Maldonado Journey to the Kingdom of New Mexico: Volume One

By Gilbert Maldonado

Maldonado traces the journey of his family from Scandinavia and the Holy Land to Spain and Portugal and finally to the Kingdom of New Mexico. Arriving in 1598 with the expedition of Juan de Oate, his ancestors were some of the first settlers of New Mexico. Of the 144 original Spanish/Portuguese colonial families from the 16th and 17th centuries listed by historian and cousin Fray Anglico Chvez, in his pioneering book Origins of New Mexico Families/A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period, 119 are on the Maldonado family tree. From the 18th century, 174 of the 277 colonial families identified by Chvez are also on the Maldonado family tree. Over 5,300 names comprise the Maldonado tree - many of them important figures in the annals of New Mexico history. Maldonado's family tree proves the old adage that everyone in New Mexico is a primo, cousin.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Feb 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490722498

Gilbert Maldonado

Gilbert T. Maldonado is the thirteenth generation of his family born in New Mexico. He is first vice president of the Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico where he has written numerous articles on the genealogies of the first families of New Mexico. He retired after forty-two years of service with the US government. His last assignment was as Title X program manager for the Department of Energy in charge of remediating all radioactive mill-tailing sites in the continental United States. During the Vietnam War, he served as a Vietnam Era captain with the US Air Force. Maldonado holds master’s degrees from two universities. He resides in Albuquerque with his wife, Susie, daughters Lisa Maldonado and Cathy Jones, son-in-law Mark Jones, and grandson Coleton.

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© Copyright 2014 Gilbert Maldonado.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Cover photo by Susie G. Maldonado, May 30, 2009

ISBN: 978-1-4907-2250-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-2249-8 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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CONTENTS

About the Cover

Preface

Introduction

Genealogy

Dictionary

Chapter 1     A Matter of Identity

Chapter 2     The Search Begins

Chapter 3     Ancestral Movements

Chapter 4     Oñate Colonists of 1597-1600

Chapter 5     Maldonados in Seventeenth-Century New Mexico

Chapter 6     Founders of New Mexico Cities and Towns

Chapter 7     Origins and Legends of the Maldonado/Baldonado Names

Chapter 8     Celtic Ancestry

Chapter 9     Viking Ancestry

Chapter 10   The Trejos

Chapter 11   Jewish Ancestry

Chapter 12   Hidalgos

Chapter 13   Land Grants

Chapter 14   The Rosas Affair

Chapter 15   Traditions

Chapter 16   Proverbs

Chapter 17   Little-Known Facts

Epilogue

Bibliography

Appendix 1: Ahnentafel of Gilbert Maldonado

Appendix 2: Descendants of Juan Antonio Montaño de Sotomayor

Endnotes

ABOUT THE COVER

The Maldonado coat of arms illustrated on the cover is the facade of the Maldonado Castle, also known as the Casa de las Conchas (House of Shells), a historical building in Salamanca, Spain. This photo shows the Maldonado coat of arms displayed over the front door to the castle, which currently houses a public library. Salamanca became the seat of the Maldonado family following the creation of the family name, from around the third generation (circa 1324), if not from the beginning.

The Maldonado Castle was built from 1493 to 1517 by Rodrigo Arias de Maldonado, knight of the Order of Santiago de Compostela, and a professor at the University of Salamanca. Its most interesting feature is the facade, mixing late Gothic and Plateresque style, decorated with more than three hundred shells, symbol of the Order of Santiago. Each shell signifies one pilgrimage along the Way of St. James by the Maldonado family. Pilgrims brought seashells to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (where the apostle James is said to be buried) for absolution of their sins, and to indicate they had traveled a great distance, such as from the sea.

The entrance portal has the coat of arms of the Maldonado family over the door, while in the architrave are dolphins, a Renaissance symbol of love, and vegetables. In the facade are also the coat of arms of the Catholic monarchs and four windows in Gothic style, each one having a different shape. The inner court is characterized, in the lower floor, by arches supported by square pilasters, while in the upper ones they are supported by shorter columns in Carrara marble.

The Maldonado coat of arms also appears on the walls, around the windows, and on the other architectural features inside the castle. It features five fleurs-de-lis supported by angels, lions, and other creatures, and is sometimes circled with laurel. The Spanish description is De gules, con cinco flores-de-lis de oro, puestas en sotuer (On a field of red, five gold lilies, placed like an X).

Red was chosen to show the charity, daring nature, magnanimity, and fervor of the Maldonados, who were pledged to help the oppressed. Gold symbolizes their sense of justice, mercy, purity, seriousness in duty, constancy in danger, and commitment to help the poor and defend the kingdom. The lilies, which give off a sweet aroma when crushed, were signs of generosity in the face of injury and insult.

