Francisco Gómez Robledo came from a family of five boys and two girls. The only ones who left records of marriages were Andrés, husband of Juana Ortiz, and Francisca, second wife of Pedro Lucero de Godoy.
Two brothers, Juan and José, simply disappeared from the record, and Angélico Chávez thinks they may have returned to México sometime after Francisco was released by the Inquisition.
Francisco and his brother Bartolomé weren’t celibate military men. The one had a son called Antonio, the other a son named Bartolomé. When he appeared at Guadalupe el Paso, Francisco claimed another natural child, María. At the time he said he was married with six other young children.
The reasons Ana María and Bartolomé never married, and Francisco married a woman whose name wasn’t reported are unknown. The whiff of Jewishness may have been a factor, especially after Francisco’s trial.
Francisca’s husband’s name first appeared as a military escort for the supply train in 1616. Donald Lucero believes her father was responsible for Pedro coming north, and that he may have acted as a family representative. Angélico Chávez says he also worked the wagon trains in 1621 and 1631, which would have put him in a position to keep an eye on anything of special import in the return wagons.
He probably didn’t marry for another eight years. LaDeane Miller thinks his first wife, Petronilia de Zamora, gave birth in 1625, 1627 and 1628. She thinks Francisca had children in 1642, 1643, 1644, 1645, 1647, 1648, 1650, 1656 and 1665.
Petronilia’s son, Francisco Lucero de Godoy, became an armorer who married the daughter of Andrés López Sambrano, Josefa López de Grijalva, and inherited his property in Santa Fé. He made it to Guadalupe del Paso with a party of 22 that included his wife, children and servants. The couple returned with Diego de Vargas, but Josefa died soon after and he remarried.
After his marriage to Francisca, Pedro may have continued as a family agent. He had a share in Francisco’s tribute from Pecos in 1662, but lived in the Taos valley where Francisco had a share in encomienda of the local pueblo and an estancia. When the pueblo rebelled in 1680, Francisca, her mother Ana Robledo, and three of her daughters were killed there.
That land may be the same 61,000 acres Francisca’s son, Diego Lucero de Godoy, had north and west of the Pueblo between Arroyo Hondo and Ranchito. He was in Guadalupe del Paso on business when Taos Indians killed 32 people there. He didn’t return with the reconquest, and the grant was transferred to Antonio Martínez in 1716.
Francisco’s brother Andrés married Juana Ortiz. She was the granddaughter of Diego de Vera, a Canary Islander who had an encomienda before he was prosecuted by the Inquisition for a bigamous marriage to María de Abendaño. Her parents were Simón de Abendaño and María Ortiz, who, in turn, was the daughter of Cristóbal Baca and Ana Ortiz.
Chávez says the grandmother was also called María de Villanueva, which probably makes her a native of one of the encomiendas, dependencies or estancias granted to Alonso de Villanueva (Ocelotepec), Fernando and Pedro de Villanueva (parts of Quechula and Tecamachalco), or Juan de Villanueva (Tanzuy) in México.
After Vera was deported and the marriage annulled, María married Antonio de Salas, who, in fact, was described as the stepson of Pedro Lucero de Godoy. Chávez says the identity of his mother was a mystery. Petronilia de Zamora liked to say she had married when she was 11, which may have been less a statement of fact, that a covert way of disowning the boy who was raised with her children.
While Francisco was in jail in México City, Antonio was accused by the Inquisition of improper relations with María’s daughter, Petronila de Salas, who was married to Pedro Romero. He must have been elsewhere in 1680 when María and eight to ten of her children were killed at Pojoaque where he was the encomendero. He registered at Guadalupe del Paso, then disappeared from the record.
María’s other daughter, María Ortiz de Vera, married blacksmith Manuel Jorge, son of Juan Jorge Griego. He became the official armorer of the colony after his marriage. When she later married Diego Montoya, who was encomendero of San Pedro pueblo, she had three daughters using the Ortiz name. It was her daughter Juana who married Andrés Gómez Robledo.
Notes:
Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, revised 1992 edition.
Himmerich y Valencia, Robert. The Encomenderos of New Spain, 1521-1555, 1991.
Lucero, Donald L. The Adobe Kingdom: New Mexico, 1598-1958, as Experienced by the Families Lucero de Godoy y Baca, 2009 edition.
Miller, LaDeane. "Descendants of Juan de Leon," 2002, available on line.
Showing posts with label 02 Jews 1-5. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 02 Jews 1-5. Show all posts
Sunday, May 04, 2014
Sunday, April 27, 2014
La Cañada - Francisco Gómez Robledo
Francisco Gómez Robledo’s encounter with the Inquisition arose from the feud between the Franciscans and Bernardo López de Mendizábal. Not content with having the governor removed from office in 1660, Alonso de Posada began collecting information on him and his wife, mainly from disgruntled servants and political allies of the friars.
