CHAPTER THREE

Maria Romero y Robledo & Gaspar Perez 

Pioneer Colonists Family of Nuevo México 

    The faraway seventeenth-century province of Nuevo México of the Viceroyalty of Nuevo España offered few incentives for settlers. It was a dry country not suitable for large scale agriculture and contain no silver or gold. The main settlements were 1500 miles from Mexico City and 600 miles from the closet outpost in Nuevo España. Those who came and stayed, beyond the Franciscan Missionaries, had their own reasons to live in isolation from the rest of the Spanish Empire. 

    A lack of documentation makes it difficult to understand the motives of those few soldiers and their families who decided to remain and make their “homes among thousands of Indians.” The Royal governors and officials and the Franciscan friars strove to bring the diverse Pueblo tribes into a permanent union as a single “kingdom” with a common law and polity. 

    Successful alliances between the Spaniards and numerous Pueblo tribes reshaped the political and military structure of the region somewhat. However, efforts to recruit additional soldiers with families to settle in Nueva Mexico often failed. It was said that “of the several hundred soldiers that came north between 1598 and 1601, a great majority of them deemed Nueva Mexico a land of misery and abandoned the colony. 

    By 1608, only about 50 Spanish soldiers, many of the originals with families, continued to reside in Nuevo Mexico. Most soldiers who were sent to the province and stayed, married into these families of the original pioneers. By 1617, there were only 48 Spanish families living in Nuevo Mexico, including the family of Capitán Bartolome Romero.  Isolation and conflicts kept the population from increasing.

     The sum of Spaniards “living in a manner more Spanish than Indian seems not to have risen to more than 2,500 at any time before the revolt of 1680. By then, Hispanic Nuevo México was a colony of cousins, of whom perhaps 90 percent were locally born.”  he New Mexican colonists, “a racial potpourri to begin with, doubtless further mixed their blood within the children of Pueblo Indian women and culturally Spanish men. 

     In the early Seventeenth-century, much of the culturally Hispanic populace of Nueva Mexico lived in the countryside, not in towns as Santa Fe was the only sizeable settlement. The capital of Santa Fé, formally established in 1610, was never home to more than several hundred Spanish residents, the majority being native Pueblo people who served them. 

     Most of the colonists lived in valleys up and down the Rio Grande as far north as Taos and, especially, to the south in the Rio Abajo district where a few of the old conquistador families owned ranches, estancias or encomienda grants. 

     About 1604 or 1605, soldiers in Juan Oñate’s army apparently served at the garrison that would eventually become the Villa de Santa Fe. “Documents issued by the viceroy of Reino de Nueva España and by the king in 1608 made references to the garrison (la guarnición) and the fort (el presidio) in Nueva Mexico for the protection of “nuestra sancta fe católica,” our holy Catholic faith.” 

     The Spaniard colonists and the Franciscan clergy, who came to the valleys of the Rio Grande, arrived with two main goals, to Christianize the native people and exploit the resources of the region in the attempt to find treasure. Treasure was never found but wealth came from exploiting the labor of the Pueblo people on whom the Spanish minority relied and trading for hides, furs, and skins from the Navajo and Apache. 

     “The colony's only readily exploitable resource remained the Pueblo people, whatever they could be forced to give in tribute, labor, trade, land, and loyalty. Hence, civil officials vied with missionaries, and Hispanic colonists chose sides. The political and economic struggles between these sectarian and secular motives were the source of most conflicts from the first arrival of the Spanish in 1598 until they were driven out of Nuevo México in 1680. Thus the exploitation of the native people was divided between the Franciscan Missionaries and the Spanish Colonists. 

     The colony's mostly cashless local economy depended on three sources of limited wealth: Indian tribute and trade, the former only from Pueblos and the latter with Pueblos and non-Pueblos, particularly the nations of the Plains; stock raising, with sheep faring better in Nuevo México than cattle; and maize-based subsistence agriculture.

