In 1598 my great grandfather on my mother’s side, Miguel Sanchez Saenz [10th generation], sailed from the Spanish Las Riojas region to the Americas as an indentured servant. Saenz hailed from Anguiano, Las Riojas, a short distance from Pamplona, a town famed for its annual run of the bulls.
Anguiano, Spain is famous for its annual Danza de los Zancos [Dance of the Stilts], an ancestral rite dating back 500 years. The dance, held in July, honors the town’s patron saint, Mary Magdalene.Courtesy of photographer Joel Salcido. 2002.
By the end of the 1500s, it had become difficult to emigrate to the Americas. Peter Boyd-Bowman [Patterns of Spanish Emigration to the Indies 1579-1600], wrote that by 1560 “unskilled young men were no longer encouraged to emigrate, indeed, by 1560 the colonies were embarrassingly full of them already.” If Sanez wished to emigrate to the Americas, there was a singular way--to join his employer, Pedro Redondo de Villegas.
Villegas’ commercial assignment in Havana, Cuba was military related and he likely viewed his emigration as permanent as he left Spain with his family and servant. Spanish records listed Villegas’ trade as Contador de Fabrica de Artilleria, an accountant for a munitions plant in Havana. Boyd-Bowman documented that over the period 1595-1598, the period when Villegas and Saenz left Spain, “well over half [58.2 percent] of all the men were emigrating as servants!”
Castillo San Cristobal in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico is one of several Caribe military fortresses that housed colonial Spanish soldiers. Photo by Ricardo Romo 2001.
In the Spanish records “Catálogo de Pasajeros a Indias [1586-1599], known as the ‘passenger lists,’ Saenz, a young teenager, is listed as a ‘criado’ or servant to Villegas. The Spanish records show that Saenz was a native of Anguiano, a Province of La Rioja-Castilla La Vieja. He was given passenger No. 4,898 and, according to Boyd-Bowman, was only one of 74 Spaniards from the Logrono province that emigrated to the Americas over the period 1580-1600.
Cuba and Florida as part of Spain. Map of the Gulf of Mexico. In The History of America. Pub. in London 1777. From the collection of Ricardo Romo.
Much changed for the Spanish colonies after Villegas and Saenz landed in Cuba. Passengers were on constant alert, fearing attacks from pirate ships or “corsairs” sailing with French, English, and Dutch sailors. Following an attack on the port city of Santiago, Cuba in 1586, the Spanish Crown decided that the colonies had to fortify and defend themselves, thus the need for more soldiers and firearms experts.
Saenz arrived in Havana at age 18, and in addition to his daily servant’s duties, he received training in the use of firearms. Saenz was posted in Cuba at a time when investors began to buy land for sugar and tobacco cultivation. In 1601 as Saenz completed his servitude obligations, Spain allowed for the importation of 600 African slaves per year to Espanola, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. The farming of tobacco and construction of sugar mills soon dominated the Carribean economic activity as more slaves were bought and sold on the islands. However, Saenz was not in Havana long enough to witness the creation of large sugar plantations worked by slaves. After fulfilling his servitude obligation Saenz set sail for the port of Vera Cruz in Nueva Espana, as Mexico was then known. He was 20 years old.
Mestizo vaqueros in the Mexican-Texas frontier. [19th century]. Collection of Ricardo Romo.
My specific information about Saenz and his employer Villegas originated in Joel Rene Escobar y Saenz’s excellent research report, Family History of Capt. Miguel Sanchez Saenz and his Descendants published in 2002 in San Antonio. I also used various other historical sources to place life in Cuba in perspective. It was helpful that Escobar, a descendant of Saenz, also documented his ancestor’s later migration from Cuba to Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon, at the turn of the century circa 1600.
Escobar wrote that when Capt. Saenz migrated to Nuevo Leon, New Spain’s northern frontier, sometime between the years 1600-1610, he had already enlisted in the military. Saenz met and married Ana de Trevino, daughter of Capt. Jose de Trevino and Leonor de Ayala. My research shows that Capt. Jose de Trevino, Saenz’ father-in-law, arrived in Monterrey in 1603. Texas historian Armando C. Alonso [Tejano Legacy] notes that Capt. Trevino introduced “large numbers of cattle, sheep, and horses,” as well as farming equipment and stones for a flour mill in Monterrey. Capt. Trevino’s sister Juana de Trevino married Capt. Marcos Alonso Garza y del Arcon, and their children and grandchildren became the largest landowners in Nuevo Leon during the 1600s and first half of the 1700s thus assuring Saenz a place among the upper class families of Northern Mexico.
Saenz arrived in Monterrey at a time when the Royal Crown encouraged the development of Mexico’s northern regions. This development was initially driven by the exploitation of the northern region’s vast mineral deposits, notably rich silver in Zacatecas and Guanajuato. In order to construct and manage the mines, the colonists required military protection, as well as locally grown food. Colonial Spaniards respected military men serving the Royal Crown, and officers, in particular, experienced higher social status than ordinary citizens.
Such was the case of Captain Miguel Sanchez Saenz who was an officer when he migrated to Mexico from Cuba. His marriage to one of the leading ranching families in Nuevo Leon established him as a wealthy rancher, and, combined with his military service, enabled him to earn the confidence of his community, which elected him as Alcalde Ordiniario in 1625, and a member of the City Council [Regidor] in 1629 and again in 1635.
Saenz’ family would have been proud to know that their son rose through the ranks of the military and gained through marriage the status of a wealthy landowner and political leader. Saenz, once an indentured servant too poor to afford his own passage to America, eventually became mayor of a major province of Nueva Espana.
Saenz’s story is one of an adventurous young immigrant to the New World whose fortunes were not based on discovery of gold or silver. His hard work, positive relationships with mentors and Mexican citizens, as well as service to his country provided a route for upward mobility and an opportunity to contribute to his adopted Mexican community.