In 1662 the Inquisition ordered the arrest of López, his wife, and his four closest aides: Gómez, Nicholas de Aguilar, Cristóbal de Anaya Almazán, and Diego Romero. The last three were accused of heresy, but charges against Gómez escalated for reasons far removed from the squabbles for power in Santa Fé.
He had the misfortune of being Portuguese at a time when anyone Portuguese was suspect. Spain had taken control of the country in 1580 and Portugal had successfully rebelled in 1640.
After some years of uneasy truce, the Spanish began attacking Portugal in 1659 and lost each time. In 1661, Charles the II of England married the sister of the Portugese king, reopening that conflict. Anxieties ran high among those attuned to the interests of the royal court until 1665, when Spain lost to Portugal one final time.
In 1662, Francisco’s sister’s husband, Pedro Lucero de Godoy, wrote his brother, Diego Lucero de Godoy in Mexico City, that one of the Franciscans, Juan Ramírez "was supported by royal provisions from the viceroy of New Spain, hinting at political connections within the viceregal court." Diego was a lay priest there.
Gómez’s father, Francisco Gómez, was born about 1587 near Lisbon and orphaned at an early age. Angélico Chávez says his brother, a Franciscan friar, placed him with the family of Alonso de Oñate y Salazar, who brought him to México around 1604 when he was about 17.
Alonso was the son of Cristóbal Pérez de Oñate, who had gone to México City when he was 20, and later married Catalina de Salazar, daughter of México’s treasury officer. There is some consensus that Catalina was the descendant of a prominent Burgos Jewish family.
Whether Juan or Alonso knew anything about their mother’s family or that of Gómez is speculation, but Juan apparently wasn’t concerned about excluding potential conversos or marranos when he recruited men to go north with him. Indeed that may have been implicit in his demand that he be able to enlist man from any part of the kingdom of Spain.
Young Gómez may have been brought north by Juan de Oñate’s son, Cristóbal de Oñate, on one of his many trips between the México and the colony before he took over as governor in 1608. The names of people in the Oñates’ personal entourages weren’t included in official manifests.
He maintained close ties with the governors and México City. He was the military leader of the supply train escorts in 1616 and 1625, and was the designated governor when Luis de Rosas’ replacement died in 1641. By then, Francisco had married Ana Robledo, the daughter of Bartolomé Romero and Luisa López Robledo.
The evidence against Francisco junior came from Tomás Pérez Granillo, a servant of Juan Manso de Contreras, who once heard his father was a Jew. Diego de Melgarego, a servant of López de Mendizábal, claimed he’d heard López say his dad had "died with his face turned to the wall."
Many of the charges against Francisco himself came from Franciscans. Antonio de Ybargaray, report a suspected Jew, Manuel Gómez, had stayed with him 28 years before, while Nicolas de Chaves claimed he’d been called a Jewish dog for years.
The most serious charge came from Domingo López de Ocanto, who said the boys with whom he’d bathed as a teenager all knew Francisco and his brothers had been circumcised. He added Goméz had a little tail protruding from his buttocks.
López de Ocanto bore a particular grudge against López de Mendizábal: the ex-governor had revoked the encomiendas for Nambé and Jémez he’d inherited from his father, on the grounds they should have gone to his older sister.
The inquisition ordered a medical examination of Francisco which confirmed the circumcision. He claimed the scar came from some small ulcers and requested a second examination in better light. That also suggested deliberate incision.
Meantime, his brother, Bartolomé Gómez Robledo was in México with Francisco’s horses and mules, as well as tribute from Ácoma, to provide necessary help. The accused brothers, Juan and Andrés, weren’t examined. For reasons unknown, Gómez was released in 1664. For whatever reason, the Inquisition in México had lost interest.
At the time of the Pueblo Revolt, he was still on active military duty, and involved in the response by the governor, Antonio de Otermin. He died in exile at Guadalupe del Paso.
Notes:
Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, revised 1992 edition.
Esquibel. José Antonio Esquibel. "Esta Gran Familia: The Genealogy of the Lucero de Godoy Family of Mexico City," El Farolito, winter 2003, paraphrase from a genealogical website.
Granillo, Luis. Report for 12 March 1695 describing the settlement of La Cañada, included in Blood on the Boulders: The Journals of Don Diego De Vargas, New Mexico, 1694-97, volume 2, 1998, edited by John L. Kessell, Rick Hendricks, and Meredith D. Dodge.
Hordes, Stanley M. To the End of the Earth, 2005.
Sunday, April 06, 2014
La Cañada - Juan Griego’s Children
The most important thing about Juan Griego’s children is that they were mestizos and legitimate in a generation when mestizos were primarily servants or unacknowledged bastards. As a result, their marital choices were limited. After Isabel Bernal married Sebastián González, their cousins referred to their descendants "for generations" as "los Griegos" according to Angélico Chávez.
