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5. Don Juan Gutiérrez de la Caballería and Doña Mayor Flores de Guevara: Grandparents of Doña Beatriz de EstradaThe Jewish-converso Ancestry of Doña Beatriz de Estrada,
Wife of Don Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
José Antonio Esquibel
Copyright ã 1997 by José Antonio Esquibel
6. Concluding Remarks
The information gathered from the Spanish Inquisition trials of Ciudad Real provides a detailed account of the nature of Jewish-converso life in the Villa de Almagro during the fifteenth century. Those who maintained their Jewish practices despite their outward conversion to Christianity were able to conduct these practices without much hindrance until the institution of the Spanish Inquisition in 1479. The evidence regarding the maternal ancestors of doña Beatriz de Estrada documents three generations of the Gutiérrez family as actively honoring the customs and ceremonies of their Jewish heritage. Although persecuted by the Inquisition, the members of this family managed to maintain their prominence in the social and political environments of the Villa de Almagro.
Certainly, doña Marina Flores de la Caballería must have been aware of her Jewish-converso lineage, but it is difficult to determine if she was taught to honor any of the traditional Jewish customs and ceremonies of her heritage. How much of her family background was shared with her children is not known. Were any Jewish practices passed on to her daughters, who in Nueva España were the co-founders of prominent and influential families? If so, did any of these daughters share their Jewish heritage with their children in Nueva España? These are provocative and intriguing questions which will prove difficult to answer conclusively. This type of information was not generally written, but rather transmitted orally and through observable behaviors from one generation to the next. The overall implication here is that one of the three most powerful extended family groups of Nueva España’s aristocracy in the sixteenth century had Jewish ancestry that was not far removed.
Finally, if Jewish-Converso ancestry can be uncovered in such a prominent family as the Estrada-Flores Gutiérrez de la Caballería in Nueva España, then it is only a matter of time and diligent genealogical research before more such ancestries are recovered. In New Mexico genealogical research, there has been recent progress made in extending the ancestry of a number of colonial families. Eventually, we may find the genealogical evidence to further support the recently emerging evidence shared by Hispano New Mexican families who have come forward with their family stories about crypto-Jewish practices.
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2. Uncovering the Jewish-Converso Lineage of the Gutiérrez de la Caballería Family
3. Gonzalo Gutiérrez and Catalina Gutiérrez: Third-Great-Grandparents of Doña Beatriz de Estrada
4. Men Gutiérrez and Catalina Gutiérrez: Second-Great-Grandparents of Doña Beatriz de Estrada