Gutierre Vasquez de la Cueva

From Luis de Carvajal: The Origins of Nuevo Reino de León, by Samuel Temkin

Nearly 10 years after Philip II named him governor of Nuevo Reino de Leon, Luis de Carvajal was brought before the Inquisition in Mexico City to be questioned about the heretical activities of one of his nieces. During his arraignment, he first gave his name, title, birthplace, age, and genealogy. He was then asked about his religion and that of his ancestors, and was told to give an account of his life. Carvajal's responses were clear but brief, particularly about what he did before he settled in the New World. This chapter considers what is now known about him and his activities prior to 1567, when he left the Old World to settle in New Spain.

1. Origins

On 14 April of 1589, at his arraignment before the Inquisition, Governor Luis de Carvajal said that he was born in Mogadouro, a Portuguese town in "the Reino y Raya de Portugal near Zamora and Benavente." [2] La Raya was the region adjacent to the Portuguese-Spanish border. Of special importance to (the places named by Carvajal or by his ancestors) are Mogadouro, in Portugal, and Benavente, in Spain. Later sections touch upon Cape Verde and the Canary Islands.

Mogodouro's history dates back to the times when the Moors controlled the Iberian peninsula. By the first third of the 16th century, it had become an important "dry port" of entry into Portugal. [3] It also was a center for the production of silk, most of which was exported to Spain. Benavente, in the old Spanish Kingdom of Leon, goes back to Roman times, when it was known as Intercacia. [4] It became the center of the Condado de Benavente in 1398, when King Enrique III of Castile named Joao Afonso Pimentel, a Portuguese nobleman, as its first count. The sixth Conde de Benavente was Antonio Alfonso Pimentel (1530-1575), a friend of Philip II. In all likelihood, it was this man to whom Alonso de Leon referred (when he said, "From an early age he was a gentleman of the court of Castile, where he learned the language as well as good habits," in 1649 [1]).

The next item in Carvajal's declaration was his age, which he said was 50, "poco mas o menos" [a little more or less]. This ambiguity in fixing dates, prevalent in most of the contemporary documents referred to in this work, is of no consequence to the narrative as a whole. It is nevertheless useful to determine the year of his birth as close as the primary sources permit. As described later, these indicate that Carvajal was born in 1537. The next item in his declaration was his genealogy. Although Carvajal named the members of his immediate family and said that his ancestors were Old Christians, earlier Portuguese documents provide considerable more reliable and complete information. As discussed later, these documents show that contrary to what he said, his ancestors were of Jewish descent and had become Christian only two or three generations earlier. To simplify the discussion, Carvajal's paternal and maternal ancestral families are considered separately.

Vazquez-Carvajal

According to Carvajal, his paternal grandparents were Gutierre Vazquez de la Cueva and Francisca de Carvajal. He also said that Gutierre was born around Bermillo del Sayago, near Zamora in Spain, but had moved to Portugal. Carvajal did not state the reason for the move, nor did he say when it took place.

Considerably older information is now available about Carvajal's paternal grandmother and her family. (A family tree illustrated within the book) shows four generations, marked with Roman numerals I-IV, of the Carvajal family, starting with her parents. For example, grandmother Francisca de Carvajal appears as a member of generation II. In this context, it should be added that while the names of some of Carvajal's ancestors were given by him in Spanish, the older documents give them in Portuguese. The text here uses the Spanish version if the names were given by Carvajal, while the family tree shows those names in Portuguese if they appear in Portuguese documents, or in Spanish if they do not. Thus,, for example, the name of Carvajal's paternal grandfather appears in both text and family tree as Gutierre Vazquez, whereas that of paternal uncle Melchor Vazquez appears in the family tree as Belchior Vaz (generation III).

The older information shows that grandmother Francisca de Carvajal was born around 1485, and that her parents were Alvaro de Carvajal and Catarina de Carvajal (generation I). Francisca had a sister and four brothers, all named Carvajal. None off her siblings were mentioned by Carvajal and, with the exception of his great-uncle Luis de Carvajal (generation II), not much is know about them, other than they returned to Spain before 1546.

