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.
Showing posts with label 08 Santa Cruz 31-35. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 08 Santa Cruz 31-35. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Santa Cruz Daily Life
Jean l’Archevêque’s effects were inventoried in 1721. The list came to 98 pages. Henrietta Martinez Christmas has published a portion on her website, 1598 New Mexico. While he was living among the well-to-do in Santa Fé, some items reveal daily life anywhere in the province within the agricultural economy.
He had three cornfields to support a household of at least six: himself, his wife, his personal servant, his younger illegitimate son and his mother, and the woman who raised his children. There may have been more dependents, but these are all I’ve seen mentioned. Perhaps the mother of his son still did the cooking and cleaning, perhaps there was another woman.
As mentioned in the post for 11 March 2015, if a field was a fanega that barely fed three people, three fields were enough to support his household and leave a reserve for seed and insurance against a bad year.
To raise that corn, he had a ploughshare and three wooden points. Christmas didn’t mentioned livestock, but presumably there were some kind of work animals. The inventory also listed three iron shovels.
Archevêque probably didn’t plant or harvest his own land. The only time he might have had to work in the fields was when he was a captive living with the Hasinai. In jail and as a soldier, he probably bought his meals. He had the income to hire help, and they may have supplied their own draft animals.
His account books indicated he hired Hambrosio de Balbause in July of 1719 for some service. Given how a Frenchman would transcribe Spanish names, this might have been Ambrosio Villapando. His father, Juan de Villa el Pando, had come north as a soldier. He was dead by 1718, when Ambrosio married María Romero. He was probably a soldier, and Archevêque may have hired him over another as a posthumous favor.
Archevêque owned an ax, a necessity when wood needed to be chopped to heat the residential area and cook the meals. Everyone in the household might have used it, but more than likely this was another chore he hired done or delegated to a servant. He probably bought fire wood cut to length.
The kitchen had a copper kettle and an iron griddle. The first would have been used to boil beans or corn, the second to make tortillas. In his record of his campaign to the east, Antonio Valverde mentioned eating boiled mutton and corn gruel. He also mentioned dispensing pinole and tea. All would have required a large, metal pot.
Archevêque would have been able to purchase other foods like wheat and beef, when they were available. Indeed, in the absence of a functioning cabildo, he may have acted as a middle man letting contracts for the city’s food. One account book "listed the major and minor cattle, which Antonio Montoya shall deliver in the year 1720 by halves." Montoya was the son of Diego Montoya and María Josefa de Hinojos, who returned with the Reconquest and settled in Bernalillo.
The primary utensils in Archevêque’s household were six spoons and six forks made from silver, and two lead candlesticks. Kitchen tools included a "chocolate pitcher of copper," a silver salt cellar, "a brass mortar with its pestle," and "a large knife to pound meat."
The inventory was consistent with the trade goods Bourgmont sent to the Apache: a kettle, an axe, some awls, and some knives. It also was similar to the utensils taken by Pedro de Villasur on his military campaign: silver platters, cups, spoons, and a candlestick.
Silver probably was less dear than metals like tin used to produce pewter and military alloys. The modern inexpensive metals - stainless steel and aluminum - didn’t exist. Servants and common folk may have used wooden spoons or eaten foods wrapped in corn husks or tortillas that didn’t require tools to eat. Valverde mentioned his men ate tamales and fruit, while the Apache offered ears of corn.
Martinez didn’t mention crockery or baskets, which may have been obtained from one of the pueblos or at one of the trade fairs. China was being imported through the Philippines at Acapulco, and being manufactured in Pueblo. It may not have survived the trip north, or it may not have been in the reprinted list.
Archevêque was a merchant trader, working with his two older sons. One was in Sonora, probably buying goods, when his father was killed. The men probating the estate inventoried boxes of goods that may just have been received. They suggest some necessities still had to be imported.
These included blankets from Campeche. While some of the early settlers from Mexico City had been weavers, they may not have brought their tools with them. Bourgmont believed red Limbourge blankets were appreciated by natives on the plains.