One son of Griego and Pascula Bernal, Francisco Bernal, married Bernardina Morán, who married Pedro de la Cruz when Francisco died. Catalina Bernal married Juan Durán, also called Juan de la Cruz, while Juan Griego married Pedro’s sister, Juana de la Cruz. María Bernal married Juan Gómez Barragán, who served as a Tewa interpreter, and Juana Bernal wed Diego de Moraga, a jailor whose house was near a spring by the Santa Fé swamp. The other son, Lázaro Griego, left no record.
If you took this list of names literally, you might think the Griegos were close to the Cruz family, especially since Luis Pérez Granillo says in 1695 Pedro La Cruz had a house that "is found to consist of only one room. It has lands for only one citizen and his family" while Nicolás de la Cruz had a surviving dwelling "and the lands are only those necessary to maintain his family, with pastures of the same quality."
You may even think Juan Griego had accumulated a larger than normal estate to help support his extended family because Granillo said there "is a larger suerte of land than any of the others and is very extensive. Thus, two families will be able to live here, dividing the agricultural land and pastures between them."
You would be right and wrong. When Angélico Chávez was researching his own family, who first settled in the area of the modern Santa Ana pueblo, he discovered when the father of an illegitimate child had some status, the baptismal certificate said parentage unknown. In many cases, the infant was baptized as de la Cruz, from the cross.
The usage preceded Oñate. One of the men in his expedition, Juan de la Cruz, was described as the quadroon son of Juan Rodríguez born in the valley of Toluca.
The only Nicolás de la Cruz Chávez could identify was the governor’s town crier and he may actually have been Sebastian Rodríguez, a Loandan referred to as "de nación Angola." He returned with Diego de Vargas from Guadalupe del Paso, settled in Santa Fé and married Juana de la Cruz in 1697. Only she may have been Juana Apodaca and was accused of sorcery in Santa Fé in 1712.
The association of the Juana de la Cruz name with witchcraft goes back to the wife of Juan Griego junior. Her mother was Beatriz de los Ángeles, who came with Oñate in 1595, as the Indian servant of Cristóbal de Brito, a man from the Canary islands. She married the Juan de la Cruz from Catalonia and was in demand as someone who knew herbal medicines.
When the Inquisition first became active in 1626 as the result of a Franciscan, Esteban de Perea, feuding with the governors, one of Perea’s complaints was that the current governor, Felipe de Sotelo Osorio, had brought some one from San Juan "versed in magic and black art to Santa Fé to try to save the life of a soldier who had been bewitched."
The soldier was Juan Diego Bellido, the lover of the widowed Beatriz who had beaten her. It was said she had given him a potion that ultimately killed him. During the investigation, the Inquisition representative, Alonso de Benavides, was told many women consulted her because their husbands were unfaithful, that she had magically cured María Granillo, in 1628, that Bartolomé Romeo claimed his wife and her daughter, María Pérez Granillo del Moral, had been bewitched by Beatriz’s daughter Juana, and that Hernando Márquez Sambrano had been bewitched by Juana when he beat her and that Beatriz had killed him.
When Perea reviewed the evidence years later and found it didn’t implicate a governor or raise serious issues of faith, he chose not to pursue the charges. He noted many of the witnesses were simple women, mulattos and mestizos, whose testimony could not be trusted to reveal anything more than jealousies and intrigues existed at every level of the small society of northern New México.
Juan junior knew both Tewa and Nahuatl, and served the governors and army as an interpreter. His family had acquired some social status. His mother-in-law’s husband had had the encomienda of Cuquina. His sister Isobel’s husband had the right to tribute from Humanas. By 1628, José Antonio Esquibel says he had a home in the capital, the place in La Cañada, and inherited land in Mexico City, as well as commercial contacts there.
Juan and Juana’s children should have had more marital opportunities than they had had, but their children still seem to have stayed within the neighborhood. Graciana married Francisco Xavier, Nicolás married Antonia Martín, Juan married the sister of Francisco Sáez, Juliana, Agustín married Josefa Luján and María de la Cruz Alemán married her cousin María Barragán’s widower, Diego López del Castillo.
After the reconquest, Agustín’s widow returned, remarried and feuded with her children over rights to Griego land. His son Pedro married Juana Mestas and was living in Santa Cruz in 1726.
Juan Griego the grandson and Juliana Sáez started over in Albuquerque where their son Joaquín Griego married Francisca de la Luz Candelaria. Los Griegos is now a neighborhood of the North Valley.
Notes:
Chávez, Angélico. Chávez: A Distinctive American Clan of New Mexico, 1989.
