Narrative by José Antonio Esquibel
Antonio de Córdova and Eugenia de Herrera rank as one of the common ancestors of people with deep family roots in New Mexico, especially Northern New Mexico. It has long been held that Antonio de Córdova as a native of Mexico City, as it was stated in the first genealogical account of the Córdova family compiled by Fray Angélico Chávez and published his 1954 book, Origins of New Mexico in the Spanish Colonial (see page 165).
For the past seven decades, efforts to uncover records on the origin of Antonio de Córdova and locate one or more records that identifies the names of his parents have been unsuccessful. In 2025, a single record from the year 1683 came to light that preserves a first-hand account by Antonio de Córdova when he was recruited at Zacatecas as a soldier for New Mexico in which he declared he was a native of Guanajuato and a son of Juan de Córdova.
This recently uncovered record offers a small but important breakthrough, opening a new avenue of research that just might lead to more findings on the ancestry of Antonio de Córdova. Research efforts can now focus on records of Guanajuato, previously La real de Guanajuato, Nueva España, and now part of the Mexican State of Guanajuato.
This new information is from a document transcribed by Steven D. Perez for the Cibola Project preserved in the Archivos Históricos de Zacatecas and pertaining to a muster of men who volunteered as soldier for the presidio at El Paso de Río de Norte in New Mexico (Documents Regarding the Founding of the Presidio at El Paso del Rio del Norte, August 1682-June 1683, Steven D. Pérez, transcriber, Cibola Project, 2025).
The establishment of a presidio with a contingency of 100 soldiers was a priority for securing the safety and ongoing presence of Spanish citizen in the region of El Paso del Río del Norte in the face of threats from various bands of Indians. There was also the prospect of eventually regaining governance of Northern New Mexico, which was lost because of the Pueblo Indian uprising of August 1680.
In response to the recommendation and request of don Antonio de Otermín, the viceroy of Nueva España issued an order on January 29, 1683, ordering royal officials at Zacatecas to support the enlistment of fifty soldiers under the command of Captain don Andrés Roldán y Ponzán, who also aided in the establishment of the presidio in New Mexico (f. 1r). The salary for the soldiers was set by the viceroy at 315 pesos per year and were to be given two months of salary in advance.
Captain Andrés Roldán y Ponzán presented the order before the royal official at Zacatecas on March 7, 1683, and made arrangements for the funds to begin the enlistment, which started on that same day with five soldiers, followed on the next day by four soldiers, then a single soldier on March 11, two soldiers on March 13, followed by Antonio de Córdova and Melchor de Herrera on March 16, being the tenth and eleventh men to enlist as soldiers (f. 2r). They all appeared before the royal accounted in Zacatecas, don Antonio de Salazar y Mena, who distributed the advanced salaries and oversaw recording of the transaction with José Santa María Maraver, a royal scribe. The record included identification of places of birth and the names of fathers as personally stated by the enlisting soldiers, as well as their physical descriptions and ages.
Antonio de Córdova declared he was a native of Guanajuato, a son of Juan de Córdova, age 23, indicating he was born circa 1660 (f. 14r). He was described as having “a good body with a mole on the right side of his face and another on the lip, somewhat dark-skinned” (f. 14r).
Antonio de Cordoba,
hijo de Juan de Cordoba, natural
de Guanaxuato, de buen cuerpo con un
lunar en el lado derecho del rostro
y otro en el labio, algo moreno de
ueinte y tres años
Antonio received 52 pesos and 4 tomines in reales as his advanced pay. On April 3, he received an additional 2 pesos and 5 tomines, and again the same amount on April 10 and on April 17. He passed muster with the other soldiers on April 17 and received payment of 55 pesos and 5 tomines in reales, fulfilling 110 pesos and 4 tomines in reales of 117 pesos and 3 tomines in silver in four payments of his advanced salary over five payments (f. 14r).
On March 16, 1683, and listed immediately after Antonio de Córdova, a fellow native of Guanajuato, Melchor de Herrera, appeared before don Antonio de Salazar in order to receive his advanced salary. He declared he was a son of Nicolás Jaime, age twenty-one, and was described as having a “medium build, pockmarked [face], black hair, age twenty-one” (f.14v). When he sought to marry Ángela González in 1696, his name was recorded as Melchor Jaimes de Herrera and he declared he was a native of the Real de Guanajuato and the son of Nicolás Jaimes de Herrera and doña Juana Barón (AASF, Role 59, DM 1696, January 18, no. 11, Santa Fe; and Fray Angélico Chávez, “New Mexico Roots, Ltd.,” 823).
In October 1694, as a witness to a prenuptial investigation, Antonio de Cordova, a soldier, gave his age as 35, indicating he was born 1659 (AASF, Roll 59, DM 1694, October, no. 34a, El Paso del Norte, for Cristóbal Varela de Losada and Rosa Isabel Márquez; and Chávez, “New Mexico Roots, Ltd.,” 2055). This information, when combined with the information from his enlistment, places the estimated year of Antonio’s birth around 1569-1660.
In May 1710, Lázaro Antonio Córdova, born circa 1690, son of Antonio de Córdova and Eugenia de Herrera identified his father as a native of Mexico City and his mother as a native of New Mexico when he sought to marry Ana Valdes (AASF, DM Roll 60, DM 1710, May 30, no. 19, Santa Cruz; and Chávez, “New Mexico Roots, Ltd.,” 390). In October 1711, his sister, María Córdova, born circa, 1696, identified both of her parents as natives of New Mexico when she sought to marry Antonio Trujillo (AASF, Roll 61, DM 1711, October 16, no. 2, Santa Cruz; and Chávez, “New Mexico Roots, Ltd.,” 1927). Another sibling, Tomás de Córdova, born circa 1690, identified his mother as a native of New Mexico but did not provide a birthplace for his father (AASF, Roll 61, DM, 1716, May 24, no. 24, Bernalillo; and Chávez, “New Mexico Roots, Ltd.,” 390).
In his compilation of the Córdova family in Origins of New Mexico Families, Fray Angélico logically and reasonably identified Antonio de Córdova as a native of Mexico City, choosing to rely on the information provided by Antonio’s son.
Lázaro Antonio Córdova and María de Córdova were each clearly misinformed about the birthplace of their father and there is not a clear explanation as to why they were not aware that their father was a native of Guanajuato. Regarding the information provided by Lázaro Antonio, could it be that Antonio de Córdova was born at Guanajuato and then his family moved for a while to Mexico City before returning to Guanajuato?