Maldonado

Journey to the Kingdom of New Mexico

Volume One

__________________

Compiled and Published

by

Gilbert T. Maldonado

Manager, National Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Program

Title I

Retired

PREFACE

If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research.

—Albert Einstein

A work such as this is rarely the product of one person. While the end result is mine, it owes its existence to the building blocks of many people, among whom are numerous historians and genealogists from New Mexico.

First and foremost, thanks go to our ancestors who risked their lives to come to the ends of the earth¹ to escape the Spanish Inquisition in search of freedom and prosperity for their descendants. Their careful preservation of the record made it possible for me to participate in the discovery of such a grand ancestry. Bringing together the records of this family has been a labor of love, and I hope this volume meets with a kind reception among those for whom it has been especially prepared.

While absolute perfection is admirable, I thought it best to publish this pioneer genealogy at this time, hoping to disseminate available information and stimulate inquiry about our ancestry, so that we may be bound closer together as one great family, whether by the name of Maldonado or otherwise.

The search for this ancestry has largely increased my respect and admiration for this family, and I believe that it compares favorably with the genealogies of other Spanish colonial families of New Mexico whose genealogical records have been carefully preserved in the Spanish Archives of Santa Fe. From the Old Testament, the Lord beseeches us to do all we can to perfect and preserve our own. In the language of Job 8:8, For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers.

Thanks go to all of those who contributed records and information, which includes hundreds of persons at present and throughout the ages.

Special thanks go to Robert Beto Baldonado Isaac, a cousin many times over, who initiated the search for our family and provided critical and voluminous research. His research helped to connect the dots between the Montaño and Maldonado names, proving they were the same family and, thus, opening the door to finding our other ancestors. Beto was the first to untangle the tangled web of our name by discovering that José Montaño was actually José Maldonado, my fourth great-grandfather. José Maldonado and his wife, María Dolores Benavides, connected us to the 1598 founders of the Kingdom of New Mexico, who came under the leadership of don Juan de Oñate. The ancestry of these conquistadors took us to places beyond the sea.

Our heartfelt gratitude goes to Fray Angélico Chávez, another cousin many times over, for researching and writing Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period, Revised Edition, which included Juan Antonio Montaño de Sotomayor and his family among many of our other ancestors. Juan Antonio’s son, Juan Antonio Montaño Maldonado, was the first in the family to go by the name Maldonado exclusively in the Kingdom of New Mexico. His descendants are found throughout New Mexico, as well as in most of the remaining United States and distant lands.

Many thanks go to my niece Laura Annette Galván Lucero for taking charge of the photography and helping her aunt Susie Maldonado take the photographs.

Thanks go to José Antonio Esquibel for making available his website Beyond Origins of New Mexico Families, from which I gained valuable information.

Thanks go to the board of directors of the Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico, past and present, for their contributions to New Mexico genealogy: Ronaldo Miera, President, Gilbert Maldonado, First Vice President, Jill Montoya, Second Vice President, Francisco Sisneros, Third Vice President, Victoria Candelaria, Correspondence Secretary, Dorothy Chávez Wiskup, Recording Secretary, P. Robert García, Treasurer, John Peña and Marlin Aker, Members at Large, Ernestino Tafoya, former treasurer, and Gloria Sánchez, former correspondence secretary.

I am particularly indebted to my wife, María de Jesús Galván (Susie), who not only provided photographs, valuable suggestions, and review, but whose greatest contribution may have been her willingness to spend many an evening alone while I labored over this project.

Gilbert T. Maldonado

Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 30, 2012

INTRODUCTION

If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten; either write things worthy of reading, or do things worthy of writing.

—Benjamin Franklin

This genealogy compilation documents the descendants of Juan Antonio Montaño de Sotomayor. His son, Juan Antonio Montaño Maldonado, was the first person in the family to assume the Maldonado name. Juan Antonio Montaño Maldonado and his wife, Ygnacia Lucero, were the first couple in the family to carry the Maldonado surname in New Mexico.

The compilation documents the descendants of the brothers Jesús García Baldonado and Pedro García Maldonado. Together they account for most of the Maldonado and Baldonado descendants living today in Las Cruces, Silver City, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The few descendants that we were able to find of two other siblings, Ygnacio García and Rafael García Maldonado, are included in the genealogy, as well.

This type of compilation is referred to as an NGSQ Modified Register. It illustrates the typographic style normally used in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly (NGSQ). In general, the NGSQ conforms to The Chicago Manual of Style in abbreviating words and inclusive numbers and dates, in sentence structure, capitalization, and punctuation. Both are based on genealogy standards issued by the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) Genealogical Standards Manual.

