One More Post About Senator Salazar

In previous posts, I discussed the claim by United States Senator Ken Salazar that he could trace his roots back to 1598 Santa Fe, New Mexico. Senator Salazar was recently nominated by President-elect Obama to the position of Interior Secretary. I pointed out in my posts that Salazar could not have had ancestors who founded Santa Fe in 1598, since the town was not founded, or even settled, until a decade later. Also, I pointed out that the first Salazars to arrive in New Mexico did not come to the area until many decades later.

This, of course, did not preclude the possibility that Senator Salazar may have had ancestors who came to New Mexico in 1598 who were not part of his Salazar line. Many of us who have Hispanic New Mexican roots can find an ancestor or two who arrived in New Mexico at that time. For instance, the first Baca to arrive in New Mexico came here in 1600, yet I also have ancestors who were here in 1598.

An article in the Santa Fe New Mexican addresses this controversy. In the article Interior Secretary-designate traces roots to Santa Fe , a brother of Senator Salazar, LeRoy Salazar, states that family lore says that the Salazar family arrived in the late 1500s or early 1600s, and that a cousin traced their lineage back to 1400s Spain. He also states that their 3rd great-grandfather Julian Salazar lived in Chamita, New Mexico in the 1800s, and that his son Francisco Esteban Salazar, their 2nd great-grandfather, moved the the San LuisValley, Colorado in the mid 1800s.

The article also discusses some of the controversies that I brought up in my posts. It cites both Place Names of New Mexico and Origins of New Mexico Families for those arguments.

I would like to thank Vicente Martinez for letting me know about the Santa Fe New Mexican article. He has been sending me e-mails about this family since I first brought up the subject. He tells me that this family can be found on HGRC's Great New Mexico Pedigree Database, and that the database traces the family a few more generations past Julian Salazar.

Other NMGS posts about the Senator Salazar controversy:

* Obama Pick Claims New Mexico Ties

* Explanation: Blog Post About Senator Salazar