Vera
Diego de Vera
Information about Diego de Vera and his family background and hius failyin New Mexico is found in Archivo General de la Nación, Inquisición, t. 495, exp. 6, Causa contra Diego de Vera Perdomo, 1630.
At the time that Diego de Vera sought to marry doña María de Abendaño, he very likely contracted a marriage arrangement with Juan López Holguín, since her parents of were deceased by the January 1622. During the process known as the informaciones matrimoniales, prenuptial investigation, Diego declared that his first wife was deceased and that he was free to marry. The witnesses on his behalf were Alférez Francisco de Madrid and Captain Pedro Lucero de Godoy. The sacrament of Marriage received by this couple on January 16, 1622, was recorded as shown in this very rare certified copy of a seventeenth-century New Mexico marriage record:
En dies y seis dias del mes de henero del mil y seissientos beinte y dos
Años echas la diligencias que dispone y mando el santo concilio
de trento case a Diego de la bera perdomo hijo ligitimo de pedro de
la bera perdomo y de maria de betansos naturales de la isla de te
nerife y besinos de la siudad de la laguna, con Doña maria de abenda
ño hija ligitima de ximon de abendaño y de maria hortis ya
difuntos besinos desta dicha Va y sin dispusasion nng.a los testigos
estas casados fueron el sargto mayor pedro Duran y Doña Ysavel su muger
el alférez franco de Madrid hero sanbrano Juo Ramos y pedro lusero
y otros muchos todos vesinos desta dicha Va y Fr. Asencio de sarate
le qual partida y articulo doy fe verdidera y bien sacada de
la propio original en presensia del dicho comisso en cuyo testi
monio lo firmo
On January 16, 1622, having made the prenuptial investigation as
required by the Holy Council of Trent, there was married, Diego de la Vera Perdomo, legitimate son of Pedro de Perdomo and María de Betanzos, natives of the Island of Tenerife and tax-paying citizens of the City of Laguna, with doña María de Abendaño, legitimate daughter of Simón de Abendaño and María Ortiz, both now deceased, tax-paying citizens of the said Villa; and without any impediments. The witnesses, who are married, were Sargento Mayor Pedro Durán and doña Isabel, his wife, [also] Alférez Francisco de Madrid, Hernando Sambrano, Juan Ramos, and Pedro Lucero, and many others, all tax-paying citizens of this said Villa. And, fray Asencio de Zarate, certified and validly gives faith that this is a good extraction of the proper original in the presence of the said Comissario [Alonso de Benavides]; with his testimony he signed it.
This extraordinary glimpse at a copy of an original marriage record fosters an appreciation for the quality of details that was recorded in the early marriage books of the Villa de Santa Fe, in particular the names of parents and their places of origins. It is the only known copy of an original marriage record for this early time period in New Mexico’s recorded history. Hundreds of these types of records are no longer in existence. If such records had survived into the present day, the genealogy of seventeenth-century New Mexico families would be very comprehensive instead of fragmented. Of particular interest is the confirmation that prenuptial investigation records were generated, which would have also included valuable historical and familial information.
A significant aspect of this marriage record is that the surname of Diego de Vera’s mother was recorded as Betanzos rather than Betancur, as given in Chávez, Origin of New Mexico Families. Also, in February 1626, when he provided testimony in a case by the Inquisition against Governor don Juan de Eulate, Diego named his parents as Pedro Perdomo and doña María de Betanzos.61 Three years later, in July 1629, he named his parents as Pedro de Vera Perdomo and Doña María de Betanzos. The source that fray Angélico Chávez consulted is a record concerning the family genealogy of Diego de Vera provided to the Inquisition in March 1630 in which his parents were identified as Pedro de Vera Perdomo and María de “Bentancor.”
Doña María de Abendaño and Diego de Vera were the parents of two daughters born between late 1622 and July 1629. One died soon after birth and the second, named María de Vera, was born circa 1624-1625.
On July 10, 1629, a Thursday, Diego de Vera appeared before fray Alonso de Benavides, the Comisario of the Office of the Inquisition in New Mexico, and confessed to bigamy. He described the facts relating to his first marriage and his journey to Nueva España and then to New Mexico, as described above.
Following his arrest, Diego was taken by fray Alonso de Benavides to Mexico City and appeared before the Inquisitor Licenciado Gaspar de Valdespina on March 20, 1630. During this hearing Diego de Vera declared he was thirty-five years of age and provided a detailed genealogy of his immediate family. He was found guilty of bigamy and sentence never return to New Mexico and to have no contact with Doña María de Abendaño, and to return to married life with his wife in the Canary Islands.
Researcher: José Antonio Esquibel
The information above and the chart below were published in José Antonio Esquibel, “Into a New World: The López Holguín-Villanueva clan of 17th-century New Mexico,” in New Mexico Genealogist, March 2019, 58:1, 28-29.
Diego de Vera and La Perdoma
In 1626 Diego de Vera (ONMF: 112) named his parents as "Pedro de bera perdomo y Da Ma de bentanco," and declared he was a native of the "isla de Tenerife."
Curiously, Fray Angélico Chávez made no mention of the following note written by fray Alonso de Benavides: "Este diego de Vera es sobrino de la perdoma que por esse Sto tribunal fue castigada aura veinte y tres ańos con una hija suja y dises que unos dos hermanas o hermanos deste se avian ido aberb_cia y ay mal sospecha".
This information describes Diego de Vera as a nephew (sobrino) of a woman referred to as 'la Perdoma' who was punished by the Inquisition about twenty-three years earlier (circa 1603) along with her daughter and, as he heard said, two sisters or two brothers.
It is not clear what the behavior was regarded as "mala sospecho" (bad suspicion). Two possibilities is that 'la Perdoma' was tried and sentenced for practicing witchcraft or for practicing Jewish ceremonies as a baptized Catholic. Whatever the circumstances, it appears that 'la Perdoma' was a sister of Diego's father, Pedro de Vera Perdomo.
It is important clarify that the information noted by Fray Alonso did not come up in the trial of Diego de Vera. A review was done of Diego’s extended family genealogy and there was no discovery of any close relative having been denounced or tried by the Inquisition. That said, Fray Alonso was from the Canary Islands and clearly was familiar with Diego de Vera and his family.
It would be very worthwhile to locate the Inquisition records of 'la Perdoma' (whose full name we don’t know) as those record would very likely contain additional genealogical information on the Vera Perdomo family. To do this, we would need to learn the name of ‘La Perdoma.”
If such records were located and could be consulted, the information contained in those records could provide some interesting history about members of the Vera Perdomo family. If she was tried and sentenced as a "judiazante" (a baptized Catholic practicing Jewish religious customs), this could reveal a Jewish-converso lineage with a connection to New Mexico.
It is not clear if 'la Perdoma' was tried by the Inquisition in Nueva Espańa or on the island of Tenerife, but there was another person in New Mexico who had information about this circumstance. On 27 January 1626, Matías López de Castillo (ONMF: 55), age 35, provided testimony in which he declared that Diego de Vera "era sobrino de una muger que avia aestado prese en la inquisision" ("is nephew of a woman that was imprisoned through the Inquisition").
Researcher: José Antonio Esquibel
Source: Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico, Inquisisión, t. 356, ff. 306 & 307.