Santa Cruz Church Architecture

The Santa Cruz church probably was built in sections, with Juan Esteban García Noriega overseeing the construction of a rectangular building 33 varas long by 9 wide, or about 92.5' by 25'. The walls were a vara thick, or just under 3' and the height was 10 vara, or 28'. It’s not clear if these were internal or external dimensions.

It’s doors were on the eastern end, unlike cathedrals which normally have them at the west. This may have been a matter of practice. Traditionally, the priest faced east when he prayed, with his back to the congregation. In Santa Cruz, he may have faced the congregation.

There was one window over the door, facing east, and two in the gospel or south side. They all were filled with wooden bars. George Kubler suggested the placement of both the windows and door hinted at times of use. That is, eastern light was needed for morning activities and southern light for those later in the day. One on those of the side probably threw light on the altar at the western end.

Kubler noted that most church walls in Nuevo México were thicker and higher on the window side, with the roof tilted toward the other side. Windows were always a potential weakness, and directing water to the far side protected them against erosion.

Construction techniques also may have required the higher wall be thicker. He hypothesized the roof beams were raised by a team standing on top of the wall using ropes. Once a beam rested on the wooden tongues of the corbels, it had to be rotated and guided down to the other side.

Francisco Domínguez noted the roof had an unusual design, no doubt because of the extraordinary size of the building. Finding trees of an appropriate girth for more than 25', if they were external dimensions (or more than 33' in they were internal), and bringing them down from the highlands must have been a considerable undertaking.

García Noriega solved the engineering problem by making five cross beams, each from three trees. Domínguez doesn’t say, but he probably had one pointed in the opposite direction of the other two, to create similar widths that reinforced each other. They were wrought and had multiple corbels supporting them on the walls.

They would have been spaced a little over 8' apart. He then had twelve beams set across those beams, going the length of the church. They would have been less than 2' apart, and also were wrought.

The word the Franciscan Miguel de Menchero used to describe the church in 1744 that was translated as sumptuous probably referred to the massive size. The more disinterested obispbo de Durango described it as "rather large" but with "little adornment" in 1760.

García Noriega probably provided the wood himself from his land north of town. No mention is made of the men who did the actual work making and stacking the adobe bricks, hauling the timbers, or making the beams. He may have used his own captives, paid others for the use of theirs, or paid wages to man from the pueblos or local men who were available. It’s doubtful many contributed their time voluntarily, but as alcalde he may have some powers of persuasion.

José Villaseñor was told the church was being completed in 1748, which means six years after the church acquired rights to the land. The only times García Noriega would have needed large crews were when the roof beams were being set.

The floor most likely was dirt, and may have sloped from the entrance up to the altar end. It probably was used as a burial ground. Miguel Quintana was buried in the church by Antonio Galbadón in 1748. His daughter Lugarda specified in her will that she "be buried in the parish church of the Villa of Santa Cruz" the next year.

More interestingly, Juana García de los Reyes asked in her 1752 will to "be buried in the parish church of the villa in the Chapel of Our Lady of Carmen." That means that also had been built by then, probably by members of the confraternity established by Juan Mínguez.

Domínguez described it as a separate building, "outside the walls of the church" on the epistle or north side. In 1776, it was entered from the church by a "squared door in a strong wooden frame." The nave was 20 varas, or 56' long, and included 6 varas or 16' devoted to the altar. Twenty-six wrought beams supported the ceiling with corbels on the adobe walls. There were two windows on the east side with wood gratings.

She was the daughter of Francisco García and his wife María Montoya. Francisco probably was García Noriega’s brother. Her husband was Luis Martín Serrano II, the grandson of Hernán Martín Serrano.

There also was a convento for the friar, but its location at this time is not clear.

Notes: Vara to feet conversions have been rounded. The chapel and confraternity are for Our Lady of Carmel.

Chávez, Angélico. New Mexico Roots, Ltd, 1982.

Domínguez, Francisco Atanasio. A Description of New Mexico, 1776, translated by Eleanor B. Adams and Angélico Chávez as The Missions of New Mexico, 1776, 1956; has description of church, and quotation about Serna donation.

García de los Reyes, Juana. Will, 1752; published by Henrietta Martinez Christmas, 1598 New Mexico, blog entry for 1 March 2013.

Kubler, George. The Religious Architecture of New Mexico, 1990 edition.

Lomelí, Francisco A. and Clark A. Colahan. Defying the Inquisition in Colonial New Mexico, 2006; on Miguel de Quintana’s burial.

Menchero, Miguel de. Declaration, Santa Bárbara, 10 May 1744; translation in Bandelier, 1937.

Quintana, Gertrudis Lugarda de. Will, 12 May 1749; original in Ralph Emerson Twitchell, Spanish Archives of New Mexico, volume 1, 1914; English and Spanish versions in Lomelí.

Villaseñor y Sánchez, José Antonio. Theatro Americana, part 2, 1748; cited by Kubler.

Gabaldón and García de Noriega

Antonio Gabaldón and Juan Estevan García de Noriega began building the current Santa Cruz church before they formally acquired land. Miguel de Menchero told his Franciscan superiors in 1744, the local friar "is now building a sumptuous church by order of my prelates, without its costing his Majesty half a real for its material or building."

However, the building and the more constant attentions of a friar didn’t alter religious attitudes in the valley. In 1754, Manuel Trigo told his Franciscan superiors that, unlike the pueblos where Natives provided food and labor to the missions, Santa Cruz

"has only a church and a convent, whose minister is obliged to pay wages in order to obtain the necessary servants. The people are all whites, but they live in such an unregulated manner that they do everything possible to avoid paying dues, for everything is dispensed with the book of rates at hand."

