Altman - Spanish Hidalgos and America

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Spanish Hidalgos and America: The Ovandos of Cceres Author(s): Ida Altman Source: The Americas, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Jan., 1987), pp. 323-346Published by: Academy of American Franciscan HistoryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1006767Accessed: 07-07-2015 11:50 UTC

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SPANISH HIDALGOS AND AMERICA: THE OVANDOS OF CACERES

he 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 trades- people 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 long- standing 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.'

* This study is based in part on my dissertation, "Emigrants, Returnees and Society in Sixteenth- Century Ciceres" (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 Peter Boyd-Bowman, both the volumes of his Indice geobiogrdfico de cuarenta mil pobladores espafioles de America en el siglo XVI (Bogota, 1964; Mexico, 1968) and the numerous articles in which he analyzes these data; see, for example, his "Patterns of Spanish Emigration to the Indies until 1600," Hispanic

323


324 SPANISH HIDALGOS AND AMERICA

The lives of the members of one important family of provincial nobles, the Ovandos, in the city of CQceres in north-central Extremadura in the sixteenth century, offer a vehicle for the examination of the role and activities of the local nobility and their participation in the New World enterprise. CQceres in the sixteenth century was a fairly small but growing city, with a population which probably doubled to about 8,500 by the end of the century, making it somewhat smaller than its neighbors to the east and north, Trujillo (home of the Pizarros) and Plasencia.2 Given that Castile in the sixteenth century had few large cities (only Toledo and Seville had over 50,000 people), COceres's size in itself is an unreliable indicator of its re- gional importance. In relatively sparsely populated Extremadura, as in much of Castile, small urban nuclei dominated their districts, and the well- entrenched local nobility in turn dominated the cities as well as the country- side. CQceres was located in an important pastoral and stockraising region on one of the three major routes of the transhumant sheep herds and the Mesta. Stockraising (mainly sheep, although pigs were important as well) and the rental of winter pasturage to sheepraisers of Castile and Leon constituted the principal economic activities and sources of income for the provincial nobility.

Members of the privileged sector in Ciceres, who collectively might be called the hidalgos, fell into two more or less distinct groups: one a wealthy, powerful and remarkably stable circle of families, many of whom were called caballeros, holding titles and filling the seats of the city council, and the other all those other individuals and families who were entitled to the fiscal exemptions that distinguished them from the pecheros or taxpayers and had claim to hidalgo status of some kind.3 The term "nobility" as used here refers to the first group, an oligarchy of wealthy families who intermarried, dominated the city council, and monopolized most of the grazing land of the region. Most of the families that comprised the cacererio nobility dated back to the period following the reconquest of the city in the early thirteenth century; some, such as the Ovandos, in part owed their prominence in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries to their activities on behalf of the future Queen Isabel during the civil war that

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 Estrdmadure (1454-1516) (Paris, 1979).

2 Jean-Paul LeFlem, "Ciceres, Plasencia y Trujillo en la segunda mitad del siglo XVI (1557- 1596)," Cuadernos de Historia de Espafia 45-46 (1967):254-255.

3 Gerbet (La noblesse, pp. 150-151) 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.


IDA ALTMAN 325

preceded her succession to the crown of Castile. Caiceres's ties to the crown were strong, and the city always remained under royal rather than seig- neurial jurisdiction.4 The city's royal status and connections no doubt helped the local nobility to consolidate their hold over local society, economy and politics, since they avoided thereby the direct intervention of the higher titled nobility of Castile. While certain members of the higher echelons of the Castilian nobility might have figured in the cacerefio economy-for example, members of several local families had a clientage relationship with the Duke of B6jar, one of the largest stockraisers of Cas- tile-Caiceres proper lacked the high nobility known as "grandes" and "titulos."

In the sixteenth century the Ovandos in many ways typified the provincial nobility of Caiceres. They maintained residences in the two parishes within the walls of the old city, where most of the principal noble families lived, and country houses in the city's tirmino (district). They were stockraisers who sold their sheep and wool to buyers and to merchants from Castile and Italy. At any given time two or three members of the clan might be serving on the city council, and they of course married and allied with other important families. The Ovandos served as royal officials and bureau- crats, and a number them went to the Indies. Probably the most famous family member was Frey Nicolas de Ovando, the Comendador of Lara of the Order of Alcaintara (important in western Extremadura), who served as the royal governor of Hispaniola from 1502 to 1509. Ovando went to Hi- spaniola with an expedition of 2,500, the last expedition of that size to be organized under the aegis of the crown, and he is generally credited with having consolidated royal authority on the island during his governorship.5

Two major branches of the Ovando clan, both of which included many families in the sixteenth century, were descended from two brothers, Cap- tain Diego de Ovando de Caiceres and Francisco de Ovando ("el viejo"), who were prominent figures in the city and region in the late fifteenth century. The descendants of these two brothers owned estates and huge country houses that looked like small castles at Arguijuela, about ten kilometers south of Caiceres (see charts at end). The first basis for the fortunes of Capt. Diego de Ovando de Caiceres were 240,000 mrs. in juros which Queen Isabel granted in return for his support and military services. He included these juros in the entail he established in the late fifteenth century. The net

4 Antonio C. Floriano Cumbrefio, Gufa hist6rico-artistica de Cdceres (Caceres, 1952), pp. 59-60. A number of the fueros (privileges) conceded to the city in the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries are included in Pedro Ulloa Golfin's Privilegios y documentos relativos a la ciudad de Cdceres, Biblioteca Nacional of Madrid, Ms. 430 (18? ).

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



worth of the Captain's son and namesake Diego de Ovando de Ciceres at the time of his death in 1505 was around five million mrs., and the inventory of the estate at Arguijuela at the time of the death of his grandson of the same name in 1551 included thirty plow oxen, about 200 pigs, over 300 cows, and nearly 10,000 sheep.6 Capt. Diego de Ovando de Ciceres was a regidor on the city council, and through the sixteenth century the successors in the direct male line who bore his name also held this position. In addition, his sons Comendador Hernando de Ovando and Rodrigo de Ovando were regidors, as was Dr. Nicolas de Ovando, a grandson, who went on to serve on the royal council of the Military Orders.

This branch of the family, in addition to powerful local notables, provided several figures of note in the larger arena of Castilian and American affairs. The above mentioned Frey Nicholas de Ovando, governor of Hi- spaniola, was a son of the Captain, who himself had been an alcalde of the Order of Alcintara before shifting his allegiance to Isabel. The renowned Licenciado Juan de Ovando, president of the Council of the Indies from 1571 until his death in 1575 and an active figure in Castilian ecclesiastical, legal and academic affairs and circles, descended from an illegitimate branch of the Captain's family. Dr. Nicolas de Ovando, member of the royal council of the Military Orders, was the son and wealthy co-heir of the Comendador Hernando de Ovando and a grandson of the Captain, as seen.7 Six of the great-grandsons and one great-granddaughter of Capt. Diego de Ovando de Caceres-all of them related to the Captain through the maternal line-are known to have emigrated to the Indies, while the descendants in the direct male line (who in each generation bore the name Diego de Ovando de Ciceres) were among the wealthiest and most powerful members of the local nobility.

