Juan de la Cruz (abt. 1565 - abt. 1631)

Born about 1565 in Barcelona, Cataluña, Reinos de Castilla [uncertain]

Descendants

Died about 25 Mar 1631 at about age 66 in Province of Texas, New Spain [uncertain]

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Biography

Juan de la Cruz was one of the first soldier/colonists of New Mexico, a member of Juan de Oñate's Expedition in 1598.^[1] He was also called Juan Catalán because of his birthplace in Cataluña.^[1]

He is described then as being thirty-two years old, a native of Barcelona, the son of Antonio de la Cruz, having a bright reddish beard and a wounded arm.^[1]

Juan was single when he left for New Mexico^[2] but he most likely met his future wife on the trip. Her name was Beatriz de los Ángeles and she was an India from Tepeaca in the Mexico Valley.^[3] She was travelling as the servant of Cristóbal Brito.^[3] They most likely married in San Gabriel, possibly one of the first Catholic marriages in New Mexico. They had two known children, Pedro and Juana.

Juan had an estancia in the Santa Cruz River valley area in 1628 near the Rio Grande.^[4] He was in the wagon-train escort of 1613 between Mexico City and Santa Fe, and by 1631 he held the rank of Alférez.^[1] Unfortunately, that is also the year his wife was accused of being "the consort" of Diego Bellido.^[5] Juan may have also died that year.^[6]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Chávez, Fray Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period. (Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, revised 1992), p. 23-24.
2. ↑ Snow, David H. New Mexico’s First Colonists: The 1597-1600 Enlistments for New Mexico under Juan de Oñate, Adelante & Gobernador (Albuquerque, NM: Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico, 1998), p. 37 and 49.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Snow, New Mexico's First Colonists, pp. 27 and 63.
4. ↑ Barrett, Elinore M. The Spanish Colonial Settlement Landscapes of New Mexico, 1598-1680, (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2012), p. 116.
5. ↑ Snow, New Mexico's First Colonists, p. 84.
6. ↑ Needs citation.

See also:

• Hammond, George P.. "Don Juan de Oñate and the Founding of New Mexico." New Mexico Historical Review 2, 2 (1927). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr/vol2/iss2/3
• Great New Mexico Pedigree Database: By the Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico