First wave of Spanish colonization. (pp. 145-147)

Captain don Francisco Vasquez de Coronado gathered and led a large army of men into the wilderness north of New Spain. This exploratory expedition of 1540-42 did not result in discoveries that warranted a permanent Spanish settlement in New Mexico.

Adventurous attempts to colonize New Mexico in 1582-83 and 1590-91 proved unsuccessful. The latter was unauthorized by the Spanish government. In 1595 don Juan de Onate was tasked to establish a firm Spanish presence in the far north. Juan Onate led the expedition of approximately 800 people from the outpost of Santa Barbara northward. The majority of these colonists were European people born either on the Iberian Peninsula or in the New World. The first Spanish colony established in New Mexico was San Juan de los Caballeros. The first capital of New Mexico was San Gabriel del Yunque, constructed on the ruins of a nearby pueblo in 1600. By early 1601, many of the soldiers and families were dissatisfied with New Mexico and with Onate’s leadership and a large group of the original settlers left the settlement of San Gabriel del Yunque. Those remaining settlers founded families whose names are in the lines of people with Hispano roots in New Mexico with known origins in parenthesis).

ARCHULETA --Eibar, Basque province of Guipazcoa

BARELA --a variation of the surname Varela

BERNAL

BRITO --Canary Islands

CARVAJAL --Ayotepel Nueva Espana

CRUZ --Barcelona, Catalonia

DURAN de la Cruz --Valle de Toluca, Nueva Espana

GRIEGO --Greek Island of Crete

JIMENEZ --Andalusia, Spain

LUJAN --Isle of La Palma, Canary Islands

MARQUEZ --SAN LUCAR DE BARRAMEDA, ANDALUSIA, SPAIN

Martin SERRANO/MARTINEZ --Zacatecas, Nueva Galicia

MORAN --Mora del Toro, Spain

ROMERO --Corral de Almaguer, Castilla La Mancha, Spain

VALENCIA

VARELA/Varela JARAMILLO --Compostela, Galicia, Spain

©2005