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Spanish Hidalgos and America: The Ovandos of Cáceres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Ida Altman
Ida Altman*
Affiliation:
University of New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana
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Extract

The image of the lone and footloose venturer, all but penniless, striking out for the Indies seeking immediate enrichment, has long since given way to a more balanced picture of the Spanish settlers of the New World in the sixteenth century. This revised picture suggests that the Spanish emigrants had their origins principally in a wide middle sector of social and occupational groups, ranging from hidalgos below the level of the high nobility, professionals and officials, to artisans and tradespeople of all sorts, farmers, and an impressive number of “servants.” One component of the earlier image of Spanish emigrants—the down-on-his lick hidalgo whose pride and sense of honor propelled him to the Indies in hope of improving his fortunes—survived the transition to the revised idea now accepted, his reputation somewhat rehabilitated but his presence undeniable. Stereotypes notwithstanding, the image of the cadet sons of hidalgo families and of relatively poor hidalgos going off to the Indies has considerable basis in fact; it is a reflection of the realities of Spanish family and social structure that sent the same type of individual into religious orders, universities, or the army. But while a basic truth gave rise to the longstanding cliche, we still know relatively little of what lies behind it—nor, for that matter, do we know very much about the hidalgos and provincial nobility of Spain, the sector (as opposed to the high titled nobility) that entered into the Indies venture in the sixteenth century in some numbers.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , January 1987 , pp. 323 - 346
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1987

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References

* This study is based in part on my dissertation, “Emigrants, Returnees and Society in Sixteenth-Century Cáceres” (Johns Hopkins University, 1981), research for which was supported by a grant from the Fulbright Commission. Additional research was funded by a Mellon Research Fellowship from the Tulane University Center for Latin American Studies and a faculty research grant from the University of New Orleans.

1 The most important sources for the origins of Spanish emigrants to the Indies in the sixteenth century and the demographic characteristics of the emigration movement overall are the works of Boyd-Bowman, Peter, both the volumes of his Indice geobiográfico de cuarenta mil pobladores españoles de América en el siglo XVI (Bogota, 1964; Mexico, 1968)Google Scholar and the numerous articles in which he analyzes these data; see, for example, his “Patterns of Spanish Emigration to the Indies until 1600,” Hispanic American Historical Review 56 (1976):580–604 and Patterns of Spanish Emigration to the New World (1493–1580) (Buffalo, N.Y., 1973), which contains several of his articles. Marie-Claude Gerbet has initiated serious study of the provincial nobility of Extremadura in her excellent work, La noblesse dans le royaume de Castille. Etude sur ses structures sociales en Estrémadure (1454–1516) (Paris, 1979).

2 LeFlem, Jean-Paul, “Cáceres, Plasencia y Trujillo en la segunda mitad del siglo XVI (1557–1596),” Cuadernos de Historia de España 45–46 (1967):254–255.Google Scholar

3 Gerbet, (La noblesse, pp. 150–151)Google Scholar estimates that in the late fifteenth century the hidalgo group formed some 17% of the city’s population, much higher than the average percentage for Extremadura as a whole, where the hidalgo group formed 4% of the population. It is also a much higher figure than for other cities; her estimate for Plasencia is that the hidalgo group formed 4% of the population.

4 Cumbreño, Antonio C. Floriano, Guía histórico-artística de Cáceres (Cáceres, 1952), pp. 59–60.Google Scholar A number of the fueros (privileges) conceded to the city in the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries are included in Pedro Ulloa Golfín’s Privilegios y documentos relativos a la ciudad de Cáceres, Biblioteca Nacional of Madrid, Ms. 430 (18? ).