The branch descended from the Captain's brother Francisco de Ovando, if it failed to produce luminaries on a par with Frey Nicolas or Lic. Juan de Ovando, was no less wealthy; if anything, its smaller size meant that the extensive family resources were-at least for a couple of generations-

6 Miguel Mufioz de San Pedro included a biography of Captain Diego de Ovando de Cdceres 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, 301, and Miguel A. Orti Belmonte, La vida en Cdceres en los siglos XIII y XVI al XVIII (Caceres, 1949), pp. 26, 28-30.

7For Juan de Ovando's descent, see J.M. Lodo de Mayoralgo, Viejos linajes de Cdceres (Caceres, 1971), p. 180 and Mufioz de San Pedro, La Extremadura del siglo XV, pp. 318-319. 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 Maria as a symbol of his wealth and independence (La noblesse, p. 212).


IDA ALTMAN 327

concentrated in relatively fewer hands. Francisco de Ovando "el viejo"'s son of the same name was known as "el rico," and for good reason; when he died in 1534 he left an entail to each of his three sons, Francisco, Cris- t6bal and Cosme. Their sister dofia Juana made a good marriage, and her daughter married the extremely successful returnee from Peru, Francisco de Godoy. Francisco de Ovando "el viejo" had a daughter by a marriage subsequent to the marriage that produced his heir Francisco; the daughter, dofia Leonor de Orellana, also well endowed, married Gonzalo G6mez de Saa- vedra.8 The Saavedra family, a distinguished one in the city, maintained fairly close ties with the side of the family descended from Francisco de Ovando. Three of Francisco de Ovando's great-grandchildren from his son Francisco de Ovando went to the Indies-two of them returned-and they intermarried extensively with the Godoy family. One grandson of his daughter dofia Leonor de Orellana also went to the New World.

The varying fortunes of the families that constituted the branches of the Ovando and Ovando de Ciceres clan hinged to a great extent on their size and economic resources. In every generation the eldest males in the direct line were the most successful and prominent-the holders of the family entails, the regidores (city councilmen). The major exceptions to the domi- nant position of the eldest sons occurred in those cases where there was more than one entail, or the eldest son died without legitimate heirs and his fortune passed to a younger brother or some other relative. Dr. Nicolis de Ovando, the wealthy and successful royal bureaucrat who from the 1540's until his death in 1564 made his residence outside Ciceres with the royal court, died without legitimate heirs. Hence the entail which he had inherited from his father, the Comendador Hernando de Ovando (which included the house Com. Hernando de Ovando had constructed in the parish of Santa Maria, a country house and lands in a hamlet of Ciceres, and lands in another village) went to his nephew, Hernando de Ovando. This nephew was the son of Dr. Nicolis's brother Diego de Ovando de Caiceres, and his succession to the entail meant the reunification of the Comendador Her- nando de Ovando's original estate, which he had divided between Dr. Ni- colas and Diego. Increasingly during the sixteenth century, management of family property tended to emphasize continuity of line and preservation of fortunes, rather than substantial provision for many family members. Dr. Nicolas de Ovando's will stipulated that if neither of the legitimate children of his brother could inherit his entail, it should pass to whoever succeeded

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



to the estate of his grandfather, Capt. Diego de Ovando. The will of his wife, dofia Isabel Tellez, also a cacerefio noble, reflected a similar interest in maintaining family line and fortune. She made her niece's eldest son her heir if he would take a specified name and marry the daughter of her husband's illegitimate daughter, dofia Maria de Ovando.9

The sixteenth century proliferation of entails and the emphasis on lineage (with preference for the male line) meant that as the clan expanded over generations, there would be not only younger children less adequately provided for, but even entire families that fell far below the level of economic prosperity and social distinction of other families in the clan. Pedro de Ovando Saavedra, whose two sons Alonso and Hernando de Ovando died en route to "la China" (the Philippines) in the 1570's, declared his poverty in a will made in 1577, saying he had many children and very little wealth.'0

Consideration of the family position and general economic and social expectations of the individuals from these related families who left Caiceres for the Indies reveals striking similarities in circumstances and timing, even if individual fortunes (and choices) varied considerably. As mentioned, in both the clans descended from Capt. Diego de Ovando and his brother Fran- cisco de Ovando, it was their great-grandsons who went to America. The only notable exception was Frey Nicolas de Ovando, whose decision to go to the New World clearly had much more to do with his position and reputation and his (and his father's) close connections with the Crown than with any economic insecurity. A wealthy man already, he went to Hispaniola in the service of the Crown and returned to Spain when his term as governor ended, dying shortly thereafter in Seville in 1511. A mestizo son born to him on Hispaniola went on to Peru rather than going to Spain with his father." Frey Nicolas de Ovando's career may have set a precedent for generations to come, but its impact was more symbolic than concrete. De- spite the fact that his large entourage to Hispaniola included a number of extremefios- Francisco Pizarro among them- apparently none of his close relatives accompanied him. In fact there is little evidence that Frey

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

10 Archivo Hist6rico Provincial de Caceres, notary Pedro Gonzalez, Legajos 3830, 3831 (hereafter citations will be abbreviated AHPC, followed by notary's name and legajo number).

11 Frey Nicolas de Ovando's mestizo son, Diego de Ovando, was a vecino of Quito and one of Gonzalo Pizarro's captains. See James Lockhart, Spanish Peru, 1532-1560 (Madison, 1968), p. 165; Juan Perez de Tudela, ed., Documentos relativos a don Pedro de la Gasca y a Gonzalo Pizarro (Ma- drid, 1964), vol. II, pp. 267, 567.


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Nicolas had many close dealings with his family, although he did leave his niece dofia Leonor de Ovando 200,000 mrs. at his death.12

Thus it was the third generation of descendants of Capt. Diego de Ovando and Francisco de Ovando who emigrated, at a point where it might be assumed that the families had expanded to such an extent that they could no longer provide adequately for so many sons. In this generation emigration became an attractive option. The Ovandos who went, therefore, for the most part were the successors of the first and second waves of emigrants to the Indies, meaning that few of them could lay claim to conquistador or early settler status. This element of timing would have considerable impact on their experiences there.

