López Sambrano

Research and Narrative by José Antonio Esquibel

Andrés López Sambrano and Ana María de Anaya are  common ancestors of numerous descendants of their daughter, Josefa López e Grijalva, wife of Francisco Lucero de Godoy.

Diego López Sambrano and María Suazo are common ancestors of numerous descendants of their daughter, Juana López Sambrano, and her husband, Ayundante José Domínguez de Mendoza.

Fray Angélico Chávez thought that Diego López Sambrano may have been a son of Elena Gómez, a sister-in-law of Andrés López Sambrano, but Chávez made an incorrect supposition that her husband might have been a man named Hernán Sambrano, but this turns out not to be the case.

New information presented below confirms with documentation a familial relationship between Andrés López Sambrano and Diego López Sambrano as uncle and nephew and provides insights into the possible identity of the father of Diego López Sambrano. A genealogy chart is provided at the end as an illustration and for use in further research endeavors.

Diego López Sambrano

In Origins of New Mexico Families, Fray Angélico Chávez provided information that Diego López Sambrano was born circa 1639 in the Villa de Santa Fe and was married with María Suazo (Chávez, ONMF, 59). Chávez was not quite sure if a person named Diego López was a son of Elena Gómez or if Diego López was the same person as Diego López Sambrano. 

As shown below, not only was Diego López Sambrano a son of Elena Gómez and thus a nephew of Andrés López Sambrano, as confirmed with documentation, there is archival information strongly suggesting that a man named Captain Francisco López Palomino may have been the father of Diego López Sambrano and the brother of Andrés López Sambrano (see the section below regarding Francisco López Palomino).

Fray Angélico extracted his information from testimony of Captain Diego López Sambrano recorded on March 26, 1669, in the Villa de Santa Fe as part of compliant of fray Juan Bernal, Commissioner of the Inquisition in New Mexico, about the behavior of Captain Cristóbal de Anaya Almazán. In his cover letter to Inquisition officials in Mexico City date April 1, 1669, Bernal referred to López Sambrano disparagingly as “medio mulato hombre de mui poco capacidad,” “half mulatto, a man of little [mental] capacity” (AGN, Inquisición, t. 666, exp. 10,  Autos remitados de Nuevo México por Fray Juan Bernal, Comisario del Santo Oficio, contra Cristóbal de Anaya, 1669, f. 531r).

Fray Angélico did not include the information of the mixed racial ancestry of Diego López Sambrano in his summary in Origins of New Mexico Families. There are no other known accounts of the caste of López Sambrano was part African, however, Bernal provided racial caste information for other witnesses that appear to be accurate, and it could be through his mother, Elena Gómez, that Diego was as much as one-fourth African.

Fray Angélico Chávez hinted that Diego López Sambrano was probably related to Andrés López Sambrano, a resident of New Mexico since the early 1640s, but Chávez had not located a source to confirm the relationship.

Buried deep in records pertaining to the residencia of Governor don Bernardo López de Mendizábal is a claim dated November 22, 1661, submitted by Diego López Sambrano on behalf of his mother, Elena Gómez, who had been granted an encomienda that was revoked by Governor don Bernardo López de Mendizabal during his tenure (1659-1661). López Sambrano petitioned royal officials for the reinstatement of the encomienda grant (AGN, Real Audiencia, Tierras, t. 3268, f. r. 199v).

In the previous month, on October 29, 1661, Elena Gómez, vecina of the Villa de Santa Fe, came forward as part of the residencia of Governor López de Mendizábal (AGN, Real Audiencia, Tierras, t. 3268, f. 118r). She mentioned that during his tenure as governor, López de Mendizábal issued an order for all the vecinos to submit papers of services and titles to him for review. She complied and presented a title of encomienda of the Pueblo de Aguatubi (Awatubi) and he did not return it to her. She signed her petition and it appears that she wrote it in her own handwriting, indicating she was literate.