_____. Origins of New Mexico Families, revised 1992 edition.
Esquibel, José Antonio. "The Griego-Bernal Family," La Herencia, Fall 2008
Granillo, Luis. Report for 12 March 1695, included in Blood on the Boulders: The Journals of Don Diego De Vargas, New Mexico, 1694-97, volume 2, 1998, edited by John L. Kessell, Rick Hendricks, and Meredith D. Dodge.
Scholes, France V. "The First Decade of the Inquisition in New Mexico," New Mexico Historical Review 10:195-241:1935.
One son of Griego and Pascula Bernal, Francisco Bernal, married Bernardina Morán, who married Pedro de la Cruz when Francisco died. Catalina Bernal married Juan Durán, also called Juan de la Cruz, while Juan Griego married Pedro’s sister, Juana de la Cruz. María Bernal married Juan Gómez Barragán, who served as a Tewa interpreter, and Juana Bernal wed Diego de Moraga, a jailor whose house was near a spring by the Santa Fé swamp. The other son, Lázaro Griego, left no record.
If you took this list of names literally, you might think the Griegos were close to the Cruz family, especially since Luis Pérez Granillo says in 1695 Pedro La Cruz had a house that "is found to consist of only one room. It has lands for only one citizen and his family" while Nicolás de la Cruz had a surviving dwelling "and the lands are only those necessary to maintain his family, with pastures of the same quality."
You may even think Juan Griego had accumulated a larger than normal estate to help support his extended family because Granillo said there "is a larger suerte of land than any of the others and is very extensive. Thus, two families will be able to live here, dividing the agricultural land and pastures between them."
You would be right and wrong. When Angélico Chávez was researching his own family, who first settled in the area of the modern Santa Ana pueblo, he discovered when the father of an illegitimate child had some status, the baptismal certificate said parentage unknown. In many cases, the infant was baptized as de la Cruz, from the cross.
The usage preceded Oñate. One of the men in his expedition, Juan de la Cruz, was described as the quadroon son of Juan Rodríguez born in the valley of Toluca.
The only Nicolás de la Cruz Chávez could identify was the governor’s town crier and he may actually have been Sebastian Rodríguez, a Loandan referred to as "de nación Angola." He returned with Diego de Vargas from Guadalupe del Paso, settled in Santa Fé and married Juana de la Cruz in 1697. Only she may have been Juana Apodaca and was accused of sorcery in Santa Fé in 1712.
The association of the Juana de la Cruz name with witchcraft goes back to the wife of Juan Griego junior. Her mother was Beatriz de los Ángeles, who came with Oñate in 1595, as the Indian servant of Cristóbal de Brito, a man from the Canary islands. She married the Juan de la Cruz from Catalonia and was in demand as someone who knew herbal medicines.
When the Inquisition first became active in 1626 as the result of a Franciscan, Esteban de Perea, feuding with the governors, one of Perea’s complaints was that the current governor, Felipe de Sotelo Osorio, had brought some one from San Juan "versed in magic and black art to Santa Fé to try to save the life of a soldier who had been bewitched."
The soldier was Juan Diego Bellido, the lover of the widowed Beatriz who had beaten her. It was said she had given him a potion that ultimately killed him. During the investigation, the Inquisition representative, Alonso de Benavides, was told many women consulted her because their husbands were unfaithful, that she had magically cured María Granillo, in 1628, that Bartolomé Romeo claimed his wife and her daughter, María Pérez Granillo del Moral, had been bewitched by Beatriz’s daughter Juana, and that Hernando Márquez Sambrano had been bewitched by Juana when he beat her and that Beatriz had killed him.
When Perea reviewed the evidence years later and found it didn’t implicate a governor or raise serious issues of faith, he chose not to pursue the charges. He noted many of the witnesses were simple women, mulattos and mestizos, whose testimony could not be trusted to reveal anything more than jealousies and intrigues existed at every level of the small society of northern New México.
Juan junior knew both Tewa and Nahuatl, and served the governors and army as an interpreter. His family had acquired some social status. His mother-in-law’s husband had had the encomienda of Cuquina. His sister Isobel’s husband had the right to tribute from Humanas. By 1628, José Antonio Esquibel says he had a home in the capital, the place in La Cañada, and inherited land in Mexico City, as well as commercial contacts there.
Juan and Juana’s children should have had more marital opportunities than they had had, but their children still seem to have stayed within the neighborhood. Graciana married Francisco Xavier, Nicolás married Antonia Martín, Juan married the sister of Francisco Sáez, Juliana, Agustín married Josefa Luján and María de la Cruz Alemán married her cousin María Barragán’s widower, Diego López del Castillo.
After the reconquest, Agustín’s widow returned, remarried and feuded with her children over rights to Griego land. His son Pedro married Juana Mestas and was living in Santa Cruz in 1726.