Among the direct descendants of Capt. Diego de Ovando de Ciceres who emigrated figured one group of five siblings, the children of dofia Leonor de Vera and Francisco de Ribera (another four or five of the children stayed behind). Lorenzo de Ulloa initiated the move to the New World and was most successful, probably arriving in Peru in the mid-1530's.13 He supported Francisco Pizarro and all the royal appointees sent to govern Peru in the 1540's, and was one of the first settlers and encomenderos of the city of Trujillo. For his service and loyalty he had received from Pizarro a substantial encomienda valued at 4,000 pesos de oro, but in the 1550s lost one- third of it when the viceroy transferred 1400 pesos to seven vecinos of the city of Jaen. Lorenzo de Ulloa petitioned for the return of this part of his repartimiento and won a judgment in his favor, but apparently was not rein- stated in his original grant. He received instead an additional grant of a repartimiento valued at 1200 pesos which had been awarded to a fellow cacerefio, Lorenzo de Aldana, at Aldana's death.14

12 ACC-HO, leg. VIII #5. 13 Dofia Leonor de Vera was the daughter of Capt. Diego de Ovando's son Diego de Ovando de

Ciceres and his wife, dofia 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 Ciceres, *Juan de Vera, Hernan Perez de Ribera, Antonio de Ribera, *Lorenzo de Carvajal (Ulloa), dofia Francisca de Mendoza, dofia Isabel de Mendoza and dofia 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 cacerefio hidalgos who arrived early and had good political connections.

14 For discussion of the foundation of Trujillo and assignment of encomiendas, see Susan Ramfrez- Horton, "Land Tenure and the Economics of Power in Colonial Peru," (Doctoral diss., Univ. of Wis- consin, 1977), 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.



By the time Ulloa lost part of his original encomienda and sued for its return in the 1550's, he was a well-established citizen of Trujillo, married to dofia Ana de Angulo, the daughter of another vecino of the city and considered to be an hidalgo like himself. Together they had as many as twelve children; by 1571 three of his daughters had married encomenderos in Peru, two of whom lived in Arequipa and the third in Chachapoyas. Still, despite his unblemished record of service and loyalty to the royal government and early arrival in Peru, Ulloa's financial circumstances-as re- vealed in the suit he brought for the return of his repartimiento-were far from assured. Testimony of 1561 mentioned that he was 10,000 castellanos in debt, so the loss of one-third of his encomienda would have been quite serious.15 Since Ulloa arrived in Peru fairly early (although after the first wave of participants in the conquest, which had included such cacerefios as Francisco de Godoy and his first cousin Lorenzo de Aldana), the insecurity of his position is puzzling but undeniable.

Ulloa's experiences in Peru underline his marginality. He received an encomienda in Trujillo, rather than in one of the more important cities of Lima or Cuzco. While his daughters married encomenderos, they too were located in centers of secondary (or even less) importance. In contrast, fellow cacerefio Francisco de Godoy was an encomendero of Lima and Lo- renzo de Aldana an encomendero of La Plata (Charcas); even the latter's mestizo daughter married an important encomendero of Charcas. More than likely Lorenzo de Ulloa was illegitimate, and that might have been one of the reasons why his standing did not equate with that of other hidalgos from Ciceres, with whom he did not associate very closely. He apparently never numbered among Gonzalo Pizarro's followers, while other cacerefios such as Lorenzo de Aldana, G6mez de Solis, Antonio de Ulloa and Gonzalo de los Nidos all participated. Aldana and Solis in particular played important roles and came out of the civil war very well by switching their support to La Gasca at a key moment.16 Ulloa's insecurity and relative marginality foreshadowed that of even later arrivals both within his immediate family and the hidalgo group generally.

'5 Crist6bal de Angulo, dofia Ana de Angulo's father, is mentioned in 1546 in a letter from Pedro de Hinojosa to Gonzalo Pizarro, included in Perez de Tudela, Documentos relativos a la Gasca, vol. I, p. 144. 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 Augstin Zarate's Historia del descubrimiento y conquista del Peru (University of Buenos Aires, 1965), pp. 132, 140, tells how Aldana and Solis, as Pizarro's representatives, went over to La Gasca's side in Panama. For Aldana's encomienda in Charcas, see Luis de Roa y Ursua, El reyno de Chile, 1535-1810 (Valladolid, 1945), p. 11, 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 G6mez de Solis,


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Lorenzo de Ulloa's brother Diego de Ovando de Ciceres probably arrived in Peru a decade or so after Ulloa. He might have gone first to Po- payin, but in any case joined the group accompanying Lic. Pedro de la Gasca, the appointed president of the audiencia en route to Peru, in Nombre de Dios. He probably was around twenty years old at the time. There in Panama he became part of the president's personal entourage of twenty-five men who sailed with him to Lima in 1547. Ovando's record of military services to the royal government during the subsequent years of factionalism and rebellion was consistent, and by all accounts he was a brave and skilled fighter, participating in the campaigns against Gonzalo Pizarro, don Sebastian de Castilla and Francisco Hernandez Gir6n. Yet his services failed to earn him an encomienda or an established position in Peruvian society, and in the late 1550's he clashed with the viceroy don Andr6s Hurtado de Mendoza, the Marqu6s de Cafiete. Diego de Ovando's sister Beatriz de Ovando was in Peru and married to a Crist6bal de C6rdoba, one of Ovando's companions-at-arms. C6rdoba was killed in one of the battles against Francisco Hernandez Gir6n in the 1550's, leaving his widow with four children and virtually no means or property. She received a pension of 400 pesos, apparently the standard amount for women whose husbands died fighting in the royal service. Her brother Diego undertook to support the family in Arequipa.17

Diego himself by the late 1550's had still received nothing in the way of a regular pension or reward. Angry at the circumstances in which he and his sister found themselves, on a visit to Lima in 1557 Diego complained about the meagerness of her pension and the viceroy's treatment of them both. His words, possibly elaborated by an ill-wisher, were reported to the viceroy, who promptly had Diego arrested and sent back to Spain, where in 1558 he petitioned to be allowed to return to Peru.

together with another cacerefio, Sancho Perero, also received a repartimiento from La Gasca in 1548; see Perez de Tudela, ed., Documentos relativos a la Gasca, vol. I, p. 476, and AHPC Pedro de Grajos 3925 (1559).

17 Lockhart points out that the best encomiendas that La Gasca 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 Marques de Cafiete, see AGI Patronato 100, ramo 9. Crist6bal de C6rdoba, husband of Beatriz de Ovando, might have arrived in the entourage of Blasco Nufiez 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 "dofia," 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.



The viceroy's antipathy to Diego de Ovando and Ovando's failure to establish himself more solidly in Peru probably had more to do with Cafiete's policies and efforts to establish strong rule in Peru than with Ovando's services or abilities. Cafiete arrived with a sizeable contingent of nobles and hidalgos. Most of them he managed to control, but those for whom he could not find a suitable place in Peru he exiled to Spain or sent off to Chile with his son. 8 He wanted to send Diego de Ovando on the expedition to Chile, but Ovando refused to go out of concern for his sister and her children.

The Council of the Indies permitted Ovando to return to Peru, and at this point he became captain of the expedition to Chile, having been promised some support or pension. En route he died in Arequipa, and in 1561 his family had not yet received any compensation for his services. In 1563 his mother in Ciceres was trying to obtain some compensation from the Council of the Indies, and some 25 years later his brother Alonso de Ribera submitted an informaci6n de servicios about his brother's activities in Peru, doubtless for the same purpose.19

This informaci6n of 1588 also included an account of the services of another brother, also known as Lorenzo de Ulloa (called "el mozo"). This younger Lorenzo, who arrived in Peru at the same time as the viceroy, the Marqu6s de Cafiete, made the journey as one of the criados of a distant relative from the other branch of the Ovando family, Cosme de Ovando Paredes (discussed below). Before leaving Caiceres in 1555 Lorenzo sold off some rents with a brother and sister in the ejido (pasture lands) of one of Ciceres' pueblos (Malpartida), no doubt to help finance his journey. As in the case of Diego de Ovando, his activities in Peru did not bring him substantial rewards, and the viceroy gave him a minor sinecure as a "lancero." He died in 1570.20

Yet a fourth brother followed his siblings to the Indies, but his career barely got underway. Juan de Vera de Mendoza probably left for the Indies in 1557, the year in which he borrowed money from three of his sisters and brothers, who had to sell their own shares in some rents to raise the money. Juan de Vera left his mother his power of attorney to sell whatever goods

18 Lockhart, Spanish Peru, p. 10. 19 AGI Patronato 117, ramo 7; AHPC Diego Pacheco 4102; document XXVI (1588-89) included in

Guillermo Lohmann Villena, "Documentos interesantes a la historia del Peru en el Archivo Historico de Protocolos de Madrid," Revista hist6rica 25 (1960-61):459.

20 Lohmann Villena, "Documentos interesantes," p. 459; Crist6bal Berm'idez Plata, Catdlogo de pasajeros a Indias durante los siglos XVI, XVIII y XVIII (Seville, 1946), vol. 3, #2952.


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and property necessary to repay the loan taken from his siblings, but his anticipated career in the Indies was cut short. By 1559 his mother was attempting to reclaim from the town council of Nombre de Dios in Panama anything her son Juan de Vera had left in his will. One of the people she enlisted to assist her was her nephew (the son of an illegitimate half- brother), the Lic. Juan de Ovando, who at the time was the provisor (vicar general) of Seville.21

Lorenzo de Ulloa, his brothers and sister were not the only great-grandchildren of Capt. Diego de Ovando who emigrated. Two of their second cousins-the only children of one of the Captain's granddaughters, dofia Leonor de Ovando- apparently emigrated as well. Their father, Lorenzo de Ulloa, died in 1539 while they were both still minors, and the family might have been left in difficult economic circumstances. The sons, Fran- cisco de Ulloa and Hernando de Ovando, did not emigrate, however, until the 1550's.22 In contrast to their cousins, Lorenzo de Ulloa and his siblings, relatively little is known about the activities of these brothers in the Indies. While they might not have associated with these cousins, they did have much closer relatives who had also preceded them to the Indies. On their father's side they were related to G6mez de Solis and his brother Juan de Hinojosa, two brothers from a prominent cacerefio family who were active and successful in Peru. Lorenzo de Ulloa, the encomendero of Trujillo discussed above, once gave Juan de Hinojosa his power of attorney, calling him his cousin, although Hinojosa was not-or, if there was a direct family connection, it was quite distant.23 Yet Ulloa's stretching of the actual kinship tie (or perhaps it was merely an error) is understandable. Their associa- tion underlines the crucial importance both of family and kinship ties and of common point of origin as an ordering principle for forming and maintaining networks once direct or close family relationships had given out.

Ulloa and his brothers, on the one hand, and Hinojosa and his older brother G6mez de Solis, on the other, are worth discussing together because their experiences illustrate the problems of the later arrivals in Peru. Hino- josa's brother G6mez de Solis, who arrived early in Peru, held the title of captain, received an encomienda, married a noble woman, and even chose

21 AHPC Diego Pacheco 4100, 4101. 22 Roa y Ursua, El reyno de Chile, #601; Vicente Navarro del Castillo, La Epopeya de la raza

extremehia en Indias (Merida, 1978), #196; Boyd-Bowman, Indice geobiogrdfico, vol. II, #2803. Hernando de Ovando went to Peru in 1557 accompanied by Lorenzo de Aldana, nephew of the cacerefio Lorenzo de Aldana who was prominent in the affairs of early colonial Peru; see Catdlogo de pasajeros, vol. 3, #3446.

23 AGI Justica 430; dofia 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 Ciceres.



to remain in Peru despite his father's attempts to lure him home; his father offered to buy him a seat on the Caiceres city council and wanted to leave him the family entail, passing over his eldest son in favor of G6mez de Solfs.24 Juan de Hinojosa, on the other hand, arrived later in Peru (possibly not until the 1550's) and also became an encomendero, first by virtue of his marriage to the widow of another encomendero, and then by a grant from the Marqu6s de Cafiete. Hinojosa returned to Spain at least once to visit and handle some of his affairs, but clearly-like Ulloa-he was in no position to consider permanent return to Ciceres. Ulloa arrived earlier and on the whole did better than Hinojosa, if not so well as G6mez de Solis. Hino- josa's wife was a commoner by origin, and while in Peru she made a re- spectable marriage partner, she would have been totally unacceptable in the more rigid social environment of Ciceres.25 Ulloa, in contrast, married a noble woman and was one of the original encomenderos of Trujillo, but his hold on his encomienda at times was less than assured. The fact that Ulloa was apparently unable to do better for his brothers, especially Diego de Ovando, with whom he associated closely, suggests that Ulloa's position was not nearly as secure as that of G6mez de Solis, who seems to have done well for his brother even though Hinojosa arrived so late.

Turning to the other branch of the Ovandos and its representatives who left Ciceres for the New World, the ambivalence of the position of well- connected hidalgos who went to the Indies in the second and third generation of emigrants (1550's) again emerges. High social status in Spain and the existence of a well-established network of relatives and fellow cacerefios in the point of destination could pave the way to a successful career in the Indies, but by this time they were no real assurance of wealth and permanence. One pair of brothers, Cosme and Crist6bal de Ovando Paredes- great-grandsons of Francisco de Ovando "el viejo"'-may have achieved some success in the New World, but only really consolidated their

24 The entail established by G6mez de Solifs's parents, Francisco de Solis and dofia Juana de Hino- josa, is in AHPC Pedro de Grajos 3924 (1555); Francisco de Solis's will of 1556 is in AHP Grajos 3925. There are frequent references to Solfs in P6rez de Tudela, ed., Documentos relativos a la Gasca, and he associated closely with a number of cacerefios in Peru, including Lorenzo de Aldana and Benito de la Pefia. His encomienda probably was in Charcas. He also had dealings with Miguel Comejo whose widow, Leonor M6ndez, married Solis's brother Juan de Hinojosa (see AGI Justicia 767 #1, 1555; Solis sent 25,000 pesos de oro from Potosi to Comejo in Arequipa to take to Lima).