RootsMagic, the computer program chosen for compiling this genealogy, is a proactive, read-write program that reads an entry’s data fields and writes a narrative report from the information. It takes the data entered into the various blocks of information for each person, such as date of birth, date of marriage, place born, place married, etc., and strings them into sentences. While this is a useful feature, it often makes the computer-generated writing seem stilted and repetitive. As this is the way the computer program is written, I have no control over it. The sentences sometimes don’t make a great deal of sense, but there is little I can do about it. It also makes the writing difficult to change, so when I could not easily revise the computer-generated language, I generally left it alone.

The proof for each name came from various sources, though the predominant source was Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period by Fray Angélico Chávez. This book is considered the gold standard of New Mexico genealogy. Throughout this study I refer to this book as ONMF. In some of the narrative descriptions quoted from ONMF, I added clarifications or additional information shown in brackets [like this], mostly to show findings obtained through additional research that we call "going beyond Origins. They answer most of the questions left open by cousin Chávez. In places where the descriptions include previous chapters, previously mentioned, or belongs in the next century," they are referring to ONMF. Whenever I entered these phrases from OMMF, please look in ONMF to place them in their proper context. Further, when following up on these statements, if the information referenced is not found in my narrative, look it up in ONMF. It will be there.

In order to save the forests, I did not make copies of many of the source documents, particularly on my father’s side of the family. Most of the source copies that I made are on my mother’s side, because it is a much smaller group. Accordingly, I cannot provide paper copies of much of my father’s source documentation to anyone who wants them.

With the exception of the immediate and recent Maldonado/Baldonado family, I researched our ancestors only through the end of the nineteenth century, more or less. If you need to find the most recent twentieth-century and later connections, look them up in the Great New Mexico Pedigree Database of the Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico. Their web address is www.hgrc-nm.org.

Finding a person’s place of birth was the greatest challenge of all, because the computer program defaults to this field before allowing data to be entered into the family tree. Without filling in the place of birth, the program does not allow names, color codes, or connections to be assigned and identification numbers to be entered into the narrative reports. It leaves these data fields blank. Consequently, whenever I could not find an ancestor’s place of birth, I entered a birthplace according to the following general rules: 1.) 1519 to 1598: New Spain, 2.) 1598 to 1680: New Mexico, 3.) 1680 to 1692: Guadalupe del Paso, and 4.) 1693 to the present: New Mexico.

The above rules for designating birthplaces are intrinsically accurate, because the locations referenced were the only populated and protected places where a person could originate in those days. The periods that gave me the most difficulty were the years after the Pueblo massacre of 1680, and the years after the reconquest of New Mexico in 1692-1693. During these periods I often found it difficult to tell whether someone was born in El Paso or New Mexico, so I used my best judgment.

To make it easier for the reader, as well as for myself, I chose the current names of towns, counties, states, and countries instead of trying to figure out their ancient names by historical period. For example, I used Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico, in spite of the fact that this name did not exist in the seventeenth century and earlier.

The Spanish Archives of New Mexico (SANM), Volumes I and II, by Ralph Emerson Twitchell have a great deal of information about our family that I was unable to include in this work. Most of the entries deal with real estate transactions that are fairly benign but quite interesting. To find them, look up the individual’s name in the SANM index and go to the page indicated.

The titles Don and Doña are always capitalized in the records, but I chose not to capitalize them so that they would not be confused with the American names of Don and Donna.

The names in the genealogy compilations are color-coded red for the family of Santiago Baldonado, Gilbert’s father; blue for the family of Clara Trejo, Gilbert’s mother; purple for the family of Mark Jones, Gilbert’s son-in-law; and green for Coleton Victor Jones de Maldonado, Gilbert’s grandson, because green is his favorite color.

GENEALOGY

Genealogy: Tracing yourself back to people better than you are.

—John Garland Pollard

This is my genealogy. It is a record of the descent of my family. It is the result of many years of research and hard work and answers the question that has eluded me most of my life: Who am I? The answer did not come easily. It came out kicking and screaming, wrenched from old records through dogged perseverance, firm determination, and long hours spent reviewing documents that were nearly impossible to read. Now, I not only know who I am, I know who many of my ancestors are, where they came from, and when they settled in New Mexico.