The immediate family of great-uncle Luis illustrates the connections between the Carvajal family with others such as the Leon, Nunez, and Lopez families. For example, Luis was married to Margarida Nunes, or Nunez, a native of Mogadouro. This marriage shows that a connection between the Carvajal family and a Mogadouro family whose surname Nunez existed in generation II. Connections with the Leon and Lopez families are shown by the marriages of Luis' daughters, Leonor and Catarina de Carvajal (generation III). Thus, Leonor was married to an Antonio Lopez, and Catarina was married to Alvaro de Leon (generation III), a maternal uncle of Carvajal. However, a connection between the Nunez and Leon families seems to have occured at an earlier generation for one sister of Margarida was married to a Cristobal de Leon, with whom she lived in Benavente in 1558. [5]

The sons of Guiterre Vazquez and Francisca de Carvajal were:

• Melchor Vazquez
• Joan Nunez, and
• Gaspar de Carvajal, the latter being Carvajal's father. [6]

Incidently, in Carvajal's deposition Joan Nunez appears as Juan de Carvajal. Although the surnames of Gutierre's sons seem arbitrary, they appear to follow some naming traditions that are described later. Gutierre and Francisca also had two daughters, Isabel and Catarina Nunez, but only Isabel was mentioned by Carvajal.

Although Carvajal said very little about his paternal ancestors, a contemporary record shows that uncle Melchor was born in Fermoselle around 1515, and that the family moved to Mogadouro in Portugal when he was a "very small boy" [muyto pequenho]. [7]

As for Gaspar de Carvajal, his surname seems to indicate that he was born in Portugal, very likely in Mogadouro, where in due time he married Catarina de Leon, one of the daughters of Antonio de Leon. [8] Apparently the Leon family had been living there for some time, though as their name indicates, they originated in the Province of Leon, in Spain.

Carvajal also said that he had two brothers and one sister, all younger than he. The brothers were Antonio, a "man of arms" in the south of New Spain, where he died. Domingo, the youngest, was a Jesuit monk in Medina del Campo, who died "around 1562 or 1563." Their sister was Francisca Nunez, who appears in the records of the Spanish Inquisition in New Spain as Francisca de Carvajal. [9] In 1589, she told the inquisitors that she was about 50 years old "or even less", and that she was born in Benavente. [10] However, in 1595, during her second Inquisition trial, she said sshe was 55 years old, which suggests that she was born in 1540. [11]

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2. Historical Background

The back and forth change of country of residence of the Carvajal family raises additional questions which are important in the context of the Iberian Jews and their emigration to the New World. While a detailed description of the forces that produced those changes are beyond the scope of this book, it is necessary to examine the reasons behind the border crossings of the Carvajal family. In general, those crossings were normal for those living in La Raya. There, commerce across the border was common; also common was to find families separated by the border. [31]

However, the crossings that concern this work were of a very different kind as they involved relocations of entire families, that is, relocations that required a considerable effort. Consequently, these movements must have been caused by forces that acted only on one segment of the population.Individual belonging to it shared something in common: They were either practicing Jews, or crypto Jews, that is Jews who had converted to Christianity but had continued to practice Judaism under cover.

The Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 played very significant roles in driving entire families to Portugal. However, the movement of Spanish Jews to Portugal had started earlier owing to previous religious persecutions, particularly that of 1391, which had its beginnings in Seville. [32] Those persecutions induced many Jews to move to areas in the east of the Iberian peninsula, particularly to Leon and Galicia. [33] Later on, as the Inquisition gained strength in Spain, many of them moved to Portugal. [34]

Of course, Portugal had a Jewish population from much earlier times. This meant that some of the Jews entering that country were able to join Jewish communities that already existed there, adopting their language and traditions, while maintaining whatever connections they could with their place of origin, perhaps thinking that one day they, or their descendants, would go back, as many did years after their expulsion from Spain. [35]

The fate of the Jews who converted to Christianity in Spain is well known. A fraction of them were accused, justly or unjustly, of continuing to practice Judaism, accusations that helped establish the Spanish Inquisition, first in Seville in 1481, and subsequently in other Spanish Cities. But the largest influx of Jews into Portugal occurred in 1492, when King Fernando and Queen Isabel ordered their expulsion from Spain. Although the numbers of those expelled is not known with any degree of certainty, it is estimated that at least 100,000 Jews left Spain, of which approximately one-half entered Portugal through pre-assigned ports after paying a few of two cruzados per person. [36] This influx resulted in a significant swelling fo the Jewish population there, which some authors estimate to have been about 3-6 percent of the total. [37] A significant component of that influx originated in the old Kingdom of Leon. Because of its vicinity to the Portuguese province of Tras-os-Montes, many Jews who had been living in such places as Zamora, Leon, Medina del Campo, and Benavente made that province their home upon entering Portugal.

