THE
SURNAME OROZCO: FROM VIZCAYA TO AGUASCALIENTES
By
John P. Schmal
The
Surname “Orozco”
The surname Orozco (or
Orosco) is a surname that has been prominent throughout both Spain and
Mexico over the last few centuries. According
to Richard D. Woods and Grace Alvarez-Altman, “Spanish Surnames in the
Southwestern United States: A Dictionary,” two elements form this
surname: “oros” which means holly tree and the suffix “-ko” which
suggests place. Orozco therefore means place of the holly trees.
Orozco is also believed to have been derived from the Latin word “orosius”
– the son of bringer of wisdom.
However, Orozco is also widely accepted as a Basque surname that
indicates that one is a descendant of the ancient Señores de Vizcaya. In the Dictionary of Surnames, Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges offered
an alternative explanation for the surname Orozco, indicating that it was Basque
and that the first element of the name may have derived from the Basque oru
(plot of land).
Spanish
Origins
It seems likely that the surnames Orozco (or Orosco) – in all
their forms (i.e. single surnames or double surnames) – may have evolved from
several points of origin in different parts of Spain. According to García y
Carraffa’s Diccionario
heráldico y genealógico de apellidos españoles y Americanos , one
form of the surname, Orozco de Vizcaya,
originated among ancient horsemen whose descendants moved to the city of
Trujillo in the present-day province of Cáceres in the Extremadura region of
western Spain.
Another family of this surname seems to have originated in the
villa de Villademiro in the partido de Castorgeriz in the Province of Burgos.
And still another Orozco surname developed in the villa of Portillo in the
judicial jurisdiction of Olmedo. Today Portillo is a municipio within the
Province of Valladolid in the north of Spain.
García y Carraffa also
noted that another branch of Orozco lived in the small village of Candeleda of
the judicial district Arenda de San Pedro in the Province of Avila (Central
Spain). The progenitor of this
family was Diego de Orozco, a native
of Candeleda and Alcaide (Warden) of the village castle and the husband of Doña
Isabel Monte, who was a native of Turégano in the province of Segovia. Their
son was Diego de Orozco Monte, also a native of Candeleda, followed in the
footsteps of his father as the Warden of the village castle. Diego married Doña
María de Olmedo, a native of Arenas de San Pedro (which is just east of
Candeleda). This branch of the
surname continued to occupy Candeleda for several generations.
The
Oroscos Arrive in the Americas
With the migration of Spaniards to the Americas in the Sixteenth
Century, several Orosco’s are known to have embarked to Nueva España
(Mexico), including:
Francisco
de Orozco
Persons with the surname Orozco are known to have played
significant roles in the early history of both Nueva España and Nueva Galicia
(which was the first Spanish name given for the areas now known as
Aguascalientes, Jalisco and Zacatecas). One
of Hernán Cortés’ chief lieutenants in his conquest of Tenochtitlán (the
Aztec name for the present day Mexico City) was Francisco
de Orozco, who was believed to have come from Ubeda or Sanlúcar el Mayor.
It was Orozco who first made his way to Oaxaca, claiming the region for Cortés
and subduing the Mixtec inhabitants. He died in 1524 in Oaxaca.
Orosco
in Guadalajara
Diego de Orosco from Toledo – mentioned above as a pasajero to
Nueva España in 1535 and the son of Francisco Orozco –became one of the first
63 founders of Guadalajara in 1542. According
to Steven F. Hernandez and Tony Campos, other Orosco’s soon came to prominence
in Guadalajara and surrounding areas of present-day Jalisco. Juan Bautista de
Orozco, who immigrated to Nueva España in 1566 (as noted above), was appointed
an oídor of the Real Audiencia de Guadalajara in the same year and served in
that position until 1571.
One of the best sources of information relating to the Jalisco
Orosco’s can be found in the 94-page Steven Hernandez and Tony Campos article,
“Basic
Foundations of Significant Families of Mexico: Tello de Orozco,” in
the SHHAR Genealogical Journal, Volume 5 (2003), which is available
through SHHAR. This masterpiece discusses Orozco and Tello de Orozco, as well as
many other affiliated surnames, including Velasco, Liébana, Lomos and Bañuelos.
On of the many documents referenced in this work is the May 2, 1714 marriage of
Joseph Tello de Orosco and Lucía de Zamora in Ocotlán, which we have
reproduced below:
Dr.