While this genealogy is about me, it also applies to the rest of the family. My computer program permits me to run reports on anyone entered into the family database, with them as the starting point. All I have to do is enter their name as the root person and create any type of report they want. I can run either pedigree reports of their ancestors or genealogy reports of their descendants, whichever they choose. Pedigree, or ancestry, means going back to our collective ancestors, while genealogy means going forward to our collective descendants, or to the descendants of our ancestors, such as myself. Our ancestors are part of our pedigree or ancestry, and we are part of their genealogies, as in this case. Lineage goes both ways since it is the direct parent-to-child link in each generation between us and one of our ancestors or descendants. As such, lineage equates to all three above: genealogy, pedigree and ancestry; though primarily to pedigree and ancestry, and only secondarily to genealogy. What sets genealogy apart is that it is an actual record of the descent of a family, while the others exist mainly as definitions. The exceptions are the terms pedigree and lineage when they are used to label charts. In this case they can take an actual form. Yet, despite the labels, they are still only graphs created to support the genealogical record. These categories are covered later on in this chapter. I purposely entered as many names of current family members as I could into the database in order to take full advantage of these features. Sharing this information is my way of inspiring others to learn about their own ancestry. A wealth of other information is also available in the database.

When I began searching for my roots, I was prepared for not finding any of my ancestors. My overall goal was to connect with Spain, but I was realistic enough to know that this might never happen. I tried to keep my eye on the ball, hoping for the best, yet preparing for the worst. What I was not prepared for was the avalanche of ancestors and information that I found. Not only did I find our blood relatives going back hundreds of years, I found their in-laws and the families of their in-laws. I was overwhelmed by the volume of names and information.

In some cases the genealogies of people who married into our family turned out to be more interesting and extensive, and they went further back than our own. This network of family members intrigued me so much that I began adding them all to the family tree. Eventually, my goal shifted from finding just our ancestral bloodlines to finding all our connections to the Spanish colonial families of New Mexico—the ones who had married into our family. I went from being focused on our main family branches to being interested in the entire family tree of New Mexico.

This genealogy includes both the names of our direct family lines, as well as their ancestral in-laws. In order to get away from the typical dry lists of names, I added the history of each person whenever I could find it. This made the genealogy more human and interesting. It may not be the entire family tree of New Mexico, but it is a good portion of it. By this I mean that I found connections to many of the couples who founded the original names of the families of New Mexico. As of this writing, I have found connections to 122 of the 144 names listed in ONMF in the seventeenth century. They are the most prominent families of colonial New Mexico. These families left most of the descendants in New Mexico today.

The connections between our family and families of others in New Mexico are as important to me as my genealogy, because they present the big picture. I believe that this approach is somewhat unique in New Mexico genealogy. While we have the Great New Mexico Pedigree Database that traces the genealogies of individual family names, it does not show the connections between them. Most people tend to focus on their own lines and overlook their connections to others. In other words, they do not include all their cousins and cousins-in-law, as I did. In this genealogy, I tried to concentrate on both.

Finding the other branches of the tree happened quite by accident. While searching for my roots, I began noticing the names of the people who married into our family. As I dug deeper and deeper into the roots of my family tree, I started finding more and more connections to the other Spanish colonial families of New Mexico. Intrigued, I kept pulling the string to see where each marriage would lead. One family name led to another until the names started forming a large interconnected tree. Soon, a clear picture started to emerge of the entire family tree of New Mexico, particularly that of seventeenth-century colonial New Mexico, when the families were fairly isolated and dependent on one another for survival. It was then that I realized just how interconnected our family was with the rest of the New Mexico families. By the end of the seventeenth century, the original individual families on the family tree had morphed into one huge family tree—especially the families of Baca, Chávez, García, López, Lucero, Montaño, Montoya, and Romero. Where I had originally considered myself lucky to find only my own Maldonado family tree, I struck pay dirt and found the gigantic family tree of New Mexico.

These interconnections explain why the families of New Mexico are so much alike in appearance and custom. As I mention later on, I noticed this at a young age without the benefit of the family tree. If you read the descriptions with each name in the historical summaries, you will discover that the average male of the family had an aquiline face, good stature, fair coloring, red hair and beard, and was of medium height. I’m not certain what an aquiline face looks like, but if an aquiline nose is curved like an eagle’s beak, maybe an aquiline face means eagle face. My family has its share of aquiline noses, though they are mostly on the women. The men generally have long, straight, thin noses and oval faces. This appearance is still visible today in the descendants of the old Spanish families of New Mexico. It is exactly the kind of New Mexico look that I mention in later sections.

As a researcher, I cannot say in good conscience that I developed all this genealogy on my own. No honest genealogist can say this about their genealogy. I already gave credit to cousins Robert Baldonado Isaac and Fray Angélico Chávez for their extensive contributions. In genealogy no one works alone. We may conduct our research individually, but we always rely on the building blocks of others. In short, we use each other’s findings to advance our own. This is the way the system works. In order to speed up the process of information exchange and help others, researchers publish their findings in genealogy journals and on the Internet. This is where some of the information in this genealogy came from. Likewise, cousin Robert and I generated original research that we published in Herencia journal of the Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico and uploaded to the Internet for others to use.

