Doña Teresa de Aguilera y Roche

Her own handwriting survives. Born in Alessandria, Italy, the daughter of a governor of Cartagena, she spoke Italian, French and Spanish and read Latin, and the fine furnishings she brought into the Palace of the Governors made her a target of envy and suspicion. Held in Mexico City, she wrote out her own briefs, naming her accusers and charging them with greed and envy. Her husband died in prison on September 16, 1664, his case unresolved. The trial record survives in Mexico's national archive, and Frances Levine built a book from her briefs and the servants' depositions.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Doña Teresa de Aguilera y Roche Doña Teresa de Aguilera y Roche was an aristocratic and educated woman in seventeenth century New Mexico. She and her husband, Governor Bernardo López de Mendizábal, exhibited elite lifestyles rarely seen in the remote colony. As governor, don Bernardo ran afoul of influential settlers and Franciscan clergy. Both doña Teresa and don Bernardo were accused of heresy, sorcery, and Judaizing–secretly practicing Judaism under the guise of Catholicism. In October 1662, they were taken to Mexico City to face the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Don Bernardo died in prison, but doña Teresa meticulously rebutted the charges made against her, and the case was suspended in December 1664. Her case offers insight into social political, and religious strife in colonial New Mexico on the eve of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. Official Scenic Historic Marker New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative The New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative was founded in 2005 by members of the New Mexico Women's Forum in a statewide effort to recognize women's contributions to New Mexico history on the state's Official Scenic Historic Markers. The Initiative ensures that women's diverse histories will be remembered and told, and will inspire and provide a guide for future generations. The 2006 Legislature funded the project.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Palace of the Governors — 0.2 mi
  The long adobe on the north side of the Santa Fe plaza, called the oldest public building in continuous use in the country, though its own founding date is in dispute.
• Pecos National Historical Park — 17 mi
  The red walls of a 1717 mission church inside the foundations of a far larger one, beside the kiva Pecos people dug in front of the old church during the revolt of 1680.
• Bandelier National Monument — 20 mi
  Rooms carved into soft volcanic tuff in Frijoles Canyon, named for a Swiss scholar who was led there in 1880 by a man from Cochiti Pueblo.
• El Santuario de Chimayó — 22 mi
  A small adobe shrine on the High Road to Taos, built around 1816 over earth that pilgrims still carry away in hope of healing.

More markers nearby

• Myra Ellen Jenkins — steps away
• Dorothy Scarritt McKibbin — steps away
• Inez Bushner Gill (1918-1982) and Maralyn Budke (1936-2010) — steps away
• Mother Magdalen and the Sisters of Loretto (1852-1968) — steps away