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Alvaro Garcia Holgado (abt. 1577 - abt. 1635) Juana de los Reyes Sanchez de Monroy (abt. 1591 - abt. 1650) Álvaro García Holgado and his wife, Juana de los Reyes Sánchez de Monroy, were the parents of our ancestor Sebastiana López de Gracia. We know this from pages 32-33 of Origins of New Mexico Families, Revised Edition, by Fray Angélico Chávez and from the New Mexico Surname Index. Álvaro was born about 1577 in New Spain [Mexico]. Álvaro arrived in San Gabriel del Yunque, the first capital of New Mexico, on 24 December 1600, with a group of soldiers and colonists sent to re-enforce the newly established colony [1598]. It was there he met his bride-to-be, Juana de los Reyes Sánchez de Monroy. They married about 1605 at San Gabriel. Juana had come to New Mexico about the age of seven in 1598 with her siblings and her parents, Pedro Sánchez de Monroy and an unknown mother. From information listed below, the mother was likely an Indian from New Spain. The Sánchez de Monroy family was among the original New Mexico colonists. Pedro had been born in 1548 in Mexico City. He was the son of Hernán Martín de Monroy, born about 1508 in Spain. Monroy is a French name meaning my king. Some of Hernán’s ancestors were French. In 1631, Juana de los Reyes and her sister, Juana Sánchez, were accused by the priests of using bizarre remedies to hold their husbands’ affections. Such accusations were reviewed by the Office of the Inquisition. Whoever held the office of High Sheriff of the Inquisition would have investigated the matter. I am not sure if New Mexico had its own office that early. If not, the matter would have been referred to Mexico City. After Álvaro’s death, about 1636, Juana married Juan Alonso de Mondragón [abt. 1603-1682]. He died after the Pueblo Revolt in Guadalupe del Paso. He was High Sheriff of Santa Fe and also an encomendero, a role which allowed him to tax the Indians of a certain region, in his case the Pueblos of Senecú. The encomienda system was abolished after the Pueblo Revolt and was one of the causes leading to the Revolt. In 1680 twenty-four members of the Mondragon-Sánchez family were reported as alive in Guadalupe del Paso.
Alvaro’s coat of arms at the Angélico Chávez History Library, Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
CHILDREN OF ÁLVARO GARCÍA HOLGADO AND JUANA DE LOS REYES SÁNCHEZ [1] Sebastiana López de Gracia, our ancestor, was born about 1625. She married first Lucas Montaño [[abt.1620-abt. 1655] and second Diego Gonzáles de Apodaca. We are descended from her daughter María Montaño. Their biographies are elsewhere in this work. [2] Andrés López de Gracia, born about 1606, was a captain in the military. In 1662 he was a wagon freighter from Santa Fe to Mexico City. In 1638 he lived in the Isleta district. By 1661 he was the first alcalde mayor of the new settlement of Guadalupe del Paso [El Paso]. In this capacity he was present at the dedication of the mission there in 1668. In 1680-1681 he served in the same capacity in Casas Grandes, a town in the present-day Mexican state of Chihuahua [then Nueva Galicia] not far from El Paso. He had orders to prevent New Mexican refugees living in Guadalupe del Paso from escaping to the interior of New Spain. The New Mexican Governor López de Mendizábal, among other wild statements against the friars and their allies, stated that Andrés was the son of a friar of Isleta. [This was not true. The Governor slurred all the allies of the friars.] Andrés had at least three daughters: Ana, Isabel, and María López de Gracia. [3] Diego García Holgado, born about 1607, was married to a Gonzáles woman. He died before 1644 in New Mexico. [4] Francisco García Holgado was born about 1610 in San Gabriel. [5] Lucía López de Gracia, born about 1620, was married to José Nieto [abt. 1616-1680]. Fray Juan Bernal spoke highly of the character of José and Lucía. On 10 August 1680 the Pueblos of Galisteo [south of Santa Fe] murdered the couple and their two daughters, María Nieto and Juana Nieto during the massive Pueblo Revolt. Other grown children survived. One son was Francisco García Nieto, born about 1658. Another son, Cristóbal Nieto [1651-?], a soldier, believed his wife and four children had been murdered in the Revolt when they did not turn up among the survivors at Guadalupe del Paso. In 1692 the wife, Petrona Pacheco, and her children were rescued by Roque Madrid. By that time she had five daughters and a son. In 1680 Cristóbal Nieto was described as a widower, twenty-nine years old, of medium height, slender, having an aquiline face, slight beard, and a scar on his right eyelid. Francisco Nieto was described as single, twenty-six years old, robust, of medium height, beardless, pock-marked, with black hair. [6] Juan García Holgado was born about 1621. He married Ana Pacheco. [7] Catalina García Holgado was born about 1622. She married Pedro de Leyva. He was a captain and Lieutenant Governor of the Salinas Pueblo district. Catalina and her children Juan de Leyva, Nicolás de Leyva, and Dorotea de Leyva were massacred at Galisteo on 10 of August 1680 by the Indians of Galisteo Pueblo on the same day as Catalina’s sister Lucía’s family was killed. Pedro and two sons, Pedro de Leyva II and José de Leyva, survived the massacre. At Guadalupe del Paso later that year, Pedro II gave his age as “thirty-four or thirty-six.” He was described as married, having a good stature, red-bearded, curly chesnut-colored hair, and missing his left thumb. José was described as thirty-two years old. His wife, Juana Frésqui, was killed in the revolt. He married Estefania Márquez Domínguez in 1682. His two daughters were taken captive by the Tano Pueblos of Galisteo at the time of the massacre. They were rescued in 1692. [8] Isabel López de Gracia was the wife of Pedro Cedillo [Sedillo] Rico de Rojas. He was a captain in the military, and they lived in the Río Abajo in 1680. They survived the Pueblo Revolt and were listed in Guadalupe del Paso in 1681. Their children returned to New Mexico in 1693. Isabel had died before 1692, but Pedro was alive at least as late as 1689. Their daughter Felipa married the widowed Francisco Anaya Almazán [our uncle-by-marriage], who had lost his wife, Francisca Dominguez de Mendoza, our aunt, and all his children in the Revolt. [9] María López Millán was born about 1613. She married Francisco de Valencia [abt.1607-aft. 1661] with whom she lived on an estancia one league south of the pueblo of Isleta in the Río Abajo. She also died after 1661. According to a 1661 document, María was a “mestiza o lo mas castiza.” Under the caste system of colonial Latin America, the term castizo or castiza originally applied to the children resulting from the union of a European and a mestizo; that is, someone of three quarters Spanish and one quarter Amerindian ancestry. This would indicate that all of the children of Alvaro and Juana were castizos. Juana was likely the partner who was half Indian. [research of José Antonio Esquibel Sources: New Mexico Roots, Ltd.; #1571 {DM Aug. 5, 1729, Santa Fe}; Archivo General de la Nación, Inquisición, tomo 593, ff.63, 80-82] Submitted by Donald Rivara, June 23, 2009. Copyright © Genealogy Trails All Rights Reserved with Full Rights Reserved for Original Contributor |