Although the permission to stay was to be limited to six months, most Jews ignored that limitation. However, their ability to practice their religion was significantly curtailed few years later when Fermando and Isabel would not consent the marriage of their daughter, Isabel, to King Manuel I of Portugal unless he rid his kingdom of all "heretics", that is Jews and Muslims. [38] To comply, Manuel first ordered the forced mass conversion of all Jews, and in 1496, he ordered the expulsion of those who had not been converted. These actions officially ended Judaism there, but left the country with a very large number of New Christians, many of whom, remaining Jewish at heart, continued to practice the religion of their ancestors.

However, in 1536 Joao III agreed to establish the Portuguese Inquisition. [39] For that purpose Inquisition tribunals were established in Lisbon, Evora, and Coimbra. This meant that relatively isolated areas like Tras-os-Montes were not, excepted for isolated incursions, initially affected by inquisitorial activities, although as the years passed those activities increased noticeably everywhere. The arrests of crypto-Jews continued until 1546, when Pope Paul IV issued a general pardon which released a large number of crypto-Jews from the Inquisition jails. However, since the pardon was accompanied with stricter penalties for those who might relapse, many Portuguese crypto-Jews whose ancestors were Spanish returned to Spain, thinking they would be safer there.

The return of Spanish-Jewish families to their homeland got an additional boost when Spain annexed Portugal in 1580. That made it possible for many Portuguese New Christians to go to the Spanish New World. An indication that the total number of such emigrants was large is provided by the large number of Portuguese individuals tried by the Inquisition in the Spanish Colonies. For example, between 1590 and 1650, about 270 individuals were accused of following the law of Moses in New Spain. [40] Most of these were born in Portugal and many of those claiming to be Spanish had Portuguese ancestry.

3. Family Movements

Consider now the reasons behind the exodus from Spain of Carvajal's ancestors. Although both branches of his family moved to Portugal, more information is available about the Carvajal family. The first point that should be addressed pertains to the time of their move. As described before, Carvajal's father was born in Portugal, while uncle Melchor was born in Spain. Thus Gutierre Vazquez and Francisca de Carvajal moved to Portugal after 1515, when Melchor was born. [41] The date suggests that the reason for the move might have been related to the activities of the Spanish Inquisition. Indeed, the trials held by the Portuguese Inquisition in the mid-1540s show that to have been the case. One of these trials relates to Luis de Carvajal (generation II), one of the brothers of Carvajal's paternal grandmother Francisca. [42] This man was born in 1488 in Fermoselle. His parents were Alvaro and Catarina de Carvajal, names they adopted at the time of their conversion to Christianity. Their conversion probably took place in 1492, for Luis said that he had been Jewish but that he was made Christian at the time when his parents converted, when he was very small. However, the conversion was not sincere; the family continued to practice Judaism, albeit under cover. Eventually, the Spanish Inquisition in Valladolid learned about those practices and arrested Luis' sister Francisca. While the records of her trial have not been located, her sentence must have been light for she did not have to serve it in jail. However, no matter how light the sentence might have been, Francisca refused to serve it for, according to her brother Luis, "she came to live in Mogadouro with her husband because she did not want to serve the sentence given to her." It is therefore indisputable that the Carvajal family practiced Judaism undercover in Spain and moved to Portugal in order to escape the Spanish Inquisition. It is also clear that she intended to continue her religious practices there.

Although evidence that the Leon family practiced Judaism in Spain has not surfaced, subsequent activities of some of its members show that they also practiced Judaism undercover in Spain. Their conversion to Christianity had taken place much earlier, possibly during the persecutions of 1391, for as mentioned earlier, it appears that an ancestor of Antonio de Leon carried Christian names already by 1448. It also appears that the family's move to Portugal was caused by the anti-Jewish riots that took place in Benavente during the decade before the expulsion. [43]

The Portuguese Inquisition

As stated before, the Portuguese Inquisition was officially installed in 1536. At first its activities were limited to the areas around Lisbon, Coimbra, and Evora. [44] Later on, its powerful arm would move into Tras-os-Montes, affecting the lives of many of the New Christians who lived there, including the families of Antonio de Leon and of Gutierre Vazquez. In October of 1544, Jorge de Leon, one of the sons of Antonio, was brought to the Inquisition jail in Evora. [45] A month later, his brother Alvaro was also arrested. [46] It is also possible that their father, Antonio de Leon, was also a target of the Inquisition but seems to have escaped it. It is not difficult to imagine his reaction, or indeed that of the many crypto-Jews who lived in the area surround Mogadouro. Sensing the danger, Antonio de Leon must have decided to go to Spain and take with him those members of his family who were still free. This included his daughter Catarina de Leon, her husband Gaspar de Carvajal, and their children, Luis, then 8 years old, and his younger siblings Francisca and Domingo.

