They became entangled in the political feud between Diego de Vargas and his successor, Pedro Cubero. In 1696, Cristóbal was in jail for stealing cattle along with Bartolomé Sánchez of Querétaro and Miguel Gutíerrez of San Luis Potosí. Antonio Gutíerrez de Figueroa of Zacatecas claimed de Vargas sent the three “gifts of chocolate, knives, and anything else they sent to ask of him” and that he asked Francisco de Anaya Almazán “to drop his complaint.”
The following year, Cubero was using Cristóbal’s brother as a courier to deliver documents to the viceroy. Since Cubero believed de Vargas ally Juan Páez Hurtado wanted to kill Juan Tafoya, one can assume the packet was related to the case Cubero was building against Vargas.
Whether the brothers, in fact, were committed conspirators, or simply men looking for ways to profit from the venality of their superiors is open to interpretation. Others made protestations against involvement. Antonio Gutíerrez protested that de Vargas’ assistant, Alfonso Rael de Aguilar, “should not involve him in those matters.” Similarly, the man who testified about Juan Tafoya, Juan Roque Gutíerrez, claimed he and Miguel de Herrera had told a representative from de Vargas “they did not want to get involved in such a big, complicated mess.”
A year later, in 1698, Cristóbal married Miguel de Herrera’s sister, Isabel. That placed him amongst survivors from the Pueblo Revolt who were hoping to recoup their losses. Miguel and Isabel were the children of Ana López del Castillo and Juan de Herrera who held the encomienda of Santa Clara. Juan was dead before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, but family grievances no doubt were perpetuated.
The association with refugee families in El Paso had been formed earlier. Cristóbal fathered a child by Lucía Varela Jaramillo, probably before the widow remarried in 1696. Her father, Pedro, had escaped the Pueblo Revolt as a 60-year-old capitán. Her first husband, Bartolomé Romero de Pedraza, had been an adjutant in Santa Fé with land in La Cañada. Witnesses for her second wedding included Fernando Durán y Chaves and Baltasar Romero.
Cristóbal’s brother Antonio married María Louisa Godines in 1697. She was the 17-year-old widow of Alonso García de Noriega, the uncle of both Leonor Domínguez Mendoza and Alonso Rael de Aguilar. The likely atmosphere in their family circle was discussed in the post for 5 April 2015.
In 1707 Cristóbal and Juan were in trouble again for stealing oxen. Juan had married Josefa Pacheco, the widow of José Baca. After she died in 1707, her great-uncle Nicolás Ortiz brought suit over the mistreatment of one her daughters and the abuse of an Indian captive, perhaps one of the Apache he had sponsored in 1705.
When Juan tried to marry another member of the extended Baca clan in 1708, the illegitimate stepsister of María Durán y Chaves claimed she had had relations with Juan and that Cristóbal knew about it. At the time Juan had one known illegitimate son, Cristóbal. Angélico Chávez didn’t think the marriage of Fernando Durán y Chaves’s daughter occurred.
It’s not known when Cristóbal retired from the military. His brother Antonio remained with the presidio, and was with Juan Páez Hurtado in his 1715 expedition against the Faraón Apache.
Cristóbal made his will in 1718. At that time he had two sons, Juan and Antonio, and acknowledged two daughters by other women, Antonia Tafoya Jaramillo and Gertrudis de Tafoya Ruiz. His brother Anthony’s oldest boy, Cristóbal, also lived in his household.
He declared he had “a ranch with its necessary lands for agriculture” along with “seventy-eight head of cattle and four yoke of oxen, together with equipment and a cart. Thirty head of sheep. Fifty-four head of horses and mares, and three mules.”
After this, the record becomes confusing. Cristóbal’s older son, Juan, had married a cousin, Antonia González Bas, in 1716. Her parents were María López del Castillo and Juan González Bas. González was the great-grandson of Juan Griego and Pascula Bernal through their daughter Isabel Bernal. María was the daughter of Pedro López del Castillo and María de Ortega.
Cristóbal’s wife’s grandfather was Diego López del Castillo. He migrated from Sevilla and may have come north with the military or may have followed Matías López del Castillo, who had been in the solider escort for the Santa Fé supply train in 1628. Diego married María de la Cruz Alemán in 1664. She was the granddaughter of Juan Griego and Pascula Bernal through their son Juan Griego.
Chávez suspects the two men were brothers. He doesn’t guess if Pedro was the son of one or related to a brother who remained in México or Spain.
Juan’s brother, Antonio, married his wife’s sister, Prudencia González Bas, in 1722. These marriages reinforced the brothers’ ties to the Juan de Herrera inheritance of their mother. Two years later they made their claim for Santa Clara land, perhaps land they thought was rightfully theirs.
The death date of their father Cristóbal became obscured when a man who said he was their father was present when the Santa Clara protested the grant in 1724. Cristóbal Torres, the alcalde for Santa Clara, should have recognized Cristóbal and would have heard if here dead.
This was the same Cristóbal Torres mentioned in the post for 21 October 2015 who was distributing some of the land in his 1724 grant along the Chama river to the widowed María Margarita Trujillo. In 1719, the daughter of Jose Trujillo and Antonia Luján had married the 20-year-old illegitimate son of the senior Tafoya’s brother Juan. To keep the Cristóbals straight, they called this one El Moso.
Notes: Juan de Herrera was discussed in the post for 13 April 2014. The Spanish origins of the Tafoyas aren’t known. Altamirano usually refers to someone from the area of Altamira in Cantabria.
Arias de Quirós, Diego. “Report on the Costs for One Hundred Soldiers of Santa Fe,” August 1697?, in Kessell 2000.
Chávez, Angélico. New Mexico Roots, Ltd, 1982.
_____. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition. Fernando Durán y Chaves was an ancestor of Chávez.
Gutíerrez, Juan Roque. Statement, 3 December 1697, in Kessell, 2000.
Gutíerrez de Figueroa, Antonio. Statement, 3 December 1697, in Kessell, 2000.
Kessell, John L., Rick Hendricks, Meredith D. Dodge, and Larry D. Miller. That Disturbances Cease, 2000.
_____, _____, _____. To the Royal Crown Restored, 1995.
Tafoya, Cristobal. Will, 1718, republished by Henrietta Martinez Christmas, “Cristobal Tafoya - 1718 Will,” 1598 New Mexico website, 7 July 2014.
Thomas, Alfred B. After Coronado, 1935; contains 1715 rosters for August 28 and August 30 for Juan Páez Hurtado expedition.
No comments:
Post a Comment