Angelica Gumucio

Presnell

ENGL 1102

04/14/2014

A Step Back in Time

Curiosity Killed the Cat

As a child I had always been a curious one, always asking why, where and

how, annoying the crap out of my parents with my questions. As I grew older my

curiosity grew even more but instead of annoying my parents with my questions I

googled everything even what the meaning of my last name was. This curiosity

started when I was in middle school, mostly Latinos attended my middle school but

they my middle school had a good mix of everything. My family was the only South

American family in my town and

I always felt like I was never

Latina enough because I did not

speak like a Mexican or ate what

a Salvadorian typically did and I

was ridiculed for it. Sometimes I

would be made fun of because I

was not dark enough or “Latina

enough” for my friends because my culture and background was different from

theirs, and as I grew older I saw that this was very common among Latinos overall.

But children can be mean and I how to learn to deal with that meanness all

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throughout my middle school days. I was ashamed of where I came from but high

school somehow changed all of that for me.

My background is very diverse, my mom being born in Peru and my dad

being born in Bolivia and me being born in the United States, not only did I live an

Americanized life but also was able to enjoy my Latin culture through my parents.

Like mentioned before, in middle school I became ashamed of my Latin side because

of my peers and my teachers, I really did not understand what it meant to be Latina

at 10 years old but for many it was not seen as a positive trait during that time, I was

confused on my identity. I would even stop speaking Spanish because when my

teachers would hear me they would bark at me “This is America, you speak English

in America, not Spanish!” It is not easy trying to embrace two cultures that don’t

exactly go hand in hand with each other because of past conflicts and one big issue

which is immigration but that is for another paper some other day.

High school came along and not only did I embrace being Latina but before

my senior year I got to travel to Peru for almost two months and fully indulge into

the Peruvian culture that I had never really cared for while growing up. Of course

two months is not even long enough to find out about my family and my ancestors

from my mom’s side but it was long enough to become proud of my background and

make me want to learn more about what being a Peruvian Latina was all about.

When I came back from that trip, I felt renovated, rejuvenated and also had the

Peruvian accent attached to my words so I sounded pretty cool in my mind.

In the now, March 2014, I am no longer afraid of speaking Spanish or talking

about my Latin side but now it’s more like word vomit, I can never stop! This is

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where my curiosity in learning about my dad’s side comes in. Last summer, I

traveled again to Peru and instead of going with my mom; I traveled alone and was

able to experience a different side of Peru, a “grown” up side. I drank, I danced, I

hiked, and I cried, all the things I could not do with my mom being there (my mom is

a tad bit of a worried some women). I was able to see my grand mother in a whole

new way. I never really grew up with my grandmother so the time I got to spend

with her I was able to see how hard working she was even at 88 years old and how

much respect my family gave her because she was the matriarch of the family. I was

humbled by my grandmother’s hard work during my trip and the desire to have

grown up with my grandmothers like some of my family grew as well. I also realized

how lucky I was with everything that I have while my family in Peru is not as

fortunate but still happy. But I felt that something was still missing in me and that

was the history of my dad’s side, I needed to create that connection that I had

created with my mom’s side.

I have only been to Bolivia once and that was like 19 years ago so I barely

remember the trip. As a child I was really connected to my dad’s side but now not so

much, especially since all my cousins are over the age of 40 and I am barely starting

to get a taste of what life is truly about. My half-brother did some research about our

last name and our family coat of arms but I also never really cared much for it when

I was younger. But now that I have been indulged somewhat into my mom’s side, it

is time to indulge and discover my dad’s side and his/our ancestors. I do know that

my ancestors come from Czech Republic, well at least that is what I have been told

from many of my family members, so it must be true, but I want to know how do

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people decide to go from Czech Republic to Bolivia and of course the WHY? It would

be really cool if I could go back to the Czech Republic and actually explore and trace

back the areas that they have lived in.

What is in a Name?

Gumucio, my last name, my dad’s last name, and the last name I hope to keep

during marriage just because I think it is so unique and want to keep my lineage and

ancestry going. I was embarrassed of my last name as I was growing up because

people did not know how to pronounce it but now I just correct them and embrace

how unique and quite amazing it is, it has also been the topic of some very

interesting conversations or people just being curious and wondering where I come

from. As I googled my last name I got over 800,000 results, looking over some of

these results, I see people with the last name Gumucio, actually hundreds of peoples

with the last name Gumucio, images, articles written by people with the last name

Gumucio and a link to a website called Gumucio.com. I click on it and bam, just what

I was looking for, not only does it have blogs of people with the last name Gumucio

but an article of someone who was in the search of his ancestors and with the last

name Gumucio. The article is “In Search of My Ancestors,” by Marcelo Gumucio, who

happens to be a relative but not sure how close of a relative he is, but I think I have

heard my dad or some other family members speak of him.

But first let’s take a step back and examine my last name Gumucio. Marcelo

Gumucio writes that Pedro Saez de Torrezabal adopted the last name Gumucio early

in the XV century (circa 1430). He also states that from the information that he has

gathered that our last name Gumucio points out the “local nobility” and education

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that the lineages during that century have had. My last name is also autochthonous

meaning that it is an indigenous Basque name and has no translation to it and is

prestigious due to the Basque background of it. During this time period a Gumucio

Mayorazgo was established, meaning that a type of family trust/testament was

created in order to keep the family lineage going and so it has. Now there are many

versions on how to spell my last name, from Gumuzio to Gumucioeche, but the most

commonly used version is Gumucio and it has been used for hundred of centuries.

According to Marcelo, the reason for the different spellings is because of the

different locations that the family has settled, each location tracing back to Czech

Republic has a way of saying things so the spelling changes derives from the

different speech patterns of people they have met and also of the people that have

married into the family. But for now the spelling is Gumucio and the pronunciation

is GU-MU-C-IO, and if I say so myself, it is a very, very unique last name.

A Blast From the Past

Now of course tracing back to someone’s ancestry is no easy task and lots of

research must be done and lost of sleep and lots of cups of coffee and so on. Well

thank the lord for the Internet because I did not lose sleep and I really do not like

coffee. What did help me out on how to start my search regarding my ancestors was

a book by Gilbert Doane titled Searching for Your Ancestors: The How and Why of

Genealogy. This book not only indicated me on where to start but made me look at

the search in a whole new way, the way Doane puts it is that searching for your

ancestors is not just about “digging up bones” but about embracing those bones and

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the surroundings of that time period, embracing all aspects of life and actually

putting yourself in their shoes to understand what your ancestors went through.

I really liked what Doane wrote and it made me even more eager to start my

search. The best source Doane says is to start with family members because they are

able to a recollect certain memories and usually have artifacts that have been passed

down from one person to another and so I did. I first talked to my dad and started

with his childhood. My dad is

named Wenceslao Carlos

Gumucio, he is named after his dad

and his first named is

Czechoslovakian and has been

passed down from ancestors. One

of my half-brothers also has that

first name as well and as much as I

don’t like that name I do want to

keep passing it down our lineage. The picture to the right is of my dad (the little boy

that is right is the middle of everyone) and of his family members. I am not entirely

sure who everyone is and neither does my dad remember but just looking at this

picture and at my dad being a child is quite amazing. Well what my dad has told me

is that my great great great great grandfather lived in what is now modern day

Czech Republic but because of famine during that time they decided to set sail to the

new world. I researched this famine and there was a food shortage during the 18th

century in Europe because of diseases so it must be true. My ancestors were of

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nobility in Europe so coming to the New World was accessible to them. So they set

sail to the new world and made home of what is now present-day Bolivia. Someone

else that has told me this is my cousin who grew up in Bolivia, her name is Lourdes

Sulc and also my half-brother Charles. I have asked them for some proof but

unfortunately the proof is back in Bolivia and most of it has been destroyed after my

grandmother passed away many years ago. Well back to how everything began, so

not only did our ancestors live in Czech Republic but also they moved from there to

Spain and that is where most of my research comes from and also from Bolivia since

most of my family lives that now.

So as I have researched for this paper I have gotten in contact with cousins

and family members in the United States and Bolivia about my ancestry, I have also

a phone call spoken to Marcelo Gumucio and yes we are related, he is actually an

uncle of mine and has given me information by the pound. So as I write this paper

the more I am learning about myself and about the direction of where this paper is

headed.

Spanish Blood

There is written information from 1410 that our ancestry can date back from

and that is where I am going to start…in Spain. All the information that is available

about the members of our extended family in the XV and XVI Centuries points to

their being educated and well-to-do people of “local nobility” who married well and

who enjoyed the right Basque pedigree, which is that time meant a lot. As

mentioned before in 1578 a mayorazgo was established by Martin de Gumucio and

still exists to this day but not many people have access to it but I am working on

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gaining access to it

now. All this

information comes

from my uncle,

Marcelo Gumucio’s

article and some of it from our interview as well.

