Mestizos in Zacatecas like Francisco Montes Vigil had an easier time establishing their loyalty to Spain than those who’d lived in the colony before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
Agustín de Salazar was a blind interpreter for Diego de Vargas, who was described as “proficient in his mother tongue.” He demonstrated his loyalty in 1693 in Santa Fé when he warned his superiors about hostile actions planned by the Tano speakers. He was helped out of the city by Miguel Luján, the one who had land in La Cañada that Angélico Chávez thought was kin to Juan Ruiz Cáceres and Juan Luján, also of La Cañada.
His son, António de Salazar requested land in 1714 owned by his grandfather, Alonso Martín Barba, on the west side of the Río Grande near the villa of Santa Cruz.
As near as I can tell, these were lands settled by Hernán Martín Serrano, which means António had to prove his lineage to a man who was born in Zacatecas and came north with Juan de Oñate. He and his wife, Juana Rodríguez, had two sons, Hernán and Luis, who used the land on the west side of the river mentioned by Luis Pérez Granillo in his 1695 report on La Cañada.
Juana wasn’t identified by Chávez, so it’s not clear how or if she were related to Pedro Rodríguez and Juan Luján who came from the Canary Islands to La Cañada two years later. Rodríguez was a common enough name, but the overlapping names that characterized their families also marked her own descendants. However, the confluence of names is more likely the result of general inbreeding that developed over three generations in an isolated community.
In addition to the two boys, Juana and Hernán had a daughter, María Martín, who must have inherited land north of her brothers.
María Martín was poisoned by María Bernal, probably in 1632. The daughter of Juan Griego and Pascula Bernal was then the widow of Juan Gómez Barragán and romantically involved with María Martín’s husband, Alonso Martín Barba. Before María Martín died, she had a daughter, María, who later married Bartolomé de Salazar, the grandfather of Antonio.
That much was accepted by the governor who granted him the lands.
The life of the younger María was much of a mystery to Chávez. At one point he said she “was accused of scandalous conduct” by the Inquisition.
In one place Chávez said Martín Barba’s daughter, María de los Ángeles Martín, married Gaspar de Arratia, who was dead by 1631, when she was 22. Agustín de Salazar was 33 in 1698, which means he would have been born around 1665, when this woman would have been about 56 years old.
María Martín might not have been Martín Barba’s first wife; her brother Hernán was 25 in 1632. Alonso’s daughter, María de los Ángeles Martín, was 23 that year. He was married to Francisca de Herrera Abregna by 1634, when his daughter Ana Martín’s daughter, Ynez de Zamoa, married Juan López.
Chávez also said María de los Ángeles Martín, or a sister also named María, married Francisco de Salazar, or something close: the writing wasn’t legible.
Francisco de Salazar was executed in 1643 for his involvement in the murder of Luis de Rosas in 1641. Bartolomé de Salazar, the husband of María Martín and grandfather of Antonio, was dead before 1662. Neither Salazar is identified further by Chávez, probably because neither was inventoried as part of the troops with Juan de Oñate and Bernabé de Las Casas.
Elsewhere, Chávez said the María Martín who married Bartolomé de Salazar, may also have been married to Bartolomé de Ledesma, if the two weren’t the same man. Ledesma was dead by 1667 when her brother, Hernán Martín Serrano, was the executor of the second’s estate.
Bartolomé de Salazar was alcade for Zuñi and Hopi. He and María had a daughter, Juana de Salazar, who was half Zuñi. She married Diego Luján.
Although we usually assume it’s the man who fathers an illegitimate child with a native, in this case it may have been the mother. If Agustín de Salazar was 33 in 1698 and part-Indian, he would have been born around 1665, after Bartolomé de Salazar was dead, if we can accept any dates and ages from a time without records.
Agustín married Felipa de Gamboa, the daughter of Cristóbal de Gamboa and Antonia López, a Tiwa speaker from Sandía pueblo.
Their son, António, married María de Torres, the daughter of Cristóbal de Torres and Angela de Leyva, who moved from Albuquerque to Santa Cruz to Chama after the reconquest. Her brother, Diego, was alcalde mayor for Santa Clara.
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.
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