Bernabé de las Casas enlisted as a soldier in the army of don Juan de Oñate in 1597, giving his age as twenty-five in January 1598 and declaring he was a native of Tenerife in the Canary Islands and a son of Miguel de las Casas. From other records we learn that his mother was María López. Bernabé de las Casas distinguished himself in the colonization of New Mexico and earned the rank of Capitán. He was one of the soldiers who escape the attack of the Acoma Indians in January 1599.
After the death of fellow soldier and colonist don Alonso de Sosa Albornoz, Casas married his widow, doña Beatriz Navarro, daughter of Juan Navarro and María Rodríguez Castaño de Sosa. Leaving New Mexico in October 1602, Casas and Navarro made their way to Saltillo where her father had successfully established himself as a rancher.
By 1604, Bernabé de las Casas was the administrator for the Hacienda de Santa Ana which had been left to doña Beatriz Navarro and her two sisters by their father, Juan Navarro. Casas acquired and operated a wheat mill in the area of Saltillo and ran a train of wagons to Zacatecas, transporting grain and ore. In 1608, Casas was elected alcalde ordinario of Saltillo and served as teniente de alcalde mayor from 1609-1610. By 1615, Bernabé de las Casas had discovered silver in the Valle de Salinas in Nuevo León, and had an ore smelting mill constructed on his Estancia de Salinas to process the silver ore.
By the 1620s, Bernabé de las Casas was a vecino of Nuevo León where he owned property, including the silver mine of San Nicolás de Tolentino. In 1626 he was alcalde ordinario of Monterrey and then was alcalde mayor of the town from 1627 through 1630.
Bernabé de las Casas and doña Beatriz Navarro were the parents of five children:
Bernabé de las Casas.
Marcos de las Casas married with Gertrudis de la Vega. This couple had four known children: Juan de las Casas, María de las Casas, Margarita de las Casas, and Mencia de las Casas.
Beatriz de las Casas married with Diego de Villarreal. This couple had seven known children: Sargento Mayor Diego de Villarreal who married four times (1) María de la Garza; (2) Inés de Rentería; (3) Tomasa Flores; and (4) Mariana Cortinas; Capitán Juan Bautista de Villarreal who married Luisa de la Garza; Capitán Bernabé de Villarreal who married Isabel de la Garza; Capitán Juan de Villarreal who married Juana de la Garza García; Francisco de Villarreal who married Úrsula de Isaguirre Urrutia; Capitán Cristóbal de Villarreal who married first with Micaela de Treviño Rentería and second with Aldonza (Ildefonsa) Martínez Guajardo; and Luisa de las Casas who married Alonso Rodríguez de Carvajal.
Doña Juliana de las Casas married with don Diego Fernández de Montemayor.
Doña María de las Casas married with don Juan Alonso Lobo Guerrero, native of Córdoba, Spain, and a son of don Juan Lobo Guerrero and doña Juana Fernández de Córdoba. Doña María de las Casas and don Juan Lobo Guerrero were the parents of seven children: don Luis de Córdoba; don Juan Lobo Guerrero; doña María Lobo Guerrero; doña Margarita Lobo Guerrero; don Fernando Lobo Guerrero; don Antonio Lobo Guerrero; and don José Lobo Guerrero.
Bernabé de las Casas established himself as a successful miner and rancher and became one of the most prominent and influential men of Nuevo León. At the time of his death in 1632 he held extensive properties which he divided amongst his five adult children. The lands of Icamole and San José de la Popa, today in the area of the town of García, Nuevo León, went to his two sons, Bernabé and Marcos. Both of these sons also received shares of the mines of Nuestra Señora del Rosario. The hacienda of San Francisco de las Cañas, today the villa of Mina, Nuevo León, as well as a share in the mines of San Nicolás de Tolentino, were given to doña María de las Casas. Doña Beatriz de las Casas inherited the haciendas of Magdalena and Nuestra Señora de Eguía, and share in the mines of Nuestra Señora del Rosario. The hacienda of Chipinque, today the villa of Carmen, Nuevo León, was inherited by doña Juliana de las Casas, who also inherited her father's encomienda of the Cacuilipalina Indians.
Researcher: José Antonio Esquibel
Sources: José Cuello, Dissertation: "Saltillo in the Seventeenth Century: Local Society on the Northern Mexican Frontier," University of Berkeley, 1981: 139-143; Raul J. Guerra Jr.; Nadine M. Vásquez, and Baldomero Vela, Jr., Index to the Marriage Investigations of the Diocese of Guadalajara: Provinces of Coahuila, Nuevo León, Nuevo Santander and Texas, Volume 1: 1653-1750, privately published, Edinburg, Texas; Municipal Archives of Saltillo: Ramo Civil, Volumen 79.Exp. 2, fol 35 a 39 (Testimonio de doña María de las Casas); Israel Cavazos Garza, Diccionario Biográfico de Nuevo León, Tomo I, A-L, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Capilla Alfonsina Biblioteca Universitaria, Monterrey, México, 1984: 87; Israel Cavazos Garza, Catálogo y síntesis de los protocolos del archivo municipal de Monterrey, 1599-1700, Publicaciones del Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo León, 1966: 267.