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Nueva Mejicanas of Early Pueblo, Colorado Written: March, 2003 I use Nueva Mejicana to mean women from New Mexico with Spanish and Indigenous heritage. Some of their Spanish ancestors had arrived in New Mexico as early as 1598; their Indigenous ancestors had been there for thousands of years. I use the ‘j" in Mejicana to emphasize a regional cultural identity. This was also something my parents and grandparents emphasized in identifying with their New Mexico roots. My research has been a work in progress and the more I delve into this project the bigger it becomes. There’s a lot of work to do. I hope we can become herstorians as well as historians because the neglect and near exclusion of our grandmothers in the history of this country, especially the Southwest, is a travesty. Most of these women could not read or write so we are dependent on others to give us clues about their lives. I am grateful to those who took the time to include the women in their writings and to the archivists who preserved documents that bring our maternal ancestors to life. I want to share a glimpse of some interesting and courageous women who once walked in the area of Pueblo County. Although, my present sources are not all primary, they are reliable, and I am starting to find birth, death, marriage and court records along my historical journey. These women were born in New Mexico somewhere between the beginning of the Mexican Independence War from Spain (1810) and within the Mexican period (1821-1846) before the United States occupied the southwest. When Padre Miguel Hidalgo gave his Grito de Dolores on September 16, 1810, deep in Mexico, ten years passed before independence came. Far removed from the center of power, independence from Spain barely made a ripple in New Mexico when the war ended. What did change things was the opening of the Santa Fe Trail also in 1821, which made trade between St. Louis and Santa Fe very lucrative. Prior to this time, the borders of Spain remained closed to outsiders. New Mexico was isolated for so long it was like the whole world suddenly opened up. With the building of several forts and trading posts in what is now Colorado, settlements north from Taos became inviting. The forts also provided protection from the Indians who understandably continued to fight encroachment of their land. Americans began to arrive in Taos and Santa Fe. The first merchant, William Bucknell, arrived in November 1821with a variety of manufactured goods. It was a profitable venture for him, so others were encouraged to follow. In 1824 the first freight caravan arrived: it consisted of twenty-three wagons, eighty-one men and several thousand dollars worth of merchandise. The Santa Fe Trail introduced not only foreign goods, but new ideas, habits and tastes to the people of the isolated region. The Mexican Period also increased independence for the Nueva Mejicana and changed her lifestyle, values and desires. Earlier in the 18th century several Frenchmen: Archibeque, Alari (Alarid), Grolet (Gurule), etc., arrived and some of the first inter-ethnic marriages took place as early as 1740. By the end of the 18th century, women outnumbered men ten to eight and it was the first half of the 19th century that many inter-ethnic marriages between Mexican women and Anglo men took place. Quite often, journalists and writers from the east wrote negatively about the people of New Mexico, especially about the men. The women on the other hand were often exempt from the disparaging remarks. Historian, David Weber, states: "the male visitors to the Mexican frontier were frequently impressed with the women’s beauty, kindness and flirtatiousness. American males allowed their hormones to overcome their ethnocentrism." Several of the merchants, mountain men, trappers and traders from the East took Nueva Mejicana wives. When their husbands brought them to the Pueblo area, these women were in primitive country. They brought several Spanish traditions and work habits with them, and they learned new ones from the Indigenous women who were also the wives of some of these men. The Nueva Mejicanas still washed clothes in the river and had to sprinkle the dirt floors with water several times a day. They ground the corn and chili used to make tortillas and atole (a porridge made of blue cornmeal). They whitewashed rooms, plastered walls, dried meat, carried