Apodaca

Diego González de Apodaca

Diego González de Apodaca (ONMF: 5) was a native of Mexico City in New Spain. He was one of eight soldiers hired to escort incoming Governor don Alonso Pacheco from Mexico City to Santa Fe, and served in this duty from December 1641 to August 1642. González de Apodaca may have continued in the service of Governor Pacheco. He remained as a citizen of New Mexico where he married Sebastiana López de Gracia and established the Apodaca family.

Diego Gonzalez de Apodaca and his wife, Sebastiana Lopez de Gracia, were the progenitors of the main Apodaca family of New Mexico. In the 1700s, there were Indians who adopted the Apodaca surname. What we know about Diego González de Apodaca comes from just a few references in records of the1600s.

The earliest know account of Diego González de Apodaca is from a record that informs us that he was a soldier hired in December 1641 to escort the incoming governor of New Mexico, don Alonso Pacheco. In a list of the soldiers he was identified ads Diego Gonzalez de Apodaca, natural de la Ciudad de México (Mexico City). Gonzalez de Apodaca served in this capacity form December 1641 through August 1642. The source for this information is Archivo General de Indias, Contaduria, leg. 926, pliego no. 2, 51: 1-3, A 8 soldados conducidos para el Nuevo Mexico.

The next account of Diego Gonzalez de Apodaca comes from a testimony given by Miguel de Noriega, age 36, recorded on September 22, 1661. Noriega came to New Mexico with Governor don Bernardo López de Mendizábal in 1659. Noriega identified Diego González de Apodaca as a mestizo and married. He also made reference to Gonzalez de Apodaca as having “carnally known the three daughters of his wife” (AGN, Inquisition, t. 593, exp.1, f. 50r, El Señor Fiscal del Santo Oficio Contra Don Bernardo López de Mendizábal, 1662).

Two years later, Toribio de la Guerta, a resident of New Mexico who was in Mexico City, provided testimony in a case against Governor don Diego de Peñalosa and made mention that “Alférez Diego de Apodaca” had been arrested and put in jail, which was most likely related to the charges of his relations with his step-daughters. Guerta mentioned that González de Apodaca, his wife and children were residents of the jurisdiction of Las Salinas (east side of the Manzano Mountains). Guerta also identified González de Apodaca as the “cuñado,” brother-in-law, of Captain Andrés López de Gracia, a resident El Paso del Río del Norte. (AGN, Inquisition, t. 507, exp. 1, f. 23r, Proceso contra don Diego de Peñalosa, 1663).

During the formal review of the tenure of Governor don Bernardo López de Mendizábal, several witnesses referred to the circumstance of González de Apodaca being jailed by the governor. One witness was his brother-in-law, Francisco de Valencia, the husband of María López Millan, a sister of Sebastiana López de Gracia. Francisco testified that he was order by López de Mendizábal to give 200 lashes of the whip to González de Apodaca as a punishment. To avoid the lashing, the in-laws of González de Apodaca raised the large sum of 200 pesos that were paid to López de Mendizábal to retract the order for the whipping (AGN, Real Audiencia, Concurso de Peñalosa, tomo 1, leg. 1, no. 2, f.72vv/219v).

Copies of documents cited above are available at the Center for Southwest Research, Zimmerman Library, Albuquerque.

We learn the name of the wife of Diego González de Apodaca from two diligencias matrimoniales for Diego’s son, José González de Apodaca. On record is dated August 5, 1686, El Paso del Norte in which José, age 30 (b.ca. 1656) identified his parents as Diego González de Apodaca and Sebastiana López de Gracia when he sought to marry Isabel Gutiérrez (DM 1686, Augist 5, no. 1, El Paso del Norte; Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Roll #59). The second diligencia if DM 1693, June 13, no. 21, El Paso del Norte, for José de Apodaca and Francisca Durán.

The number of records referring to Diego González de Apodaca is sparse and none of these records provides the names of the parents of Diego González de Apodaca.

Researcher: José Antonio Esquibel

Note:— There are several recent well-research articles on the history of Diego González de Apodaca and his immediate descendants:

· Dallas Wolf and Mary T. Apodaca Tucker, Ed.D., “’Troublous Times’ for the Apodaca Family,” in New Mexico Genealogist, September 2019, 58:3, 153-163

· Mary T. Apodaca Tucker, Ed.D., and Dallas Wolf, “Oh Yes, the Apodacas, They were Soldiers,” New Mexico Genealogist, June 2020, 59:2, 99-117.

· Dallas Wolf, “In Search of the Apodaca Estancia,” in New Mexico Genealogist, March 2019, 58:1, 3-7.