Peña - Palo Blanco Network

Families maintained local as well as regional ties through intermarriage and compadrazgo (godparenthood).

At the center of this network is the Peña family, descendants of Jacinto de la Peña, a soldier of the Cerralvo presidio, who was killed by Indians near Linares, Nuevo Leon in 1734.

Although only 29 years old at the time of his death, he was already the father of seven young children. His widow, Ana Maria Guajardo, who was from Cerralvo, likely relied on her relatives there for support. About 15 years later, she moved her family to Mier, in the villas del norte, as part of an extended kinship group that included six of her siblings and their families.

Jacinto Peña's parents are unknown. Network visualizations like this one can help to illuminate geographic and familial ties the may point to his origins and help us understand how people made decisions about where to live and who to live with. Marriage and compadrazgo patterns in the Peña family suggest close ties in Mier and with landowners from nearby Camargo and Revilla whose ranches bordered Mier, but it also shows links with Monterrey, where some daughters found husbands. Because most marriages took place within the local community, these instances as well as the many connections between Mier families, including another branch of Peñas, with documented origins in Monterrey, suggest that Jacinto Peña may have also been a relative of this group.

Beginning in the early 19th century, the Peñas and their relatives began to settle ranching lands in the Nueces strip, especially in the area where numerous grants along Palo Blanco creek, near the intersection of Jim Hogg, Brooks, and Duval counties.