     The Nuevo México Governors, who had paid for their office, and a few enterprising or well-placed citizens accumulated their wealth from animal hides and related products, such as simple woven items of wool and cotton, pinon nuts, salt, and non-Pueblo slaves for export 

A Prenuptial Investigation

     A recently published prenuptial investigation record named Salvador Romero’s father as Capitán Diego Romero who is almost certainly the same person as Diego Perez Romero (1623-1678). Colonial Nuevo México in which “Capitán Diego Romero” lived, was a brutal and harsh place, isolated by hundreds of miles from any town in Nuevo España. 

    He was the son of Gaspar Perez and Maria Romero, the daughter of Capitán Bartolome Romero and Luisa Robledo. While there's as yet no solid evidence that this Diego Pérez y Romero was the same person as “Captain Diego Romero, the father of Salvador Romero and his sister Ynez Romero, circumstantial evidence through family connections makes it more than likely, due to the facts the few people resided in the colony and the prefix of Captain indicated that he held a high military rank.

     Additionally both Salvador and his sister Ynez married into prominent families, closely associated with Capitán Diego Romero. These families were the de Ocanto, de Griego, and Lucero de Godoy. Salvador Romero’s mother was named as "Sebastiana Martin" but she was not Diego's wife. This Capitán Diego Romero was legally married to Catalina de Zamora, a daughter of Pedro Lucero de Godoy. Catalina's sister Lucia de Zamora had married Diego Robledo, Captain Diego's grandmother’s brother. 

     According to Salvador’s 1683 marriage record both his parents were deceased, which was true for Capitán Diego Romero but not for Sebastiana. She was alive and married to Domingo Martin Barba.

   Capitán Diego Romero was a colorful and roguish man for certain. Still, to judge ancestors from centuries ago by today’s morals and sensibilities is a mistake, as they lived in a different time where survival often relied on brutality that would be found appalling today. 

 Doña Maria Romero y Robledo 

     Doña Maria Romero y Robledo, the daughter of Capitán Bartolome Romero and doña Luisa Robledo, was born circa 1605 at the pueblo of San Gabriel De Yunque, Nuevo México. However, she would have been raised in Santa Fé, or on one of her father’s encomienda grants. Her family was extremely well off compared to others at the time. 

Spanish Women dresses 1600's 

     By “viceregal decree”, the number of encomenderos in Nuevo México had been limited to thirty-five, of which her father was one. “These men were the backbone of the colony's defense. In turn for the privilege of collecting the tribute from specified pueblos, customarily twice a year in May and October, they maintained horses and weapons and responded to the governor's call to arms.” 

     “While the popular image of poor Nuevo México at the end of the Camino Real [King’s Highway], may convey a fair picture of the commoner's lot, it makes no allowance for the high-living residents” of the 35 intermarried families of “landowners, encomenderos, and appointed officials which did not do “entirely without luxury goods.” 

     The Franciscan Missions, where the family would have had attended mass and sacraments, inventories showed “that organs and other musical instruments, books, moderately fine paintings and sculptures, silver vessels.”  In the heavy Nuevo México bound, “mule-drawn freight wagons that arrived three times a year, “Chinese damask vestments and chocolate” were brought to the frontier. 

     As a daughter of Capitán Bartolome Romero, her family, however, was a part of a “nervous, oft-divided ruling minority”, “culturally isolated”, and was coexisting with a “dense, if dwindling, communities of Pueblo Indians.” As the Pueblo Indians were brought into Spanish homes as "servants" the colonist could not help but be influenced by them. 

     As in almost all cases regarding the histories of ordinary women, they are rarely mentioned in historic documents. Not to say that doña Maria Romero was ordinary, as having struggled to survive on the frontier and raise her family. It’s just that little is known of her except for who her father was and who was her husband. 

     Doña Maria Romero would have been expected to keep house, tend a garden, raise a family, and attend Catholic services. She would have been also surrounded by Pueblo Indians, many probably were her servants as the daughter of a Conquistador. While nominally Catholic, perhaps she may have even kept some of her family “conversos” ancestors’ traditions as her father and mother’s families were considered being from “new Christian” heritage. If she practiced any crypto-Jewish rituals, they would have been done privately and in secret. 

     Mainly her life was about raising her children, visiting and working with other women in her family and neighbors. Cooking and making homemade clothing and blankets would have occupied much of her time. She probably was illiterate although the men in her family were not. 