In his response to her petition, López de Mendizábal mentioned that former Governor don Juan Manso revoked Elena’s grant of the encomienda of half of Aguatubi after her son, Francisco López, “se fue a la nueba españa” ("had gone to New Spain") and because of this “delito,” crime,  Manso castigated her. As a result, Elena brought forth a complaint against Manso as part of his residencia, the review of administrative tenure. Additional insight about this circumstance is further understood from information found in another archival source, which identified a man named Francisco López Palomino as one of several men who fled New Mexico without authorization in 1658 in the company of Francisco de Anaya Almazán, who had been previoulsy arrested by Governor Manso under suspicion of removing and hiding documents from the government archives. See the section below on Francisco López Palomino for additional details, including the possibility that Francisco was the namesake of an elder man named Francisco López Palomino.

Two years later in 1663, doña Teresa de Aguilera y Roche, wife of former Governor don Bernardo López de Mendizábal, wrote a detail account in defense of herself and her husband as they both were incarcerate in the secret prison of the Office of the Inquisition in Mexico City facing charges of heresy and practicing Judaism. Doña Teresa produced a large list of names of people whom she regarded as enemies of her husband. Among those named was “Elena Gómez and her daughters,” as well as one of her sons, whom she thought was named Domingo López, but she may have confused Domingo López del Ocanto with Diego López Sambrano (AGN, Inquisición, t. 596, exp. 1, El Señor Fiscal del Santo Oficio contra Doña Teresa de Aguilera y Roche, mujer de Don Bernardo López de Mendizábal, 1663, f. 156r). The names of Elena’s daughters were not recorded and are not yet known from archival sources.

Andrés López Sambrano

On February 20, 1664, Andrés López Sambrano was at the convento de Santo Domingo where his testimony regarding the behavior of Governor don Diego de Peñalosa y Briceño was recorded as part of an investigation against the governor by Inquisition officials in New Mexico. At that time, Andrés served a justicia mayor (civil judicial magistrate), comisario de la caballeria (commission of the horse herd), lieutenant captain general of the provincias de Zuñi y Moqui, and was a vecino of the Villa de Santa Fe. He declared he was 42 years old (b.ca. 1622), a native of the Villa de San Miguel in the province of Culiacán, and was married to doña Ana María de Anaya (AGN, Inquisición, t. 507, exp 1 y 2, Proceso contra Don Diego de Peñalosa Briceño y Verdugo por blasfemo, 1663, f. 126r).  

Andrés then went on to mention a sister-in-law of his named Elena Gómez, who was deceased at that time and was owed 35 pesos by don Bernanrdo López de Mendizábal because of the thirty-five mantas (blankets) he took from her encomienda of Aguatubi in the Moqui (Hopi) province. This the source that confirms that Andrés was the brother of Elena’s husband, thus, Diego López Sambrano was a nephew of Andrés López Sambrano. Since Andrés was a native of the Villa de San Miguel in the province of Culiacán, it is reasonable to consider that Elena’s husband was probably also a native of the same community.

Andrés López Sambrano and doña Ana María de Anaya were parents of a son named Diego López and a daughter, Josefa López de Grijalva, wife of Francisco Lucero de Godoy (Chávez, ONMF, 58).

Elena Gómez

Elena Gómez was not a member of the Gómez Robledo family. She was not mentioned among the siblings or other immediate relatives of that family when Francisco Gómez Robledo provided a comprehensive account of his family genealogy during his trial before the Inquisition Tribunal in Mexico City. There are yet no records that inform us about her place of origin. Did she come to New Mexico with her husband or was she born in New Mexico. If she was a native of New Mexico, she my have belong to the second Gómez family that resided in the Villa de Santa Fe in the early half of the 1600s.

Juan Gómez and Juana Sánchez were residents of the Villa de Santa Fe in the 1620s and early 1630s. Juan Gómez came to New Mexico around 1621 in the company of Fray Gerónimo de Zarate Salmerón, apparently having joined Zarate Salmerón while in the Zacatecas (Testimony of Zarate Salmerón, June 12, 1626, Santo Domingo Pueblo, AGN, Inq., t. 356, exp. 133, f. 300). Gómez held the rank of captain and served as an interpreter (AGN, Inq., t. 356, exp. 133, f. 316.). He married Juana Sánchez, a mulata who gave her age as 35 in July 1632, indicating she was born circa 1597, and she was a sister of Juana de los Reyes, the wife of Captain Álvaro García Holgado (AGN, Inq., t. 372, exp. 19, ff. 14v and 18v). If Elena Gómez was a daughter of this couple, it would explain the comment of fray Juan Bernal when he referred to Diego López Sambrano as being medio mulato, half mulato. More research is needed to confirm the names of the parents of Elena Gómez. Please refrain from adding the names of Juan Gómez and Juana Sánchez as her parents in personal and online genealogy databases.