Archevêque also supplied silk, English linen and silver buttons for clothing, and women’s shoes. Among the gifts Francisco Cuervo gave pueblo representatives were "ribbons, hats, needles, beads." While tailors came north from Mexico City, women, servants or hired help probably did much of the sewing. Archevêque’s account books indicated he’d sold finished socks to Pancho.
Among the luxury goods in the storage boxes were tobacco, two loaves of sugar, and loose chocolate. The executors paid the men opening the boxes with a plug of tobacco. The children’s caretaker, Francisca de Velasco, oversaw their work. She was given six pounds of chocolate "as a gift, with its sugar for her consumption, because she asked for it, she is old and infirm."
The executors found ingots of gold in an elk skin bag in one box. It would have been more useful buying goods in Sonora than in Santa Fé. However, Archevêque or his son, probably also took local goods down to sell, like the inventoried elk skins. I don’t know if the half pack of saddle girths was for the local market, the south, or the journey between.
Notes: Jean l’Archevêque was perhaps the most atypical man living in Nueva España, but he is the one who has been the most researched. By default, he had become the template used to understand the lives of the less conspicuous. His family unit was described in the post for 14 October 2915. Hambrosio de Balbause was hired 9 July 1719; Hambrosio de Palbanoy was hired 18 July 1719. I assume they were the same man.
Salt was collected at the salt lakes near Salinas. Juan Bustamante organized a military escort for collectors that left from Galisteo in June of 1730, and Gervasio Cruzat y Góngora announced one in August of 1732. In earlier years, when the trip was less safe, salt may have been a trade good.
According to Wikipedia, a cost-efficient manufacturing processes for aluminum didn’t exist until 1888; one for stainless steal was introduced in 1915. The diet of Valverde and his men was discussed in the post for 19 August 2015. Bourgmont’s gifts were mentioned on 20 September 2015, Villasur’s on 26 September 2015.
Chávez, Angélico. New Mexico Roots, Ltd, 1982.
_____. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition.
Christmas, Henrietta Martinez. "Jean L'Archibeque - 1720 Estate," 1598 New Mexico website, 4 April 2013.
Rael de Aguilar, Alonso. Certification, 10 January 1706, collected by Adolph F. A. Bandelier and Fanny R. Bandelier and included in Historical Documents Relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya, and Approaches Thereto, to 1773, volume 3, 1937, translated and edited by Charles Wilson Hackett; Cuervo’s list.
Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. Spanish Archives of New Mexico, two volumes, 1914; Twitchell, Archives volume 1 has notice of l’Archevêque estate; volume 2 has the announcements for salt trips.
He had three cornfields to support a household of at least six: himself, his wife, his personal servant, his younger illegitimate son and his mother, and the woman who raised his children. There may have been more dependents, but these are all I’ve seen mentioned. Perhaps the mother of his son still did the cooking and cleaning, perhaps there was another woman.
As mentioned in the post for 11 March 2015, if a field was a fanega that barely fed three people, three fields were enough to support his household and leave a reserve for seed and insurance against a bad year.
To raise that corn, he had a ploughshare and three wooden points. Christmas didn’t mentioned livestock, but presumably there were some kind of work animals. The inventory also listed three iron shovels.
Archevêque probably didn’t plant or harvest his own land. The only time he might have had to work in the fields was when he was a captive living with the Hasinai. In jail and as a soldier, he probably bought his meals. He had the income to hire help, and they may have supplied their own draft animals.
His account books indicated he hired Hambrosio de Balbause in July of 1719 for some service. Given how a Frenchman would transcribe Spanish names, this might have been Ambrosio Villapando. His father, Juan de Villa el Pando, had come north as a soldier. He was dead by 1718, when Ambrosio married María Romero. He was probably a soldier, and Archevêque may have hired him over another as a posthumous favor.
Archevêque owned an ax, a necessity when wood needed to be chopped to heat the residential area and cook the meals. Everyone in the household might have used it, but more than likely this was another chore he hired done or delegated to a servant. He probably bought fire wood cut to length.