The church may have been an exotic flower imported by people who were familiar with the ways of El Paso. The religious Antonio Valverde had headed the presidio there since 1699, and had been made a general in 1710. When he returned from his term as governor in 1721, he expanded his estates. In 1728, he left a ranch near the presidio and a hacienda at San Antonio de Padua near the abandoned pueblo of Senecú devoted to growing wheat. He owned nine African slaves and used more than thirty farm laborers. John Kessell’s team of translators credited these enterprises with making the settlement an economic hub.

The community included people whose parents had refused to return with the Reconquest, and new settlers attracted to the economic opportunities. Francisco Xavier came with the refugees in 1680, with his daughter, Josefa Xavier y Baca. His father was the Francisco who had settled in La Cañada, and later was proscribed by the pueblos. His wife, Juana Francisca Baca, was dead. Angélico Chávez didn’t indicate if she had been killed. He only said the girl was raised by relatives, when her father left the colony.

In 1703, García de Noriega’s first cousin, Luis García de Noriega married Xavier’s daughter. By then, she was living in Valverde’s household and was sometimes called Josefa Valverde. When Juan Estevan married in 1721, Valverde was the sponsor. Since the former governor had migrated from Spain, the connection may have been through his common law wife, María Esparza, or one of the families working for him.

Juan Estevan’s wife was Luisa Gómez del Castillo. Her grandparents were Matías Luján and Francisca Romero who had lived in La Cañada. Her mother, Juana, had children with one of the Gómez Robledos who didn’t return.

His grandfather, Alonso García, had come from Zacatecas and settled south of Santa Fé. Two of his sons, including Luis’s father, returned with the conquest. His own father, Juan García Noriega, remained behind with his wife, Francisca Sánchez de Iñigo. Two of her brothers, Pedro and Jacinto went north.

Juan Estevan’s early influences then included memories of those who didn’t return, reports of successes in Nuevo México by those who stayed in contact with their relatives, and the general prosperity of El Paso. They may have fostered the same views of self-importance that motivated which Cristóbal Tafoya Altamirano to regain his in-laws’ ancestral position.

His name first appeared in the Santa Fé court records in 1731 when he sued his wife’s uncle Juan over land he’d sold to the son-in-law of another brother, Miguel Luján. The parents of Miguel’s wife, Catalina Valdés, had migrated from Oviedo, Spain, and had come north with the settlers of 1693.

He may have been following the example of Valverde, when he came north came as a solider: he was listed as a capitán in 1733. His name appeared on land transfer records in 1736 as the local alcalde.

By then he was trying to create a ranch like Valverde. In 1737, he had two shepherds tending animals on royal lands near those of Antonio Trujillo. The recorded didn’t indicate if the men were hired help or captives.

In 1751, he filed a petition for rancho called Santa Bárbara that had been abandoned by Juan Antonio Luján. His widow was Manuel Rosalía de Beytia. Both her father and brother had been alféreces in the presidio.

Gabaldón’s ties to El Paso were more indirect. He entered the Pueblo Franciscan seminary when he was 16. His father had just died, and left his mother with an infant boy. Jim Norris noted, he came to Nuevo México in 1723 before he was old enough to have been ordained. From 1728 to 1731 he served as secretary to Menchero. Those may have been the three years Norris said he was in El Paso.

His brother Juan arrived in Santa Fé in 1731, and in 1735 married Antonia Juliana l’Archevêque She was Jean’s granddaughter through Miguel and María de Roybal. That made her the niece of Santiago de Roybal, who was the priest serving in El Paso for the Bishop of Durango. That also would have connected him with Luisa Gómez del Castillo, who was probably Santiago’s first cousin.

After that, Norris said, Galbadón’s name didn’t appear in the record until he died in 1759. He wasn’t elected to any office, he wasn’t reprimanded for leaving the mission without permission like so many, and he wasn’t moved around as much between pueblos or settlements.

Notes: For more on people on La Cañada before the revolt, see the entry for 23 March 2014 on Francisco Xavier, for 25 May 2014 on the Lujáns and for 8 June 2014 on the Romeros. María Esparza was mentioned in the post for 13 September 2015. The relationships Roybal and Gómez de Robledo were discussed in the post for 21 March 2016.

Bandelier, Adolph F. A. and Fanny R. Bandelier. Historical Documents Relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya, and Approaches Thereto, to 1773, volume 3, 1937, translated and edited by Charles Wilson Hackett.

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

Domínguez, Francisco Atanasio. A Description of New Mexico, 1776, translated by Eleanor B. Adams and Angélico Chávez as The Missions of New Mexico, 1776, 1956; on church acquisition of Serna land.

Kessell, John L., Rick Hendricks, Meredith Dodge, and Larry R. Miller. A Settling of Accounts, 2002.

Menchero, Miguel de. Declaration, Santa Bárbara, 10 May 1744; translation in Bandelier, 1937.

Naylor, Thomas H., Diana Hadley, and Mardith K. Schuetz-Miller. The Presidio and Militia on the Northern Frontier of New Spain, volume 2, part 2, 1997.

Norris, Jim. After "The Year Eighty," 2000.

Trigo, Miguel de San Juan Nepomuceno y. Letter to procurador general, José Miguel de los Ríos, Istacalco, 23 July 1754; translation in Bandelier, 1937.

Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. . Spanish Archives of New Mexico, volume 1, 1914; details on García de Noriega 1751 land petition.

United States. Court of Private Land Claims. Santa Fe district. "Juan Esteban Garcia de Noriega Grant (N.M.)."

Wikipedia. Entry on "Antonio Valverde y Cosío" described his estate when he died; its source no longer has the information on-line.