Sergio Gomez Family Nov 2020

Taken from Silver Mining and Society in Colonial Mexico, Zacatecas 1546-1700 By P. J. Bakewell, page 96. (See footnote)

The decade of the 1580s brought various changes to the status and institutions of Zacatecas. It began with the arrival of the first corregidor. 1585 saw the granting of the title of City, and 1587 the conferring of arms on the new city. These honors were certainly a reflection of the growing size and importance of the town. The enhanced status and prosperity of Zacatecas made it a profitable market for the sale of offices. Certain positions began to appear lucrative. Several notarial posts were sold in the mid-1580s, and the sale of the depositaria general in 1588 has already been noted. This was the first sale of a voting office on the cabildo. Regimientos, which in other parts of the Empire had begun to be sold in small numbers before 1554, were not so disposed of in Zacatecas until the 1580s. But regidores ceased to be chosen annually long before that. As had happened in Mexico City as early as 1524, the Crown began appointing proprietary regidores in Zacatecas.......

Footnote The depositario general was the custodian of goods embargoed by the justices during litigation and also of the goods of people dying intestate. The sale of the office referred to here is recorded in A A.Z, LC 2, i 41-50, Guadalajara 1 September 1588. The post went to Diego Machon de Urrutia for 4,800 pesos.

Diego Machon participated in inquisition proceedings against a New Christian. Excerpt taken from INQUISITION ET SOCIÉTÉ AU MEXIQUE by Solange Alberro.

I.3.5. ANTISEMITISM, SOCIAL CATALYST (Translated From French)

In 1626, three identical denunciations were recorded against descendants of Jews; the 3 took their source in the conflicting environment of the officers of the cabildo: Diego Machón de Urrutia, general depositary, 'traite' Diego de León, rich miner, whose grandfather was baptized standing. The accusation is resumed and amplified before the Commissioner of the Holy Office by Juan Moreno de Villegas, another minor who adds that León is rich, father of the current alguacil mayor, and that he wears silk garments embroidered with gold despite the prohibitions hanging over the descendants of new Christians punished by the Inquisition. However, it is most likely this Diego de León, parent and straw man of the fearsome Santiago de Vera, president of the Royal Audience and governor of New Galicia from 1593 to 1605 .... This high-ranking figure, systematically practicing a policy of shameless nepotism, named Diego de León, uncle of his children, first of all Mayor of Sombrerete, then of the Fresnillo mines....