25 Miguel Comejo, the first husband of Hinojosa's wife, Leonor M6ndez, was a commoner who was present at Cajamarca and received an encomienda in Arequipa in 1540; see James Lockhart, Men of Cajamarca (Austin, Texas, 1972), pp. 318-320. The Marques de Cafiete assigned Hinojosa an encomienda in Arequipa. Hinojosa's financial affairs were complex, and their resolution involved his widow and his brother Lorenzo de Ulloa Solis in Ciceres after his death in 1578. His activities in Peru probably involved commerce (rather than mining, like his brother Solis); see AHPC Alonso Pacheco 4101.


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wealth and position when the situation at home changed for the better. Probably both put their years in Peru to good use; Crist6bal, for example, arranged to buy a house in Ciceres even before he returned. Yet more than anything it was the rather arbitrary and unpredictable history of the family entail that solidified the standing of first one and then the other in Ciceres. Their stories, then, illustrate not only how a career in the Indies became an acceptable alternative for non-inheriting sons but also how fortunes within an hidalgo family could vary among siblings and change over time.

Cosme and Crist6bal de Ovando Paredes, who went to Peru in 1555 and 1560 and returned in 1574 and 1583 respectively, were two brothers in a large family that might have included as many as sixteen children; when their mother, dofia Beatriz de Ovando, died in 1560 she was survived by some eleven heirs, most of them minors.26 Consideration of dates and family position alone suggests much about the careers and fortunes of these two brothers in both New World and Old. Their older brother Francisco, heir to the family entail, died without legitimate heirs in 1574, the year that Cosme returned to Ciceres; no doubt this was the key factor in his decision to return (earlier he had been made his mother's principal heir, but that legacy would not have been too substantial). Crist6bal, in contrast, stayed away longer-23 years to Cosme's 19-but he too might have returned expecting to succeed to the entail right away.27 While eventually he did succeed to the family entail, the inventory of his estate and assets at the time of his marriage in 1588 shows he was already a wealthy man.

Cosme and Crist6bal de Ovando Paredes were born into a branch of the Ovando family that, up to their generation, had not grown nearly so large as that descended from Capt. Diego de Ovando; hence it is not surprising that fewer representatives of this branch emigrated. Still, if relatively few actually emigrated, the family was closely involved with individuals who had experience (and who had made their fortunes) in the Indies, as will be seen.

The first patriarch of the clan, Francisco de Ovando "el viejo," if not as colorful a figure as his brother the Captain, was a wealthy and important

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 Cafiete's son. In 1573 he embarked on the fleet from Tierra Firme, having come from Quito; see AGI Indiferente General 2086. Crist6bal 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 Ciceres. 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 Crist6bal might have received news of his illness. If he had been ill, however, Cosme subsequently recovered and was alive at the time Crist6bal returned.



man in his own right.28 Like his brother he held juros in the rents of alca- balas of CQiceres, which he left to his son Francisco de Ovando and daughter dofia Leonor de Orellana. While these rents were very small in amount (7,000 mrs. and 8,000 mrs.) compared with those which Capt. Diego de Ovando received from the Crown and incorporated in the family entail (200,000 mrs. in the entail and an additional 40,000 mrs. outside of it), nonetheless very few members of the local nobility held such juros in the city in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.29 To do so might have been considered a sign of privilege and so of prestige, since juros had to come from the Crown by grant or purchase.

Despite the wealth of Francisco de Ovando, it was his son, Francisco de Ovando "el rico," who was pivotal in determining the course of the family's fortunes. By creating separate entails for each of his three sons, rather than passing the bulk of the fortune along to his eldest, he in effect created three new branches of the family. The largest entail, which included the entail inherited from Francisco de Ovando "el viejo," went to his eldest son, Francisco, and this son's inheritance included the most diversified set of properties (a vineyard, mill, beehives, slaves and livestock, in addition to rents). Nevertheless, all three entails included a main house and income from various rents. Francisco inherited the country estate at Arguijuela, but Cosme received the family's main residence in the city, in the upper parish of San Mateo. Francisco de Ovando "el rico" bought a town house to leave his son Crist6bal, but this house was located outside the walls of the old city. The division of property among the three sons provided for redivision in the case of the death of one or another, with their sister, dofia Juana, to succeed to the entails in the event of the default of all three of her brothers. Next in line was the eldest son of Francisco de Ovando's half-sister, dofia Leonor de Orellana, reflecting again the emphasis on maintaining property within the family, whether through the male or female line.30

All three sons duly succeeded to their inheritances. Francisco de Ovando, the eldest, having inherited the greatest fortune, was best able to provide for

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 Mufioz de San Pedro, La Extremadura del siglo XV, p. 254.

29 Archivo General de Simancas, Contaduria Mayor de Cuentas, la. 6poca, leg. 49. The Puertocar- reros (Counts of Medellin) and Zlifiigas (Dukes of Bejar) also held juros in Ciceres. It is only later in the sixteenth century that middle level hidalgos and even wealthy commoners acquired juros in Caceres.

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).


IDA ALTMAN 337

his own children, whose marriage alliances were outstandingly successful. A son and a daughter each married a daughter and son of their first cousin dofia Leonor de Ulloa and her husband, the wealthy returnee from Peru, Francisco de Godoy. The eldest son, Pedro Rol de Ovando, received the bulk of the estate-the "tercio y quinto." His first wife was a member of the Ovando de Ciceres clan, the daughter of the wealthy and prominent Pedro Rol de la Cerda, a regidor who managed to acquire for himself the title of alfdrez (ensign) of the city in perpetuity. Pedro Rol De Ovando's second marriage was to dofia Catalina de Ribera, another wealthy heiress whose father, Alonso de Ribera, had created an entail for her in 1583, the year she married Pedro Rol. This marriage, like that of Pedro Rol's siblings, also brought the family into contact with people who had been in the Indies. Dofia Catalina de Ribera's mother, dofia Francisca de Ulloa (Alonso de Ribera's second wife), was the widow of Sancho de Figueroa, who had returned from the Indies a wealthy man but lived only another couple of years after reestablishing himself in Ciceres. In addition, two of dofia Cata- lina's half-brothers from her father's first marriage also had gone to the New World; one of them, Juan Pantoja de Ribera, eventually sold off all his property in Ciceres to his eldest brother-a clear indication of his intention not to return-while another brother, Rodrigo de Chaves, did return.31 To summarize, three of the third Francisco de Ovando's children married well, and furthermore, through their marriages, were placed in quite close contact with people who had direct and indirect experience in the Indies. Even in this family, however, the wealth could only go so far. Another son, Cris- t6bal de Ovando, left for the New World and was still there in 1574 when his father died. Two other sons, Hernando and Cosme, joined the order of San Juan de los Caballeros.32

Much less is known of the second brother, Crist6bal de Ovando, and his family. Like his brother Francisco, Crist6bal was a regidor on the city council, as was his son Hernando de Ovando Becerra in the 1570's. In his will of 1579 Crist6bal declared he "had not served as he ought to have"

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 cacerefio 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 Ciceres 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. Crist6bal de Ovando accompanied his first cousin Cosme de Ovando Paredes to Peru in 1555 as his criado; see Catdlogo de passajeros, vol. 3, #2952.



and donated a small sum to the city in compensation.33 This family also might have been involved with people and events in the New World, although the evidence is sketchy. A cacerefio named Alvaro de Ciceres, who spent a number of years in Puebla de los Angeles in New Spain, first went there in the 1530's (or early 1540's) as the criado of a "caballero" named Francisco de Ovando. Dofia Maria Becerra, Crist6bal de Ovando's wife, had a brother by that name. Since no other Francisco de Ovando is known to have emigrated to Mexico at that time and the dates are appropriate, this may have been the same individual. Another possible tie between Alvaro de Ciceres and the family strengthens the argument. In the 1570's Ciceres was sentenced to two years' exile (later reduced to one) from the Indies for trying to buy the positions of bishop and dean in Tlaxcala for his own candidates. Alvaro de Ciceres sent the money to be used to influence the decision-a substantial 6,000 ducados-to a Crist6bal de Ovando in Cai- ceres requesting that he negotiate the deal. This might well have been the same Crist6bal de Ovando (the "mayorazgo"), the brother-in-law of the Francisco de Ovando who went to Mexico, or his son, since Alvaro de Ciceres apparently remained close to his patron for some time.34

The third son of Francisco de Ovando "el rico," Cosme de Ovando, married in 1527, at which time his father made him a substantial donation of rents in six different pastures as well as the main town house in the parish of San Mateo, which later would form part of his entail. Cosme's wife, dofia Beatriz de Paredes, brought a dowry of some 8,000 ducados, an extremely high figure for so early in the sixteenth century. Their son Cosme de Ovando Paredes, born in 1536, inherited the largest part of her estate when she died in 1560. Cosme by this time was already in the Indies, where virtually nothing is known of his activities.35 He departed from Cartagena in 1573 or 1574-an event mentioned by a fellow cacerefio living in Trujillo, Peru, in a letter of 1575 to a nephew in Spain36-and around 1577 married

33 Crist6bal 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 alh6ndiga. He seems to have taken advantage of his position to exact fines unfairly.

34 For Alvaro de Ciceres'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 Ciceres (AGI Contrataci6n 5222).

35 For the donation at Cosme's marriage, see ACC-HO leg. V, part 2 #19; dofia Beatriz de Paredes's dowry is in ACC-HO leg. V pt. 2 #10. Cosme de Ovando Paredes took three criados from Ciceres with him to Peru in 1555: Francisco Gutierrez, son of a Diego de Ovando (probably a relative, perhaps illegitimate); the younger Lorenzo de Ulloa, son of Francisco de Ribera and dofia Leonor de Vera, discussed above, also a distant relative; and Crist6bal de Ovando, the son of Francisco de Ovando and dofia Maria de la Cerda, which meant he was Cosme's first cousin. Catdlogo de pasajeros, vol. 3, #2952.

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


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dofia Isabel de Cirdenas. She was from a noble family of Alhanje in Extre- madura and brought a dowry of 5,000 ducados, a good indication that Cosme's wealth and standing were considerable.37 His brother Francisco de Ovando Paredes had died by this time, and Cosme had succeeded to the family entail, since Francisco and his wife had no children. In his will Francisco had acknowledged an illegitimate daughter, to whom he left 300,000 mrs. so that she could become a nun. He asked his wife to raise her but seemed uncertain that she would do so, since he further provided that his cousin Francisco de Ovando should take care of her.38

Cosme, despite the radical change in his fortunes from the 1550's, when he went to the New World, to the 1570's, by which time he had inherited the bulk of both parents' estates and married well, seems to have maintained a low profile after his return to Ciceres. Apparently he did not seek a seat on the city council, nor did he invest in any major projects of construc- tion or renovation or establish an obra pia, chaplaincy or the like, as did other successful returnees (notably, as will be seen, his brother). He busied himself with the management of his estate and the affairs of some of his relatives, among other things purchasing a house for his absent brother Crist6bal in San Mateo in the late 1570's.39

Cosme de Ovando Paredes' marriage, like his older brother's, failed to produce any children, although in a will of 1583 he asked his brother Cris- t6bal-still in the Indies-to do something "for the relief of my con- science" for a mestiza daughter he might have left in Peru. In this will- which must have been premature, since he was still alive in 1586-he made the "poor ... of Ciceres" his "universal heirs," a humble testa- ment for a man who obviously commanded both wealth and high social position.40 But the largest part of his estate must have been the family entail that had passed to him from his brother Francisco and afterward would pass to yet a third brother, Crist6bal; this left Cosme little to will on his own behalf.

Because of Crist6bal Ovando Paredes' overwhelming success, a good deal more is known of his life than that of his brother Cosme, with whom he stands in sharp contrast. Crist6bal epitomized the successful returnee, living almost forty years after he returned to Ciceres, marrying well and leaving

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 Ciceres, Gonzalo de Carvajal Ulloa (ACC-HO leg IV #18).

40 ACC-HO leg. VIII #10.



entails to two sons. When he left for the Indies in late 1559 or early 1560, however, Crist6bal's prospects were hardly outstanding and much like those of other non-inheriting sons of large noble families. At departure he owed his brother Francisco de Ovando Paredes a total of 152,598 mrs., about a third of which was for a loan which Crist6bal had taken from his uncle Francisco de Ovando and his older brother had repaid; most of the rest of the money was for his trip to the Indies. Crist6bal also authorized Fran- cisco to sell some rents for him. Borrowing money, selling off rents-these were the usual ways that young hidalgos of limited means would finance their way to the Indies, if they did not go as part of the entourage of some wealthy patron or official. In fact, Crist6bal de Ovando Paredes was a criado in the entourage of the bishop appointed for Venezuela, although it is not known if he actually went to Venezuela before going on to Peru.41

Clearly Crist6bal did not receive an encomienda in Peru, since he surely would have publicized the fact. The only indication of what Crist6bal did while in Peru is the existence of a mestiza daughter, dofia Beatriz de Ovando, whom he brought to Caiceres when he returned in the mid-1580's. In 1593 dofia Beatriz stated that she was unable to pay the dowry to enter the convent of Santa Maria de Jestis in Caiceres, but her father must have done so. In one of his wills he stipulated that she should receive 24 ducados a year (9,000 mrs.) for her maintenance there-the same sum that he al- lotted to each of two brothers who were members of monastic orders.42

