AND SO IT turns out that I’m a descendant of slaves. Of one slave, anyway. I just saw the latest genealogical research by my niece, Sandy Palomo González, and it shows that my maternal grandfather, Dionicio López, is a descendent of one Marcos Alonso de la Garza, who apparently is considered to be the founder of Nuevo León. Anybody named Garza (including my mother’s mother’s family) whose family came from northern Mexico is evidently a descendant of this one man. This Alonso guy had a son named Pedro de la Garza Falcon Treviño, in 1589 in Guadiana, Durango. Pedro had a wife and a bunch of kids. He also had a slave with whom he had a daughter, who was named Elena De La Garza in 1629 (10 years before he was murdered). My grandfather is a descendant of this daughter of a slave. Because she was the daughter of a slave, officially she was listed as a mulata, and so were many of her descendants. There is nothing to indicate whether this woman was Indian or African.
Another interesting piece of research: the first Indian to use the last name Palomo in our family was also named Juan. Juan Anselmo Palomo, who was born sometime around 1750 near San Luis Potosí. Apparently before that, Indians only had first names.
Juan Anselmo died May 14, 1806. He is listed as a “coyote” in the official records, one of several terms used to designate indigenous people.
Interesting stuff. By the way, from now on you shall call me Kunta Juanzqui.