The ultimate goal of all genealogists is to reconstruct a family history that is as close to the truth as possible.² This genealogy attempts to meet that goal. I tried my best to conduct a reasonably exhaustive search of reliable source information that was pertinent to the identity of each person in the genealogy. Included in my compilation are accurate citations for each one that I found. Throughout the research, I analyzed and correlated the quality of information for evidence of family connections. If one piece of evidence contradicted another, I tried to resolve the conflict. My standard of measure was a written record or records contemporary to the time period that supported the connections at all the levels of the family tree. If I could not find a written record, I made a determination based on preponderance of the evidence. Fortunately, this latter approach was seldom necessary. The purpose of this approach was to arrive at a soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion.

As with any document claiming to restore history, this genealogy is neither accurately complete nor completely accurate. The reason is that records are often missing or incomplete. This includes the present as well as the distant past. Documents that I rely on are also subject to human interpretation, error, and sometimes purposeful deceit. These are human failings that I must accept as a way of life. As a researcher, my job is to rise above these conditions and reconstruct past events as objectively as I can. I cannot fall into the same trap as the creators of poor or incomplete documentation, as it serves no purpose. If I did, I apologize.

With the introduction of computers came spell-checkers. This cured most of the problems of the past involving poor spelling and grammar, but not all, because it takes humans to operate the spell-checker. This still introduces human error into the equation. As diligently as I tried to avoid spelling and grammatical errors, as well as other errors, I could not solve the problem of human error. Therefore, there are undoubtedly grammatical and spelling errors in this genealogy. Whenever you find them, please let me know. I plan to make revisions in the future to correct them. Remember, genealogy is never finished. It is just a snapshot in time.

The approach to recording sources in this genealogy came from Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian (E!) by Elizabeth Shown Mills. E! is the standard of citations. RootsMagic6, our genealogy program, defaults to this style unless the writer chooses to develop a custom methodology.

Three generally accepted formats for the compilation of genealogical data are described in The BCG Genealogical Standards Manual, Millennium Edition:³

1.   Lineage compilations trace the direct parent-to-child links in each generation between an identified individual and one of that person’s ancestors or descendants;

2.   Pedigree compilations trace an identified individual’s direct ancestors for a specified number of generations; and

3.   Genealogy compilations trace an identified individual’s descendants for a specified number of generations.

These formats make a permanent, orderly record of the sum of our conclusions about a family or designated part of a family. They include as much as is known at the time about the family’s history, its patterns, and overall characteristics, as well as the individual stories of family members. Pedigree and descendants’ charts, family group sheets, and genetic and relationship diagrams do not fulfill this purpose. They are primarily helpful during the research phase, acting as overviews of the investigation’s progress or basis for organizing the project. Their best use is as illustrations within the compilation.

The pedigree charts use the Sosa-Stradonitz System. This is an ascending system, meaning that it proceeds from the recent descendant to the remote ancestors, focusing on the couples who link the generations, completing discussion on all couples in one generation before moving on to those in the next. In addition to its overall arrangement, this system is distinguished by its arrangement of numbers to designate the place of each person in the compilation and the arrangement of data in its biographies.

Illustrated below is an example of this numbering scheme. It is called the Ahnentafel numbering system, meaning Ancestor Table in German. The Ahnentafel numbering scheme is found in pre-preprinted pedigree charts and computer programs. In Ahnentafel, children are listed after the parents’ names in birth order designated by lowercase roman numerals such as i, iv, and ix.

The Ahnentafel number of a person’s father is exactly twice the person’s number. The mother’s number is twice the person’s number plus one. For example:

With this system, the numbers assigned to ancestors grows rapidly into a huge number. For example, after 16 generations and 13 great-grandparents, the number is 35,539.

The historical perspectives, interpretations, and conclusions in this genealogy are my own. They are not intended to offend anyone. I am referring particularly to the discussions about ethnic groups such as Spaniards, Mexicans, and Anglos. The commentaries are the result of observations over a lifetime of living in New Mexico coupled with facts found through my genealogical research. What is true from my viewpoint may not be true from yours. Accept them or disregard them as you wish. Just remember that history is not for the faint-hearted. It does not always conform to the way we would like to view the world. Today our family is a composite of the above three groups, so I am simply discussing the ethnic amalgamation of my own family.

