, individuals had to prove to their neighbors they were in such a state. In New England, if they succeeded, they were accepted as members of the church and given privileges accorded the elite. In Nuevo México, they became Españoles, even if their heritage was mixed or unknown. The difference is Calvin limited the elect to those predestined from birth to be saved by God, while the friars bestowed grace through the administration of the sacraments.

Madrid’s Lord was not the Jehovah of the Puritans. He said, when they again were lacking adequate water, "I left again, trusting in God and His Most Holy Mother that they would succor me in this time of need." He named one lake Laguna de San Joseph for Christ’s guardian.

Notes:
Castrillón, Antonio Álvarez. Campaign journal for Roque Madrid’s campaign against the Navajo, republished in Rick Hendricks and John P. Wilson, The Navajos in 1705, 1996.

Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition.