EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ADVENTURES AND MISADVENTURES ALONG EL CAMINO REAL
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ADVENTURES AND MISADVENTURES ALONG EL CAMINO REAL
Three New Mexicans, Jacinto Sánchez de Iñigo, Ysidro Sánchez Bañales, and Francisco Xavier Fragoso were all eighteenth century travelers on the Camino Real, and they all left behind a story about the Camino. This was not intentional…they were all accused of a crime and brought before the alcalde and governor. In 1704 Jacinto Sánchez de Iñigo was brought before the Santa Fe magistrate accused of stealing buckskins when serving as a military escort to retiring governor Pedro Rodríguez Cubero; Governor Gervsio Curzat Góngora cashiered soldier Ysidro Sánchez Bañales from the Albuquerque squadron for insubordination in 1732; and in 1767 Xavier Fragoso defended himself before Governor Pedro Fermín de Mendiñueta for stealing a reliquary. Their recorded testimonies, along with those of their accusers and various witnesses, offer detailed if not always coherent accounts of their adventures and misadventures on the Camino Real. In all cases, we learn something about Spanish colonial justice, the behavior of presidio soldiers, and most importantly, the Camino Real.
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Originally published in: Chronicles of the Trail Volume 13: Number 1 Spring / Summer 2017, pages 22-30. Used with the publication's permission.