Re: [ranchos] Gutiérrez and other Alteño families.

[Pacorro73@...]

Greetings once again Ranchos group.

Hi Irma,
       I hope this message finds you well.  I just finished reviewing your latest Gutiérrez lineage and after much researching and putting all the pieces together, I have mostly good news to report.  It seems that the two Gutiérrez lines in your last file, are also the same as the Gutiérrez line of your great-grandmother, Tomasa Gutiérrez.  This makes three lines that broke off and then rejoined later on.  More on this in the following paragraph.  More precisely, these are branches of the Gutiérrez de Hermosillo family, one of the Hermosillo families I was telling you about the other day.  In fact Irma, you are very closely related to two cousins of mine, good friends and fellow genealogists, Miguel Gutiérrez (Mike) and Gabriel Gutiérrez, second cousins to each other.  Mike's direct line is Gutiérrez de Hermosillo and Gabriel's is Gutiérrez de Mendoza y Laris, a different branch of the same Gutiérrez line, but not through the Hermosillo surname.  And by the looks of it you have still have other lines of Gutiérrez in your family.  Wow, you are your own cousin.  Weird, isn't it?

Well like I told you in the very first posting I put up, Los Altos was a closed society made up of the descendants of the very first Spanish/Basque pioneers.  Very early in Los Altos' history, before it was even known as Los Altos, in 1541, events would unfold that would shape the course of the entire region.  During this tumultuous time, barely 20 years after the conquest of Tenochtitlán, Nueva Galicia (the kingdom which now makes up the states of Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, and Zacatecas) was still the home of many Indian groups.  In the Alteño part of Nueva Galicia, closer to Nochistlán, the Guachicil, Caxcán, Chichimeca, Zacateca, and other Indian tribes, rose up in rebellion against the Spanish, in what became known as the Mixtón War (la guerra del Mixtón).  The Spaniards fought them back for about a whole year and their superior firepower and military skills were too much for the Indians to fend off.  The Spanish dealt with the remaining Indians in their usual manner.  And to make things worse, in the following years plague broke out, which the Indians called "chahuistle," and these decimated the reduced numbers of Indians to even less.  Native Americans were reduced to a veritable minority in Los Altos.  The few that were left were rounded up and made to settle down in pueblos (as opposed to before when these Indians lived a semi-nomadic existence), such as San Juan de los Lagos, Teocaltiche, or Atotonilco el Alto.

Spanish on the other hand, controlled vast areas of land as haciendas or estancias, which was granted to them for their role in the "pacification" of the Indians.  Control of the land meant power, wealth, and prestige.  As a result a local aristocracy quickly formed in which land was inherited to the first born son (promogeniture).  Alteño Creoles (European descendants born in the New World) would only marry members of their own class in order to maintain control of certain portions of land.  Intermarriage was very uncommon, but not unheard of.  To do so would be to kill all chances of opportunity for your children and descendants for all time.  This practice of only marrying one's own kin--endogamy--became a salient feature of Alteño culture, and is the reason why both you and myself, and everyone else who has Alteño roots, has some of the same ancestors over, and over, and over, and over, and ..........

This also explains why Alteños are so, well, "white."  Now isn't that the truth, Irma?  I bet that in your family there are many who could pass as white, with medium-brown hair to almost blonde hair; blue, green, hazel, and of course, brown, eyes; and tan to very light skin, right???? 

But I should qualify, my previous statements.  Just because Indians were reduced to a minority, that doesn't mean they just went away.  The descendants are still there, and mixing did not really start to take place until after Mexican Independence, when the racial caste system was abolished by Emperor Agustín de Iturbide, in 1823.  Even though the majority of my ancestors were "Españoles," I do have several lines of Indian ancestors, but like I said they marry into my Spanish lines in the mid 1800's.  And this doesn't mean that there weren't any mestizos either during the Colonial Era, because there were, many in fact.  They were in a social class unto themselves.  But, both of these groups were a minority when compared to the Creoles of the Hidalgo class.

Most people will either have a lot of Indian, Mestizo, or Mulato lines, or very little to none at all.  All or nothing.  That's just the way it is.  All the surnames and families that I have so far posted and that make up your ancestry, Irma, were of the Spanish Hidalgo class.  You definitely will have way more of them, probably all of them.

Please inform me as to who were the parents of Ma. Paulina (Paula) Muñoz, married to José Julián Gutiérrez.  I do not have either her or her parents.  Same goes for Benigno Gutiérrez, Nicolasa Gutiérrez, Ma. Francisca Padilla (married to Luis Gutiérrez), and Juana Padilla.  The Padilla surname is another one which you have a lot of.  They also have a very interesting history, one which I'll tell you more about when I know more about how they tie in to you.

So let see if I understand.  Irma, your first last name is Gómez and your second is Gutiérrez, right?  That means that Lucero must be your married name, right?  If this is correct, and I have all the generations correct, then you and I are related to each other many times.  Our closest kinship is 7th cousin twice removed, but we're also 8th cousins once removed, half-8th cousins twice removed, 8th cousins twice removed, 9th cousins, etc, etc, etc.  We are cousins up to the 14 degree with many generations removed.  Pretty exciting, isn't it, to run across someone that's your family, but so distantly related that you wouldn't have even known it?  We may have even passed each other on the street or in the mall, or something, and not even known it.

Well Irma, until next time, I wish you the best.  Good bye and God bless.

Tu primo,
Steven Francisco Hernández López.

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