Gerónimo Orozco and the Founding of Aguascalientes
Juan Bautista de Orozco’s brother, Gerónimo de Orozco y Lerma,
was believed to have been born in Sevilla sometime between 1518 and 1522, as
speculated by Hernandez and Campos. Sometime after arriving in Nueva España,
Gerónimo became a licenciado (lawyer
or attorney) with a degree from the University of Salamanca. Then in 1559, he
obtained a doctorate in law from the University of Mexico. For fifteen years up
to 1572, Doctor Orozco served as an oídor in the Real Audiencia.
On December 15, 1574, Dr.
Geronimo de Orozco y Lerma took office as the Governor-President of the
Royal Audiencia of New Galicia. From his headquarters in Guadalajara he played
an important role in organizing the settlement of the Villa de la Asunción de las Aguas Calientes (Villa de
Aguascalientes). On October 22, 1575 Orozco signed the certificate of foundation
for the new villa, which today is a major urban center of Mexico.
Gerónimo de Orozco established Aguascalientes during the long
Chichimeca War, in which the native peoples of the area attempted to stop the
Spanish advance and waged a very effective guerilla warfare against the
Spaniards and their indigenous allies from the south (i.e., Christianized
Indians). The intensity of the
Chichimeca War led to numerous engagements.
Some researchers have stated that Geronimo Orozco was killed during
a skirmish between Chichimecas and Spanish troops either in December 1580 or in
April 1581. However, Hernandez and Campos have stated that Gerónimo continued
to serve as the Governor until his death in 1592. Dr. Gerónimo de Orozco
married Beatriz Tello de Sandoval around 1554 or 1555 and, together, they had
ten children, including the following:
The descendants of Gerónimo and Beatriz and their many children
are discussed in great detail in Steven Hernandez and Tony Campos’ article
cited above and in the sources at the end of this story. Anyone who has Orozco
ancestors should consult this work to see if they have any connections to this
lineage, which is extensive throughout several parts of Mexico and discusses
seven generations of Orozco’s.
Aguascalientes
Grows
By 1582, the threat to the small villa of Aguascalientes became so
serious that the population had dwindled to one military commander, 16 soldiers
and two citizen residents. In effect, the small settlement – located in the
middle of the war zone – was under siege. But in the late 1580s, the threat of
Indian attack diminished steadily, as the Spanish authorities attempted to
negotiate a peace with the Indians of the region. The last Indian attack took
place in 1593, after which the threat of hostile attack disappeared entirely and
the region experienced a new peace.
The new-found peace of the 1590s, according to the historian Peter
Gerhard, “brought a tide of Spanish settlers beginning in the 1590s, mostly
cattlemen and farmers, together with Indian and Negro retainers.”
By 1610, the small town of Aguascalientes had approximately 25 Spanish
residents, about fifty families of mestizos, at least 100 mulatos, twenty Black
slaves, and ten Indians.
By 1616, the Parish records at Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de
Aguascalientes mention La
Estancia de Santiago as the property of one Jerónimo de Orozco and his wife, Doña Ángela Temiño de Velasco. Some researchers have stated that
Jerónimo was a descendant of Alberto de Orosco, a first cousin of Geronimo de
Orosco y Lerma, the founder of the city. Angela, for her part, was a
great-granddaughter of Hernán Flores de la Torre, a conquistador of Nueva
Galicia, and his wife Maria Alvarez de la Torre.
On September 24, 1618, Jerónimo and Angela had their son, Juan,
baptized in the Parish Church. Another child, Maiana, was baptized on January 5,
1623. During the first few decades of the parish, Jerónimo, his wife and his
children and grandchildren would serve as padrinos for many of the baptisms and
marriages that took place in town.
The first known marriage of an Orosco in the Aguascalientes parish
records was the marriage of one Diego de Orosco – another son of Jerónimo and
Angela – who married Doña María Medel on April 14, 1637.
By the time of the 1648
Padron (church registry or census), Angela de Velasco – now the widow of
Geronimo – was living with her family in “La cassa de Geronimo de Orosco”
with her son Diego, her grandchildren and a large number of servants. By this
time, Diego had lost his first wife, and had married a second wife, Maria de los
Ynojos, and now had two children with her.
