Juan Griego

He was a member of the Oñate Party of 1598.

He was described as having a good stature, gray bearded and big wound on his forehead.

JUAN GRIEGO answered the Onate muster-roll at Casco in 1597, declaring that he was accompanied by his wife, and that he was a native of the City of Candia in Greece, the son of Lázaro Griego. On another occasion, the same year, he gave "Negroponte" as his birthplace, and this is the place he also gave in 1598, when he was entered as the son of Lázaro Griego, thirty-two years old, a native of Greece in "Negropote," of good stature, greay-bearded, with a big wound on the forehead. If born in or near Candia, Crete, he was not only a contemporary but also a fellow-townsman of the great painter in Spain, Domenico Theotocopuli, otherwise known by his Italo-Spanish nickname of "El Greco." Was Juan Griego's family name also so hard to pronounce that even his father was known as "the Greek"?

Still living, and an Alférez, in 1631, Juan gave his age as sixty. His wife, Pascuala Bernal, was dead by 1626. Their known sons were; Juan II, Lázaro, and Francisco (this latter went by the name of Bernal). Their daughters were Catalina Bernal, wife of Juan Durán, María Bernal, married to Juan Gómez Barragán, Isabel Bernal, wife of Sebastián González, and Juana Bernal, married Diego de Moraga.

Origins of New Mexico Families

p. 41

   * BIRTH: 1566, Candia, Greece (Crete) [382] [383]

* DEATH: AFT 1631 [384]
* EVENT: member 98 Oñate: 18 AUG 1598 [385] [386]
* EVENT: having a good stature, gray bearded and big wound on his forehead
Appearance: 1598 [387]
[382] He later reported his home as Negropote, Greece

[383] [S2200] ORIGINS OF NM FAMILIES

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[384] [S2200] ORIGINS OF NM FAMILIES

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[385] [S2200] ORIGINS OF NM FAMILIES

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[386] [S2162] New Mexico's First Colonists

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[387] [S2200] ORIGINS OF NM FAMILIES

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The colony established by Juan de Juan de Oñate and his followers in New Mexico represented one of the last major efforts of the 16th century to expand the geography of the Spanish empire and the Roman Catholic Church via a policy guided by the ideology of evangelization. In 1598, the region was brought into the constellation of the Hapsburg realms as a community of Christendom. Various Pueblo Indian leaders actively negotiated political and military alliances with the Spaniards, seeking advantages and benefits for their people as well as strengthening the political and economic status of their communities within the region. Following the lack of discoveries of silver and gold in New Mexico, the Spanish crown and church focused attention on spreading the Christian faith among the multiple communities of Pueblo Indians. Of the several hundred soldiers that came north between 1598 and 1601, a great majority of them deemed New Mexico a land of misery and abandoned the colony. By 1608, only about 50 Spanish soldiers, many with families, continued to reside in New Mexico. A lack of

documentation makes it difficult to understand the motives of those few soldiers who decided to remain and make their homes among thousands of Indians.

 Among these brave and determined individuals were Juan Griego and his wife, Pascuala Bernal. There are three known references to the origins of Juan Griego, each confirming he was a native of Greece. The circumstances that brought him into service within the Hapsburg empire are still unknown. Juan traveled a great distance to eventually arrive in Mexico City prior to 1597, by which time he was already married to Pascuala Bernal. Information on the origins of Pascuala Bernal is equally scant. Research into a variety of records confirms she was an Indian acculturated to Spanish society, apparently coming from one of the tribes of the Valley of Mexico that spoke Nauhuatl. Her son, Juan Griego, the younger, was referred to as Nauatato, probably referring

to “one who speaks Nauhautl,” and her children were consistently identified as mestizos, indicating a racial mixture of Caucasian and Indian. As a solider in Oñate’s army, Juan Griego apparently served at the garrison that would eventually become the Villa de Santa Fe. His son, Juan, consistently gave Santa Fe as his birthplace and indicated he was born about 1604 or 1605. Documents issued by the viceroy of New Spain and by the king in 1608 make references to the garrison (la guarnición) and the fort (el presidio) in New Mexico for the protection of “nuestra sancta fee católica,” “our holy Catholic faith.” Here is a hint as to the origin of the name of the Villa

de Santa Fe, which apparently began as the military camp or garrison christened Santa Fe in acknowledgment of defending the Holy Faith.

