Bernardo López de Mendizábal

Bernardo López de Mendizábal
18th Spanish Governor of New Mexico
In office
1659–1660
Preceded by Juan Manso de Contreras
Succeeded by Diego de Peñalosa
Personal details
Born 1620
Chietla, in Puebla (present Mexico)
Died September 16, 1664
Mexico city
Spouse(s) Teresa de Aguilera y Roche
Profession Custos, soldier, political, and administrator (Governor of New Mexico)
Signature

Bernardo López de Mendizábal (1620–September 16, 1664) was a Spanish politician, soldier and religious, native of modern Mexico, who served as governor of New Mexico between 1659–1660 and as alcalde mayor (or royal administrator), in Guayacocotla (on the Sierra Madre Oriental, northeast of Mexico City). Among other Lopez's dictates as governor of New Mexico, he prohibited to the Franciscan priests to force the Native Americans to work if they are not paid a salary and he recognized the right of the Native Americans to practice their religion. He also permitted the Pueblos Native Americans to perform their religious dances (thus endorsing religious practices that had been prohibited for 30 years). These facts caused disagreements with the Franciscans missionaries of New Mexico in their dealings with the Native Americans. He was condemned to prison for the Inquisition due to 33 counts of malfeasance and the practice of Judaism in 1660, without having ended his administration. So, he was replaced this year in his government and was arrested in 1663.

Early years

López de Mendizábal was born about 1620[1] in the town of Chietla, in Puebla (present Mexico).[1][2] His father, Cristóbal López de Mendizábal,[3] was a Basque[1] captain[3] and legal representative,[1] while his mother, Leonor Pastrana, was a granddaughter of Jew Juan Nunez de Leon (who was prosecuted for the inquisition, having been accused of secretly practicing the Jew religion).[3] The marriage had a hacienda in Chietla. Bernardo's family was formed for imperial functionaries.[1] López also had a brother: Gregorio López de Mendizábal.[3] López studied arts and canon law[4] in Jesuit college at Puebla,[1][4][2] but finished his study at the university in Mexico City.[1][2] Mendizábal also joined the Spanish Army, where he served in the "Galleon de la Armada" and was stationed for a time period in the Presidio of Cartagena de Indias (in the modern Colombia).[4] López occupied many government charges in Nueva Granada, Cuba, and New Spain, while bureaucratically amounted. López was also alcalde mayor, or royal administrator, in Guayacocotla, on the Sierra Madre Oriental, northeast of Mexico City.[1]

Government in New Mexico

López de Mendizábal was appointment New Mexico´s governor in 1658 to replace Juan Manso de Contreras. So, López and his wife arrived to Santa Fe late this year,[1] although apparently he did not assume the charge until July 11, 1659.[3] In this times, he also worked as a custos, religious administrator for the Franciscans in this province.[1]

López chose the Spanish Miguel de Noriega (native of Burgos, Spain, but resident in Mexico city) as secretary of government.[3]

López and fray Juan Ramírez, who arrived with him to New Mexico, were faced for his ideas about the limits of civil and religious jurisdiction. Also, López was alleged to have made a statement that comparing himself with the Eucharist. This was a statement that the Holy Office of the Inquisition, later, considered a serious exception. After this, López wanted not to give to Ramírez a formal welcome in Santa Fe. There were several major disagreements between Lopez and the Franciscan missionaries in New Mexico, mainly relating to the payment of taxes by the Native Americans working in the Franciscan missions: Thus, Lopez believed that these natives should pay taxes like the other residents of New Mexico, while the missionaries thought that Native Americans who worked for the Church would be penalized if they paid tribute. In addition, López baned the corporal punishment for Native Americans who worked in the missions, a punishment that the Franciscans exercised at times when they believed that the Native Americans needed it. He was also charged of developing the struggles against the Apaches to kidnap some members of this people and sell them as slaves.

The Franciscans began making records that collected habits and customs of Lopez and his wife, Teresa, who, they suspected, was not a Christian: The records were done while they read, and bathed on Fridays, which were few. However, Lopez also recorded the "sexual indiscretions" carried out by the clergy, whose members had sex with women in several place, but especially in their own parishes. However, in reality, Lopez himself also was carrying out that activity, which was recognized by the Franciscans.[1]

Lopez double the wage to the Native Americans who worked to the Spanish,[4] recognized the right of the Native Americans to practice their religions [5] and to have not that assist each Sunday to the Mass (and if the Franciscans were inflicted corporal punishment to them for that reason, Native Americans could take reprisals against them),[6] and allowed the preservation of the ceremonial dances of the Pueblo Native Americans, comparing them with dances such as the zarambeque, often performed in Spain, which were not banned for the church. In fact, he and his wife attended these dances[1] and the governor permitted the Pueblos to perform their religious dances in the Governor's Palace in Santa Fe.[5] However, the Franciscans rejected the official permission to maintain their parties, because the missionaries tried that the indigenous customs were exclusively Christians.[1]

In addition, in Taos, New Mexico, Mendizábal appointment the Pueblan Amerindians who murder the previous priest as leaders of the Puebloans, so the Franciscans started accuse to Mendizabal of order the disobedience of the Amerindians to this Religious order.[6]