Juan Griego the grandson and Juliana Sáez started over in Albuquerque where their son Joaquín Griego married Francisca de la Luz Candelaria. Los Griegos is now a neighborhood of the North Valley.
Notes:
Chávez, Angélico. Chávez: A Distinctive American Clan of New Mexico, 1989.
_____. Origins of New Mexico Families, revised 1992 edition.
Esquibel, José Antonio. "The Griego-Bernal Family," La Herencia, Fall 2008
Granillo, Luis. Report for 12 March 1695, included in Blood on the Boulders: The Journals of Don Diego De Vargas, New Mexico, 1694-97, volume 2, 1998, edited by John L. Kessell, Rick Hendricks, and Meredith D. Dodge.
Scholes, France V. "The First Decade of the Inquisition in New Mexico," New Mexico Historical Review 10:195-241:1935.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
La Cañada - Juan Griego
The fourth of the larger hacienda owners, Juan Griego, is the most enigmatic. We know nothing about him, except that he once said he was from Candia on the island of Crete, that he came with Juan de Oñate in 1595 as a married man, and that he said he was the son of Lazarus.
Stanley Hordes has speculated he may have been a covert Jew, based on an accusation made by Teresa de Aguilera y Roche, wife of Bernardo López de Mendizábal, when she was being tried by the Inquisition in Mexico City for Judaizing. She claimed he "died with a çapote in his mouth, and with his face against the wall, without desiring to reconcile himself, or to be a Christian, even in this hour and as a consequence, they say that he was buried in the hills of Santa Ana."
David Gitlitz suggests that when Jews in Spain and Portugal were forced to convert, many were able to live with the subsequence compromises until they faced death. Then, many believed "the deathbed reaffirmation of Judaism assured their place in the continuum of the ancestral tradition." For this reason, the Inquisition was especially mindful of the behavior of the dead, and in the Edicto de Fe issued by the Inquisition in Mexico City in 1639 proscribed these customs.
Gitlitz says "one of the most common and most persistent" rites was turning the heads of the dying towards the wall. Schulamith Halevy found the tradition has persisted among those living in México today. The underlying reference is to Hezekiah, king of Judah, who, when the prophet Isaiah came to warn him to prepare to die, turned his face to the wall to speak directly to God.
As with many things about Griego, so little is known you can draw any conclusion.
When Ferdinand expelled the Jews from Spain in 1492, some went to Candia, a city the Venetians had heavily fortified. In 1574, when Griego was about nine years old, they sent Giacomo Foscarini to reorganize the city. As head of the Inquisition, he was particularly hard on Jews and Greeks who did not accept the Roman Catholic church.
A blogger calling himself Iaonas proposes a different historic background. He notes that when the Turks took Constantinople in 1453, many Greeks joined the Spanish army where they were skilled artillerymen. Among the ones he names were Theodoro Griego who served in Pánfilo de Narváez’s attempt to sabotage Cortés in México, Pedro de Candia and Jorge Griego who joined Pizarro in Peru, and a different Juan Griego who was awarded a small encomienda in México for supporting Cortés.
They could both be right, one right, or both wrong. You’re still left with only two facts. Griego was apparently a commonly accepted nom de combat and, unlike many of the men who came with Oñate, he had "complete armor for himself."
The most extraordinary thing about him is that, when he was in México, he married an Indian rather than treated her as a mistress to be brought north as a servant. No more is known about Pascula Bernal than she spoke Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs and the tribes of the central valley.
Her name may have come from living in an area assigned to Francisco Bernal or Juan Bernal. Both had come to México with Narváez in 1520 and both were officially citizens (vecino) of Puebla. Francisco had encomiendas for Tanchinamol, Mecatlán and Heusco. Juan had the encomienda of Acatlán south of Puebla, according to Robert Himmerich y Valencia.
The natives in Puebla weren’t Aztec, but groups that had been conquered by them who spoke their language and supported Cortés. According to Wikipedia, Mixtecs were found in Acatlán, Popolocas in Tepexi, the Olmec-Xicalancas and Nahuas in the central part of the modern state, and the Totonacas, Mazatecos and Otomi in the north.
The Huastec of the Indian town of Tanchinamol split from the Maya and migrated to northern Veracruz around 1200bc. The Acatlán shared pottery techniques with the Olmec. Mecatlán is a Xicotepec ranchería in modern Puebla.
Pascula’s cultural heritage could have been that of any of the conquered people, or a mix. However, the fact that it probably was derived from the Puebla-Veracruz border area may explain the presence of çapote. Casimiroa edulis is a subtropical tree with a perishable, sweet fruit that wouldn’t grow here or survive transport by wagon train. More likely it was the large pit Teresa heard about.