 Royal officials and Franciscan friars strove to bring the diverse Pueblo tribes into permanent union as a single “kingdom” with common law and polity. Successful alliances between the Spaniards and numerous Pueblo tribes reshaped the political and military structure of the region. However, efforts to recruit additional soldiers to settle in New Mexico failed. By 1617, there were only 48 Spanish settlers living in New Mexico, many with families, including the Griego–Bernal family.

The family of Juan Griego and Pascuala Bernal included three sons and four daughters: Juan Griego, Lázaro Griego, Francisco Bernal, Isabel Bernal, Catalina Bernal, María Bernal and Juana Bernal. As was customary in Spanish society, some of the children took their mother’s
surname as their own. Juan and Pascuala established a firm social and economic foundation that made the Griego–Bernal clan one of the three most prominent families of 17th century New Mexico.

 Matrimonial alliances with the de la Cruz and González Bas families served to strengthen the prosperity of the Griego–Bernal family. This clan was further expanded by marriages of the Griego–Bernal daughters to frontier soldiers Juan Durán (Catalina Bernal) and Juan Gómez

Barragán (María Bernal), and the armorer and constable of artillery, Diego de Moraga (Juana Bernal).

 Juan Griego, the elder, with his sons and sons-in-law, acquired favors from successive governors of New Mexico for their exemplary and loyal government and military service to the crown. This early success placed the Griego–Bernal clan at odds with the Franciscan friars and their supporters. Attempts to diminish the social and economic standing of the Griego–Bernal clan came between the years 1626–1628, when the wife of Juan Griego, the younger, and his mother-in-law were denounced to the Inquisition as hechiceras, women who bewitched people with potions and enchantments.

Testimony was collected by numerous residents of New Mexico against Beatrís de los Ángeles, an acculturated Mexican Indian married to a Spanish soldier, and her mestiza daughter, Juana de la Cruz. Both were implicated in the unexplained illness of several people and the mysterious death of one man. As it turned out, Inquisition officials in Mexico City found little merit to the charges, and there were no arrests and no trial.
Animosity between the Griego–Bernal clan and the Franciscan friars fueled the political factionalism between “royalists” and the “protectors of religion” of 17th-century New Mexico. As royalists, the Griego–Bernal clan continually sought and received favors and privileges from the governors of New Mexico.
By the mid-17th century, the large and expanding clan secured their standing as one of the top three most prominent and prosperous families of New Mexico. In addition to owning various properties in the Villa de Santa Fe, this clan owned and operated as many as four estancias in what is now the Española Valley.
Men from the Griego–de la Cruz–González Bernal extended family represented five of the 35 men who were granted encomiendas (Indian community tributes) in New Mexico, holding the grants for at least five pueblos. Only the Anaya Almazán-Domínguez de Mendoza clan and the Romero-Montoya-Gómez-Lucero de Godoy clan held more encomiendas, eight and ten, respectively. These three family groups monopolized 23 of the 35 encomiendas of New Mexico, or 63 percent, making them the socially and economically dominant families of seventeenth-century New Mexico.
By 1628, Capt. Juan Griego, the younger, owned a home in the Villa de Santa Fe as well as a home and estancia in La Cañada, along the Santa Cruz River, in the modern-day Española Valley. He also owned or inherited property in Mexico City and very likely maintained contacts in the viceregal capital for the purpose of commerce. In 1659, he presented his papers of military service to the newly arrived governor, Bernardo López de Mendizábal, consisting of a total of 70 pages of commissions, appointments and services. Unfortunately, copies of these valuable papers have not yet been located, assuming they even survived the passing of three and a half centuries.
New Mexico was not an idyllic place to live in the 17th century. Known as tierra de guerra, land of war, the small number of Spanish vecinos (tax-paying citizens) spent much of their time defending their communities and those of the Pueblo Indians from depredations by hostile bands of nomadic Indians, mainly Apache and Navajo. Juan Griego, the younger, most likely entered military service by the age of 14, having served in military campaigns as a cadet from the age of 12, like others of his era. He apparently had a knack for acquiring Indian languages well enough to serve as an interpreter, an important role in maintaining cooperative relations with various Pueblo Indian leaders.
At midnight on April 13, 1646, two Indians from the Pueblo of Pecos, located in the mountain range to the east of the Villa de Santa Fe, arrived in the Villa de Santa Fe in a state of urgency, seeking an audience with Gov. Luis de Guzmán y Figueroa. As interpreter general, Capt. Juan Griego was summoned at that late hour to interpret the words of Cristóbal Chepira, war captain of Pecos, and his companion, Francisco Macha. In their Towa language, they explained that on the previous day, the Apache del Anco of the eastern plains approached the Pueblo of Pecos in warlike array. The governor of the pueblo, Pedro
Meju, and the war captains sent Cristóbal and Francisco as envoys to request military assistance from Gov. Guzmán y Figueroa.

