Notes |
- Despite a legend that makes him an illegitimate son of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Luisa Estrada, Alonso de Estrada was in reality a son of Juan Hernández Hidalgo and his first wife (whose name is not recorded), and a grandson of Diego Hernández Hidalgo and María González de Estrada, belonging to the small "hidalgo" nobility of Spain. This information was declared by their great-grandson Jorge de Alvarado y Villafañe, in a record of "limpieza de sangre" or purity of blood.
Another set of family alliances among the upper group revolves around royal treasurer Alonso de Estrada (who claimed to have been a natural son of King Ferdinand) and his wife doña Marina Gutiérrez Flores de la Caballería, who had some successes and some failures.3 They, together with a son and five daughters, were the nucleus of a large entourage that arrived in New Spain from Ciudad Real in 1523. Daughter doña Luisa married first conqueror Jorge de Alvarado within the year. Not many years thereafter daughter doña María married poblador don Luis de Guzmán Saavedra, a native of Seville, who arrived in New Spain in 1525, and doña Francisca married poblador Alonso de Avalos Saavedra. In mid-August 1528 Estrada was negotiating a marriage between his son, Juan Alonso de Estrada, and a daughter of Ciudad Real vecino and regidor don Lope Fernández de Treviño. Juan Alonso's marriage portion included Estrada's office of perpetual regidor in Ciudad Real and rents from property in the same city that amounted to $2,500 per year. For reasons not revealed, the marriage did not take place, and Juan Alonso entered the Dominican order.
A year after Estrada's death in 1530, his widow doña Marina succeeded in arranging a match between number three daughter doña Ana and poblador Juan Alonso de Sosa from Córdoba, who had been appointed royal treasurer to replace Estrada. Sosa's father had been the governor of Tierra Firme in the 1520s. Estrada's youngest daughter, doña Beatriz, married Francisco Vázquez de Coronado in 1535, shortly after he arrived in New Spain as a member of Viceroy Mendoza's entourage. Doña Marina then became the guardian of three grandchildren when doña María and Luis de Guzmán died ca. 1540. Bartolomé de Estrada, Estrada's natural son by Ana Rodríguez Anhaifa, became a secular priest in Mexico City.
The noble mates for the daughters Estrada came from three different Iberian regions, with Andalusia predominating. Doña Ana's spouse was from Córdoba, and doña Maria's don Luis came from Seville. His parents were don Fernando de Saavedra, Count of Castellar, and doña Catalina de Guzmán. Jorge de Alvarado, who married doña Luisa, was a native of Badajoz, and Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, married to doña Beatriz, came from Salamanca. The husband of doña Francisca was also a native of Badajoz.
As might be expected, encomiendas granted and acquired by the husbands of these five women were impressive. They collectively held as many as eighteen grants, fourteen of these staying under family control into the second and succeeding generations. The three grants assigned to Juan Alonso de Sosa (doña Ana's husband) reverted to the crown in 1544 under the enforcement of the New Laws because the original assignment had been made to him as a perquisite of his office as royal treasurer. In all likelihood his salary and other benefits from the treasury office were increased to offset the loss of tribute from the encomienda. Perhaps the greatest inconvenience was the loss of personal service from the residents of Coatepec, only twenty miles east of Mexico City. Don Luis de Guzmán Saavedra (doña Maria's husband) did not become an encomendero until Viceroy Mendoza assigned him Tilantongo in late 1535, ten years after his arrival in Mexico City. Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (doña Beatriz's husband) bought the rights to half of Teutenango, thirty-one miles southwest of Mexico City, and Cuzamala. Doña Beatriz brought half of Tlalpa in dowry to the marriage. Only Jorge de Alvarado (doña Luisa's husband) was an encomendero by virtue of being a first conqueror. Of his grants, the closest to Mexico City was Xochimilco, fifteen miles to the south-southeast. Alonso de Avalos Saavedra (husband of doña Francisca) shared the Provincia de Avalos with a brother who was a regidor of Puerto de Caballos, Honduras.
This family also had representation in public office. Alonso de Estrada arrived in New Spain as the royal treasurer and alternated as acting governor during the unsettled period between late October 1524 and June 1525 (see pages 16 and 17, Chapter 1 above). He was co-governor with Gonzalo de Salazar from February to August 1527 and then governor of New Spain until relieved by the first Audiencia in January 1529. Shortly after Estrada's death in 1530 he was replaced as royal treasurer by Juan Alonso de Sosa. Within a few months Sosa, as we have seen, married Estrada's daughter doña Ana. Sosa received an appointment as perpetual regidor of Mexico City and served in that office in addition to being royal treasurer in 1538, the same year that his brother-in-law Francisco Vázquez de Coronado became a regidor. Vázquez de Coronado continued as regidor, serving in 1539, 1542, and from 1545 until his death in 1554. In 1536 Sosa's sister, doña Juana de Sosa, became the bride of poblador and regidor don Luis de Castilla, a relative of the Marqués' second wife, doña Juana de Zúñiga. He served as her escort when she came to New Spain in 1530. Castilla's record as a regidor suggests relative independence from any particular political faction. Jorge de Alvarado and don Luis de Guzmán Saavedra appear to have eschewed public office.