About thirty years before the Oñate expedition, Spanish botanist Francisco Hernández found cochiztzaputl fruit produced drowsiness and the seeds were poisonous. In the same years, Florentine Codex compiler Bernardino de Sahagún was told by the Aztec they used it as a sedative and that "it brings, it lowers the star of the night."
White sapote commonly has been used to treat rheumatism and arthritis in Mesoamerica. The Mayo used the leaves to lower blood pressure, while Costa Ricans used them to treat diabetes.
Griego may have been suffering from any of these ailments and been treated by Pascula, or he may have been in such pain she gave him something to sleep, or, acceding to his request, may have prepared him to die and given him a toxic dose.
Gitlitz says it was common for Spanish conversos "to ease the journey of the deceased with offerings of food and money." The Mayan placed corn and stone beads in the mouths of the dead for the same reason.
You may take Griego at face value, as have descendants who have identified ancestors for both him and his wife, or you may take his reference to his father as a sign he spoke in riddles. He could have been a Spanish Jew in exile or a Greek. She may have had Mayan ancestors or not.
All we know is that they both died far from their native homes, strangers in a strange, strange land.
Notes: Hezekiah is found in Isaiah 38:2-3 and Kings 20:2.
Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, revised 1992 edition.
Gitlitz, David M. Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews, 1996; he mentions a twentieth century Portuguese legend that Jews, to avoid contamination by the last rites, asphyxiated a dying relative so he would be dead before the priest arrived.
Halevy, Schulamith Chava. Descendants of the Anusim (Crypto-Jews) in Contemporary Mexico, 2009.
Hernández, Francisco. Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae, published in 1651 and cited by Morton.
Himmerich y Valencia, Robert. The Encomenderos of New Spain, 1521-1555, 1991. Juan Bernal had three sons, one who became a priest, a second Juan who lived on a government pension, and a third who died young. Nothing more is known about Francisco.
Hordes, Stanley M. To the End of the Earth, 2005.
Iaonas. "Greek Conquistadors and Explorers in the Spanish Army," Blogspot website, 11 December 2011.
Morton, Julia F. Fruits of Warm Climates, 1987.
Sahagún, Bernardino de. Historia Universal de las Cosas de Nueva España, c.1577, translated as Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain, Book XI - Earthly Things by Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson, 1963.
Wikipedia. "Puebla" downloaded 5 March 2012.
Yetman, David and Thomas R. Van Devender. Mayo Ethnobotany, 2002.
Stanley Hordes has speculated he may have been a covert Jew, based on an accusation made by Teresa de Aguilera y Roche, wife of Bernardo López de Mendizábal, when she was being tried by the Inquisition in Mexico City for Judaizing. She claimed he "died with a çapote in his mouth, and with his face against the wall, without desiring to reconcile himself, or to be a Christian, even in this hour and as a consequence, they say that he was buried in the hills of Santa Ana."
David Gitlitz suggests that when Jews in Spain and Portugal were forced to convert, many were able to live with the subsequence compromises until they faced death. Then, many believed "the deathbed reaffirmation of Judaism assured their place in the continuum of the ancestral tradition." For this reason, the Inquisition was especially mindful of the behavior of the dead, and in the Edicto de Fe issued by the Inquisition in Mexico City in 1639 proscribed these customs.
Gitlitz says "one of the most common and most persistent" rites was turning the heads of the dying towards the wall. Schulamith Halevy found the tradition has persisted among those living in México today. The underlying reference is to Hezekiah, king of Judah, who, when the prophet Isaiah came to warn him to prepare to die, turned his face to the wall to speak directly to God.
As with many things about Griego, so little is known you can draw any conclusion.
When Ferdinand expelled the Jews from Spain in 1492, some went to Candia, a city the Venetians had heavily fortified. In 1574, when Griego was about nine years old, they sent Giacomo Foscarini to reorganize the city. As head of the Inquisition, he was particularly hard on Jews and Greeks who did not accept the Roman Catholic church.
A blogger calling himself Iaonas proposes a different historic background. He notes that when the Turks took Constantinople in 1453, many Greeks joined the Spanish army where they were skilled artillerymen. Among the ones he names were Theodoro Griego who served in Pánfilo de Narváez’s attempt to sabotage Cortés in México, Pedro de Candia and Jorge Griego who joined Pizarro in Peru, and a different Juan Griego who was awarded a small encomienda in México for supporting Cortés.
They could both be right, one right, or both wrong. You’re still left with only two facts. Griego was apparently a commonly accepted nom de combat and, unlike many of the men who came with Oñate, he had "complete armor for himself."
The most extraordinary thing about him is that, when he was in México, he married an Indian rather than treated her as a mistress to be brought north as a servant. No more is known about Pascula Bernal than she spoke Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs and the tribes of the central valley.
