facade, home of Francisco de Montejo y León and Andrea del Castillo and later their descendants In 1539 Andrea del Castillo married Francisco de Montejo y León; the couple would eventually help found and settle the city of Mérida. The marriage produced three children: Beatriz de Montejo (born
ca. 1543), Juan de Montejo (born ca. 1544), and Francisca del Castillo (born. ca. 1545). Although the union is mentioned in passing by
Bishop de Landa (who knew the family personally) in his
Relación (ca. 1566), it is
Fray Diego López de Cogolludo who relates in his
Historia de Yucatán (1688) that Montejo y León died insolvent, bequeathing to his son Juan the encumbrance of paying his significant remaining debts, and causing his widow to petition the
King of Spain, with both unusual assertiveness and effectiveness, for a pension and the right of retaining ownership of the complex of properties (
solares) on the
plaza mayor of Mérida (part of which, the
Casa de Montejo, would continue to be lived in by her descendants into the 19th-century). In 1541 Beltrán de Cetina y del Castillo was named by his brother-in-law, Montejo "the Younger", as his civil and military
lieutenant (
capitán y justicia mayor) in the garrison of
San Francisco de Campeche. The following January the city of Mérida was founded, inscribed in the roster of first citizens (
vecinos) appears the name of the aforementioned Beltrán de Zetina (sic). Beltrán's role as a
conquistador is documented in the list of men who conquered the Yucatán with Montejo compiled by chronicler Baltasar Dorantes de Carranza, son of Andrés Dorantes, survivor of the fateful
Narváez expedition. In 1547 this same Beltrán was made, along with other close associates, a
regidor or city councilman by the
adelantado Francisco de Montejo y Álvarez de Tejeda. The following year his father (his mother already having died) named in his
testamento or will as his principal heirs his eight children (all were legitimate, though some did not opt to use the
paternal surname): Gutierre de Cetina, García del Castillo, Beltrán de Cetina, Gregorio de Cetina, Mencía de Santo Domingo Alcocer, Leonor de Cetina, María del Castillo, and Ana Andrea del Castillo. In 1550 Gregorio de Cetina obtained permission to travel to New Spain, along with his cousins Pedro and Diego López, in order to help in the administration of the properties of his uncle, Gonzalo López. The latter, who had attained the rank of
maestre de campo during Cortés's
Conquest of Mexico, had previously been accompanied by the eldest of the brothers, Gutierre, during a trip to New Spain in 1546, realized for the purposes of serving as
procurador general (procurator general) of the colony. In 1553, sons of former Mérida
regidor Beltrán de Cetina and his Sevillian wife Isabel de Velasco, Beltrán and Gregorio de Cetina y Velasco (there was also another, more obscure, brother named Antonio), traveled to New Spain on a ship captained by Juan de Andino, to live as
encomenderos, ultimately leaving multiple descendants in Yucatán,
Tabasco, Campeche, and places further afield. In 1554, Gutierre returned to Mexico only to die in
Villa del Espíritu Santo as a result of an infected facial-wound received on April 1 of that year while residing in
Puebla, and which was inflicted by the volatile son of one of
Panfilo de Narváez's followers, Hernando de Nava, who mistook the poet for Francisco de Peralta, rival for the favors and
amours of Leonor de Osma, a lady married to the notable and elderly physician Pedro de la Torre. A portrait, purported to be a true likeness of Gutierre, accompanied by a biographical sketch, is included by
painter and poet
Francisco Pacheco in his 1599
Libro de descripción de verdaderos Retratos de Ilustres y memorables varones (Book of the Description of the True Portraits of Illustrious and Memorable Men). García del Castillo, having married Catalina López de Olivares, daughter of the notable Sevillian judge Juan de Olivares and his wife Beatriz López, settled in the
City of Mexico; numbering among his children the
bachiller and
presbyter cleric (
clérigo presbítero) Beltrán de Cetina (born ca. 1558), a graduate of the
Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico. María del Castillo (the third sibling so surnamed) married influential
conquistador Francisco Tamayo de Pacheco and settled in Mérida. Gregorio de Zetina y del Castillo, having settled in Mérida, married Mariana (or María) de Quijada y Contreras, niece of Diego de Quijada,
alcalde mayor of Yucatán from 1561 to 1565, and daughter of Cristóbal Gutiérrez (a
conquistador and settler of
Chiapas) and Ana de Contreras; their numerous children were Francisca del Castillo, Beltrán de Cetina, Gregorio de Cetina, Diego Quijada, Juan Quijada, Gutierre de Cetina, Hernando de Porras, Gabriel de Cetina, Cristóbal Quijada, and Andrés del Castillo (the surnaming custom was not necessarily linear). Gregorio de Cetina was for a time
steward of the
chapel of San Juan Bautista, in Mérida, position from which he profited financially. Many of the brothers, their relatives and dependants, left record of their migratory movements in the
Casa de Contratación de Indias of Seville. The Cetinas were related by blood or marriage to the
Montejos, the Pachecos, the Ortizes de San Pedro, the
Rozas, among others, all of whom are counted as being among the first colonizers of Mexico and other lands. == See also ==