water back and forth in large jars on their heads and tended small gardens. They learned to ride horses, shoot guns, drive a team of horses, get along with the Indians. They often lived in terror of attack. Infant mortality was high, and many women died in childbirth. It was a blessing when a midwife was close by. One midwife, Josefa Chepita Tafoya, came to Pueblo around 1845. Originally from Taos, she had also lived at Bent’s Fort, near Las Animas, with her husband Ben Ryder, a carpenter. Janet Lacompte, an author, who seems to write the most about the Nueva Mejicana women who came to Pueblo, states that when these women arrived, Pueblo became more than a trading post. They not only provided a social life but were influential in developing trading, hunting and farming. Until 1846, the only women in the Pueblo area were Nueva Mejicana or Indigenous, and then the Mormon families arrived on their way to Utah and built a temporary settlement called "Mormon Town." Unfortunately, some of the women became victims of conflict and broken promises to the Indians, some in the Christmas Tragedy of 1854. Black Hair with the Red Ribbon in a Piñon Tree One of the most haunting victims of the Christmas Tragedy is Chepita Miera Martín. Since the first time I read about her, I felt compelled to discover and tell her story. She married Juan Blas Martín, from Taos. Her brother and sister were Manuel Miera and Albina Miera Cordova, also from Taos. Antonio Tapia was her first cousin. It is uncertain when she was born, and in fact, I have more questions than answers about her. Did she and Juan Blas have children? Were they newly married or had they set off on a new adventure from Taos? Was he one of the adobe masons who built Fort El Pueblo? Was her real name Chipeta or Chepita or Josefita?Chepita was the only woman at El Pueblo when Utes and some Jicarilla Apaches killed at least ten Nuevo Mejicanos and one man listed as Navajo Indian. In Lady of Taos, Ricardo Luna shares his view of what happened that Christmas Eve: Chepita was busy getting the rooms of the fort in order. She would be moving to Huérfano Village the following morning. All her things were packed. José Benito Sandoval, the Commander of the fort, asked her to prepare supper for everyone there. She served a porridge from blue cornmeal to drink. Joaquin Pacheco baked some bread. Chepita sliced the bread and placed it on a tablecloth on the floor. The men filed into the room and sat on buffalo robes. Her husband Juan Blas Martín was there. Those at El Pueblo had spent the previous night drinking, singing and playing cards. The inhabitants of the fort were still asleep on the cold Christmas Eve morning of 1854 when the Indians led by the Ute Chief, Tierra Blanca, and between 100 and 150 Indians started their attack. Tierra Blanca and his men first went to Marcelino Baca’s place, and rode off with some of his best horses. When the Utes attacked El Pueblo, Chepita started sobbing as she held the hands of young Juan Isidro Sandoval. When the Ute Chief, Tierra Blanca, shot her brother-in-law, Rumaldo Cordova, she also saw the Utes inflict several knife wounds. When Chief Tierra Blanca had entered the gate, Juan Blas Martín was in the middle room to the right. Juan walked into the courtyard near his wife. At the first shot, the horses stampeded through the gate. He told Chepita to run through the gate and he would follow. Intercepted, he jerked his knife from his belt and put the blade between his teeth. When the Indian lunged, the knife dropped into his waiting hand. Juan killed the Indian and took his rifle. He charged at the Indian near his wife. An Indian killed him with arrows. Another Indian grabbed Chepita and put her behind him on his stallion. He yelled and spurred the animal to a gallop. The Indians rode out of the fort with Chepita, Juan Isidro, age 7, and Felix age 12, and followed the Nepeste River into the hills. Juan Isidro and Felix were the sons of Benito Sandoval and María de la Asención Espinosa. Felix later recounted Chepita’s fate: Chepita gathered wood and twigs between the Napeste and camp. The Utes made a roaring fire and roasted meat. She fell asleep without eating. The Utes woke her and made her eat. She watched as the warriors put the Mexican scalps they had captured on stakes near the fires and danced. The camp was quiet that night. At daylight they realized the Arapaho were coming their way. They sent the