I Didn't Expect the Spanish Inquisition!

 

Haga clic aquí para ver una traducción automática en español

It's been almost a year since my last blog entry. I don't want to get bogged down in a recap of the global COVID-19 pandemic, but I did not expect to still be under quarantine after nearly a year. My family stayed healthy, thankfully. While my parents, my wife who works in the health care sector, and my wife's parents have all gotten vaccines, my new president says maybe I will get a shot by May, maybe. My country suffered more than a half-million deaths, I lost a job and gained a job, and 2020 truly became a year of tragedy and upheaval. 

Enough about me and my historic present, let's turn to the historic past. I took advantage of a MyHeritage promotion to upload my DNA and gain access to all the site's DNA tools for free. Of key interest to me is the Chromosome Browser, which shows the exact DNA segments I share with my matches. 

The Chromosome Browser lets you search for matches based on family tree surnames, and my three matches with the ancestral surname "Riascos" share a startling amount of Chromosome 3 with me!

The red and orange bars represent two siblings, Ricardo G. and Myriam G. The yellow bar is their distant cousin, José Francisco R. The DNA segments we share are too large — 15.0 cM, 15.2 cM, and 10.4 cM — to be coincidental. These DNA segments are clearly Identity By Descent (IBD), rather than by coincidence, or Identity By State (IBS). 

Ricardo and Myriam G. and José Francisco R. share a common ancestor: Lázaro María Riascos, who was born in the 1820s in Ciénaga, Magdalena Department, Colombia to Paulina García Mayorca. Lázaro was named after his biological father, the Cartagena lawyer Lázaro María de Herrera y Paniza (1786-1859). Paulina then married Manuel Joaquín Riascos, and young Lázaro took the surname of his stepfather. Manuel and Paulina had multiple children of their own, including Joaquín Riascos García (1833-1875), a Liberal general who briefly served as President of Colombia in 1867.

Adding to the DNA evidence, I have another AncestryDNA match, Nora M., who is also a descendant of Lázaro María Herrera, and two more matches who are descendants of Fermín Paniza y Navarro de Azevedo (born 1759), the maternal uncle of Lázaro María Herrera.    

Lázaro María de Herrera y Paniza was a very fertile man, having at least 13 children in three marriages, according to the Genealogías de Santa Fe de Bogotá. Lázaro María Riascos is a 14th child. Perhaps a 15th child can be found in my family tree.  

Lázaro María de Herrera y Paniza (my digital edit of a picture from MyHeritage.com)

My 3rd-great-grandmother, Andrea Herrera (c.1830-1856), was born in Cartagena and raised as a foundling (hija espósita) in the household of Francisco de Paula de Herrera y Paniza, younger brother of Lázaro María Herrera. Family lore says Andrea had a "sister," Eloisa Herrera, who was raised as a foundling (espósita) in the household of Lázaro María Herrera Paniza. 

Were Andrea and Eloisa Herrera really sisters? Eloisa did not have children, so DNA will never give an answer. I can comfortably say, given all of my DNA matches, that Andrea Herrera was somehow related to Lázaro María Herrera, but it's still unclear how. Maybe they were father or daughter, or uncle and niece, or shared another close relationship. 

The Herrera y Paniza brothers have a distinguished family tree, full of service to the Spanish army and navy, dating back to their Spaniard great-grandfather, Lázaro de Herrera Leiva (1663-c.1745). Their great-great-grandfather, Juan Toribio de la Torre y López, was such a dedicated military commander and pacificador (a euphemism for a slaughterer of Indians) that King Carlos II of Spain awarded him the title of Conde de Santa Cruz de la Torre in 1690.  

The reason I know so much about the Herrera brothers' genealogy is because their father, Lázaro María de Herrera Leiva y Cornelis, was an official for the Spanish Inquisition. Before Lázaro became the alguacil mayor (chief justice) of the Holy Office of the Inquisition of Cartagena, the Inquisition scrutinized the family trees of Lázaro and his wife, María Teresa Paniza y Navarro de Azevedo. The inquisitor wanted to be sure that Lázaro and María Teresa and their parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents were limpios de toda mala raza (clean of all "bad races"): heretics, Jews, Moors, Romani, Blacks, "mulattoes," Indians, Lutherans, and anyone who converted to Catholicism. The resulting compiled genealogy satisfied the Holy Office, and Lázaro worked for the Inquisition for almost 30 years. 

I had another horrible discovery Googling Lázaro's brother-in-law, the aforementioned Fermín Paniza y Navarro de Azevedo, as starting in 1792 he also served in several positions in the Inquisition. His job descriptions are given as secretario honorario (honorary secretary) and Alcalde de cárceles de penitencia y Portero de Cámara. Contador, Consultor y Abogado de reos. (Administrator of the prisons of penance and Manager of the [judicial? torture???] Chamber. Accountant, Consultant, and Lawyer for inmates.) 

Genealogy of Lázaro María de Herrera Leiva and María Teresa Paniza (1787), which to the Inquisition proved the couple's "limpieza de sangre" (purity of blood).   

I am Jewish and multiracial, and I am absolutely horrified to have ancestors who took part in the Spanish Inquisition. At the very least, Lázaro María de Herrera Leiva and Fermín Paniza knew about the imprisonment, torture, and possible execution of prisoners, and it's likely they took an active role in ruining the lives of their victims. I haven't begun to look into what crimes Lázaro and Fermín committed, but I fear there are many. 

It's also very strange that a branch of my family tree survived the centuries because of documents that tried to proved racial "purity." To me, the contemporary Latin American obsessions with genealogy, Iberian ancestry, and uncovering Sephardic Jewish roots reflect the older cultural legacy of the Inquisition's absurd attempts to prove limpieza de sangre, the supposed purity of "Catholic" blood.   

Maybe Monty Python and Mel Brooks skits helped turn the popular image of the Inquisition into a kind of cartoonish evil, but when I visited Cartagena's Palacio de la Inquisición in 2015 I learned the full impact of the Holy Office's 211 years of operation in the city. Cartagena's inquisitors prosecuted more than 800 people, held 56 autos de fe, and sentenced 5 people to burn at the stake.  

The dungeon of the Palacio de la Inquisición, 2015. 

I found through DNA testing my blood ties to the Herrera Leiva y Paniza family, but learning about this family also means coming to terms with its bloody impact on history. Unearthing my lost family led me deep into the haunted dungeons of Cartagena. 

Special thanks to genealogist and DNA enthusiast Craig Kanalley, who reviewed my genetic links with the Herrera Leiva family and agreed there was a "there" there.

Questions? Comments? Please email me at ruedafingerhut (at) gmail.com.