The kitchen had a copper kettle and an iron griddle. The first would have been used to boil beans or corn, the second to make tortillas. In his record of his campaign to the east, Antonio Valverde mentioned eating boiled mutton and corn gruel. He also mentioned dispensing pinole and tea. All would have required a large, metal pot.
Archevêque would have been able to purchase other foods like wheat and beef, when they were available. Indeed, in the absence of a functioning cabildo, he may have acted as a middle man letting contracts for the city’s food. One account book "listed the major and minor cattle, which Antonio Montoya shall deliver in the year 1720 by halves." Montoya was the son of Diego Montoya and María Josefa de Hinojos, who returned with the Reconquest and settled in Bernalillo.
The primary utensils in Archevêque’s household were six spoons and six forks made from silver, and two lead candlesticks. Kitchen tools included a "chocolate pitcher of copper," a silver salt cellar, "a brass mortar with its pestle," and "a large knife to pound meat."
The inventory was consistent with the trade goods Bourgmont sent to the Apache: a kettle, an axe, some awls, and some knives. It also was similar to the utensils taken by Pedro de Villasur on his military campaign: silver platters, cups, spoons, and a candlestick.
Silver probably was less dear than metals like tin used to produce pewter and military alloys. The modern inexpensive metals - stainless steel and aluminum - didn’t exist. Servants and common folk may have used wooden spoons or eaten foods wrapped in corn husks or tortillas that didn’t require tools to eat. Valverde mentioned his men ate tamales and fruit, while the Apache offered ears of corn.
Martinez didn’t mention crockery or baskets, which may have been obtained from one of the pueblos or at one of the trade fairs. China was being imported through the Philippines at Acapulco, and being manufactured in Pueblo. It may not have survived the trip north, or it may not have been in the reprinted list.
Archevêque was a merchant trader, working with his two older sons. One was in Sonora, probably buying goods, when his father was killed. The men probating the estate inventoried boxes of goods that may just have been received. They suggest some necessities still had to be imported.
These included blankets from Campeche. While some of the early settlers from Mexico City had been weavers, they may not have brought their tools with them. Bourgmont believed red Limbourge blankets were appreciated by natives on the plains.
Archevêque also supplied silk, English linen and silver buttons for clothing, and women’s shoes. Among the gifts Francisco Cuervo gave pueblo representatives were "ribbons, hats, needles, beads." While tailors came north from Mexico City, women, servants or hired help probably did much of the sewing. Archevêque’s account books indicated he’d sold finished socks to Pancho.
Among the luxury goods in the storage boxes were tobacco, two loaves of sugar, and loose chocolate. The executors paid the men opening the boxes with a plug of tobacco. The children’s caretaker, Francisca de Velasco, oversaw their work. She was given six pounds of chocolate "as a gift, with its sugar for her consumption, because she asked for it, she is old and infirm."
The executors found ingots of gold in an elk skin bag in one box. It would have been more useful buying goods in Sonora than in Santa Fé. However, Archevêque or his son, probably also took local goods down to sell, like the inventoried elk skins. I don’t know if the half pack of saddle girths was for the local market, the south, or the journey between.
Notes: Jean l’Archevêque was perhaps the most atypical man living in Nueva España, but he is the one who has been the most researched. By default, he had become the template used to understand the lives of the less conspicuous. His family unit was described in the post for 14 October 2915. Hambrosio de Balbause was hired 9 July 1719; Hambrosio de Palbanoy was hired 18 July 1719. I assume they were the same man.
Salt was collected at the salt lakes near Salinas. Juan Bustamante organized a military escort for collectors that left from Galisteo in June of 1730, and Gervasio Cruzat y Góngora announced one in August of 1732. In earlier years, when the trip was less safe, salt may have been a trade good.
According to Wikipedia, a cost-efficient manufacturing processes for aluminum didn’t exist until 1888; one for stainless steal was introduced in 1915. The diet of Valverde and his men was discussed in the post for 19 August 2015. Bourgmont’s gifts were mentioned on 20 September 2015, Villasur’s on 26 September 2015.
