María Juana Ortiz y Baca

Juana Ortiz Baca born in New Mexico about 1648

Juana Ortiz Baca, was the daughter of Diego Montoya [1589-1661] and María Ortiz de Vera [abt. 1616-after 1680]. Juana and Andrés Gómez Robledo married about 1666. By 1680, they had been married about fourteen years and had six children. Andrés was a soldier in the presidio at Santa Fe.

The family lived at Las Barrancas, named for the high bluffs in the Río Abajo area. The Gómez Robledo hacienda had developed into an important stop along this section of El Camino Real.

On 10 August 1680, the family was forced to leave their home due to the Pueblo Revolt. They retreated into Santa Fe, where the Pueblos then laid siege to the town. Meanwhile the Indians destroyed the family’s Las Barrancas hacienda.

In Santa Fe, the terrorized Spanish citizens who had taken refuge there saw their food supply dwindle. There wasn’t a lot of actual fighting during the siege, but in one skirmish Andres Gómez Robledo was killed. He was one of only four Spanish soldiers to die and was the only officer to perish. He was buried in the besieged city. Finally Governor Otermin decided to abandon the city to the Pueblos, and the newly-widowed Juana Ortiz Baca and her children left the town and Andrés’ fresh grave in the exodus south along the Río Grande to Guadalupe del Paso [El Paso].

Thirteen years later Juana and her children re-entered New Mexico, but they could not return to their destroyed home at Las Barrancas. Apache raids prevented Spanish resettlement of this area until Sabinal was established in 1741. The family remained in Santa Fe.

Six daughters survived Andrés, and they grew up glorifying the statue of La Conquistadora, making and caring for her wardrobe, etc. The statue of the Virgin Mary was taken to Guadalupe del Paso during the 1680 Revolt and returned to Santa Fe with the 1693 re-entry of the Spanish into New Mexico. The historic wooden statue, brought to New Mexico in 1625 by the Spanish, is today housed in the Cathedral of St. Francis in Santa Fe. A Catholic confraternity was named in her honor, and there is a festival every year in Santa Fe to honor her.