Estrada's son-in-law and successor in office, Juan Alonso de Sosa, was the only member of the extended family, other than Estrada himself, to leave a record of actively pursuing business interests, and this was restricted to silver mining ventures in Taxco and Sultepec. Sosa held a quarter interest in a Sultepec venture with Segovia native and Mexico City regidor Lope de Samaniego, conqueror Juan de Burgos of Seville, who served as alcalde ordinario for three terms, and miner Diego Logroño. Samaniego sold his quarter interest in the company to miner Gabriel Ruiz in March 1537 for $4,125. None other than Hernando Cortés bought a quarter interest, for $12,000, in another Sultepec venture that also involved Sosa and the miner Logroño. During this same time frame Sosa paid $1,500 for a thirty-man Indian slave gang to work a claim near Taxco.
Estrada's cousins from Ciudad Real, pobladores antiguos Juan and Luis de la Torre, poblador Alonso de la Torre, and their sister doña María, must also be included as members of the extended family. Juan and Luis had arrived in the Indies in 1508 with don Diego Colón; after fifteen years in Santo Domingo performing (according to themselves) various duties for the crown, they joined the 1523 Estrada entourage as it passed through on the way to New Spain. Alonso and doña María were also members of the entourage, having joined it in Spain. Juan served as regidor on the Mexico City cabildo in 1525 and 1528 and as alcalde ordinario in 1526, 1527, and 1532. Luis was regidor in 1526 and 1527 and alcalde ordinario in 1528, 1538, and 1544. Luis also held the office of alcalde de mesta for 1539 and 1545.
Turning to a third family empire, first conqueror Bernaldino Vázquez de Tapia, a native of Oropesa, Toledo, and perpetual regidor of Mexico City, maintained a lower profile than did Comendador Cervantes and Alonso de Estrada, but he more than any other individual maintained the continuity of the cabildo of Mexico City, serving as regidor from 1524 to 1559. Vázquez was also an interim alcalde ordinario, finishing the unexpired terms of two incumbents who died in office. He influenced a segment of the cabildo through the men who married his nieces. Fellow first conqueror Antonio de Carvajal, a regidor, had married a niece of Vázquez de Tapia, doña Catalina de Tapia, in Spain before the conquest. When she died Carvajal married doña María de Olid y Viedma, another Vázquez de Tapia niece. Vázquez also arranged for doña Maria's sister, doña Isabel Vázquez, to marry poblador regidor Bernardino de Albornoz, a namesake nephew of the royal accountant. By the second half of the sixteenth century, the Vázquez de Tapia family was one of the most illustrious and best entrenched in all New Spain.
Conqueror Francisco de Orduña, a notary, was for a while in a position to exert influence in local government through arranged marriages. Two of his six daughters were married to members of the cabildo and three others wed prominent persons in Mexico City. One son-in-law, Jerónimo de la Mota, was alcalde ordinario seven times during the period and also served as a regidor one year. Francisco de Santa Cruz, another son-in-law, spent ten consecutive years in the cabildo as a regidor and then, after an absence of eight years, served as alcalde ordinario, followed by a term as alcalde de mesta (magistrate for common grazing land).
How extended families aimed for political influence can be seen in a limited way in Table 16. The Estrada family held the office of royal treasurer throughout the period and had representation in the Mexico City cabildo sporadically until 1545 and regularly thereafter, with Francisco Vázquez de Coronado exercising his office as regidor on a full-time basis. Comendador Leonel de Cervantes and his family took an active part in local government during only fourteen years of the period under consideration. Bernaldino Vázquez de Tapia, however, held office year in, year out, and the same was true for the husbands of his nieces who were also regidores. The Vázquez de Tapia influence builds during the early years; by 1541 it represents a solid 25 percent of the cabildo membership, and often 50 percent of the attendance. There is more to the Vázquez de Tapia dominance in the cabildo than can be presented in a chart. Not only did Vázquez de Tapia, Albornoz, and Carvajal hold perpetual position as Mexico City regidores, they faithfully exercised the offices held. A review of Actas de Cabildo, Volumes I through VI, shows that no other individuals were so regular in attendance. It is doubtful that such diligence was necessary to protect the positions they enjoyed in Mexico City society and government.
|