Chávez, Angélico. New Mexico Roots, Ltd, 1982.
_____. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition.
Christmas, Henrietta Martinez. "Jean L'Archibeque - 1720 Estate," 1598 New Mexico website, 4 April 2013.
Rael de Aguilar, Alonso. Certification, 10 January 1706, collected by Adolph F. A. Bandelier and Fanny R. Bandelier and included in Historical Documents Relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya, and Approaches Thereto, to 1773, volume 3, 1937, translated and edited by Charles Wilson Hackett; Cuervo’s list.
Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. Spanish Archives of New Mexico, two volumes, 1914; Twitchell, Archives volume 1 has notice of l’Archevêque estate; volume 2 has the announcements for salt trips.
Wednesday, January 06, 2016
Economics and Credit
Pedro de Rivera Villalón may have exaggerated the role of governor as the sole source for currency in Nuevo México. As indicated in the last post, other people regularly went to Chihuahua and Parral where they may have traded for cash.
However, his access to the payroll did put him in an ambiguous position. He bought supplies, then sold them to soldiers and deducted the costs from their salaries at prices he controlled.
The men themselves didn’t complain because the governor, Juan de Bustamante, "was able to keep accurate records."
The governors cached money from the payroll by continuing the salaries for unfilled positions. In 1726, Rivera found there were "800 pesos from the position of Don Alonso Rael de Aguilar, which had been vacant for two years; 225 pesos from another vacant post."
In addition, the previous governor, Antonio Valverde "had 2,084 pesos on deposit, which came from Don Félix Martínez’s position." Martínez, who was governor between 1715 and 1716, had left another "2,139 pesos" that passed to Bustamante. Rivera impounded it all.
Very little of the presidio money reached Santa Cruz, except through family transactions. Agricultural societies were notoriously bereft of hard cash. Money lending in anticipation of crops greased trade that otherwise would have stagnated. Barter served as the common exchange medium.
Charles Cutter suggested the use of two currency rates hindered the accumulation of wealth in the colony. Merchants used the peso de plata when they set prices, but used the peso de la tierra when they accepted farm goods in payment. The one was worth about twice the other.
Cristóbal Tafoya Altamirano was probably typical of the middling level in the local economy. He borrowed currency, which he repaid in agricultural goods, and sold livestock where he could.
He left a record of his dealings with one of the governors. He said he had agreed to serve Martínez for 430 pesos a year, and that he had received a 200 advance from him in Mexico City and 160 in Santa Cruz.
Since Martínez’s tenure was cut short, Tafoya was left owing him 200 pesos. As of 1718, he had "paid him twenty fanegas of corn at the price of two pesos each, and three of wheat at two pesos and fifty cents each."
One doesn’t need to calculate the relative values of currencies to know a wide discrepancy existed between the 400 peso salary of an enlisted man and two pesos for a year’s worth of corn for two adults and a child or 7.5 pesos for half a year’s wheat crop.
Tafoya probably sold most of his livestock in Chihuahua where he received currency la plata. However, his balance sheet in 1718 indicated he did make strategic loans of a bull to a priest, Lucas de Arevalo, and an ox to "an Indian of Picuris, by the name of Trujillo." He had lent horses to Francisco, a war captain at Taos, and to "Juan Estevan de Apodaca, a soldier of this garrison."
Apart from work animals critical to people’s survival, Tafoya had more direct dealings with members of his extended family. He paid Tomás García for two cows that then were lent to Bartolomé Sánchez. He lent "another cow" to García. Sánchez was the "retired Ensign of this garrison" who had been caught stealing cattle with him in 1696. The other may have been Tomás García de Noriega, the stepson of his brother Antonio’s wife. The soldier had married the widow of Cristóbal de Cuéllar in 1705.
He left no indication what he expected in return for his loans, only that he expected to have the animals returned.
Notes: The cattle theft was discussed in the post for 2 February 2015. The value of a fanega was mentioned in the post for 11 March 2015.
Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition.