women toward the hills. They fought for two hours. The Arapaho won and drove off all the cattle and horses. The Utes lost all they had taken from the Nuevo Mejicanos. The Utes joined the women in the hills. On January 5, 1855, the Indians stopped for a drink on the Trail where three streams joined near a spring. The Utes drank and motioned for the captives to drink. Chepita stopped over the creek and lowered her head into the water for a drink. She looked at herself in the water, wet her hands and rubbed her moist hands through her hair. She tied her hair with a bright red ribbon. She saw the reflection of an Indian with bow and arrow in hand. She stood still. An arrow pierced her back and protruded through her breast. She grabbed the end of the arrow and fell. The Indian children who had been watching then stoned her with small rocks. The Indians scalped her and placed her black hair on a branch of a piñon tree, her body left for the wolves. The Indians told the Sandoval boys that they had to kill her because she refused to be comforted and accept her husband’s fate. A few weeks later, as the army troops were chasing the Indians up the Arkansas River to Grape Creek and to the summit of the Ute Trail between Canon City and Grape Creek, a soldier shouted to the captain that there was a woman’s scalp with intertwined red ribbon tied to the branch of a piñon tree. They knew it was Chepita Miera’s hair. One of the soldiers, perhaps, her cousin, Antonio Tapia, wrapped it in brown paper and took it to her brother, Manuel Miera, in Taos. Such were the dangers the women who moved north from Taos had to face. Many survived. Others didn’t. Other Women with Connections to the Tragedy Albina Miera, the younger sister of Chepita Miera, not only lost her sister during the attack but also her husband, Rumaldo Cordova, who died within 30 days from injuries sustained in the attack. Guadalupe Luna lost her husband, Estanislado Luna. His body was never found and believed swept by the river. Her daughter, Andrea Mendoza, lost her husband, José Ignacio Valencia, a fur trader who also herded sheep for Carlos Beaubien in the San Luis Valley before the tragedy. Andrea had a sister Elena, whose husband was Maurice LeDuc, a trapper. It is not certain if Andrea and Elena were daughters of Estanislado Luna. They are found with the surname Mendoza. The Mendoza’s were from San Geronimo, New Mexico.Juana Pabla Casillas also lost her husband, Juan Shoco Aragon. They never found his body which was also believed swept by the river. Their children were: Joselina, Julian, Herman, and Nestora. Juana died about 1868. Luna implies that after the killings, the children and women were sent for. They arrived and walked around the fort, looked at the blood and marks in the room where Benito Sandoval had died. His fingers clawed a bloody streak that remained on the mud wall for years. The women and children were crying and needed consolation. The Sandoval Women Benito Sandoval’s wife was María de la Asención Espinosa. She married Benito Sandoval on November 5, 1832. Her parents were Juan Isidro Espinosa and María Montolla from Chimayo, New Mexico. Benito, Commander of El Pueblo in 1854, died a brutal death, during the attack of El Pueblo. Two days before the tragedy struck, María, along with her young son, Juan Andres, packed and left to spend Christmas with her daughter, Cecelia, near Mora. What horror she must have felt when she heard that her husband was killed. Luckily, her other son, Pedro, age 16, had taken two wagons from Pueblo down the Arkansas and was not at the fort on that fateful morning. One wagon was loaded with corn, and the other with the Sandoval’s household goods. Like Chepita and her husband, the Sandoval family planned to move from El Pueblo to Huérfano Village. One can only imagine the additional anguish María felt when she found out about the kidnapping of her two younger sons. Although, Felipe returned to her nine months later, it would be almost six years before Juan Isidro returned. In 1870 María moved to Trinidad where she did charitable work for the Catholic Church. She died in Trinidad in 1875 at the age of 61, outliving her husband by 21 years.Ceceila Sandoval Adamson was the daughter of Benito Sandoval and María Asencion. Had her mother and younger brother, Juan Andres, not been visiting Ceceila on Christmas 1854, the fate of both is questionable. Cecelia was born in 1834 and married