Her name may have come from living in an area assigned to Francisco Bernal or Juan Bernal. Both had come to México with Narváez in 1520 and both were officially citizens (vecino) of Puebla. Francisco had encomiendas for Tanchinamol, Mecatlán and Heusco. Juan had the encomienda of Acatlán south of Puebla, according to Robert Himmerich y Valencia.
The natives in Puebla weren’t Aztec, but groups that had been conquered by them who spoke their language and supported Cortés. According to Wikipedia, Mixtecs were found in Acatlán, Popolocas in Tepexi, the Olmec-Xicalancas and Nahuas in the central part of the modern state, and the Totonacas, Mazatecos and Otomi in the north.
The Huastec of the Indian town of Tanchinamol split from the Maya and migrated to northern Veracruz around 1200bc. The Acatlán shared pottery techniques with the Olmec. Mecatlán is a Xicotepec ranchería in modern Puebla.
Pascula’s cultural heritage could have been that of any of the conquered people, or a mix. However, the fact that it probably was derived from the Puebla-Veracruz border area may explain the presence of çapote. Casimiroa edulis is a subtropical tree with a perishable, sweet fruit that wouldn’t grow here or survive transport by wagon train. More likely it was the large pit Teresa heard about.
About thirty years before the Oñate expedition, Spanish botanist Francisco Hernández found cochiztzaputl fruit produced drowsiness and the seeds were poisonous. In the same years, Florentine Codex compiler Bernardino de Sahagún was told by the Aztec they used it as a sedative and that "it brings, it lowers the star of the night."
White sapote commonly has been used to treat rheumatism and arthritis in Mesoamerica. The Mayo used the leaves to lower blood pressure, while Costa Ricans used them to treat diabetes.
Griego may have been suffering from any of these ailments and been treated by Pascula, or he may have been in such pain she gave him something to sleep, or, acceding to his request, may have prepared him to die and given him a toxic dose.
Gitlitz says it was common for Spanish conversos "to ease the journey of the deceased with offerings of food and money." The Mayan placed corn and stone beads in the mouths of the dead for the same reason.
You may take Griego at face value, as have descendants who have identified ancestors for both him and his wife, or you may take his reference to his father as a sign he spoke in riddles. He could have been a Spanish Jew in exile or a Greek. She may have had Mayan ancestors or not.
All we know is that they both died far from their native homes, strangers in a strange, strange land.
Notes: Hezekiah is found in Isaiah 38:2-3 and Kings 20:2.
Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, revised 1992 edition.
Gitlitz, David M. Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews, 1996; he mentions a twentieth century Portuguese legend that Jews, to avoid contamination by the last rites, asphyxiated a dying relative so he would be dead before the priest arrived.
Halevy, Schulamith Chava. Descendants of the Anusim (Crypto-Jews) in Contemporary Mexico, 2009.
Hernández, Francisco. Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae, published in 1651 and cited by Morton.
Himmerich y Valencia, Robert. The Encomenderos of New Spain, 1521-1555, 1991. Juan Bernal had three sons, one who became a priest, a second Juan who lived on a government pension, and a third who died young. Nothing more is known about Francisco.
Hordes, Stanley M. To the End of the Earth, 2005.
Iaonas. "Greek Conquistadors and Explorers in the Spanish Army," Blogspot website, 11 December 2011.
Morton, Julia F. Fruits of Warm Climates, 1987.
Sahagún, Bernardino de. Historia Universal de las Cosas de Nueva España, c.1577, translated as Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain, Book XI - Earthly Things by Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson, 1963.
Wikipedia. "Puebla" downloaded 5 March 2012.
Yetman, David and Thomas R. Van Devender. Mayo Ethnobotany, 2002.
Monday, March 17, 2014
La Cañada - Large Land Owners
The larger land owners, that is those who owned enough land in La Cañada before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 to support more than one family, resembled the upwardly mobile in any small community after the Renaissance.
They often are in, but not part of their communities, because they arrive with ambitions, accumulate wealth, often through political connections, and leave when conditions warrant.
The largest land holding after that of the Martín Serrano family belonged to Sebastián González. He apparently was an absentee land owner because Luis Granillo reported "Alonso del Río had possession. Another two families had parts of this hacienda, so three families can fit and settle on this site. Its lands are of better quality."
According to Angélico Chávez, González didn’t appear in the public record until 1626, when he was described as an alférez (low level military officer) from Portugal. Chávez thinks he could have been the son of Diego Blandín, who was sentenced to join Juan de Oñate in 1598 by the Royal Audencía. Blandín was the son of Diego González from Coimbra, where covert Jewish practices were suspected, according to Stanley Hordes.
González married Isabel Bernal, the daughter of his neighbor next in La Cañada, Juan Griego, but apparently remained in Santa Fé where he and his children rose through the ranks of middling officials.
