Alonso de Estrada
Alonso de Estrada was born in Ciudad Real, Spain probably between 1470 and 1480 and died in 1530. He was married to Marina Gutiérrez Flores de la Cavalleria. They had two sons and five daughters. Luis Alfonso Fernándes de Estrada stayed in Ciudad Real and Juan Alonso became fray Juan de la Magdalena. Luisa, Marina, Ana, Francisca, and Beatris came to New Spain with their parents in 1523.
- Luisa married Captain Jorgue de Alvarado, a conqueror of México and
Governor of Guatemala; and a brother of Pedro de Alvarado; their children were
Jorgue de Alvarado, Luisa, and Leonor. - Marina married Luis de Saavreda Guzman; their children were
Alonso de Saavreda; Juan who married Regina de la Cadena; - Ana married New Spain Treasurer Juan Alonso de Sosa; their children were
Juan Alonso de Sosa, baptized February 4, 1542, married Marina de Guevara. They had several children, a daughter married Diego de Ayala, son of licenciado Diego de Ayala, alcalde de la Audencia de México. The Ayala's succession is probably the one that produced Leonor de Ayala who married Joseph de Trevño and started a line of Ayalas in Nuevo León. Their children took the Ayala name, rather than the father's name, Treviño. - Francisca married Alonso Avalalos de Saavreda
- Beatris married Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, the discoverer of the Grand Canyon.
Alonso de Estrada also had a natural son, Bartolome, with Ana Rodriguez Anhaifa. Bartolome became a secular priest.
Estrada is an interesting historical figure because he was probably the only son of a king of Spain who ever lived in México and left a large number of descendants some of whom are now in the USA. Historian Peggy K. Liss states that Estrada was a natural son of King Ferdinand (Lizz 167). Also another historian Thomas Hugh in his book the Conquest: Montezuma, Cortés, and the Fall of Old México, states that it was believed that Alonso de Estrada was a natural son of King Ferdinand (Hugh 574). In New Spain, de Estrada served as royal treasurer, lieutenant governor, and governor. Historian Francisco Fernandez del Castillo states that he learned from a document from the Inquisition (reference cited as Archivo de Inqisición, Tomo 365) that it was common knowledge in Ciudad Real and Almagro that Alonso de Estrada was an illegitimate son of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Castile (Fernandez del Castillo 399).
There are some historians who doubted that Alonso de Estrada was an illegitimate son of King Ferdinand . Among those historians is Norberto de Castro y Tosi who states states that Alonso was the legitimate son of a low ranking hialgo by the name of Juan de Estrada and unknown wife. The problem with Tosi's hypothesis is that he relies on a testimony provided by Mari Hernandez de Hidalgo, a witness, who did not remember the name of Alonso's mother name.
Among historians who believe that Alonso de Estrada was an illegitimate son of King Ferdinand, Francisco Fernandez del Castillo from the Academia Mexicana de la Historia asserts that Alonso occupied very important position in Spain and later Emperor Charles V named Alonso de Estrada the royal treasurer of New Spain (Fernandez del Castillo 398). It is not difficult to see that it was a link between appointments to high positions of government in Spain and New Spain and birth into high ranking aristocratic families. For example, Gonzalo de Salazar, Rodrigo de Albornoz, Pedro Almindez Chirinos were all men from powerful Spanish families and also all of theme were protégées of Francisco de los Cobos, the powerful personal secretary of Charles V.
- Sources:
Indice Geobiografico de Cuarenta Mil Pobladores Españoles de America en el Siglo XVI
- Fernández, Francisco del Castillo,
Memorias de la Academia Mexicana de la Historia: Correspondiente de la Real de
Madrid, (México October-December 1942) Tomo I
- Liss, Peggy K. México Under Spain, 1521-1556, Society and the Origins of Nationality The University of Chicago Press, 1975. Carranza, Baltasa Dorante de, Sumaria Relación de los Primeros Pobladores de México.
- Thomas, Hugh, Conquest: Montezuma, Cortés, and the Fall of Old México. Simon and Schuster, 1993.