Cutter, Charles R. The Legal Culture of Northern New Spain, 1700-1810, 1995.
Rivera Villalón, Pedro de. Proyecto (inspection report), 1728, in Thomas H. Naylor and Charles W. Polzer, Pedro de Rivera and the Military Regulations for Northern New Spain, 1724-1729, 1988.
Tafoya, Cristobal. Will, 1718, republished by Henrietta Martinez Christmas, "Cristobal Tafoya - 1718 Will," 1598 New Mexico website, 7 July 2014.
However, his access to the payroll did put him in an ambiguous position. He bought supplies, then sold them to soldiers and deducted the costs from their salaries at prices he controlled.
The men themselves didn’t complain because the governor, Juan de Bustamante, "was able to keep accurate records."
The governors cached money from the payroll by continuing the salaries for unfilled positions. In 1726, Rivera found there were "800 pesos from the position of Don Alonso Rael de Aguilar, which had been vacant for two years; 225 pesos from another vacant post."
In addition, the previous governor, Antonio Valverde "had 2,084 pesos on deposit, which came from Don Félix Martínez’s position." Martínez, who was governor between 1715 and 1716, had left another "2,139 pesos" that passed to Bustamante. Rivera impounded it all.
Very little of the presidio money reached Santa Cruz, except through family transactions. Agricultural societies were notoriously bereft of hard cash. Money lending in anticipation of crops greased trade that otherwise would have stagnated. Barter served as the common exchange medium.
Charles Cutter suggested the use of two currency rates hindered the accumulation of wealth in the colony. Merchants used the peso de plata when they set prices, but used the peso de la tierra when they accepted farm goods in payment. The one was worth about twice the other.
Cristóbal Tafoya Altamirano was probably typical of the middling level in the local economy. He borrowed currency, which he repaid in agricultural goods, and sold livestock where he could.
He left a record of his dealings with one of the governors. He said he had agreed to serve Martínez for 430 pesos a year, and that he had received a 200 advance from him in Mexico City and 160 in Santa Cruz.
Since Martínez’s tenure was cut short, Tafoya was left owing him 200 pesos. As of 1718, he had "paid him twenty fanegas of corn at the price of two pesos each, and three of wheat at two pesos and fifty cents each."
One doesn’t need to calculate the relative values of currencies to know a wide discrepancy existed between the 400 peso salary of an enlisted man and two pesos for a year’s worth of corn for two adults and a child or 7.5 pesos for half a year’s wheat crop.
Tafoya probably sold most of his livestock in Chihuahua where he received currency la plata. However, his balance sheet in 1718 indicated he did make strategic loans of a bull to a priest, Lucas de Arevalo, and an ox to "an Indian of Picuris, by the name of Trujillo." He had lent horses to Francisco, a war captain at Taos, and to "Juan Estevan de Apodaca, a soldier of this garrison."
Apart from work animals critical to people’s survival, Tafoya had more direct dealings with members of his extended family. He paid Tomás García for two cows that then were lent to Bartolomé Sánchez. He lent "another cow" to García. Sánchez was the "retired Ensign of this garrison" who had been caught stealing cattle with him in 1696. The other may have been Tomás García de Noriega, the stepson of his brother Antonio’s wife. The soldier had married the widow of Cristóbal de Cuéllar in 1705.
He left no indication what he expected in return for his loans, only that he expected to have the animals returned.
Notes: The cattle theft was discussed in the post for 2 February 2015. The value of a fanega was mentioned in the post for 11 March 2015.
Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition.
Cutter, Charles R. The Legal Culture of Northern New Spain, 1700-1810, 1995.
Rivera Villalón, Pedro de. Proyecto (inspection report), 1728, in Thomas H. Naylor and Charles W. Polzer, Pedro de Rivera and the Military Regulations for Northern New Spain, 1724-1729, 1988.
Tafoya, Cristobal. Will, 1718, republished by Henrietta Martinez Christmas, "Cristobal Tafoya - 1718 Will," 1598 New Mexico website, 7 July 2014.
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