Cipriano or Sipriano? Versabe? Bersabe? Bersabel? Versabel? Puede que Butierrez or Gutierrez or maybe Gutierres? Was it Villas or maybe Bias? Who really knows? The spelling of names was in the hands of the priest who spelled it the way he heard it pronounced and the only names that were not misspelled when documented were Jose, Juan, Maria, Guadalupe and Jesus. And that is if the priest did not have a Spanish lisp or was a French priest like the ones Archbishop Lamy brought to New Mexico after the American occupation.
Most New Mexicans of the period were illerate so there is nothing they could do about it. They were oblivious to what was happening in the written realm. Not that they minded or cared. There was not much interest nor use for reading and writing in New Mexico at that time. The priests were the only ones who cared or had use of the written word.
When looking at old Spanish documents in New Mexico it is understandable why we have folks names Baldez in some places and Valdez in others. Why we have Gutierrez with a z and Gutierres with an s or Barela and Varela, Roybal and Roibal.
In the old days they used to say V (vay) de Vaca and B (bay) de Burro to illustrate the difference between the v's and the b's.
There are enough problems with the language, any language, before you add folks who can't spell into this mix.
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