So I am going to start with Martin de Gumucio’s great-great grandfather, who makes

him my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great and so it keeps going but

you get the point grandfather. This man’s name was Pero (Pedro) Saez de Gumucio

born around year 1450, he was the first man to have the last name Gumucio or is

know as the first person to have the last name Gumucio because of the

autochthonous prestigious Basque background it has attached to Gumucio. So above

is Pedro’s family tree, his brother Juan did not change his last name but Torrezabal

did eventually die out. According to Doane’s geneology book a lot of last names are

in fact locations, which is the case for the name Gumucio that is preceded in the

middle ages. In other words, it wasn’t that in the Middle Ages a Gumucio came from

another land and founded the place of Gumucio but instead, early on in time, the

name Gumucio was given to a location and when Pedro Saez de Torrezabal moved

to Gumucio, it became necessary for him to give his identity in the traditional way

and by stating where he came from was that way. Since he “came” from Gumucio, he

became Pedro Saez de Gumucio and from there on it begins. Now I don’t want to

bore you with all the technical things and make this some boring research paper so

this is just important information to you the reader and to myself as to where and

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how the last name Gumucio came about but trust me my background is pretty

interesting.

So now I go back to Martin de Gumucio whom was born 1520 and died 1584,

and according to Marcelo, we still do not know how he relates to us but only by the

fact that he has our last name but Martin plays in important role so bear with me in

trying to explain this whole lineage.

First, he married Mari Urtiz de Isasi Zamudio. This was an arranged marriage

because Martin was only 16 years old at the time his first son Pedro was born. The

joining of the Gumucio-Isasi families might have been one designed to consolidate

wealth and power. The Gumucio wealth came from Martin’s great-grandfather

Sancho de Torrezabal, who passed it on to his son Pedro de Gumucio, Martin’s

grandfather, and he to his son. We know that Martin’s mother brought half of the

properties in Gumucio into the family. It looks like one house came from his father;

one from his mother, and the third came from his wife’s inheritance. We know that

Martin inherited his family’s patrimony when his father died in 1539 (Martin was

19 years old). It is documented that he managed the ironworks factory and that his

wife Mari Ortiz was intimately involved in the business. Around the year 1575,

Martin also inherited the patrimony belonging to his deceased son and daughter in

law Pedro de Gumucio and Maria Saez de Basozabal Careaga. Martin had 4 children

with his first wife: Catalina de Gumucio Isasi, Bernardina de Gumucio Isasi, Lope de

Gumucio Isasi, and Pedro de Gumucio Isasi. In 1563, Martin married a 2nd time

because his first wife had died; he married Teresa Ruiz de Ubilla. Her first marriage

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already connected her to the Gumucion clan by her first husband who was Symon de

Arratia and he was the grandnephew of Ochoa Martinez de Gumucio. Ochoa was

Pero Saez de Gumucio’s brother and Martin de Gumucio’s uncle.

Now Martin and Teresa are the ones who establish the Gumucio Mayorazgo

because of all the properties attained. The Mayorazgo was passed on from one

generation to the next, giving preference to male heirs…ugh patriarchy at its finest.

Lope did not inherit the Mayorazgo as it was a custom because he was born of

Martin’s first marriage and the Mayorazgo was created during Martin’s second

marriage. Lope’s son Martin was selected to inherit the Mayorazgo because he was

Martin de Gumucio’s grandson and Teresa’s nephew (Jurdana de Garay, Lope’s wife

was Teresa’s niece). When the Mayorazgo was established, it was written following

the traditional practices and starting with Martinico, stipulated the hegemony of

first-born rights. The descendants of Martinico de Gumucio Garay, who inherited the

Mayorazgo descend from Lope de Gumucio Isasi lineage. So finally I can say that my

ancestry comes from Lope de Gumucio Isasi. In the case of the family Mayorazgo, the

succession was as follows: from Martin de Gumucio Garay (1569-1614), to Antonio

de Gumucio Estrada (1590-1639), to Juan Baptista de Gumucio Garaitaondo (1632-

1703), to Juan de Gumucio Leguinazabal (1659-1713). It is at this point in our

family’s history that the traditional manner in which the Mayorazgo is passed down

changes and takes an irreversible turn: tradition is betrayed and violated by Juan de

Gumucio Leguinazabal and our family will be irrevocably fractured into those who

inherited the wealth and those who didn’t. There always has to be that one person

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to ruin it all but at the same time patriarchy with Juan dies because he names his

first daughter Sebastiana, his sole heir in his will, women rule!