Living elsewhere in the City was Juan Marín de Penalosa who would
later marry Francisca de Orosco y Santa
Cruz, the daughter of Lucas Orosco y Santa Cruz of San Luis Potosi and
Leonor Marin of Aguascalientes.
The Orozco family continued to live and thrive in Aguascalientes
for many generations. The detailed document below is the March 14, 1670
Aguascalientes marriage between one Frtancisco Murillo and Maria de Orosco, the
daughter of Francisco de Orozco y Magdalena Gomez de Portugal, who were
residents of Teocaltiche, almost 40 miles southwest of Aguascalientes.
Don
Juan de Villaseñor Orozco
According to J. Ignacio Avila Garibi, Don Juan de Villaseñor Orozco was among the founders of Valladolid
de Michoacán (later known as Morelia, the capital of the State) and the
encomendero of Huango, Puruándiro and other cities. It is believed that he was
born at Vélez de Castilla in Spain around 1500 and he died in 1566 at Tacámbaro,
Michoacán. He was married to Doña
Catalina Cervantes de Lara (a native of Sevilla, Spain) and they are
believed to be the ancestors of a long line of notable individuals in Mexican
history.
Through their son, Federico de Villaseñor y Cervantes de Lara,
Juan and Catalina were the great-great-great-great-great-grandparents of Don
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the priest from the city of Dolores in Guanajuato
who led the first battles of the Mexican Revolution in 1810. Dolores would later
be renamed Dolores Hidalgo in his honor and that is the name it carries today.
Through another son, Diego, Juan and Catalina were the
great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents of Don Agustin de Iturbide, a native of Morelia (1783), who played a
significant role in the last part of the Mexican Revolution, eventually becoming
Emperor of Mexico and then losing his life in 1824.
Orozco
in Mexico
Persons with the surname Orozco (or Orosco) have continued to play
significant roles in Mexican political and cultural life. According to Wikipedia,
José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949) was a Mexican
social realist painter who specialized in bold murals. Living around the same
time, was Pascual Orozco Vazquez (28 January 1882 – 30 August 1915) who was a
Mexican revolutionary leader. The surname in both forms continues to be fairly
prevalent in some parts of Jalisco, Zacatecas and Aguascalientes, as well as
other parts of the country.
Copyright
© 2014 by John P. Schmal. All Rights Reserved.
Sources:
Archivo General de Indias. Pasajeros
a Indias: libros de asientos (Sevilla, 1978).
Campos, Tony and Hernandez, Steven F., “Basic Foundations of
Significant Families of Mexico: Tello de Orozco,” in Society of Hispanic
Historical and Ancestral Research (Steven F. Hernandez, editor), Genealogical
Journal, Volume 5 (2003), pp. 167-238.
Davila, J Ignacio.
Los
nietos de Don Juan (Mexico, D.F., 1949)
Davila, J Ignacio. Los
nietos de Juan de Villasenor Orozco, fundador de Valladolid
(Michoacan, Mexico, 1948).
García y Carraffa, Alberto and Arturo. Diccionario heráldico y genealógico
de apellidos españoles y Americanos (1920-1963), 86 volumes.
Gerhard, Peter. The
north frontier of New Spain (Oklahoma: Univ of Oklahoma Press, 1993).
Hanks, Patrick
and Hodges, Flavia, A dictionary of surnames (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1988).
Hardy, Rose and Valdez, Dave. A
genealogical look at the 1648 padron of Aguascalientes (2010).
Méndez de Torres y Camino , Daniel Alejandro. Archivos parroquiales de
Aguascalientes: Siglo XVII (San Jose, California: 2011).
Muria, Jose Maria and Olveda, Jaime. Lecturas históricas de
Guadalajara : generalidades históricas sobre la fundación y los primeros años
de Guadalajara (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia,
Guadalajara: 1991).
Rodríguez, Juan Manuel.
“Gerónimo de OrozcoPor mercadointerno: El fundador de Aguascalientes y León,
fue muerto por chichimecas” (October 22, 2011). Online:
http://mercadointerno.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/geronimo-de-orozco/
Wikipedia, “Orozco,” Online:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orozco
Woods, Richard D. and Alvarez-Altman, Grace. Spanish Surnames in the
Southwestern United States: A Dictionary (G. K. Hall, Boston, 1978).