DICTIONARY

Terms Found in the Family Records

137146.png

Alcalde: mayor, constable

Alcalde mayor: lord mayor, head of town council

Alcalde ordinario: magistrate

Alférez: ensign, second lieutenant

Alférez real: royal standard bearer (an honorary nonmilitary position)

Ayudante: adjutant

Bachiller: bachelor (holder of a college degree)

Bayeta: baize, cotton or woolen material napped to imitate felt, often bright green in color

Cabildo: town council

Cañada: ravine, gulch, canyon

Capitán: captain; in northern New Spain it was generally a military rank bestowed on an individual who maintained a private militia, or who led a company of about 130 regular soldiers

Castizo: of good breeding or origin

Cerrillos: small hills

Chirrionero: chirper; used to keep livestock moving

Cienega: swamp

Converso: convert; usually referred to Jews who were forcefully converted to Christianity

Cota: coat of arms or coat of mail

Encomienda: Indian territory committed to the care of a Spanish colonist

Estancia: ranch

General: general (today a four- or five-star general)

Jornada del muerto: journey of the dead man, journey of death

Lana: wool, fleece

Legua: league (measure of distance equal to three miles)

Maese de campo: general, master of the field, field marshal, general of the army

Manta: blanket (bed covering), shawl, muffler

Mayordomo: steward

Mestizo: half-breed (mix of Spanish and Indian)

Presidio: fort

Regidor: ruling, governing, alderman, councilman, town councilor

Residencia: official investigation of a governorship

Sargento: sergeant

Sargento mayor: major (military)

Syndic: business agent or magistrate

Teniente: lieutenant (first lieutenant)

Teniente general: lieutenant general (today a three-star general)

Vara: unit of measure equal to 2.8 feet

001_a_reigun.JPG

In 1598 Juan Pérez de Oñate y Salazar led an expedition to New Mexico that established the first European settlement west of the Missippi. Don Oñate and his colonists are represented in Old Town Albuquerque through life-size sculptures, which include ancestors of the Maldonado family. Photography by Laura Annette Galván Lucero and Susie Maldonado.

CHAPTER 1

A Matter of Identity

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I don’t have to look up my family tree because I know that I’m the sap.

—Fred Allen

From the time I can remember, I always wondered who we were and where we came from. We were Americans, but not the same Americans that everyone else called Americans—the people we called Anglos. We spoke English like them, but we preferred to speak Spanish. We did not have names that ended in th, like their Smith. We had names that ended in ez, like our Pérez. They came on the Mayflower through their ancestors, the Pilgrims. We came on the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María through our ancestors, the conquistadors. Their ancestors arrived at Plymouth Rock in 1620. Our ancestors arrived in New Spain in 1521. Their view of the world was as farmers from behind a plow. Our view of the world was as conquistadors from atop a horse. They were immigrants. We were not. They did not have much in common with us. We did not have much in common with them. Or so we thought. Most importantly, these hyphenated Americans, Anglo-Americans, German-Americans, Italian-Americans, French-Americans, and others—foreigners, as we called them—had come to live among us; we had not come to live among them.

This situation was made much more complicated by the fact that we did not consider ourselves Mexicans either. It would certainly have been logical to do so. Mexico bordered New Mexico, and the name of our state had Mexico in its title. The name implied that New Mexico was simply an extension of Old Mexico. Hollywood movies and songs perpetuated this idea by referring to Mexico as Old Mexico, the mother country of New Mexico. They had good reason. New Mexico had been governed by Mexico for twenty-seven years—from 1821, when Mexico became a country, until 1846-1848, when New Mexico was occupied by the American Army. New Mexicans were the same as Mexicans insofar as moviemakers were concerned. To them, Mexicans spoke Spanish and we spoke Spanish. That was all they needed to know. It didn’t matter that our Spanish was different or that we looked different or that we considered ourselves different. To them, we were all the same. If they had known their history, they would have realized that New Mexico had been in existence 223 years before Old Mexico became a country. To us, Mexico was just another foreign country, and Mexicans were foreigners like everyone else.

From Black-and-White to Gray

Things would have been much easier if we had recognized the similarities and accepted the assumption that we were Mexicans. Most Americans assigned this label to us anyway, so why not accept it and be done with it? This would have quickly solved the problem of our identity. All that we would have to do was point to Mexico and say, This is where we came from, and this is who we are. The problem was that we did not have any connections to Mexico—at least, not that we were aware of. This was key to finding one’s identity. As far as we knew, we had come from some place other than Mexico. This idea was given credibility by the fact that Mexican celebrations were not our celebrations any more than celebrations of hyphenated Americans were our celebrations. Mexican Independence Day, the reaffirmation of Mexican identity every September 16, was not on our calendar, and we had no clue what Cinco de Mayo was. Later, as I learned more about my roots, this issue would turn from black-and-white to gray for me.

