The founding families

How to read this page

Almost everything here comes from Rincón Alteño (1974), the town history written by the chronicler Taurino Arámbula Vázquez from parish records and the memory of the oldest families. Some of his names are transcribed documents and some are oral tradition, and he does not always say which. Each entry below is marked with its source.

A shared surname is not proof of descent. Hernández, Padilla and Gutiérrez are among the most common names in Los Altos, and many families carry them with no link to these ranchos. To connect your own line, follow the records in the last section.

Hernández

The family that held the land. Cristóbal Hernández Gamiño, recorded as Spanish, bought the rancho of La Soledad around 1742 and was living there by 1760. Four brothers, Francisco, Salvador, Antonio Rafael and José Antonio Hernández Padilla, then settled La Soledad, El Bramido and La Capilla de San José at the foot of Cerro Gordo. [per Rincón Alteño, Arámbula, 1974]

Read the full Hernández page →

Angulo

The mother of the four founding brothers was Susana Angulo, wife of Antonio Bernabé Hernández of Arandas. The name returns a generation later, when Valentina Angulo married José María Hernández. [per Rincón Alteño, Arámbula, 1974]

Angulo families are still numerous around San Francisco de Asís, the next town west, where Juan Murillo Angulo's Obituario records dozens of them. The chronicle does not trace Susana's own parents or say where her branch came from, so any link between the two is still unproven.

Padilla

The founders' second surname. Their grandparents were Felipe Hernández and María Padilla. Among the colonial records the chronicler transcribed is a 1778 marriage of Antonio Padilla, of the Tepatitlán district, to Juana María Padilla, both recorded as Spanish. It is one of the documents he used to date the settlement. [per Rincón Alteño, Arámbula, 1974]

The name appears again in 1910, when the parish was erected: its first priest was Fermín Padilla (1910 to 1920). The chronicle gives no family link between him and the founders.

Navarro

The Navarro were neighbors before they were relatives. By 1754 the family was already on the rancho of Las Hormigas, and the chronicle places Hernández and Navarro together at El Bramido. In 1762 Antonio Ignacio Navarro married Cecilia Velazco. [per Rincón Alteño, Arámbula, 1974]

The two families then joined: Cristóbal Hernández Navarro was a son of the founder Francisco, and a Librado Hernández married Rufelia Navarro Ascencio. [per Rincón Alteño, Arámbula, 1974]

Barajas

The patriarch Cristóbal Hernández Gamiño married María Barajas. Among their children the chronicle lists a José Hernández Barajas. [per Rincón Alteño, Arámbula, 1974]

Martín del Campo

Cecilia Martín del Campo married J. Refugio Hernández. [per Rincón Alteño, Arámbula, 1974]

Gutiérrez

The founder Antonio Rafael Hernández, who carved the 1792 beam, had a son named Luciano Hernández Gutiérrez. Luciano was born in San Julián and in 1889 became its first comisario político, the first local authority of that town. [per Rincón Alteño, Arámbula, 1974]

A different Gutiérrez shaped the town in the twentieth century: Father Darío Gutiérrez, parish priest from 1929 to 1944, who hid during the Cristero persecution. No family tie to Luciano is recorded.

Escobar

The Hernández brought enslaved people from Veracruz to work the ranchos, and the chronicle names among them an African line, the Escobar, whose descendants became part of the town. [per Rincón Alteño, Arámbula, 1974]

The chronicle does not record their individual names. Parish registers of the period often noted a person's casta (such as mulato or negro) at baptism and marriage, and those entries are the most likely place to find them.

Tracing your family

Start with the Padrón de la Feligresía de Tepatitlán (1770), a household-by-household roll of the parish that still included the Bramido country. Br. José Caro Galindo compiled it, and P. José de Jesús de León Arteaga transcribed and published it in 2006.

Then go to the parish registers of Tepatitlán (1666 to 1957) and civil registration (1866 to 1997), filmed and indexed by FamilySearch. San José de Gracia's parish has belonged to the Diocese of San Juan de los Lagos only since 1972, so look for anything older under the Guadalajara archdiocese.

Share your branch

If your family carries one of these names, or another one from the old ranchos, send us what you know: names, dates, the rancho your grandparents came from, old photos. Send it by WhatsApp. Each family that writes in can get its own page, like the Hernández.