LA LIMPIEZA DE SANGRE OF MARIA NICOMEDA RAMIREZ DE ARELLANO

Ursula Acosta

Researchers of the Ramírez de Arellano family have taken it for granted that two of the most prominent members of this family, Antonio Ramírez de Arellano (born 1653) and Remigio Ramírez de Arellano (died 1766) were father and son. However. until recently there was no proof that this assumption was true. It was only several years ago, when the General Archives of Puerto Rico organized the documents of the Superior Court of Mayagüez (Tribunal Superior de Mayagüez), that I found in these old court records a file evaluating the racial purity of a couple to be married in 1828 in San German (Limpieza de Sangre) as was customary for persons of higher social standing. This rather long and deteriorated document establishes the relationship between Antonio and Remigio Ramírez de Arellano without the shadow of a doubt.

As many of the members of this Society are related to the Ramírez de Arellano family, I thought that it might be of interest to publish the information of this particular Limpieza although I can only refer to my notes. It should, of course, be possible to check the original documents in the files of the General Archives, but when I wanted to read them again several years ago, I could not find them. As they were not in a good condition to begin with, it is possible that they are no longer available. However, I am sorry to say that it has been my experience that some visitors to the Archives - I do not believe that these persons deserve the title of "researcher" - either disappear documents or hide them in some file with the purpose of limiting access to them. For that reason I think it possible that this particular Limpieza has not been necessarily lost to termites and age, but may be in the hands of an archival scavenger.

The bride who had to show that she was white and a descendant of a family of good social standing in San Germán was doña María Nicomeda Ramírez de Arellano y Ramírez de Arellano. She was born in San Germán on September 15, 1800, and baptized there on the 28th

of the same month. In the following I will give her ascendency as stated in the Limpieza and some other information the witnesses provide and which may be of interest to researchers of the Ramírez de Arellanos.

María Nicomedas parents were don Joaquín (Calixto) Ramírez de Arellano and doña María Concepción Ramírez de Arellano who were third cousins (third degree of consanguinity) and had married in San Germán on February 8, 1792.

Her grandparents were:

a. Don Lázaro Ramírez de Arellano married to doña Sebastiana Quiñones; and

b. Don Manuel Ramírez de Arellano married to doña Valentina de Rivera.

The four sets of her greatgrandparents. beginning with Don Lázaros parents, were:

a. Don Baltazar Ramírez de Arellano married to doña Juana de la Seda:

b. Don Juan Isidro Quiñones married to doña Micaela Mirabal;

c. Don Remigio Ramírez de Arellano married to doña Ana de Matos (sic); and

d. Don Eusebio de Rivera married to doña Polonia Vélez Borrero.

The greatgrandparents of don Joaquín Calixto Ramírez de Arellano, the father of the bride, were:

a. Don Antonio Ramírez de Arellano married to doña Ana Martínez de Matos (sic):

b. Don Bartolomé de la Seda married to doña Ursula (illegible) de Bonilla:

c. Don Andrés Quiñones married to doña Ana Montalvo: and

d. Don Sebastián Mirabal married to doña María Segarra y Verdugo.

The reader may notice that the conclusion is obvious. If María Nicomedas parents were third cousins, her grandparents Lázaro and Manuel Ramírez de Arellano must havc been first cousins, and, in turn, their fathers, Baltazar and Remigo RamIrez de Arellano, brothers. This means that Antonio Ramírez de Arellano was the father of both, Baltazar and Remigio.

The document was prepared in 1828 spanning information over a period of almost 150 years of family history. It is only natural that some names of the older generations were misquoted. It is well known that Don Remigios first wife was Maria de Ia Cruz Martínez de Matos, and not "Ana de Matos". A further mistake is the name of Don Antonios wife. She was Ana de Lugo y Sotomayor. These understandable mistakes do not, in my opinion. invalidate the conclusion. It may be added that it is interesting to note that no name of the men of thge family

was incorrect. Although the Catholic Church required its parishioners to inform the names of the female members of a family because of the prohibition and/or restriction of cousin marriages, they still did not appear to be quite as important as the names of the male members and seem to have been forgotten more easily.

