Very Interesting Story Of Some Indians (Genizaros) In Some Spanish Households In Colonial New Mexico

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On the 27th of June of 1752 two (2) individuals, both identified as Indians married in Santa Fe, one identified as Diego de Sena and the woman as (Maria) Efigenia. These are most likely the same people identified without surnames when their daughter Maria de la Encarnacion was baptized. (See below)

Maria de la Encarnacion Sena, an Indian woman was baptized in Santa Fe on the 6th of June in 1751. She was the daughter of an Indian couple identified on her birth record simply by the name of Diego and his wife Maria (Efigenia?, see above). Their daughter is identified with the last name of  "Sena" because of her padrino Bernardo de Sena who baptized her along with Maria Guadalupe Lucero.

Bernardo de Sena was married to Polonia Casados, so we do not know, other than her name, the woman who was the madrina at the baptismal, Maria Guadalupe Lucero.  She could have been a relative or a neighbor or an acquaintance of some kind.

On December 10, 1804 when Maria de la Encarnacion was fifty three (53) she married a man known as Felis (Felis) Esquibel. Maria de la Encarnacion is noted on the marriage record as being from the "family of Lieutenant don Ygnacio Sotelo*". So by now she had left the household of her birth , Bernarddo de Sena's, household and was living in the household of the Lieutenant don Ygnacio Sotelo.

Felis and Encarnacion had two (2) sons that we know of. They were:

1) Juan Esquibel - birthdate unknown, but we know he was at least one half (1/2) Indian, Juan was a soldier stationed in Santa Fe:

2) Jose Manuel Esquibel who was born in Santa Fe the 5th of June in 1806 when Maria de la Encarnacion was fifty five (55) years old.

Anyway next we find Juan Esquibel marrying a Maria Conception Ortega on the 30th of April of 1829 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In the marriage record Maria Conception is identified as the daughter of Antonio Lorenzo Ortega and Maria de la Luz Tafoya.

Maria Conception had been previously married to Miguel Martin, whom she had married at San Miguel del Bado, New Mexico on the 20th of January of 1816 where Miguel was identified as originally of "Las Gentiles Comanches" and recently baptized. So Miguel was known to be a Comanche but he had come over to the Spanish way of life and agreed to be baptized.

*Spanish lieutenant Ignacio Sotelo rescued  American Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike and his forlorn men, and sent them on to Santa Fe under fellow Lieutentant Barthome Fernandez. In 1803 Sotelo was a second lieutenant at Santa Fe. After his Pike encounter, he led a campaign in October 1807 against Apaches who'd recently attacked Zuni. The following year he reconnoitered the frontier looking for Americans. In November 1809 he led the annual caravan from Santa Fe to Chihuahua for supplies. In short, Sotelo was a competent and trustworthy Spanish soldier.