William Adamson, from London, England, when she was about 13 years old. He was born in 1814, twenty years older than her. Their children were: María de Gracia, Donaciana, Juliana, Julian, Francesa, Alejandro, Nicolas, and Augustine. When I first learned about Terecita Sandoval-Suaso-Kinkead-Barclay, I thought she was a woman ahead of her times, one of the first Hispana feminists. To my surprise, I found that she was a woman of her times, one of the "Independent Women" of New Mexico, who during the Mexican period women gambled, played Monte, ran businesses, smoked Cigarillos, inherited land, went to court to be heard, divorced or left their husbands and, according to Lecompte, enjoyed sexual freedom. Terecita seems to be a combination of Scarlet O’Hara, Adelita, and the Unsinkable Molly Brown. She was beautiful, manipulative, courageous, stubborn, ambitious, and tenacious. The daughter of Gerbacio Sandoval and Ramona Barela from Taos, New Mexico. She was more than likely born in 1811. Her younger brother was Benito Sandoval, mentioned earlier as being killed in the Christmas Tragedy. Terecita Sandoval married Manuel Suaso about 1827. By all indications he was 20 and she was 16, although some sources suggest she was as young as 12 or as old as 17. Luna suggests that it was an arranged marriage. Did Manuel actually make a trip to Chihuahua to bring her back a trunk full of clothes including a wedding dress? Was there a formal letter asking for the bride? Did she love Manuel? They had three, maybe four, children: Juana born on December 26, 1828, María de la Cruz, born about 1830 and Tomás, born on December 21, 1832. Some early records show another daughter, Rufina, but she disappears from later records. If she existed, perhaps she died as an infant. Mathew Kinkead arrived in Taos in 1825, along with his brother. A wealthy Kentuacian, he became a Mexican citizen and merchant. In 1835, Mathew and Manuel Suaso, along with others, received grants in the Mora Valley. Kinkead and the Suaso family became neighbors. Luna wonders if Terecita, hypnotized by Mathew’s wealth, knew the power she had over this blue-eyed American. If she had loved Manuel it was probably waning. Terecita was expecting another child, this one by Mathew Kinked, and left Manuel for Mathew. Their children were, Andres and Rafaelita, these babies had new clothes from the East, luxuries Manuel was not able to provide. Teresita was also liberated in her new found literacy. But, San Gertrude’s Valley was becoming crowded with traders, so competition was increasing. Too, it was hard for Matthew to live with the stigma of having taken someone else’s wife as well as with the growing resentment toward Americans. He decided to venture north. He sent his flock of sheep to sell in Missouri for sale and then became the first Colorado cattle rancher in Pueblo. His cows were used for milk and to suckle buffalo calves. Terecita rode out on the plains around Pueblo with Mathew, approaching the buffalo herd to capture newborn calves, risking not only the fury of the buffalo calves but the Indians. When Terecita arrived in Pueblo, her two daughters were almost of marrying age and it wouldn’t be long before Terecita influenced their choices of husbands. She wanted to make sure they married men who would provide well for them. Luna tells us that it was during a Christmas Fandango in 1843 when Terecita danced with Alexander Barclay that changed her life again. Terecita was in her early thirties, wore English shoes, a crimson silk dress, and a black mantilla that draped to the top of her high-heeled shoes. Terecita’s green eyes and creamy complexion added to her beauty. Barclay was thirty-five, while Mathew at fifteen years older than Terecita was already considered an old man. When he saw that he lost her to Barclay, Mathew probably shared the same taste of bitter sorrow as Manual Suaso had experienced years earlier. Mathew packed his belongings, took his son, Andres, and by 1847 they had moved to California. Together, Alexander and Terecita planted melon, yellow corn, pumpkin, scarlet beans, radishes, peas and onions. He painted a beautiful watercolor of her, the only portrait that gives us a glimpse of what she looked like. In 1848, Alexander Barclay, George Simpson and Joseph Doyle started building Fort Barclay near Mora, New Mexico. Her life with Barclay seemed happy at first but financial problems, the failure of Fort Barclay, and