It was customary that many witnesses testified to the facts of a case. For that reason the Limpieza offers the investigator more information than the relationships given above. Both. don Sebastián Mirabal and don Manuel Ramírez de Arellano. had at one time been alférez real of San Germán. Don Manuel Estevan de Rivera. one of the witnesses of the Lirnpieza, said that the paternal granduncle of the bride, don José Monserrate Ramírez de Arellano, was once alcalde ordinario of the same town. He also knew Don Juan. Don Nicolás and Don Felipe Ramírez de Arellano. sons of Don Remigio. Don Juan had been regidor perpetuo in San Germán. while Don Nicolás served both as alcalde ordinario in San Germán on many occasions and teniente a guerra in Cabo Rojo.

He also knew don José Ramón Ramírez, a first cousin of Doña Nicomeda and son of her uncle Don Francisco Antonio. Both, father and son, had been the alcalde ordinario of San Germán on two separate occasions. José Ramón was, in 1828, subdelegado militar de la marina, a position also held on another occasion by his father. According to the samc witness an uncle of the bride, don José Monserrate RamIrez. was mayor of San Gerrnán at the time this Limpieza was written. This José Monserrate Ramírrez was the son of the former alcalde of the same name.

Another nephew of Joaquin Calixto Ramírez was don Vicente Ramírez, a captain of the 4th Battalion of the Militia, while one of Don Joaquíns sons, Don Ramón, was a sublieutenant in the same battalion.

The next witness. Captain of the Cavalry don Vicente Dávila, was from Añasco and knew the mayor of Sabana Grande. don Tomás José RamIrez, as well as don Tomás Ramírez, mayor and teniente a guerra of Cabo Rojo. He also refers to another uncle of the bride, don Francisco Antonio Ramírez. father of the Don José Ramón who was mentioned above.

Another witness from Añasco was don José Vicente González, married and a farmer (labrador). If it surprises us that some of the witnesses came from Añasco. I remind the reader that one of Remigios sons, Felipe. had moved to Añasco where he had been a prominent member of the ruling class with ties to San Germán and Añasco.

An interesting witness was don Faustino del Toro, interesting because at the time of the deposition he was 77 years old and had known many of the members of the older generation, among them don Juan Isidro Quiñones, doña Micaela Mirabal, don Manuel Rarmírez and the latters wife, doña Valentina de Rivera, as well as her mother, doña Polonia Vélez Borrero. He confirms that Don Nicolás was the founder of Cabo Rojo, and that Don Nicolass first cousin, Don Juan, had been mayor in Mayagüez where he was followed in office by don José Ramírez.

He finally stated a surprising fact. According to Don Faustino, the founder and first teniente a guerra of Sabana Grande had been don Dámaso Ramírez, whom he had known personally. In my book Familias de Cabo Rojo (1983, Tablas. pp. 65 and 68) we find a Dámaso Ramírez, son of Laurencio and Antonia Martínez de Matos. Laurencio. who was a brother of Remigio Ramírez de Arellano, died in 1786 in Sabana Grande. 1 had written "de Cabo Rojo" as it appeared to me that the Sabana Graude where Laurencio died referred to the area between San Germán and Cabo Rojo, which is a continuation of the barrio Sabana Eneas. However, the Limpieza seems to indicate that I was wrong and that Laurencio and his son Dámaso were the founders or, at least, among the founders of the town of Sabana Grande.

A final witness was don Miguel Mauricio Quiñones, 63 years old, a farmer and brother of Juan Isidro Quiñones. He reiterates the information about the founders of Sabana Grande calling Don Dámaso the primary founder.

My own investigation shows that Manuel Ramirez de Arellano, maternal grandfather of María Nicomeda, also was the father of a well-known figure of early 19th-century Cabo Rojo, don Marcos Ramírez de Arellano (Acosta, 1983, Tables, p. 70). Marcos Rarnírez had his farm at the Morrillos in Cabo Rojo and is an ancestor of the family of the late Severo Colberg (through his son Justo RamIrez), of my husband Sebastián Acosta Ronda (through his son Nicolás) and of many other caborrojeños. Both Manuel Ramírez and his wife Valentina de Rivera y Vélez Borrero had died before 1792 when their daughter Maria Concepción married Don Joaquín Ramírez de Arellano.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Acosta, U. and Cuesta, D. (1983) Fatnillas de Gabo Rojo. San Juan, PR.

Archivo General de Puerto Rico. Fondo del Tribunal Superior de Mayagüez.