Many Questions, Few Answers

Questions regarding my identity continued to plague me all my life. It was not until after Mother and Father died, however, that I started seriously thinking about finding answers to these questions. Until then I had been too busy with family and work obligations to take on such a huge project. There were simply too many priorities and commitments on my plate to add another major one. My plan was to wait until retirement to begin my search.

Things changed quickly after Mom died in the early 1980s. That was when I realized that life was getting short. I was running out of time. Her passing thrust me into the real world of human mortality. Waiting until retirement might not be an option. It may be too late. Dad had died two years earlier, when I thought I still had more time. With Mom gone, time started to accelerate rapidly. I was already in my midforties and not getting any younger. In fact, time seemed to be getting shorter by the minute. I knew that I did not have a moment to lose. At this juncture, I had to stop questioning who I was and start doing something about it. In retrospect, I made the right decision, although starting earlier would have been a better one. Had I known how difficult and time-consuming genealogy was, I would have started the search for my roots in my early twenties instead of my midforties.

The Awakening

The folks died without knowing who they were or where they came from. I did not want that to happen to me. This awakened me to the fact that I needed to do something about finding my identity sooner rather than later.

The statement about my parents not knowing who they were or where they came from may not be entirely fair or completely true, because everyone knows a little something about themselves. Even hermits, who have isolated themselves for years, know something about themselves. People with amnesia know something about themselves. In all fairness to my parents, I must say that they were not entirely clueless. They did know something about themselves. They knew the people around them, and they knew one generation of grandparents, though beyond that they seemed a total blank. They knew little about their history or who their ancestors were or where they came from, except that they had been here a long time. This is absolutely true, and I find it hard to believe, myself.

To my parents, life in the distant past did not exist. They lived mostly in the present, though I don’t know why. They weren’t poor. Dad always had a good job. He drove a new car. They lived in a nice house. Grandfather Francisco Trejo owned property and loaned money. He built our house without incurring a mortgage. They were intelligent people. They enjoyed all the amenities of life, including television and the telephone, which were luxuries in those days. In short, they were fairly middle class by today’s standards. As a result, anyone can reasonably conclude that they could have afforded to spend a little time reflecting on their past. But sadly they did not. Maybe life was too hard on them in a self-imposed way. Maybe they had problems. Or maybe they didn’t have problems. Maybe they were simply content with their lives. For all we know they may have thought about their ancestry all the time. Whatever the reason, they never spoke to me about it.

The folks may have considered it acceptable to depart the world, ignorant of their heritage, but to me it was not acceptable. No matter how long it took, no matter what it took, I was determined to find out who I was and where I came from. I also wanted future generations to know who they were and where they came from. I didn’t want them to spend one minute of time wondering about this, as I had done all my life. This may not seem important to most people, but to me it was extremely important. Otherwise, I would not have spent a lifetime trying to find the answer.

After Mother died, I fumbled around halfheartedly looking for my ancestors. I did not find any. The main problem was that I did not know where to start. Genealogy is not easy. Being a good genealogist takes time, training, experience, and perseverance. I had none of the above. Another problem was that genealogy in New Mexico at the time was in what I call its infancy. Until then, the records were kept mostly in Santa Fe on grainy microfilm that was nearly impossible to read. Original records had been handwritten in Spanish by priests using antique Spanish script. The records looked like Greek. Genealogists attempting to find their ancestors had to conduct research without typed, translated, or extracted records. Anyone who has ever done genealogical research knows that genealogy is difficult enough when information is available in good, clean, typed, English copy, much less when it is available only in old, Greek-sounding, handwritten Spanish script.

Computers Changed the Equation

This changed with the introduction of the personal computer (PC). The PC was invented in 1975, but it was not until 1984 that it became available and practical for home use. I remember when PCs went on sale. Everyone was ecstatic. It seemed that the entire country immediately ran out and bought a PC. At first PCs were mostly for video games. Then people realized their true potential. PCs could store and retrieve large volumes of data instantaneously. Anyone could edit text, perform math functions, send messages, and do a myriad of functions at the click of a mouse. Word processing, the new term for typing, was introduced and was an instant hit. Typewriters immediately became extinct as dinosaurs. The PC lent itself perfectly to genealogy. Genealogical research requires searching through hundreds of records quickly for bits of information. The only way to do this was with a computer. This was the breakthrough that genealogists needed. Now researchers could zip through tons of data accurately and at warp speed. With the help of this new tool, the floodgates opened and many organizations began developing their own databases of genealogical information.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS)—or Mormons, as most people know them—was the first and most prominent organization to take advantage of this new technology. To them, genealogy is critically important because their religion requires them to find and baptize their ancestors in order for them to meet in heaven. It is a basic tenant of their faith. This includes searching the world over for their ancestors through church and civil records, microfilming the records, translating them into English, and entering them into an international database. The only way to accomplish this enormous task was with the help of computers. Of critical importance was the filming and translation of many of the church records in New Mexico and Mexico. As part of their worldwide database project, LDS microfilmed and translated the Spanish Archives from Santa Fe and the Mexican Archives from Mexico City. They also microfilmed marriage, baptism, and death records from churches throughout New Mexico, Mexico, and Spain. After they had collected and translated all this information, they made it available on the Internet. Their efforts are one reason we were able to find our ancestors.

