Arvide Pacheco

Juana de Arvide Pacheco, Wife of Roque de Madrid

Unfortunately, there is still no record found that identifies the name of the father of Juana de Arvide Pacheco, first wife of Roque de Madrid. There is documentation that identified Juana as a daughter of Maria Pacheco and a granddaughter of Gerónimo Pacheco.

Maria Pacheco was married with a man named Juan de Gamboa. Curiuosly, there is a baptismal record dated August 5, 1686, El Paso del Río Norte, in which Roque de Madrid and his wife, “Juana de Gamboa” were godparents for an infant boy named Nicólas, son of Captain Alonso Márquez and Francisca Domínguez.

It could very well be that Juana de Arvide Pacheco was a natural daughter of María Pacheco and that she used the Gamboa surname because she was raised the the Gamboa-Arvide family.

It is interesting to note that Pedro de Madrid, son of Roque de Madrid and Juana de Arvide, identified himself as a first cousin of Cristóbal de Gamboa, a native of Santa Fe, a soldier of the presidio in Santa Fe, and a son of Lucas Gamboa and Isabel Archuleta (Chavez, “New Mexico Roots, Ltd.” 584, DM 1695, July 23, no. 9, El Paso del Norte).

What this info reveals is that Lucas Gamboa was a brother of Juana de Arvide Pacheco, thus Lucas was apparently a son of Juan de Gamboa and Maria Pacheco.

This info does not confirm the father of Juana de Arvide Pacheco, because their relationship as siblings could very well be only through a common mother (Maria Pacheco).

It is also curious to note that in the 1620s there was a Franciscan serving in New Mexico named fray Martín de Arvide (AGN, Mexico, Inquisición, t. 356, exp. 138, f.260r, Testimony of fray Estaban de Perea, 1626). What relation, if any, that may have existed between this friar and Juana is not known from any documentation. If the shared surname of Arvide was not a coincidence, could fray Martin have been a relative?

Researcher: José Antonio Esquibel