     Doña Maria Romero would never been a part of a Spaniard man’s world or possibly even interested in it, as the men were gone much of the time as soldiers trading with Indians, and busy with civic affairs in Santa Fé . She was surely left alone by her husband, mostly to raise children sired by him, and remained mostly in the company of women and clergy. 

     Doña Maria must have spent most of her time in the company of her mother doña Luisa Robledo and sister doña Ana Romero, as well as her many sisters-in- law. Her husband don Gaspar Perez had no immediate family in Nuevo México so she had no “in-laws” from her husband.  Gaspar's brother Gil Perez was said to have returned to Europe, so the Romero clan would have been her main social network and support circle.

Capitán Gaspar Perez of Brussels, Spanish Netherlands

     Probably around the age of 15 or even younger, Maria married Gaspar Perez. He had recently arrived in Santa Fé as a soldier from Mexico City, along with his brother Gil Perez. They came with a Mexico City supply convoy on 17 September 1619. 

    Both Perez brothers were probably mature men born in the 1590’s or perhaps earlier. They had been soldiers in Brussels before come to New Spain. It was not unusual for men to be ten to fifteen years or older than their brides. The marriage of doña Maria Romero would have definitely been arranged by her father and don Gaspar Perez must have had attributes that allowed him to marry don Bartolome’s daughter. 

    It was probably that Gaspar Perez was considered by him a suitable son -in-law because he was a soldier and perhaps even came from a “conversos” family as was the Romero family. Gaspar Perez may have also been a relative of Don Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá who was a part of the initial Juan de Oñate Expedition which Bartolome Romero would have certainly been acquainted. 

Capitán Gaspar Perez of Brussels became the brother in law of  Captain Bartolomé Romero, a native of San Gabriel who had held the post of protector de Indios. Matía Romero, a former regidor and alcalde ordinario of the Villa de Santa Fé, Agustín Romero who,, held the positions of capitain, regifor and alcalde before his death in San Felipe, and doña Ana Robledo who was the wife of Governor Francisco Gómez and a resident of the Villa de Santa Fé. 

    Doña Maria Romero bore at least three known sons, Diego Perez y Romero, Bartolome Perez y Romero, and Gaspar y Perez. Two sons died in the "service of the king", both being single and died without issue. Bartolomé Pérez Romero died in 1633/4 at the age of twenty and Gaspar Pérez Romero  died at the age of twenty-two and was buried at the church in Santa Fé. 

A "natural daughter" of Gaspar Perez, named María Pérez, was called a “half-sister” by Capitán Diego Perez y Romero in 1663. She was born near the time of Gaspar's death as she was said to be near 16 in 1663.  She was raised by dona Maria  and may have been the sister that Capitán Diego who had requested that his wife doña Catalina Lucero de Godoy marry off to Alonzo Lucero. 

Doña Maria Romero y Robledo also was said to have raised an orphaned Pueblo infant, named Juana Romero, as her daughter who may have also been a child of don Gaspar Perez.  Captain Diego Romero was accused of having had sexual relations with Juana and was said to have fathered a son by her. He swore that “she was no relative at all, but rather a native that his mother who had raised from infancy.” 

     Diego Perez Romero dropped his father’s surname and was only known as Capitán Diego Romero. The reason as he later told inquisitors in 1663, was “because of don Gaspar's unchristian behavior, ” however it may have simply been something else. More than likely he chose Romero, as that he was raised among them and his Romero grandfather was a more prominent and important individual in his childhood and in the community. He also may have simply not like a father who was distant and gone a lot. 

     Doña Maria Romero lived out her entire life mainly in anonymity as that even her death date is unknown. She was probably buried in Santa Fé after a funeral mass. It is not known if she outlived her husband who died in 1646. 

 Don Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá 

    There is no known connection between Capitán Gaspar Perez who married doña Maria Romero and don Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá (1555–1620) who was a Capitán and “procurador general” in the Juan de Oñate expedition of 1598. He is best known for his authorship of Historia de la Nueva México, published in 1610. 

