Governor Mateo Antonio de Mendoza Díaz de Arce, 1760
By Rick Hendricks
Mateo Antonio de Mendoza Díaz de Arce was baptized on 28 September 1696 in Burgos.[1] His parents were Francisco Mendoza y Martínez de Fuidio and Teresa Díaz de Arce y Maeda. The casa solar of the Díaz de Arce family was in Villacarriedo, in the province of Santander.[2] Mateo Antonio married Cecilia Catalina Mendoza y Davalillo, daughter of Pedro Mendoza y Hidalgo and Maria Davalillo y Vergara, on 27 September 1714 in San Asensio in the wine country of La Rioja. By 1717 Mendoza was a member of the town council in Ábalos, La Rioja.[3] In 1751 Mendoza was inducted into the Order of Santiago. At the time he held the ranks of lieutenant colonel and sergeant major attached to the Queens Regiment of Dragoons.
Mendoza became governor of Nueva Vizcaya in 1753 and held the post until 1761.[4] On 8 November 1758, he ordered the founding the Presidio of San Fernando de las Amarillas del Carrizal, which was initially under the command of Captain Manuel Antonio de San Juan.[5] The troops from Carrizal protected travelers on the Camino Real bound to and from New Mexico until the end of the Mexican period.
Mendoza was named interim governor of New Mexico to serve at the conclusion of Francisco Antonio Marin del Valle's term and the beginning of Manuel Portillo Urrisola's term. It appears, however, that he never set foot in New Mexico.
[1] Caballero de Santiago Antonio Mateo Mendoza y Diaz de Arce y Cecilia Catalina Mendoza y Davalillo https://ortizdepinedo.com/f5392.htm (accessed 17 August 2011).
[2] "Díaz," https://www.albakits.com/DIAZ.htm (accessed 17 August 2011).
[3] Vicente Cadenas y Vicent, Caballeros de la Orden de Santiago que efectuaron sus pruebas de ingreso durante el siglo xviii, Tomo 4, 1746 a 1762 (Madrid: Ediciones Hidalguía, 1979), 67.
[4] "Provinces of New Spain: Nueva Vizcaya," https://www.worldstatesmen.org/Mexico_spanish_provinces.html (accessed 17 August 2011).
[5]https://www.ahumada.gob.mx/Plantilla5.asp?cve_Noticia=1562&Portal=ahumada (accessed 17 August 2011).
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