An encomienda was more important to defining a family’s social status than land. Its owner, an encomendero, was required to be a citizen of Santa Fé where he was usually on the governing council, the cabildo. He was also required to provide military service, which made him part of the officer corps. They became the functioning shadow government that ruled the colony through the triennial changes in governors sent from México City. Indian labor, tribute, land and wealth followed.
Juan de Herrera came with the reinforcements sent in 1600 when he was twenty, and lived in Santa Fé where he married Ana López del Castillo, a granddaughter of Asencio de Arechuleta. He was granted the encomienda of Santa Clara pueblo for his lifetime.
When Luis Pérez Granillo surveyed La Cañada in 1695 he noted Marcos de Herrera had a hacienda with “only enough land for one citizen with his family” and across the arroyo he had “another suerte and some agricultural fields.” Not only was the land separated but the location may have been less than prime. Granillo said the “house, because it was next to the arroyo or stream, was carried away by a great flood that occurred.”
The most important thing about his land was that it was next to ‘another suerte of agricultural lands follows that the convento of Santa Clara Pueblo owned and held.”
Angélico Chávez could find no tie between Marcos and Juan or his children. From the location, one may guess Marcos was an agent of the family who lived near the Santa Clara pueblo to collect tribute and otherwise oversee family interests.
Chávez noted in his own family, that the family name was often given to Indian servants or their children. He recognized some were illegitimate babies the family was willing to raise and give some position as adults.
Marcos married Francisca Gutiérrez, whose origins are equally obscure. She could be descended from Domingo Gutiérrez, one the Canary Islanders in the 1600 group, or related to Gonzalo Hernández de Benhumea who came at the same time. He brought his wife, Juana Gutiérrez, daughter, Isabel Gutiérrez, and a mulatto named Isabel. Juana’s father, Hernán Gutiérrez, lived in Morón, now part of Tamaulipas which wasn’t conquered until 1554.
The Montoya family is another with encomiendas and obscure descendants. Granillo said the “hacienda that belonged to Bartolomé Montoya is next to the arroyo. Only the ruins of the house in which he lived can be seen. It also has lands for only one citizen.”
Bartolomé Montoya arrived with the reinforcements that arrived in 1600. He had been born near Sevilla and married María de Zamora, whose father, Pedro de Zamora, had been alcalde mayor of Oaxaca. They had two daughters, three sons, and servants.
His son, Diego de Montoya lived in Santa Fé where he married Ana Martín. Her mother was supposedly poisoned by her father’s mistress, María Bernal, a granddaughter of Juan Griego. They had three children, before she died, and he remarried a widow with three girls who sometimes took his name.
Diego’s son Bartolomé inherited the encomienda of San Pedro Pueblo. Chávez believes he’s the same Bartolomé Montoya who escaped the revolt and was described as destitute in 1680. He had seven children, but Chávez couldn’t trace them from there.
The only Montoya he finds associated with the villa of Santa Cruz after the reconquest is Felipe Montoya who settled in Bernalillo after the reconquest. His daughter, María, married Cristóbal Martín Serrano, son of Hernán Martín Serrano and nephew of Luis.
Felipe’s son, Clemente, married Josefa de Herrera (Luján) in Santa Cruz in 1701 and died in 1753. The only Josefa de Herrera he mentions is the daughter of Juan de Herrera, who married Domingo Martín Serrano, the probable brother of María’s husband.
Notes:
Chávez, Angélico. Chávez: A Distinctive American Clan of New Mexico, 1989.
_____. Origins of New Mexico Families, revised 1992 edition.
Gordejuela, Juan de. “Women Who Joined Don Juan de Oñate’s New Mexican Settlement; The Gordejuela Inspection, 1600,” available on Southwest Crossroads 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.
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