I recently received the results of my mitochondrial DNA, or
mtDNA test, which predictably show that I descend from Native American ancestry
on the maternal side of my family – the line that extends through my mom, my
grandmother, her mother, her mother, and so on.
I say predictably, because DNA experts told me most native
New Mexicans descend from Native Americans. The primary reason? Spanish
colonists who settled in New Spain, and eventually modern day New Mexico, were
mostly men. So, naturally, they married and/or had children with indigenous
women.
That’s different than Europeans who settled later in New
England. I am told the Mayflower, for example, had a more balanced mix of men
and women.
In any case, my mtDNA, which identifies me as part of
haplogroup A, suggests a Native American is the progenitor of my maternal
ancestors.
Based on mtDNA results from others in the Family Tree New
Mexico DNA Project, I probably descend from Bernadina Vasquez, according to
Angel Cervantes, the project administrator.
Researcher Pat Sanchez Rau explained that Bernadina Vasquez
is the daughter of Francisco Vasquez and an unknown mother, possibly the Native
American progenitor of so many New Mexico families, including mine. The mother,
whose name is not known, was one of six daughters of Juan Perez de Bustillo and
Maria de la Cruz, a family that
came to New Mexico with Don Juan de Oñate. According to Sanchez Rau,
Maria de la Cruz is probably of Mayan descent, although more research must be
done. Sanchez Rau credits researcher Henrietta Martinez Christmas for
identifying the connection between Bernadina Vasquez and descendants who belong
to haplogroup A.
Sanchez Rau generously tried to help me connect my own family
paper trail to the known descendants of Bernadina Vasquez.
Beatrice Chavez |
Josefa Carrillo was the daughter of Gregoria Gutierres, who was the daughter of
Maria Trinidad Gonzales.
Unfortunately, the paper trail reaches a dead end with Maria
Trinidad Gonzales, who was born in the mid 1700s. So we don’t know for certain
if Maria Trinidad Gonzales descends from Bernadina Vasquez or one of her
sisters. But she – and I -- definitely descend from that pioneering New Mexico
family.