5 Floyd, Troy S., The Columbus Dynasty in the Caribbean, 1492–1526 (Albuquerque, 1973), pp. 51–54.Google Scholar

6 Miguel Muñoz de San Pedro included a biography of Captain Diego de Ovando de Cáceres in his La Extremadura del siglo XV en tres de sus paladines (Madrid, 1964). For discussion of his entail and the inventories of the Captain’s son and grandson, see Gerbet, , La noblesse, pp. 228,Google Scholar 301, and Belmonte, Miguel A. Orti, La vida en Cáceres en los siglos XIII y XVI al XVIII (Cáceres, 1949), pp. 26, 28–30.Google Scholar

7 For Juan de Ovando’s descent, see de Mayoralgo, J.M. Lodo, Viejos linajes de Cáceres (Cáceres, 1971), p. 180 Google Scholar and de San Pedro, Muñoz, La Extremadura del siglo XV, pp. 318–319.Google Scholar Capt. Diego de Ovando’s son Hernando de Ovando, Comendador of Santiago, is a good example of how successful cadet sons could establish lineages of their own. Gerbet points out that Comendador Hernando de Ovando built a large townhouse in the parish of Santa María as a symbol of his wealth and independence (La noblesse, p. 212).

8 Archivo del Conde de Canilleros, Casa de Hernando de Ovando (hereafter ACC-HO), legajo I, #7 (entail of Francisco de Ovando); de Mayoralgo, Lodo, Viejos linajes, p. 122 Google Scholar (Godoy), p. 197 (Francisco de Ovando “el viejo”).

9 The wills of Com. Hernando de Ovando, Dr. Nicolás de Ovando, and doña Isabel Tellez are in ACC-HO legajo I, #8 (1523 and 1534), #16 (1564) and #13 (1557) respectively.

10 Archivo Histórico Provincial de Cáceres, notary Pedro González, Legajos 3830, 3831 (hereafter citations will be abbreviated AHPC, followed by notary’s name and legajo number).

11 Frey Nicolás de Ovando’s mestizo son, Diego de Ovando, was a vecino of Quito and one of Gonzalo Pizarro’s captains. See Lockhart, James, Spanish Peru, 1532–1560 (Madison, 1968), p. 165 Google Scholar; de Tudela, Juan Pérez, ed., Documentos relativos a don Pedro de la Gasea y a Gonzalo Pizarro (Madrid, 1964), vol. II, pp. 267, 567.Google Scholar

12 ACC-HO, leg. VIII #5.

13 Doña Leonor de Vera was the daughter of Capt. Diego de Ovando’s son Diego de Ovando de Cáceres and his wife, doña Francisca de Mendoza. Her husband, Francisco de Ribera, was a member of a cadet branch of the wealthy Ribera family. His children who emigrated to the New World had second cousins on their father’s side—Rodrigo de Chaves and Juan Pantoja de Ribera—who also emigrated. Francisco de Ribera’s will of 1547 mentioned the following children: Alonso de Ribera, *Diego de Ovando de Cáceres, *Juan de Vera, Hernán Pérez de Ribera, Antonio de Ribera, *Lorenzo de Carvajal (Ulloa), doña Francisca de Mendoza, doña Isabel de Mendoza and doña Maria de Carvajal (names with asterisks are children who emigrated). Since supposedly there were two brothers named Lorenzo de Ulloa who went to Peru, probably the first Lorenzo de Ulloa to emigrate was illegitimate. Probably he was older than the other siblings, which would explain why he went to the Indies so much earlier. His success no doubt helped attract the others. His illegitimacy might explain his relative marginality and insecurity in Peru compared to other cacereño hidalgos who arrived early and had good political connections.

14 For discussion of the foundation of Trujillo and assignment of encomiendas, see Ramirez-Horton, Susan, “Land Tenure and the Economics of Power in Colonial Peru,” (Doctoral diss., Univ. of Wisconsin, 1977)Google Scholar, chapter III. Ulloa’s encomienda was the “provincia de los Guambos.” On Ulloa’s suit for return of his encomienda, see Archivo General de Indias (AGI) Patronato 117, ramo 7, and AGI Justicia 430. Reassignment of Aldana’s repartimiento is mentioned in AGI Indiferente General, 2086.

