Juan Domínguez de Mendoza

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information: ²⁵²
Juan Domínguez de Mendoza was already an adult taking an active part in New Mexico political life in 1662, having come from Mexico City "a few years ago." In the spring of 1680 he gave his age as forty-six, but in 1681 he said he was fifty-two, a native of Mexico City, married and accompanied by his wife, children, and a son-in-law. An able commander, he was placed in charge of Guadalupe del Paso in that year by Gov. Otermín, and as Lt. General of Cavalry was also entrusted with a campaign against the New Mexico Pueblos. This latter turned into a fiasco due to his own machinations contrary to the Governor's policy.

Still with the exile colony after his brother Tomé had left, Juan led a memorable Expedition into the Texas interior in 1684, but in the following year he was the leader of a desertion plot involving others of his family, including his son Baltasar. Juan must have fled around this time, for in March, 1689, his son Baltasar obtained permission to leave for New Spain with his mother, Isabel Durán y Chaves, and her servants. Coming together sometime afterwards, Juan and his son made a voyage to Spain, undoubtedly to seek royal favors. They lost all but their lives in a shipwreck, and Juan died shortly after in a Madrid hospital after forty-four years of Indian fighting in New Mexico.

Baltasar Domínguez de Mendoza, the only known son of Juan, returned from Spain and in October, 1692, was asking for the Governorship of New Mexico, or at least some other important post in Sonora. Juan's only known daughter was Maria, wife of Diego Lucero de Godoy, who also got permission to leave for New Spain in 1689.

Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period, pp. 25-26

Juan married Ysabel Durán y Chávez, daughter of Pedro Durán y Chávez and Ysabel Baca de Bohórquez.¹⁵⁸⁰