In 1588 Crist6bal married dofia Leonor de Godoy, the granddaughter of Francisco de Godoy and daughter of his first cousin dofia Teresa Rol de la Cerda and her husband, Rodrigo de Godoy. She was only fifteen years old at the time and her dowry was very modest in size- 1,500 ducados-sug- gesting either that Crist6bal had not as yet succeeded to his father's entail, or that the 1,500 ducados was only a part of the dowry agreement.43 Cer- tainly the extensive inventory of his assets that Crist6bal prepared at this time indicates that he was already a wealthy man.44 The total value of his properties and assets came to over 19,000,000 mrs.-almost 52,000 ducados-a figure that did not include the unassessed value of certain pastures and other landed properties. While his debts were limited (he owed 2,100 ducados to someone in the Indies and around 150 ducados in censos al quitar), a number of individuals who either had sold him censos (mort-

41 AHPC Diego Pacheco 4101. Catdlogo de pasajeros, vol. 4, #15. 42 ACC-HO leg. VII #31; leg. I #21. 43 ACC-HO leg. VII #17. 44 Crist6bal de Ovando Paredes's 1588 inventory is in ACC-HO leg. V pt. 2 #20.


IDA ALTMAN 341

gages) or taken loans collectively owed him considerable amounts. Many of these people were relatives-siblings and cousins-and their debts ranged from 1,000 ducados a cousin owed down to much smaller sums. His role as money lender reveals not only his position in local society but also the large amount of capital he had available.

Among the properties Crist6bal listed in the inventory were the house he had bought in San Mateo on which he spent 2400 ducados in renovations; a house, garden and farm lands in the Sierra of San Pedro (southwest of the city); and the office of "fiel ejecutor and regidor" in CQiceres which had cost him 1,000 ducados. As a major stockraiser he had equipment for washing and bagging wool. In the years 1584-87 he had sent 5,560 ar- robas of clean wool to be sold in Florence for 43,000 ducados; by 1588 he had received 9,000 ducados on the sales.

Like his own parents, Crist6bal de Ovando Paredes and his wife had a number of children. As mentioned, dofia Leonor was very young when they married. As seen, the Godoy and Ovando families intermarried frequently, so both parties to the agreement might have been eager to form yet another alliance, despite dofia Leonor's youth. On the other hand, a fairly young age at marriage for women might not have been uncommon, especially among the nobility, and possibly contributed to the large size of many noble families.45 Between 1589 and 1605 the couple had ten children, at least three of whom died soon after birth. Most of the godparents chosen were relatives: for their eldest son, Cosme, born in 1591, Crist6bal's first cousin Pedro Rol de Ovando and his wife, dofia Catalina de Ribera, served as godparents, and first cousin Francisco de Ovando and his wife, dofia Maria de Godoy, were padrinos for Rodrigo, born in 1593.46

While he must have been in his late 40's at the time of his marriage, Cristobal lived long enough-until 1626-to see at least his older sons come of age, and long enough apparently to become estranged from his eldest son, don Cosme. In addition to the entail that Crist6bal had received (via his brothers) from his father and grandfather, he created a new entail in a will of 1602. The original entail was to go to his son don Cosme de Ovando and the new one to his second son, don Rodrigo de Ovando Godoy. But in a codicil in 1618 Crist6bal changed the terms of succession quite drastically, making don Rodrigo heir to the original family entail and his third son, don Francisco, heir to the new entail, virtually cutting Cosme off

45 For birth rates among noble families in sixteenth-century Caceres, see Angel Rodriguez Sanchez, Cdceres: poblaci6n y comportamientos demogrdficos en el siglo XVI (Ciceres, 1977), p. 83. 46 ACC-HO leg. VIII #101; Lodo de Mayoralgo, Viejos linajes, p. 208.



from any substantial family inheritance.47 In 1635 don Cosme was trying to claim one of the entails, and his brother don Rodrigo had assumed the position of family patriarch, succeeding to his father's seat on the city council as well as to the family entail.48

Certainly no other individual in the Ovando clan fits the image of the successful returnee from the Indies as exactly as does Crist6bal de Ovando Paredes. Upon his return to Ciceres he established a place for himself at the pinnacle of local noble society with everything that position implied-a noble marriage, a large household, entails for his sons, a seat on the city council. His brother Cosme might have achieved as much or more, but the failure of his marriage to produce a legitimate heir meant the end of his line. Yet Crist6bal's greater success need not have been just circumstantial; his activities in Ciceres after his return reveal a drive and ambition that Cosme seems to have lacked. Cosme, as seen, did not even try for a place on the city council, a position of status and authority that was practically de ri- gueur for a prominent noble, especially one in the process of establishing himself in the highest ranks of local society.

Crist6bal is also interesting because, despite his long sojourn in the Indies, his interests and connections appear to have been almost entirely focused on Ciceres after he returned. In contrast to such other successful returnees as Francisco de Godoy and Sancho de Figueroa, who maintained a number of connections with people who were or had been in the Indies, Crist6bal de Ovando Paredes seems to have had few contacts with people in Peru, as if that phase of his life had been a necessary but not very signifi- cant one in terms of his long-term objectives and interests. Once again the question of timing comes into play. Crist6bal went to Peru in the 1550's, just at the conclusion of the early years of conquest, civil war, factionalism, and distribution of rewards. Unlike Godoy or Sancho de Figueroa-who was one of the earliest settlers and encomenderos of Guatemala49-Cris- t6bal missed out on the days of heroism, fame, and vast opportunity in the

47 Crist6bal'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. Crist6bal 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 Crist6bal 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 Salvador Rodriguez Becerra, Encomienda y conquista. Los inicios de la colonizaci6n de Gua- temala (University of Seville, 1974), pp. 44 (note 13), 97.


IDA ALTMAN 343

Indies, and doubtless this is why he seems to have been less affected by his experiences there than were his fellow cacerefios who went earlier. For him the Indies did not represent the possibility of achieving prestige and status -since he could not hope to receive an encomienda-but rather a practical alternative to the options that Spanish society offered a non-inheriting son.