15 Cristóbal de Angulo, doña Ana de Angulo’s father, is mentioned in 1546 in a letter from Pedro de Hinojosa to Gonzalo Pizarro, included in de Tudela, Pérez, Documentos relativos a la Gasea, vol. 1, p. 144.Google Scholar For information on Ulloa’s debts and his family, see AGI Justicia 430.

16 For a discussion of the assignment (and reassignment) of encomiendas in Peru and the relative value of the different locales, see chapter 2 of Lockhart’s Spanish Peru. Dorothy McMahon, in her notes for Zarate’s, Augstín, Historia del descubrimiento y conquista del Peru (University of Buenos Aires, 1965), pp. 132,Google Scholar 140, tells how Aldana and Solís, as Pizarro’s representatives, went over to La Gasca’s side in Panama. For Aldana’s encomienda in Charcas, see de Roa, Luis, y Ursua, , El reyno de Chile, 1535–1810 (Valladolid, 1945), p. 11 Google Scholar, and Lockhart, Spanish Peru, for the marriage of Aldana’s daughter (p. 187) and Godoy’s encomienda (p. 20). Antonio de Ulloa, a cousin of Gómez de Solís, together with another cacercño, Sancho Perero, also received a repartimiento from La Gasea in 1548; see de Tudela, Pérez, ed., Documentos relativos a la Gasea, vol. 1, p. 476,Google Scholar and AHPC Pedro de Grajos 3925 (1559).

17 Lockhart points out that the best encomiendas that La Gasea assigned in 1548 went not to his retainers nor necessarily to his supporters in Peru, but rather to the already prominent individuals in Peru who played a key role in his success by bringing their followers over to his side (Spanish Peru, p. 16). Information on Diego de Ovando can be found in AGI Patronato 117, ramo 7, and Justica 430; for his clash with the Marqués de Cañete, see AGI Patronato 100, ramo 9. Cristóbal de Córdoba, husband of Beatriz de Ovando, might have arrived in the entourage of Blasco Nuñez Vela (AGI Patronato 100, ramo 9). The situation of Beatriz de Ovando is difficult to explain. Her name does not appear among the children listed by Francisco de Ribera in his will (see note 14) and never appears with the honorific “doña,” although all the other women in the family used it. The most logical explanation is that she was illegitimate, but her surname, Ovando, is from the maternal side of the family. Yet there is no question that she is Diego de Ovando’s sister.

18 Lockhart, , Spanish Peru, p. 10.Google Scholar

19 AGI Patronato 117, ramo 7; AHPC Diego Pacheco 4102; document XXVI (1588–89) included in Villena, Guillermo Lohmann, “Documentos interesantes a la historia del Peru en el Archivo Histórico de Protocolos de Madrid,” Revista histórica 25 (1960–61):459.Google Scholar

20 Villena, Lohmann, “Documentos interesantes,” p. 459 Google Scholar; Plata, Cristóbal Bermúdez, Catálogo de pasajeros a Indias durante los siglos XVI, XVIII y XVIII (Seville, 1946), vol. 3, #2952.Google Scholar

21 AHPC Diego Pacheco 4100, 4101.

22 Roa y Ursua, El reyno de Chile, #601; del Castillo, Vicente Navarro, La Epopeya de la raza extremeña en Indias (Merida, 1978)Google Scholar, #196; Boyd-Bowman, Indice geobiográfico, vol. II, #2803. Hernando de Ovando went to Peru in 1557 accompanied by Lorenzo de Aldana, nephew of the cacereño Lorenzo de Aldana who was prominent in the affairs of early colonial Peru; see Catálogo de pasajeros, vol. 3, #3446.

23 AGI Justica 430; doña Leonor-de Vera also gave her power of attorney to Juan de Hinojosa in 1563 to petition for compensation for the services of her deceased son Diego de Ovando de Cáceres.

