Diego de Vera aka Diego de Vera Perdomo born 1590 at Tenerife, Canary Islands died after 1626 at Tenerife, Canary Islands

Diego de Vera came to Santa Fe, from Spain, in 1617, and he married Maria on 16 Jan 1622, Maria de Abendaño, daughter of Simón de Abendaño and Maria Ortiz Baca, both decesed. Witnesses were Don Pedro Durán y Ch and his wife Isabel de Bohórquez Baca, aunt of the bride.

Diego de Vera was charged and sentenced for bigamy, 1626, in Mexico City. He had confessed his sin to Fray Alonso Benevides. The padre had been in the Canaries where Diego married his first wife. He was sent back to the México City in the company of Fray Alonso Benavides. He got off with an easy sentence from the Holy Office. He was to return to his wife in the Canaries and never come back to New México. He sailed for Europe in the company of Fray Benavides.

When Diego de Vera confessed his bigamy in 1626, he was thirty years. His marriage to Maria was annulled. His wife in Santa Fé was the grand-daughter of Captain Juna López Holguín. They had two daughters. María became the wife of Manuel Jorge, and her second husband was Diego de Montoya. Petronila married Pedro Romero.

Diego de Vera's ancestry was given during his trail. His parents were Pedro de Vera Perdomo and María de Betancur, residents of the City of La Laguna on Tenerife. His paternal grandparents were Hernán Martín Baena, a native of Jerez de los Caballeros in Estremadura, and Catalina Garía, native of La Laguna on Tenerife. His maternal grandparents were Antonio Pérez, born on the Canary Island of La Graciosa, and Catalina Aponte, natives of Garachico on Tenerife.

~The Origins of New México Families, pg. 112

"A note written by fray Alonso de Benavides: "Este Diego de Vera es sobrino de la perdoma que por esse Sto tribunal fue castigada aura veinte y tres años con una hija suja y dises que unos dos hermanas o hermanos deste se avian ido aberb_cia y ay mal sospecha". This information describes Diego de Vera as a nephew (sobrino) of a woman referred to as 'la Perdoma' who was punished by the Inquisition about 23 years earlier (circa 1603) along with her daughter and, as he heard said, two sisters or two brothers. It is not clear what the behavior was regarded as "mala sospecho" (bad suspicion). Two possibilities is that 'la Perdoma' was tried and sentence for practicing witchcraft or for practicing Jewish ceremonies. Whatever the circumstances, it appears that 'la Perdoma' was a sister of Diego's father, Pedro de Vera Perdomo.

It is not clear if 'la Perdoma' was tried by the Inquisition in Nueva España or on the island of Tenerife, but there was another person in New Mexico who had information about this circumstance. On 27 January 1626, Matías López de Castillo (ONMF: 55), age 35, provided testimony in which he declared that Diego de Vera "era sobrino de una muger que avia aestado prese en la inquisision" ("is nephew of a woman that was imprisioned through the Inquisition")."

During Diego de Vera's bigamy trail before the inquisitors in Mexico city in 1656 some testimony have clues suggesting Diego de Vera was a conversos. After the trial he allegedly journed back to Tenerife to renew his marriage with his first wife.

Sources

Chavez, Fray Angelico, Origins of New Mexico Families A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period, Museum of New Mexico Press 1992, Pages: 1, 112

Colligan, John B., More About Diego de Vera Perdomo, HGRC Herencia October 1999, Page: 1-8

HGRC, Pedigree Database

Hordes, Stanley M. , Ph.D, To the End of the Earth, A History of the Crypto-Jews of New México, Columbia University Press, New York, 2006, Page: 140

Padilla, Sam, Rio Abajo Database