New Lands Bring New Life

So I am gonna skip a lil and go

to the part of where Gumucio’s

travel abroad into new lands

because everything after Sebastiana

gets so technical and confusing

according to Marcelo. The first

arrival of a Gumucio in South

America is on April 22, 1751 in

Buenos Aires, Argentina. On that

boat was Francisco de Gumucio Goiri

Astuena, whom realized how difficult

it was to ship products from

Argentina to Potosi, Bolivia and he

decided to move to Bolivia to work in

the thriving silver mining business.

Francisco once in Bolivia had a relationship with Michaela Santos and they

produced two children out of wedlock: Sebastiana de Gumucio and Santiago

de Gumucio. Francisco de Gumucio made his fortune in the mining business

before he was 40 years of age. He then moved his primary residence to

Cochabamba, Bolivia where he became Regidor Perpetuo de la Villa de

Oropeza (member of Cochabamba’s city council), an honorary position in the

upper echelons of local government. Once installed in Cochabamba he

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decided to settle down. Now Cochabamba, Bolivia is where my own father

was born and his siblings so the connection to my dad’s family is getting

closer and closer! Francisco married Juana Manuela Garcia and both of them

bought together hacienda “La Chimba” from the Spanish government, which

to this day still exists, and crazy enough I visited this place on my first trip to

Bolivia as a child.

The first direct ancestor ever born in Bolivia goes by the name of Jose Gabriel

de Gumucio

Garcia

(3/18/1784 to

1/13/1864).

He served as

Mayor of

Cochabamba’s

local

government,

and in 1840

was elected Cochabamba’s first senator. Jose married Maria de Los Angeles

Echichipea and they had 11 children. The picture to the right is some of Jose and

Maria’s children.

My Coats of Arms

Because there are so many different lineages of Gumucios, each lineage has

specific coats of arms. My family’s coats of arms has evolved in time but the latest

version has been around for about 100 years, so it is still “new” compared to other

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coats of arms. The coat of arms represents our family and the people in our family,

and it also represents the power and wealth of our ancestors more specifically my

great-grandfather, my grand father and my dad. I don’t have the old versions of our

coats of arms but I have seen

coats of arms from other

Gumucio families and in one

way or another they all relate

in design and meaning. The

picture to the left is my family’s

coats of arms, stamped on our

glasses at home. We also have

an actual shield hanging above

my parent’s television in the

living room. The horn on the left side of the image signifies a strong voice of the

Gumucio family and the right side it has 4 circles which signify my great-

grandfather, my grandfather, my dad and then my oldest brother. The circles mean

that the Gumucio family is a never-ending circle and for the Gumucio last name to be

passed down. The depiction of a bull inside of the circles signifies strength and

power. I love my family’s coats of arms and I think it is super unique that we have

one, I think it would make an awesome tattoo too!

Gumucios’ in the 21st Century

My family keeps on growing and growing. In the past 10 years new baby

Gumucios’ have been born in the United States and in Bolivia. My 2 half-brothers

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have babies of their own and my cousins and uncles and aunts have also passed

down the Gumucio last name. I never met my grandfather and I really never knew

my grandmother but I know that seeing this new generation of Gumucios’ growing

up would make them extremely happy. I know my parents are ready for my sister

and I to give them grandchildren but of course they know that will only happen later

on in life. It is quite amazing seeing my family grow though and it is quite amazing

learning and being able to pass down the history of my family to younger

generations. This whole investigation has created an extreme sense of pride in my

last name and my background, but I have also become even prouder in being a

Latina with such a diverse history. The purpose of this was not to just educate

myself on my ancestors but to be able to pass this article down for others to read

about our history and how the Gumucios’ came about and for me that is the biggest

accomplishment.

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Bibiliography

Doane, Gilbert H. Searching for Your Ancestors: The How and Why of Genealogy.

Gumucio, Marcelo A. In Search of My Ancestors: From Vizcaya to California. Ann

Miller, M2 Design, Inc., Apr. 2008. Web.

"Gumucio Directory." Gumucio Directory. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

Sulc, Lourdes. Facebook interview. 4 Mar. 2014.

Gumucio, Marcelo. Phone interview. 28 Mar. 2014.

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