In 1642 he had was a regent of the colony. One son, Diego González Bernal was alcalde mayor of San Macros Pueblo in 1661. Two years later he as alcalde mayor of Galisteo pueblo, when he supported Bernardo López de Mendizábal against the Franciscans, then fled to Mexico for safety
In the same year, his brother Antonio González Bernal was acting secretary to the cabildo (governing council appointed by the governor). Others were less conspicuous. Many didn’t return in the reconquest, but some women were trying to regain the property of their mother. One, Melchora Bas González lived in Santa Cruz.
The next largest land owner in La Cañada, Ambrosio Sáez, came from Nueva Vizcaya with his wife, Ana Rodríguez de Anaya. He first appeared in the public record in 1665 in the military in the Sandía area, and later moved north. He was still in the military in 1680.
He, his wife, and ten children made it to Guadalupe del Paso where his son, Agustín Sáez’s wife died. Leonor de Herrera was the daughter of Marcos de Herrera. The family fled the refuge camp for México, although Agustín subsequently enlisted in the reconquest and came north with his new wife, Antonio Márquez.
Santa Fé banished him for adultery in 1701. His daughter, Juliana, married Juan Griego’s grandson. His son, Francisco Sáez, married Juana Herrera of Santa Cruz. Her parents were among the recruits who settled in the villa in 1696.
In describing Ambrosio’s land, Luis Granillo noted that "part of the rebel Tewa Indians from Tesuque Pueblo were camped out here last year, 1694, in order to take advantage of planting the land. For that reason, there are good dwellings. In my opinion, two or three citizens can settle with their families on this hacienda."
Notes:
Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, revised 1992 edition.
Granillo, Luis. Report for 12 March 1695, included Blood on the Boulders: The Journals of Don Diego De Vargas, New Mexico, 1694-97, volume 2, 1998, edited by John L. Kessell, Rick Hendricks, and Meredith D. Dodge.
Hordes, Stanley M. To The End of the Earth, 2005.
They often are in, but not part of their communities, because they arrive with ambitions, accumulate wealth, often through political connections, and leave when conditions warrant.
The largest land holding after that of the Martín Serrano family belonged to Sebastián González. He apparently was an absentee land owner because Luis Granillo reported "Alonso del Río had possession. Another two families had parts of this hacienda, so three families can fit and settle on this site. Its lands are of better quality."
According to Angélico Chávez, González didn’t appear in the public record until 1626, when he was described as an alférez (low level military officer) from Portugal. Chávez thinks he could have been the son of Diego Blandín, who was sentenced to join Juan de Oñate in 1598 by the Royal Audencía. Blandín was the son of Diego González from Coimbra, where covert Jewish practices were suspected, according to Stanley Hordes.
González married Isabel Bernal, the daughter of his neighbor next in La Cañada, Juan Griego, but apparently remained in Santa Fé where he and his children rose through the ranks of middling officials.
In 1642 he had was a regent of the colony. One son, Diego González Bernal was alcalde mayor of San Macros Pueblo in 1661. Two years later he as alcalde mayor of Galisteo pueblo, when he supported Bernardo López de Mendizábal against the Franciscans, then fled to Mexico for safety
In the same year, his brother Antonio González Bernal was acting secretary to the cabildo (governing council appointed by the governor). Others were less conspicuous. Many didn’t return in the reconquest, but some women were trying to regain the property of their mother. One, Melchora Bas González lived in Santa Cruz.
The next largest land owner in La Cañada, Ambrosio Sáez, came from Nueva Vizcaya with his wife, Ana Rodríguez de Anaya. He first appeared in the public record in 1665 in the military in the Sandía area, and later moved north. He was still in the military in 1680.
He, his wife, and ten children made it to Guadalupe del Paso where his son, Agustín Sáez’s wife died. Leonor de Herrera was the daughter of Marcos de Herrera. The family fled the refuge camp for México, although Agustín subsequently enlisted in the reconquest and came north with his new wife, Antonio Márquez.
Santa Fé banished him for adultery in 1701. His daughter, Juliana, married Juan Griego’s grandson. His son, Francisco Sáez, married Juana Herrera of Santa Cruz. Her parents were among the recruits who settled in the villa in 1696.
In describing Ambrosio’s land, Luis Granillo noted that "part of the rebel Tewa Indians from Tesuque Pueblo were camped out here last year, 1694, in order to take advantage of planting the land. For that reason, there are good dwellings. In my opinion, two or three citizens can settle with their families on this hacienda."
Notes:
Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, revised 1992 edition.
Granillo, Luis. Report for 12 March 1695, included Blood on the Boulders: The Journals of Don Diego De Vargas, New Mexico, 1694-97, volume 2, 1998, edited by John L. Kessell, Rick Hendricks, and Meredith D. Dodge.
Hordes, Stanley M. To The End of the Earth, 2005.
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