Antonio de Otermin | |
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26th Spanish Governor of New Mexico | |
In office 1679–1683 |
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Preceded by | Juan Francisco Treviño |
Succeeded by | Domingo Jironza Petriz de Cruzate |
Personal details | |
Spouse(s) | Ana María Ladrón de Guevara |
Profession | Political |
Signature |
Antonio de Otermin was the Spanish Governor of the northern New Spain province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, today the U.S. states of New Mexico and Arizona, from 1678 to 1682. He was governor at the time of the Pueblo Revolt, during which the religious leader Popé led the Pueblo people in a military ouster of the Spanish colonists. Otermin had to cope with the revolt with help of the settlers and their descendants in New Mexico, fighting against the Pueblo in some military campaigns and establishing a refuge for the surviving settlers and loyal native Pueblo in the vicinity of the modern Ciudad Juarez, current Mexico).
It is not known when or where he was born. It is assumed that he was born roughly between 1620 and 1630 in the family home Otermín, which in this time was recorded as Otromin House. It is located on the foothills of the Massif de Aralar, natural border between Gipuzkoa and Navarre, Spain. On the Gipuzkoa side is the house Otromin Haundi (‘Big Otromin’), which, by its size and name, was the ancestral home of the Otromin. However, two sources indicate that Otermin is the standard version and that it’s from Guipúzcoan Basque oteme, in Spanish ‘árgoma’ ( ‘furze, broom’), the genera Ulex and Genista, spiny yellow-flowered evergreen leguminous shrubs.
Otermin was appointed governor of New Mexico in 1678. On August 9, 1680, twoPueblo leaders of the Galisteo Basin, allies of the Spanish, sent to Otermin the news of a rebellion of the Pueblo Amerindian against the Spanish. According to the message were two men from Tesuque who planned the attack on the Spanish cities and Franciscan missions. Because of that, he ordered the arrest of the messengers of the people. When the news about the arrest of the messengers was spread among the Pueblo, Popé decided to execute the plan of vengeance immediately. In the Pueblo Revolt, Popé's forces besieged Santa Fe, surrounding the city and cutting off its water supply.