Members of two different branches of the Ovando family, Crist6bal de Ovando Paredes and Lorenzo de Ulloa, the encomendero of Trujillo, might be said to represent two poles in the spectrum of potential success and adaptation to the circumstances and opportunities which the Indies offered to hidalgos. Lorenzo de Ulloa founded one of the leading families of the new city of Trujillo in Peru, and Crist6bal de Ovando propelled his family to new levels of prominence at home in Ciceres. Both had started out as non-inheriting sons, both had siblings and cousins who also went to the Indies, and both went to Peru, overall the favored destination of cacerefios who went to the New World. These men reaped the benefits that at times could result from being forced out of the limited noble society of Ciceres. The provincial nobility of Caiceres was tied to an economic and social structure that paradoxically assured the stability and perpetuation of the leading families while limiting the number of offspring per generation who could expect to enjoy fully the noble style of life. Inheritance patterns, entails, high dowries and a circumscribed economic base all meant that most of the children of the cacerefio nobility could not aspire to the position their parents had attained. While daughters entered convents, younger sons were propelled out of the city to enter religious orders, the military or bureau- cracy, or to try their luck in the New World.5 As the stories of Lorenzo de Ulloa and Crist6bal de Ovando Paredes illustrate, younger (and illegitimate) sons who left Ciceres sometimes gained the success and stability they would never have achieved at home. While in the end Crist6bal de Ovando's achievements might have owed more to his succession to the family entail than to his years in Peru, still his American sojourn enabled him to survive and amass the beginnings of a fortune that eventually would be enhanced by the family entail.

Clearly, in order to understand the careers of these emigrants (as well as the activities of some of the individuals who stayed behind) it is necessary to understand both Spanish and Spanish American society in the sixteenth century and the relations between the two. Study of the Ovandos has shown that noble families were expanding rapidly in Ciceres in the sixteenth cen-

5 See Chapter II, "Nobles and Hidalgos," of my dissertation, "Emigrants, Returnees and Society," for a discussion of noble society in Ciceres and the economic base of the local nobility.



tury, precisely at the time the Indies appeared to offer attractive opportunities for those seeking careers outside the city. The return of cacerefios who had done well in the New World as early as the 1540's surely encouraged others to follow their example, and the Ovandos had marital and kinship ties with such individuals. Nonetheless it must be borne in mind that even from the earliest years, the uncertainties of life and political connections meant that emigration to the Indies was no assurance of wealth and position, even for well-connected hidalgos; and certainly as time went on, this was increasingly true. Thus the stories of Lorenzo de Ulloa's brothers-all three of whom died without marrying or establishing a place for themselves in Peru-are probably much more typical than those of Ulloa or Ovando Paredes, and they serve to remind us how elusive fortune and status could be in both Spain and America in the sixteenth century, even for members of the most privileged group.

IDA ALTMAN University of New Orleans New Orleans, Louisiana


Capt. Diego Isabel de Ovando de Flores

Ciceres

Da. Fran- Diego de Catalina Com. Da. Mencia Rodrigo cisca de Ovando de - - - de Hernando de Ulloa de Mendoza Cdceres Godoy de Ovando Ovando

(reg.) (reg.) (reg.) **Frey Nicolds Da. Maria Diego

de Ovando de Ovando Gonzilez (Gov. of His- Mejia

paniola)

Da. Teresa Diego de Francisco Da. Francisco Diego de Da. Da. Leonor Lorenzo Rol de la Ovando de de Leonor de Ovando Ovando de Beatriz de Ovando de

Cerda CAceres Ribera de Vera m. Ciceres Coello Ulloa (reg.) Da. Juana (reg.)

Juan de de Aguirre Dr. Nicolis Da. Gonzalo Vera y de Ovando - Isabel de

Mendoza (reg.) Tellez Ulloa

Da. Isabel Pedro *Lorenzo *Lorenzo *Diego de Lic. Hernando Da. Ana *Francisco *Hernando de la - Rol de de Ulloa de Ulloa Ovando de Juan de de de de Ulloa de Ovando Pefia la Cerda ("el viejo") ("el mozo") CAceres Ovando Ovando Ovando

(reg.) (Pres., (alf6rez) Council of

Diego de Da. *Juan de *Beatriz the Indies) Da. Dr. Bernardino Diego Ovando de - Francisca Vera de de Maria de - Carrillo de Garcia

Ciceres de Torres Mendoza Ovando Ovando Carvajal de Ulloa (reg.)

THE OVANDOS: THE DESCENDANTS OF CAPT. DIEGO DE OVANDO DE CACERES


Francisco de Ovando ~(1) Isabel Galindez "el viejo (2) Juana de Ribera

(3) Mayor de Orellana

Gonzalo G6mez Dofia Leonor de Francisco de Ovando Dofia Jimena G6mez de Saavedra Orellana "el rico" Mayoralgo

(died 1534)

Da. Maria Francisco Dr. Bernar- Francisco Da. Maria de Cosme de Da. Beatriz Gutierrez de dino de de Ovando la Cerda Ovando - de Paredes

de Carvajal Saavedra Saavedra (reg.)

Da. Beatriz Alonso Lope de Crist6bal Da. Maria Da. Juana Lorenzo de de Saavedra de Ovando de Becerra de Ovando de Ulloa

Saavedra Aldana (reg.) Porcallo (reg.)

Gonzalo de *Gonzalo de (1) Pedro (2) Da. Da. Teresa Rodrigo Francisco Da. Juana **Crist6bal Dofia Saavedra Ulloa Dofia - Rol de - Catalina Rol de la --- de de Ovando -- de Ovando de Ovando - Leonor

(reg.) Teresa Ovando de Cerda Godoy Paredes Paredes de (reg.) Ribera (reg.) Godoy

Francisco Da. Maria *Crist6bal Dofia **Cosme de Dofia de de Godoy de Ovando Isabel Ovando Leonor

Ovando de Paredes de Cirdenas Ulloa

m.

**Francisco de Godoy

(reg.) * Went to the Indies

** Went to the Indies and returned reg. = regidor (city councilman)

THE OVANDOS: THE DESCENDANTS OF FRANCISCO DE OVANDO "EL VIEJO"


Article Contentsp. 323p. 324p. 325p. 326p. 327p. 328p. 329p. 330p. 331p. 332p. 333p. 334p. 335p. 336p. 337p. 338p. 339p. 340p. 341p. 342p. 343p. 344p. [345]p. [346]

Issue Table of ContentsThe Americas, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Jan., 1987), pp. 245-384Front MatterPeruvian Historians Today: Historical Setting [pp. 245-277]Nationalism and Class Conflict in Mexico, 1910-1920 [pp. 279-303]Franciscan Missions and Chiriguano Workers: Colonization, Acculturation and Indian Labor in Southeastern Bolivia [pp. 305-322]Spanish Hidalgos and America: The Ovandos of Cceres [pp. 323-346]DocumentsMission Manifesto: A Document [pp. 347-354]

Inter-American Notes [pp. 355-364]Book ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 365-366]Review: untitled [pp. 366-368]Review: untitled [pp. 368-370]Review: untitled [pp. 370-372]Review: untitled [pp. 372-374]Review: untitled [pp. 374-376]Review: untitled [pp. 376-377]Review: untitled [pp. 377-379]Review: untitled [pp. 379-383]Review: untitled [pp. 383-384]

Back Matter