Don Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá 

    Certainly, he would have been as well known to doña Maria’s father Capitán Bartolome Romero. Perhaps a family connection to don Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá may have been the reason the old conquistador allowed his daughter to marry don Gaspar Perez, the "blacksmith" or armorer. . 

     Don Pérez de Villagrá was born in Puebla de Los Angeles, Nuevo España . His father, Hernan Peréz de Villagrá was a Spaniard while his mother's identity remains unknown perhaps an Indian. His family was influential enough to send Pérez de Villagrá back to Spain where he received the opportunity to study in Europe and received a bachelor of letters degree from the University of Salamanca in the early 1570s after which he returned to Nuevo España . 

     Don Perez de Villagrá joined Capitán Juan de Oñate's expedition to Nuevo México in 1596 and was an eyewitness and participant in the “pacification and colonization of the Pueblo Indians in the Nuevo Méxicos territory”. Later he distinguished himself in the battle at of Acoma, the stronghold of Pueblo Indians. Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá visited Acoma by himself with a dog and a horse after an initial visit by Juan de Oñate's departure. “Villagrá refused to get off his horse and left to follow Oñate's party” and nearly died before finding his way back to the Colonists. 

     On December 1, 1598, Juan de Zaldívar, Juan Oñate's nephew, reached Acoma with 20–30 men and “peacefully traded with them and had to wait some days for their order of ground corn. On December 4, Zaldívar went with 16 armored men, including Capitán Bartolome Romero’s young brothers-in-law Franciso and Pedro Robledo, to Acoma to find out about the corn. Zaldívar's people then divided into groups to collect the corn. 

    “The traditional oral Acoma narrative tells that a group attacked some Acoma women, leading Acoma warriors to retaliate.” The Spanish documents do not report an attack on the women and say that the division of the men was a reaction to plans to kill Zaldívar's party. 

     The Acoma Indians killed 12 of the Spaniards, including Zaldívar however five men escaped, including 18 year old Franciso Robledo and 20 year old Pedro Robledo, although Pedro died from jumping over the citadel, leaving four to escape with the remaining camp. 

    Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá was said to have made a formidable leap across a deep abyss where his companions had put a log that served as a bridge. 

     In 1600, Juan de Oñate sent his trusted Capitán Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá with an escort back to Mexico City to seek more supplies and men. When the party was ready to return to Nuevo México , the viceroy of Reino de Nueva España removed Villagrá from command and appointed another in his place. Angry, Villagrá took sanctuary in a church to avoid returning to Oñate's colony in an Inferior position.

     Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá never returned to Nuevo México as by 1601 he served as the Alcalde mayor of the Guanacevi and Nuestra Señora de Alancón Nueva Vizcaya, what is now the Mexican state of Durango, before returning to Spain in 1605. 

     Five years later, the Capitán was probably living in the university town of Alcalá de Henares east of Madrid where his long poem Historia de la Nueva Mexico was published as a book. It covered the first year of the Oñate settlement. It was Pérez de Villagrá's intention that his epic poem would constitute a plea to King Felipe III for a position in the New World. The Spanish king, however, did not hear his petitions, because in 1614 don Pérez de Villagrá was convicted in absentia of the death of two deserters from the Juan de Oñate expedition, and he was banished for six years from Nuevo México and two years from the viceroyalty court in Nuevo España . 

     Eventually in 1620 don Pérez de Villagrá finally “succeeded in his pleas”, and he was appointed mayor of Zapotitlan in Guatemala. However, en route to his appointment, Villagrá died on board a ship headed back to the Americas and was buried at sea. 

 It is unknown, whether there was any connection between these two men, don Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá and don Gaspar Perez the armorer, beyond similar names and their ties with Nuevo México within a 20 year period from each other and that Capitán Bartolome Romero knew both men. 

     The fact that don Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá was with Capitán Bartolome Romero’s brothers in law at the Battle of Acoma and perhaps had  helped Francisco Robledo survive may be a possibility of why Gaspar Perez the armorer, a recent arrival in Nueva Mexico was allowed to marry doña Maria Romero the daughter of doña Luisa Robledo, Capitán Bartolome Romero’s wife.

We will never know.