24 The entail established by Gómez de Solís’s parents, Francisco de Solís and doña Juana de Hinojosa, is in AHPC Pedro de Grajos 3924 (1555); Francisco de Solís’s will of 1556 is in AHP Grajos 3925. There are frequent references to Solís’s in Pérez de Tudela, ed., Documentos relativos a la Gasea, and he associated closely with a number of cacereños in Peru, including Lorenzo de Aldana and Benito de la Peña. His encomienda probably was in Charcas. He also had dealings with Miguel Cornejo whose widow, Leonor Méndez, married Solís’s brother Juan de Hinojosa (see AGI Justicia 767 #1, 1555; Solís sent 25,000 pesos de oro from Potosí to Cornejo in Arequipa to take to Lima).

25 Miguel Cornejo, the first husband of Hinojosa’s wife, Leonor Méndez, was a commoner who was present at Cajamarca and received an encomienda in Arequipa in 1540; see Lockhart, James, Men of Cajamarca (Austin, Texas, 1972), pp. 318–320.Google Scholar The Marqués de Cañete assigned Hinojosa an encomienda in Arequipa. Hinojosa’s financial affairs were complex, and their resolution involved his widow and his brother Lorenzo de Ulloa Solís in Cáceres after his death in 1578. His activities in Peru probably involved commerce (rather than mining, like his brother Solís); see AHPC Alonso Pacheco 4101.

26 Navarro del Castillo (La epopeya, #205) says Cosme de Ovando Paredes left for Peru in 1555 and that he went to Chile with viceroy Cañete’s son. In 1573 he embarked on the fleet from Tierra Firme, having come from Quito; see AGI Indiferente General 2086. Cristóbal de Ovando Paredes doubtless left Spain in late 1559 or early 1560, immediately after borrowing money for the trip from his oldest brother, Francisco (AHPC Diego Pacheco 4101). He probably returned in 1583 or 1584 when he was once again active in Cáceres. Their mother’s will and the division of property among her heirs is in ACC-HO leg. V #10.

27 His brother Cosme must have been seriously ill, because he made a will in 1583 (ACC-HO leg. VIII #79), and Cristóbal might have received news of his illness. If he had been ill, however, Cosme subsequently recovered and was alive at the time Cristóbal returned.

28 Francisco de Ovando was a caballero of the Order of Santiago and received 40,000 mrs. in juros from King Henry IV in 1474. His will was written in 1491 and a codicil in 1498; see de San Pedro, Muñoz, La Extremadura del siglo XV, p. 254.Google Scholar

29 Archivo General de Simancas, Contaduría Mayor de Cuentas, la. época, leg. 49. The Puertocar-reros (Counts of Medellín) and Zúñigas (Dukes of Béjar) also held juros in Cáceres. It is only later in the sixteenth century that middle level hidalgos and even wealthy commoners acquired juros in Cáceres.

30 Francisco de Ovando’s will was made in 1530 (ACC-HO leg. I #7). It includes a description of the entails. A codicil of 1534, the year he died, contained an inventory of his properties (also ACC-HO leg. I #7).

31 Information on these families and their marriages, heirs and entails is drawn from many sources. The first entail founded by Alonso de Ribera in 1531 for his eldest son, Alvaro de Ribera, contains much information on the family and its properties; see ACC Mayorazgo de Ribera, leg. I #16. Genealogies for many cacereño families are in Lodo de Mayoralgo, Viejos linajes. Juan Pantoja de Ribera and Rodrigo de Chaves were second cousins on their father’s side to the children of Francisco de Ribera who emigrated to the Indies. Sancho de Figueroa had two brothers who also went to the New World. One of them, Francisco de Avila, returned to Cáceres a wealthy man by 1572. In absentia he bought some rents with his brother Sancho’s widow in 1550 (AHPC Diego Pancheco 4100).

32 See Francisco de Ovando’s will of 1574 in ACC Mayorazgo de Pedro de Ovando, leg. III #2. Cristóbal de Ovando accompanied his first cousin Cosme de Ovando Paredes to Peru in 1555 as his criado; see Catálogo de passajeros, vol. 3, #2952.