However, Mendizabal also killed and slaved to Native Americans: in the 1660s, Mendizábal murdered to Navajos traders who traveled to Jemez lands to trade, while he enslaved their women and children; and in other time, he led militaries campaigns against the Apaches of Taos and the Navajos, selling hundreds of Native Americans as slaves to south.[7]

So, the population in New Mexico was divided in two groups according to the support they had for Mendizábal: a part of the population supported the political actions of governor, while other group rejected it and sent formal charges for written against Mendizabal to the Viceroy in Mexico City. In 1660, the missionary priests had agreed to leave the province due the rejection to governor and his difficulty in exercising their religious works because of the laws in New Mexico. However, they ended up staying in the province. Former Governor Manso, who had been held captive while Lopez ruled New Mexico, escaped and emigrated to Mexico City, where he led a revolt against Lopez.

The charges against Lopez caused the appointment of a new governor in the province in 1660, Diego de Peñalosa[1] (who arrived to New Mexico and assumed the charge in mid-August 1661).[3]

Charges in his against and last years

In November 1661, when there was missing no time to abandon their residence in the governor's house, Lopez bribed to Peñalosa with 6,000 pesos to rule out or at least to minimize the charges made against him. However, Penalosa did not accept a bribe less than 10,000 pesos. Due the opposition by Lopez to pay that amount, the governors did not reach an agreement. It was in this same month that Penalosa abolishes the law of Lopez that forced the Amerindians of missions to pay tribute.

In December this year, Peñañosa gave the result of the prosecution of Lopez for 33 counts of malfeasance exercised during his tenure (forcibly acquired property of the settlers, Amerindians and clergy to sell in Parral and Sonora, in modern Mexico; he waged war against the Apaches for obtain slaves to sell them; etc.[6]).While at the same time, Juan Manso returned to the province with the charged of alguacil mayor of the Inquisition and led an arrest warrant for Lopez and his wife. However, before the arrest was effected, Penalosa offered them his help to flee of the province in exchange for the acquisition of some of their lands. However, Lopez refused to transfer lands to Peñalosa, so this confiscated property of marriage would be no longer his property neither of the Inquisition.

In the summer of 1662, came the final determination regarding Lopez´s residence, prohibiting him from holding civil offices for eight years and forced him to pay a fine of 3,000 pesos.[1] Later, in 1663,[8] the Inquisition arrested Lopez and his wife, both for the counts of malfeasance[1] and for practice, apparently, the Jew religion,[8] leading them to the prison of Santo Domingo, in Mexico City.[1] When Lopez arrived in the Mexico city suffered an ailment.[1] The judgments of marriage dragged on[1] and López died in September 16, 1664, because to ailment.[9]

After his death

Despite his death, Lopez remains a prisoner accused of being Crypto-Jew. Lopez was buried in a pen near the prison. Three months later, his wife's judgment was suspended and was released from confinement. Teresa pressed for that her husband to be exhumed and, in April 1671, the Holy Office dropped the case and his body was exhumed and, then, reburied in the Church of Santo Domingo (Puebla), or the city center in Mexico City.[1]

Personal life

In Cartagena, before his appointment as governor of New Mexico,[1] he met and married Teresa de Aguilera y Roche,[1][10] a native of Alexsandria, Italy.[10] Mendizábal opened a store in the Casa Real of Santa Fe, trading products such as sugar, chocolate, hats or shoes, among others, to the colonist. Amerindians (especially Pueblos) worked to Mendizábal, manufacturing different products to his business (leather things, whole stocking, etc.) and other products (wagons to the caravans, etc.).[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 "De Mendizábal, Bernardo López". New Mexico Office of the State Historian. Posted by Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint. Retrieved June 24, 2012, to 14:46 pm.
  2. 1 2 3 Trigg, Heather Bethany (2005). From Household to Empire: Society and Economy in Early Colonial New Mexico. The University of Arizona Press. Page 197.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Simmons, Marc; Esquivel, José (2012). Juan Domínguez de Mendoza: Soldier and Frontiersman of the Spanish Southwest: 1627-1693. University of New Mexico Press. Chapter: "Notes".
  4. 1 2 3 4 Andrew, L. Knaut (1995). The Pueblo Revolt of 1680: Conquest and Resistance in Seventeenth-Century New Mexico. The University of Oklahoma Press. Pages 102 and 103.
  5. 1 2 Sanchez, Joseph P. "Nicolas de Aguilar and the Jurisdiction of Salinas in the Province of New Mexico, 1659-1662", Revista Complutense de Historia de América, 22, Servicio de Publicaciones, UCM, Madrid, 1996, 139-159
  6. 1 2 3 4 Carter, William B. (2009). Indian Alliances and the Spanish in the Southwest, 750–1750. University Oklahoma Pres.
  7. ↑ Blackhawk, Ned (2006). Violence over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West. first Harvard University Press. Page 29.
  8. 1 2 Hordes, Stanley M. (2005). To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico. Columbia University Press. Page 173.
  9. ↑ Balestra, Alejandra (2008). Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Linguistic Heritage: Sociohistorical Approaches to Spanish in United States. University of Houston. Page 95.
  10. 1 2 A. Foster, Thomas. (editor; 2015). Women in Early America. New York University Press. Page 13.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, December 04, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.