When Captain Juan Páez Hurtado recruited Francisco Montes Vigil and his family to enlist as colonists for New Mexico in 1695, he also recruited Montes Vigil as an accomplice to defraud the royal treasury. Governor Pedro Rodríguez Cubero uncovered the fraud in 1697 when colonists’ complaints prompted an investigation of former Governor Diego de Vargas and his right-hand man, Páez Hurtado. Since each colonist or family unit was given an allowance to enlist, Páez Hurtado’s schem

Bernardo de Bustamante  indicated to Juan Paez Hurtado  that Nerio Montoya , Magdalena Baca’s  12-year-old son, had reported the crime....

While researching the Ojo de Borrego land grant, I came across the story of the murder of the grantee’s mother, María Magdalena Baca....