33 Cristóbal de Ovando’s will is in AHPC Pedro Gonzalez 3830. He left twenty ducados to the city, saying he had never actually taken anything belonging to the city or the alhóndiga. He seems to have taken advantage of his position to exact fines unfairly.

34 For Alvaro de Cáceres’s activities in Puebla and New Spain, see AGI Justicia 215 #1. He was a well-established citizen, involved in the cacao trade with Guatemala and Soconusco. When he left Spain in 1575 he took with him two nieces from Cáceres (AGI Contratación 5222).

35 For the donation at Cosme’s marriage, see ACC-HO leg. V, part 2 #19; doña Beatriz de Paredes’s dowry is in ACC-HO leg. V pt. 2 #10. Cosme de Ovando Paredes took three criados from Cáceres with him to Peru in 1555: Francisco Gutiérrez, son of a Diego de Ovando (probably a relative, perhaps illegitimate); the younger Lorenzo de Ulloa, son of Francisco de Ribera and doña Leonor de Vera, discussed above, also a distant relative; and Cristóbal de Ovando, the son of Francisco de Ovando and doña María de la Cerda, which meant he was Cosme’s first cousin. Catálogo de pasajeros, vol. 3, #2952.

36 Francisco Ojalvo’s 1575 letter to his nephew Gonzalo Ojalvo is in AGI Indif. General 2089.

37 AHPC Alonso Pacheco 4101.

38 Francisco de Ovando Paredes died in 1573; his will is in ACC-HO leg. I #18.

39 In April 1578 he bought an orchard for his uncle Juan de Paredes de la Rocha, who was in Rome (AHPC Pedro Gonzalez 3830). The house for his brother was purchased for 900 ducados from a regidor of Cáceres, Gonzalo de Carvajal Ulloa (ACC-HO leg IV #18).

40 ACC-HO leg. VIII #10.

41 AHPC Diego Pacheco 4101. Catálogo de pasajeros, vol. 4, #15.

42 ACC-HO leg. VII #31; leg. I #21.

43 ACC-HO leg. VII #17.

44 Cristóbal de Ovando Paredes’s 1588 inventory is in ACC-HO leg. V pt. 2 #20.

45 For birth rates among noble families in sixteenth-century Cáceres, see Sánchez, Angel Rodríguez, Cáceres: población y comportamientos demográficos en el siglo XVI (Cáceres, 1977), p. 83.Google Scholar

46 ACC-HO leg. VIH #101; de Mayoralgo, Lodo, Viejos linajes, p. 208.Google Scholar

47 Cristóbal’s first will, of 1602, and codicil of 1618 are in ACC-HO leg. I #21. In 1602 don Rodrigo de Ovando Godoy also received a donation of more than 1,450 ducados in rents a year from his mother. Cristóbal de Ovando Paredes’s eldest son, Cosme, had been named the heir of his great-uncle Juan de Paredes de la Rocha in the latter’s will of 1593 (ACC-HO leg. I #20), but since this was a decade before Cristóbal de Ovando Paredes made his first will, this bequest clearly did not influence his plans for his sons at the outset. The decision to alter the terms of succession came much later.

48 ACC-HO leg. VII #’s 22 and 17. Cosme lived at least until 1645, when he made his will.

49 Sancho de Figueroa prepared a probanza de servicios in 1537, at which time he was a vecino of San Salvador (AGI Patronato 5 #4 ramo 1). He had received an encomienda from Pedro de Alvarado. See also Becerra, Salvador Rodríguez, Encomienda y conquista. Los inicios de la colonización de Guatemala (University of Seville, 1974), pp. 44 (note 13), 97.Google Scholar

50 See Chapter II, “Nobles and Hidalgos,” of my dissertation, “Emigrants, Returnees and Society,” for a discussion of noble society in Cáceres and the economic base of the local nobility.