Bishops shared with all Spanish settlers the attribute of coming from a certain region in Spain. Like governors, they surrounded themselves with a retinue of trusted people, often their compatriots or relatives, to whom they gave posts of special responsibility and whom they helped in various ways. Our present example is all the more indicative of the trend because Bishop Zumcirraga had the reputation of not favoring relatives, which he doubtless did not, unduly, but only within the universally accepted framework of preferring relatives when they were qualified.

An interesting case seen in the letter is that of Sancho Garcia. Zumcirraga, at the instance of his nephew (always the nephew) in his home town of Durango, brought Garcia to Mexico, and it was through his favor, he implies, that Garcia became wealthy. With the wealth he returned to Durango and married a relative of Zumcirraga's. Now he has become uppity, and the crusty bishop resents it. Zumcirraga also mentions a relative now in Mexico, Martin de Urquiaga, apparently a younger brother of the Francisco to whom the letter is addressed, and therefore also the bishop's nephew. Martin is a recently ordained priest. Zumcirraga has not given him any great plum in the curacy of the remote mining camp of Sultepec; on the other hand, not every beginning priest already has a chaplaincy in addition to a curacy. Zumcirraga is watching Martin, and would be prepared to favor him further, but only, apparently, if he fulftils his promise: ‘we will see what can be done.’ A grand-nephew, son of the recipient of the letter, was also on his way to Mexico, but died in a shipwreck - something so much in the ordinary run of events that it fails to get prominent mention, and a sentence later when the bishop speaks of consolation, he is no longer thinking of the death of Francisco's son, but of the bad marriage of their relative to Sancho Garcia.

The closest thing to Zumcirraga's heart, as his career reaches its end, is an endowment in Durango, a sort of symbolic coming home and perpetuation of his name, much like an entail for non-ecclesiastics.