As a result of the computer revolution, genealogy clubs sprang up all over the country, including New Mexico. In Albuquerque we formed the Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico, of which I am currently the first vice president. There are two other societies in New Mexico: the New Mexico Genealogical Society and the Albuquerque Genealogical Society. The latter two focus on general genealogy, including research on the Spanish Archives of New Mexico, while we focus entirely on the Spanish Archives of New Mexico.

Researchers in New Mexico genealogy societies immediately began extracting records from the Spanish Archives in Santa Fe and entering them into databases available to the public. These databases, in conjunction with the LDS international database, form the basis of our ancestral research in New Mexico today. In these databases is information on our ancestors going back hundreds of years. And, most importantly, thanks to the Mormons, the records were translated from old Spanish into English.

Reality Check

Before I began searching for our roots many years ago, I believed it would be simply a matter of tracing the Maldonado family name back through time. Finding our ancestors would be easy—a piece of cake. What wishful thinking! The search would take more than two decades to complete, plus tons of hard work. At the time, I had some information to start with, so I wasn’t too worried. I had found that the Maldonado name came from Spain and had been in the New World for hundreds of years. From this, I could reasonably conclude that we were somehow connected to the people from Spain, who brought the name to New Mexico. More wishful thinking! I would learn that tracing a name was not as straightforward as it seemed. Many people in New Mexico with Spanish surnames are not connected to Spain at all. Their ancestors either assumed or changed their names, often several times, making the names impossible to trace to Spain through their genealogies. These were reality checks and lessons learned that I had not expected. There were more to come.

I also knew that the Maldonado name was not common in New Mexico, making my search more focused. The fewer names that I had to plow through, the easier my search would be. Or so I thought again. Little did I know that the other side of the coin was that the fewer names available, the more limited the possibilities of finding our ancestors. In the end, the uniqueness of our name worked against me, not with me. It made my search more difficult, not easier. Finding our roots turned out to be infinitely more difficult and complicated than I thought. It was not simply a matter of tracing our family name back in time. It was a matter of thinking like a detective—like Sherlock Holmes, if you will—and knowing intimately the history of New Mexico, including its geography and societal mores and patterns. Having a mind like a detective and being able to recognize seemingly unrelated tiny bits of information fitting them together into an overall puzzle that made sense is probably the most important attribute of a good genealogist. At the time I didn’t believe that I possessed such an attribute. I was certainly no detective. But I had something else that trumped everything, a burning desire to succeed. Thomas Edison once remarked, Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.⁴

In addition, there was always a fork in the road to consider—a fork that required some decision to make about which direction to take. Should we take the yellow brick road to Oz? Or should we take the dark, shadowy path through the forbidden forest into the witch’s castle? Possibly into the witch’s cauldron! These were difficult decisions to make. I cannot begin to count all the dead ends I ran into. Sometimes they were unexpected twists and turns that led me in a totally different direction, into unknown territory and new discoveries. But mostly they were just cul-de-sacs.

Thankfully, some of these bends in the road turned out to be the best parts of genealogical research. Not only were they challenging, they changed entirely my view of our family—and, I might add, for the better. The best example was finding out that our family tree branched out into many different names besides Maldonado. These names ended up being practically all the names of the Spanish/Portuguese colonial families of New Mexico. In other words, the entire family tree of Spanish colonial New Mexico. In addition, I found that our name had changed from Montaño, to Montaño Maldonado, to García, to Baldonado, and finally to Maldonado, as you will see in the genealogy.

Reality overcame wishful thinking, and I was able to remove my rose-colored glasses and see the task for what it was: a complex and difficult but rewarding search for my roots.

Mom’s Key Recollection

Although Mother did not know much about her ancestry specifically, she did know that our family had been in New Mexico a long time. This was about as close as she got to knowing her ancestry. What this meant was not clear to me at the time. Did it mean that we had been here fifty years, one hundred years, or five hundred years? She would never say, at least not with any degree of specificity. Her response was simply We have been here a long time. She died before I awakened to the fact that someday I might need this information. I never did get around to asking her what she meant. If I had, it may have cleared up the confusion in my mind much earlier. Years later, I realized that she probably did not know when our family