Friars aim to convert, educate Natives

Granddaughter of Cortés and Cuauhtemoc's widow becomes wife of Oñate, founder of New Mexico

By Miguel Encinias
For the Journal
In 1521, after defeating the Meshicans in the war for their capital city, Tenochtitlan -- now called Mexico City -- Hernán Cortés set about administering his newly acquired domain trying to avoid the mistakes made at Hispaniola in dealing with the new Native subjects.
Those mistakes, many of which proved to be deadly to entire tribes, gave the Spaniards a bad name both in the Americas and Europe.
Many of the reports of the mistreatment or deaths of Indians were made by Friar Bartolome de las Casas. His reports ultimately reached the English and resulted in the Black Legend, which the English used to discredit their Spanish enemies.
Early in 1524, the first missionary friars arrived in Spain's newfound lands. Among them were Motolinia and Gante, remarkably enlightened missionaries who devoted themselves not only to the conversion of the Natives but to their education, which they thought would make such conversions meaningful and lasting. Three years after their arrival, Cortés sent Captain Cristobal Olid to settle the area of modern Honduras. But when Olid arrived, he declared himself independent of New Spain.
Cortés marched against Olid, taking with him the defeated Meshican emperor Cuauhtemoc, his wife and the leading Meshican nobles.
On the way to Honduras, Cortés discovered that Cuauhtemoc was conspiring to kill him and had the young, defiant king hanged.
The Spanish governor took the princess -- Cuauhtemoc's widow -- under his protection as he had promised her father, Moctezuma.
They eventually had a daughter named Leonor.
Leonor later married a Spanish captain who was one of the founders of the mining town of Zacatecas, north of Mexico City.
Their daughter, Isabel, became the wife of Juan de Oñate, the founder of New Mexico.
In 1598, the Oñates' 10-year-old son Cristobal accompanied his father on the journey to colonize New Mexico.
Cristobal died in 1610 on the way back to Zacatecas, and is probably buried somewhere near the Fra Cristobal Mountains north of Truth or Consequences.