Families in Santa Cruz were less able to handle problem members through manipulating the external justice system than were those in the more closely-knit Chimayó. Conflicts could simmer then erupt into violence.
In 1714, Diego Martín Moraga was tried for injuring a carreta maker, José Vasques. José de Atenza brought criminal charges against Francisco Afan de Ribera in 1724 for attacking him and his son Gregorio. Ribera was a merchant, and his inventory was seized during proceedings.
José Antonio Naranjo wounded Lorenzo Jaramillo so badly in 1731, the man died. Naranjo fled. The proceedings in the archives are incomplete. Lorenzo was the son of Roque Jaramillo and José Antonio the son of José López Naranjo.
A land dispute between Cristóbal Tafoya and Isabel González lasted for years. Before the Pueblo Revolt, Juan de Herrera and Ana López del Castillo owned land in La Cañada. Their son Miguel married Antonia Archuleta, sister of Isabel’s husband Juan de Archuleta. Their daughter Isabel married Tafoya.
In addition, Ana had another daughter, known as María Herrera or de Tapia. She married Diego de Velasco, a lame carpenter. The two inherited Ana’s property.
In 1712, Miguel Herrera broke into his stepsister’s house and assaulted her husband. Velasco killed him. Apparently Miguel’s wife died before 1715, and her share of Miguel’s land went to Isabel González as the widow of Antonia’s brother Juan.
Cristóbal Tafoya civil filed a suit against González in 1715 over land. It apparently wasn’t resolved, because her son Diego broke into Tafoya’s house in 1719 and beat his wife, Isabel Herrera, and Tafoya’s nephew. He was probably Cristóbal, the son of Antonio Tafoya.
The tangled affairs of Francisco Xavier Romero were simple compared to those of old La Cañada families like the González Bernals and López del Castillos. After he was convicted of killing a steer owned by a member of Santa Clara, he had been exiled to Albuquerque. In 1716, settlers in Santa Cruz asked to have him return. He had become their local barber.
One of his young male patients complained in 1728 that he had made overtures to him. Those who testified in the criminal case indicated it wasn’t an isolated instance. Romero’s daughter Juana María had married Juan Antonio López, who had been accused of breaking into the home of Juan de Dios Romero and "ill-treating" two young men in 1719. Most of the records have disappeared from the archives.
Notes: Barbers were the physicians who bled patients; for more information, see the entry for 16 April 2015.
Athearn, Frederic J. A Forgotten Kingdom, 1978; surveys crimes.
Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition.
Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. Spanish Archives of New Mexico, two volumes, 1914.
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