Francisco López Palomino, the Elder and the Younger

As mentioned above, Elena Gómez was the mother of a son named Francisco López who was also known as Francisco López Palomino.

Curiously, the husband of Elena Gómez may have been Captain Francisco López Palomino who was serving on the cabildo (town council) of the Villa de Santa Fe in 1639 (AGN, México, Provincias Internas, tomo 35, exp 5, f. 128r).

In 1646, Captain Francisco López Palomino was in Mexico City where he was designated as leader of a group of thirteen soldiers assigned as escort for the royal caravan heading to New Mexico with some Franciscan friars. He identified himself as a native of the Villa de Culiacán (aka San Miguel de Culiacán), a son of Blas López Palomino, and age 34, indicating he born circa 1612 (AGN, Hacienda 472, cited in Joseph P. Sánchez, Between Two Rivers, 190 n7).

As noted above, Andrés López Sambrano identified himself as a native of San Miguel de Culiacán and was born circa 1622. Was Francisco López Palomino an older brother of Andrés and if so, was the presence of Francisco in New Mexico the motivation for Andrés to settle in New Mexico? These are questions that need to be explored with additional research. However, it appears that the younger Francisco López Palomino, son of Elena Gómez, was very likely the namesake of the elder captain of that same name.

 In 1658, the younger Francisco López Palomino was one of five men who fled New Mexico with four members of the Anaya Almazán family in opposition to Governor don Juan Manso. Francisco Anaya Almazán was accused of taking and hiding some official papers for which Governor Manso arrested him and ordered his detention. Francisco López Palomino was one of the guards of Francisco de Anaya Almazan. When Manso left the Villa de Santa Fe to conduct an inspection of the Zuñi region in western New Mexico sometime around the spring of 1658, Anaya Almazán slipped out of the villa with his two sons, Francisco de Anaya Almazán (the younger) and Cristóbal de Anaya Almazán, and his son-in-law, Alonso Rodríguez. Joining them were several supporters, including Juan Varela de Losada, Juan Durán, Lázaro de Moraga, Juan Jiménez, and Francisco López Palomino (AGN, Real Audiencia, Concurso de Peñalosa, t. 1, Leg 1, no. 1 f. 111r nd 125r).

By the time Governor Manso learned of the escape, Anaya Almazán and his companions were well on their way to Mexico City.  In retaliation, Manso revoked the grants of encomienda of Anaya Almazán, Rodríguez, and López Palomino, confiscated their houses in the Villa de Santa Fe, and undoubtedly sent reports to royal officials in Mexico City. It is worthwhile to note that Andrés López Sambrano was married with doña Ana de Anaya Almazán, daughter of Francisco de Anaya Almazán, thus Francisco López Palomino was an in-law of the Anaya Almazán men. 

The fact that Francisco López, aka Francisco López Palamino, fled to Nueva España, with his Anaya Almazán in-laws, offers insights into the retaliation of Governor Juan Manso against Elena Gómez.

Anaya Almazán and his companions, in including Francisco López Palomino, returned to New Mexico in the company of Governor don Bernardo López de Mendizábal in 1659 and it was noted that López de Mendizábal immediately returned the houses of Anaya Almazán, Rodríguez, and López Palomino (AGN, Real Audiencia, Concurso de Peñalosa, t. 1, Leg 1, no. 1 f. 111r).

Elena Gómez was a widow by late 1661, indicating that her husband, presumably the elder Captain Francisco López Palomino was deceased by that time. 

More research is needed to confirm a familial connection between Captain Francisco López Palmino, Andrés López Sambrano, and Elena Gómez. The above information and the information on the following chart can be used to guide further research. The information does not represent a confirmed genealogical connection. Do not include the name of Captain Francisco López Palomino on genealogy charts or in online databases without a clear notation that the link is unconfirmed.