Beatriz de los Ángeles

  Noted events in her life were:

• Children. ²⁵²
María de la Cruz married Diego Padilla in 1713 in Bernalillo
Juana de la Cruz b: Abt 1615
Pedro de la Cruz

• Background Information. ²⁵²
Beatriz de los Angeles was a Native American from the Valley of México. According to The Origins of New México Families, she came to New México as a servant of Critóbal de Brito in 1600. That doesn't fit with the birth dates of her children. Also according the The Origins of New México Families she was accused of witchcraft.

~The Origins of New México Families, pp. 23-24

• Dates & Events. ²⁷⁴
According to David Snow in New Mexico's First Colonists, in 1635 Beatriz was the consort of Diego Bellido, son of Juan Rodriguez Bellido after the death of her husband Juan de la Cruz Catalan. Betriz was accused of causing the death of Diego Bellido's mother (Isabel) with the use of witchcraft. Snow notes that she was described as "una yndia ladina mexicana mui españolada," or a mix of Native Mexican and Spanish, and that she onced owned an estancia, occupied by Juan Maese, in 1631.

~New Mexico's first Colonists, p. 84

• Background Information. ⁴⁷⁹
She was a well-known "curandera," or healer.
Excerpt from The Pueblo Revolt of 1680:

"One illustrative example of this cultural transmission from Pueblo to Hispanic society is that of Beatriz de los Angeles. A mestiza and the widow of alférez Juan de la Cruz, de los Angeles lived on an estancia amid the Tano pueblos southeast of Santa Fe. Throughout the 1620's, she enjoyed a reputation among the Hispanic community as a echisera de compación, "sorceress of compassion," or more clearly, a curandera who proffered home remedies and incantations from the vantage point of one who moved in both Indian and European circles. (1) Supporters reconted the tale of how de los Angeles traveled to Senecú in 1628 to help doña Marìa Granillo overcome a serious illness. There, while in the company of "other witches," the curandera apparently saved her patient's life by playing patoles with Granillo and simultaneously reciting a number of spells. (2)

But de los Angeles's reputed talents involved more than the ability to cure illness through shamanism. For years, women in the Hispanic community had sought her help in curbing the amorous pursuits of wayward husbands. Usually, de los Angeles answered these requests by prescribing gusanos ciegos, a type of worm gathered easily in any dung heap in the region, and directing her clients to hide them in the food eaten by the men in question. (3) Problems arose for de los Angeles, however, at the close of the decade when she gave this concoction to her own partner, Diego Bellido. Bellido grew violently ill upon ingesting a bowl of milk laced with the worms, and when de los Angeles attempted to nullify the potion by giving Bellido an unspecified oil as an emetic, his condition only worsened, leading ultimately to his death. (4) The incident drew the attention of the commissary Estevan de Perea and generated a lengthy investigation by the Inquisition into de los Angeles's activities.

~The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, p. 146

Footnotes:
1. Testimony of Petronilla de Zamora, 25 March 1631, Inquisición Tom., 372, AGN.
2. Testimony of Catalina Bernal, 25 March 1631, Inquisición Tom., 372, AGN.
3. See, for instance, the testimonies of Ana Cadimo, Juana Sánchez, and Catalina Bernal, Inquisición Tom., 372, AGN. Sánchez testified that de los Angeles had given her the prescription as early as 1620, while others admitted to following the mestiza's advice in the latter part of the decade.
4. Testimony of Catalina de Bustillos, 26 March 1631, Inquisición Tom., 372, AGN.

~The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, p. 219

Beatriz married Juan de la Cruz Catalán, son of Antonio de la Cruz and Unknown.²⁵² (Juan de la Cruz Catalán was born in 1566 in Barcelona, Catalán ²⁵².)