her temper and jealousy separated them. In a letter to his brother, Barclay wrote that her unfounded jealousy and unreasonable fits of rage were making his life miserable. (She probably had her own version of the story). In 1853 he found a way out of their relationship. When her daughter María de la Cruz’s husband, Joseph Doyle, decided to return to the Pueblo area, Barclay suggested Terecita move with them. She went, and thus ended the union of Alexander Barclay and Terecita Sandoval. Barclay died in late 1855. Fort Barclay fell into the hands of William Kroenig who married Terecita’s youngest daughter, Rafaelita. Terecita lived a long life and her story could fill a book. She is paradox to me. On one hand I’m not sure if I like her; on the other hand, I certainly admire her but also feel sad for her. At the end of her life, I think she was very lonely with many secrets that shall remain untold. Juana Suaso, oldest daughter of Manuel Suaso and Terecita Sandoval, married twenty-four-year-old George Simpson at age fourteen. The son of a doctor from Missouri, Simpson arrived in Pueblo at a young age and became one of the builders of El Pueblo. Juana’s union with George Simpson began without sanction of the church, which was common for the times. No baptisms, marriages or funerals took place in Pueblo. The closest priest was in Taos, one hundred seventy miles away, over snow-covered mountains, so women had to do without the celebrations they had enjoyed in New Mexico. Instead, Juana and George went to Bent’s fort in November 1842 and signed a statement that they agreed to live together as man and wife. Juana’s signature was an "X". It would be two years and one daughter later before they made it to Taos and got married by the priest and had their child baptized. Lecompte tells the story of Juana Suaso Simpson, with her baby in her arms thrown off her horse into the snow. She smiled, stood up and was on her way again. On the same day she took a gun belt to protect herself against the Utes sighted nearby. These were gutsy women and refute the myth of passivity that prevails about Hispanic women. George drank a lot and was known to hit Juana. Her mother, Terecita, took him to court because he beat Juana. At one time, Simpson abandoned her and went to California. In time George stopped drinking. The Simpsons had a small place, called Las Tusas on the Doyle Ranch. After her sister, Cruzita’s death they moved to Trinidad in 1865, where he was elected County Clerk in 1867. Using the name "Senex," he spent a great deal of time writing poetry and articles for the St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver and Trinidad newspapers. Juana learned to read on her own, then became a very much admired teacher called "Doña Juanita." Her students included Isabel and Robert Simpson, Casimiro Barela son of Jose Barela and nephew of Ramona Barela de Sandoval; and Rafael Romero son of Vicente Romero. George Simpson died in 1885 in Trinidad. Juana died in Monrovia, California in 1916, where she was living with her daughter Isabel Simpson Beard. George and Juana’s children were: Isabel, Joseph Robert, Pedro, Joseph Marcy, Alexander Barclay, Jennie María, Ann, Lucy, Virginia and Rafaelita. María de la Cruz Suaso (Cruzita), second daughter of Manuel Suaso and Terecita Sandoval traveled to Taos with Joseph Doyle where they were married in October of 1844. This was at the same time as her sister, Juana’s marriage. In late October of 1845, the Doyle family moved two miles north of Fort El Pueblo on the Arkansas River. In 1848 they moved near Mora to Fort Barclay but in 1853 moved back to the Pueblo area when building the fort proved a business failure. After the Christmas Tragedy, they moved back to Fort Barclay for protection. Doyle was a good businessman and became rich. Before his death he had amassed an empire. By 1859 he was back in the Pueblo area and purchased two miles on the Huérfano. In 1862, he and Cruzita finished building their house known as "Casa Blanca." It had green shutters and an eastern appearance, furnished elegantly and staffed with servants. The Casa Blanca Ranch included a post office, flourmill, granaries, and a big supply store. Conjecture is that Terecita, Doyle’s mother-in-law, ruled supreme, dressed in the latest fashions and rode in a carriage. Doyle was very well respected. On September 17, 1863, he was elected as a member of the Senate of the