Some members of the Carvajal family also left Portugal at that time, for example Francisca de Carvajal and three of her brothers. Other members stayed behind, probably thinking that they would not be caught. This sense of security was reinforced by Pope Paul IV's general pardon to New Christians who had revered to their previous religion. However, a few years later the Inquisition renewed its anti-heretical activities and arrested some of those members of the family who remained in Portugal. Among them were Carvajal's uncle Melchor Vazquez, great uncle Luis de Carvajal, and his daughter, Carvajal's first cousin, Catarina de Carvajal.

Family names

Before proceeding, we consider the surnames taken by Jews at the time of their conversion. That information can be useful when attempting to determine the origin of some of the people who appear in the narrative, particularly those who years later followed Carvajal to the New World after being raised governor of Nuevo Reino de Leon.

At the time of their conversion, Jews had to adopt Christian names. Some took the names of famous families or the names of those sponsoring their conversion. Others adopted names with religious connotations, such as de la Cruz, probably to try to convince Old Christians that their conversion was sincere. Also common was the association with "new" locations, for example Barrio Nuevo. But the most common surname taken by conversos was toponymic. For example, a Jew living in a given place might simply add the name of that place to his adopted (or forced [47]%29 Christian first name, prefixed by the preposition "de". The naming system worked reasonably well, but failed when two or more individuals had the same given and family names. this multiplicity of names required the addition of a suitable identifier, often another surname. An example of this is provided by Carvajal himself. His surname, as he signed it in the Spanish world, was Luis de Carvajal. But in royal documents appointing him as governor, the coda "de la Cueva" was added to differentiate him from others who had the same name. [48]

The move to Portugal involved yet another complication, namely the different naming traditions of Spain and Portugal. In the Spanish tradition, the given name of a person is followed by the surname of his/her father, and then by that of the mother. In the Portuguese tradition, the surname order is reversed so that the father's surname appears last. [49] Not all Spanish families adopted the Portuguese tradition upon entering Portugal, for example, the Leon family. On the other hand, the Vazquez-Carvajal obviously did. Thus, Melchor, born in Fermoselle, carried his father's surname, albeit as Vaz, whereas Gaspar, born in Portugal, carried his mother's surname. However, some of the Spanish families that had adopted the Portuguese naming tradition would later return to Spain and change their surname order to adopt the Spanish tradition. Carvajal's name may provide an example. Having been born in Portugal, his first surname was probably Leao. [50] But after the move to Spain it became Cavajal, a name that reflects the Spanish tradition. To complicate matters, some individuals changed their surnames in an apparently arbitrary manner, as demonstrated by the names of Carvajal's sister and her children. Such changes make it nearly impossible to trace with any degree of certainty the origins of a particular family name, even after only a few generations.

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1. GUTIERRE1 VASQUEZ-DE-LA-CUEVA was born in Tierra de Sayago, Portugal. He married FRANCISCA DE CARVAJAL. She was born in Tierra de Sayago, Portugal.

Children of GUTIERRE VASQUEZ-DE-LA-CUEVA and FRANCISCA DE CARVAJAL are:

• 2. i. GASPAR2 DE CARVAJAL, b. Tierra de Sayago, Portugal; d. 1550, Benavente, Spain.
• ii. JUAN DE CARVAJAL.
• iii. MELCHOR VASQUEZ, d. Mirandaela, Portugal.
• 3. iv. ISABEL NUNEZ-Y-CARVAJAL.
• 4. v. LEONOR DE CARVAJAL, b. Medina del Campo, Spain.

http://www.somosprimos.com/inclan/vasquezcueva.htm

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http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p16079c...

Descendants of Francisca de Carbajal and Gutierre Vasquez de la Cueva

• 1. Francisca de Carbajal, born in Caceras, Estremadura, Spain. She married Gutierre Vasquez de la Cueva, born in Caceras,Estremadura, Spain

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• Updated from Ancestry Genealogy via daughter Catarina Nunes (a.m.: de Carvajal) (a.p.: Vázquez) by SmartCopy: Jul 30 2015, 2:49:14 UTC