Ana de Sandoval y Manzanares

For all of New Mexico’s history under Spanish and Mexican administrations, in some respects, women had more legal rights then their English, North American counterparts. Ana de Sandoval y Manzanares is a pointed example. After surviving the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, she returned to New Mexico after being exiled, a destitute widow and one of many women heads of household. She settled in the Santa Fe area and, in 1697, received an allotment of livestock and supplies from Governor Diego de Vargas. In 1716, she asserted her rights and successfully petitioned the New Mexico Governor to restore her father’s land, the San Clemente Grant that today includes the site of the Village of Los Lunas.

Probably born in New Mexico around 1650 to Mateo Sandoval y Manzanares, who had a large estancia near San Felipe Pueblo, she appears to have traveled many times with her parents between New Mexico and Mexico. Her father was a mulatto and her mother, Juana de la Cruz was a Mexican Indian. This racial mixture did not prevent her parents from owning property or benefiting from business, nor could it exclude them from exercising their civil rights under Spanish law.

As a young girl, Ana married Blas de la Candelaria in the early 1660s. She had four children by him and adopted another. Her father received a private land grant in the Rio Abajo area near present-day Las Lunas, New Mexico. By 1684, she was listed in the El Paso area as a widower with an extended family of eleven people. Eight years later her family grew to thirteen members. Ana de Sandoval y Manzanares was one of many women heads of household who returned to New Mexico after the revolt and exile. She settled in the Santa Fe area and, in 1697, received an allotment of livestock and supplies from Governor Diego de Vargas. She remained in the Santa Fe area until the early 1700s resettling of Atrisco on the Rio Grande’s west bank opposite the future site of Albuquerque. Two of her sons are listed among the people who founded Albuquerque. The old plaza of Candelaria in the north part of the town and the modern Candelaria Street were given the family name.

In 1716, nearly 40 years after the Pueblo Revolt that cost her family their land, Ana asserted her rights and petitioned New Mexico’s governor to reinstate her as the lawful owner of her late father’s San Clemente land Grant, which had been his encomienda before the Pueblo Revolt. She declared that she would take possession so that her descendents could use the land.
The Governor granted her request on July 23, 1716, and she received confirmation of a grant of 37,099 acres from her father’s land. She had requested a larger amount of 89,403 acres.

As her example demonstrates, women in Spanish colonial New Mexico could–and frequently did–own and inherit land. In fact, the adjoining Pajarito land grant was owned by Josefa Baca. Women had the legal authority to assert their rights and some, like Ana Sandoval y Manzanares, a widow and woman of color, assured that their legal rights were fulfilled.

Sources:

Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Albuquerque Burilas, 1727-1854.

Chávez, Fray Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the
Spanish Colonial Period, Albuquerque: University of Albuquerque, 1973.

McLaughlin, Walter V., and John B. Colligan. Spanish Surnames Found in the First Book of Baptisms of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe del Paso del Rio del Norte. El Paso: University of Texas, 1962.

Esquibel, José Antonio and John B. Colligan. The Spanish Recolonization of
New Mexico: An Account of the Families Recruited at Mexico City in 1693,
Albuquerque: Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico,
1999.

“Preliminary List of Grants from the Land Grant Database,” The Center for Land
Grant Studies.
“Ana de Sandoval y Manzanares.” Records of the New Mexico Surveyor General (20-238) and the New Mexican Sisneros, Francisco (draft article).

Court of Private Land Claims (40-418).