The nineteenth governor of New Mexico, Captain don Diego Dionisio de Peñalosa Briceno y Berdugo, to give his full name, was born in Lima, Peru in the year 1624. By Grace Meredith Field Worker Nineteenth Governor of New Mexico 1661‑1664 WPA Biography Project The nineteenth governor of New Mexico,…
WPA Writers Project essay of Captain Don Bernardo Lopez de Mendizabal, eighteenth governor of New Mexico. By Grace Meredith, Field Worker WPA Biography Project Captain Don Bernardo Lopez de Mendizabal, eighteenth governor of New Mexico, left Mexico City for Santa Fe on December 24th, 1658 with the caravan…
Captain Don Juan Manso de Contreras was the seventeenth governor of New Mexico. It is assumed that he came from Mexico City to Santa Fe with the caravan of the Mission Supply Service of 1656. Captain Don Juan Manso de Contreras By Grace Meredith Seventeenth Governor of New…
In the last half of the seventeenth century, (c. 1664‑1680) Juan de Archuleta led a small military expedition northeast from New Mexico to bring back some Taos Indians who had fled to a spot in eastern Colorado afterwards known as El Cuartelejo—what seems to have been the first recorded…
Captain Don Juan Francisco de Treviño was the twenty‑fourth governor of New Mexico; and it is assumed that he come north with the caravans in 1675. By Grace Meredith Twenty‑fourth Governor of New Mexico 1675‑1677 WPA Biography Project Captain Don Juan Francisco de Treviño was the twenty‑fourth governor…
Captain Don Juan Durán de Miranda served twice as governor of New Mexico. His first term was from 1664 to 1665, just about a year; and his second lasted from 1671 to 1675. Information concerning him and his activities are very meager. By Grace Meredith Twentieth and Twenty-third Governor…
On January 6, 1822, Santa Fe celebrated New Spain’s independence from Spain in a gala ceremony with church services, processions, pageantry, the firing of guns and ringing of bells. Soon afterward Governor Facundo Melgares penned a vivid and detailed description of this event for the official government newspaper, the…
A Royalist in Transition: Facundo Melgares, the Last Spanish Governor of New Mexico: 1818‑1822 by Arthur Gomez In August 1818 Viceroy Juan Ruíz de Apodaca, the Conde de Venadito, received documents written by an anonymous visitor to New Mexico. These papers, intercepted by Spanish ambassador to the United States,…
Twenty-second Governor of New Mexico, 1668-1671. WPA Writers Project By Grace Meredith Captain Don Juan de Medrano y Mesia was the twenty‑second governor of New Mexico, and unfortunately only a little information concerning him and his activities, is to be found in any of the historical works now…
Governor Manuel Portillo Urrisola, 1760-1762 by RickHendricks, Ph.D. Manuel Portillo Urrisola was a native of Valencia, Spain. He entered the royal service in 1717 army and continued as a soldier and cadet in the Dragoons of Belgium until 20 January 1735. During that time he participated in the Navarra…
