Pedro Durán y Chávez

  General Notes:

Accord to a note written by José Antonio Esquibel, recenty researched reveals that Pedro Gómez Durán and Pedro Durán y Chaves were actually two different people, which contradict what Angélico Chávez wrote in Origins of New Mexico Families on page 19. More information on this subject can be found in his article, "Pedro Gómez Durán and Pedro Durán y Chaves, in the the Hispanic Genalogical Research Center's Herenia, volume 13, July 2010.

Pedro Gómez Durán was native of Villa de Valverde, Extremadura. Spain, and a son of Hernán Sánchez Rico and Leonor Durán. He married Catalina Cabeza and had a son a named Bartolomé Gómez. In early 1617, witnesses affirmed that Pedro Gómez Durán went to New Mexico where he died "seven years earlier," and that Catalina Cabezas resided in the neighborhood of the parish of Santa Catalina Martir where she died about 1614.

The earliest account that has been found for Pedro Durán y Chaves is a record of an event that from May 1613, a dater after Pedro Gómez Durán's death. [AGN, Inquisción, t. 316,f.152r, Relación de Fray Fancisco la Huerta, 1617] The next known historical reference to Pedro Durán y Chaves is from 20 Jan 1626 from a recorded statement in which "Maese de Campo Pedro Durán de Chaves declared he was a native of Llerena and age sixty, indicating he was born circe 1576." [AGN, Inq. t. 356, f.268r, Testificaión contra Juan de Eulate, 1626]

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information: ²⁵²
Pedro Durán y Chaves was the progenitor for the Chávez families in New Mexico. He is first mentioned using this name if 1613, when as captain, he was sent to Taos Pueblo to collect tribute for the Governor. By 1626 he was Maese de Campo, meaning Commanding General of all royal troops in New Mexico. At this time he testified that he was sixty years old, a native of Llerena, and one of the founders of Santa Fe.

Pedro's known childrenwere Fernando, Pedro II and most likely a daughter, Ysabel, married to Juan Domíguez de Mendoza.

~ Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period, p. 19

• He owned land. ¹⁰⁴⁷
From The Adobe Kingdom by Donald L. Lucero:
"Don Pedro Durán y Chaves I, who for some unknown reason, was always referred to by the honorific 'don' reserved at this time for the governor, was an encomendero and held the highest military post in the kingdom." As a much younger man he had been a captain among Peralta's tribute collectors when diverted from his course at Nambé. By 1626 he was maese de campo of all the royal troops in New Mexico with Pedro Lucero de Godoy and the Bacas, Antonio and Alonso, all serving under his command. While the Abendaños and the Pérez de Bustillos probably lived on the plain of Santa Fé, the Durán y Chaves lived on their estancia (a large tract of land for raising livestock) at Arroyo de Tunque in the vicinity of the San Felipe Pueblo. Although the exact site of his encomienda is not known, it was likely at the San Felipe Pueblo. He held extensive land in the Sandia jurisdiction "from the boundries for the San Felipe Pueblo down through Bernalillo to Atrisco".

• Name: ^252,289
From the book "The Place Names of New Mexico" by Robert Julyan: Although the name in NM almost always is spelled Chávez, Chaves is the older form. According to Chávez (Fray Angélico Chávez), the ancestor of NM families with this name was Don Pedro Durán y Chávez, like many conquistadores a native of Estremadura Province in Spain, and it's possible he was (related to) the person listed as Pedro Gomez Durán in the Oñate roster of 1600.

One Don Fernando de Chávez returned with the reconquest of 1692 and settled in the Rio Abajo. Three members of the Chávez lines were NM governors between 1822 and 1834: Francisco Xavier Chávez, 1822-23; José Antonio Cháves, 1828-1831; and Mariano Chávez, 1833-1834. Col. José Francisco Chávez, son of Don Mariano, was a prominent figure in NM military and political life late in the 19th century, serving three terms as delgate to Congress beginning 1865; Chávez County was named for him. The Chávez family, more than most Hispanic families, made their mark on the NM landscape; 69 places bear their name.

Pedro married Ysabel Baca de Bohórquez, daughter of Cristóbal Baca Capitán and Ana Ortiz, in Nuevo Méjico, Nueva España.²⁵² (Ysabel Baca de Bohórquez was born about 1586 in Ciudád de Méjico, Nueva España ³¹¹ and died about 1637 in Arroyo del Tunque, Nuevo Méjico. Nueva España.)