Territorial Legislature for the counties of Pueblo, El Paso, Fremont and Huerfano. Unfortunately, at age forty-five, after a four-day-long illness he died in Denver on March 4, 1864. A caravan of family and friends including Cruzita, Terecita, the children, his friend, Ritchens "Dick" Wooten, and escorts traveled to Denver to bring his remains home to the Casa Blanca Ranch where he was buried. After Joseph Doyle died, Dick Wooten courted Cruzita. They planned to marry but Cruzita died March 1, 1865, on the eve of her wedding to Wooten. According to Luna, her obituary says that she died of brain congestion. Rumors emerged that she was poisoned. Wooten believed she was murdered to keep him from controlling the Doyle fortune that in any case diminished. Such was the drama surrounding the family. Joseph and Cruzita’s children were, James Quinn, Alexander Green, Florence, Fannie, and Elizabeth Joline. Their uncle, Tomas Suaso, was appointed their guardian and administrator of their estate. He sent the two cousins, James Quinn Doyle and Pedro Simpson to schools in St. Louis. Terecita took Florence, Fannie and Elizabeth to Mora. In 1867 the three girls were back at the Doyle ranch. Alexander Greene and Elizabeth Joline became ill and died. In the years 1867-1869, Tomás became a tyrant. The children asked that Pedro Simpson be appointed their guardian instead. Their request was granted and Tomás and his wife Clara Santistevan moved to Trinidad. Rafaelita Kinkead , the daughter of Mathew Kinkead and Terecita Sandoval married William Kroenig on December 24, 1856. Kroenig arrived in the Pueblo area at age 21 from Patahorn Westafala, Germany. Kroenig, along with another man, purchased Fort Barclay for $7000. Rafelita made an early impression on Kroenig and they married. About 1858, Rafaelita died after giving birth to their second child. Their first born, a boy, died as an infant. Their infant daughter, Fannie, survived. In Las Vegas, New Mexico, she, she met Frank Meredith Jones, chairman of the Santa Fe Railroad surveying team. They married in December 1879, and had seven children: Frank, Charles Irving, William, Amelia, Garnet, Charlotte Opal and Frances Ruby. After the death of Rafelita, William Kroenig had two common law wives, Vicenta and Franciscita Vigil. From Vicenta, Jose Ignacio and María Anita were born. From Francisquita, Juana was born. The children took the surname Vigil. The Wooten Women Dolores LeFevre was the daughter of ex-trapper Manuel LeFevre and Teodora Lopez from Taos. She married Ritchens "Dick" Wooten on March 6, 1848. Wooten is probably one of the most colorful men of this period. On the day he married Dolores he was also appointed sheriff in Taos, a position he served for one year. Wheeling and dealings made him a rich man, and in 1853 he moved his family to the Pueblo area. He helped to build Huérfano Village on the south side of the Arkansas, a mile west of the mouth of the Huérfano. He built a new house close to the Joseph Doyle’s. Both houses were built like forts for protection against the Indians. They had an irrigation ditch, a blacksmith shop and a mill. The Indians did not disturb their places during their killing rampage in late 1854 and 1855.After the killings at El Pueblo Dick and Dolores were expecting their fourth child and remained behind at the fort. The killings had scared people off, including the only midwife. When Dolores gave birth on May 6, 1855, both mother and child died. Wooten buried them at the base of the hill near Rumaldo Cordova’s grave. The children left were Eliza, 5, Ritchens 4, and Frances 2. They lived for a while at El Pueblo, then Greenhorn and finally their father sent them to Dolores’ parents in Taos. He married Mary Ann Manning from Missouri in 1858. They had two children, Joseph and William. She died giving birth to their second child in 1861. He then married Fanny Brown in 1863. She died in less than a year giving birth to their daughter, Francis Virginia. As mentioned previously, after Joseph Doyle died in 1864, Dick Wooten planned on marrying his widow, Cruzita, but she died in 1865. In 1871, at the age of 55, he married thirteen-year-old María Pauline Lujan, a cousin to Dolores. They had ten children. Other Nueva Mejicana Women who lived in early Pueblo
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Broadhead, Edward. Fort Pueblo, Pueblo County Historical
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