 Guzmán y Figueroa responded by organizing a force of Spanish soldiers and Pueblo Indians. Campaigns such as this, which were frequent, usually consisted of some 30 to 40 Spanish soldiers and 100 to 400 Pueblo Indian warriors, a clear indication of the cooperative relations that existed in defense against common enemies. In all likelihood, Juan Griego participated in this campaign, serving both as a military leader and interpreter. It is also known that he spoke the Tewa language. 

Juan Griego and his wife, Juana de la Cruz, raised at least five children: Nicolás Griego, who married Antonia Márquez; Blas Griego, who married Inez Romero; Graciana Griego, who married Francisco Xavier, a Spaniard from Sevilla, Spain; María de la Cruz Alemán, who married Diego López del Castillo; and Juana Griego.
The other male Griego living during the mid-1600s was Agustín Griego, who submitted his papers of merits and services, consisting of four pages, to Gov. López de Mendizázal in 1659. It is not clear whether Agustín was a brother, son or nephew of Capt. Juan Griego, the younger. Agustín was already married to Francisca de Montoya by 1656 when their son, Agustín II Griego, was born.
Drought, famine and pestilence made the 1670s particularly harsh for Spanish vecinos, Pueblo Indians and the nomadic tribes. Lack of food supplies and increased raids by confederated bands of Apache and Navajo forced the abandonment of six pueblo communities in 1672. The
vecino population of New Mexico remained small. In 1679 there were only 150 men who could bear arms. The Pueblo Indian population was recorded to be about 17,000, with 6,000 men capable of bearing arms.

 Dire straits placed stress on the social relations and fostered the disaffection that eventually erupted with the August 1680 Pueblo Indian uprising that forced the Spanish vecinos to flee their homes and take refuge in El Paso del Río del Norte. Abandoning their estancias in La Cañada and property in the Villa de Santa Fe, various members of the Griego–Bernal extended family managed to escape the uprising. It is not known how many members of this clan lost their lives in the attacks. 

After persevering through almost 13 years of exile from their places of birth and living with the hope of returning to their formers homes, a small number of Griego men and women returned to northern New Mexico when it was restored to the Spanish crown in 1692. In addition to resettling the Villa de Santa Fe (1693), members of the Griego family also settled in the Albuquerque area after 1706. The family property became known as Los Griego, which today is a neighborhood in Albuquerque’s north valley.
The men of the Griego family continued to serve as frontier soldiers. There are rare physical descriptions of four Griego brothers, sons of José Antonio Griego and María Tenorio, residents of Santa Fe in the mid-1700s.
Fernando Griego (b.ca. 1741), Miguel Griego (b.ca. 1742), Juan Domingo Griego (b. 1749) and Bernardo Antonio Griego (b.ca. 1761) enlisted as a soldier between 1769 and 1789. Each was described as having fair skin. Three had light-chestnut hair and one had reddish hair. Two of the brothers had blue eyes, one had hazel eyes and the fourth had dark eyes.

 The three older brothers, along with their father, served at the presidio in Santa Fe during the time that Spain declared war with Great Britain. These Griego men contributed money in support of the war of independence of the United State against Great Britain. Because of this

financial contribution, these men are officially recognized by the Daughters of the American Revolution as patriots of the United States. Fernando, José Miguel and their father, Juan Antonio, are also recognized by the Sons of the American Revolution as patriots. Female and male descendants of these men are eligible to apply for membership to these societies in honor of the memory and support of their ancestors in helping to secure the independence of the United State of America.